Low‐cost and highly safe zinc‐manganese batteries are expected for practical energy storage and grid‐scale application. The electrolyte adjustment is further combined to boost their performance output; however, the mechanism behind the electrochemical contrast caused by electrolyte composition remains unclear, which has held back the development of these systems. Hence, new insight into the electrochemical activation of manganese‐based cathodes, which is induced by the aqueous zinc‐ion electrolyte, is provided. The relationship between the desolvation of Zn2+ from [Zn(OH2)6]2+‐solvation shell and the electrolyte/electrode interfacial reaction to form Zn4SO4(OH)6·4H2O phase or its analogues is established, which is the key for the electrochemical activation. Further electrolyte optimization promotes the cycling stability of Zn/LiMn2O4 battery with a long life span over 2000 cycles. This work illuminates the confused direction in exploring electrolyte for zinc‐manganese batteries.

Improving the performance of rice () under drought stress has the potential to significantly affect rice productivity. Here, we report that the ERF family transcription factor OsLG3 positively regulates drought tolerance in rice. In our previous work, we found that has a positive effect on rice grain length without affecting grain quality. In this study, we found that was more strongly expressed in upland rice than in lowland rice under drought stress conditions. By performing candidate gene association analysis, we found that natural variation in the promoter of is associated with tolerance to osmotic stress in germinating rice seeds. Overexpression of significantly improved the tolerance of rice plants to simulated drought, whereas suppression of resulted in greater susceptibility. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the tolerant allele of may improve drought tolerance in cultivated rice. Introgression lines and complementation transgenic lines containing the elite allele of showed increased drought tolerance, demonstrating that natural variation in contributes to drought tolerance in rice. Further investigation suggested that plays a positive role in drought stress tolerance in rice by inducing reactive oxygen species scavenging. Collectively, our findings reveal that natural variation in contributes to rice drought tolerance and that the elite allele of is a promising genetic resource for the development of drought-tolerant rice varieties.

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Based on the new-generation Global/Regional Assimilation and PrEdiction System (GRAPES) developed by the Numerical Prediction Research Center, China Meteorological Administration and the Chinese Unified Atmospheric Chemistry Environment for Dust Atmospheric Chemistry Module (CUACE/Dust) developed by the Centre for Atmosphere Watch and Services (CAWAS) of the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (CAMS), the China sand and dust storm forecasting system GRAPES /CUACE-Dust model has been established. The latest data of land desertification, optical properties of China sand and dust aerosols, daily soil moisture and snow cover over China main land was introduced in this system. The system showed good performance in mass conservation. The comparisons of real-time prediction outputs with surface observations and aerosol indices derived from TOMS ozone spectrophotometers (TOMS AI) indicate that the model can predict the outbreak, development, transport and depletion processes of sand and dust storms accurately over China and the East Asian region. The system makes real-time quantitative prediction of a series of elements including sand and dust injection from the surface, dry and wet deposition amount, dust concentration and optical depth. We selected 7 major dust storms occurring in April 2006 and analyzed the spatiotemporal distribution patterns of dust emission, dry and wet deposition and atmospheric load in this paper. The results showed that about 225 million tons of dust were emitted into the atmosphere from the deserts over east Asia in that month. The 3 major sand and dust sources were just as the following: The deserts in northern Inner Mongolia and the boundary area around China-Mongolia were the first dust sources with a contribution of 153 million tons accounting for 68% of the total emission. The Taklimakan Desert ranked second and contributed approximately 40 million tons accounting for 17% of the dust emission.The Onqin Daga Sandland emitted about 15 million tons or 7% of the total emission. The contributions from other deserts, sandy lands and abandoned farmlands were about only 8% of the total dust emission. The total deposition over the East Asian region in April 2006 was 136 million tons. The regional distribution of dust deposition showed that the 3 major sources were also the major deposition areas. The deposition amount in the 3 major sources accounted for 78% of the total with about 135 million tons falling back to the source regions. The secondary deposition area was the China mainland downriver, where more than 2 million tons deposited accounting for 16% of the total deposition. The deposition over the region east of 120°E including China off-shore regions, Korean Peninsula, Japan and the West Pacific took only 6% of the total deposition, which was about 850000 tons. The analysis on dry and wet deposition showed that dry deposition dominated in the process, accounting for 94% of the total sand and dust depositions in the period and wet deposition only was around for 6%, since it was general...

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A regional fully coupled meteorology-chemistry model, Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem), was employed to study the seasonality of ozone (O 3 ) pollution and its sources in both China and India. Observations and model results suggest that O 3 in the North China Plain (NCP), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Pearl River Delta (PRD), and India exhibit distinctive seasonal features, which are linked to the influence of summer monsoons. Through a factor separation approach, we examined the sensitivity of O 3 to individual anthropogenic, biogenic, and biomass burning emissions. We found that summer O 3 formation in China is more sensitive to industrial and biogenic sources than to other source sectors, while the transportation and biogenic sources are more important in all seasons for India. Tagged simulations suggest that local sources play an important role in the formation of the summer O 3 peak in the NCP, but sources from Northwest China should not be neglected to control summer O 3 in the NCP. For the YRD region, prevailing winds and cleaner air from the ocean in summer lead to reduced transport from polluted regions, and the major source region in addition to local sources is Southeast China. For the PRD region, the upwind region is replaced by contributions from polluted PRD as autumn approaches, leading to an autumn peak. The major upwind regions in autumn for the PRD are YRD (11 %) and Southeast China (10 %). For India, sources in North India are more important than sources in the south. These analyses emphasize the relative importance of source sectors and regions as they change with seasons, providing important implications for O 3 control strategies.

Thiophene sulfur is the most stable organic sulfur species in petroleum coke, among which benzothiophene accounts for a significant portion. Removal of benzothiophene will help to gain ultralow desulfurization. In this work, a density function theory (DFT) method was adopted to investigate benzothiophene pyrolysis mechanism. It was found that the most possible pyrolysis reaction of benzothiophene is triggered by α-H migration to β-position. The dominating products are S radical and ethenethione, which could explain benzothiophene pyrolysis experiments well. Converting thiophene fused on aromatic to a thiol group could help to promote desulfurization. As a contrast, the thiophene pyrolysis reaction was also calculated at the same level. The initial pyrolysis temperature of benzothiophene and thiophene may be close, but the pyrolysis rate of thiophene is higher than that of benzothiophene. The implication of the benzothiophene pyrolysis mechanism may be beneficial for the development of new desulfurization technology.

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