Combined biotin,folic acid,and vitamin B12 supplementation given during the transition period to dairy cows: Part II. Effects on energy balance and fatty acid composition of colostrum and milk

Biotin (B₈), folate (B₉), and vitamin B₁₂ (B₁₂) are involved in several metabolic reactions related to energy metabolism. We hypothesized that a low supply of one of these vitamins during the transition period would impair metabolic status. This study was undertaken to assess the interaction between B₈ supplement and a supplementation of B₉ and B₁₂ regarding body weight (BW) change, dry matter intake, energy balance, and fatty acid (FA) compositions of colostrum and milk fat from d ?21 to 21 relative to calving. Thirty-two multiparous Holstein cows housed in tie stalls were randomly assigned, according to their previous 305-d milk yield, to 8 incomplete blocks in 4 treatments: (1) a 2-mL weekly i.m. injection of saline (0.9% NaCl; B₈?/B₉B₁₂?); (2) 20 mg/d of dietary B₈ (unprotected from ruminal degradation) and 2-mL weekly i.m. injection of 0.9% NaCl (B₈+/B₉B₁₂?); (3) 2.6 g/d of dietary B₉ (unprotected) and 2-mL weekly i.m. injection of 10 mg of B₁₂ (B₈?/B₉B₁₂+); (4) 20 mg/d of dietary B₈, 2.6 g/d of dietary B₉, and 2-mL weekly i.m. injection of 10 mg of B₁₂ (B₈+/B₉B₁₂+) in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement. Colostrum was sampled at first milking. and milk samples were collected weekly on 2 consecutive milkings and analyzed for FA composition. Body condition score and BW were recorded every week throughout the trial. Within the first 21 d of lactation, B₈?/B₉B₁₂+ cows had an increased milk yield by 13.5% [45.5 (standard error, SE: 1.8) kg/d] compared with B₈?/B₉B₁₂? cows [40.1 (SE: 1.9)], whereas B₈ supplement had no effect. Even though body condition score was not affected by treatment, B₈?/B₉B₁₂+ cows had greater BW loss by 24 kg, suggesting higher mobilization of body reserves. Accordingly, milk de novo FA decreased and preformed FA concentration increased in B₈?/B₉B₁₂+ cows compared with B₈?/B₉B₁₂? cows. In addition, cows in the B₈+/B₉B₁₂? group had decreased milk de novo FA and increased preformed FA concentration compared with B₈?/B₉B₁₂? cows. Treatment had no effect on colostrum preformed FA concentration. Supplemental B₈ decreased concentrations of ruminal biohydrogenation intermediates and odd- and branched-chain FA in colostrum and milk fat. Moreover, postpartum dry matter intake for B₈+ cows tended to be lower by 1.6 kg/d. These results could indicate ruminal perturbation caused by the B₈ supplement, which was not protected from rumen degradation. Under the conditions of the current study, in contrast to B₈+/B₉B₁₂? cows, B₈?/B₉B₁₂+ cows produced more milk without increasing dry matter intake, although these cows had greater body fat mobilization in early lactation as suggested by the FA profile and BW loss.     

Co?N graphene encapsulated cobalt catalyst for H2O2 decomposition under acidic conditions

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) has been listed as one of the 100 most important chemicals in the world. However, huge amount of residual H₂O₂ is hard to timely decomposed into O₂ and H₂O under acidic condition, easily resulting in explosion hazard. Here, we reported a core–shell structure catalyst, that is graphene with Co N structure encapsulated Co nanoparticles. Co N graphene shell serves as the active site for the H₂O₂ decomposition, and Co core further enhance this decomposition. Benefiting from it, the H₂O₂ decomposition were close to 100% after 6 cycles without pH adjustment, which increased 6 orders of magnitude compared with no catalyst. At the same time, the O₂ generation reached 99.67% in 2 h with little metal leaching, and ·OH has been greatly inhibited to only 0.08%. This work can cleanly remove H₂O₂ with little deep oxidation and protect the process of H₂O₂ utilization to achieve a safer world.     

Manufacturing catalyst-coated membranes by ultrasonic spray deposition for PEMFC: Identification of key parameters and their impact on PEMFC performance

This study deals with the manufacturing of catalyst-coated membranes (CCMs) for newcomers in the field of coating. Although there are many studies on electrode ink composition for improving the performance of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), there are few papers dealing with electrode coating itself. Usually, it is a know-how that often remains secret and constitutes the added value of scientific teams or the business of industrialists. In this paper, we identify and clarify the role of key parameters to improve coating quality and also to correlate coating quality with fuel cell performance via polarization curves and electrochemical active surface area measurements. We found that the coating configurations can affect the performance of lab-made CCMs in PEMFCs. After the repeatability of the performance obtained by our coating method has been proved, we show that: (i) edge effects, due to mask shadowing - cannot be neglected when the active surface area is low, (ii) a heterogeneous thickness electrode produces performance lower than a homogeneous thickness electrode, and (iii) the origin and storage of platinum on carbon powders are a very important source of variability in the obtained results.     

Metal chlorides-promoted ammonia absorption of deep eutectic solvent

Ammonia is considered as a promising hydrogen or energy carrier. Ammonia absorption or adsorption is an important aspect for both ammonia removal, storage and separation applications. To these ends, a wide range of solid and liquid sorbents have been investigated. Among these, the deep eutectic solvent (DES) is emerging as a promising class of ammonia absorbers. Herein, we report a novel type of DES, i.e., metal-containing DESs for ammonia absorption. Specifically, the NH₃ absorption capacity is enhanced by ca. 18.1–36.9% when a small amount of metal chlorides, such as MgCl₂, MnCl₂ etc., are added into a DES composed of resorcinol (Res) and ethylene glycol (EG). To our knowledge, the MgCl₂/Res/EG (0.1:1:2) DES outperforms most of the reported DESs. The excellent NH₃ absorption performances of metal–containing DESs have been attributed to the synergy of Lewis acid–base and hydrogen bonding interactions. Additionally, good reversibility and high NH₃/CO₂ selectivity are achieved over the MgCl₂/Res/EG (0.1:1:2) DES, which enables it to be a potential NH₃ absorber for further investigations.     

Influence of mesoporous phosphotungstic acid on the physicochemical properties and performance of sulfonated poly ether ether ketone in proton exchange membrane fuel cell

This study demonstrates the successful development of hybrid mesoporous siliceous phosphotungstic acid (mPTA-Si) and sulfonated poly ether ether ketone (SPEEK) as a proton exchange membrane with a high performance in hydrogen proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). SPEEK acts as a polymeric membrane matrix and mPTA-Si acts as the mechanical reinforcer and proton conducting enhancer. Interestingly, incorporating mPTA-Si did not affect the morphological aspect of SPEEK as dense membrane upon loading the amount of mPTA-Si up to 2.5 wt%. The water uptake reduced to 14% from 21.5% when mPTA-Si content increases from 0.5 to 2.5 wt% respectively. Meanwhile, the proton conductivity increased to 0.01 Scm^?1 with 1.0 wt% mPTA-Si and maximum power density of 180.87 mWcm^?2 which is 200% improvement as compared to pristine SPEEK membrane. The systematic study of hybrid SP-mPTA-Si membrane proved a substantial enhancement in the performance together with further improvement on physicochemical properties of parent SPEEK membrane desirable for the PEMFC application.     

Transition metal atoms anchored on nitrogen-doped α-arsenene as efficient electrocatalysts for nitrogen electroreduction reaction

Electrocatalytic reduction of N₂ to NH₃ under ambient conditions, inspired by biological nitrogen fixation, is a new approach to address the current energy shortage crisis. As a result, developing efficient and low-cost catalysts is critical. The catalytic activity, catalytic mechanism, and selectivity of α-arsenene (α-Ars) catalysts anchored with various transition metal atoms and doped with different numbers of N atom were investigated for N₂ reduction reaction (NRR) in this paper. Results reveal that compared with WN₃-α-Ars which is coordinated with three N atoms, asym-WN₂As-α-Ars that coordinated with two N atoms not only exhibits high catalytic activity (U_L = ?0.36 V), but can also successfully suppress the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). It is manifested that reducing the number of coordination atoms can promote the selectivity of the transition metal (TM) loaded N-doped arsenene catalysts. Furthermore, activity origin analyses show both the charge on 1N–NH and φ form volcano-type relationship with the limiting potential. The active center of the catalyst, which acts as the charge transporter and has the moderate ability to retrieve charges, is the most efficient in NRR. Overall, this research creates high performance NRR catalysts by varying the number of coordinating N atoms, which provides a novel idea for the development of new NRR catalysts.     

Omega-6支撑身体，Omega-3支撑大脑：均衡摄入对儿童大脑发育的影响（网络首发、推荐阅读）

人体大脑和身体的发育，需要从食物中摄取均衡的营养物质。人类大脑是区分人类和其他动物的特征。食物中的必需脂肪酸是机体组织结构和功能的必要组成部分。Omega-6（O6）亚油酸（LA6）是皮肤组织的组成成分，且是炎症、血栓形成、免疫和其他信号分子的前体；Omega-3（O3）α-亚麻酸（ALA3），特别是其长链代谢产物——二十二碳六烯酸（DHA3），是大脑、视网膜和部分神经组织中的关键组分。从富含LA6脂肪酸（缺乏O3脂肪酸）的植物籽中提取出的廉价而优质油脂，是20世纪的西方国家食品工业生产的主要脂肪来源。在代谢通路中，高浓度的LA6脂肪酸可拮抗O3脂肪酸代谢，造成O3脂肪酸不足，因此，在给怀孕动物的饲料中，只提供富含LA6但缺乏O3脂肪酸的油脂作为唯一的脂肪来源，会导致幼崽大脑发育不良。过去20~30年的研究表明，低含量LA6且含DHA3的油脂可改善大脑的功能。近年来的研究较多集中在营养因素对大脑发育的影响，最新研究数据表明，脂肪酸平衡对营养不良儿童的大脑发育尤为重要。世界卫生组织（WHO）越来越重视大脑的营养健康，通过其下属的食品法典委员会，建议用于治疗严重急性营养不良儿童的即食治疗食品中，使用含有均衡脂肪酸组成/构成的脂肪。同样，脂肪酸均衡对老年人可能也很重要。目前，业界已经有了调整油脂成分的方法，以确保脂肪酸均衡，从而维持人体整个生命周期的大脑健康。