Climate change affects animal populations by affecting their habitats. The leopard population has significantly decreased due to climate change and human disturbance. We studied the impact of climate change on leopard habitats using infrared camera technology in the Liupanshan National Nature Reserve of Jingyuan County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China, from July 2017 to October 2019. We captured 25 leopard distribution points over 47,460 camera working days. We used the MAXENT model to predict and analyze the habitat. We studied the leopard’s suitable habitat area and distribution area under different geographical scales in the reserve. Changes in habitat area of leopards under the rcp2.6, rcp4.5, and rcp8.5 climate models in Guyuan in 2050 were also studied. We conclude that the current main factors affecting suitable leopard habitat area were vegetation cover and human disturbance. The most critical factor affecting future suitable habitat area is rainfall. Under the three climate models, the habitat area of the leopard decreased gradually because of an increase in carbon dioxide concentration. Through the prediction of the leopard’s distribution area in the Liupanshan Nature Reserve, we evaluated the scientific nature of the reserve, which is helpful for the restoration and protection of the wild leopard population.

Pollution flashover on insulators is one of the greatest challenges affecting the smooth operation of high-voltage transmission lines. Demonstrating super-hydrophobic coatings on insulators’ interfaces is an effective measure to prevent insulator flashovers. In the present investigation, a super-hydrophobic FAS-17-modified SiO2/PDMS coating on a composite insulator was demonstrated by spraying. The coating had a contact angle of 159.2°and a sliding angle of 1.3° with better insulation properties. The prepared FAS-17-modified nano-SiO2 nanoparticles were not easy to agglomerate; to illustrate this, the binding energy was calculated by the density functional theory. The super-hydrophobic mechanism of the coating was explained in terms of the adsorption energy between SiO2 molecules and water before and after modification. This paper provides a new method to solve the pollution flashover problem of insulators and a new angle to explain the super-hydrophobic mechanism.

The behavioural video recordings of the grey-backed shrike Lanius tephronotus revealed that parent birds eat the faeces produced by their nestlings. ‘Parental nutrition hypothesis’ attributes the origin of this behaviour to nutrition-recovery and cost-saving, respectively. However, the presence of usable nutrients in the nestlings’ faeces is unknow because of traditional technology. In this study, we analysed all the metabolites and the variations in the diversity and content of microbes in the faeces of grey-backed shrike nestlings. We aimed to report the changes in microbes and metabolites with the age of nestlings and point out that the parent birds that eat the faeces may gain potential nutrition benefits. The results showed that the relative abundances of Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidota, changed significantly when the nestlings were six days old. The relative abundances of six probiotics, which are involved in digestion, metabolism, and immunity-related physiological functions, decreased in the nestlings’ faeces gradually with age; therefore, these probiotics may be obtained by parent birds upon ingestion of the faeces of young nestlings. Among the metabolites that were detected, 20 were lipids and some had a role in anti-parasitic functions and wound healing; however, their relative contents decreased with age. These beneficial substances in the nestlings’ faeces may stimulate the parents to swallow the faeces. Moreover, there were many aromatic metabolites in the newly hatched nestlings’ faeces, but the content of bitter metabolites increased as they grew up. Therefore, our results are in accordance with the nutritional hypothesis.

The attapulgite-chitosan (AT-CS) composites were prepared from attapulgite (ATP) and chitosan (CS). The composites were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Brunner Emmet Teller (BET). There existed interaction between the hydroxyl groups on the surface of ATP with the oxygen-containing and amino groups of CS. The specific surface area of the AT-CS was higher than that of ATP, increased by 60.47%, which was 189.1272 m2/g. The physico-chemical properties of the regenerated oil after adsorption were found to approach the fresh oil. Moreover, Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS) was used to observe that the oxidation by-products in the aged oil were removed by the AT-CS composite, clearly demonstrating the potential of using AT-CS as an adsorbent for transformer oil regeneration.