Microplastics in soil-plant system: effects of nano/microplastics on plant photosynthesis,rhizosphere microbes and soil properties in soil with different residues

Plant and Soil - To investigate the effects of polystyrene microplastics (PS-beads) on the soil properties, photosynthesis of Flowering Chinese cabbage, the rhizosphere microbial community and...     

Revealing Invisible Water: Moisture Recycling as an Ecosystem Service

An ecosystem service is a benefit derived by humanity that can be traced back to an ecological process. Although ecosystem services related to surface water have been thoroughly described, the relationship between atmospheric water and ecosystem services has been mostly neglected, and perhaps misunderstood. Recent advances in land-atmosphere modeling have revealed the importance of terrestrial ecosystems for moisture recycling. In this paper, we analyze the extent to which vegetation sustains the supply of atmospheric moisture and precipitation for downwind beneficiaries, globally. We simulate land-surface evaporation with a global hydrology model and track changes to moisture recycling using an atmospheric moisture budget model, and we define vegetation-regulated moisture recycling as the difference in moisture recycling between current vegetation and a hypothetical desert world. Our results show that nearly a fifth of annual average precipitation falling on land is from vegetation-regulated moisture recycling, but the global variability is large, with many places receiving nearly half their precipitation from this ecosystem service. The largest potential impacts for changes to this ecosystem service are land-use changes across temperate regions in North America and Russia. Likewise, in semi-arid regions reliant on rainfed agricultural production, land-use change that even modestly reduces evaporation and subsequent precipitation, could significantly affect human well-being. We also present a regional case study in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, where we identify the specific moisture recycling ecosystem services associated with the vegetation in Mato Grosso. We find that Mato Grosso vegetation regulates some internal precipitation, with a diffuse region of benefit downwind, primarily to the south and east, including the La Plata River basin and the megacities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. We synthesize our global and regional results into a generalized framework for describing moisture recycling as an ecosystem service. We conclude that future work ought to disentangle whether and how this vegetation-regulated moisture recycling interacts with other ecosystem services, so that trade-offs can be assessed in a comprehensive and sustainable manner.     

Ammonium photo-production by heterocytous cyanobacteria: potentials and constraints

Over the last decades, production of microalgae and cyanobacteria has been developed for several applications, including novel foods, cosmetic ingredients and more recently biofuel. The sustainability of these promising developments can be hindered by some constraints, such as water and nutrient footprints. This review surveys data on N₂-fixing cyanobacteria for biomass production and ways to induce and improve the excretion of ammonium within cultures under aerobic conditions. The nitrogenase complex is oxygen sensitive. Nevertheless, nitrogen fixation occurs under oxic conditions due to cyanobacteria-specific characteristics. For instance, in some cyanobacteria, the vegetative cell differentiation in heterocyts provides a well-adapted anaerobic microenvironment for nitrogenase protection. Therefore, cell cultures of oxygenic cyanobacteria have been grown in laboratory and pilot photobioreactors (Dasgupta et al., 2010; Fontes et al., 1987; Moreno et al., 2003; Nayak & Das, 2013). Biomass production under diazotrophic conditions has been shown to be controlled by environmental factors such as light intensity, temperature, aeration rate, and inorganic carbon concentration, also, more specifically, by the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the culture medium. Currently, there is little information regarding the production of extracellular ammonium by heterocytous cyanobacteria. This review compares the available data on maximum ammonium concentrations and analyses the specific rate production in cultures grown as free or immobilized filamentous cyanobacteria. Extracellular production of ammonium could be coupled, as suggested by recent research on non-diazotrophic cyanobacteria, to that of other high value metabolites. There is little information available regarding the possibility for using diazotrophic cyanobacteria as cellular factories may be in regard of the constraints due to nitrogen fixation.     

基于集合经验模态分解去趋势的水分利用效率对气候变化响应的高程分异——以“21世纪海上丝绸之路”沿线省份为例

水分利用效率(WUE)是表征陆地碳-水循环耦合关系的重要指标，但其对气候变化响应的高程分异仍不清楚。通过集合经验模态分解(EEMD)去趋势和偏相关方法，以"21世纪海上丝绸之路"沿线省份为研究区，揭示WUE对气候变化的响应及其随高程的分异。研究结果表明：(1)研究区内WUE多年均值由中心向南北递减。不同植被类型的WUE多年均值由高到低依次为：常绿针叶林、混交林、常绿阔叶林、稀树灌木草地、耕地和城市建设用地。(2)51.11%的区域表现出均温与WUE的正相关；而81.46%地区表明温差的扩大会使得WUE增加；有近一半的研究区表明最高温的升高有利于提高WUE，而最低温的作用则相反；有67.99%的区域表明降水增多反而会导致WUE的减少。(3)在大多数土地覆盖类型，日温差和最低温主要与WUE呈正相关，而最高温和降水主要与WUE呈负相关。在常绿针叶林、耕地和城市建设用地，日均温与WUE呈负相关。在其他三种植被类型下则呈正相关。(4)在低海拔地区，均温与WUE呈负相关而在中高海拔地区则转变为正相关关系。而最高温则正好相反。降水与WUE的负相关关系系数随高度的增加而不断加强，而温差和最低温与WUE的正相关关系也随高度的增加而剧烈波动增强。     

Conformationally altered aortic myosin light chains

Aorta smooth myosin contains two types of light chain, LC20 and LC17, which fold together with the N-terminal region of each heavy chain to form the globular head region of myosin. We demonstrate an altered conformation of LC20 after its separation from heavy chain by high concentrations of urea, on the basis of the following evidende: 1) A polyclonal antibody against LC20 was not able to recognize this conformationally altered form; 2) Myosin reconstituted from heavy chains and urea-dissociated light chains exhibited extremely low ATPase activity. Circular dichroism unfolding profiles showed that light chains dissociated from heavy chains by SDS appeared to be more stable than those generated by urea dissociation.     

Molecular characterization of a mucin-type antigen associated with human pancreatic cancer. The DU-PAN-2 antigen

This work describes the molecular characterization of a human pancreatic cancer-associated antigen defined by a murine monoclonal antibody (DU-PAN-2). DU-PAN-2 antigen was isolated from a pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell line (HPAF) or patient's ascitic fluid, and the antigenic activity was monitored by competitive inhibition radioimmunoassay. Affinity chromatography and CsCl/guanidine HCl density gradient centrifugation were employed to remove other populations of mucin-type glycoproteins and noncovalently associated proteins, respectively. Three electrophoretically distinct components were detected by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis and were resolved by chromatography on Sepharose CL-4B. The major fraction (FII) was subjected to carbohydrate and amino acid analyses. The sum of threonine, serine, proline, glycine, and alanine comprised more than 50% of the amino acid residues. The saccharide units, O-glycosidically linked to the peptide via GalNAc, contained fucose, galactose, GlcNAc, GalNAc, and sialic acid. The total carbohydrate content of FI and FII was 80.8% and 77.4% by weight, respectively. The molecular weight of FII antigen showed two species of molecules of 1.45 X 10(6) and 4.59 X 10(6) by analytical sedimentation equilibrium. DU-PAN-2 antigen was susceptible to neuraminidase, pepsin, Pronase, and papain digestion. These results suggest that both protein components and sialic acid residues may play important roles in the binding of DU-PAN-2 antibody.     

Changing frequency of interim analysis in sequential monitoring

In clinical trial data monitoring, one can either introduce a discrete sequential boundary for a set of specified decision times or adopt a use function and then derive the boundary when data are monitored. If the use function approach is employed, one can adjust the frequency of data monitoring as long as the decision is not data-dependent. However, if the frequency of future data monitoring is affected by the observed data, then the probability of Type I error will no longer be preserved exactly. But the effect on the significance level and power is very small, perhaps negligible, as indicated by simulation results.     

心房钠尿因子对麻醉家兔局部血流的影响

在42只麻醉家兔,观察了静脉注射心房肽Ⅱ(AtriopeptinⅡ,APⅡ)对局部血流量以及动脉内注射 AP Ⅱ 对局部血管阻力的影响。结果如下:(1)静脉注射 APⅡ(30μg/kg)5min后,平均动脉压(MAP)降低11.0±1.5mmHg(n=8,M±SE,下同),与溶剂对照组相比有明显差异(P相似文献