Soil seed bank dynamics in response to an extreme flood event in a riparian habitat

A significantly increased water regime can lead to inundation of rivers, creeks and surrounding floodplains- and thus impact on the temporal dynamics of both the extant vegetation and the dormant, but viable soil-seed bank of riparian corridors. The study documented changes in the soil seed-bank along riparian corridors before and after a major flood event in January 2011 in southeast Queensland, Australia. The study site was a major river (the Mooleyember creek) near Roma, Central Queensland impacted by the extreme flood event and where baseline ecological data on riparian seed-bank populations have previously been collected in 2007, 2008 and 2009. After the major flood event, we collected further soil samples from the same locations in spring/summer (November–December 2011) and in early autumn (March 2012). Thereafter, the soils were exposed to adequate warmth and moisture under glasshouse conditions, and emerged seedlings identified taxonomically. Flooding increased seed-bank abundance but decreased its species richness and diversity. However, flood impact was less than that of yearly effect but greater than that of seasonal variation. Seeds of trees and shrubs were few in the soil, and were negatively affected by the flood; those of herbaceous and graminoids were numerous and proliferate after the flood. Seed-banks of weedy and/or exotic species were no more affected by the flood than those of native and/or non-invasive species. Overall, the studied riparian zone showed evidence of a quick recovery of its seed-bank over time, and can be considered to be resilient to an extreme flood event.     

Emerging Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy for Metal Halide Perovskite Materials and Solar Cells

Metal halide perovskite materials, benefiting from a combination of outstanding optoelectronic properties and low‐cost solution‐preparation processes, show tremendous potential for optoelectronics and photovoltaics. However, the nanoscale inhomogeneities of the electronic properties of perovskite materials cause a number of difficulties, such as recombination, stability, and hysteresis, all of which seriously restrict device performance. Scanning probe microscopy, as a high‐resolution imaging technique, has been widely used to connect local properties and micro‐area morphologies to overall device performance. Conductive atomic force microscopy (C‐AFM) can realize a real‐space visualization of topography coupled with optoelectronic properties on a microscopic scale and thereby is uniquely suited to probe the local effects of perovskite materials and devices. The fundamental principles, alternative operation modes, and development of C‐AFM are comprehensively reviewed, and applications in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) for electronic transport behavior, ion migration and hysteresis, ferroelectric polarization, and facet orientation investigation are discussed. A comprehensive understanding and summary of up‐to‐date applications in PSCs is beneficial to further fully exploit the potential of such an emerging technique, so as to provide a novel and effective approach for perovskite materials analysis.     

No simple menu for sustainable food production and consumption

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment -     

An ovary‐specific mucin is associated with choriogenesis mediated by prostaglandin signaling in Spodoptera exigua

Polytrophic ovarioles of Spodoptera exigua, a lepidopteran insect, begins with the development of oocytes and differentiation of nurse cells followed by vitellogenesis and choriogenesis. Compared with previtellogenic and vitellogenic developments, choriogenesis has not been clearly understood yet in endocrine control. This study investigated the expression and function of a mucin‐like structural protein of S. exigua called Se‐Mucin1 in choriogenesis. It was highly expressed in ovarioles containing chorionated oocytes. The expression level of Se‐Mucin1 was increased during adult stage as early as 18 h after adult emergence, reaching the maximal level at 24 h and later. Interestingly, DNA amount of Se‐Mucin1 was increased by almost four folds during early adult stage while other genes (hexokinase and glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase) not directly associated with chorion formation did not show genomic DNA increase, suggesting specific gene amplification of Se‐Mucin1. RNA interference (RNAi) suppressed Se‐Mucin1 expression by injecting 1 μg of double‐strand RNA to teneral females (<5 h after emergence), which exhibited significantly impaired fecundity and egg hatching rate. Eggs laid by RNAi‐treated females were malformed in eggshell structures with loss of mesh‐like fibers. Treatment with aspirin, a prostaglandin (PG) biosynthesis inhibitor, suppressed the induction of Se‐Mucin1 expression during early adult stage and impaired egg development. An addition of PGE₂ significantly rescued such impairment in Se‐Mucin1 expression and subsequent egg development. These results suggest that PGs mediate choriogenesis of S. exigua by activating the expression of chorion‐associated genes including Se‐Mucin1.     

Synthesis,characterisation, optical and nonlinear optical properties of thiazole and benzothiazole derivatives: a dual approach

In the present investigation, we employ a dual approach consisting of experimental and computational techniques to synthesise and characterise the Schiff-base including the moieties of nitrophenyl (3), nitrothiazole (5) and nitrobenzothiazole (7). The synthesised Schiff bases are confirmed by FT-IR, ¹H-NMR and UV-visible spectroscopic techniques. The experimental UV-visible spectroscopic results are compared to the theoretically calculated TD-DFT results. There is a reasonably good agreement between the experimental and the theoretically calculated spectroscopic results. We also calculate the third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) polarizability (γ) of above entitled derivatives using finite field (FF) approach and DFT methods. The compound 7 shows an amplitude of γ as large as 124.15×10⁴ a. u., which is found to be several times larger than that of para-nitroaniline. Moreover, the partial and total density of states (PDOS and TDOS) along with electrostatic potential maps are calculated to get more physical insights into the structure-property relationship and electronic communications between terminal donor and central core acceptor moieties in the synthesised compounds. The present investigation highlights the significance of indigenously synthesised nitrothiazole and nitrobenzothiazole compounds as efficient NLO materials, which may evoke the interest of scientific community in such efficient NLO materials for their potential utilization in device applications.     

Water footprint inventory database of Thai rice farming for water policy decisions and water scarcity footprint label

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - Rice is a major economic crop which has created local livelihood, careers and incomes in the agricultural sector in Thailand, one of the leading...     

Competitive use of sugarcane for food,fuel, and biochemical through the environmental and economic factors

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - Bioethanol demands for transport face uncertainty; additionally, the emergence of electric vehicles is raising concerns among the ethanol...