V2O5 Nano‐Electrodes with High Power and Energy Densities for Thin Film Li‐Ion Batteries

Nanostructured V₂O₅ thin films have been prepared by means of cathodic deposition from an aqueous solution made from V₂O₅ and H₂O₂ directly on fluorine‐doped tin oxide coated (FTO) glasses followed by annealing at 500°C in air, and studied as film electrodes for lithium ion batteries. XPS results show that the as‐deposited films contained 15% V⁴⁺, however after annealing all the vanadium is oxidized to V⁵⁺. The crystallinity, surface morphology, and microstructures of the films have been investigated by means of XRD, SEM, and AFM. The V₂O₅ thin film electrodes show excellent electrochemical properties as cathodes for lithium ion intercalation: a high initial discharge capacity of 402 mA h g^?1 and 240 mA h g^?1 is retained after over 200 cycles with a discharging rate of 200 mA g^?1 (1.3 C). The specific energy density is calculated as 900 W h kg^?1 for the 1^st cycle and 723 W h kg^?1 for the 180^th cycle when the films are tested at 200 mA g^?1 (1.3 C). When discharge/charge is carried out at a high current density of 10.5 A g^?1 (70 C), the thin film electrodes retain a good discharge capacity of 120 mA h g^?1, and the specific power density is over 28 kW kg^?1.     

The biodiversity of macrobenthos from Jiaozhou Bay

The current situation of the animal species biodiversity of macrobenthic fauna in the Jiaozhou Bay (South Shandong Peninsula, Yellow Sea) is reported in the present paper, based on the data from 15 investigation cruises carried out from February 1998 to November 2001. In analyzing the data, the Shannon-Wiener index, and species evenness and richness indices were used to study the trends of variation of the community structure, the species assemblages in the macrobenthic community, the dominant species, and the abundance of macrobenthic fauna in Jiaozhou Bay. A total of 322 species of macrobenthic animals were found in the bay, of which 133 species belong to 44 families of Polychaeta, while 92 species belong to 42 families of Crustacea. The average number of species per sample station ranged from 8 to 26. The Shannon-Wiener indices were very different among the samples, with the highest being recorded from Station 8 in November 2001, and the lowest from Station 9 in August 2001. The number of species, the Shannon-Wiener indices, and the species richness indices from Stations 7 and 9 were generally lower than those from other stations. This is because both the stations are situated at areas with a strong current and where the sediment is coarse sand. Although the richness index of species and the Shannon-Wiener index were high in Station 3, the Pielou evenness index was the lowest of all the sampling stations. This is because the station is located near the culture area of Ruditapes philippinarum, where a high abundance of clams caused low evenness. The results also revealed that the number of species and abundance greatly affected the biodiversity, and some environmental factors such as temperature, salinity, and primary productivity were also closely interrelated with biodiversity. Pollution and overexploitation caused by human activities were very important factors affecting macrobenthic biodiversity. In order to find the best way to enhance and protect living marine resources, the relationship between human activities and the biodiversity of macrobenthos in the Jiaozhou Bay should be studied further.     

Enhancement of Anaerobic Digestion Using Particulate Growth Systems

Attached media reactors are used for enhancement of wastewater treatment processes including anaerobic condition. Selection of a suitable biofilm carrier is a compelling method to improve anaerobic digestion systems. This study investigates the performance of four fibrous biofilms installed in batch biogas reactors for treatment of cow manure. BioCords HS1, HS2, LS1, and LS2 are manufactured by Bishop Water Technologies, ON, Canada. Effluents and attached growth media were analyzed after batch experiment; methane production, methane yield, transfer efficiencies, organic and solid removal efficiencies, pH, and attached volatile suspended solid (VSS) were measured; VSS attached to biofilms mainly correlated with the specific surface area of each biofilm. Additionally, SEM (scanning electron microscopy) was used for further understanding of biofilm formation process for BioCords and the dissimilarity in their performance. The results indicated that BioCord LS2 had positive impact on achieving higher methane production and removal efficiencies compared to other support media utilized in batch reactors. It was also demonstrated from the experiment that BioCord LS2 potentially could generate higher methane production than conventional batch bioreactor.     

Resource-dependent reproductive adjustment and the stability of consumer-resource dynamics

This study explored a consumer-resource model including reproductive and nonreproductive subpopulations of the consumer to consider whether resource-dependent reproductive adjustment by the consumer would stabilize consumer-resource dynamics. The model assumed that decreasing (increasing) resource availability caused reproductive suppression (facilitation), and that the reproductive consumer had a higher mortality rate than the nonreproductive one (i.e., a trade-off between reproduction and survival). The model predicted that the variability would be reduced when the consumer had a strong tendency to suppress reproduction in response to low resource availability or when the cost of reproduction was high, although consumer extinction became more likely. Furthermore, when the consumer-resource dynamics converged to limit cycles, reproductive adjustment enhanced the long-term average of the consumer density. It was also predicted that if reproductive suppression enhanced resource consumption efficiency (i.e., a trade-off between reproduction and foraging), then it would destabilize the system by canceling the stabilizing effect of the reproductive adjustment itself. These results suggest that it is necessary not only to identify the costs of reproduction, but also to quantify the changes in individual-level performances due to reproduction in order to understand the ecological consequences of reproductive adjustment.     

Cold adaptation in the phytopathogenic fungi causing snow molds

Snow molds are psychrophilic or psychrotrophic fungal pathogens of forage crops, winter cereals, and conifer seedlings. These fungi can grow and attack dormant plants at low temperatures under snow cover. In this review, we describe the biodiversity and physiological and biochemical characteristics of snow molds that belong to various taxa. Cold tolerance is one of the important factors related to their geographic distribution, because snow molds develop mycelia under snow cover and because they should produce intra- and extracellular enzymes active at low temperatures for growth and infection. Basidiomycetous snow molds produce extracellular antifreeze proteins. Their physiological significance is to keep the extracellular environment unfrozen. The psychrophilic ascomycete Sclerotia borealis shows normal mycelial growth under frozen conditions, which is faster than that on unfrozen media at optimal growth temperature. This fungus does not produce extracellular antifreeze proteins, but osmotic stress tolerance enables the fungus to grow at subzero temperatures. In conclusion, different taxa of snow molds have different strategies to adapt under snow cover.     

Efficient separation and purification of allophycocyanin from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Spirulina</Emphasis> (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Arthrospira</Emphasis>) <Emphasis Type="Italic">platensis</Emphasis>

Allophycocyanin (APC) is a minor component of phycobiliproteins in cyanobacteria and red algae. This paper describes a simple and inexpensive extracting method for isolating APC from Spirulina (Arthrospira) platensis with high efficiency. The crude phycobiliprotein extract was pretreated by ammonium sulfate fractionation. Then, by adding hydroxylapatite into crude phycobiliprotein extract dissolved in 20 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.0), APC was selectively adsorbed by hydroxylapatite but C-phycocyanin (C-PC) was not. The hydroxylapatite was collected and APC was extracted from the crude phycobiliprotein extract. Then, the enriched APC was washed off from the hydroxylapatite using 100 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). In this simple extracting method it was easy to remove C-PC and isolate APC in large amounts. The absorbance ratio A ₆₅₀/A ₂₈₀ of extracted APC reached 2.0. The recovery yield was 70%, representing 4.61 mg · g⁻¹ wet weight. The extracted APC could be further purified by a simple anion-exchange chromatography with a pH gradient from 5.6 to 4.0. The absorbance ratio A ₆₅₀/A ₂₈₀ of the purified APC reached 5.0, and the overall recovery yield was 43%, representing 2.83 mg · g⁻¹ wet weight. Its purity was confirmed by native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and sodium dodecyl sulfate-PAGE.     

A major locus qS12, located in a duplicated segment of chromosome 12, causes spikelet sterility in an indica-japonica rice hybrid

Chromosome segment duplications are integral in genome evolution by providing a source for the origin of new genes. In the rice genome, besides an ancient polyploidy event known in the rice common ancestor, it had been identified that there was a special segmental duplication involving chromosomes 11 and 12, but the biological role of this duplication remains unknown. In this study, by using a set of chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) and near isogenic lines (NILs) derived from the indica cultivar 9311 and japonica cultivar Nipponbare, a major QTL (qS12) resulting in hybrid male sterility was mapped within ~400 kb region adjacent to the special duplicated segment on the short arm of chromosome 12. Compared to the japonica cultivar Nipponbare, the two sides of the qS12 candidate region were inverted in the indica cultivar 9311. Among 47 of the 111 rice genotypes evaluated by molecular markers, the inverted sides were detected, and found completely homologous to indica cultivar 9311. These results suggested that the two inverted sides protect the sequence in the qS12 regions from recombination. On the short-arm of chromosome 12, two QTLs S-e and S25, in addition to qS12, were previously detected as a distinct segregation distortion and pollen semi-sterility loci. We propose these three hybrid sterility loci are the same locus, and the duplicated segment on chromosome 12 may play a prominent role in diversification, i.e., sub-speciation of cultivated rice.     

北京西山侏罗纪大同锥叶蕨的研究

大同锥叶蕨Coniopteris tatungensis 是侏罗纪植物群常见的分子。由于对该植物特征认识的不同, 对其在分类上的归属有不同意见,或归入膜蕨型锥叶蕨C．hymenophylloides,或归入简单锥叶蕨C. simplex。通过对产自北京西山斋堂地区窑坡组下段的标本的深入研究,特别是用扫描电子显微镜对该 标本的孢子囊群和孢子囊的观察,确认大同锥叶蕨在锥叶蕨属的种级分类上的独立性。文中还初步讨论了其分类和地理分布。     

慢性镉负荷雄性大鼠的睾丸及生殖内分泌功能活动

选择健康SD雄性成年大鼠60只,随机分成对照组（C组）、镉负荷中剂量组（M组）和镉负荷高剂量组（H组）,每天分别饲喂含镉0,5,10mg/kg的大鼠全价饲料,连续6周,研究了镉负荷对大鼠睾丸及生殖内分泌功能活动的影响。结果显示：在整个实验期内,M和H组大鼠睾丸组织中的镉含量极明显上升,锌含量销有下降,与对照组差异不显著;血浆镉、锌含量虽分别表现稍有升高和下降,但与对照组比较无明显差异;H组睾丸精子头计数和每日精子生成量在镉负荷第3周极显著下降,第6周时,M和H组均极明显低于对照组;在整个实验期内,H组大鼠ALP活明显低于C组;LDH－X活性在M和H组大鼠均极明显低于C组;M和H组血浆T水平下降,均低于或显著低于C组;3组间的FSH和LH水平无明显差异。结果提示：慢性镉负荷在睾丸组织中逐步蓄积可引起睾丸一些酶活性改变、精子生成减少及内分泌功能活动低下。     

PTSD促进大鼠中缝背核细胞色素c表达

目的研究创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)大鼠中缝背核神经元细胞色素C(Cyt-c)的表达变化。方法应用无连续单一刺激(SPS)方法建立PTSD大鼠模型,随机分为SPS刺激后1d、4d、7d和对照组,应用酶组织化学法和RT-PCR方法观察中缝背核神经元Cyt-c的表达变化。结果光镜酶细胞化学法和RT-PCR法显示中缝背核神经元Cyt-c染色阳性细胞于SPS刺激后1d明显高于对照组,4d逐渐增高,并于7d达到高峰。电镜下显示Cyt-c阳性反应产物主要分布在中缝背核神经元线粒体膜,SPS刺激后可见Cyt-c释放到胞浆中。结论 SPS刺激引起Cyt-c在PTSD大鼠中缝背核神经元呈过表达。