Impacts of residual aluminum from aluminate flocculant on the morphological and physiological characteristics of Vallisneria natans and Hydrilla verticillata

Aluminate is generally used as a flocculent in water and wastewater treatment processes, but the residual aluminum (Al) may have toxic effects on aquatic organisms when the concentration accumulates beyond a threshold level. The in situ and laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the impact of residual Al on submerged macrophytes in West Lake, Hangzhou, China, which receives Al flocculant-purified water diverted from the Qiantang River. The responses of Vallisneria natans and Hydrilla verticillata were investigated based on their morphological and physiological parameters in pot culture and aquarium simulation experiments. In the pot culture experiments, the biomass, seedling number, plant height, stolon number, stolon length, and root weight were significantly higher at a site located 150 m from the inlet compared with those at a site located 15 m from the inlet (P &lt; 0.05), thereby indicating that the residual Al significantly inhibited the morphological development of V. natans and H. verticillata. The variations in the chlorophyll-a, protein, and malondialdehyde contents of the two species in both the pot culture and aquarium simulation experiments also demonstrated that the two submerged macrophytes were stressed by residual Al. V. natans and H. verticillata accumulated 0.052-0.227 mg of Al per gram of plant biomass (fresh weight, mg/g FW) and 0.045-0.205 mg Al/g FW in the in situ experiments, respectively, where the amounts of Al were significantly higher in the plants in the treatment aquaria during the laboratory experiments than those in the controls. These results may have important implications for the restoration of submerged macrophytes and ecological risk assessments in Al-exposed lakes. It is recommended that the Al salt concentration used for the control of lake eutrophication should be reduced to an appropriate level.</p

Associations between impulsivity, aggression, and suicide in Chinese college students

BACKGROUND: Although there are accumulating data regarding the epidemiology of suicide in China, there are meager data on suicidal ideation and attempts among college students. Interestingly, elevated impulsivity is thought to facilitate the transition from suicidal thoughts to suicidal behavior. Therefore, the objective of this research was to identify the associations between suicide and the personality factors of impulsivity and aggression. METHODS: This study’s sampling method employed stratified random cluster sampling. A multi-stage stratified sampling procedure was used to select participants (n = 5,245). We conducted structured interviews regarding a range of socio-demographic characteristics and suicidal morbidity. The Patient Health Questionnaire depression module (PHQ-9) was used to acquire the information about thoughts of being better off dead or hurting themselves in some ways during the past two weeks. The impulsivity symptoms in this study were assessed with the BIS-11-CH (i.e., the Chinese version of the BIS-11), and the Aggressive symptoms were assessed with the BAQ. The statistical package for social science (SPSS) v.13.0 program (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used for statistical analysis. Socio-demographic variables such as ethnic and gender were compared between groups, through the use of χ(2) tests. The nonparametric test (k Independent Sample test, Kruskal-Wallis H) was performed to determine differences between the personality factors of impulsivity and aggression and suicide. RESULTS: In total, 9.1% (n = 479) of the 5,245 students reported they have ever thought about committing suicide; and 1% (n = 51) reported a history of attempted suicide (attempters). The analyses detected significant differences in scores on cognitive impulsivity (p < 0.01), when comparing individuals who only had suicidal ideation and individuals who had attempted suicide. Moreover, significant differences were found between ideators only and attempters on scores of self-oriented attack (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Suicidal ideation is prevalent among Chinese university students. Students with high aggression scores were more susceptible to committing suicide. Scores on self-oriented attack and cognitive impulsivity may be important factors for differentially predicting suicide ideation and suicide attempts

Storage of multiple single-photon pulses emitted from a quantum dot in a solid-state quantum memory

Quantum repeaters are critical components for distributing entanglement over long distances in presence of unavoidable optical losses during transmission. Stimulated by Duan-Lukin-Cirac-Zoller protocol, many improved quantum-repeater protocols based on quantum memories have been proposed, which commonly focus on the entanglement-distribution rate. Among these protocols, the elimination of multi-photons (multi-photon-pairs) and the use of multimode quantum memory are demonstrated to have the ability to greatly improve the entanglement-distribution rate. Here, we demonstrate the storage of deterministic single photons emitted from a quantum dot in a polarization-maintaining solid-state quantum memory; in addition, multi-temporal-mode memory with $1$, $20$ and $100$ narrow single-photon pulses is also demonstrated. Multi-photons are eliminated, and only one photon at most is contained in each pulse. Moreover, the solid-state properties of both sub-systems make this configuration more stable and easier to be scalable. Our work will be helpful in the construction of efficient quantum repeaters based on all-solid-state devicesComment: Published version, including supplementary materia

N-(5-Amino-1H-tetra­zol-1-yl)formamide

In the title compound, C2H4N6O, the planar [maximum deviation = 0.006 (2) Å] amino­tetra­zole group makes a dihedral angle of 83.65 (8)° with the formamide unit. In the crystal structure, inter­molecular N—H⋯N, N—H⋯O and C—H⋯N hydrogen bonds are responsible for the formation of a three-dimensional network

STGC3 inhibits xenograft tumor growth of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells by altering the expression of proteins associated with apoptosis

STGC3 is a potential tumor suppressor that inhibits the growth of the nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE2; the expression of this protein is reduced in nasopharyngeal carcinoma compared with normal nasopharyngeal tissue. In this study, we investigated the tumor-suppressing activity of STGC3 in nude mice injected subcutaneously with Tet/pTRE-STGC3/CNE2 cells. STGC3 expression was induced by the intraperitoneal injection of doxycycline (Dox). The volume mean of Tet/pTRE-STGC3/CNE2+Dox xenografts was smaller than that of Tet/pTRE/CNE2+Dox xenografts. In addition, Tet/pTRE-STGC3/CNE2+Dox xenografts showed an increase in the percentage of apoptotic cells, a decrease in Bcl-2 protein expression and an increase in Bax protein expression. A proteomic approach was used to assess the protein expression profile associated with STGC3-mediated apoptosis. Western blotting confirmed the differential up-regulation of prohibitin seen in proteomic analysis. These results indicate that overexpression of STGC3 inhibits xenograft growth in nude mice by enhancing apoptotic cell death through altered expression of apoptosis-related proteins such as Bcl-2, Bax and prohibitin. These data contribute to our understanding of the function of STGC3 in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma and provide new clues for investigating other STGC3-associated tumors

N-(1-Diacetyl­amino-1H-tetra­zol-5-yl)acetamide

In the crystal structure of the title compound, C7H10N6O3, there are N—H⋯O, N—H⋯N and C—H⋯O inter­actions, generating a three-dimensional supra­molecular network structure. A short intermolecular O⋯C contact of 2.8994 (18) Å is alsopresent in the crystal structure, but no π–π contacts are observed

Search for the decay J/ψ→γ+invisibleJ/\psi\to\gamma + \rm {invisible}

We search for $J/\psi$ radiative decays into a weakly interacting neutral particle, namely an invisible particle, using the $J/\psi$ produced through the process $\psi(3686)\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi$ in a data sample of $(448.1\pm2.9)\times 10^6$ $\psi(3686)$ decays collected by the BESIII detector at BEPCII. No significant signal is observed. Using a modified frequentist method, upper limits on the branching fractions are set under different assumptions of invisible particle masses up to 1.2 $\mathrm{\ Ge\kern -0.1em V}/c^2$. The upper limit corresponding to an invisible particle with zero mass is 7.0$\times 10^{-7}$ at the 90\% confidence level