Suitability of Mycorrhiza-Defective Rice and Its Progenitor for Studies on the Control of Nitrogen Loss in Paddy Fields via Arbuscular Mycorrhiza

Employing mycorrhiza-defective mutants and their progenitors does not require inoculation or elimination of the resident microbial community in the experimental study of mycorrhizal soil ecology. We aimed to examine the suitability of mycorrhiza-defective rice (non-mycorrhizal, Oryza sativa L., cv. Nipponbare) and its progenitor (mycorrhizal) to evaluate nitrogen (N) loss control from paddy fields via arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. We grew the two rice lines in soils with the full community of AM fungi and investigated root AM colonization. In the absence of AM fungi, we estimated rice N content, soil N concentration and microbial community on the basis of phospholipid fatty acids; we also quantified N loss via NH3 volatilization, N2O emission, runoff and leaching. In the presence of AM fungi, we did not find any evidence of AM colonization for non-mycorrhizal rice while mycorrhizal rice was colonized and percentage of root colonization was 17–24%. In the absence of AM fungi, the two rice lines had similar N content, soil N concentration and microbial community. Importantly, there was no significant difference in N loss via all the four pathways between mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal systems. This mycorrhizal/non-mycorrhizal rice pair is suitable for further research on the role of AM fungi in the control of soil N loss in paddy fields

Large area growth and electrical properties of p-type WSe2 atomic layers.

Transition metal dichacogenides represent a unique class of two-dimensional layered materials that can be exfoliated into single or few atomic layers. Tungsten diselenide (WSe(2)) is one typical example with p-type semiconductor characteristics. Bulk WSe(2) has an indirect band gap (∼ 1.2 eV), which transits into a direct band gap (∼ 1.65 eV) in monolayers. Monolayer WSe(2), therefore, is of considerable interest as a new electronic material for functional electronics and optoelectronics. However, the controllable synthesis of large-area WSe(2) atomic layers remains a challenge. The studies on WSe(2) are largely limited by relatively small lateral size of exfoliated flakes and poor yield, which has significantly restricted the large-scale applications of the WSe(2) atomic layers. Here, we report a systematic study of chemical vapor deposition approach for large area growth of atomically thin WSe(2) film with the lateral dimensions up to ∼ 1 cm(2). Microphotoluminescence mapping indicates distinct layer dependent efficiency. The monolayer area exhibits much stronger light emission than bilayer or multilayers, consistent with the expected transition to direct band gap in the monolayer limit. The transmission electron microscopy studies demonstrate excellent crystalline quality of the atomically thin WSe(2). Electrical transport studies further show that the p-type WSe(2) field-effect transistors exhibit excellent electronic characteristics with effective hole carrier mobility up to 100 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) for monolayer and up to 350 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) for few-layer materials at room temperature, comparable or well above that of previously reported mobility values for the synthetic WSe(2) and comparable to the best exfoliated materials

Cocaine Modulates Locomotion Behavior in C. elegans

Cocaine, a potent addictive substance, is an inhibitor of monoamine transporters, including DAT (dopamine transporter), SERT (serotonin transporter) and NET (norepinephrine transporter). Cocaine administration induces complex behavioral alterations in mammals, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Here, we tested the effect of cocaine on C. elegans behavior. We show for the first time that acute cocaine treatment evokes changes in C. elegans locomotor activity. Interestingly, the neurotransmitter serotonin, rather than dopamine, is required for cocaine response in C. elegans. The C. elegans SERT MOD-5 is essential for the effect of cocaine, consistent with the role of cocaine in targeting monoamine transporters. We further show that the behavioral response to cocaine is primarily mediated by the ionotropic serotonin receptor MOD-1. Thus, cocaine modulates locomotion behavior in C. elegans primarily by impinging on its serotoninergic system

Quantum phase transition of two-mode Bose-Einstein condensates with an entanglement order parameter

The ground state entanglement of the two-mode Bose-Einstein condensate is investigated through a quantum phase transition approach. The entanglement measure is taken as the order parameter and this is a non-local order parameter, which is different from the conventional order parameter of the Mott insulator-superfluid phase transitions. For this non-local order parameter, scaling behavior corresponding to a continuous phase transition is obtained and a power-law divergence near the critical region follows it. This scaling behavior of quantum entanglement is analyzed by the finite-size scaling and the critical exponents are obtained as $\nu = 1.01$ and $\gamma = 0.86$. A close connection between quantum fluctuations and the phase transition of entanglement is also obtained.Comment: 4 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. A, 201

Multi-User Holographic MIMO Surfaces: Channel Modeling and Spectral Efficiency Analysis

The multi-user Holographic Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output Surface (MU-HMIMOS) paradigm, which is capable of realizing large continuous apertures with minimal power consumption, has been recently considered as an energyefficient solution for future wireless networks, offering increased flexibility in impacting electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation according to the desired communication, localization, and sensing objectives. The tractable channel modeling in MU-HMIMOS wireless systems is one of the most critical research challenges, mainly due to the coupling effect induced by the excessively large number of closely spaced patch antennas. In this paper, we focus on this challenge for the downlink of multi-user MIMO communications and extend an EM-compliant channel model to multiuser case, which is expressed in the wavenumber domain using the Fourier plane wave approximation. Based on the presented channel model, we investigate the spectral efficiency of maximumratio transmission and Zero-Forcing (ZF) precoding schemes. We also introduce a novel hardware efficient ZF precoder, leveraging Neumann series (NS) expansion to replace the required matrix inversion operation, which is very hard to be computed in the conventional way due to the extremely large number of patch antennas in the envisioned MU-HMIMOS communication systems. In comparison with the conventional independent and identical Rayleigh fading channels that ignore antenna coupling effects, the proposed EM-compliant channel model captures the mutual couplings induced by the very small antenna spacing. Our extensive performance evaluation results demonstrate that our theoretical performance expressions approximate sufficiently well ..

Risk assessment and source identification of perfluoroalkyl acids in surface and ground water:spatial distribution around a mega-fluorochemical industrial park, China

Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) can be released to water bodies during manufacturing and application of PFAA-containing products. In this study, the contamination pattern, attenuation dynamics, sources, pathways, and risk zoning of PFAAs in surface and ground water was examined within a 10 km radius from a mega-fluorochemical industrial park (FIP). Among 12 detected PFAAs, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) dominated, followed by shorter-chained perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs). PFAA-containing waste was discharged from the FIP, with levels reaching 1.86 mg/L in the nearby rivers flowing to the Bohai sea together with up to 273 μg/L in the local groundwater in the catchment. These levels constitute a human health risks for PFOA and other shorter-chained PFCAs within this location. The concentrations of ∑ PFAAs in surface water strongly correlated with the local groundwater. The dominant pollution pathways of PFAAs included (i) discharge into surface water then to groundwater through seepage, and (ii) atmospheric deposition from the FIP, followed by infiltration to groundwater. As the distance increased from the source, PFAAs levels in groundwater showed a sharp initial decrease followed by a gentle decline. The contamination signal from the FIP site on PFAAs in groundwater existed within a radius of 4 km, and at least 3 km from the polluted Dongzhulong River. The major controlling factor in PFAA attenuation processes was likely to be dilution together with dispersion and adsorption to aquifer solids. The relative abundance of PFOA (C8) declined while those of shorter-chained PFCAs (C4–C6) increased during surface water seepage and further dispersion in groundwater

Robust mmWave Beamforming by Self-Supervised Hybrid Deep Learning

Beamforming with large-scale antenna arrays has been widely used in recent years, which is acknowledged as an important part in 5G and incoming 6G. Thus, various techniques are leveraged to improve its performance, e.g., deep learning, advanced optimization algorithms, etc. Although its performance in many previous research scenarios with deep learning is quite attractive, usually it drops rapidly when the environment or dataset is changed. Therefore, designing effective beamforming network with strong robustness is an open issue for the intelligent wireless communications. In this paper, we propose a robust beamforming self-supervised network, and verify it in two kinds of different datasets with various scenarios. Simulation results show that the proposed self-supervised network with hybrid learning performs well in both classic DeepMIMO and new WAIR-D dataset with the strong robustness under the various environments. Also, we present the principle to explain the rationality of this kind of hybrid learning, which is instructive to apply with more kinds of datasets

Three-dimensional topological structures and formation processes of dislocations in Au nanowire under tension loading

Dislocation is an important microstructural configuration in most crystalline materials, but it is still difficult for experiments to detect its local atomic structures and formation processes. Molecular dynamics simulation provides a powerful tool to investigate the dislocation by means of some geometrical structural analysis methods, but most of these methods cannot accurately distinguish the nuances of local configurations. Herein, we propose a new microstructural analysis method of cluster-type-index method (CTIM). The three-dimensional (3D) topological structures and formation processes of dislocations during tensioning Au nanowire are illuminated by means of CTIM. It is found that the favourite local atomic structures in dislocations are the defective FCC clusters represented by the CTIM indexes (13, 3/1421 2/1431 2/1441 4/1541 2/1661). The vector analysis method based on the accumulation of lattice distortions cannot identified the aggregation of disordered atoms in the initial nucleation of dislocation. In the formation processes of dislocation atoms, three trajectories of T1: FCC→(13, 3/1421 2/1431 2/1441 4/1541 2/1661), T2: FCC→(12, 2/1311 1/1411 9/1421) and T3: FCC→(11, 4/1311 7/1421) are favorite. The dislocation atoms following the T1 trajectory are mainly located at the core of dislocations, while that following the T2 and T3 trajectories is at the front of dislocations. CTIM would provide an effective tool to investigate the defective structures and their interactions in nanocrystalline structures