Biochar addition affected the dynamics of ammonia oxidizers and nitrification in microcosms of a coastal alkaline soil

Biochar amendments have frequently been reported to alter microbial communities and biogeochemical processes in soils. However, the impact of biochar application on bacterial (AOB) and archaeal ammonia oxidizers (AOA) remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the responses of AOB and AOA to the application of biochar derived from cotton stalk at rates of 5, 10, and 20 % by weight to a coastal alkaline soil during a 12-week incubation. The results showed that the amoA gene of AOB consistently outnumbered that of AOA, whereas only the AOA amoA gene copy number was significantly correlated with the potential ammonia oxidation (PAO) rate (P < 0.01). The significant decrease of PAO rates in biochar treatments occurred after incubation for 4-6 weeks, which were distinctly longer than that in the control (2 weeks). The PAO rates were significantly different among treatments during the first 4 weeks of incubation (P < 0.05), with the highest usually in the 10 % treatment. Biochar application significantly increased the abundance of both nitrifiers in the 4 weeks of incubation (P < 0.05). Biochar amendment also decreased AOA diversity, but increased AOB diversity, which resulted in different community structures of both nitrifiers (P < 0.01), as shown by the differences between the 5 % biochar and the control treatments. We conclude that biochar application generally enhanced the abundance and altered the composition of ammonia oxidizers; the rate of biochar application also affected the rate and dynamics of nitrification, and the risk for increasing the alkalinity and N leaching of the studied soil was lower with a lower application rate.Biochar amendments have frequently been reported to alter microbial communities and biogeochemical processes in soils. However, the impact of biochar application on bacterial (AOB) and archaeal ammonia oxidizers (AOA) remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the responses of AOB and AOA to the application of biochar derived from cotton stalk at rates of 5, 10, and 20 % by weight to a coastal alkaline soil during a 12-week incubation. The results showed that the amoA gene of AOB consistently outnumbered that of AOA, whereas only the AOA amoA gene copy number was significantly correlated with the potential ammonia oxidation (PAO) rate (P < 0.01). The significant decrease of PAO rates in biochar treatments occurred after incubation for 4-6 weeks, which were distinctly longer than that in the control (2 weeks). The PAO rates were significantly different among treatments during the first 4 weeks of incubation (P < 0.05), with the highest usually in the 10 % treatment. Biochar application significantly increased the abundance of both nitrifiers in the 4 weeks of incubation (P < 0.05). Biochar amendment also decreased AOA diversity, but increased AOB diversity, which resulted in different community structures of both nitrifiers (P < 0.01), as shown by the differences between the 5 % biochar and the control treatments. We conclude that biochar application generally enhanced the abundance and altered the composition of ammonia oxidizers; the rate of biochar application also affected the rate and dynamics of nitrification, and the risk for increasing the alkalinity and N leaching of the studied soil was lower with a lower application rate

In-Plane Deformation Mechanics for Highly Stretchable Electronics

Scissoring in thick bars suppresses buckling behavior in serpentine traces that have thicknesses greater than their widths, as detailed in a systematic set of analytical and experimental studies. Scissoring in thick copper traces enables elastic stretchability as large as approximate to 350%, corresponding to a sixfold improvement over previously reported values for thin geometries (approximate to 60%).</p

Radionuclide therapy using I-131-labeled anti-epidermal growth factor receptor-targeted nanoparticles suppresses cancer cell growth caused by EGFR overexpression

Introduction Anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeted nanoparticles can be used to deliver a therapeutic and imaging agent to EGFR-overexpressing tumor cells. I-131-labeled anti-EGFR nanoparticles derived from cetuximab were used as a tumor-targeting vehicle in radionuclide therapy

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Feasibility of LPV Model Identification of DelFly from Flight Data

Aerospace Engineerin

Detecting Single Photons with Superconducting Nanowires

In the past decades, generating single photons on demand with well defined quantum states and detecting them after photon-photon or photon-matter interaction are central to the area of quantum optics and quantum information science. The ability to detect light efficiently at the single photon level offers unprecedented opportunities for a wide range of applications, including long-distance quantum key distribution, light detection and ranging, photonic quantum computing, weak light detection for astronomy and bio-imaging.ImPhys/Optic

HyperCell: A Bio-inspired Design Framework for Real-time Interactive Architectures

This pioneering research focuses on Biomimetic Interactive Architecture using “Computation”, “Embodiment”, and “Biology” to generate an intimate embodied convergence to propose a novel rule-based design framework for creating organic architectures composed of swarm-based intelligent components. Furthermore, the research boldly claims that Interactive Architecture should emerge as the next truly Organic Architecture. As the world and society are dynamically changing, especially in this digital era, the research dares to challenge the Utilitas, Firmitas, and Venustas of the traditional architectural Weltanschauung, and rejects them by adopting the novel notion that architecture should be dynamic, fluid, and interactive. This project reflectsa trajectory from the 1960’s with the advent of the avant-garde architectural design group, Archigram, and its numerous intriguing and pioneering visionary projects. Archigram’s non-standard, mobile, and interactive projects profoundly influenced a new generation of architects to explore the connection between technology and their architectural projects. This research continues this trend of exploring novel design thinking and the framework of Interactive Architecture by discovering the interrelationship amongst three major topics: “Computation”, “Embodiment”, and “Biology”. The project aims to elucidate pioneering research combining these three topics in one discourse: “Bio-inspired digital architectural design”.A+BE | Architecture and the Built Environment No 1 (2018)Digital Architectur

Active-feedback quantum control of an integrated low-frequency mechanical resonator

Preparing a massive mechanical resonator in a state with quantum limited motional energy provides a promising platform for studying fundamental physics with macroscopic systems and allows to realize a variety of applications, including precise sensing. While several demonstrations of such ground-state cooled systems have been achieved, in particular in sideband-resolved cavity optomechanics, for many systems overcoming the heating from the thermal bath remains a major challenge. In contrast, optomechanical systems in the sideband-unresolved limit are much easier to realize due to the relaxed requirements on their optical properties, and the possibility to use a feedback control schemes to reduce the motional energy. The achievable thermal occupation is ultimately limited by the correlation between the measurement precision and the back-action from the measurement. Here, we demonstrate measurement-based feedback cooling on a fully integrated optomechanical device fabricated using a pick-and-place method, operating in the deep sideband-unresolved limit. With the large optomechanical interaction and a low thermal decoherence rate, we achieve a minimal average phonon occupation of 0.76 when pre-cooled with liquid helium and 3.5 with liquid nitrogen. Significant sideband asymmetry for both bath temperatures verifies the quantum character of the mechanical motion. Our method and device are ideally suited for sensing applications directly operating at the quantum limit, greatly simplifying the operation of an optomechanical system in this regime.QN/Groeblacher La

Superconducting single-photon detectors get hot

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.QN/Groeblacher LabQN/Quantum NanoscienceImPhys/Esmaeil Zadeh grou

Adaptive Nonlinear Incremental Flight Control for Systems with Unknown Control Effectiveness

This article exposes that although some sensor-based nonlinear fault-tolerant control frameworks including incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion control can passively resist a wide range of actuator faults and structural damage without requiring an accurate model of the dynamic system, their stability heavily relies on a sufficient condition, which is unfortunately violated if the control direction is unknown. Consequently, it is proved in this article that no matter, which perturbation compensation technique (adaptive, disturbance observer, sliding-mode) is implemented, none of the existing nonlinear incremental control methods can guarantee closed-loop stability. Therefore, this article proposes a Nussbaum function-based adaptive incremental control framework for nonlinear dynamic systems with partially known (control direction is unknown) or even completely unknown control effectiveness. Its effectiveness is proved in the Lyapunov sense and is also verified via numerical simulations of an aircraft attitude tracking problem in the presence of sensing errors, parametric model uncertainties, structural damage, actuator faults, as well as inversed and unknown control effectiveness.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Aerospace Structures & Computational Mechanic