Effect of Al on the growth and nutrients uptake of blueberries (Vaccinium spp.)

Aluminum (Al) is the major factor limiting plant growth on acidic soils. Blueberry (Vaccinum spp.) is an acidophilic plant. Highbush blueberry and rabbiteye blueberry are the main commercially cultivated species, while the response of which to Al is still unclear. Therefore, hydroponic experiments were conducted to determine the effect of Al (0 and 100 μmol L−1) on the growth and nutrient uptake of highbush blueberry ‘Brigitta’ and rabbiteye blueberry ‘Brightwell’. The results showed that root biomass, root length per fresh weight, root activity and foliar nitrogen (N) concentration of ‘Brigitta’ were significantly decreased by Al, while root lipid peroxidation was increased by Al. In contrast, the biomass and root activity of ‘Brightwell’ were not affected by Al treatment, root lipid peroxidation was significantly decreased, root length and surface area per fresh weight were increased compared with the control, which was benefic for nutrients absorption. In fact, foliar N concentration of ‘Brightwell’ was increased in Al treatments. However, fewer Al was accumulated in leaves of ‘Brightwell’ compared to ‘Brigitta’. Therefore, it could be concluded that growth and nutrients uptake of ‘Brightwell’ was not negative affected by Al, which meant ‘Brightwell’ was resistant to Al, compared to ‘Brigitta’

Electric-filed tuned anomalous valley Hall effect in A-type hexagonal antiferromagnetic monolayer

The combination of antiferromagnetic (AFM) spintronics and anomalous valley Hall effect (AVHE) is of great significance for potential applications in valleytronics. Here, we propose a design principle for achieving AVHE in A-type hexagonal AFM monolayer. The design principle involves the introduction of layer-dependent electrostatic potential caused by out-of-plane external electric field, which can break the combined symmetry ($PT$ symmetry) of spatial inversion ($P$) and time reversal ($T$), producing spin splitting. The spin order of spin splitting can be reversed by regulating the direction of electric field. Based on first-principles calculations, the design principle can be verified in AFM $\mathrm{Cr_2CH_2}$. The layer-locked hidden Berry curvature can give rise to layer-Hall effect, including valley layer-spin Hall effect and layer-locked AVHE. Our works provide an experimentally feasible way to realize AVHE in AFM monolayer.Comment: 5 pages,6 figure

Treatment of engineering waste slurries by microbially induced struvite precipitation mechanisms

With societal development, the growing scale of engineering construction, and the increase in environmental protection requirements, the necessity of engineering waste mud disposal is becoming increasingly prominent. In this study, microbially induced struvite precipitation (MISP) was introduced to treat engineering waste mud. The study mainly focused on: i) the optimal mineralization scheme for microbially induced struvite precipitation, ii) the feasibility of the process and the effect of reaction parameters on treating engineering waste mud with microbially induced struvite precipitation, and iii) the mechanism of microbially induced struvite precipitation in treating engineering waste mud. The results showed that the waste mud could be well treated with 8.36×106 cell⋅mL−1 bacteria, 10 mM urea, 20 mM phosphate buffer, and 25 mM MgCl2 at pH 7. The kaolin suspension could be effectively flocculated. The flocculation rate reached approximately 87.2% under the optimum mineralization conditions. The flocculation effect was mainly affected by the concentrations of reactants and heavy metals and the suspension pH. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns showed a strong struvite (MAP) diffraction peak. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images indicated that under the optimal mineralization conditions, the crystals were large and showed prismatic shapes tilted at both ends with adhered kaolin particles. In summary, this manuscript provides an effective way to treat engineering waste mud, and the findings should have a positive effect on enhancing soil fertility and preventing secondary pollution

Association between socioeconomic status and obesity in a Chinese adult population

BACKGROUND: Existing studies which regarding to the association between individual socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity are still scarce in developing countries. The major aim of this study is to estimate such association in an adult population which was drawn from an economically prosperous province of China. METHODS: Study population was determined by multilevel randomized sampling. Education and income were chosen as indicators of individual SES, general obesity and abdominal obesity were measured by body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC). Descriptive statistical methods were used to depict overall and factor-specific distributions of general and abdominal obesity among 16,013 respondents. Two-step logistic regression models were fitted on gender basis. RESULTS: The age-and-sex adjusted rates of general overweight, general obesity, abdominal overweight and abdominal obesity in study population were 28.9% (95%CI: 27.9%-29.9%), 7.5% (95%CI: 7.0%-8.1%), 32.2% (95%CI: 31.2%-33.3%) and 12.3% (95%CI: 11.6%-13.1%), respectively. Based on model fitting results, a significant inverse association between education and obesity only existed in women, while in men, income rather than education was positively related to obesity. CONCLUSIONS: The atypical SES-obesity relationship we found reflected the on-going social economy transformation in affluent regions of China. High-income men and poorly-educated women were at higher risk of obesity in Zhejiang province, thus merit intense focuses

Improved Design of Architecture of the Battlefield Situation Comprehensive Display System

The traditional chimney software architecture design, which is based on the application object, scale and equipment, is difficult to meet the urgent need of multi-resolution, multi-viewpoint, two-dimensional and three-dimensional consistent battlefield situation comprehensive display. Referring to the idea of U.S. Army's general operational diagram, the architecture of the current battlefield situation integrated display system is upgraded and improved. Aiming at the problems of information splitting and real-time undifferentiated access of multi-domain heterogeneous data, technical means such as spatial analysis and multi-source data integration are put forward, and the problems of fast loading and visualization of 3D models of the large battlefield space are solved by designing force clustering and motion trajectory smoothing algorithms. This method improves the service ability and the level of the battlefield situation comprehensive display system, and has a broad arrange of application

The prevalence and risk factors of dyslipidemia in different diabetic progression stages among middle-aged and elderly populations in China.

OBJECTIVES:This study aimed to examine the prevalence and risk factors of dyslipidemia in different diabetic progression stages among middle-aged and elderly Chinese populations. METHODS:The 2010-2012 China National Nutrition and Health Survey (CNNHS) is a nationally representative cross-sectional study. In the present study, a total of 69,974 participants aged ≥ 45 years were included. Dyslipidemia was defined based on the Chinese adult dyslipidemia prevention guide. A multivariable logistic regression model was performed to examine the associations between risk factors and dyslipidemia. RESULTS:The prevalence of dyslipidemia was 39.9%, 46.8%, and 59.3% in participants with normal glucose, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Women had a lower dyslipidemia prevalence than men (38.7% vs. 43.3%). Dyslipidemia prevalence was positively associated with the education level and inversely correlated with the physical activity level, and negatively related to age only among prediabetes and T2DM groups (P for trend < 0.05). Obesity, abdominal obesity, and hypertension were associated with dyslipidemia. CONCLUSIONS:The prevalence of dyslipidemia was relatively high among middle-aged and elderly T2DM person. There are different associations between multiple risk factors and dyslipidemia in different diabetic progression stages

Parameterization of COSMO-RS model for ionic liquids

The adjustable parameters in the popular conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS) within the Amsterdam density functional (ADF) framework have been re-optimized to fit for the systems containing ionic liquids (ILs). To get the optimal values of misfit energy constant a′, hydrogen bond coefficient chb and effective contact surface area of a segment aeff, 2283 activity coefficient data points at infinite dilution and 1433 CO2 solubility data points exhaustively collected from references were used as training set. The average relative deviations (ARDs) of activity coefficients at infinite dilution and CO2 solubility between experimental data and predicted values are 32.22% and 17.61%, respectively, both of which are significantly lower than the original COSMO-RS versions. Predictions for other activity coefficients of solutes in ILs, solubility data of CO2 in pure ILs and the binary mixtures of ILs at either high or low temperatures, and vapor–liquid equilibrium (VLE) for binary systems involving ILs have also been performed to demonstrate the validity of the parameterization of COSMO-RS model for ILs. The results showed that the predicted results by COSMO-RS model with the new optimized parameters are in much better agreement with experimental data than those by the original versions over a wide temperature and pressure range. The COSMO-RS model for ILs presented in this work improves the prediction accuracy of thermodynamic properties for the systems containing ILs, which is always highly desirable for general chemical engineers. Keywords: Ionic liquids (ILs), COSMO-RS model, Amsterdam density functional (ADF), Parameter optimization, Thermodynamic propertie