Long-read sequencing-based transcriptomic landscape in longissimus dorsi and transcriptome-wide association studies for growth traits of meat rabbits

Rabbits are an attractive meat livestock species that can efficiently convert human-indigestible plant biomass, and have been commonly used in biological and medical researches. Yet, transcriptomic landscape in muscle tissue and association between gene expression level and growth traits have not been specially studied in meat rabbits. In this study Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) long-read sequencing technology was used for comprehensively exploring transcriptomic landscape in Longissimus dorsi for 115 rabbits at 84 days of age, and transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) were performed for growth traits, including body weight at 84 days of age and average daily gain during three growth periods. The statistical analysis of TWAS was performed using a mixed linear model, in which polygenic effect was fitted as a random effect according to gene expression level-based relationships. A total of 18,842 genes and 42,010 transcripts were detected, among which 35% of genes and 47% of transcripts were novel in comparison with the reference genome annotation. Furthermore, 45% of genes were widely expressed among more than 90% of individuals. The proportions (±SE) of phenotype variance explained by genome-wide gene expression level ranged from 0.501 ± 0.216 to 0.956 ± 0.209, and the similar results were obtained when explained by transcript expression level. In contrast, neither gene nor transcript was detected by TWAS to be statistically significantly associated with these growth traits. In conclusion, these novel genes and transcripts that have been extensively profiled in a single muscle tissue using long-read sequencing technology will greatly improve our understanding on transcriptional diversity in rabbits. Our results with a relatively small sample size further revealed the important contribution of global gene expression to phenotypic variation on growth performance, but it seemed that no single gene has an outstanding effect; this knowledge is helpful to include intermediate omics data for implementing genetic evaluation of growth traits in meat rabbits

Nondestructive rubbing fabrication of flexible graphene film for precise temperature controlling

The high-quality flexible graphene thin films have been fabricated by the nondestructive rubbing method. The film exhibits an excellent photothermal conversion ability after oxygen plasma treatment and multiple mechanical bending. The temperature can be increased to 47.4°C even under a low laser irradiation power of 240mW with a decent heating rate of 0.3°C/s, and photothermal conversion efficiency reaches as high as 28%. The steady-state temperature can be precisely tuned by changing the laser power. These excellent results indicate graphene-based photothermal elements holding great promise for practical applications

Photothermal conversion of Bi2Se3 nanosheets and efficient steam generation by capillary siphoning

Local heating under light illumination provides a noncontact way to present an enormous superiority for minimum heat dissipation compared with other cases, such as floating on the surface of water. The highly-effective broadband absorption of Bi2Se3 covering both infrared and visible wavelength range can result in a high efficiency of 68% at 1 W/cm2 light illumination. The device possesses the barrier-free path to ensure the generated steam fast escape from the water surface also achieves the local heat generation and straightway wicks the adequate micro-flow to hot zone. The highlighted advantage of our design is that the efficiency is scarcely susceptible even the uninterrupted water flow, unlike the floated film, the heat dissipation is bound to generate due to the heat exchange between the heated and unheated water. The trade-off between temperature and water supplement should be ensured under the large heat generation and maintain an ideal evaporation rate for solar desalinate application

SYNTHESIS AND STOKES SHIFT OF WATER-SOLUBLE CdTe/CDS CORE-SHELL STRUCTRUE QUANTUM DOTS

CdTe/CdS core-shell structure quantum dots (QDs) has been synthesized using a water-based route. The optical absorbance and photoluminescence spectroscopy measurements reveal that the band gaps of the CdTe/CdS core-shell QDs can be tuned by changing core-shell molar ratio. The core-shell molar ratio dependence of UV-vis spectra and the fluorescence spectra of the series of CdTe/CdS QDs samples has been revealed. The results can prove that there is no separated nucleation during the growth of core-shell structure QDs. The Stokes shift decreases with the increasing of the core-shell ratio, which can be ascribed to the strength of the electron-phonon coupling increasing with the core-shell ratio of QDs increasing. (Received January 15, 2010; accepted January 29, 2010) Keywords: CdTe/CdS; core-shell structure; quantum dots; Stokes shift 1．Introduction Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals QDs have attracted much attention due to their unique advantages, such as narrow photoemission, strong fluorescence, broad photoexcitation, and high resistance to photobleaching.[1-3] The Ⅱ-Ⅵ compounds generally have wider band gap, larger effective mass and larger exciton binding energies as compared with commonmaterials. The QDs can be commonly prepared in organic solvents at high temperature and followed by functional modification. Although highly stable water-soluble QDs can be produced by organometallic reactions, the size of QDs is relatively large, which can result in lowing the FRET efficiencies Although it is a promising alternative route to organometallic reactions by directly synthesizing thiol-capped II-VI semiconductor QDs in water, [5] QDs could difficultly have narrow available size ranges and wide size distribution. [6] Therefore, polymer coats grown shells on the surface of core QDs are feafible strategies to improve the biocompatibility of QDs[4], which can further increase the size of QDs and introducing the other luminescence. Peng et al synthesized CdTe/CdS core/shell QDs in an aqueous phase using thioacetamide as a sulfur source and the quantum yield of as-prepared CdTe/CdS core/shell QDs reaching 58% In this paper, CdTe/CdS core-shell structure QDs has been synthesized using a water-based route. In this expertiment, the optical prosperties of QDs with different core-shell mole ratio were investigated. This study shows one can regulate emission wavelength by changing the core-shell mole ratio. In addition, the variation of the Stokes shift with the increasing of the core-shell mole ratio was further investigated

Localized surface plasmon enhanced photothermal conversion in Bi2Se3 topological insulator nanoflowers

Localized surface plasmons (LSP), the confined collective excitations of electrons in noble metal and doped semiconductor nanostructures, enhance greatly local electric field near the surface of the nanostructures and result in strong optical response. LSPs of ordinary massive electrons have been investigated for a long time and were used as basic ingredient of plasmonics and metamaterials. LSPs of massless Dirac electrons, which could result in novel tunable plasmonic metamaterials in the terahertz and infrared frequency regime, are relatively unexplored. Here we report for first time the observation of LSPs in Bi(2)Se(3) topological insulator hierarchical nanoflowers, which are consisted of a large number of Bi(2)Se(3) nanocrystals. The existence of LSPs can be demonstrated by surface enhanced Raman scattering and absorbance spectra ranging from ultraviolet to near-infrared. LSPs produce an enhanced photothermal effect stimulated by near-infrared laser. The excellent photothermal conversion effect can be ascribed to the existence of topological surface states, and provides us a new way for practical application of topological insulators in nanoscale heat source and cancer therapy

High efficient photothermal energy conversion of topologic insulator Bi2Se3 nanosheets thin film

The photothermal conversion has become rather attractive to realize the heat energy application. A simple, rapid and scalable optical-controlling Bi2Se3 nanosheets film heater is prepared by softly nondestructive rubbing technology and then transferring to PET substrate under the assistance of PVA. The optical-controlling film heater exhibits the excellent adjustability, accuracy and stability of temperature. The film heater is first tested by using laser irradiation at 410 mW and the corresponding temperature rapidly increased to the 53.2 °C for SThin film and 73.2 °C for SThick film during 50 seconds. The SThin and SThick film display a transmittance of 40% to 60% from the visible to near-IR region, respectively. As-prepared optical-controlling Bi2Se3 film heater can be easily integrated to optical or photo-electric device without preparation of electrode. These exotic properties of Bi2Se3 nanosheets optical-controlling heater suggest exciting prospects for the temperature-dependent flexible optoelectronics and electronic device

Morphological evolution of selfdeposition Bi2Se3 nanosheets by oxygen plasma treatment

Bi(2)Se(3) nanosheets were successfully synthesized by a microwave-assisted approach in the presence of polyvinylpyrroli done at a temperature of 180 °C for 2 h. The thin film was prepared on a silicon wafer via a self-deposition process in a Bi(2)Se(3) nanosheet ink solution using the evaporation-induced self-assembly method. The structure and morphology of the obtained products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The highly uniform Bi(2)Se(3) particles could be formed by controlling the oxygen plasma treatment time. After the plasma pretreatment from 10 to 20 s, the surface of Bi(2)Se(3) film evolved from the worm-like structure to particles. The highly uniform thin film was formed on further increasing the plasma treatment time, which is consistent with the observed SEM results. Several important processes can result in the morphological evolution of Bi(2)Se(3) nanosheets: (1) formation of Bi(2)Se(3) oxide layer; (2) self-assembly of oxide nanoparticles under the action of high-energy oxygen plasma; and (3) electrostatic interaction and etching mechanism

Strong emission in Yb3+/Er3+ co-doped phosphate glass ceramics

Yb3+/Er3+ co-doped phosphate glass and glass ceramics were prepared by high-temperature melting method. The X-ray diffraction, transmission electron micrographs, up-conversion and infrared emissions, photothermal conversion properties of the samples have been measured. The results showed the annealing time had a great impact on the microstructure and luminous performance of the phosphate glass. At the beginning of annealing, the metaphosphate crystals were firstly dissolved out. The metaphosphate crystals gradually turned into the orthophosphate with the increasing of annealing time. The emission intensity of the sample was obviously improved after the precursor glass was annealed. The up-conversion and infrared emissions of the sample annealed at 600 °C for 24 h, reached the maximum intensity. Compared with the photothermal properties of glass, the lower photothermal conversion efficiency of the glass ceramics testified the strong emission. Keywords: Yb3+/Er3+ co-doped, Up-conversion emission, Phosphate glass ceramic