Strategies to reduce nutrient pollution from manure management in China

As the demand for livestock products continues to increase in China, so too does the challenge of managing increasing quantities of manure. Urgent action is needed to control point source (housing, storage and processing) and diffuse (field application) pollution and improve the utilization of manure nutrients and organic matter. Here, we review strategies to improve management at each stage of the manure management chain and at different scales. Many strategies require infrastructure investment, e.g., for containment of all manure fractions. Engineering solutions are needed to develop advanced composting systems with lower environmental footprints and design more efficient nutrient stripping technologies. At the field-scale, there is an urgent need to develop a manure nutrient recommendation system that accounts for the range of manure types, cropping systems, soils and climates throughout China. At the regional scale, coordinated planning is necessary to promote recoupling of livestock and cropping systems, and reduce nutrient accumulation in regions with little available landbank, while minimizing the risk of pollution swapping from one region to another. A range of stakeholders are needed to support the step change and innovation required to improve manure management, reduce reliance on inorganic fertilizers, and generate new business opportunities

Nanoparticle-based solar vapor generation: An experimental and numerical study

Steam generation by nanofluid under solar radiation has attracted intensive attention recently. Due to strong absorption of solar energy, nanoparticle-based solar vapor generation could have wide applications in many areas including desalination, sterilization and power generation. Steam generation of different concentrations of gold nanoparticle dispersions under focused sunlight of 5 sun and 10 sun were performed in this work. A numerical model combining radiative heat transfer, moisture transport, and laminar flow was established to investigate the temperature profile, evaporation rate above the surface and radiative intensity distribution inside the nanofluid. It was found that localized energy trapping at the surface of nanofluid was responsible for the fast vapor generation. To convert more solar radiative energy into latent heat of water (i.e., to vaporize water) at the surface, a new method was proposed to optimize the range of nanofluid concentration and optical depth for future solar vapor generator design

Nanoparticles enabled pump-free direct absorption solar collectors

Developing renewable energy technologies, especially solar energy-based, is of great importance to secure our energy future. Current solar thermal systems, however, have relatively low utilization efficiencies, limited not only by their low solar energy capture efficiency but also the auxiliary pumping power to circulate the working fluid. Here an innovative nanoparticle enabled pump-free direct absorption solar collector concept is presented, which combines the advantages of volumetric solar harvesting and oscillating heat pipes. Two different flow modes have been observed when the concentration of nanofluid is different. There is an optimum filling ratio when the thermal resistance reaches the minimum. Validation experiments show that the proposed concept can efficiently harvest solar energy and spontaneously transfer the heat into targeted areas, providing a novel approach for efficient solar energy utilization

A regulatory network for human adenocarcinoma

Human adenocarcinoma (AC) is the most frequently diagnosed human lung cancer and its absolute incidence is increasing dramatically. Our study aimed to interpret the mechanisms of human adenocarcinoma through the  regulation network based on differentially expressed genes (DEGs). We used the GSE2514 microarray data to identify human adenocarcinoma differentially expressed genes. Based on these genes and collected regulation datasets, 129 relationships between transcription factor and their target genes were established in AC. Finally, we find some new candidates and relationships, such as IL6 and NFKB1 owning a close connection with AC. Based on a relatively small number of patients, the results will need to be repeated and confirmed in future studies.Key words: Adenocarcinoma, transcription factors, transcriptome

Solar photothermal conversion characteristics of hybrid nanofluids: An experimental and numerical study

In this work, the Fe3O4, Cu and Au with different concentrations and the hybrid nanofluids were prepared and characterized to enhance the solar photothermal conversion performance based on the direct absorption concept. An extensive experimental study was carried out with different sample nanofluids under a solar simulator. The experiment was first conducted with Au nanofluid in three cases to investigate the effect of different test conditions, and the test condition where the simulated sunlight was absorbed by the sample nanofluid only once with minimum heat loss to the surroundings was determined for later research. Based on the experimental results, below conclusions have been reached: 1) the solar energy absorption performance of nanofluids with plasmonic nanomaterials, i.e., Au or Cu, is much better than that of nanofluids with non-plasmonic nanomaterials, i.e., Fe3O4 and DI water, due to the effect of localized surface plasmon resonance; 2) the larger the concentration, the higher the solar energy absorption efficiency, but the increasing rate of the absorption efficiency slows down gradually with the increase of the concentration; 3) a numerical method to predict photothermal conversion efficiency of nanofluid under solar radiation has been proposed; 4) the novel idea of employing hybrid nanofluid to enhance the solar absorption performance has been experimentally and numerical validated, which can enhance the solar photothermal conversion when mixing two nanofluids with different absorption peaks, and there is an optimal mixing volume fraction for hybrid nanofluid

Analysis of genetic diversity and construction of core collection of local mulberry varieties from Shanxi Province based on ISSR marker

Genetic diversity of 73 local mulberry varieties from Shanxi Province were screened using ISSR markers, with l5 primers combinations selected for their reproducibility and polymorphism. 129 bands were amplified, of which 115 bands showed polymorphism and the ratio of polymorphism bands was 89.15%. Nei’s genetic similarity coefficients ranged from 0.5891 to 0.9457 with an average of 0.7674. The observed number of alleles of each loci, effective number of alleles of each loci, Nei’s gene diversity, Shannon’s information index were 1.8915, 1.4771, 0.2780 and 0.4197, respectively. Clustering results showed that the 73 varieties could be divided into three different groups and nine subgroups. By using stepwise clustering and random methods and the modified heuristic algorithm, 21 core collections were constructed and the ratio of core collection was 28.77%. The result of t-test to the parameters (the number effective of alleles, Nei's genetic diversity index and Shannon's information index) showed that there was not significant difference between the core collection and initial sample with the exception of the number of observed alleles, that is, the core collection could well represent the initial sample.Key words: Mulberry, germplasm resource, genetic diversity, ISSR, cluster analysis, core collection

Analogies between the crossing number and the tangle crossing number

Tanglegrams are special graphs that consist of a pair of rooted binary trees with the same number of leaves, and a perfect matching between the two leaf-sets. These objects are of use in phylogenetics and are represented with straightline drawings where the leaves of the two plane binary trees are on two parallel lines and only the matching edges can cross. The tangle crossing number of a tanglegram is the minimum crossing number over all such drawings and is related to biologically relevant quantities, such as the number of times a parasite switched hosts. Our main results for tanglegrams which parallel known theorems for crossing numbers are as follows. The removal of a single matching edge in a tanglegram with $n$ leaves decreases the tangle crossing number by at most $n-3$, and this is sharp. Additionally, if $\gamma(n)$ is the maximum tangle crossing number of a tanglegram with $n$ leaves, we prove $\frac{1}{2}\binom{n}{2}(1-o(1))\le\gamma(n)<\frac{1}{2}\binom{n}{2}$. Further, we provide an algorithm for computing non-trivial lower bounds on the tangle crossing number in $O(n^4)$ time. This lower bound may be tight, even for tanglegrams with tangle crossing number $\Theta(n^2)$.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

On the existence and uniqueness of solutions to stochastic differential equations driven by G-Brownian motion with integral-Lipschitz coefficients

In this paper, we study the existence and uniqueness of solutions to stochastic differential equations driven by G-Brownian motion (GSDEs) with integral-Lipschitz conditions on their coefficients

Genome-wide association analysis on pre-harvest sprouting resistance and grain color in US winter wheat

Citation: Lin, M., Zhang, D. D., Liu, S. B., Zhang, G. R., Yu, J. M., Fritz, A. K., & Bai, G. H. (2016). Genome-wide association analysis on pre-harvest sprouting resistance and grain color in US winter wheat. Bmc Genomics, 17, 16. doi:10.1186/s12864-016-3148-6Background: Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) in wheat can cause substantial reduction in grain yield and end-use quality. Grain color (GC) together with other components affect PHS resistance. Several quantitative trait loci (QTL) have been reported for PHS resistance, and two of them on chromosome 3AS (TaPHS1) and 4A have been cloned. Methods: To determine genetic architecture of PHS and GC and genetic relationships of the two traits, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was conducted by evaluating a panel of 185 U.S. elite breeding lines and cultivars for sprouting rates of wheat spikes and GC in both greenhouse and field experiments. The panel was genotyped using the wheat 9K and 90K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays. Results: Four QTL for GC on four chromosomes and 12 QTL for PHS resistance on 10 chromosomes were identified in at least two experiments. QTL for PHS resistance showed varied effects under different environments, and those on chromosomes 3AS, 3AL, 3B, 4AL and 7A were the more frequently identified QTL. The common QTL for GC and PHS resistance were identified on the long arms of the chromosome 3A and 3D. Conclusions: Wheat grain color is regulated by the three known genes on group 3 chromosomes and additional genes from other chromosomes. These grain color genes showed significant effects on PHS resistance in some environments. However, several other QTL that did not affect grain color also played a significant role on PHS resistance. Therefore, it is possible to breed PHS-resistant white wheat by pyramiding these non-color related QTL

Experimental study on the supercritical startup of cryogenic loop heat pipes with redundancy design

Cryogenic loop heat pipe (CLHP) is one of the key components in the future space infrared exploration system, which enables effective and efficient cryogenic heat transport over a long distance with a flexible thermal link. To realize reliable and long life operation, a CLHP-based thermal control system with redundancy design was proposed in this work, where two nitrogen-charged CLHPs were employed to provide cryocooling at 80–100 K. This study focused on the supercritical startup of the CLHPs with redundancy design, and an extensive experimental study under four possible working modes was conducted. Experimental results showed that with 2.5 W applied to the secondary evaporator, each CLHP could realize the supercritical startup successfully in the normal working mode; however, the required time differed a lot because the difference in the transport line diameter significantly affected the cryocooling capacity to the primary evaporator. In the backup conversion mode, instant switch of the two primary evaporators may cause an operation failure, and an auxiliary operation of the secondary evaporator in advance was necessary to make the primary liquid line filled with liquid. In the malfunction conversion mode, the simulated infrared detector had to be first shut down, but the time needed for the backup CLHP to realize the supercritical startup became obviously shorter than that in the normal working mode, because the primary evaporator of the backup CLHP was always in a cryogenic state. In the dual operation mode, the two CLHPs could realize the supercritical startup simultaneously, but a temperature oscillation phenomenon was observed, which can be eliminated by increasing the heat load applied to the secondary evaporator