Biological Adsorption and Accumulation Analysis of Hizikia fusiforme Response to Copper Stress Conditions

Coastal water pollution is an important environmental problem now days. Hizikia fusiforme is cultivated in coastal water, being considered as a healthy food. However, little information exists concerning on this species responses to copper stress conditions. Experiments were conducted to distinguish biological adsorption and biological accumulation of H. fusiforme in regard to copper stress; it was determined the long-term stress with lower concentrations of copper (0.25 mg/L and 0.50 mg/L) and short-term stress with higher concentrations of copper (1.5 mg/L and 3.0 mg/L) on H. fusiforme. Results suggested that H. fusiforme has different response to various copper stresses; lower concentration stress could significantly enhance the growth of H. fusiforme, while H. fusiforme growth was inhibited and mitigated injured by 0.25-0.50 mg/L copper stress. Under the highest stress, H. fusiforme was extremely harmed, the biomass loss was significant and dry weight/fresh weight was also significantly decreased. Results suggested that lower and higher concentrations of copper stress have different impacts on H. fusiforme; the biological adsorption amount is lower than that of biological accumulation amount under low copper stress conditions, but the biological adsorption amount is much higher under high concentration copper stress. A better understanding of H. fusiforme responses to heavy metal stress should bring more data about its physiological adaptation mechanism under such conditions

Effects of NaCl Stress on the Growth and Physiological Changes in Oat (Avena sativa) Seedlings

The oat (Avena sativa) is a kind of cereal grain, which has high saline-alkali tolerance. This experiment was carried out to investigate and compare the growth and physiological changes of oat seedling. Oat was grown under five concentrations of NaCl stress (48, 72, 96, 120 and 144 mmolL-1). The results showed that NaCl stress had no effect on the survival rate and organic acids. With the increasing of the NaCl concentration, tiller number, the chlorophyll, K+, Ca2+, NO3-, H2PO4- contents, shoot length, the shoot biomass, and shoot water content were decreased significantly. However, the Cl-, Na+, Na+/K+, SO42- and proline contents were extremely increased. K+, Ca2+, dry weight, and water content of shoots changed greater than that of roots. While Na+ and Na+/K+ of shoots changed less than that of roots. When NaCl concentration was less than 96 mmolL-1, the length, dry weight, and water content of roots had no significant changes. Based on this investigation, it can be concluded that oat seedlings accumulated more proline, Cl- and SO42- to maintaining osmotic and ion balance. In addition, NaCl stress had no significant effect on the growth of roots, and the roots can play the interceptive and protective role with a stronger salt tolerance. The roots can change the distribution of Na+, then it decreased the harm on the shoots and increased the tolerance of oat seedling

Effects of Saline and Alkaline Stresses on Growth and Physiological Changes in Oat (Avena sativa L.) Seedlings

Two neutral salts (NaCl and Na2SO4) and alkaline salts (NaHCO3 and Na2CO3) were both mixed in 2:1 ratio, and the effects of saline and alkaline stresses on growth and physiological changes in oat seedlings were explored. The result showed that biomass, water content and chlorophyll content decreased while cell membrane permeability significantly increased under alkaline stress. Saline stress did not have an obvious effect on pH value in tissue fluids of shoot and root, but alkaline stress increased pH value in the root tissue fluid. The contents of Na+, Na+/K+, SO42- increased more, and K+, NO3-, H2PO4- decreased more under alkaline stress, the Cl- content increased obviously under saline stress but had little change under alkaline stress. The increments of proline and organic acid were both greater under alkaline stress, but organic acid content kept the same level under saline stress. Alkaline stress caused more harmful effects on growth and physiological changes in oat seedlings especially broke the pH stability in the root tissue fluid. Physiological adaptive mechanisms of oat seedlings under saline stress and alkaline stress were different, which mainly took the way of accumulating organic acid under alkali stress but accumulating Cl- under saline stress

The impact of grazing on seedling patterns in degraded sparse‐elm grassland

Over‐grazing by livestock in semi‐arid ecosystems is one of the main causes of desertification. Although over‐grazing presents a global environmental challenge, only a few studies have investigated grazing impacts on the composition of species and functional groups of seedling bank. In this study, we determined whether the composition of seedling species and functional groups, as well as the correlations between the seedlings of sparse‐elm (Ulmus pumila var. sabulosa or U. pumila) and other species changed under three grazing intensities in the degraded sparse‐elm grassland in the Horqin Sandy Land, China. Species composition and abundance of established seedlings were surveyed and the relationships between seedlings of U. pumila and other species were analyzed. The results showed that plant communities under moderate grazing were more stable than the other two grazing intensities due to higher seedling density, higher species richness and higher number of perennial herbs. Seedlings of U. pumila could even prevent noxious seedlings growth under moderate grazing. We concluded that moderate grazing could benefit the recovery of this sparse‐elm grassland in the Horqin Sandy Land

Physiological Adaptive Strategies of Oil Seed Crop Ricinus communis Early Seedlings (Cotyledon vs. True Leaf) Under Salt and Alkali Stresses: From the Growth, Photosynthesis and Chlorophyll Fluorescence

Ricinus communis is an important energy crop and is considered as one of the most potential plants for salt-alkali soil improvement in Northeast China. Early seedling stage (such as the cotyledon expansion stage) is always a vulnerable stage but plays a vital role in plant establishment, especially under stress conditions. However, little information exists concerning the function of cotyledon and the relationship between cotyledon and true leaf in the adaptation to salt stress and alkali stress of this species. Here, Ricinus communis seedlings were treated with varying (40, 80 and 120 mM) salinity (NaCl) and alkalinity (NaHCO3), growth, photosynthesis, and chlorophyll fluorescence of cotyledons and true leaves were measured. The results showed that the biomass, photosynthetic parameters, and the qp value of both cotyledons and true leaves decreased with increasing salt-alkali stress, and the decrease in biomass, gs and Tr, of true leaves were much greater than that of cotyledons. Salt-alkali stress only reduced photosynthetic pigments and ΦPSII in cotyledons, but did not affect those in true leaves. Additionally, the Fv/Fm and NPQ between cotyledons and true leaves showed different trends in salinity and alkalinity. The results suggested that alkali stress could cause much more damage to the castor bean seedlings, and different physiological responses and adaptive strategies are found in cotyledons and true leaves under salt-alkali stress. This study will help us develop a better understanding of the adaptation mechanisms of cotyledon and true leaf during early seedling stage of castor bean plant, and also provide new insights into the function of cotyledon in Ricinus communis under salt-alkali stress conditions

A 3D-printed microfluidic-enabled hollow microneedle architecture for transdermal drug delivery.

Embedding microfluidic architectures with microneedles enables fluid management capabilities that present new degrees of freedom for transdermal drug delivery. To this end, fabrication schemes that can simultaneously create and integrate complex millimeter/centimeter-long microfluidic structures and micrometer-scale microneedle features are necessary. Accordingly, three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques are suitable candidates because they allow the rapid realization of customizable yet intricate microfluidic and microneedle features. However, previously reported 3D-printing approaches utilized costly instrumentation that lacked the desired versatility to print both features in a single step and the throughput to render components within distinct length-scales. Here, for the first time in literature, we devise a fabrication scheme to create hollow microneedles interfaced with microfluidic structures in a single step. Our method utilizes stereolithography 3D-printing and pushes its boundaries (achieving print resolutions below the full width half maximum laser spot size resolution) to create complex architectures with lower cost and higher print speed and throughput than previously reported methods. To demonstrate a potential application, a microfluidic-enabled microneedle architecture was printed to render hydrodynamic mixing and transdermal drug delivery within a single device. The presented architectures can be adopted in future biomedical devices to facilitate new modes of operations for transdermal drug delivery applications such as combinational therapy for preclinical testing of biologic treatments

Rhizomes Help the Forage Grass Leymus chinensis

Leymus chinensis has extensive ecological adaptability and can grow well in saline-alkaline soils. The knowledge about tolerance mechanisms of L. chinensis could be base for utilization of saline-alkaline soils and grassland restoration and rebuilding. Two neutral salts (NaCl : Na2SO4 = 9 : 1) and two alkaline salts (NaHCO3 : Na2CO3 = 9 : 1) with concentration of 0, 100, and 200 mmol/L were used to treat potted 35-day-old seedlings with rhizome growth, respectively. After 10 days, the biomass and number of daughter shoots all decreased, with more reduction in alkali than in salt stress. The rhizome biomass reduced more than other organs. The number of daughter shoots from rhizome was more than from tillers. Under both stresses, Na+ contents increased more in rhizome than in other organs; the reduction of K+ content was more in underground than aerial tissue. Anion ions or organic acids were absorbed to neutralize cations. Na+ content in stem and leaf increased markedly in high alkalinity (200 mmol/L), with accumulation of soluble sugar and organic acids sharply. Rhizomes help L. chinensis to adapt to saline and low alkaline stresses by transferring Na+. However, rhizomes lost the ability to prevent Na+ transport to aerial organs under high alkalinity, which led to severe growth inhibition of L. chinensis

A hybrid RBF neural network based model for day-ahead prediction of photovoltaic plant power output

Renewable energy resources like solar power contribute greatly to decreasing emissions of carbon dioxide and substituting generators fueled by fossil fuels. Due to the unpredictable and intermittent nature of solar power production as a result of solar radiance and other weather conditions, it is very difficult to integrate solar power into conventional power systems operation economically in a reliable manner, which would emphasize demand for accurate prediction techniques. The study proposes and applies a revised radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) scheme to predict the short-term power output of photovoltaic plant in a day-ahead prediction manner. In the proposed method, the linear as well as non-linear variables in the RBFNN scheme are efficiently trained using the whale optimization algorithm to speed the convergence of prediction results. A nonlinear benchmark function has also been used to validate the suggested scheme, which was also used in predicting the power output of solar energy for a well-designed experiment. A comparison study case generating different outcomes shows that the suggested approach could provide a higher level of prediction precision than other methods in similar scenarios, which suggests the proposed method can be used as a more suitable tool to deal such solar energy forecasting issues

A seismic prediction method of reservoir brittleness based on mineral composition and pore structure

The Lucaogou Formation, a typical fine-grained mixed formation in the Jimusaer Sag of the Junggar Basin, exhibits considerable potential for hydrocarbon exploration. Accurate brittle prediction is a crucial factor in determining hydraulic fracturing effectiveness. However, the area features complex lithological characteristics, including carbonate rocks, clastic rocks, volcanic rocks, and gypsum interbeds, along with thin layering and sporadic sweet spots. Traditional prediction methods offer limited resolution and there is an urgent need for a seismic brittle prediction method tailored to this complex geological environment. This paper presents a multi-mineral composition equivalent model for complex lithologies that enables the accurate calculation of Vp and Vs These ratios serve as the foundation for pre-stack elastic parameter predictions, which include Poisson’s ratio and Young’s modulus. By comparing the predicted parameters with well-logging measurements, the prediction accuracy is improved to 82%, with particularly high conformity in intervals characterized by high organic matter and clay content. Additionally, a three-dimensional brittle modeling approach reveals that the brittleness of the reservoir exceeds that of the surrounding rock, showing a gradual improvement in brittleness with increasing burial depth from southeast to northwest. The central area exhibits relatively good brittleness, with a stable, blocky distribution pattern