Increase in soil organic carbon by agricultural intensification in northern China

Acknowledgements. This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 31370527 and 31261140367) and the National Science and Technology Support Program of China (no. 2012BAD14B01-2). The authors gratefully thank the Huantai Agricultural Station for providing of the Soil Fertility Survey data. We also thank Zheng Liang from China Agricultural University for the soil sampling and analysis in 2011. Thanks are extended to Jessica Bellarby for helpful discussion and suggestions.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Characterization of the psoRPM1 gene for resistance to root-knot nematodes in wild myrobalan plum (Prunus sogdiana)

Several root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne spp.) resistance genes have been discovered in different stone fruit crops. However, none of them has yet been cloned and they were only located on the chromosomes. In this study, a candidate root-knot nematode resistance gene (designated as psoRPM1) was isolated from the individual plant of Xinjiang wild myrobalan plum (Prunus sogdiana) by degenerate PCR amplification combined with the RACE technique. The gene had a typical NBS-LRR structure and high homology with Mi-1.2 (root-knot nematode resistance genes in tomato). The expression of psoRPM1 gene increased in the roots of resistant wild myrobalan plum material 12, 24 and 48 h after inoculation with root-knot nematodes and the expression of psoRPM1 gene was maximum 12 h after inoculation. But in susceptible plant, the psoRPM1 gene expression remained low both before and after inoculation. This result suggested that the psoRPM1 gene was constitutively expressed gene in the wild myrobalan plum. In-situ hybridization results showed that the psoRPM1 gene mainly expressed in both phloem and cortex parenchyma of root 12 h after inoculation in resistant plant. Furthermore, the psoRPM1 gene only expressed in phloem 48 h after inoculation in resistant plant. The result suggested that the psoRPM1 gene played a role in keeping nematodes off the cortex when nematodes began to infect the plant’s roots. After root-knot nematodes entering into cortex parenchyma, the psoRPM1 gene mainly played defense function in phloem of pericycle. Using the gene gun bombarding into onion epidermal cells, the result was that psoRPM1 protein was located in cytomembrane and might be interacted with other proteins in cytomembrane to locateKey words: Xingjiang wild myrobalan plum (Prunus sogdiana), root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne incognita), gene, in-situ, gene location

Fast voltage detection method for grid-tied renewable energy generation systems under distorted grid voltage conditions

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology. A fast voltage detection method to assist with the low-voltage ride-through operation of grid-tied renewable energy generation systems is proposed in this study. It is designed to detect every phase voltage, so that it can be applied in both three-phase and single-phase applications. The whole voltage detection approach consists of two stages, the pre-filtering stage and the voltage detection stage. In the pre-filtering stage, a cascaded delayed signal cancellation (CDSC) module and a low-pass filter are connected in series to filter low-order harmonics and high-frequency noises. For eliminating the low-order harmonics of interest, different types of CDSC methods are studied in detail. Subsequently, a new orthogonal signal generator is built to calculate the voltage amplitude in the voltage detection stage. Finally, the proposed voltage detection method is verified by experimental results

A Novel Open-Loop Frequency Estimation Method for Single-Phase Grid Synchronization under Distorted Conditions

© 2013 IEEE. In this paper, a new open-loop architecture with good dynamic performance and strong harmonic rejection capability is proposed for single-phase grid synchronization under distorted conditions. Different from previous single-phase grid synchronization algorithms based on the phase-locked loop technique, the proposed method is to estimate the frequency and phase angle of the grid voltage in an open-loop manner so that fast dynamic response and enhanced system stability can be achieved. First, an open-loop frequency estimation algorithm is introduced under ideal grid condition. Then, it is extended to distorted grid voltages through the combination of the developed frequency estimation unit and a prefiltering stage consisting of a second-order low-pass filter and a cascaded delayed signal cancellation (DSC) module. In addition, a transient process smoothing unit is designed to achieve smooth frequency transients in cases where the grid voltage experiences fast and large changes. The working principle of the new frequency estimation algorithm and the developed single-phase grid synchronization approach is given in detail, together with some simulation and experiment results for verifying their performance

A Frequency-Fixed SOGI-Based PLL for Single-Phase Grid-Connected Converters

© 1986-2012 IEEE. Second-order generalized integrator (SOGI) based phase-locked loops (PLLs) are widely used for grid synchronization in single-phase grid-connected power converters. Previously, the estimated frequency of the PLL stage is fed back to the front-end SOGI block to make SOGI-PLLs frequency-Adaptive, which increases the implementation complexity, and makes the tuning sensitive, thus reducing stability margins. Alternatively, a frequency-fixed SOGI-based PLL (briefly called FFSOGI-PLL) is proposed to ensure stability and simple implementation in this letter. It is commonly known that the in-phase and quadrature-phase signals generated by the frequency-fixed SOGI are of different amplitudes in the presence of frequency drifts, which causes second-harmonic ripples in the estimated parameters of the PLL loop. To deal with this issue, a simple yet effective method is developed in FFSOGI-PLL. The standard SOGI-PLL is first introduced, followed by the working principle and small-signal model of FFSOGI-PLL. The FFSOGI-PLL is then compared with the SOGI-PLL in terms of stability and transient performance. Finally, experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of FFSOGI-PLL

The decay and collisions of dark solitons in superfluid Fermi gases

We study soliton collisions and the decay of solitons into sound in superfluid Fermi gases across the Bose-Einstein condensate to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BEC-BCS) crossover by performing numerical simulations of the time-dependent Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. This decay process occurs when the solitons are accelerated to the bulk pair-breaking speed by an external potential. A similar decay process may occur when solitons are accelerated by an inelastic collision with another soliton. We find that soliton collisions become increasingly inelastic as we move from the BEC to BCS regimes, and the excess energy is converted into sound. We interpret this effect as being due to evolution of Andreev bound states localized within the soliton.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Preview Tracking Control of Linear Periodic Switched Systems with Dwell Time

This paper studies the preview tracking control problem for linear discrete-time periodic switched systems. Firstly, an augmented error system is constructed for each subsystem by stabilizing the augmented error systems through the method of optimal preview control, and the tracking problem of the switched system is transformed into the switched stability problem of closed-loop augmented error systems. Secondly, a switched Lyapunov function method is applied to search the minimal dwell time satisfying the switched stability of the closed-loop augmented error systems. Thirdly, the switched preview control input is solved from the controller of the individual augmented error system, and then the sufficient conditions and the preview controller can be obtained to guarantee the solvability of the original periodic switched preview tracking problem. Finally, numerical simulations show the effectiveness of the stabilization design method

Community Built Environment and Multilevel Social Determinants of Obesity: Evidence from China Health and Nutrition Survey

The prevalence of overweight and obesity is highest in wealthy countries like the United States, but is rapidly increasing in less developed countries. From 1992 to 2002, China had an increase from 14.6% to 21.8% in overweight and obesity. Social determinants of obesity in developing countries remain poorly understood. Further, these associations may vary by community built environment (BE) of developing countries