Species Recognition and Cryptic Species in the Tuber indicum Complex

Morphological delimitation of Asian black truffles, including Tuber himalayense, T. indicum, T. sinense, T. pseudohimalayense, T. formosanum and T. pseudoexcavatum, has remained problematic and even phylogenetic analyses have been controversial. In this study, we combined five years of field investigation in China with morphological study and DNA sequences analyses (ITS, LSU and β-tubulin) of 131 Tuber specimens to show that T. pseudohimalayense and T. pseudoexcavatum are the same species. T. formosanum is a separate species based on its host plants and geographic distribution, combined with minor morphological difference from T. indicum. T. sinense should be treated as a synonym of T. indicum. Our results demonstrate that the present T. indicum, a single described morphological species, should include at least two separate phylogenetic species. These findings are of high importance for truffle taxonomy and reveal and preserve the richness of truffle diversity

Diphenyl chloro­thio­phospho­nate

The complete mol­ecule of the title compound, C12H10ClO2PS, is generated by crystallographic mirror symmetry, with the P, S and Cl atoms lying on the mirror plane. The resulting PO2SCl tetra­hedron is significantly distorted [O—P—O = 96.79 (9)°]. The crystal packing exhibits no directional inter­actions

3-Nitro-2-phenyl­chroman

In the title compound, C15H13NO3, the dihedral angle between the two aromatic rings is 79.25 (16)°

Diphenyl­methyl isothio­cyanate

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C14H11NS, contains two mol­ecules in which the dihedral angles between the phenyl rings are 77.23 (7) and 86.30 (7)°. No aromatic π–π stacking inter­actions are observed

Determination of dissolved nitric oxide in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea off Qingdao

We developed a new method for the determination of dissolved nitric oxide (NO) in discrete seawater samples based on the combination of a purge-and-trap setup and a fluorometric detection of NO. 2,3-diaminonaphthalene (DAN) reacts with NO in seawater to form the highly fluorescent 2,3-naphthotriazole (NAT). The fluorescence intensity was linear for NO concentrations in the range from 0.14 to 19 nmol L−1. We determined a detection limit of 0.068 nmol L−1, an average recovery coefficient of 83.8 % (80.2–90.0 %), and a relative standard deviation of ±7.2 %. With our method we determined for the first time the temporal and spatial distributions of NO surface concentrations in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea off Qingdao and in Jiaozhou Bay during a cruise in November 2009. The concentrations of NO varied from below the detection limit to 0.50 nmol L−1 with an average of 0.26 ± 0.14 nmol L−1. NO surface concentrations were generally enhanced significantly during daytime, implying that NO formation processes such as NO2− photolysis are much higher during daytime than chemical NO consumption, which, in turn, lead to a significant decrease in NO concentrations during nighttime. In general, NO surface concentrations and measured NO production rates were higher compared to previously reported measurements. This might be caused by the high NO2− surface concentrations encountered during the cruise. Moreover, additional measurements of NO production rates implied that the occurrence of particles and a temperature increase can enhance NO production rates. With the method introduced here, we have a reliable and comparably easy to use method at hand to measure oceanic NO surface concentrations, which can be used to decipher both its temporal and spatial distributions as well as its biogeochemical pathways in the oceans

Photoproduction of nitric oxide in seawater

Nitric oxide (NO) is a short-lived intermediate of the oceanic nitrogen cycle. However, our knowledge about its production and consumption pathways in oceanic environments is rudimentary. In order to decipher the major factors affecting NO photochemical production, we irradiated several artificial seawater samples as well as 31 natural surface seawater samples in laboratory experiments. The seawater samples were collected during a cruise to the western tropical North Pacific Ocean (WTNP, a N-S section from 36 to 2 degrees N along 146 to 143 degrees E with 6 and 12 stations, respectively, and a W-E section from 137 to 161 degrees E along the Equator with 13 stations) from November 2015 to January 2016. NO photoproduction rates from dissolved nitrite in artificial seawater showed increasing trends with decreasing pH, increasing temperature, and increasing salinity. In contrast, NO photoproduction rates (average: 0.5 +/- 0.2 x 10(-12) mol L-1 s(-1)) in the natural seawater samples from the WTNP did not show any correlations with pH, water temperature, salinity, or dissolved inorganic nitrite concentrations. The flux induced by NO photoproduction in the WTNP (average: 13 x 10(-12) mol M-2 S-1) was significantly larger than the NO air-sea flux density (average: 1.8 x 10(-12) Mol M-2 S-1), indicating a further NO loss process in the surface layer

Expression of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Related Factors in the Retinas of Diabetic Rats

Recent reports show that ER stress plays an important role in diabetic retinopathy (DR), but ER stress is a complicated process involving a network of signaling pathways and hundreds of factors, What factors involved in DR are not yet understood. We selected 89 ER stress factors from more than 200, A rat diabetes model was established by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ). The expression of 89 ER stress-related factors was found in the retinas of diabetic rats, at both 1- and 3-months after development of diabetes, by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction arrays. There were significant changes in expression levels of 13 and 12 ER stress-related factors in the diabetic rat retinas in the first and third month after the development of diabetes, Based on the array results, homocysteine- inducible, endoplasmic reticulum stress-inducible, ubiquitin-like domain member 1(HERP), and synoviolin(HRD1) were studied further by immunofluorescence and Western blot. Immunofluorescence and Western blot analyses showed that the expression of HERP was reduced in the retinas of diabetic rats in first and third month. The expression of Hrd1 did not change significantly in the retinas of diabetic rats in the first month but was reduced in the third month

Design of Power-Imbalanced SCMA Codebook

Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a promising multiuser communication technique for the enabling of future massive machine-type networks. Unlike existing codebook design schemes assuming uniform power allocation, we present a novel class of SCMA codebooks which display power imbalance among different users for downlink transmission. Based on the Star-QAM mother constellation structure and with the aid of genetic algorithm, we optimize the minimum Euclidean distance (MED) and the minimum product distance (MPD) of the proposed codebooks. Numerical simulation results show that our proposed codebooks lead to significantly improved error rate performances over Gaussian channels and Rayleigh fading channels

Observation of Non-Hermitian Skin Effect in Thermal Diffusion

The paradigm shift of the Hermitian systems into the non-Hermitian regime profoundly modifies the inherent topological property, leading to various unprecedented effects such as the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE). In the past decade, the NHSE effect has been demonstrated in quantum, optical and acoustic systems. Besides in those non-Hermitian wave systems, the NHSE in diffusive systems has not yet been explicitly demonstrated, despite recent abundant advances in the study of topological thermal diffusion. Here we first design a thermal diffusion lattice based on a modified Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model which enables the observation of diffusive NHSE. In the proposed model, the periodic heat exchange rate among adjacent unit cells and the asymmetric temperature field coupling inside unit cells can be judiciously realized by appropriate configurations of structural parameters of unit cells. The transient concentration feature of temperature field on the boundary regardless of initial excitation conditions can be clearly observed, indicating the occurrence of transient thermal skin effect. Nonetheless, we experimentally demonstrated the NHSE and verified the remarkable robustness against various defects. Our work provides a platform for exploration of non-Hermitian physics in the diffusive systems, which has important applications in efficient heat collection, highly sensitive thermal sensing and others.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure