Interactions of social, natural, and technological subsystems and synergy between development and adaptation to floods around Poyang Lake

<p>Rural populations in the developing world face great challenges in climate adaptation and human development. Broader development and climate adaptation can potentially enhance each other, and their positive synergies are essential to improve human well-being in less developed rural areas. Such synergies are, however, commonly lacking across developing countries. This paper examines the relationship between climate adaptation and broader development and finds a positive synergy in the Poyang Lake Region (PLR) – an important rice producing area in China that is vulnerable to flood hazards. We further examine household decision-making and link household decisions to rice cropping patterns interpreted from satellite images to explain the micro- to macro- mechanisms that lead to this synergy. The analysis shows that both the broader development context (national economic development and agricultural policy) and specific risk management (levees) are important for creating the positive synergy. Moreover, it is the right interactions of the social, natural, and technological subsystems that enable rural households to make different land-use and livelihood choices in a way that improves rural livelihoods and reduces flood impacts on rural livelihoods. The diverse household choices then collectively lead to preservation of rice production, despite the negative influence from increasing nonfarm work, and decreased flood impacts on agriculture.</p

Self-Assembled Ni_0.85Se/NiSe@MoSe₂ Network with Tubular and Core–Sheath Structures toward Adjustable Electromagnetic Wave Absorption Properties

The combination of electric and magnetic components to fabricate electromagnetic wave absorption (EWA) materials, which can simultaneously optimize impedance matching and enhance attenuation ability, has been proven to be an effective way to achieve superior EWA properties. In this work, Ni nanowires with a large length-to-diameter ratio and a wrinkled surface are fabricated through an ordinary solvothermal reaction. Afterward, via a one-pot hydrothermal reaction, Ni reacts with Se and Mo sources and is transformed into Ni0.85Se/NiSe, and the sheath of MoSe2 nanosheets is depicted. Moreover, when the Ni cations migrate to the surface and react with Se, free space is formed inside the nanowires, which leads to hollow and core–sheath structures. Notably, because of the agglomeration of MoSe2, the synthesized Ni0.85Se/NiSe@MoSe2 tubular nanowires self-assembled into a three-dimensional network. The complex can cause dielectric and magnetic loss simultaneously, achieving effective EWA in the entire X-band at 3.1 mm and the full Ku-band at 2.3 mm, respectively. By alternating the thickness of samples, effective EWA can also be realized in most parts of the C- and S-bands. This work may give enlightenment for the facile synthesis and utility of Ni nanowires and excellent EWA materials with specific structures, diversified loss approaches, and adjustable EWA properties

Tracing sources of nitrate using water chemistry, land use and nitrogen isotopes in the Ganjiang River, China

<p>In this work, we traced sources of nitrate in the Ganjiang River, a major tributary of Yangtze River, China, by analysing the water chemistry, nitrogen isotopes and land use. Water samples from 20 sites in the main stream and tributaries were collected in the dry and wet seasons. The ranged from 0.97 to 8.60 ‰, and was significantly higher in the wet season than in the dry season, and significantly higher in tributaries than in the main stream. In the dry season, concentrations and were significantly negatively correlated with forest and grassland areas, and positively correlated with paddy field and residential area. However, most of the correlations were not significant in the wet season. The results showed that fertilizer was the main source of nitrate in the Ganjiang River, and domestic sewage was important in the dry season, but its contribution was lower than that in other rivers in the Yangtze Basin. In the wet season, the intensified nitrogen cycle caused by high temperature and the mixing effect caused by rainfall made it difficult to trace nitrate sources using and land use.</p

Supplementary Figures from Synergistic antibacterial activity between penicillenols and antibiotics against methicillin-resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>

Penicillenol A2 (isolated from deep-sea fungus <i>Penicillium biourgeianum</i> DFFSCS023) has good antibacterial activity against methicillin-sensitive <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> and in combination with <i>beta</i>-lactam antibiotics it could significantly decrease methicillin-resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> (MRSA) survival, which provided a novel treatment consideration for MRSA-caused infections

Healable Capacitive Touch Screen Sensors Based on Transparent Composite Electrodes Comprising Silver Nanowires and a Furan/Maleimide Diels–Alder Cycloaddition Polymer

A healable transparent capacitive touch screen sensor has been fabricated based on a healable silver nanowire–polymer composite electrode. The composite electrode features a layer of silver nanowire percolation network embedded into the surface layer of a polymer substrate comprising an ultrathin soldering polymer layer to confine the nanowires to the surface of a healable Diels–Alder cycloaddition copolymer and to attain low contact resistance between the nanowires. The composite electrode has a figure-of-merit sheet resistance of 18 Ω/sq with 80% transmittance at 550 nm. A surface crack cut on the conductive surface with 18 Ω is healed by heating at 100 °C, and the sheet resistance recovers to 21 Ω in 6 min. A healable touch screen sensor with an array of 8 × 8 capacitive sensing points is prepared by stacking two composite films patterned with 8 rows and 8 columns of coupling electrodes at 90° angle. After deliberate damage, the coupling electrodes recover touch sensing function upon heating at 80 °C for 30 s. A capacitive touch screen based on Arduino is demonstrated capable of performing quick recovery from malfunction caused by a razor blade cutting. After four cycles of cutting and healing, the sensor array remains functional

Additional file 1 of Metabolic mechanism of astaxanthin biosynthesis in Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous in response to sodium citrate treatment

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Effect of 2 g/L Na-citrate addition at different times on the growth and astaxanthin production of X. dendrorhouos. (A) Biomass (g/L); (B) Carotenoids titer (mg/L); (C) Astaxanthin titer (mg/L); (D) Astaxanthin content (mg/g). The cells were grown in a 250-mL Erlenmeyer flask containing 50 mL fermentation medium, with the temperature maintained at 22°C and the stirring speed at 200 rpm. Values are mean ± standard deviation of three independent experiments. Figure S2. Effect of different Na-citrate concentrations at 24 h on the growth and astaxanthin production of X. dendrorhouos. (A) Biomass (g/L); (B) Carotenoids titer (mg/L); (C) Astaxanthin titer (mg/L); (D) Astaxanthin content (mg/g). The cells were grown in a 250-mL Erlenmeyer flask containing 50 mL fermentation medium, with the temperature maintained at 22°C and the stirring speed at 200 rpm. Values are mean ± standard deviation of three independent experiments. Figure S3. Na-citrate regulates the protein content in X. dendrorhouos. fold change is the ratio of the protein content of the control group to the Na-citrate group. Table S1. Gene-specific primers used for RT-qPCR; F: Forward; R: Revers