<i>Salix myrtillacea</i> Female Cuttings Performed Better Than Males under Nitrogen Deposition on Leaves and Drought Conditions

Drought and nitrogen (N) deposition are major threats to global forests under climate change. However, investigation into how dioecious woody species acclimate to drought and N deposition and how this is influenced by gender has, so far, been unexplored. We examined the phenotypic and physiological changes in Salix myrtillacea females and males under 60 d drought, and wet N deposition on leaves’ treatments. Drought inhibited their growth by limiting water acquisition, photosynthesis, and increasing oxidative stress, especially in males. However, females exhibited greater drought resistance than males due to their better water acquisition ability and instantaneous water use efficiency (WUEleaf), higher foliar abscisic acid (ABA) and auxin (IAA) levels and greater antioxidase activities. N deposition increased foliar ABA, H2O2 accumulation, and reduced N distribution to the leaves, causing restricted photosynthesis and aerial growth in males. Interestingly, N deposition improved biomass accumulation in both the genders under drought, with greater positive effects on drought-stressed males by increasing their radial growth and causing greater N distribution to the leaves, increased foliar IAA and reduced oxidative stress. Regardless, S. myrtillacea females still showed better growth and drought resistance than males under both drought and N deposition. The females’ superior performance indicated that they are more appropriate for forestation, thus supporting the dominant gender’s selection in the afforestation of unisexual S. myrtillacea in drought and severe N deposition regions

Analysis of In Vivo Transcriptome of Intracellular Bacterial Pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhmurium Isolated from Mouse Spleen

Salmonella&nbsp;enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is an important intracellular pathogen that poses a health threat to humans. This study tries to clarify the mechanism of Salmonella survival and reproduction in the host. In this study, high-throughput sequencing analysis was performed on RNA extracted from the strains isolated from infected mouse spleens and an S. Typhimurium reference strain (ATCC 14028) based on the BGISEQ-500 platform. A total of 1340 significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened. Functional annotation revealed DEGs associated with regulation, metabolism, transport and binding, pathogenesis, and motility. Through data mining and literature retrieval, 26 of the 58 upregulated DEGs (FPKM &gt; 10) were not reported to be related to the adaptation to intracellular survival and were classified as candidate key genes (CKGs) for survival and proliferation in vivo. Our data contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms used by Salmonella to regulate virulence gene expression whilst replicating inside mammalian cells

Effects of ion irradiation on Cr, CrN, and TiAlCrN coated Zircaloy-4 for accident tolerant fuel claddings

Heavy ion (6 MeV Au+) irradiation studies were carried out on three candidate coatings (Cr, CrN, TiAlCrN) and Zircaloy-4 for accident tolerant fuel cladding to investigate the irradiation resistance and microstructure evolution at 400 degrees C. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) results showed that the irradiation defects were significantly restricted by grain boundaries in the columnar grains compared to equiaxed grains and the high-density boundaries could obviously reduce the formation of voids. Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) results of high-resolution TEM images showed that Cr and CrN coatings maintained better lattice integrity than those of TiAlCrN coating and Zircaloy-4. ATF coatings showed less irradiation defects than that of Zircaloy-4 substrate. Cr coating exhibited better irradiation resistance than that of TiAlCrN coating in terms of irradiation dislocation loops. CrN coating showed the best irradiation resistance among all samples, due to its compact crystal structure and higher density of grain boundary, which contributed to reduce dislocations and voids. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Effects of ion irradiation on Cr, CrN, and TiAlCrN coated Zircaloy-4 for accident tolerant fuel claddings

Heavy ion (6 MeV Au+) irradiation studies were carried out on three candidate coatings (Cr, CrN, TiAlCrN) and Zircaloy-4 for accident tolerant fuel cladding to investigate the irradiation resistance and microstructure evolution at 400 degrees C. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) results showed that the irradiation defects were significantly restricted by grain boundaries in the columnar grains compared to equiaxed grains and the high-density boundaries could obviously reduce the formation of voids. Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) results of high-resolution TEM images showed that Cr and CrN coatings maintained better lattice integrity than those of TiAlCrN coating and Zircaloy-4. ATF coatings showed less irradiation defects than that of Zircaloy-4 substrate. Cr coating exhibited better irradiation resistance than that of TiAlCrN coating in terms of irradiation dislocation loops. CrN coating showed the best irradiation resistance among all samples, due to its compact crystal structure and higher density of grain boundary, which contributed to reduce dislocations and voids. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Investigation of nonisothermal crystallization of hydroxyapatite/ethylene-vinyl acetate (HA/EVA) composite

Hydroxyapatite/ethylene-vinyl acetate (HA/EVA) composites were prepared by injection molding and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and attenuated total multiple reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy. The nonisothermal crystallization behavior of HA/EVA composites at different cooling rates and with different HA content were examined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results exhibit the occurrence of interaction between HA and EVA, and the HA particles in EVA matrix act as effective nucleation agent. The addition of HA influences the mechanism of nucleation and growth of EVA crystallites. HA particles, as nucleus, are efficient to promote EVA crystallization at early stage but prevent EVA crystal growth in the late stage. The EVA crystallization in the composite is mainly through heterogeneous nucleation

Microstructure evolution of T91 steel after heavy ion irradiation at 550 degrees C*

Fe-Cr ferritic/martensitic (F/M) steels have been proposed as one of the candidate materials for the Generation IV nuclear technologies. In this study, a widely-used ferritic/martensitic steel, T91 steel, was irradiated by 196-MeV Kr+ ions at 550 degrees C. To reveal the irradiation mechanism, the microstructure evolution of irradiated T91 steel was studied in details by transmission electron microscope (TEM). With increasing dose, the defects gradually changed from black dots to dislocation loops, and further to form dislocation walls near grain boundaries due to the production of a large number of dislocations. When many dislocation loops of primary a (0)/2 111 type with high migration interacted with other defects or carbon atoms, it led to the production of dislocation segments and other dislocation loops of a (0) 100 type. Lots of defects accumulated near grain boundaries in the irradiated area, especially in the high-dose area. The grain boundaries of martensite laths acted as important sinks of irradiation defects in T91. Elevated temperature facilitated the migration of defects, leading to the accumulation of defects near the grain boundaries of martensite laths

A modality-specific dysfunction of pain processing in schizophrenia

Clinical observations showed that schizophrenia (SCZ) patients reported little or no pain under various conditions that are commonly associated with intense painful sensations, leading to a higher risk of morbidity and mortality. However, this phenomenon has received little attention and its underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we conducted two experiments combining psychophysics, electroencephalography (EEG), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques to investigate neural mechanisms of pain insensitivity in SCZ patients. Specifically, we adopted a stimulus-response paradigm with brief stimuli of different sensory modalities (i.e., nociceptive, non-nociceptive somatosensory, and auditory) to test whether pain insensitivity in SCZ patients is supra-modal or modality-specific, and used EEG and fMRI techniques to clarify its neural mechanisms. We observed that perceived intensities to nociceptive stimuli were significantly smaller in SCZ patients than healthy controls, whereas perceived intensities to non-nociceptive somatosensory and auditory stimuli were not significantly different. The behavioral results were confirmed by stimulus-evoked brain responses sampled by EEG and fMRI techniques, thus verifying the modality-specific nature of the modulation of nociceptive information processing in SCZ patients. Additionally, significant group differences were observed in the spectral power of alpha oscillations in prestimulus EEG and the seed-based functional connectivity in resting-state fMRI (seeds: the thalamus and periaqueductal gray that are key nodes in ascending and descending pain pathways respectively), suggesting a possible contribution of cortical-subcortical dysfunction to the phenomenon. Overall, our study provides insight into the neural mechanisms of pain insensitivity in SCZ and highlights a need for systematic assessments of their pain-related diseases.</p