Chapter Numerical Geodynamic Modeling of Continental Convergent Margins

Cardiovascular medicin

Transcriptome Analysis of Tryptophan-Induced Resistance against Potato Common Scab

Potato common scab (CS) is a worldwide soil-borne disease that severely reduces tuber quality and market value. We observed that foliar application of tryptophan (Trp) could induce resistance against CS. However, the mechanism of Trp as an inducer to trigger host immune responses is still unclear. To facilitate dissecting the molecular mechanisms, the transcriptome of foliar application of Trp and water (control, C) was compared under Streptomyces scabies (S) inoculation and uninoculation. Results showed that 4867 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified under S. scabies uninoculation (C-vs-Trp) and 2069 DEGs were identified under S. scabies inoculation (S-vs-S+Trp). Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses indicated that Trp induced resistance related to the metabolic process, response to stimulus, and biological regulation. As phytohormone metabolic pathways related to inducing resistance, the expression patterns of candidate genes involved in salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid/ethylene (JA/ET) pathways were analyzed using qRT-PCR. Their expression patterns showed that the systemic acquired resistance (SAR) and induced systemic resistance (ISR) pathways could be co-induced by Trp under S. scabies uninoculation. However, the SAR pathway was induced by Trp under S. scabies inoculation. This study will provide insights into Trp-induced resistance mechanisms of potato for controlling CS, and extend the application methods of Trp as a plant resistance inducer in a way that is cheap, safe, and environmentally friendly

Enhancing Sugarcane Growth and Improving Soil Quality by Using a Network-Structured Fertilizer Synergist

High usage and low efficiency of fertilizers not only restrict sugarcane production but also destroy the soil environment in China. To solve this problem, a network-structured nanocomposite as a fertilizer synergist (FS) was prepared based on attapulgite (ATP) and polyglutamic acid (PGA). Field demonstrations were conducted from 2020 to 2021. Leaching tests and characterization were used to evaluate the ability of the network structure to control nutrient loss. The effects of FS on sugarcane growth and field soil quality were also investigated. The results showed FS could effectively reduce nitrogen loss by 20.30% and decrease fertilizer usage by at least 20%. Compared to fertilizer with the same nutrition, fertilizer with FS could enhance sugarcane yield and brix by 20.79% and 0.58 percentage points, respectively. Additionally, FS improved the soil physicochemical properties, including reducing the soil bulk density and increasing the contents of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and organic matter. FS also altered the diversity of the bacteria and improved the bacterial richness. Our study shows this FS has a good ability to control nutrient loss, advance sugarcane agronomic traits, and improve soil quality. This work offers an option for the sustainable development of sugarcane through the novel FS

Giant optical pathlength enhancement in plasmonic thin film solar cells using core-shell nanoparticles

In this paper, a finite-difference time-domain method is adopted to investigate the light scattering properties of core (metal)-shell (dielectric) nanoparticles, with varying shell thickness and refractive index. Adding a shell coating can shift the resonance to above the solar material bandgap when compared with a bare nanoparticle that has resonance outside of the useful solar radiation. The front-located core–shell metal-dielectric nanoparticles on thin Si substrates demonstrate enhanced forward scatterings with suppressed backward scatterings. The fraction of light scattered into the substrate and the maximum optical path length enhancement can be as high as 0.999 and 3133, respectively, if properly engineered, while the maximum optical path length enhancements of an ideal Lambertian and dipole source are only ~100. This light scattering property can be ascribed to the constructive interference of the electric and magnetic dipoles. The giant fraction of light scattered into the substrate and the maximum optical path length enhancement in core–shell nanoparticle based plasmonic solar cells provides an insight into addressing the out-coupling and poor pathlength in thin film photovoltaic technology.Authors appreciate financial support by the National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973 Program) No. 2013CB933301, National Natural Science Foundation of China No. 11305029. Australian Research Council is acknowledged for financial support

InP single nanowire solar cells

We demonstrated single axial p-i-n junction InP nanowire (NW) solar cells. The photovoltaic behavior of the devices has been investigated by optical and electrical characterization and simulation techniques.We acknowledge the Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (611760698) for financial support, and the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) ACT node for facility support

Wavelength-tunable InAsP quantum dots in InP nanowires

There is considerable interest in quantum dots incorporated in nanowires for nanolasers and quantum emitters. In this letter, we demonstrate single InAsP quantum dots embedded in InP nanowires grown by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy. Despite the abrupt change of growth conditions at the interface, InAsP quantum dots can be grown in pure wurtzite InP nanowires. We develop a model and analyze the effects of the thickness of InAsP quantum dots and the composition of As on the formation of dislocations. Furthermore, the InAsP/InP quantum dot nanowires show bright photoluminescence up to room temperature without any surface passivation. The emission from the quantum dots could be well tuned by adjusting the dot size either vertically or laterally. The study demonstrates the potential of this material system for optoelectronic applications.The authors are grateful to P. Caroff-Gaonac’h for technical growth of InAsP/InP NWQDs. The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Australian Research Council (ARC), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11305029), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grants Nos. 2017A030313389 and 2018A030313125), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. ZYGX2016J054), National Basic Research Program (973) of China through Grant No. 2015CB358600, and Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) ACT node for facility support

Efficiency enhancement of axial junction InP single nanowire solar cells by dielectric coating

In this work we demonstrate single axial p-i-n junction InP nanowire (NW) solar cells grown by selective-area metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (SA-MOVPE) technique. A power conversion efficiency of up to 6.5% was realized in the single NW solar cell (horizontally lying on substrate) without any surface passivation. Electron beam induced current (EBIC) and photocurrent mapping were performed to investigate the electrical properties of the NW solar cells and their influence on device performance, which are essential for an in-depth understanding of the design requirements for NW solar cells. A further conformal SiNx layer was deposited on the single NW solar cell devices by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Overall efficiency improvement has been obtained in the SiNx-coated devices with a remarkable up to 62% increase to a peak efficiency of 10.5%, which to our knowledge is the highest efficiency reported for horizontal single NW solar cells. This has been attributed to an enhanced optical antenna effect and effective surface passivation due to SiNx coating, as respectively confirmed by numerical simulation and time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) measurements. Our work demonstrates that dielectric coating is a promising simple approach to achieve high performance III–V NW solar cells