The brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens (Stl), is a serious insect pest of rice plants causing sucking damage and transmitting rice viruses, such as rice ragged stunt virus and rice grassy stunt virus. BPH has caused serious yield losses in Asia in recent decades. Himetobi P virus (HiPV) is a single-stranded RNA virus infecting rice planthoppers. Previous studies showed that the genome of this virus in Laodelphax striatellus is consisted of 9275 nucleotides encoding two large open reading frames (ORFs). It is not clear so far the diversity of HiPV regarding strain from various geographic host populations, and its infection status in different developmental stages and tissues of N. lugens. HiPVs in 10 BPH populations collected from different areas in Asia, including five populations from China, three populations from Philippine, one population from Malaysia and one population from Laos, were detected by real-time fluorescent quantitation-polymerase chain reaction （FQ-PCR）. All populations were found to be infected by HiPV, suggesting that BPH populations were extensively infected by HiPV. In phylogenetic analysis based on the viral capsid protein sequences, the 10 virus strains were clustered into four groups with less relevance to the host geographic locations.
The virus was not evidently pathogenic to BPH, suggesting that it may be a symbiont of the insect. Real-time PCR detections showed that the relative amount of HiPV in BPH increased gradually along with nymph growth and increased sharply after adult emergence. More male adults were infected with HiPV than female adults.
Real-time PCR and immunohistochemical staining results demonstrated that the post part of the BPH midgut had the highest HiPV concentration, followed by Malpighian tubules. Ovaries, spermaries, salivary glands and fat bodies were also infected with HiPV, but at a relatively lower level. This suggested that the circumstance of digestive tract might be more appropriate for virus multiplication, which was accordant with the fact that HiPV might be also related with its oral transmission. In conclusion, our results showed that BPH populations were extensively infected by HiPV and the post part of the midgut in the adult stage was the mainly infected tissues. The virus seems not evidently pathogenic to BPH, however, its biological functions in the symbiosis, i.e., its effects on host development and reproduction and on the transmission of the rice viruses, are not clear yet. Our results are expected to serve as a base for further researches on the relationship between Himetobi P virus and BPH host and developing of HiPV-based novel methods for the control of BPH.

Lycoperdon pyriforme Schaeff.: Pers. is one of medicinal macro-fungi, which has become an attractive topic as a functional food and as a source for the development of drugs and nutraceuticals. Pharmaceutically active compounds including polysaccharide, steroids, polysaccharides-peptides, nucleosides and triterpenoids were reported to be found in its fruiting body, in which polysaccharides isolated from its fruiting body were reported to possess various important biological functions such as antitumor activity, immunomodulation and antioxidant activity with low toxicity and good safety profile. However, it is known that the time required for obtaining either naturally harvested or farmed fruiting bodies of most medicinal fungal species is relatively long, while its product quality is also difficult to control in mushroom farming. In addition, even mushroom farming techniques for L. pyriforme. have not been developed adequately to meet the current and promising market for bio-based antioxidants. The submerged culture is thought as an alternative approach to produce a large amount of mycelia biomass and polysaccharides by medicinal fungi. Currently, although many studies about exopolysaccharides (EPS) bioproduction by macro-fungi have been reported, there is a little information available in literature about the optimization of medium components for enhanced EPS production by L. pyriforme. in submerged culture to date.
The objectives of this study were to screen the factors significantly affecting EPS production by L.pyriforme. and subsequently to determine the optimal medium components for enhanced EPS yield through response surface methodology (RSM), which is a collection of statistical techniques for experimental design, model developing, evaluation factors and searching for optimum conditions, and which consists of a group of mathematical and statistical procedures. The concentration of EPS was measured by phenol-sulfuric acid method. For the optimization of medium components for enhanced EPS production, RSM was subsequently applied in this study. At last, the validation tests were performed under the optimal conditions at shake flask scale.
Firstly, Plackett-Burman experimental design (PB) was applied to implore the relative effect of several medium components on EPS yield and vitamin B1 (VB1) was determined to affect EPS yield significantly. And combining the results of one-factor-one-time method (data not shown), three factors, namely, maltose, glutamic acid and VB1 were further optimized for enhanced EPS yield using Box-Behnken design (BBD). A total of 15 experimental runs (with three factors at three levels) were conducted to determine the optimum combination of these medium components by ANOVA analysis of experimental data. A second-order polynomial models with EPS yield as response variable was then obtained and confirmed to adequately represent the actual relationship between the independent variables and responses through validation tests. The optimal medium compositions were acquired as follows: maltose 6.11%, glutamic acid 0.70%, VB1 2.8×10-4%, yeast extract 0.50%, KH2PO4 0.15%, MgSO4·7H2O 0.10%, initial pH 5.5. The result of validation tests in triplicate was
(3.71±0.16) g/L under the above optimum culture conditions, and in which EPS yield was enhanced by 4.6 times compared with that produced in the basal medium in which (0.82±0.09) g/L was just obtained. In conclusion, RSM procedure is convenient, feasible and highly efficient for the optimization of culture conditions for enhanced EPS production by fungi.

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) fruit is one of the most consumed vegetables in the world. This vegetable is rich in minerals and human health-
benefiting compounds, and thus long-term consumption of tomato fruits facilitates to reduce the incidences of cardiovascular disease and prostate cancer. Therefore, developing strategies to improve the tomato production should have great potential applications and significance in human health. Numerous studies have provided evidences that nutrition management is a key agronomic strategy to improve the yield and nutritional quality of vegetables. Accordingly, previous studies have investigated the effects of application of nitrogen (N) or potassium (K) alone on the yield and the quality of tomato fruits in hydroponics systems. However, the effects of combined application of the above two nutrients still remain largely unknown up to now. Furthermore, conventional hydroponic cultivation often results in oxygen deficiency of roots which would cause anoxia of the roots. Aeroponics is a system of advanced soilless culture technologies. It not only avoids the oxygen deficiency of roots, but also can efficiently meet the nutrient requirement of crops.
The objective of this study was to investigate the combined effects of N and K on the yield and nutritional quality of tomato fruits in aeroponic cultivation.
Two tomato cultivars, dwarf-red (D-red) and dwarf-yellow (D-yellow), were used three levels of N (2, 12, 22 mmol/L) and two levels of K (4, 8 mmol/L) were applied to the plants. After about 5-month growth, the tomato fruits were harvested, and the yield and several nutritional quality indexes including nitrate content, sugar acid content, antioxidant contents and antioxidant activity were analyzed. The fruiting rate, the size of fruit, the fruit yield, the contents of soluble sugar, soluble solids, carotenoids, β-carotene and lycopene, the DPPH radical scavenging rates and the ABTS value (both hydro- and lipo-antioxidant activity) of fruits were all increased when the N level was increased from 2 mmol/L to 12 mmol/L, but all of these were tended to decrease when the N level were further increased to 22 mmol/L. The titratable acidity and the nitrate content were both increased along with the increase of N level. In contrast, the contents of ascorbic acid, flavonoids and total phenolic were declined along with the increase of N level. In addition, increasing the K level from 4 mmol/L to 8 mmol/L could also increase the fruit yield, the contents of soluble sugar, soluble solids, ascorbic acid, flavonoids, total phenolic, carotenoids, β-carotene and lycopene of fruit, but decrease the nitrate content. In all N and K combination treatments, the D-red cultivar showed greater fruit yield, higher contents of antioxidant compounds, and stronger antioxidant activity than the D-yellow cultivar. In conclusion, 12 mmol/L N and 8 mmol/L K might be suitable for tomato cultivation in aeroponic system, which not only increased the fruit yield, but also improved the nutrition quality. The D-red should be a better cultivar for aeroponic cultivation compared with the D-yellow.

Chitosan can be used as the growth regulator to promote the germination, adjust crop growth, increase crop antioxidant enzyme activity and finally increase the crop yield and quality. However, due to the large molecular mass, chitosan would not be directly soluble in water and not easily absorbed by the plants, which restricts its application in agriculture. In all sorts of degradation methods, gamma ray irradiation is considered as an ideal polymer degradation method, because it has the characteristic of fast degradation speed, energy efficiency and almost no by-products. Capsicum annuum L. is a kind of favorite vegetables for people, but it cannot be stored for long time and difficult to transport. In order to improve the above mentioned properties of pepper, one method is to adjust the activity of antioxidant enzymes. It is reported in literature that chitosan has effects on the plant enzymes. However, whether the chitosan irradiated by 60Co γ rays also has effects on antioxidant enzymes was little known until now.
The objective of the present study was to investigate the physiological responses of pepper to
the irradiated chitosan, and to find the relationship between gamma ray dose and antioxidant enzyme activity. The obtained results would provide the scientific evidence for the application of irradiated chitosan in agriculture. The molecular mass of irradiated chitosan which was irradiated by different dose (0, 33, 66, 100 kGy) of 60Co γ rays was measured by the means
of high performance gel permeation chromatography (HPGPC). Irradiated chitosan was dissolved to the concentration of 0, 50, 100, 200, 500 mg/L. The pepper seeds were soaked in the chitosan solution to investigate the germination rate. The pepper seedlings were transplanted to soil and planted. Chitosan solution was sprayed evenly on time. The activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and phenylalanine ammonialyase (PAL) in pepper leaves and fruits was measured and analyzed by SAS 9.1. The mass of pepper fruits was also recorded. The results indicated that molecular mass of chitosan decreased with the increasing of ray dosage. The polydispersity index of all irradiated chitosan was nearly at 2.21, which was smaller than the value of unirradiated chitosan (2.63). The germination rate of pepper was restrained when the concentration of irradiated chitosan was less than 100 mg/L. At the condition of 66 kGy irradiation dose and the chitosan concentration of 200 mg/L, the germination rate was increased to 14.29% as compared to the control group.
Both the irradiation dose and concentration of chitosan solution had significant effects on the activity of antioxidant enzymes in pepper. Enzyme activity gradually increased with the rise of irradiation doses, while the enzyme activity increased firstly and then decreased with the rise of the chitosan concentrations. The activities of SOD, POD and PAL increased by 43.17%, 55.56% and 60.00% than the control group, respectively, under the suitable condition. The mass of pepper fruits had the same tendency as the enzyme activity. The enzyme activity and fruit mass increased with the irradiation dose when the concentration of chitosan was less than 100 mg/L. While at the chitosan concentration of 100 mg/L, no matter what irradiation dose was, the enzyme activity and average mass of pepper fruit had the maximum values. In conclusion, the results suggest that: 1) The variation in pepper fruits mass results from the variation of enzyme activity in pepper plants caused by irradiated chitosan; 2) Irradiated chitosan can be applied as one of the motivating factor to changing the antioxidant enzymes activity, regulating the defense ability and finally adjusting the pepper growth; 3) High concentration of irradiated chitosan can inhibit the gr

Oil content in rapeseed is a complex quantitative trait, which is controlled by multiple genes and influenced by environments. Extensive efforts have been made in mapping of the QTL for this trait since 1995, which indicate that almost all the 19 linkage groups have found the presence of oil QTL in Brassica napus. On the other hand, a large body of QTL information for fatty acid compositions is also available because they play an important role in the accumulation of oil content. However, the genetic relationships between oil content and individual fatty acid content on QTL level still remains poorly understood. Our main objective was to evaluate the genetic influence of four major fatty acid components on oil content in a population with no allelic segregation on two major erucic acid gene loci in oilseed rape. In present study, the previously developed doubled haploid (DH) population with Sollux / Gaoyou background (SG-population) was used for QTL identification. Both parents have high seed oil content but also high in erucic acid content. Taking the phenotypic data of oil and the four main fatty acids content from four environments, the new published SG-map was combined to perform the QTL analysis by QTLNetwork 2.0. Results indicated that the additive effects of all mapped QTL showed small but quite significant (P<0.01). The epistatic effects and genotype by environments interaction effects were also small. By unconditional mapping analysis, 7, 10, 10 and 5 QTL were identified for erucic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid, respectively. Among them, erucic acid QTL on A2, A7, A9 and C1, and QTL for oleic acid and linolenic acid in C7 and A9 were new identified loci, while five new detected QTL for linoleic acid content were located on A4, A10, C6, C7 and C9 linkage groups. The numbers of QTL identified in present study for four fatty acid compositions are clearly more than that detected in populations with segregation for erucic acid content, indicating that the existence of allelic differentia in two major erucic acid gene loci might restrain or hide the expression of QTL with minor genetic effects.
Conditional QTL mapping indicated that OilA9, OilC2 and OilC8-1 were significantly influenced by linoleic acid, since when oil content was conditioned on linoleic acid, they showed no significant or deeply reduced effects; OilA4 might be influenced by oleic acid, linolenic acid and erucic acid simultaneously, while oleic acid QTL or underling candidate genes may directly contribute to oil content in the loci OilA1, OilA7 and OilC8-2 because QTL for both traits were co-localized and significantly shifted the genetic effects for oil QTL after conditional mapping. In addition, four additional QTL with small effects were only identified in the conditional mapping, further demonstrating the complex genetic inheritance of oil content in B. napus. In conclusion, by comparing unconditional and conditional QTL for oil content, the genetic relationships between oil content and fatty acid compositions on individual QTL were analyzed, which may provide valuable information for breeding varieties with high oil combining high oleic acid content. In the case of no allelic segregation on two major erucic acid gene loci, larger numbers of QTL with significant but small genetic effects were observed for all four major fatty acid compositions. Selection for high erucic acid content based on those flanking markers linked to erucic acid QTL might be special interesting for breeding high erucic acid materials for industry purpose.

Triazophos is now widely used in agriculture. Its residues may cause health implications for living organisms including humans. There has been a greater demand for developing analytical methods with very high sensitivity. Immunochemical techniques provide a simple and economical alternative to traditional methods in order to meet such demands for determination of triazophos residues. The aim of this work was to develop an indirect competitive chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay (icCLEIA) with an anti-mouse secondary antibody conjugated to peroxidase for the residual determination of triazophos. Luminol solution was used as the substrate of horseradish peroxidase. First, the optimal coating conjugate concentration and anti-triazophos monoclonal antibodies dilution were studied. Then the chemiluminescence substrate solution was obtained after a variety of conditions were optimized, including the selection of buffer and enhancer, concentrations of luminol, p-iodophenol and H2O2. On the basis of it, the effects of several physicochemical parameters on icCLEIA performance were studied and optimized, such as the effects of ionic strength and pH, and the tolerance to organic solvents (methanol, acetonitrile, acetone). After the condition optimization, the standard curve of CLEIA competitive reaction for triazophos was established. Afterwards, the optimized method was applied to the detection of triazophos residues in paddy water, soil, and rice grain samples, and the precision and accuracy were analyzed as well. As a result, the optimal concentration of conjugate concentration and monoclonal antibodies were 0.125 and 2 mg/L respectively. The optimum conditions were given as followed: 0.1 mol/L, pH 8.5 Tris-HCl buffer was chosen as the chemiluminescence substrate solution buffer, containing 1 mmol/L p-iodophenol, 0.5 mmol/L luminol and 1 mmol/L H2O2. Then we chose the 0.05 mol/L, pH 7.4 PBS buffer as the reaction buffer, which could improve the method’s sensitivity and get the largest light-emitting count. Meanwhile, 5% methanol was proved to be suitable for the competitive reaction. Under the optimum conditions，the linear range of the icCLEIA was from 0.097 to 12.5 ng/mL. The limit of detection values (IC10) was 0.14 ng/mL, and the standard curve midpoint (IC50) was 1.23 ng/mL. The assay performance indicated that the CLEIA could offer the possibility of improving the sensitivity of immunoassays by 12 orders of magnitude compared with conventional ELISA which is widely used to detect triazophos. The matrix effects of the paddy water, soil, and rice grain samples were studied. According to the results, different dilution ratios were determined: the paddy water, soil, and rice grain samples were diluted with reaction buffer by 10, 100, 50-fold respectively. The assay was then used to detect triazophos in the three samples at above-mentioned dilution ratios. The results showed that when the spiked level was from 5800 ng/g, the recoveries of triazophos from spiked samples ranged from 67% to 113% with coefficients of variation of 0.08%24.53%. In summary, the established icCLEIA is a simple, rapid and economical tool which is suitable for the rapid screening of triazophos residues in environmental samples such as paddy water, soil and rice grain samples with a high sensitivity. It can be used as the developing foundation of CLEIA test kits in the future.

Mustard (Brassica juncea Coss.) is an original Chinese vegetable with agricultural importance in brassica family of Cruciferae. There are about 16 varieties, including B. juncea var. rugosa, B. juncea var. latipa and B. juncea var. tumida, and so on. They distribute widely in Sichuan and Zhejiang in China. Mustard is often attacked by herbivorous insects (e.g. diamondback month, Plutella xylostella) during different development stages. Glucosinolates (GSs) are believed to have multiple functions in plant-pest interactions, providing not only feeding and ovipositioning stimulants but also compounds acting as toxins and feeding deterrents to generalist insect herbivores. However, little was known about the effect of diamondback month feeding on glucosinolate profile and content in mustard. In the present study, in order to investigate the effect of GSs on plant resistance to herbivores, the larval preference of diamondback moth was studied in two mustard varieties, B. juncea var. rugosa and B. juncea var. latipa, and the changes in glucosinolate profile and content were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in diamondback moth fed leaves and mechanical wounded leaves. The uniform and healthy seedlings with 45 true leaves from the two varieties were selected and
divided into two groups. One group, including the seedlings from each of the different varieties were placed in a randomly assigned position in the same diagonal grid within the cage. Six fourth instar larvae which were newly emerged and had been starved for four hours were placed in the centre of cage. The area of the damaged leaves and the number of larvae on each plant were recorded 24 hours after treatments. The seedlings of other group were cut by 1/3 of the whole leaf with scissors as mechanical wounding, and the samples were harvested 24 hours after treatment. Prior to the larvae feeding and mechanical wounding, 1520 g of the untreated samples were taken from the seedlings of each variety as control, and all of the samples were harvested, freeze-dried and analyzed for GSs. The results showed that there was significantly heavier injury in B. juncea var. rugosa than in B. juncea var. latipa. Six and eight GSs were detected in healthy leaves of B. juncea var. latipa and B. juncea var. rugosa, respectively, and 2-propenyl GS was the major profile in two varieties, accounting for more than 92% of the total GSs content. Significantly lower total GS content was observed in healthy leaves of B. juncea var. latipa (7.21 μmol/g) than that in B. juncea var. rugosa (13.31 μmol/g). The content of total GSs in two varieties increased significantly after attracted by diamondback moth for 24 h, and the increasing extent was significantly higher in B. juncea var. latipa than in B. juncea var. rugosa, reaching 20.49 μmol/g and 21.35 μmol/g, respectively. Furthermore, the highest increase was observed in the content of 2-propenyl GS in both two varieties, and the increasing extent was also significantly higher in B. juncea var. latipa than in B. juncea var. rugosa. In addition, several glucosinolate profiles were induced after larvae feeding, an indole GS (4-hydroxyindol-3-ylmethyl GS) was induced in B. juncea var. rugosa at low level, while an aliphatic GS (10-methylsulfinyldecyl GS) and an indole GS (1-methoxy-3-indolymethyl GS) with low level were newly detected in B. juncea var. latipa. Likewise, the content of total GSs, as well as 2-propenyl GS increased significantly at similar rate between two varieties tested after mechanical wounding treatment. Furthermore, 10-methylsulfinyldecyl GS was also detected in B. juncea var. latipa at low level after mechanical wounding treatment, but 1-methoxy-3-indolymethyl GS was not detected. 4-hydroxyindol-3-ylmethyl GS was not identified in B. juncea var. rugosa. In conclusion, our results indicate that the mustard variety wit

“Wenling Gaocheng” orange is a main cultivar in Zhejiang Province with a cultivated area of 350 hm2. In particular, this cultivar accounts for over 90% of total productivity of citrus fruits in Wenling City. However, “Wenling Gaocheng” orange didn’t attract the favor of consumers because of its low total soluble solid and seediness, thus it is urgent to improve the traits of this cultivar. We created triploid hybrids between the diploid “Wenling Gaocheng” and allotetraploid orange of ZJ (sweet orange + lemon) and SR (sour orange + rough lemon). A total of 1200 hybrid lines were created by interspecific crosses and embryo rescue, resulting in 70 triploid plants which were confirmed by flow cytometry analysis. Among the 70 triploid plants, 41 were from the interspecific cross between “Wenling Gaocheng” orange and ZJ, and 29 were from “Wenling Gaocheng” orange and SR. Microscope observation showed that the thickness of leaf and palisade tissue had no difference between the diploid parents and the triploid hybrids. However, the palisade cell layers in triploid were significantly more than those in the diploid parents. In 2005, thirty healthy triploid plants from ZJ and “Wenling Gaocheng” orange were transplanted in field, and they showed significant heterosis as compared with parent plants. Since 2009, the triploid plants begun to bear fruit, and fruit yields and quality increased year by year. In 2012, the average of single fruit mass was 372 g, peel thickness 4.8 mm, total soluble solids 11.3%, total acids 1.48%, solid-acid ratio 7.63, and edible ratios 75.86%. Most of all, there was no seed in the fruits of triploid hybrid. In conclusion, the produced triploid plants by interspecific crosses with diploid “Wenling Gaocheng” orange and allotetraploid orange species of ZJ and SR show obvious improved traits as compared with their parent plants, though the fruit mass is slightly lower than the female parent. The results suggest that this new triploid plants may have potential to be a commercial cultivar.

Within a relatively short period of time after the first antimicrobial drugs were introduced, bacteria began exhibiting varying degrees of resistance. The excessive use (and abuse) of antibiotics in agriculture, and in both human and veterinary medicine, has played a critical causative role in the development of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is an increasing challenge for health care services worldwide. If antibiotics become ineffective, infectious diseases will lead to an increase in morbidity and eventually premature mortality. Moreover, antibiotic resistance imposes enormous health expenditure from higher treatment costs and lower clinical treatment effect. Antibiotics of both human and veterinary origins have been widely detected in various environmental matrices including surface water, groundwater, soils, and sediments. Oxytetracycline, sulfadimidine, and their epimers/isomers were most frequently detected. Antibiotics enter soils by the use of animal excrements as fertilizers. Here, antibiotics can have effects on the functional and structure composition of the soil microbial community and its activity, and it may increase the abundance and transfer ability of antibiotic resistance genes. The influence of plant roots on the soil environment and its microflora by exudation of growth substrates might considerably increase this effect. Recently the effect of animal manure spiked with antibiotics on the absolute and relative abundance of antibiotic resistance genes and transfer frequencies of plasmids conferring antibiotic resistance in exogenous plasmid isolations were investigated in a microcosm experiment. However, it is scarcely known how the human-induced antibiotics affect the bacteria antibiotic resistance in the real soils. One hundred and forty-six soil samples varying in soil types and land uses were collected from different areas of Zhejiang Province for studying their bacteria resistance to the antibiotics oxytetracycline and sulfadimidine, and analyzing ecological distribution of antibiotic resistance of soil bacteria in the province, and its relation to soil types, land uses, and landscape. Percentage of soil bacteria antibiotic resistance was evaluated by comparing cultivable bacteria number in culture medium spiked with or without 1 mg/kg of antibiotics oxytetracycline and sulfadimidine. The results showed that percentages of bacteria antibiotic resistance in the soils varied from 5.75% to 48.23% and 4.52% to 36.71%, respectively, for oxytetracycline and sulfadimidine. There was a well liner relationship between percentages of soil bacteria resistance to oxytetracycline and those to sulfadimidine, with a coefficient of 0.816 (n = 136). Mean percentages of soil bacteria resistance to the two antibiotics varied with landscape and soil type. They decreased in the sequence of plain with water network, showing valley plain > coastal plain > hilly and mountain areas for landscapes, and changed in the order of fluvio-aquic soil > paddy soil > red soil, purple soil > coastal saline soil > limestone soil > skeletal soil > yellow soil for soil types. Land use also had great effect on the percentages of soil bacteria resistance to the two antibiotics, and the mean percentages of soil bacteria resistance decreased in the sequence of vegetable land > orchard > upland and paddy field > wasteland > forest land, and the percentages of livestock and poultry farm were higher than those of residential area and agricultural area. The percentages of soil bacteria resistance to the two antibiotics decreased with increasing elevation and soil profile depth. It is concluded that the ecological distribution of antibiotic resistance of soil bacteria is closely related to human activity, and long-term application of antibiotics-containing animal manure may be one of main courses of increasing the development of soil bacteria antibiotic resistance for agricultural lan

Oxytetracycline (OTC), a broad-spectrum antibiotic, has been widely used in defense against infectious gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria that are pathogenic to livestock. As a result, OTC can be detected in various effluents, such as livestock wastewater, municipal sewage, and hospital wastewater, as well as their receiving environments. Activated sludge has played an important role in wastewater treatment for nearly one hundred years. However, the pervasiveness of OTC in modern waste streams reduces the viability of microorganisms in activated sludge which are inhibited by OTC. This study was carried out to investigate the interaction between wastewater treatment efficiency and the activity of microbial communities in activated sludge under long-term exposure to OTC. Sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) treating wastewater containing concentrations of 0, 0.1, 5, 20, 60 mg/L OTC were established and studied for 88 days, respectively. All reactors were discharged of effluent every two days and then supplied with a new batch of artificial wastewater. The performance of each reactor was determined by measuring pH, total nitrogen (TN) removal rate and concentration of chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the effluent. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), targeting the V6V7 region of 16S rRNA gene, was applied to analyze the variation in bacterial community structure in the activated sludge as influenced by different concentrations of OTC. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed to observe the morphology of activated sludge. Results showed that the wastewater treatment efficiency of activated sludge was inhibited by OTC, especially when OTC concentration was above 20 mg/L. However, treatment efficiency of activated sludge containing OTC would tend to recover in the course of extended operation time. According to SEM results, richer morphological diversity was observed in R1 (control group without OTC) than in treatment groups (with varying concentrations of OTC) during the course of operation. Filamentous bacteria was only found in R1, and the amount of rod-shaped bacteria decreased while coccus bacteria became more dominant in treatment groups, indicating that rod-shaped bacteria was more sensitive to OTC than coccus bacteria. After operation of SBRs for 88 days, larger round-shaped microorganisms appeared both in R1 and in treatment groups with OTC lower than 60 mg/L. We confer that the microorganisms may be Saccharomycetes, which increased as the concentrations of OTC in the treatment groups increased, except for the group with 20 mg/L OTC. DGGE results indicated that the diversity of microbial community structure was dynamically changed during the procedure and was influenced by the different concentrations of OTC. Compared with R1, the diversity of treatment groups had declined after 88 days, especially for the reactor with 60 mg/L OTC. Sequencing analysis showed that Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the most abundant phyla in all treatment groups and in R1. Different genera belonging to these phyla displayed different resistances to OTC, however, so that the extent to which wastewater treatment efficiency recovered during the course of reactor operation was distinguished by the predominance of unique microbial populations in the treatment groups. It can be concluded that the microbial community structure and wastewater treatment efficiency of activated sludge are influenced by different concentrations of OTC. The higher the concentration of OTC that is added to treatment groups, the lower the treatment efficiency is. Accumulation of untreated OTC in the low concentration OTC treatment groups may have resulted in an effect of increasing inhibition; however, the microbial community structure varies dynamically and thus the more adaptive species emerges. The emergence of such species may lead to the recovery of wastewater treatment efficiency.

Conventional fertilization causes soil nitrogen loss and low fertilizer use efficiency in vegetable growing system, and the nitrogen loss also increases the risk on environment. Many researchers have reported a significant decrease of leaching NO3--N losses when the amount of nitrogen applied decreases. However, little efforts have been made on the study of nitrogen loss by surface runoff or by leaching in vegetable field. Therefore, in order to evaluate the effects of different fertilization on the yield of cabbages, the nitrogen use efficiency, the dynamics of nitrogen loss and simultaneously the amount of nitrogen loss by runoff or by leaching and their relative ratios, a series of field experiments in the cabbage fields in Taihu watershed and also the laboratory studies were carried out respectively during September to November, 2010. Six modes of fertilization, i.e., none fertilization (CK), chemical fertilizers (CF), organic manure (OF), special fertilizers (SF) (combined chemical fertilizer and organic manure), reduced amount of special fertilizers by 20% (SF1), reduced amount of special fertilizers by 40% (SF2), were conducted in cabbage growing system in Taihu watershed. Accordingly, the amounts of nitrogen applied were 0, 256, 256, 256, 205 and 154 kg/hm2, respectively. The experimental design was the randomized complete block with triplications, each plot of which was 17.5 m2 (5 m×3.5 m). The results showed that the yield of cabbages was SF> SF1>CF>SF2>OF>CK. While compared with the chemical fertilizer and organic manure, the special fertilizers significantly increased the yields by 31.84% and 50.31% (P<0.05), respectively. The agronomic efficiency of nitrogen (NAE) was SF1>SF2>OF>CF>SF>CK. The physiological efficiency of nitrogen (NPE) was OF>SF1>CF>SF2>SF>CK. The nitrogen uptake was SF>SF1>SF2>CF>OF>CK. There was no significant difference in nitrogen uptake among different fertilization modes. The nitrogen use efficiency was 10.55%24.17%. Significant differences （P<0.05） were found in nitrogen use efficiency, which increased significantly from 16.72% to 24.17% with the amount of nitrogen applied decreased, among different special fertilizers (SF, SF1 and SF2). The total nitrogen loss was 13.1140.66 kg/hm2, the descending order of which for all the treatments was: CF>SF>OF>SF1>SF2>CK. The main way of N loss in the cabbage field was by surface runoff, which accounted for 90.92%94.42% of total nitrogen loss. The nitrogen loss by leaching surface runoff was significantly correlated with fertilization and leaching amounts, while the surface runoff was slightly impacted by fertilization and rainfall, and the ratio of leached N/fertilizer N was only 0.21%0.56%. Nitrate was the main form of N loss in surface runoff while the ammonium was the main one in leachate. Compared with the chemical fertilizers, the special fertilizers decreased the total nitrogen loss by 7.43 kg/hm2. Among the special fertilizers, SF2 decreased the total nitrogen loss by 12.02 kg/hm2 compared with SF treatment. It is concluded that the special fertilizers and the reduced amount of nitrogen applied are beneficial to the increase of nitrogen use efficiency by cabbage and the decrease of nitrogen loss from the vegetable field, hence being helpful to protect the water environment in Taihu watershed. Based on the above research results, we can conclude that the reduced amount of special fertilizers by 20% is the environment-friendly way of fertilization for sustainable cabbage growing systems.

The rainfall data were collected and the rainfall pattern was characterized in the arid and semi-arid region of Ningxia. We found that less rainfall events (<5 mm) occurred higher frequently. Our objective was to investigate whether the plant leaf can uptake the rainfall that can not be absorbed by plant roots, and to understand leaf water uptake strategy, the relationship between leaf water uptake capability and plant ecological functional types in the arid and semi-arid region of Ningxia. The leaf water uptake content (LWUC), percentage increase in leaf water content (RW), chlorophyll content (ChlC), leaf water saturation deficit (WSD), specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) of 50 plants were measured, and patterns of leaf traits were investigated to detect their difference among functional groups and relationships between each trait. The correlation coefficients were calculated between each pair of traits. One-way analysis of variance and Fisher’s multiple comparison, if applicable, were carried out on means of different ecological functional types, for comparing LWUC, RW and WSD. The results showed that the small precipitation could be uptaken by leaves. Leaf traits of 50 plants were relatively lower compared with the results from other regions, implying that the plants could adapt well in poor environment in arid and semi-arid region of Ningxia. There were major interspecific difference in the leaf traits. LWUC and RW of succulent and aphyllous were all significantly higher than herbaceous, coriaceous, membranous and paper capacitor (P<0.05), and there was no significant difference in WSD (P>0.05). LWUC, RW and WSD of geophytes were significantly higher than chamaephytes (P<0.05). LWUC and RW of sub-shrubs were significantly higher than arbor/dwarf arbor and annual herbaceous/perennial herbaceous (P<0.05), and there was no significant difference in WSD (P>0.05). The LWUC, RW of whole body tomentose were higher than double-sided tomentose (P>0.05), and significantly higher than single-sided tomentose and dorsal dioxide (P<0.05), and there was no significant difference in WSD (P>0.05). In sum, it’s very important for plants to use the rainfall resources (<5 mm) through leaf water uptake in arid and semi-arid area.

Liquidambar formosana Hance is one of the excellent pioneer tree species, which has been widely used in the barren soils in subtropical area of China. L. formosana plantations have huge ecological benefits such as reduction of canopy leaching, remediation of heavy metals pollution and hydrological effects, while at the same time they also consume large amount of water to maintain growth. Therefore, quantitative research on the water consumption characteristics by transpiration of the pioneer plantations has become a hotspot in the field of tree physiological ecology in recent years. In this study, sap flow velocity (v, cm/s) and meteorological factors were simultaneously observed using Granier’s thermal dissipation probe and automatic weather station in a degraded red soil region in Jiangxi Province. Multivariate linear models were established to describe the relationships between sap flow velocity and relative meteorological factors. The models could not only reveal sap flow characteristics of L. formosana and its relationships with meteorological factors, but also estimate the whole tree transpiration according to meteorological data. The ultimate aim of this study was to provide theoretical basis for sustainable management strategies of L. formosana plantations and associated water resource. The results were as follows: 1) In sunny days, diurnal variations of sap flow displayed wide-peaked curves. Obvious seasonal dynamics was found mainly because of different time points in the time of starting, peak and the lasting time at the relatively high level of sap flow velocity. The starting time was earlier in June and July but latest in October. Sap flow velocity peaked earliest in July and kept sap flow rate of about 0.005 cm/s for up to 8 hours while peaked latest in October and kept sap flow rate of 0.002 cm/s for only 4 hours. The average monthly sap flow velocity followed the order of July (0.002131) >June (0.001937)>Aug. (0.001932)>Sept.(0.001861)>May (0.001593)>Apr.(0.001423)> Oct.(0.001123). 2) In rainy days, sap flow velocity was much lower than that in sunny days based on the same time point. The diurnal changes of sap flow exhibited remarkable differences due to the time and intensity of precipitation. In the rainfall condition, no obvious initiation except for small fluctuations of sap flow was observed due to high relative humidity and low solar radiation. Diurnal variations of sap flow would not be disturbed when precipitation happened before initiation or after termination of sap flow activity. 3) About 1 hour time lag existed between sap flow and average net radiation (ANR) in clockwise direction and there were 1.5 hours time lag between sap flow and air temperature (Ta) as well as relative humidity (RH) in anti-clockwise direction. In the cases the time lag effect contained and not, the correlation strengths between sap flow velocity and meteorological factors were ANR (0.398)>RH (-0.258)>Ta (0.231), and ANR (0.595)>RH (-0.401)>Ta (0.028), respectively. Multivariate linear models indicated good fitting between sap flow velocity and meteorological factors, and the determination coefficients (R2) between three meteorological factors and sap flow velocity reached 0.85. The regression models and all parameters were significant at the level of P＜0.01 in two cases.

The electronic nose system is the simulation of mammalian olfactory system, to identify or classify the fruits according to odor. The traditional electronic noses commonly use the expensive card for data acquisition, which leads to the increased cost, meanwhile the existence of wired access need high maintenance cost and the extensible system defects and mobility are poor, especially it can’t detect in real-time in harmful environment. To solve the above problems, a kind of electronic nose system was put forward which has eight wireless data transmission based on ZigBee, and when the monitoring nodes have been arranged, nobody is needed to visit the scene. The system combined the latest wireless sensor networks. The past research about it was focused on little road data or information transmission control, but rarely on multi-channel data transmission. With sensors and synchronous transport signal increasing, we should pay attention to data accuracy and packet loss rate. This system used the CC2530 chip for 8-way wireless data transmission. The system included a monitoring node of the data acquisition, a coordinator node for organization and data aggregation of ZigBee and remote management system for data storage and processing. The system can set multiple monitoring nodes and monitor the object of several places through the network at the same time which is convenient and cost saving. Firstly, a wireless electronic nose system was designed based on ZigBee technology to detect the level of fruit freshness and food spoilage. The system included a monitoring node of the data acquisition, a coordinator node for organization and data aggregation of ZigBee and remote management system for data storage and processing. The hardware and software components of the system were designed. The hardware part included selection of the components, structure and principle of graph nodes, in order to ensure the realization of the system. It focused on the design of data acquisition and processing module, power module, the interface circuit design, antenna impedance matching design of wireless communication module. The software introduces the structure of Z-Stack plate on the transplant, CC2530 data acquisition, AD（Analog to digital） conversion process and the development of the applications for the eight channel data acquisition and transmission, to ensure the accuracy of data transmission. Secondly, the communication quality of the system was evaluated and applied to detect the plum fruits. Plum samples were tested in 5 days (twice per day) at a certain temperature and humidity, using principal component analysis which can probably show the plum change trend, and the use of BP neural network can accurately determine the growth stage of each sample. The SVM analysis had a good recognition rate using eigenvector analysis after PCA. The experiments showed that the wireless electronic nose could be used for remote monitoring of fresh fruits. In all, wireless electronic nose system based on ZigBee is cost saving, convenient and flexible, also has good scalability and mobility with a good application prospect. At the same time, selecting the appropriate pattern recognition algorithm can make the system more accurate.