Pleurocarpous mosses have their own preponderance as vertical greening plants because of their special morphological, physiological and ecological traits. Practical vertical greening carriers and suitable pleurocarpous mosses should be developed before their application at a large scale. Palm pads with thin layer of peat and vermiculite were chosen as vertical greening carriers in the present work. Gametophytic fragments of five pleurocarpous mosses, which included Brachythecium plumosum, Hypnum cupressiforme, Haplocladium microphyllum, Entodon compressus and Lindbergia sinensis, were sown onto the pads in a humid greenhouse with 80% relative humidity. After a two-month cultivation in the greenhouse, chlorophyll fluorescent parameters (initial slope, half-saturation light intensity, maximal relative electronic transfer rate), and the gametophytic coverage, length, fresh mass, dry mass, chlorophyll content were measured. By using the WinRHIZO root system analyzer, the total area, length of stems and branches, diameter of stems and branches, volume, tip number and branch number of gametophytes were also measured. Based on the above indices, an evaluation model revealing the growth and reproduction capacity of five mosses was designed. Finally, their growth and reproduction capacities were compared based on the model.
The results showed that all five pleurocarpous mosses were able to form green cushions from their gametophytic fragments in moisture environments after a two-month cultivation. The cushions closely integrated with the matrix on the pads. The palm pads with thin layer of peat and vermiculite are of potential and practical value as vertical greening carriers. Based on their integrated indices from high to low, five mosses were ranked as B. plumosum, H. microphyllum, H. cupressiforme, E. compressus and L. sinensis. These mosses could be applied as vertical greening plants. The present study also showed that, WinRHIZO analysis software can be used to determine the growth indexes of pleurocarpous moss gametophytes. The method is simple and of potential value in physiological and ecological studies of pleurocarpous mosses.

Gentamicin is a member of aminoglycosides which has represented highly effective antimicrobial agents especially in gram-negative infections despite their toxic effects in a kidney. Rapid diagnosis is vital to preserve renal function and to slow down renal injury. Owing to the poor sensitivity and specificity of serum creatinine (SCr) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN), there is a strong need for the identification and validation of more sensitive and reliable biomarkers. The aim of the study is to prove whether kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) could be useful to predict or detect acute kidney injury (AKI) caused by gentamycin. In this study, 45 male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were injected with a range of doses of gentamicin which was administered at 0, 50 or 100 mg/(kg·d） (n=5 rats/dose group/time point) and the animals were necropsied on days 1, 3 or 7 for toxicity evaluation. Heparinized blood was analyzed for SCr and BUN using a standard clinical chemistry analyzer. Kidney tissue samples were embedded in paraffin sections processing for hematoxylin-eosin staining and immunohistochemistry. Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR was used for relative quantitation of KIM-1/NGAL mRNA levels. In the gentamicin dose and time-response study, traditional indicators for nephrotoxicity, SCr and BUN levels in rats were significantly above control values after treatment for 7 days. Tubular cell degenerations, necrosis, tubular dilatation, hyaline cast tubules and inflammation were observed in the proximal tubules in the rats at the highest dose for 7 days. Repeated administration of gentamicin to animals resulted in a dose- and time-dependent increase in the expression of KIM-1 and NGAL which were evident as early as 1 day in both low-dose and high-dose animals (P＜0.05). The degrees of mRNA increase were correlated well with the extent of tissue damage in the kidney. Consistent with gene expression analyses, KIM-1 and NGAL were undetectable in proximal tubules of control kidneys, but they were observed in epithelial cells that were affected by gentamicin toxicity as seen by cell degeneration and regeneration. In sum, the changes in gene and protein expressions of KIM-1 and NGAL were found to be correlated with the progressive histopathological alterations and preceded effects on traditional clinical parameters indicative of impaired kidney function. Time and dose-related effects on these two biomarkers expressions were observed at the target site of gentamicin toxicity, supporting the use of these two biomarkers as sensitive indicators of acute kidney injury caused by gentamicin.

(SNP) and growth traits correlation between FFRC strain carp, intron 3 SNP of IGF2a gene about C. carpio var. FFRC strain carp as experimental materials. When they were grown up to 10 g, all fish were tagged by passive integrated transponder (
PIT) approach. Then the same environment was created to rear such fish for five months using commercial feed. A total of 32 carp were selected randomly and measured to have the growth performance records from the concrete tanks in Yixing, which are affiliated to the Freshwater Fisheries Research Center, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences. These fish were slaughtered and immediately dissected to collect 50100 mg breast muscle. After the DNA extraction and PCR amplification, using TaKaRa kits, the SNP and the relationships between such locus and C. carpio var. FFRC strain carp were analyzed by sequence and bioinformatics’ software. The relationships between SNP detected and FFRC strain carp growth traits were also analyzed by SAS 8.0. In the present study, DNA sequence (468 bp) of common carp IGF2a intron 3 was isolated and 4 SNPs in common carp IGF2a were found and named by their location. Of them, heterozygous A/G genotype located 256257 could reduce the body mass and body length of FFRC strain carp; nevertheless, the mass reduction rate is higher than the body length, however both body mass and body length reduction was not significant. The body length and body mass ratio for
heterozygous A/G genotype and homozygous G/G genotype had remarkable difference; meanwhile, the heterozygote makes the correlation coefficient of body length and body mass increase. The result also showed that female’s body mass, body length and the ratio of body mass to body length were higher than males for G/G genotype, but the ratio of body length to body mass was larger, and the absolute values of body mass and body length were smaller and the ratio of body length to body mass had significant difference between the male and female fish. Generally, the above results suggest that the IGF2a intron 3 polymorphism can influence the body mass and body length of
FFRC strain carp. Moreover, heterozygous A/G genotype located 256257 may be related to visceral mass gain owing to the remarkable effect on body mass and body length ratio. Furthermore, such locus can make interaction with gender by influencing the growth performance of carp. These results will provide information for molecular assisted breeding by increasing the IGF2a heterozygote percentage of the whole population.

The application of real-time, site-specific nitrogen management can guarantee the high yield of rice, and improve the utilization rate of nitrogen. The management pointed out that soil and plant analyzer development value （SPAD value） could be an index for nitrogen application precise precision, namely using chlorophyll meter as a nitrogen nutrition diagnosis tools on rice. Previous studies had looked at the effects of cultivars, growth stage, leaf position and other factors on SPAD value, while research on the influence of light and nitrogen on rice canopy SPAD value is few in our country. Therefore, it is necessary to study the distribution characteristics of SPAD value under low light conditions. And the feasibility of applying chlorophyll meter on nitrogen nutrition diagnosis was investigated. This article studied the methods to optimize nitrogen nutrition diagnosis of rice leaves under low-light stress condition with SPAD meter. Pot experiments were conducted to study the distributing characteristics of canopy SPAD and the distributional difference at tillering, booting and heading stages. There were three levels of shading and five levels of nitrogen supply in the experiment.
There exists a law that the greenness of rice leaf was regularly changed as black-yellow alternation ways through the whole growth period of rice despite of the effect of light deficiency. But the fluctuation was significantly suppressed under shading conditions. The decrease of SPAD value resulted from lacking light. Improving nitrogen level had positive effect on increasing the SPAD values of functional leaves. However, less-light condition made an inhibitory effect on the positive role of nitrogen. Shading treatment promoted the increment of lower leaf SPAD values. The fourth leaf (L4) has an instruction function for nitrogen nutrition status during the key growing periods under the interaction of light density and nitrogen supply, and it may be a better leaf indicator for rice N status. SPADL3-L2 and SPADL4-L3 (relative SPAD value, RSPAD) were remarkably correlated linearly with nitrogen level (under full sunlight, R2L3-L2=0.870.97; under shading treatment, R2L4-L3=0.850.97) without considering the influence from the growing stages and nitrogen rates. For Hang 43, SPAD values of the top four leaves on main stem could be used as an indicator for diagnosis of nitrogen status and nitrogenous fertilizer application in rice under shading. Under the natural ultraviolet radiation condition, SPADL3-L2 will be a better one for nutrition diagnosis. When light intensity is low and less (deficient sunshine or light attenuation by mutual shading during the growing period of rice), SPADL4-L3 may perform better for N status diagnosis.

“Zuili”plum (Prunus salicina Lindl) is an ancient Chinese cultivar which has been cultivated in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province for over 2 500 years. The plants high juices and aroma are very popular with consumers. Due to thousands of years of evolution there are numerous cultivars of “Zuili”, which accounts for the heterogeneity in the plants, leading to uneven fruiting performance and fruit quality. This study selected two cultivars, “Zuili 1” and “Zuili 2”. The selected test materials were at different states of maturity with five maturities (H1H5) being sampled from the “fruit color turning stage” to the “tree ripening stage”. In order to provide references for the industrial application of Zuli production, the study investigated fruit quality traits, ethylene release, the main content of bioactive substances and storage during the plant maturation. The results showed the typical climacteric ripening pattern in both plums, however, maximum production of ethylene at the climacteric peak was harvested at 80 and 100 days after full blossom in “Zuili 1” and “Zuili 2” plums, respectively. Fruit mass, total soluble solids, phenolics, and carotenoids statistically increased, and fruit firmness and acidity decreased in two plums. The highest quality scores being found in harvest 5 which was 47 days after the peak of climacteric stage. “Zuili 2” plum could be classified as having the highest quality in terms of sensory attributes, though it had smaller size than “Zuili 1” plum. We conclude that in order to achieve the optimal organoleptic, nutritive and health-beneficial properties of “Zuili” plum, it would be advisable to harvest the fruit at the fully ripe stage.

Guizhou is the second largest province for tobacco production and acts as a typical moderate-flavor tobacco planting area in China. According to the data from Guizhou Province Tobacco Monopoly Bureau (Company), the planting area of characteristic tobacco varieties bred in Guizhou such as “Nanjiang 3” “Bina 1”,
etc. has increased significantly in these years, and accounted for more than 50% of the total tobacco growing area in Guizhou since 2012. Meanwhile, the well-cellar style transplanting technology invented in Guizhou has spread throughout our country, but there is a very common problem during the tobacco production that the transplanted seedlings showed a lower quality. Therefore, it is important and necessary to study the quality of different flue-cured tobacco genotypes, in order to cultivate high-quality seedlings and highlight the features of flue-cured tobacco varieties bred in Guizhou. In order to further improve the quality of seedling used for the well-cellar style transplanting in Guizhou, the biomass, root morphology, plastid pigments content, electrical conductivity, pH value and photosynthetic characteristics of different flue-cured tobacco genotypes (i.e., “K326” “Nanjiang 3” “Bina 1” “Guiyan 2” “Jiucaiping 2”) were studied in seedling transplanting period. The results showed that the botanical characters of different flue-cured tobacco genotypes in seedling transplanting period were significantly different. “K326” had the best aboveground biomass (0.110 9 gram per plant) while “Guiyan 2” had the lowest aboveground biomass (0.092 5 gram per plant). As for root, “Guiyan 2” and “Bina 1” had a better root morphology, and their root dry mass were 0.042 4 gram per plant and 0.040 3 gram per plant, respectively. For the total biomass, “K326” and “Bina 1” had the largest dry mass, and their values were 0.149 3 gram per plant and 0.135 4 gram per plant, respectively. Physiological analysis illustrated that the difference in plastid pigments content and pH value was relatively small among different flue-cured tobacco genotypes in seedling transplanting period, but the difference in electrical conductivity values and photosynthetic characteristics indexes was quite significant. “Bina 1” had the highest plastid pigments content, containing 2.019 mg/g chlorophyll and 0.538 mg/g carotenoid, followed by “K326”, while “Jiucaiping 2” had the lowest plastid pigments content, containing 1.542 mg/g chlorophyll and 0.435 mg/g carotenoid. The pH values of “K326” (6.63) and “Bina 1” (6.76) were in the middle, and “Jiucaiping 2” (6.88) and “Nanjiang 3” (6.83) had the largest pH value, while “Guiyan 2” (6.43) was the smallest. The electrical conductivity values of “K326” and “Bina 1” were the smallest, while “Guiyan 2” had the largest electrical conductivity value. The absolute conductivity values of “K326” and “Bina 1” were 9.85 μS/cm and 9.08 μS/cm, and relative conductivity values were 15.63% and 21.45%, respectively. The absolute conductivity and relative conductivity values of “Guiyan 2” were 13.28 μS/cm and 29.84%, respectively. As far as the photosynthetic indexes, “K326” had the best performance among all the tested genotypes, followed by “Bina 1” and “Jiucaiping 2”, while “Guiyan 2” and “Nanjiang 3” were relatively poor. In summary, “Bina 1” and “K326” had better botanical characters and physiological characteristics among the different flue-cured tobacco genotypes tested in this study, showing better photosynthetic performance, stronger

Cultivation of grape is popular in China, and the problem of nutrition disorders is becoming more and more obvious, especially in shelter cultivation with semi-closed environment. To diagnose this problem and produce safe grape to meet the need of high quality and food safety, “Muscat of Alexandria” (Vitis vinifera) was used as the experimental materials and cultivated in Changxing district of Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Two kinds of substrates were carried out: One was organic substrate \[V(peat)∶V(compost)∶V(vermiculite)=4∶1∶1\], and the other was half organic substrate \[V(soil)∶V(organic substrate)=1∶1\], and soil was taken as a control. The two treatments and control were all cultured under root system.
Physical and chemical characters of different substrates and their influence on vine growth, phenology and berry quality of grapes were investigated. The results were shown as follows: 1) The date of budding and flowering in organic substrate and half organic substrate was 1 to 2 days earlier than in soil, but the maturity date had no difference between the soil and organic substrate; the half organic substrate delayed the date of color turning for about a week, and delayed the date of maturity for 3 days. 2) The branch length, branch thickness, leaf area and leaf greenness at different periods were measured in this study. Compared with the soil, grapes cultivated in organic substrate had longer branch length, smaller leaf area, and lower leaf greenness from young fruit stage to stone hardening stage; grapes cultivated in half organic substrate had the longest branch length with smallest leaf area in all period of the vine, and the chlorophyll content was lower than the control in most time. 3) The diameter of berry had no difference between the soil and organic substrate, but the berry in half organic substrate had the smallest size; the single fruit mass also had no difference between the soil and organic substrate, but the mass in half organic substrate was the lowest; the berry firmness between the half organic substrate and organic substrate had no difference, which was higher than that in soil. 4) Organic substrate improved the sugar and acid content in flesh, and the content of sugar decreased in half organic substrate. The content of berry volatile aroma components was also increased in the organic substrate; and the content of geraniol in berry was increased in the half substrate, but the content of linalool was reduced, which was probably caused by the lower leaf area, leaf greenness and the stronger growth potential.
In summary, organic substrate improved the quality of the berries. However, the pH value of the organic substrate declined obviously, and its performance on water retention capacity was not good. We suggested that the integrated management of fertilization and irrigation should be applied to solve these problems.

Royal jelly (RJ) is the exclusive food for the Western honeybee (Apis mellifera) queen throughout its lifespan and the primary food for the honeybee larvae during the first three days of life, which is secreted by hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands of nurse honey bees. The chemical composition of RJ is very complicate, while the protein components have been found to play critical roles in RJ. Around 50% of dry RJ is made up of proteins which could be divided into two parts, water-soluble proteins and water-insoluble proteins. The water-soluble proteins, accounting for 82% to 90% of the total RJ proteins, are named major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs) which belong to the same family composed of nine members. It has been proved that MRJPs have effects such as anti-aging, immunoregulation and anti-fatigue, et al. In addition, MRJPs, especially MRJP1 are authenticated as the critical constituents to reveal the freshness of RJ and will be hopeful as one new functional component in future. In previous studies, various methods were developed for isolation of MRJPs, which included centrifugation, alkali extraction acid precipitation and column chromatography. However, a series of obstacles, such as low purity, solvent contamination and low productivity limited the application of those methods in honeybee industry.
Ultrafiltration as a novel bio-separation technology has many advantages, such as simple operation, easy scale-up, and hence has a huge potentiality for large-scale isolation of bio-macromolecules. Our effort was to obtain the separation technology of MRJPs by using ultrafiltration and provide new knowledge for the industrial application of RJ process in future. Since the molecular masses of MRJPs are in the range of 4.9×1048.7×104, the poly-sulfone hollow fiber membrane component used in the ultrafiltration equipment was comprised of two types with different molecular mass cut-off membranes. The ultrafiltration membrane with a 1×105 molecular mass cut-off was employed to remove macromolecular impurities, whereas the 4.9×104 cut-off membrane was employed to retain most of MRJPs. In this study, disposals were taken to separate soluble proteins, MRJPs from RJ by ultrafiltration. The control process included pH, ion intensity and ratio of water to material. In order to obtain the optimal conditions to extract MRJPs, orthogonal test was employed during investigation on experimental factors. The results showed that the optimal condition was as follows, ratio of water to material 5∶1, ion intensity 0.5 mol/L and pH 7.0. Under the optimal condition, 82.63% of MRJPs was extracted from fresh RJ. It was determined that the lyophilized powder of MRJPs contained 91.00% soluble protein, 0.01% moisture, 2.00% 10-HDA and 15.22% total sugar. Besides, the by-products contained 10-HDA and total sugar were recycled, and the recycling rate of the two components reached 3.60% and 2.11%, respectively. This method with many advantages, such as no solvent pollution and fully utilization of 10-HDA, has provided a new technology for MRJPs separation by first using ultrafiltration in deep process of RJ, and will be hopeful for large scale application in RJ process industry.

The exposure of bee products quality and safety problems, which reflects the quality and safety traceability system in the bee products is lack of a practical standard in China. Chinese apiculture has a long history. Bee products not only sell well at home, and enjoy a good reputation overseas, thus to establish bee products management monitor system with advanced information technology, is particularly important. This paper aimed at solving the quality and safety problem of bee products by establishing a quality and safety traceability system based on an intellectual technology in the bee products chain. This system can solve the problem of non-standard production of honey, low production efficiency and no guarantee of raw material quality. It can help beekeepers to solve the problem of no logging record and traceability in the process of breeding. It can strengthen enterprise supervision of bee products processing for each part. This system can meet the interests of beekeepers, cooperatives, enterprises and consumers. Distinctive feature of this system is combined with C#/ASP.NET, 3G, GPS, Android, database, Bar code technologies, XML, HTTP, Google map and so on, which establish a “Apiary-Cooperative-Enterprise” traceability chain. In the apiary, beekeeper can carry an Android smartphone to send the beekeeping logs to the web server,starting the traceability chain. In cooperative, header can upload the key step of acquisition of information to the web server, and will become a link between beekeepers and enterprises. In the enterprise, manager can upload bee products processing information to the web server, allowing the traceability chain to form. Through investigating domestic typical apiaries and enterprises, and absorbing some experience from previous traceability system, this paper finally constructs a system which completes the raw material source to cooperative acquisition and enterprises processing, and also improves the quality safety of bee products. The results showed that: 1) It can be great helpful to establish a quality and safety traceability system in the field of bee products. Its useful to put forward a traceability system with its own characteristics through analyzing both of domestic and international research about the quality and safety of agricultural products traceability in this paper.
2) It has direct guidance significance to regarding “Apiary-Cooperatives-Enterprise” as three core traceability points through the on-the-spot investigation at both beekeeping pilot base and beekeeping enterprise.
3) It makes tremendous contribution to the realization of bee products traceability chain by using automatic identification technology of bar code technology. Meanwhile, its obvious that the merge of advanced communication technology and database technology will bring greatly facilitation to store and manage the traceability key information. The quality and safety traceability system in the bee products chain should be built and implemented successfully, and rendered the effect based on B/S architecture of C#/ASP.NET technology. It provides a certain reference value for the quality and safety of agricultural products traceability.

Soil quality plays a crucial role in sustaining agricultural systems productivity, and it is important in sustaining ecosystem. What about the soil quality in different planting years of alfalfa ( Medicago sativa) in the steppe desert of Ningxia in China? That is not yet completely understood. The objective of this study was to investigate the soil physical and chemical properties of different soil particle diameters (>0.5 mm, 0.1060.25 mm and <0.106 mm) after planting alfalfa for 012 years. By using the method of replacing time with space, an analysis was made on the dynamic changes of top soil (020 cm and 2040 cm) nutrients and soil particle。
The results showed that there was no significant difference between the different soil particle diameters in the same period of the pH, electrical conductivity (EC), soil organic matter (SOM), CaCO3, total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN), total phosphorus (TP) and available phosphorus (AP) (P>0.05), but the soil active organic carbon (SAOC) contents of the soil particle with diameters of >0.5 mm and <0.106 mm were significantly higher than that of soil particle with diameters of 0.1060.25 mm (P<0.05). With the increasing of planting years, the pH values decreased, and after planting alfalfa, it was greater affected in 2040 cm soil layer than 020 cm soil layer. The EC values were fluctuated in different planting years, but there were not significant (P>0.05), and the EC values of 020 cm soil layer were significantly higher than that of 2040 cm soil layer in most planting years. The SOM contents in each planting year were higher than the grass, but there was no significant difference (P>0.05), and the SOM contents of soil particle with diameters of >0.5 mm and <0.106 mm in 020 cm soil layer were increased firstly (1 year) and then decreased (412 years) with the increase of planting years, while the SAOC contents of 2040 cm soil layer remained unchanged. The SAOC contents of soil particle with diameters of >0.5 mm and <0.106 mm in 040 cm soil layer in each planting year were significantly higher than that of soil particle with diameters of 0.1060.25 mm (P<0.05), but there was no significant difference in each planting year (P>0.05). The TN and AN contents in 040 cm soil layer fluctuated a lot and showed no influence on TN content. The TP contents of 040 cm soil layer and the AP contents of 020 cm soil layer showed the increasing trend (012 years), and the AP contents of 2040 cm soil layer showed the “M” type fluctuations. The TP contents of 020 cm soil layer were significantly lower than those of the 2040 cm soil layer in 112 years (P<0.05). The C/N values of 020 cm soil layer were higher than those of the 2040 cm soil layer in the same planting years, and in 12 years, the C/N value was significantly lower than other years (P<0.05). The CaCO3 contents of 040 cm soil layer showed an increasing trend with the increasing of planting years, and the CaCO3 contents of 2040 cm soil layer were significantly higher than those of 020 cm soil layer (P<0.05). In conclusion, with the increasing of planting years, there was significant difference only between the soil particle diameter and the SAOC content (P<0.05), and the soil quality showed temporal variability.

Cadmium (Cd) is released into environment due to anthropogenic activities, resulting in great environmental problems. As a no-essential element, Cd displays high toxic to plants, resulting in leaf chlorosis, root necrosis, inhibition of photosynthesis, and disorder of water and nutrient metabolism. Simultaneously, Cd stress induces the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Plants have evolved many strategies to avoid Cd stress. The ascorbate-glutathione (AsA-GSH) cycle and glutathione metabolism involve in scavenging of ROS to prevent the accumulation of the strong oxidant H2O2. The AsA-GSH cycle contains four non-enzymatic antioxidants and four different enzymes, i.e., ascorbate (AsA), dehydroascorbate (DHA) and reduced glutathione (GSH), oxidized glutathione (GSSG), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) and glutathione reductase (GR). AsA-GSH cycle plays a pivotal role in counteracting Cd toxicity. Glutathione metabolism coupled with glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) also plays a key role in Cd tolerance and detoxification. In the last decade,willows (Salix spp.) have showed large phytoremediation potential for heavy metals, and were considered as high Cd accumulators than other plants. Salix matsudana Koidz is mainly distributed in China, which is widely planted in flood-prone lands, showing great potential in phytoremediation of Cd. But compared with hyperaccumulators and other herbaceous plants, the tolerance and detoxification of Cd in willows have been poorly understood. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the AsA-GSH cycle and GSH metabolism of S. matsudana in response to Cd stress. Seedlings of S. matsudanas were mounted on Styrofoam and were grown in a hydroponic culture. After pre-gown for 60 days, seedlings with uniform size were selected and treated with different Cd doses (0, 5 and 25 μmol/L) for 28 d. Antioxidants (AsA, DHA, GSH, and GSSG) and related enzymes including APX, MDHAR, DHAR, GR, GPX and GST were measured. The AsA content of roots decreased but AsA of leaves increased with increasing Cd concentrations in the medium. DHA content of roots increased at low Cd concentration; in contrast, DHA contents of roots and leaves decreased at high Cd. AsA/DHA ratios in roots and leaves were higher than the control at high Cd concentration. GSH contents of roots and leaves increased at low Cd, but high Cd inhibited accumulation of GSH in roots; GSSG contents decreased in roots and leaves; the ratios of GSH/GSSG in roots and leaves were higher than those under the control at the high Cd level. High Cd inhibited APX in roots but enhanced APX in leaves. MDHAR and DHAR of roots and leaves were elevated by different Cd concentrations. GR of roots was enhanced at low Cd, and GR of leaves was up-regulated at different Cd concentrations. GPX and GST of roots and leaves were elevated under various Cd levels. In conclusion, our results suggest that the regulation of AsA-GSH cycle and GSH metabolism by altering the contents of antioxidants and enzyme activities protect
S. matsudana against Cd stress. These results provide a new insight into AsA-GSH cycle and GSH metabolism involving in Cd tolerance and detoxification in willows under Cd stress conditions.

Contamination of soil and water with cadmium (Cd) is a widespread and serious environmental problem. Cd is a non-essential element which is the most toxic when dispersed in the environment. Plants have evolved many mechanisms to tolerate and detoxify metals to reduce their cellular toxicity, and plants can produce low molecular mass thiol compounds that involve in tolerance and detoxification to toxic metals. Currently, willows (Salix spp.) with large biomass are high-metal accumulators which have been widely used in phytoextraction of heavy metals such as Cd. However, compared to the hyperaccumulators and some herbaceous plants, it remains unknown that willows can tolerate and detoxify Cd. Salix matsudana Koidz is an economically pioneer tree which is native to China, commonly planted on riverbanks and flooding plains. The objectives of this study were: 1) To investigate Cd tolerance and uptake in S. matsudana; 2) To evaluate thiol compounds in responses to Cd. Seedlings of S. matsudana were grown in hydroponic culture exposed to various Cd levels (0, 5, 25, 50, and 100 μmol/L) in a greenhouse for 28 d. The growth parameters were measured including relative growth rate (RGR) and biomass production. The EC50 (50% effective concentration, EC50) based on root, shoot (including stem and leaf) and whole plant biomass was calculated, respectively. Thiol compounds were assayed, i.e., non-protein thiols (NPTs), protein thiols (PTs), total thiols (TTs), cysteine (Cys), reduced glutathione (GSH) and oxidized glutathione (GSSG). The results showed that RGR of height significantly decreased at Cd≥25 μmol/L. Biomasses of shoot, root and whole plant decreased with increasing Cd concentrations in the medium. Root biomass was significantly reduced at Cd≥5 μmol/L, while shoot biomass was reduced at Cd≥25 μmol/L compared with the control. Tolerance indexes (based on root, shoot and whole plant, respectively) were decreased with increasing Cd concentrations in the medium. EC50 based on root biomass reached 82 μmol/L. Cd concentrations in shoots and roots were elevated with increasing Cd concentrations in the medium, and Cd accumulated mainly in roots. Cd concentration in shoots ranged from 64.81 to 163.13 μg/g exposed to 525 μmol/L Cd, and plant growth was not severe disturbed. The contents of NPTs, PTs and TTs in roots and leaves were induced strongly by Cd exposure, and their contents increased with increasing Cd concentrations in the medium. Compared with the control, high Cd (100 μmol/L) enhanced an increase in Cys content in roots; in contrast, Cys contents in leaves were not markedly altered at 550 μmol/L Cd, but reduced significantly at 100 μmol/L Cd. GSH contents increased in roots but showed no significant alteration in leaves; GSSG contents of roots and leaves were reduced, and GSH/GSSG ratios were increased compared with the control. In conclusion, the present results show that the plants are not able to cope with Cd stress displaying phytotoxic effects exposed to high concentrations of Cd. Cd treatments induce markedly changes in thiol compounds, and the results further suggest that the thiol-based mechanism may contribute to Cd tolerance and detoxification in S. matsudana.

Many developed countries, such as Austria and America, have been accomplished the mechanization fully during the sugarcane production. The development of some mechanical manufacturing is on the way to automated and intelligent direction. From the 1960s to nowadays, our research on the sugarcane harvest mechanization has a history of over 40 years. However, except for the mechanization realization of the plowing land preparation and transportation, the biggest harvest of labor still
relies on the human, which makes the production efficiency be extremely low. With the increasing area of the sugarcane planting, the mode of production of the traditional manual harvest can not meet the need of the modern agriculture development anymore. Nowadays, the harvest is in the low level and the production efficiency is also not so much high as the sugarcane mechanization, moreover, there has been no such a machine that can adapt to the reality of our country with substantial promotion. This paper outlines the characteristics of sugarcane harvest machinery on the basis of the method of the agricultural equipment virtual design. At the same time, this paper analyses the existing problem and the research direction, which lays a foundation for sugarcane harvest design and the future development. First, this paper will introduce the concept of the virtual design as well as the three characteristics of immersion, simplicity and instantaneity. Based on the practical situation of the research on the sugarcane harvester virtual design, this paper highlights the application research status of virtual design in whole virtual design, hand cane mechanism, cutting mechanism, peeling leaves, logistics simulation and so on. Combined with the development and the promotion of the sugarcane harvest mechanization, it analyses the problem and the limitation of the sugarcane institutions, stripping leaves institutions, logistics simulation and virtual design, and the research directions in the future are also be put forward. On the research applications of the sugarcane harvester, virtual design has some problems and limitations which are as follows: Sugarcane is not in conformity with the actual mode; the combination of the virtual design and the agronomic requirements is very little; the combination of the virtual design and the machine battery solution is little too; the model of the virtual machine is not perfect enough. In order to solve these problems and limitations, this paper puts forward that we should carry out the research from the perspective of the key institutions and in combination with the advantages of virtual design. It mainly conducts further research from the following aspects: Physical characteristics of sugarcane research, combined with the agronomic requirements and the machine battery solution, and the virtual prototype model will be perfected. As the method of the new product development design and the optimization of improvement, the virtual design not only simplifies the design of the complex mechanical system, but also shortens the development cycle of new products, improves the design quality, and reduces the development cost largely. Nowadays, the virtual design still has some problems on the application research of the sugarcane harvester, especially for the aspects of these questions and limitations, the further research will be conducted. Completing the virtual prototype model, at the same time, providing the theoretical foundation for producing the physical prototype, and then our sugarcane harvester will be perfectly developed and promoted.

In the knife driving system of combine harvester, a slider-crank mechanism with a simple structure is used for driving the cutter bar. A low-cost balance mass is generally used in this mechanism to offset the unbalanced force for vibration reduction. The vibration characteristics of the knife driving system should be clarified in order to develop a method to reduce the vibration. Furthermore, it is necessary to develop a design theory of the knife driving system of combine harvesters in order to derive the control parameters of the balance weights used for vibration reduction. The mechanical model of the knife driving device that is equipped with a slider-crank mechanism was constructed in order to derive the control parameters of the balance weights, such as the mass and the location of the balance mass. The simulation conditions of the model, which reflect the condition of the actual combine harvester, are listed. The angular velocity was equivalent to the rotation number of the crank wheel and was around 73 rad/s (700 r/min) in the clockwise direction. Vibration experiment was done with the type 4LZS-1.8 combine harvester. The vibration acceleration was measured using the preprocessing and cutting device of the actual combine harvester (the divider and conveying unit did not work; only the knife driving system worked). The interval time in calculation was set to 1 ms according to the sampling time of the measurement of the acceleration. The simulated inertia force was compared with measured acceleration in time series in order to evaluate the vibration model of the knife driving system. In the state without a balance mass, the simulation could express the vibration of the knife driving system well by comparing it with the measured acceleration. Consequently, this mechanical model could express the vibration characteristics of the knife driving system. The root mean square (RMS) value of the inertia force was simulated in the state with the balance mass in order to examine the effect of the vibration reduction. When the balance mass with 1.677 kg was attached at location 243°, the effect of vibration reduction due to the balance mass was confirmed to be best. An interspace at the joint of the drive knife and the end of the link arm would increase in width because of the galling of the bearing and the gutter as the machinery was used. There was a nonlinear vibration caused by the interspaces between link arm and knife. The characteristics of the collision vibration system should be confirmed in order to clarify the vibration characteristics of the knife driving system of the combine harvester. The collision vibration model with interspaces was constructed; the effect of the increase in the width of the interspace on the vibration characteristics was investigated by simulating the collision vibration of the knife driving system. The width of the interspace was varied from 0.001 m to 0.005 m during the simulation, and the other parameters were the same as those of the foregoing simulation. The result showed that the effect of vibration reduction by the balance mass was confirmed irrespective of the width of the interspaces. When the width of the interspaces was 0.002 m or more, the simulated inertia force of the knife driving system increased with an increase in the width of the interspaces.

The automatic remote pest-identification system is developed aiming at solving the difficulty of detecting pests in good timing in farmland, which applies modern wireless image and data transaction tools. The system consists of one main controller and several supplemental remote platforms. In structure, every single platform includes function modules like image acquisition, image processing, feature extraction and classification, GPS and transmission module. These platforms communicate with each other through 3G/4G wireless network. Host end and the remote end has access to photos capture, pictures reading, feature extraction, feature selection, expert identification, pictures sending and so on. The workflow is as follows:
1) the remote platforms capture the images of stationary pests with image acquisition system;
2) the system extracts certain pests from the farming background according to the constructed vector including 16 morphological characteristic values such as area, perimeter, complexity, eccentricity and invariant moment, 9 colors eigenvalues and 10 texture constituted feature;
3) finally, the system classifies pests into 7 major types which are Cnaphalocrocis medinalis Guenee, Prodenia litura, Chilo suppressalis, Ostrinia
nubilalis, Naranga aenesc, Sogatella furcifera and Agrotis ypsilon Rottemberg with Otsu threshold segmentation method based on HSV color mode. The accuracy of this technology was proved to be 88.5%. The identification process can be completed in both remote platform and in the host control platform automatically after the pest images were compressed and transmitted to the host control platform through 3G/4G wireless network. With more and more application and information collected, the system will expand the sample library dynamically by saving the image into the local disks. The feasibility of the system is discussed and statistically significantly tested in the context. The advent of the automatic remote pest-identification system could help provide pest information about the farmland timely and accurately thus improving the prevention effect.