Engineering hierarchical quaternary superstructure of an integrated MOF-derived electrode for boosting urea electrooxidation assisted water electrolysis

Controllable design of the catalytic electrodes with hierarchical superstructures is expected to improve their electrochemical performance.Herein,a self-supported integrated electrode(NiCo-ZLDH/NF)with a unique hierarchical quaternary superstructure was fabricated through a self-sacrificing template strategy from the metal–organic framework(Co-ZIF-67)nanoplate arrays,which features an intriguing well-defined hierarchy when taking the unit cells of the NiCo-based layered double hydroxide(NiCo-LDH)as the primary structure,the ultrathin LDH nanoneedles as the secondary structure,the mesoscale hollow plates of the LDH nanoneedle arrays as the tertiary structure,and the macroscale three-dimensional frames of the plate arrays as the quaternary structure.Notably,the distinctive structure of NiCo-ZLDH/NF can not only accelerate both mass and charge transfer,but also expose plentiful accessible active sites with high intrinsic activity,endowing it with an excellent electrochemical performance for urea oxidation reaction(UOR).Specially,it only required the low potentials of 1.335,1.368 and 1.388 V to deliver the current densities of 10,100 and 200 mA cm^(-2),respectively,much superior to those for typical NiCo-LDH.Employing NiCo-ZLDH/NF as the bifunctional electrode for both anodic UOR and cathodic HER,an energy-saving electrolysis system was further explored which can greatly reduce the needed voltage of 213 mV to deliver the current density of 100 mA cm^(-2),as compared to the conventional water electrolysis system composed of OER.This work manifests that it is prospective to explore the hierarchically nanostructured electrodes and the innovative electrolytic technologies for high-efficiency electrocatalysis.

Hygrothermal Properties of a Composite Based on Clay Soils and Diatomite

The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to the use of diatomite as a mineral additive in the composition of compressed earth blocks. The aim is to study the influence of diatomite on the hygrothermal behaviour of composites based on clay soils. For this reason, two clay soils with different physicochemical and mineralogical compositions were incorporated with diatomite at percentages ranging from 5% to 50% with a step of 5 to produce compressed earth blocks. After assessing the hydric and thermal characteristics of the composites, it was found that the incorporation of diatomite into the clay matrix favours the absorption of water by capillary action for all the composites. The diatomite-amended blocks subjected to the rain erosion test were less eroded than the unamended blocks. In addition, BYD composites were found to be more resistant than BTD composites, due to the high percentage of clay in T soil. The thermal conductivity of the latter decreases respectively from 0.72 to 0.29 W/m∙K for BTD composites and from 0.52 to 0.21 W/m∙K for BYD composites. This reduction proves the thermal insulating properties of diatomite. Despite the high capillary absorption capacity of these composites, they have good thermal properties, enabling them to be used in the construction of buildings for improved indoor thermal comfort.

Measurement of Radon Concentration and Estimation of Cancer Risk in Twenty-Four Model Houses in the Town of Koudougou

The objective of our study is to evaluate the concentration of radon (86Rn) inside houses in the town of Koudougou in order to estimate its impact on the health of the population. Indeed, when uranium-rich minerals are found near the surface of the ground, radon concentrations can reach tens of becquerels per cubic meter in enclosed spaces. Given the nature of the geological base of Burkina Faso, this situation is quite probable and certain places that are sometimes poorly ventilated (house, school, office, etc.) can have radon levels high enough to constitute a health problem for occupants. Thus, twenty-four (24) sample houses were identified. In each house, the Corentium digital detector was between 0.8 m and 2 m for at least one week in a place where the occupants estimate that they spend more time of time and measure the concentration of radon in the long term and short term. The recorded data allowed us to determine the Absorbed Dose and the Annual Effective Dose of radon gas for each house in order to estimate the Risk of Cancer and the probable Number of Cases of Lung Cancer per million inhabitants. Thus, the results indicate that the long-term radon concentration varies between 6 Bq/m3 and 285 Bq/m3 respectively in houses 11 and 4 compared to 1 Bq/m3 to 208 Bq/m3 in the short term in the same houses. Also, in the long term, in control houses 1, 3 and 4, the radon level is above the recommended threshold interval. For the short term, these are houses 1, 3, 4 and 17 respectively with 110 Bq/m3, 142 Bq/m3, 208 Bq/m3 and 105 Bq/m3. As for the long-term and short-term effective doses, only houses 1, 3, 4, 17 and 24 have values between 3 - 10 Sv/year. The estimation of the relative risk of lung cancer gives values relatively close to unity and between 1.006 and 1.142 with an average of 1.035 and that of the Number of Lung Cancer Cases per million inhabitants gives values between 8 and 166 with an average of 42. Thus, we can conclude that with the exception of houses 1, 3, 4 and 17, the radon concentrations are relatively low in the twenty-four control houses in the city of Koudougou. The lifestyle of the populations can well explain this situation when we know that people are in the habit of always leaving doors and windows open, especially when they are not sleeping. We can therefore say that the risk of population exposure to radon gas is relatively low in the town of Koudougou.

A Smart Room to Promote Autonomy of Disabled People due to Stroke

A cerebral vascular accident,known as common language stroke,is one of the main causes of mortality and remains the primary cause of acquired disabilities in adults.Those disabled people spend most of their time at home in their living rooms.In most cases,appliances of a living room(TV,light,cooler/heater,window blinds,etc.)are generally controlled by direct manipulation of a set of remote controls.Handling many remote controls can be disturbing and inappropriate for these people.In addition,in many cases these people could be alone at home and must open the door for visitors after their identification by either moving to the door or using an intercom system which requires in both cases a physical activity.Furthermore,these people need a continuous health monitoring especially blood pressure to avoid a recurrent stroke.Smart spaces and assisted technologies would be beneficial to assist person with disabilities to live indepen-dently,enhance their quality of life and empower their autonomy.A complete sys-tem which improves and facilitates the daily life and covers all aspects such as appliances automation,appropriate interaction mode and health monitoring of these people is still lacking.The aim of this work is to create a safe and high-quality living environment for persons with disabilities to enable them to live more independently by automating the operation of a living room appliances according to the current context without the need to use remote control devices,the use of a suitable interaction modality with appliances that require direct interaction and a remote health monitoring system which can alert relatives and caregivers in case of an emergency.

Characterization of volatile organic compounds in grafted tomato plants upon potyvirus necrotic infection

A headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(HS-SPME/GC-MS)method was used to study the volatile organic compounds(VOCs)associated with the differential immune response of tomato plants infected with the recombinant strain of potato virus Y(PVY^(C)-to),necrogenic to tomato.Analysis was carried out in UC82(UC),a virus susceptible tomato variety,comparing the same UC plants grafted or not onto a virus tolerant tomato ecotype,Manduria(Ma);the three types of samples used for the GC-MS analysis were mock-inoculated UC/Ma plants,UC/Ma+PVY^(C)-to and UC+PVY^(C)-to plants;the VOCs obtained were 111.Results from symptomatic PVY^(C)-to-infected UC plants showed a VOCs composition enriched in alcohols,fatty acid derivates,benzenoids,and salicylic acid derivatives,while in mock-inoculated UC/Ma plants VOCs were mainly characterized by methyl ester compounds.The VOC profile was in line with RNAseq data analyses,denoting that PVY^(C)-to viral RNA accumulation and disease symptoms induce the specific transcriptional activation of genes involved in VOCs biosynthesis.Furthermore,principal component analysis highlighted that VOCs of PVY^(C)-to-infected and mock-inoculated grafted plants were much closer each other than that of symptomatic PVY^(C)-to-infected non-grafted UC plants.These results suggest that VOCs profiles of tomato plants are related to the viral RNA accumulation,disease intensity and graft-derived tolerance to PVY^(C)-to infection.

Phytochemistry and ethnomedicinal qualities of metabolites from Phyllanthus emblica L.:A review

Phyllanthus emblica or Indian gooseberry is an integrated part of Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicines.For several decades,the well-known ancient herb has been extensively utilized in traditional medicine to cure diseases like fever,diabetes,constipation,jaundice,ulcers,biliousness,anemia,anorexia,and dyspepsia.In the traditional system,Indian gooseberry has various ethnomedicinal applications.In the Ayurvedic system,different methods of administration(anupan)have shown different ethnomedicinal properties of Indian gooseberry.Seventy well-known chemical components in Indian gooseberry have been identified through phytochemical evaluation,among which the flavonoids and phenols are most prominent.From the toxicity perspective,it is considered a safe herb in India,and is taken as a food supplement in European countries.The wide-spectrum pharmacological activities of the crude extracts and isolates of Indian gooseberry are attributed to the predominance of phenols and flavonoids.Thus,it is important to study the exact mechanism of the activity of the phytochemicals in Indian gooseberry,especially in anti-cancer activities.Extract of Indian gooseberry enhances proliferation in several cancer cells in vitro,including stem cells like ovarian cancer(OC)cells,and also has been observed to possess anti-proliferative characteristics in vivo.This review intends to explore the therapeutic potential of Indian gooseberry based on scientific reports and attempts to find the gaps for future research.

Assessing Water Resources Access of Nouhao Sub-Basin, Burkina Faso

Water resource access in the Nouhao sub-basin, assessed based on the availability of drinking water mobilization facilities, the availability of water for uses and the quality of drinking water, revealed that in 2017 the basin was covered by 1249 modern water point, main drinking water sources. On average, the sub-basin shows a ratio of 271 users per drinking water point. Communal level shows some disparity with Bittou recording the highest number of people per drinking water point, i.e., around 537. Water that can be captured in the entire sub-basin meets only 42% of the total water needs from the three mains uses: irrigation, domestic consumption and livestock. The highest demander among these uses is Irrigation with 75% of the need, i.e., approximately 12,859,995 m3. Water in 33% drinking sources of this sub basin is of poor quality. Arsenic, one of the quality parameters studied, is found in some communes of the sub-basin. 11% of the water points in Bissiga are arsenic polluted making this commune the most arsenic contaminated location. The vulnerability maps deducted from lack of water for uses;lack of drinking water works and poor water quality shows so, the exposure level of the sub-basin’ communes to some potential risks related to low water resources access.

Effect of Acacia albida Leaf Supplementation on Reproductive Parameters and Pre-Weaning Growth of Arabian Lambs

A trial on Acacia albida leaf supplementation on reproductive parameters and pre-weaning growth of Arabian lambs was conducted from September 2020 to May 2021 at the small ruminant station of the Livestock Research Institute for Development (IRED) in N’Djamena, Chad. Forty-eight (48) Arabian sheep (45 non-pregnant females and 3 males for a sex ratio of 1 ram to 15 ewes) with an average weight of 20.3 ± 1.2 kg and aged approximately 2 years were divided into 3 groups of 15 ewes each. The supplemented group received in addition to the dominant forage of the pasture (300 g of Dactyloctenium aegyptium + 300 g of Cenchrus ciliaris + 600 g of Panicum maximum), 400 g and 600 g of Acacia albida leaves/animal/day while the control group received only 300 g of Dactyloctenium aegyptium + 300 g of Cenchrus ciliaris + 600 g of Panicum maximum. From the results of this study, it appears that the ewes that received 400 g of Acacia albida leaves had a significantly higher fertility rate and birth mortality rate (93.03% and 6.25% respectively). Animals in the control group had a significantly higher pre-weaning mortality rate than those receiving Acacia albida leaves as a supplement (16.66% versus 6.66% and 14.28% respectively). The highest weight of the lambs was observed in the ration supplemented with 600 g of Acacia albida leaves (12209.66 g). The total weight gain, as well as the average daily weight gain of the lambs receiving the 600 g Acacia albida leaf ration was significantly higher than those of the other rations. Supplementation with 400 g and 600 g of Acacia albida leaves can be recommended as a protein supplement for breeding ewes and pre-weaned lambs.

Numerical Analysis for the Effect of Irresponsible Immigrants on HIV/AIDS Dynamics

The human immunodeficiency viruses are two species of Lentivirus that infect humans.Over time,they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome,a condition in which progressive immune system failure allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive.Human immunodeficiency virus infection came from a type of chimpanzee in Central Africa.Studies show that immunodeficiency viruses may have jumped from chimpanzees to humans as far back as the late 1800s.Over decades,human immunodeficiency viruses slowly spread across Africa and later into other parts of the world.The Susceptible-Infected-Recovered(SIR)models are significant in studying disease dynamics.In this paper,we have studied the effect of irresponsible immigrants on HIV/AIDS dynamics by formulating and considering different methods.Euler,Runge Kutta,and a Non-standardfinite difference(NSFD)method are developed for the same problem.Numerical experiments are performed at disease-free and endemic equilibria points at different time step sizes‘ℎ’.The results reveal that,unlike Euler and Runge Kutta,which fail for large time step sizes,the proposed Non-standardfinite difference(NSFD)method gives a convergence solution for any time step size.Our proposed numerical method is bounded,dynamically con-sistent,and preserves the positivity of the continuous solution,which are essential requirements when modeling a prevalent disease.

A Comprehensive Survey of Candidate Waveforms for 5G, beyond 5G and 6G Wireless Communication Systems

The evolution of global mobile data over the past decades in broadcasting, Internet of Things (IoT), education, healthcare, commerce, and energy has put strong pressure on 3G/4G mobile networks to improve their service offerings. These generations of mobile networks were initially invented to meet the requirements of the above-mentioned applications. However, as the requirements in these applications continue to increase, new mobile technologies such as 5G (fifth generation), 5G and beyond (B5G, beyond fifth generation), and 6G (sixth generation) are still progressing and being experimented. These networks are very heterogeneous generations of mobile networks that will have to offer very high throughput per user, good energy efficiency, better traffic capacity per area, improved spectral efficiency, very low latency, and high mobility. To meet these requirements, the radio interface of future mobile networks will have to be flexible and rationalized the available frequency resources. Therefore, new modulation methods, access techniques and waveforms capable of supporting these technological changes are proposed. This review presents brief descriptions of the types of 5G, B5G, and 6G waveforms. The 5G consists of OFDM including its transmission techniques: generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM), filter bank based multi-carrier (FBMC), universal filtered multi-carrier (UFMC), and index modulation (IM). Meanwhile, the 6G covers orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS), orthogonal chirp division multiplexing (OCDM) and orthogonal time sequence multiplexing (OTSM). The networks’ potentialities, advantages, disadvantages, and future directions are outlined.

Levels of Heavy Metals in Some Vegetables and Human Health Risk Assessment in Loumbila Area, Burkina Faso

Contamination by heavy metals of soil, water and agricultural products is currently a major problem of environmental pollution in the world. The consumption of plants contaminated with heavy metals can be the cause of diseases such as cancers, the number of cases of which is only growing. The objective of this study was to determine the concentration of copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), and cadmium (Cd) in plants from the vegetable farm of LOUMBILA and the assessment of health risks linked to the consumption of plants. In this paper, the concentration of heavy metal in vegetable was measured using the model AANALYST 200 flame atomic absorption spectrometer from PERKIN ELMER. The level of Zn in the vegetables from Loumbila vegetable farms ranged between 42.95 mg/kg and 78 mg/kg. The concentrations of Zn in the studies vegetables were higher than the permissible levels set by FAO/WHO (20 mg/kg). The concentration Pb in vegetables varied from 1.73 mg/kg to 27.02 mg/kg. All concentrations of Pb in vegetable were higher than the permissible levels set by FAO/WHO (0.3 mg/kg). Daily intake of Ni, Cr and Pb was higher than the MTDI, so consumption of vegetables from Loumbila vegetable farms can lead to health problems related to Ni, Cr and Pb. In vegetables from LOUMBILA, the estimated daily intake decreased in the following order: Zn > Cu > Pb > Ni > Cr. The Hazard index values for carrot, onion, lettuce, green bean and onion leaves were greater than (>) one (1) which indicates that there might be a potential health risk to those consuming these vegetables. The Target Cancer Risk (TCR) analysis also revealed the potential cancer risk induced by Cu, Ni, Zn, Cr and Pb due to the consumption of carrot, onion leaves, onion, lettuce, green bean, and bell pepper because their TCR values were above the threshold.

Anthocyanins from purple corn affect gut microbiota and metabolome in inflammatory bowel disease patients under infliximab infusion: the SiCURA pilot study

Nowadays,inflammatory bowel disease(IBD)-patient therapies are mainly based on corticosteroid,thiopurine,and immunomodulator treatments.Patients with active disease,that do not respond to corticosteroid and/or thiopurine treatment,can switch to the usage of the chimeric monoclonal antibody infliximab(IFX).However,to date,no treatment appeared to be conclusive in lowering the incidence of IBD relapses.With the aim to increase the effectiveness of IFX treatment,we combined it with an adjuvant purple corn supplementation enriched in anthocyanins.IBD-patients were enrolled before they underwent to the IFX-infusion,and they were allocated in 2 different study arms.Patients in the intervention-arm followed a dietary supplementation with purple corn water-soluble extract,whereas control patients had a daily consumption of red fruit tea.16S rDNA gene-sequencing and high-resolution mass-spectrometry metabo-lipidomics analyses were conducted on stool and sera samples,respectively.As a result,the experimental intervention mainly affected the serum metabolome of IBD-patients by decreasing the concentration of specific lipids.Focusing on IBD patient annotated taxa,a significant decrease in Lactobacillus and Bifi dobacterium relative abundances was found.As far as it concerns the ulcerative colitis patient subset,the experimental intervention led to a decrease in Alistipes and Erysipelotrichaceae UCG-003 genus abundances and a concomitant Parabacteroides increase.On the contrary,after treatment,Crohn’s disease patients did not exhibit metataxonomics differences at the genus level.At the end of the treatment that led to a reshaped microbiota community,the gathered data paves the way for the usage of a specifically designed probiotic supplementation as a valuable strategy for IBD-patients under IFX infusion.

The Role of Lactic Acid Bacteria in Milk Fermentation

Species of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) represent as potential microorganisms and have been widely applied in food fermentation worldwide. Milk fermentation process has been relied on the activity of LAB, where transformation of milk to good quality of fermented milk products made possible. The presence of LAB in milk fermentation can be either as spontaneous or inoculated starter cultures. Both of them are promising cultures to be explored in fermented milk manufacture. LAB have a role in milk fermentation to produce acid which is important as preservative agents and generating flavour of the products. They also produce exopolysaccharides which are essential as texture formation. Considering the existing reports on several health-promoting properties as well as their generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status of LAB, they can be widely used in the developing of new fermented milk products.

Zooplankton composition and distribution in the Lembeh Strait of North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Based on oceanographic survey data in June 2012 in the Lembeh Strait, the zooplankton ecological characteristics such as species composition, individual abundance, dominant species and distribution were analyzed. The results showed that 183 species(including 4 sp.) had been recognized, most of them belonged to copepoda.Cnidaria followed with 43 species(including 1 sp.) were identified. The average abundance of zooplankton was(150.47±58.91) ind./m3. As to the horizontal distribution, the abundance of the zooplankton was higher in the southern waters than in the northern waters. The dominant species in the study area were Lensia subtiloides,Sagitta enflata, Lucifer intermedius, Oikopleura rufescens, Diphyes chamissoni, Creseis acicula, Subeucalanus subcrassus, Temora discaudata, Aglaura hemistoma, Doliolum denticulatum, Canthocalanus pauper, Oikopleura longicauda and Nanomia bijuga. Zooplankton biodiversity indexes were higher in study area than previous study in the other regions. The findings from this study provide important baseline information for future research and monitoring programs.

Antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitor activities of natural compounds isolated from Quercus gilva Blume leaves

Objective: To isolate and investigate antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitor compounds in the leaves of Quercus gilva Blume(Q. gilva).Methods: Dry leaves of Q. gilva were extracted with methanol and the methanolic extract was further separated by silica gel column chromatography using several solvents with increasing polarity. The antioxidant activities of the isolated compounds were evaluated using various in vitro assays: 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity, hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging activity, β-carotene bleaching assay, and reducing power assay. The α-glucosidase inhibitory assay was conducted against α-glucosidase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.Results: Three compounds were isolated and their structures were identii ed as catechin(1), epicatechin(2), and tiliroside(3) using an instrumental analysis. Compound 2 had higher antioxidant activity with inhibitory concentrations(IC50) of(22.55 ± 2.23) μmol/L than that of quercetin, which was used as the standard, with an IC50 of(28.08 ± 2.39) μmol/L, followed by compound 1 with IC50 of(40.86 ± 3.45) μmol/L. On the other hand, compound 3 had the lowest antioxidant activity with an IC50 of(160.24 ± 8.15) μmol/L. However, compound 3 had the highest α-glucosidase inhibitory activity with an IC50 of(28.36 ± 0.11) μmol/L, followed by compounds 1 and 2 with(168.60 ± 5.15) and(920.60 ± 10.10) μmol/L, respectively.Conclusions: The results obtained for the antioxidant activities and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities in a methanolic extract from the leaves of Q. gilva coni rmed the potential of this plant as a source of natural antioxidants and antidiabetic medicine.

A modified averaging scheme with application to the secondary Hopf bifurcation of a delayed van der Pol oscillator

In this paper, a modified averaging scheme is presented for a class of time-delayed vibration systems with slow variables. The new scheme is a combination of the averaging techniques proposed by Hale and by Lehman and Weibel, respectively. The averaged equation obtained from the modified scheme is simple enough but it retains the required information for the local nonlinear dynamics around an equilibrium. As an application of the present method, the delay value for which a secondary Hopf bifurcation occurs is successfully located for a delayed van der Pol oscillator.

Surface physicochemical properties of semi-anthracitic coal from Painan-Sumatra during air oxidation

Painan coals of West Sumatra were selected as semi-anthracitic coal sample for studying the physicochemical properties such as measurement, evaluation and description of the changes of surface characteristic of coal sample and their oxidation in the atmospheric air at a temperature ranging from 105 to 400 ℃ for 30 min. Several methods are adopted to analyze and discuss several phenomena of the oxidized Painan coal surface during oxidation process for the change in the physicochemical properties as determined by Atomic Force Microscope （AFM）, contact angle, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy （FTIR）, Thermogravimetric and Differential Thermal Analysis （TG-DTA） analyses as well as other supporting analytical equipment. AFM analyses revealed some changes in adhesion force and surface morphology with more adhesion force available between 0.6 and 8.6 nN on polished coal surfaces due to the increased oxidation temperature. The study revealed that the extent of hydrophobicity of coal surface decreased with the increased of oxidation temperature expressed as contact angles at about 80° and 20°. Another phenomenon occurred during the experiment was hydrophilicity index of coal surface increase at approximately 1.3 and 2.9. Oxidation of coal that occurred with increased temperature also indicated an increase in oxygen content from 3.8% to 22.9 wt%. Increased oxygen functional group also noted that oxidation of coal took place during the treatment. We also found that oxidation treatment also affected the combustion properties of coal： decreasing ignition temperature between 452.9 and 317.6, lowering the reactivity of coal at maximum combustion rate temperature, and reflecting their char characteristics as burnt out, ranging from 652.3 to 648.5 ℃.

An ecological survey of the abundance and diversity of benthic macrofauna in Indonesian multispecific seagrass beds

Seagrasses are one of the most productive ecosystems in coastal areas and support a wide variety of associated fauna. The tropical Indo-Pacific region is considered to have the highest diversity of seagrass plant species and the largest distribution areas of seagrass, yet the seagrass macrofauna in this region are poorly understood. To help fill this gap in our knowledge, an ecological survey was conducted to describe the abundance and diversity of benthic macrofauna from tropical seagrass beds and to determine between-station variations within a transect and between-site variations in macrofaunal abundance, taxa richness and community structure. Benthic macrofaunal samples associated with seagrass beds were collected with a core sampler on the east coast of North Sulawesi in May 2014 and on the west coast in October 2015. A total of 149 species from 14 higher taxa was collected. The most species-rich groups were polychaetes（56 species, 26% of total individual numbers）, decapods（20 species, 9% of total numbers） and amphipods（18 species, 35% of total numbers）. Between-station variations within a transect displayed different patterns between the east coast and the west coast. On the east coast, there were marked variations in abundance between stations within a transect for the macrofauna and amphipod assemblages. Both taxa richness and abundance varied with station for the macrofauna and polychaete assemblages on the west coast, resulting from the heterogeneity of the substrate along a transect. One-way ANOSIM together with MDS ordination indicated that macrofaunal community structure in seagrasses differed significantly between the east coast and the west coast, corresponding with the division of seagrasses into two broad categories of habitats, i.e.,mangrove-seagrass-reef continuum and seagrass-reef continuum. Compared with other studies in tropical areas,the abundance and diversity of benthic macrofauna in the present study were moderate. The reason for the two markedly distinct macrofaunal communities might be attributed to multiple factors, including sediment pattern,seagrass structure and temporal changes.

Synthesis of Nanostructured Copper-doped Titania and Its Properties

Nanostructured pure-Ti O_2 and Cu3%-Ti O_2 were successfully synthesized via co-precipitation method. The X-ray diffraction(XRD) result proves that the synthesized sample were predominantly in anatase phase with size in the range of 8～16 nm, which are in good agreement with the transmission electron microscopy data. Owing to doping of copper, not only did the thermal stability of the Ti O_2 decrease, but also a significant decrease in its particle size and a shift of the adsorption edge to a higher wavelength region appear. The activity of both pure-Ti O_2 and Cu3%-doped Ti O_2 was tested to study their ability to decolorize congo red(CR) dye in aqueous solution. We observed that the CR dye was decolorized faster by Cu3%-Ti O_2 than pure-Ti O_2. Results of this study demonstrate a potential application of the synthesized sample for decolorizing dye pollutants from aqueous waste.

OsSCE1 Encoding SUMO E2-Conjugating Enzyme Involves in Drought Stress Response of Oryza sativa

Small ubiquitin-like modifier(SUMO)-conjugating enzymes are involved in post-translational regulatory processes in eukaryotes, including the conjugation of SUMO peptides to protein substrate(SUMOylation). SUMOylation plays an important role in improving plant tolerance to abiotic stress such as salt, drought, heat and cold. Herein, we reported the isolation of OsSCE1(LOC_Os10 g39120) gene encoding a SUMO-conjugating enzyme from rice(Oryza sativa cv. Nipponbare) and its functional validation in response to drought stress. The E2 enzyme, Os SCE1, is one of three key enzymes involved in the conjugation of SUMO to its target proteins. Activated SUMO is transferred to the cysteine of an E2 enzyme and then to the target lysine residue of the substrate, with or without the help of an E3 SUMO ligase. Expression of OsSCE1 was strongly induced by polyethylene glycol 6000(PEG6000) treatment, which suggested OsSCE1 may be involved in the drought stress response. Overexpression of OsSCE1(OsSCE1-OX) in Nipponbare reduced the tolerance to drought stress. Conversely, the drought tolerance was slightly improved by the knockdown of OsSCE1(OsSCE1-KD). These results were further supported by measurement of proline content in OsSCE1-OX and OsSCE1-KD transgenic lines under induced drought stress, which showed OsSCE1-KD transgenic lines accumulated higher proline content than the wild type, whereas OsSCE1-OX line had lower proline content than the wild type. These findings suggested OsSCE1 may play a role as a negative regulator in response to drought stress in rice.