A new species in the genus Diaonidia Takahashi(Hemiptera:Coccomorpha:Diaspididae)from China

A new armoured scale,Diaonidia litsea sp.nov.,is described and illustrated.It was found on Litsea monopetala(Roxb.)Pers.in Hainan,China.This new species can be easily distinguished by:the anterior spiracles each with 2–3 discoidal glands;pygidium with 2 pairs of well-developed lobes,and the area around mouthpart strongly sclerotized.An identification key to the adult females in the genus Diaonidia is also provided.

Data Flow Analysis and Formal Method

Exceptions are those abnormal data flow which needs additional calculation to deal with. Exception analysis concerned abnormal flow contains a lot of research content, such as exception analysis method, program verification. This article introduces another research direction of exception analysis which based on formal method. The article analyses and summarizes those research literatures referring exception analysis and exception handling logic verification based on formal reasoning and model checking. In the article, we provide an overview of the relationship and difference between traditional ideas and formal method concerning program exception analysis. In the end of the article, we make some ideas about exception analysis based on formal semantic study of procedure calls. Exception handling is seen as a special semantic effect of procedures calls.

Melatonin influences the biological characteristics of keloid fibroblasts through the Erk and Smad signalling pathways

Background:Keloids are abnormal fibrous hyperplasias that are difficult to treat.Melatonin can be used to inhibit the development of certain fibrotic diseases but has never been used to treat keloids.We aimed to discover the effects and mechanisms of melatonin in keloid fibroblasts(KFs).Methods:Flow cytometry,CCK-8 assays,western blotting,wound-healing assays,transwell assays,collagen gel contraction assays and immunofluorescence assays were applied to demonstrate the effects and mechanisms of melatonin in fibroblasts derived from normal skin,hypertrophic scars and keloids.The therapeutic potential of the combination of melatonin and 5-fluorouracil(5-FU)was investigated in KFs.Results:Melatonin significantly promoted cell apoptosis and inhibited cell proliferation,migration and invasion,contractile capability and collagen production in KFs.Further mechanistic studies demonstrated that melatonin could inhibit the cAMP/PKA/Erk and Smad pathways through the membrane receptor MT2 to alter the biological characteristics of KFs.Moreover,the combination of melatonin and 5-FU remarkably promoted cell apoptosis and inhibited cell migration and invasion,contractile capability and collagen production in KFs.Furthermore,5-FU suppressed the phosphorylation of Akt,mTOR,Smad3 and Erk,and melatonin in combination with 5-FU markedly suppressed the activation of the Akt,Erk and Smad pathways.Conclusions:Collectively,melatonin may inhibit the Erk and Smad pathways through the mem-brane receptor MT2 to alter the cell functions of KFs,while combination with 5-FU could exert even more inhibitory effects in KFs through simultaneous suppression of multiple signalling pathways.

A new genus and species of Phenacoccinae(Hemiptera:Coccomorpha:Pseudococcidae)from northwestern China

A new genus and species,Sananicoccus nanophytoni gen.&sp.nov.,is described and illustrated based on its adult female,adult male,first-instar nymph and pupa,collected on the leaves of Nanophyton erinaceum(Pall.)Bunge(Chenopodiaceae)from Xinjiang.The new genus is similar to the genus Synacanthococcus Morrison,1920,but differs by the absence of ostioles and dorsal cerarii,and no cerarii situated on a prominent sclerotized area.

Isolation and characterization of a thermophilic Bacillus shackletonii K5 from a biotrickling filter for the production of polyhydroxybutyrate

Polyhydroxyalkanoates（PHAs） are aliphatic polyesters accumulated intracellularly by both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. However, compared to the PHAs of Gramnegative bacteria, few endotoxins（lipopolysaccharides, LPS）, which would be co-purified with PHAs and cause immunogenic reactions, are found in the PHAs produced by Gram-positive bacteria. A thermophilic Gram-positive bacterium K5, which exhibited good growth and polyhydroxybutyrate（PHB）-accumulating ability, has been isolated and characterized from a biotrickling filter designed for the removal of NOx from flue gas in a coal-fired power plant in China. Based on the biochemical characterization and 16 S rRNA gene sequence（Genbank accession no. JX437933）, the strain K5 has been identified as Bacillus shackletonii, which has rarely been reported in the literature, and this report is the first time that B. shackletonii has been found to accumulate PHB. The strain K5 was able to utilize glucose as carbon source to synthesize PHB at a broad range of temperatures（from 35 to 50 °C）, and the ideal temperature was 45 °C. The strain K5 could effectively yield PHB of up to 69.9% of its cell dry weight（CDW）（2.28 g/L） in flask experiments employing glucose as carbon source at 45 °C, followed by 56.8% and 52.3% of its CDW when using sodium succinate and glycerol as carbon source, respectively. For batch cultivation, the strain K5 was able to produce PHB of up to 72.6% of its cell dry weight（9.76 g/L） employing glucose as carbon source at 45 °C and pH 7.0.

Hybrid microbial electrolytic/UV system for highly efficient organic pollutants removal

This study for the first time proposed an efficient microbial electrolyte/UV system for Methyl Orange decomposition. With an external applied voltage of 0.2 V and cathode aeration of20 mL/min, H2O2 could be in-situ generated from two-electron reduction of oxygen in cathode, reaching to 8.1 mg/L in 2 hr and continued to increase. The pollutant removal efficiency of approximate 94.7% was achieved at initial neutral pH, with the activation of ·OH in the presence of UV illumination. Although the nature of its guiding principles remain on the vista of practical exploration, this proof-of-concept study provides an alternative operation pattern of solar–microbial hybrid technology for future wastewater treatment from a basic but multidisciplinary view.

In situ preparation of visible-light-driven carbon quantum dots/NaBiO3 hybrid materials for the photoreduction of Cr(Ⅵ)

In this study,different carbon quantum dots(CQDs)/NaBiO3 hybrid materials were synthesized as photocatalysts to effectively utilize visible light for the photocatalytic degradation of contaminants effectively.These hybrid materials exhibit an enhanced photocatalytic reduction of hexavalent chromium(Cr(Ⅵ))in the aqueous medium.Zero-dimensional nanoparticles of CQDs were embedded within the two-dimensional NaBiO3 nanosheets by the hydrothermal process.Compared with that of the pure NaBiO3 nanosheets,the photocatalytic performance of the hybrid catalysts was significantly high and 6 wt.%CQDs/NaBiO3 catalyst exhibited better photocatalytic performance.We performed the first-principles density functional theory calculations to study the interfacial properties of pure NaBiO3 nanosheets and hybrid photocatalysts,and confirmed the CQDs played an important role in the CQDs/NaBiO3 composites.The experimental results indicated that the enhanced reduction of Cr(Ⅵ)was probably due to the high loading of CQDs(electron acceptor)on NaBiO3,which made NaBiO3 nanomaterials to respond in visible light and significantly improved their electron-hole separation efficiency.