Effects of Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Red and Blue Light on the Growth and Photosynthetic Characteristics of <i>Momordica charantia</i>L.

With andromonoecious Momordica charantia L. (bitter gourd) as material, three light qualities (50 μmol·m-2·s-1) including white LED light (WL), blue monochromatic light (B, 465 nm), and red monochromatic light (R, 650 nm) were carried out to investigate their effects on seed germination, physiological and biochemical parameters, sex differentiation and photosynthetic characteristics of bitter gourd. The results showed that compared to the WL treatment, the R treatment significantly promoted seed germination, seedling height elongation and soluble sugar content, the B treatment significantly increased seedling stem diameter, reducing sugar content and soluble protein content, the R and B treatments both significantly reduced sucrose content, but their POD activity showed no significant difference. Compared with the R treatment, the B treatment significantly increased the total female flower number and female flower nod ratio in 30 nods of main stems. The study of photosynthetic characteristics found that the R and B treatments could effectively increase the stomatal conductance (GS) of leaves, significantly improved the net photosynthetic rate (Pn) compared to the WL treatment, and the effect of the B treatment was better. Compared to the R and WL treatments, the B treatment increased the maximum photosynthetic rate (Pmax), apparent quantum efficiency (AQE) and light saturation point (LSP), and reduced the dark respiration rate (Rd) and light compensation point (LCP) of the leaves. Fit light response curves showed that the adaptability and utilization of weak light in bitter gourd were middle or below, but it showed higher adaptability and utilization of strong light. Thus, it suggests that Momordica charantia is a typical sun plan with lower Rd. In summary, it is concluded that blue light has a positive effect on the seed germination, seedling growth, sex differentiation and improving the photosynthetic performance, and this will lay the foundation for artificially regulating optimum photosynthesis using specific LEDs wavelength, and help to elucidate the relationship how light quality influences the sex differentiation of plant.

General and Modular Access to Enantioenriched α-Trifluoromethyl Ketones via Nickel-Catalyzed Reductive Trifluoroalkylation

The development of new catalytic enantioselective access to stereogenic CF_(3)-containingmolecules is of great interest for expediting the discovery of lead compounds that remain challenging.Specifically,enantioselective synthesis of valuable ketones featuring stereogenicα-CF_(3) has rarely been reported.We devise a general and modular approach to facilely access enantioenrichedα-CF_(3) ketones via nickel-catalyzed reductive cross-coupling of readily available acid chlorides and racemicα-CF_(3) alkyl bromides in an enantioconvergent fashion under mild conditions.This protocol features neighboring directing group-free,high chemoselectivity,excellent functional group tolerance,facile scale-up,and notable amenability to straightforward downstream elaboration toward pharmaceutically useful enantioenrichedβ-trifluoromethylated secondary and tertiary alcohols,thus constituting a reliable,direct,practical,and efficient synthetic alternative to furnish enantiopureα-CF_(3) carbonyls.Interestingly,an appropriate choice of the phosphine ligand as coligand plays an important role in high efficiency and asymmetric induction.Mechanistic studies suggest a radical chain pathway.

Advanced nitrogen and phosphorus removal in A^(2)O-BAF system treating low carbon-to-nitrogen ratio domestic wastewater

A laboratory-scale anaerobic-anoxic-aerobic process(A^(2)O)with a small aerobic zone and a bigger anoxic zone and biologic aerated filter(A^(2)O-BAF)system was operated to treat low carbon-to-nitrogen ratio domestic wastewater.The A^(2)O process was employed mainly for organic matter and phosphorus removal,and for denitrification.The BAF was only used for nitrification which coupled with a settling tank Compared with a conventional A^(2)O process,the suspended activated sludge in this A^(2)OBAF process contained small quantities of nitrifier,but nitrification overwhelmingly conducted in BAF.So the system successfully avoided the contradiction in sludge retention time(SRT)between nitrifying bacteria and phosphorus accumulating organisms(PAOs).Denitrifying phosphorus accumulating organisms(DPAOs)played an important role in removing up to 91%of phosphorus along with nitrogen,which indicated that the suspended activated sludge process presented a good denitrifying phosphorus removal performance.The average removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand(COD),total nitrogen(TN),total phosphorus(TP),and NH_(4)^(+)-N were 85.56%,92.07%,81.24%and 98.7%respectively.The effluent quality consistently satisfied the national first level A effluent discharge standard of China.The average sludge volume index(SVI)was 85.4 mL·g^(-1)additionally,the volume ratio of anaerobic,anoxic and aerobic zone in A^(2)O process was also investigated,and the results demonstrated that the optimum value was 1:6:2.