Variation in Enzymes Activities of Rhizospheric Substrate and Influencing Factors during Nursing of Watermelon Seedlings

[Objective] This study aimed to investigate the effects of substrate en- zymes activities on nursing of watermelon seedlings. [Method] The composted mushroom residue was mixed with garden soil according to a certain proportion to prepare nursing substrate for watermelon seedlings. During the nursing, the activity variation in alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, neutral phosphatase and urease was investigated. In addition, the correlations between pH value, total nitrogen con- tent, total phosphorus content and organic matter content in substrate and enzyme activity were studied. At different young seedling stages, the rhizospheric substrates with different formulas were sampled for determination of enzymes activities. [Result] The enzyme activity differed significantly among different substrates. The correlation analysis results showed that the higher the organic matter content and total nitrogen content in substrate are, the higher the urease activity is; the phosphatase activity was significantly related to the organic matter content, total nitrogen content and to- tal phosphorus content in substrate; the pH value of substrate was significantly relat- ed to rhizospheric alkaline phosphatase activity; the shoot dry weight was positively related to urease activity; there was a significant correlation between phosphatase activity and root dry weight. [Conclusion] Through determining enzymes activities in the rhizospheric substrate for nursing watermelon seedlings, the optimum substrate M3 was screened out. The activities of rhizospheric urease, alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase and neutral phosphatase in the substrate M3 were all higher than those in the substrate fertilized with manure.

Interfacial Bonding Strength of TiN Film Coated on Si_3N_4 Ceramic Substrate

The fraction of TiN/Si3N4 in the cross section was observed with scanning electric microscope （SEM）, and residual stresses of TiN coated on the surface of Si3N4 ceramic were measured with X-ray diffraction （XRD）.The hardness of TiN film was measured, and bonding strength of TiN film coated on Si3N4 substrate was measured by scratching method. The formed mechanism of residual stress and the failure mechanism of the bonding interface in the film were analyzed, and the adhesion mechanism of TiN film was investigated preliminarily. The results show that residual stresses of TiN film are all behaved as compressive stress, and TiN film is represented smoothly with brittle fracture, which is closely bonded with Si3N4 substrate. TiN film has high hardness and bonding strength of about 500 MPa, which could satisfy usage requests of the surface of cutting Si3N4 ceramic.

Phosphate adsorption performance of a novel filter substrate made from drinking water treatment residuals

Phosphate is one of the most predominant pollutants in natural waters. Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the phosphate adsorption performance of a（NFS） made from drinking water treatment residuals. The adsorption of phosphate on the NFS fitted well with the Freundlich isotherm and pseudo second-order kinetic models. At p H 7.0, the maximum adsorption capacity of 1.03 mg/g was achieved at 15°C corresponding to the wastewater temperature in cold months, and increased notably to 1.31 mg/g at 35°C.Under both acidic conditions（part of the adsorption sites was consumed） and basic conditions（negative charges formed on the surface of NFS, which led to a static repulsion of PO43-and HPO42-）, the adsorption of phosphate was slightly inhibited. Further study showed that part of the adsorption sites could be recovered by 0.25 mol/L Na OH. The activation energy was calculated to be above 8.0 k J/mol, indicating that the adsorption of phosphate on NFS was probably a chemical process. Considering the strong phosphate adsorption capacity and recoverability, NFS showed great promise on enhancing phosphate removal from the secondary treated wastewater in the filtration process.