A Study of the Microbial Community at the Interface between Granite Bedrock and Soil Using a Culture-Independent and Culture-Dependent Approach

The dissolution of minerals plays an important role in the formation of soils and sediments. In nutrient limiting soils, minerals constitute a major reservoir of bio-essential cations. Of particular interest is granite as it is the major rock type of the continental land mass. Although certain bacteria have been shown to enhance weathering of granite-forming minerals, little is known about the dissolution of granite, at the whole rock scale, and the microbial community involved. In this study, both culture-independent and culture-dependent approaches were used to study the bacterial community at the interface between granite bedrock and nutrient limiting soil in Dartmoor National Park, United Kingdom. High throughput sequencing demonstrated that over 70% of the bacterial population consisted of the bacterial classes Bacilli, Beta-proteobacteria and Gamma-proteo-bacteria. Bacteria belonging to the genera Serratia, Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Chromo-bacterium and Burkholderia were isolated from the sample site. All of the isolates were able to grow in a minimal growth medium, which contained glucose and ammonium chloride, with granite as the sole source of bio-essential elements. Sixty six percent of the isolates significantly enhanced basalt dissolution (p < 0.05). Dissolution of Si, K, Ca and Mg correlated with production of oxalic acid and acidification. The results of this study suggest that microorganisms in nutrient limiting soils can enhance the rate of granite dissolution, which is an important part of the biogeochemical cycle.

对农业废弃物和木材残渣进行生物炼制以生产可再生燃料

农业废弃物和木材残渣是生产乙醇和聚合物前体的潜在来源。生物质的使用有可能取代石油和煤炭，从而减少温室气体的排放。美国的生物炼制倡议包括6个主要的商业示范项目，开发更好的生物催化剂的研发新项目，进行新原料和转化技术创造的长期努力。要用生物质生产燃料和化学品，首先必须释放半纤维素糖类和预处理残余纤维素，然后还要水解和发酵所有可用糖。

Reflections on the security proofs of Boneh-Franklin identity-based encryption scheme

In this paper, we first review the existing proofs of the Boneh-Franklin identity-based encryption scheme (BF-IBE for short), and show how to admit a new proof by slightly modifying the specifications of the hash functions of the original BF-IBE. Compared with prior proofs, our new proof provides a tighter security reduction and minimizes the use of random oracles, thus indicates BF-IBE has better provable security with our new choices of hash functions. The techniques developed in our proof can also be applied to improving security analysis of some other IBE schemes. As an independent technical contribution, we also give a rigorous proof of the Fujisaki-Okamoto (FO) transformation in the case of CPA-to-CCA, which demonstrates the efficiency of the FO-transformation (CPA-to-CCA), in terms of the tightness of security reduction, has long been underestimated. This result can remarkably benefit the security proofs of encryption schemes using the FO-transformation for CPA-to-CCA enhancement.

Which metal represents the greatest risk to freshwater ecosystem in bohai region of china?

Metals discharged from industrial effluents,agricultural wastewater,and sewage runoff by rapid urbanization are of concern as contaminants of freshwater ecosystem because of their persistence and high toxicity to aquatic organisms.This study attempted to identify which metal posed the greatest risk to freshwater ecosystem in the Bohai Region,China.The metals arsenic(As),cadmium(Cd),chromium(Cr),copper(Cu),zinc(Zn),lead(Pb),nickel(Ni),mercury(Hg),iron(Fe),and manganese(Mn)were compared against norfloxacin and gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane(lindane).By comparing the median reported environmental and ecotoxicity concentrations,it showed that Cu,Fe,Zn,Mn,and Cr were the top five metals of concern.Of these,Cu was deemed to represent the highest risk and Hg the lowest risk.The risks for all metals were higher than those for norfloxacin and lindane.Almost all the metals except Hg had water concentrations that exceeded levels where ecotoxicity effects had been recorded in the literature.A comparison with the measurements across the UK rivers suggested that all metals examined had water concentrations about 5-to 10-fold higher than the UK median values except for Cu,Fe,Cd,and Pb.The Fuyang River,a tributary of the Haihe River Basin,seemed to be the location with the highest metal concentrations.However,comparing the post-2010 period to 2000-2009,concentrations of all the metals had fallen except for Fe and Mn,so risks have decreased over the last 7 yr with the greatest improvements for Cd and Pb.While metals still pose high risks to freshwater ecosystem in this region,there is encouragement that some control measures are taken into effect.

Taxonomy of Pseudolagarobasidium(Polyporales,Basidiomycota)

Pseudolagarobasidium(Polyporales,Basidiomycota)is a small,monophyletic genus of crustose,wood-inhabiting fungi with spines and a saprobic,endophytic,or parasitic habit.Seven species are accepted in the genus including two new species,P.belizense from Belize and P.pusillum from Australia.Sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer of the ribosomal RNA gene places P.belizense in a monophyletic clade with P.acaciicola and an undescribed foliar endophyte.New combinations proposed include P.modestum for Irpex modestus Berk.,P.pronum for Hydnum pronum Berk.&Broome which is an earlier name for P.calcareum,and P.venustum for Radulodon venustus Hjortstam&Ryvarden.Irpex colliculosum Berk.&Broome from Sri Lanka is conspecific with P.subvinosum.Two species,Sistotrema ochroleucum and Radulum concentricum are not accepted in Pseudolagarobasidium.Pseudolagarobasidium is compared with Radulodon and similar genera.A key to the species of Pseudolagarobasidium is provided.

Geomorphological monitoring of a highly dynamic estuary using oblique aerial photographs

Bad weather in many countries limits the use of optical satellite imageries in spatial and temporal monitoring of the environment.In this paper,a series of lowaltitude oblique aerial photos taken on daily,weekly and monthly intervals were used to monitor the geomorphological changes in the upper part of the Mersey Estuary,northwestern England.This low-altitude aerial photo methodology reveals itself to be a satisfying compromise between cost,accuracy and difficulty of implementation.It offered a large amount of information on a spatial and temporal scale aiding in the understanding of channel mobility.This was an important consideration in the sitting and installation of new bridge pier foundations.This series of oblique aerial photos was used in a dynamic model to determine the migration of the ebb channel and was effective in identifying the main route of flow.Few uncertainties were encountered and the level of accuracy achieved in resolving these uncertainties in the images was in the range from 40 cm to a maximum of 1.7 m.This was compared with historical navigation charts and showed good correlation.Further applications are required to improve the quality of the data output from these images and the development of the technique.

Molecular phylogeny, morphology, pigment chemistry and ecology in Hygrophoraceae (Agaricales)

Molecular phylogenies using 1–4 gene regions and information on ecology,morphology and pigment chemistry were used in a partial revision of the agaric family Hygrophoraceae.The phylogenetically supported genera we recognize here in the Hygrophoraceae based on these and previous analyses are:Acantholichen,Ampulloclitocybe,Arrhenia,Cantharellula,Cantharocybe,Chromosera,Chrysomphalina,Cora,Corella,Cuphophyllus,Cyphellostereum,Dictyonema,Eonema,Gliophorus,Haasiella,Humidicutis,Hygroaster,Hygrocybe,Hygrophorus,Lichenomphalia,Neohygrocybe,Porpolomopsis and Pseudoarmillariella.A new genus that is sister to Chromosera is described as Gloioxanthomyces.Revisions were made at the ranks of subfamily,tribe,genus,subgenus,section and subsection.We present three new subfamilies,eight tribes(five new),eight subgenera(one new,one new combination and one stat.nov.),26 sections(five new and three new combinations and two stat.nov.)and 14 subsections(two new,two stat.nov.).Species of Chromosera,Gliophorus,Humidicutis,and Neohygrocybe are often treated within the genus Hygrocybe;we therefore provide valid names in both classification systems.We used a minimalist approach in transferring genera and creating new names and combinations.Consequently,we retain in the Hygrophoraceae the basal cuphophylloid grade comprising the genera Cuphophyllus,Ampulloclitocybe andCantharocybe,despite weak phylogenetic support.We include Aeruginospora and Semiomphalina in Hygrophoraceae based on morphology though molecular data are lacking.The lower hygrophoroid clade is basal to Hygrophoraceae s.s.,comprising the genera Aphroditeola,Macrotyphula,Phyllotopsis,Pleurocybella,Sarcomyxa,Tricholomopsis and Typhula.

Improving ITS sequence data for identification of plant pathogenic fungi

Plant pathogenic fungi are a large and diverse assemblage of eukaryotes with substantial impacts on natural ecosystems and human endeavours.These taxa often have complex and poorly understood life cycles,lack observable,discriminatory morphological characters,and may not be amenable to in vitro culturing.As a result,species identification is frequently difficult.Molecular(DNA sequence)data have emerged as crucial information for the taxonomic identification of plant pathogenic fungi,with the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer(ITS)region being the most popular marker.However,international nucleotide sequence databases are accumulating numerous sequences of compromised or low-resolution taxonomic annotations and substandard technical quality,making their use in the molecular identification of plant pathogenic fungi problematic.Here we report on a concerted effort to identify high-quality reference sequences for various plant pathogenic fungi and to re-annotate incorrectly or insufficiently annotated public ITS sequences from these fungal lineages.A third objective was to enrich the sequences with geographical and ecological metadata.The results-a total of 31,954 changes-are incorporated in and made available through the UNITE database for molecular identification of fungi(http://unite.ut.ee),including standalone FASTA files of sequence data for local BLAST searches,use in the next-generation sequencing analysis platforms QIIME and mothur,and related applications.The present initiative is just a beginning to cover the wide spectrum of plant pathogenic fungi,and we invite all researchers with pertinent expertise to join the annotation effort.