Genetic diversity and inferred ancestry of Asian lotus(Nelumbo nucifera) germplasms in Thailand and Vietnam

Tropical lotus(Nelumbo) is an important and unique ecological type of lotus germplasm.Understanding the genetic relationship and diversity of the tropical lotus is necessary for its sustainable conservation and utilization.Using 42 EST-SSR(expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeats) and 30 SRAP(sequence-related amplified polymorphism) markers,we assessed the genetic diversity and inferred the ancestry of representative tropical lotus from Thailand and Vietnam.In total,164 and 41 polymorphic bands were detected in 69 accessions by 36 EST-SSR and seven SRAP makers,respectively.Higher genetic diversity was revealed in Thai lotus than in Vietnamese lotus.A Neighbor-Joining tree of five main clusters was constructed using combined EST-SSR and SRAP markers.Cluster Ⅰ included 17 accessions of Thai lotus;cluster Ⅱ contained three Thai accessions and 11 accessions from southern Vietnam;and cluster Ⅲ was constituted by 13 accessions of seed lotus.Consistent with the results from the NeighborJoining tree,the genetic structure analysis showed that the genetic background of most Thai and Vietnamese lotus was pure,as artificial breeding has been rare in both countries.Furthermore,these analyses indicate that Thai and Vietnamese lotus germplasms belong to two different gene pools or populations.Most lotus accessions are genetically related to geographical distribution patterns in Thailand or Vietnam.Our findings showed that the origin or genetic relationships of some unidentified lotus sources can be evaluated by comparing morphological characteristics and the data of molecular markers.In addition,these findings provide reliable information for the targeted conservation of tropical lotus and parent selection in breeding novel cultivars of lotus.

Isotope and REE Characterization of Groundwater Aquifers within the Aquifer Storage and Recovery Programme in Sukhothai (N.-Thailand)

Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) was a pilot project for solving flood and drought problem in the northern part of Chao Phraya River basin, Thailand. This part of Thailand always faces flooding in rainy season and drought during dry season every year. The overexploitation of groundwater during dry season leads to continuously decline of water level in this area. In this project, the excessive surface water during rainy season was stored by injection of this treated surface water through recharge wells into the underground aquifers. This would serve to raise the water level, which can be extracted for use during the dry season. To assess the efficiency of the ASR process some tracers are required. The aim of this study is to prove the suitability of natural tracers to follow up the artificial recharge process;emphasis will be placed on Strontium (Sr) isotopic composition. The results showed that the change in 87Sr/86Sr ratios could be observed during an artificial recharge due to the different isotopic fingerprint of surface water and groundwater. However, the flow direction of the injected water cannot be clearly interpreted because of the limited number of monitoring wells, small distance between each monitoring well and the short duration of injection.

Impact of E×B flow shear stabilization on particle confinement and density peaking at JET

The impact of the E×B flow shear stabilization on particle transport and density peaking at JET is analyzed in the framework of integrated modelling with the CRONOS code.For that purpose,plasmas from a power scan which show a significant increasing of density peaking with the injected neutral beam injection power have been used as a modeling basis.By means of simulations with the quasilinear model GLF23 for the heat and particle transport,a strong link between the particle confinement and E×B flow shear stabilization is found.This is particularly important close to the pedestal region where the particle pinch direction becomes strongly inward for high E×B flow shear values.Such impact introduces some non-negligible deviation from the well-known collisonality dependence of the density peaking,whose general trend has been also obtained in the framework of this modelling by performing pedestal density scans.

Bifunctional mixed rare earth solid catalyst for biodiesel production from acid palm oil

Solid mixed rare earth catalysts(MREEs)were synthesized by co-precipitation of raw mixed rare earth hydroxide cake obtained from monazite ore processing at different pH values(6,7 and 12).The wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy(WDXRF)results show that MREEs catalyst coprecipitated at pH 12 contain high contents of active Ce,Nd,La and Y for facilitating both esterification and transesterification reactions.The synthesized MREE by co-precipitated at pH 12 and calcined at300℃possess high amounts of Lewis basic and acidic sites,allowing it to act as bifunctional catalyst.The catalyst shows high catalytic activity for the accelerating of the initial reaction rate and converting triglycerides/free fatty acid(FFA)into fatty acid methyl ester(FAME)in both esterification and transesterification reactions.Under the reaction conditions of 3 wt%catalyst,20:1 methanol/oil molar ratio,200℃reaction temperature,3.9 MPa reaction pressure and 600 r/min stirring rate,FAME conversion reaches 99.57%in 180 min of reaction time.