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Maize growth, organ development, and yield formation are highly controlled by the manner in which the plant captures, partition, and remobilizes biomass and phosphorus (P). Better understanding of biomass and P accumulation, partition, and remobilization processes will improve modeling of crop resource use. However, there is still a lack of detailed data to parameterize the modeling of these processes, particularly for modern maize cultivars. A two-year (2016 and 2017) field experiment with three P fertilization treatments (0 (P0), 75 (P75), and 300 (P300) kg P2O5 ha−1) was conducted on a Fluvo-aquic soil (Quzhou, Hebei province, China) to collect data and quantify key processes for a representative modern maize cultivar (Zhengdan 958) widely grown in China. The proportions of biomass and P partitioned into various maize organs were unaffected by P application rate. Zhengdan 958 showed a much lower leaf-senescence rate than older cultivars, resulting in post-silking leaf photosynthesis being sufficient to meet grain biomass demand. In contrast, 50%–85% of leaf P and 15%–50% of stem P accumulated pre-silking were remobilized into grain, in spite of the large proportion of post-silking P uptake. Our results are consistent with the theory that plants use resources according to the priority order of re-allocation from senescence followed by assimilation and uptake, with the re-translocation of reserves last. The results also enabled us to estimate the threshold P concentrations of Zhengdan 958 for modeling crop P demand. The critical leaf P concentration for individual leaves was 0.25%–0.30%, with a corresponding specific leaf P (SLP) of 75–100 mg P m−2. The structural P concentration for leaf was 0.01%, corresponding to an SLP of 3.8 mg P m−2. The maximum P concentrations of leaves and stems were 0.33% and 0.29%. The residual P concentration for stems was 0.006%.

This paper presents a novel algorithm driven by the minimization of the transport function for the partitioning of water distribution networks (WDNs) into district metered areas (DMAs). The algorithm is based on the linear programming (LP) embedded inside a multi-objective genetic algorithm, which enables engineering criteria, such as the minimization of the boundary pipes and the maximization of the uniformity of DMAs, to be considered in the partitioning. Furthermore, the application of the algorithm on the dual network topology based on segments and valves guarantees that configurations of DMAs that respect the real positions of isolation valves for WDN partitioning are obtained. After being described on a small WDN, it is successfully validated on a large size WDN, proving better performance than other algorithms in the scientific literature for the generation of engineeringly appealing DMA configurations, with almost identical hydraulic performance to the unpartitioned WDN. HIGHLIGHTS A clustering based on transport function minimization is proposed.; The dual topology based on segments and valves enables the real valve positions to be considered in WDN partitioning.; The transport function minimization by LP is embedded in the multi-objective optimization to incorporate engineering judgment criteria.; Engineeringly appealing DMA configurations are obtained in the applications to a real WDN.;

N-donor ligands such as n-Pr-BTP [2,6-bis(5,6-dipropyl-1,2,4-triazin-3-yl)pyridine] preferentially bind trivalent actinides (An3+) over trivalent lanthanides (Ln3+) in liquid–liquid separation. However, the chemical and physical processes responsible for this selectivity are not yet well understood. Here, an explorative comparative X-ray spectroscopy and computational (L3-edge) study for the An/Ln L3-edge and the N K-edge of [An/Ln(n-Pr-BTP)3](NO3)3, [Ln(n-Pr-BTP)3](CF3SO3)3 and [Ln(n-Pr-BTP)3](ClO4)3 complexes is presented. High-resolution X-ray absorption near-edge structure (HR-XANES) L3-edge data reveal additional features in the pre- and post-edge range of the spectra that are investigated using the quantum chemical codes FEFF and FDMNES. X-ray Raman spectroscopy studies demonstrate the applicability of this novel technique for investigations of liquid samples of partitioning systems at the N K-edge.

Abstract Phylogenetic analysis has entered the genomics (multilocus) era. For less experienced researchers, conquering the large number of software programs required for a multilocus‐based phylogenetic reconstruction can be somewhat daunting and time‐consuming. PhyloSuite, a software with a user‐friendly GUI, was designed to make this process more accessible by integrating multiple software programs needed for multilocus and single‐gene phylogenies and further streamlining the whole process. In this protocol, we aim to explain how to conduct each step of the phylogenetic pipeline and tree‐based analyses in PhyloSuite. We also present a new version of PhyloSuite (v1.2.3), wherein we fixed some bugs, made some optimizations, and introduced some new functions, including a number of tree‐based analyses, such as signal‐to‐noise calculation, saturation analysis, spurious species identification, and etc. The step‐by‐step protocol includes background information (i.e., what the step does), reasons (i.e., why do the step), and operations (i.e., how to do it). This protocol will help researchers quick‐start their way through the multilocus phylogenetic analysis, especially those interested in conducting organelle‐based analyses.

In the era of Internet of things and social media huge amount of data are generated day by day from numerous sources. The problem for each and every organization is to tackle with the volume, variety and velocity of data. This data is commonly referred to as “Big Data”. Most of the recent surveys provide the tools and techniques to deal with pace of data. In past decades traditional databases have shown tremendous growth in consistency, durability and isolation of data. But in current trends of data analytics, traditional database are fertile to deal with the volume, variety and velocity of database. In this paper, initially comparison is drawn to check the drawbacks of the existing system. To cope with the problems in existing system a partitioning-based technique is proposed and implemented using NoSQL Database. The final goal of this work is to identify the problems faced in traditional system and accordingly a partitioning based techniques are designed which will optimize the performance of query operation in terms of size and query time. To check the prediction accuracy around the regression line error estimation is used in the scenario. The measurement of speed difference between these proposed scenarios is depending on error estimation. Higher estimation is equal to higher performance. In this work the performance of MongoDB tuning technique is increased approximately by 65% as compare to the performance with default configuration of MongoDB. By using these techniques, the optimization of the system using MongoDB is increased compare to the Neo4j, Oracle 11g and traditional database. The final result shows that MongoDB performs best, followed by and Oracle 11g, Neo4j.

Earth's core formation set the initial compositions of the core and mantle. Various aspects of core formation, such as the degree of metal-silicate equilibration, oxygen fugacity, and depth of equilibration, have significant consequences for the resulting compositions, yet are poorly constrained. The Hf-W isotopic system can provide unique constraints on these aspects relative to other geochemical or geophysical methods. Here we model the Hf-W isotopic evolution of the Earth, improving over previous studies by combining a large number of N-body simulations of planetary accretion with a core formation model that includes self-consistent evolution of oxygen fugacity and a partition coefficient of tungsten that evolves with changing pressure, temperature, composition, and oxygen fugacity. The effective average fraction of equilibrating metal is constrained to be k > 0.2 for a range of equilibrating silicate masses (for canonical accretion scenarios), and is likely

The phosphonium-based optical probes attract ever growing interest due to their excellent chemical and photophysical stability, high aqueous solubility, long wavelength absorption and emission, large extinction coefficient, high fluorescence quantum yield, low cytotoxicity, etc. The present study was focused on assessing the ability of the novel phosphonium dye TDV to monitor the changes in physicochemical properties of the model lipid membranes. To this end, the fluorescence spectral properties of TDV have been explored in lipid bilayers composed of zwitterionic lipid phosphatidylcholine (PC) and its mixtures with cholesterol (Chol) or/and anionic phospholipid cardiolipin (CL). It was observed that in the buffer solution TDV possesses one well-defined fluorescence peak with the emission maximum at 533 nm. The dye transfer from the aqueous to lipid phase was followed by the enhancement of the fluorescence intensity coupled with a red shift of the emission maximum up to 67 nm, depending on the liposome composition. The quantitative information about the dye partitioning into lipid phase of the model membranes was obtained through approximating the experimental dependencies of the fluorescence intensity increase vs lipid concentration by the partition model. Analysis of the partition coefficients showed that TDV has a rather high lipid-associating ability and displays sensitivity to the changes in physicochemical properties of the model lipid membranes. The addition of CL, Chol or both lipids to the PC bilayer gives rise to the increase of the TDV partition coefficients compared to the neat PC membranes. The enhancement of the phosphonium dye partitioning in the CL and Chol-containing lipid bilayers has been attributed to the cardiolopin- and cholesterol-induced changes in the structure and physicochemical characteristics of the polar membrane region.

Over time, systems connected to databases slow down. This is usually due to the increase in the amount of data stored in individual tables, counted even in the billions of records. Nevertheless, there are methods for making the speed of the system independent of the number of records in the database. One of these ways is table partitioning. When used correctly, the solution can ensure efficient operation of very large databases even after several years. However, not everything is predictable because of some undesirable phenomena become apparent only with a very large amount of data. The article presents a study of the execution time of the same queries with increasing number of records in a table. These studies reveal and present the timing and circumstances of the anomaly for a certain number of records.

Frequent Sequence Mining (FSM) is a fundamental task in data mining. Although FSM algorithms extract frequent patterns, they cannot discover patterns that periodically appear in the data. However, periodic trends are found in many areas such as market basket analysis, where discovering itemsets periodically purchased by customers can help understand periodic customer behavior. This is the task of Periodic Frequent Pattern Mining (PFPM). A major limitation common to traditional PFPM algorithms is that they reduce the periodicity between non-disjoint itemsets. They do not take into account the periods between disjoint itemsets. Thus, they find itemsets that appear periodically, but would fail to find a periodic appearance of distinct itemsets. To address this limitation, this paper extends the traditional problem of FSM with intra-periodicity and provides a theoretical background to extract intra-periodic frequent sequences. This leads to a new mining algorithm called Intra-Periodic Frequent Sequence Miner. Experimental results confirm its efficiency.

Mucus is a complex hydrogel biomaterial whose composition is regulated meticulously to ensure that its important function as a selective barrier is maintained. As part of this function, mucus regulates the uptake of molecules from the gastrointestinal lumen into the body. Yet, those hydrogels are continuously challenged with environmental pollutants such as black carbon nanoparticles (NPs), and there is growing evidence that these contaminants can compromise the functionality of mucus. Here, we assess the impact of black carbon NP contaminations on the selective permeability properties of mucin hydrogels. For this purpose, we identified two physiologically relevant black carbon concentrations and used those NP concentrations to perform molecular penetration studies with pristine and contaminated mucin hydrogels. We found that the presence of black carbon NPs enhances both the partitioning of anionic molecules into mucin hydrogels and the translocation of cationic molecules across those barriers. Moreover, we found that this permeability modulating effect is asymmetric with respect to charge; i.e., the penetration and translocation behavior of cationic molecules is affected more strongly than that of anionic ones. To rationalize those findings, we propose that black carbon NPs are well integrated into the mucin glycoprotein network, thus masking more anionic binding sites on mucins than creating cationic ones. Our results underscore the high value of suitable in vitro models when trying to decipher the nanoscopic effects by which physiologically relevant contaminants can influence molecular transport phenomena across mucosal barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial partitioning in ecological communities has predominantly been described in two dimensions, yet habitat is complex and 3D. Complex space use mediates community structure and interaction strength by expanding spatial, temporal, and dietary dimensions. Vertical stratification of resources provides opportunities for novel specializations, creating a 3D niche. Competition and predation are mediated by 3D space use, as individuals use the vertical axis to access prey, flee predators, or avoid competitors. The 3D niche is important for long-term conservation strategies as species must navigate tradeoffs in habitat use between strata-specific threats and suboptimal habitat patches. Ultimately, elucidating the 3D niche has implications for protected area management and corridor design that directly influence species persistence and ecosystem function in a rapidly changing world. A '3D niche' occurs where the environment or habitat is stratified vertically, adding additional complexity for community structure, creating opportunities for species to specialize in those spaces. Structural complexity is a better predictor of biodiversity in forest ecosystems than simple measures of canopy cover. Further, structural complexity can influence broader-scale community assemblages by increasing local species richness. Vertical forest habitat can provide valuable space to access prey, avoid pressure from dominant competitor species, and move up to favorable temperature refugia. A multitude of potential future research avenues exist within the 3D niche framework, from methodology to restoration to protected area design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The usual theoretical condition for coexistence is that each species in a community can increase when it is rare (mutual invasibility). Traditional coexistence theory implicitly assumes that the invading species is common enough that we can ignore demographic stochasticity but rare enough that it does not compete with itself, even after it has reached a stationary spatial distribution. However, short‐distance dispersal of discrete individuals leads to locally dense population clusters, and existing theory breaks down. We have an intuition that when we account for invader–invader competition, shorter‐range dispersal should reduce the invader's ability to escape competition, but exactly how does this translate into lower population growth? And how will invader discreteness affect outcomes? We need a way of partitioning the contributions to coexistence, but current modern coexistence theory (MCT) does not apply under these conditions. Here we present a computationally based partitioning method to quantify the contributions to coexistence from different mechanisms, as in MCT. We also build up an intuition for how invader clumping and discreteness will affect these contributions by analyzing a case study, a lattice‐based spatial lottery model. We first consider fluctuation‐dependent coexistence, partitioning the contributions of variable environment, variable competition, demographic stochasticity, and their correlations and interactions. Our second example examines fluctuation‐independent coexistence maintained by a fecundity–survival trade‐off, and partitions the contributions to coexistence from interspecific differences in fecundity, in mortality, and in dispersal. We find that demographic stochasticity harms an invader, but only slightly. Localized invader dispersal, on the other hand, can have a strong effect. When invaders are more clumped, they compete with each other more intensely when rare, so they too become limited by environment‐competition covariance. More invader clumping also means that variation in competition changes from helping the invader to harming it. More broadly, invader clumping is likely to weaken any coexistence mechanism that relies on the invader escaping competition from the resident, because invader clumping means that the resident is no longer the only source of competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel processing route is proposed to create a heterogeneous, multiphase structure in a medium Mn steel by incorporating partial quenching above the ambient, warm deformation, and partial recrystallization at high partitioning temperatures. The processing schedule was implemented in a Gleeble thermomechanical simulator and microstructures were examined by electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The hardness of the structures was measured as the preliminary mechanical property. Quenching of the reaustenitized sample to 120 °C provided a microstructure consisting of 73% martensite and balance (27%) untransformed austenite. Subsequent warm deformation at 500 °C enabled partially recrystallized ferrite and retained austenite during subsequent partitioning at 650 °C. The final microstructure consisted of a heterogeneous mixture of several phases and morphologies including lath-tempered martensite, partially recrystallized ferrite, lath and equiaxed austenite, and carbides. The volume fraction of retained austenite was 29% with a grain size of 200–300 nm and an estimated average stacking fault energy of 45 mJ/m2. The study indicates that desired novel microstructures can be imparted in these steels through suitable process design, whereby various hardening mechanisms, such as transformation-induced plasticity, bimodal grain size, phase boundary, strain partitioning, and precipitation hardening can be activated, resulting presumably in enhanced mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil properties in the area of the former extraction of high-sulfur brown coals (north of the Central Russian Upland, Tula oblast) are characterized. We have analyzed three key areas, each representing one technogenic abandoned object: a conical unreclaimed heap, a leveled heap, and a remediated (revegetated) heap. A series of maps—temperature, pH, electrical conductivity (EC) of water extract, and contents of particle-size fractions, soil organic carbon, and chemical elements (Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, Mn, and S) in the topsoil (0–10 cm) layer—have been created for these areas. The conical heap is dominated by Spolic Technosols (Loamic), the dark topsoil of which is characterized by a strongly acid reaction (pH 3.2 ± 0.5) and increased electrical conductivity (1.72 ± 0.07 dS/m). In areas composed of burnt material, bleached and cooler (by 1°C) Technosols (Loamic) occur; they have a lower acidity (by 0.7 pH units, p = 0.022) and electrolyte content (by 2.4 times, p = 0.022). Clay loamy soils of the leveled heap are represented by Spolic Technosols and Regosols. Plant-covered Regosols contain more particles <10 µm in diameter and are characterized by higher pH, higher contents of potentially toxic (Al, Fe, Mn and S) elements and Ca (p < 0.001), and lower EC in comparison with bareground Regosols with insignificant differences in the total organic carbon content. The reaction of Anthrosols (Loamic, Transportic) of the revegetated heap is neutral due to the use of natural soil material; these soils are poorly differentiated according to the analyzed indicators, except for an increased S content and a reduced Ca content in soils on the steep slopes (p < 0.01), which is probably caused by the influence of the acid mine drainage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animals exhibit variation in their space and time use across an urban–rural gradient. As the top‐down influences of apex predators wane due to human‐driven declines, landscape‐level anthropogenic pressures are rising. Human impacts can be analogous to apex predators in that humans can drive increased mortality in both prey species and carnivores, and impact communities through indirect fear effects and food subsidies. Here, we evaluate the time use of a common mesocarnivore across an urban–rural gradient and test whether it is influenced by the intensity of the use of a larger carnivore. Using multiple camera‐trap surveys, we compared the temporal response of a small carnivore, the raccoon (Procyon lotor), to the larger coyote (Canis latrans) in four study areas across Michigan that represented a gradient of pressure from humans. We found that raccoon time use varied by study area and was most unique at the rural extreme. Raccoons consistently did not shift their activity pattern in response to coyotes in the study area with the highest anthropogenic pressures despite the considerable interannual variation, and instead showed stronger responses to coyotes in more rural study areas. Temporal shifts were characterized by raccoons being more diurnal in areas of high coyote activity. We conclude that raccoons may shift time use in the presence of coyotes, dependent on the level of anthropogenic pressure. Our results highlight that the variation in raccoon time use across the entirety of the urban–rural gradient needed to be considered, as anthropogenic pressures may dominate and obscure the dynamics of this interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the first public implementation and evaluation of the latest version of the RISC-V hypervisor extension (H-extension v0.6.1) specification in a Rocket chip core. To perform a meaningful evaluation for modern multi-core embedded and mixed-criticality systems, we have ported Bao, an open-source static partitioning hypervisor, to RISC-V. We have also extended the RISC-V platform-level interrupt controller (PLIC) to enable direct guest interrupt injection with low and deterministic latency and we have enhanced the timer infrastructure to avoid trap and emulation overheads. Experiments were carried out in FireSim, a cycle-accurate, FPGA-accelerated simulator, and the system was also successfully deployed and tested in a Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC ZCU104. Our hardware implementation was open-sourced and is currently in use by the RISC-V community towards the ratification of the H-extension specification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the linked tactical design problems of fleet sizing and partitioning a service region into vehicle routing zones for same-day delivery (SDD) systems. Existing SDD studies focus primarily on operational dispatch problems and do not consider system design questions. Prior work on SDD system design has not considered the fleet sizing decision when a service region may be partitioned into zones dedicated to individual vehicles; such designs have been shown to improve system efficiency in related vehicle routing settings. Using continuous approximations to capture average-case operational behavior, we consider first the problem of independently maximizing the area of a single-vehicle delivery zone. We characterize area-maximizing dispatching policies and leverage these results to develop a procedure for calculating optimal areas as a function of a zone's distance from the depot, given a maximum number of daily dispatches per vehicle. We then demonstrate how to derive fleet sizes from optimal area functions and propose an associated Voronoi approach to partition the service region into single-vehicle zones. We test the fleet sizing and partitioning approach in a computational study that considers two different service regions and demonstrate its pragmatism and effectiveness via an operational simulation. Using minimal computation, the approach specifies fleet sizes and builds vehicle delivery zones that meet operational requirements, verified by simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because the respiration processes contributing to the elimination of organic chemicals deviate between air‐ and water‐breathing organisms, existing and widely used procedures for identifying chemicals not subject to bioaccumulation in aquatic organisms based on the octanol–water partition ratio KOW need to be complemented with similar procedures for organisms respiring air. Here, we propose such a procedure that relies on the comparison of a compound's predicted KOW, octanol–air partition ratio KOA, and biotransformation half‐life HLB with three threshold values, below which elimination is judged to be sufficiently rapid to prevent bioaccumulation. The method allows for the consideration of the effect of dissociation on the efficiency of urinary and respiratory elimination. Explicit application of different types of the prediction error, such as the 95% prediction interval or the standard error, allows for variable tolerance for false‐negative decisions, that is, the potential to judge a chemical as not bioaccumulative even though it is. A test with a set of more than 1000 diverse organic chemicals confirms the applicability of the prediction methods for a wide range of compounds and the procedure's ability to categorize approximately four‐fifth of compounds as being of no bioaccumulation concern, suggesting its usefulness to screen large numbers of commercial chemicals to identify those worthy of further scrutiny. The test also demonstrates that a screening based solely on KOW and KOA would be far less effective because the fraction of chemicals that can be judged as sufficiently volatile and/or sufficiently water soluble for rapid respiratory and urinary elimination based on the partitioning properties predicted for their neutral form is relatively small. Future improvements of the proposed procedure depend largely on the development of prediction methods for the biotransformation kinetics in air‐breathing organisms and for the potential for renal reabsorption. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1297–1312. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). Key Points: A procedure is described that identifies, based solely on predicted partitioning and biotransformation properties, those organic chemicals that do not require a higher tier assessment for bioaccumulation in air‐breathing organisms.By explicitly considering quantitative estimates of the errors of the predicted properties, it is possible to select the number of false negative decisions one is willing to tolerate when applying the procedure.Testing it on a representative set of >1000 diverse organic chemicals, the procedure is shown to be far more effective in identifying chemicals not requiring further bioaccumulation assessment than a simple comparison with log KOA and log KOW thresholds.Future improvements of the proposed procedure depend largely on the development of prediction methods for the biotransformation kinetics in air‐breathing organisms and for the potential for renal reabsorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a design and fabrication experiment that has been performed to investigate a methodology for assessing the security of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) fabricated in a split-manufacturing process based on 3-D integrated circuit (3DIC) technologies. The purpose of this process is to protect critical IP from reverse engineering if an adversary obtains either the fabricated wafers or their GDS. A number of 3DIC-based fabrication alternatives were evaluated, and one is selected for this experiment. Several designs, from the trivial to the complex, were used for the study. A self-test module was embedded in each design to facilitate the postfabrication testing. Various obfuscation techniques that include camouflage in the form of function and lookup table hiding and insertion of redundant logic in order to confuse potential attackers were applied. Smart partitioning was implemented for each design in an attempt to conceal vital functions. We introduced metrics that are based on the number of connection possibilities ($C_{p}$) and the depth of partitioning ($P_{\mathrm{ depth}}$) to measure the obfuscation strength. The results show that it should take more than 10 60 years to reconstruct the netlist using a brute-force attack. Measurement results are presented showing fabrication success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To quantitatively evaluate contributions of trends in incidence, relative survival, and stage at diagnosis to the dynamics in the prevalence of major cancers (lung, prostate, colon, breast, urinary bladder, ovaries, stomach, pancreas, esophagus, kidney, liver, and skin melanoma) among older U.S. adults age 65 +.Methods: Trend partitioning was applied to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program data for 1973-2016.Results: Growth of cancer prevalence in older adults decelerated or even decreased over time for all studied cancers due to decreasing incidence and improving survival for most of cancers, with a smaller contribution of the stage at cancer diagnosis. Changes in the prevalence of cancers of the lung, colon, stomach, and breast were predominantly due to decreasing incidence, increasing survival and more frequent diagnoses at earlier stages. Changes in prevalence of some other cancers demonstrated adverse trends such as decreasing survival in localized and regional stages (urinary bladder and ovarian) and growing impact of late-stage diagnoses (esophageal cancer).Conclusion: While decelerating or decreasing prevalence of many cancers were due to a beneficial combination of decreasing incidence and increasing survival, there are cancers for which decelerating prevalence is due to lack of improvement in their stage-specific survival and/or increasing frequency of diagnosis at advanced stages. Overall, if the observed trends persist, it is likely that the burden associated with cancer prevalence in older U.S. adults will be lower  comparing to projections based on constant increasing prevalence have previously estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prediction of retained austenite fraction is quite important in designing advanced high strength steels since retained austenite is the source of transformation-induced plasticity. The present study investigates the phase constitution of a medium-carbon Q&P steel by comparing various approaches to the transformation stasis of bainitic ferrite and applying them to the partitioning process. Among them, the modified GEB approach gave the best agreement with the experimental observation, including the effects of heat-treatment condition and chemical composition on phase constitution. This indicates phase transformation during partitioning can be effectively described by the physics of Gibbs energy balance approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microplastics (MPs) pollution has emerged as a global concern. To mitigate the potential threats by MPs, particularly to coastal regions, it is crucial to comprehend the environmental behavior of MPs and their affiliated chemicals. In the present study, we collected floating MPs using a Manta net (0.33 mm mesh size) in a one-year sampling event in 2022 from the eight major estuaries in the Pearl River Delta, China, and also from five coastal sites in August and December in the same year. Nineteen linear alkylbenzenes (∑ 19 LAB) and 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (∑ 16 PAH) affiliated with MPs were measured. The mean concentrations of MPs-affiliated ∑ 19 LAB and ∑ 16 PAH were 6710 (range: 3400-12300) and 5310 (range: 817-19,600) ng g -1 , respectively, at the estuarine sites, and were 4920 (range: 2400-7600) and 2610 (range: 911-7890) ng g -1 , respectively, at the coastal sites. Significant correlations were found between logarithmic MPs-water partition coefficients (log K pw ) and logarithmic suspended particulate matter-water partition coefficients (log K d ) values for LABs and PAHs, indicating analogous partitioning dynamics for MPs and suspended particulate matter with water. The annual riverine outflows were 1170 and 414 g for ∑ 19 LAB and ∑ 16 PAH, respectively. Although the riverine outflows of LABs and PAHs carried by MPs remain negligible compared to those by suspended particulate matter, an upward trend was identified between 2018 and 2022. Notably, the riverine input of LABs and PAHs carried by suspended particulate matter to the coastal ocean decreased from 2005/2006 to 2022, due to a combination of improved technological processes and energy structures., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

We applied passive equilibrium sampling using silicone-based chemometers to nine biota species, sediment, and water in a multimedia aquatic ecosystem. They allowed for direct comparison of the concentration of regulated and emerging hydrophobic organic compounds in the silicone across species as well as the comparison of biota with sediments and water. We derived chemometer-based trophic magnification factors (TMFs) of diverse compounds that agreed with the traditionally derived TMFs. Our exploratory work in water demonstrated that equilibrium with newly designed chemometers can be achieved in few days for compounds with a log K up to 6. We calculated activity ratios, dividing the concentrations in the silicone equilibrated with biota by those equilibrated with the abiotic exposure media (sediments and water), assessing the thermodynamics of bioaccumulation and the equilibrium state between the ecosystem compartments. They confirmed that the biota were below equilibrium partitioning relative to sediments and water, as other studies have described. Silicone-based chemometers open up new opportunities and applicability in multimedia aquatic ecosystems for studies that rely on equilibrium partitioning of the OW up to 6. We calculated activity ratios, dividing the concentrations in the silicone equilibrated with biota by those equilibrated with the abiotic exposure media (sediments and water), assessing the thermodynamics of bioaccumulation and the equilibrium state between the ecosystem compartments. They confirmed that the biota were below equilibrium partitioning relative to sediments and water, as other studies have described. Silicone-based chemometers open up new opportunities and applicability in multimedia aquatic ecosystems for studies that rely on equilibrium partitioning of the in-situ mixtures of chemicals, such as multimedia assessments or application of effect-based methods.

We previously reported a structural rearrangement between wheat (Triticum aestivum) and rye (Secale cereale) chromosomes 1BS/1RS that increased the dosage of 12-OXOPHYTODIENOATE REDUCTASE III (OPRIII) genes involved in jasmonate biosynthesis (henceforth, 1RW line), and that drastically reduced primary root growth relative to a control line with the intact 1RS chromosome (henceforth, 1RS). In this study, we show that the increased gene-dosage of this region is associated with increases in the shoot-root partitioning of magnesium (Mg). Moreover, both a CRISPR-edited 1RW line with reduced OPRIII dosage and the 1RW line treated with the jasmonate biosynthesis inhibitor ibuprofen showed reduced differences in shoot-root Mg partitioning than 1RW. The observed differences in Mg partitioning between 1RS and 1RW plants occur over a wide range of external Mg supplies and imply opposite trends of Mg accumulation in roots and shoots. Furthermore, we show an association between the increase of shoot-root Mg partitioning and increased tolerance of the 1RW line to low levels of Mg supply. In summary, our results provide evidence of the role of the jasmonate pathway on the dynamics of Mg accumulation in roots and shoots, which correlates with the performance of wheat plants under conditions of Mg scarcity., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no conflict of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH.. All rights reserved.)

Phthalate acid esters (PAEs) are a category of plasticizers that are ubiquitous in freshwater environments attributable to extensive utilization. We collected water, suspended particulate matter (SPM), surface sediments, phytoplankton, and zooplankton from 23 sampling sites to investigate and complement the occurrence, bioaccumulation, and partitioning of five PAEs including dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), and di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) in the third largest freshwater lake (Lake Taihu) of China. PAEs were extracted using Soxhlet extraction and solid phase extraction, and determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The average concentrations of the five PAEs in the water column, SPM, sediments, phytoplankton, and zooplankton of Lake Taihu were 1.93 ± 1.57 μg L - 1 , 765 ± 766 μg g - 1 , 1.68 ± 1.47 μg g - , respectively. DBP and DEHP were the dominant PAE congeners in the five environment compartments. The logarithmic concentrations of DBP, BBP, and DEHP in the SPM were negatively correlated with the logarithmic content of the SPM. Biodilution significantly impacted the occurrence of PAEs in the plankton. Bioaccumulation of PAEs was found in the plankton with log BCF (bioconcentration factor) in the phytoplankton ranging from 1.78 ± 0.86 to 4.13 ± 1.23 and log BAF (bioaccumulation factor) in the zooplankton varying from -0.10 ± 0.26 to 3.04 ± 0.64. Biomagnification of the PAEs from phytoplankton to zooplankton was not observed. DMP, DEP, and BBP migrated from sediments to water. DBP was in dynamic equilibrium in the sediment-water system. DEHP transferred from water to sediments. Our results provide crucial complementary knowledge on bioaccumulation and transfer of PAEs in planktonic food web, and their partitioning in different compartments of waters.1 , 1358 ± 1877 μg g - 1 , and 72.7 ± 134 μg g - 1 , respectively. DBP and DEHP were the dominant PAE congeners in the five environment compartments. The logarithmic concentrations of DBP, BBP, and DEHP in the SPM were negatively correlated with the logarithmic content of the SPM. Biodilution significantly impacted the occurrence of PAEs in the plankton. Bioaccumulation of PAEs was found in the plankton with log BCF (bioconcentration factor) in the phytoplankton ranging from 1.78 ± 0.86 to 4.13 ± 1.23 and log BAF (bioaccumulation factor) in the zooplankton varying from -0.10 ± 0.26 to 3.04 ± 0.64. Biomagnification of the PAEs from phytoplankton to zooplankton was not observed. DMP, DEP, and BBP migrated from sediments to water. DBP was in dynamic equilibrium in the sediment-water system. DEHP transferred from water to sediments. Our results provide crucial complementary knowledge on bioaccumulation and transfer of PAEs in planktonic food web, and their partitioning in different compartments of waters., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are anthropogenic chemicals commonly found in the environment. PFAS pose multifaceted challenges including identifying sources and exposure pathways, detecting and quantifying their presence, characterizing their fate and transport, and assessing their risks. PFAS and fluorotelomer polymers can be found in the pulp and paper (P&P) wastewater systems, but their behavior remains poorly understood. The constituents of P&P waste include lignin hydrolysis products, hence PFAS interactions with lignin likely affect PFAS removal efforts. This study employed quantitative ultra-performance liquid chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) to investigate the sorption-desorption capacity and mechanisms of PFAS interaction with lignin. PFAS with sulfonate functional groups displayed higher affinity for lignin (solid phase) based on their partitioning coefficient (K d ), while PFAS with carboxylate head groups persisted in the P&P wastewater (aqueous phase). Sorption to lignin exhibited an increase with chain length (CF 2 ) n among compounds with the same functional group. Long-chain (C ≥ 6) PFAS demonstrated higher sorption compared to short-chain (C ≤ 5) homologs. The sorption-desorption capacities, partitioning coefficients, and kinetics of PFAS reported in this study can facilitate predictive models for PFAS and assist in the development of efficient P&P waste treatment and management., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)