Search

We show that the photonic crystal (PhC) made of dielectric cuboids with their centers forming a honeycomb lattice is characterized by a ℤ2${\mathbb{ℤ}}_{2}$ topological index when the longer sides of six cuboids point towards the center of hexagonal unit cell. While the C6v symmetry regarding the center of unit cell is preserved, the C3 symmetry regarding honeycomb sites is broken, which opens a bandgap in the Dirac dispersion of honeycomb structure and induces a band inversion between p modes and d modes. Rotating cuboids around their individual centers closes the bandgap and reopens a trivial bandgap. We discuss that this feature can be exploited for realizing a reconfigurable topological waveguide.

Peanut has a fairly strong ability of accumulating cadmium (Cd) from the soil, and the problem of Cd content in peanut exceeding the food safety standard is serious in some regions of China. Seed coating is a common technology to control diseases and insect pests and enhance stress resistance in peanut production, but the research of using seed coating technology to control Cd pollution risk in peanut producing areas has not been reported. This study first screened out three suitable concentrations of manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) coating agents by seed germination test, and then further screened out the concentration of coating agent with the best Cd reduction effect by pot experiment. The effect of Mn fertilizer and Zn fertilizer seed coating on Cd transfer within peanut plant in Cd-contaminated soil was further explored through pot experiment. The results of seed germination test showed that the seed coating treatment with low to moderate concentrations of Mn and Zn fertilizer did not affect the seed germination rate and could promote the root length, while the excessive concentration could obviously inhibit the seed germination. The results of pot experiment showed that among the seed coating agents of Mn and Zn, 3% Mn fertilizer coating agent (Mn3) and 2% Zn fertilizer coating agent (Zn2) had the most significant effect on reducing Cd in peanut seeds, with the Cd reduction rates reaching 19.0% and 24.1% respectively, and Zn2 had the better Cd reduction effect. Compared with the control, the Cd bioaccumulation factor of roots in the two treatments decreased significantly, the Cd translocation factor (TF) from roots to shoots increased significantly, the TF from shoots to seeds decreased, while the TF from roots to seeds had no obvious change. Compared with the control, the absorption of Cd in peanut plants under Mn3 and Zn2 treatments decreased by 9.18% and 13.6%. There was a significant negative correlation between the contents of Cd in peanut seeds and roots and the contents of Mn and Zn in roots. Seed coating with Mn and Zn can reduce the Cd content in peanut seeds by inhibiting the absorption of Cd by roots and the transport of Cd within peanut plant. This study put forward the technology of reducing Cd content in peanut by seed coating, which provided a new method for risk control of Cd pollution in peanut producing areas. Key words: seed coating; seed germination; peanut; cadmium ble sugar decreased after PS-NPs exposure. Transcriptome analysis showed that a total of 2112 differentially expressed genes were generated by PS-NPs exposure treatment, GO and KEGG analysis showed that they were mainly enriched in pathways related to redox reaction, reaction to ethylene and abscisic acid, amino acid metabolism and synthesis of other secondary metabolites. It was noted that 250 transcription factors were differentially expressed, mainly including the ERF, WRKY, NAC, bHLH and MYB transcription factor families. This experiment lays a foundation for further exploring the impact of nanoplastics on crops such as soybeans and its molecular mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light propagates in various ways depending on environment, including uniform medium, surface/interface and photonic crystals, which appears ubiquitously in daily life and has been exploited for advanced optics technology. We unveiled that a topological photonic crystal exhibits unique electromagnetic (EM) transport properties originating from the Dirac frequency dispersion and multicomponent spinor eigenmodes. Measuring precisely local Poynting vectors in microstrips of honeycomb structure where optics topology emerges upon a band gap opening in the Dirac dispersion and a p-d band inversion induced by a Kekulé-type distortion respecting C6v symmetry, we showed that a chiral wavelet induces a global EM transportation circulating in the direction counter to the source, which is intimately related to the topological band gap specified by a negative Dirac mass. This brand-new Huygens-Fresnel phenomenon can be considered as the counterpart of negative refraction of EM plane waves associated with upwardly convex dispersions of photonic crystals, and our present finding is expected to open a new window for photonic innovations. Huygens-Fresnel features are useful for harnessing light in unique ways. Here the authors demonstrate a chiral light source that induces globally a counter energy flow in a topological photonics structure with Dirac-type frequency dispersion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A 24-year-old woman admitted with mild chest distress associated with activity without chest complaint for twenty days. Two orifices were visible at the level of the mitral valve with a transthoracic short-axis view of the two-dimensional and three-dimensional echocardiography. The left ventricle was mildly dilatated and the left ventricular wall was thickened, especially at the apex and anterolateral wall, and appeared sponge-like. There were numerous, excessively prominent trabeculations associated with intertrabecular recesses. Although the coexistence of NVM and DOMV could be a coincidence, we believe that both defects were probably caused by a developmental arrest of the left ventricular myocardium in the present case.

Pulmonary artery adventitial fibroblasts, the most abundant cellular constituent of adventitia, are often the first to be activated and reprogrammed to then influence the tone and structure of the vessel wall in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Our previous study found that interruption of CD40 ligand (CD40L)‐CD40 signaling improves the efficacy of transplanted endothelial progenitor cells in monocrotaline induced‐PAH. However, whether CD40L‐CD40 signaling is involved in the activation of adventitial fibroblasts in PAH and whether Drosophila behavior human splicing (DBHS) protein family members have any roles during adventitial fibroblasts activation are completely unclear. Here, we show that soluble CD40L (sCD40L) stimulation progressively increases pro‐inflammatory activity, proliferation, and migration of pulmonary adventitial fibroblasts. Besides, sCD40L stimulation decreases splicing factor proline‐ and glutamine‐rich protein (SFPQ) protein (one member of DBHS protein family) expression, while SFPQ overexpression suppresses sCD40L stimulation‐induced proliferation and migration of pulmonary adventitial fibroblasts by repressing CD40 transcription. Moreover, ChIP assays found that sCD40L stimulation promotes histone H3 tri‐methylation at lysine 4 (H3K4me3), H3K36me3, and H3K27 acetylation (H3K27ac) modifications on CD40 promoter region in pulmonary adventitial fibroblasts, while SFPQ overexpression decreases H3K36me3 modification and increases H3K36ac on CD40 promoter region by interacting with histone deacetylase‐1 (HDAC1) to inhibit CD40 transcription. This in‐depth study shows that CD40L‐CD40 signaling promotes activation of pulmonary adventitial fibroblasts by increasing proliferation, migration, and pro‐inflammatory activity of adventitial fibroblasts, and SFPQ could inhibit CD40 transcription though switching H3K36me3 to H3K36ac modifications on its promoter by interacting with HDAC1. This study, first, uncovers the roles of SFPQ on CD40L‐CD40 signaling‐mediated activation of pulmonary adventitial fibroblasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The continuous cropping of peanuts is a primary cause of yield and quality loss. Solutions to this problem should be therefore developed to ensure the sustainability of peanut production. RESULTS: In this study, colonization by the endophytic fungus Phomopsis liquidambari was detected, which led to significantly improved rhizosphere soil microenvironment, enhanced N, P and K assimilation and suppressed incidence of peanut disease. Statistical analysis demonstrated that the yield enhancement was significantly correlated with improvement of the rhizosphere soil microenvironment and the peanut's physiological status by P. liquidambari colonization. In addition, P. liquidambari colonization also significantly improved peanut quality. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the practical application of the endophytic fungus P. liquidambari has a strong potential to alleviate the obstacles associated with continuous peanut cropping under field conditions. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]