ABSTRACT
Biochar has unique physicochemical properties of being rich in carbon, being alkaline, and exhibiting a highly porous structure, which can adjust features of different systems. A 90-day microcosm incubation experiment was performed to investigate the effects of corn straw biochar on the process, properties, nutrient contents, and CO2 emissions during corn straw composting. There were four treatments, including control (CK), 5% biochar addition (B1, as mass fractions of biochar), 10% biochar addition (B2), and 20% biochar addition (B3). The results showed that biochar significantly increased the temperature rise rate and temperature peak of the straw maturation system, and promoted straw decomposition. Biochar increased the pH of the microbial active period, and the electrical conductivity (EC) value of the straw decomposition system, which provided a more suitable environment for microbial degradation of the organics. Further more, biochar decreased the organic matter content, increased the total nutrient content of the straw decomposition system, and improved the quality of the straw decomposition products. In addition, nitrogen (N) content was not changed by increasing amount of biochar; however, both phosphorus (P2O5) and potassium (K2O) content were significantly increased. Compared to control, the content of P2O5 and K2O in B3 treatment was increased by 0.2% and 0.9%, respectively. Biochar addition could improve CO2 emission of the straw decomposition system. The CO2 emission was consistent with the trend of temperature change, which provided solid evidence that biochar improve the degradation of organic matter by microbes in the system.
Subject(s)
Agriculture/methods , Air Pollutants/analysis , Carbon Dioxide/analysis , Charcoal , Nutrients , Soil , Zea maysABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To explore the working mechanism and age-related change of the conflict processing system of the frontal cortex. METHODS: Fifteen normal elderly people and 15 youth were performed a modified Eriksen flanker paradigm, while event-related potential (ERPs), which include 32 systerm electroencephalography, reaction time and correct rate were recorded. RESULTS: The elderly group showed a distinct effect of reaction time and effect of conflict in the respond level compared with the youth group. The elderly group had a longer time window of N380 and same amplitude as the youth group. Low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) showed the bilateral temporal lobe and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (especially right) were activated in the youth group, while the left temporal lobe, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and left medial frontal gyrus were activated in the elderly group. CONCLUSION: When conflict stimuli existed in the response level, old people showed frontal interference control hypofunction. N380 reflected the activation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the left temporal lobe during response selection and executive control processing in older people.
Subject(s)
Aging , Evoked Potentials , Frontal Lobe/physiology , Prefrontal Cortex/physiology , Temporal Lobe/physiology , Adolescent , Aged , Electroencephalography , Humans , Reaction TimeABSTRACT
The activities of transcription factors (TFs) require interactions with specific DNA sequences and other regulatory proteins. To detect such interactions in Arabidopsis, we developed a high-throughput screening system with a Gateway-compatible Gal4-AD-TF library of 1589 Arabidopsis TFs, which can be easily screened by mating-based yeast-one-hybrid (Y1H) and yeast-two-hybrid (Y2H) methods. The efficiency of the system was validated by examining two well-characterized TF-DNA and TF-protein interactions: the CHE-CCA1 promoter interaction by Y1H and NPR1-TGAs interactions by Y2H. We used this system to identify eight TFs that interact with a Mediator subunit, Med25, a key regulator in JA signaling. We identified five TFs that interacted with the GCC-box cis-element in the promoter of PDF1.2, a downstream gene of Med25. We found that three of these TFs, all from the AP2-EREBP family, interact directly both with Med25 and the GCC-box of PDF1.2, suggesting that Med25 regulates PDF1.2 expression through these three TFs. These results demonstrate that this high-throughput Y1H/Y2H screening system is an efficient tool for studying transcriptional regulation networks in Arabidopsis. This system will be available for other Arabidopsis researchers, and thus it provides a vital resource for the Arabidopsis community.
Subject(s)
Arabidopsis Proteins/metabolism , Arabidopsis/genetics , Arabidopsis/metabolism , Gene Expression Regulation, Plant , High-Throughput Screening Assays/methods , Nuclear Proteins/metabolism , Transcription Factors/metabolism , Transcription, Genetic , DNA-Binding Proteins , Gene Library , Models, Biological , Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics , Protein Binding , Reproducibility of ResultsABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of cognitive and motor disorders as well as emotional and sleep abnormality in the veterans from military communities in Beijing. METHODS: The participants underwent a comprehensive in-person evaluation including detailed neuropsychological testing, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and special questionnaires for movement and sleep disorders. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of cognitive impairment, extrapyramidal diseases was 32.7%, 8.8%. The prevalence of mild cognitive impairment, dementia, Parkinson disease, essential tremor, anxiety and depression was 26.2%, 6.5%, 2.0%, 6.1%, 1.4% and 4.1% respectively. Prevalence of all kinds of sleep disorders ranged from 10.3% to 53.9%. The prevalence of cognitive impairment had no significant difference of sex, but were correlated to age and education, the correlation coefficient was 0.326 and -0.221 (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Veterans from military communities had higher prevalence of cognitive impairment, extrapyramidal diseases and sleep disorders and lower that of anxiety and depression relatively.
