[Effects of combined application of biochar and inorganic fertilizers on the available phosphorus content of upland red soil].

Aiming at the low content of available phosphorus in upland red soil of Southern China, this paper studied the effects of combined application of biochar and inorganic fertilizers on the available phosphorus and organic carbon contents and the pH of this soil. With the combined application of biochar and inorganic fertilizers, the soil physical and chemical properties improved to different degrees. As compared with the control, the soil pH and the soil organic carbon and available phosphorus contents at different growth stages of oil rape after the combined application of biochar and inorganic fertilizers all had an improvement, with the increments at bolting stage, flowering stage, and ripening stage being 16%, 24% and 26%, 23%, 34% and 38%, and 100%, 191% and 317% , respectively. The soil pH and the soil organic carbon and available phosphorus contents were increased with the increasing amount of applied biochar. Under-the application of biochar, the soil available phosphorus had a significant correlation with the soil pH and soil organic carbon content. This study could provide scientific basis to improve the phosphorus deficiency and the physical and chemical properties of upland red soil.

Perceptual asynchrony: motion leads color.

It is widely accepted that motion and color are processed in separate brain areas of primates. Numerous studies on monkeys suggest that neural mechanisms responsible for motion processing respond faster than those for color. Recent studies on humans, however, provide contradictory evidence. Is this discrepancy due to a gap between species (animal vs. human), or between measures (neurophysiological vs. behavioral)? To help resolve this issue, event-related potentials were acquired as human participants viewed motion and color stimuli. Results indicated that the physiological response evoked by motion arose earlier than that by color, which is consistent with previous findings in animals. This temporal precedence of motion signal processing over color was corroborated in a parallel behavioral experiment.