SMRT sequencing of a full-length transcriptome reveals cold induced alternative splicing in Vitis amurensis root.

Alternative splicing enhances diversity at the transcriptional and protein levels that widely involved in plant response to biotic and abiotic stresses. V. amurensis is an extremely cold-tolerant wild grape variety, however, studies on alternative splicing (AS) in amur grape at low temperatures are currently poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed full-length transcriptome and RNA seq data at 0, 2, and 24 h after cold stress in V. amurensis roots. Following quality control and correction, 221,170 high-quality full-length non-concatemer (FLNC) reads were identified. A total of 16,181 loci and 30,733 isoforms were identified. These included 22,868 novel isoforms from annotated genes and 2815 isoforms from 2389 novel genes. Among the distinguished novel isoforms, 673 Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) and 18,164 novel isoforms open reading frame (ORF) region were found. A total of 2958 genes produced 8797 AS events, of which 189 genes were involved in the low-temperature response. Twelve transcription factors show AS during cold treatment and VaMYB108 was selected for initial exploration. Two transcripts, Chr05.63.1 (VaMYB108short) and Chr05.63.2 (VaMYB108normal) of VaMYB108, display up-regulated expression after cold treatment in amur grape roots and are both localized in the nucleus. Only VaMYB108normal exhibits transcriptional activation activity. Overexpression of either VaMYB108short or VaMYB108normal in grape roots leads to increased expression of the other transcript and both increased chilling resistance of amur grape roots. The results improve and supplement the genome annotations and provide insights for further investigation into AS mechanisms during cold stress in V. amurensis.

Risk perception and gratitude mediate the negative relationship between COVID-19 management satisfaction and public anxiety.

In this study, we explored whether satisfaction with government management, perception of risk, and gratitude influenced public anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Using a cross-sectional, anonymous and confidential online survey, a nationwide sample of Chinese adults (N = 876) was targeted between March 25-March 30, 2020, a period in which newly confirmed cases significantly declined in China. The anxiety level was decreased as compared to that assessed during the peak period. Multiple parallel mediation modeling demonstrated that risk perception and gratitude partially mediated the relationship between satisfaction with government management and public anxiety. Increasing satisfaction and gratitude, as well as reducing risk perception contribute to the public's mental health. The results may shed light on the positive factors for psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic and may aid potential strategies for the policy maker, the public, and the clinic to regulate negative emotions or future emerging infectious diseases.

Arsenic removal from aqueous solutions using Fe3O4-HBC composite: effect of calcination on adsorbents performance.

The presence of elevated concentration of arsenic in water sources is considered to be health hazard globally. Calcination process is known to change the surface efficacy of the adsorbent. In current study, five adsorbent composites: uncalcined and calcined Fe3O4-HBC prepared at different temperatures (400°C and 1000°C) and environment (air and nitrogen) were investigated for the adsorptive removal of As(V) and As(III) from aqueous solutions determining the influence of solution's pH, contact time, temperature, arsenic concentration and phosphate anions. Characterizations from FTIR, XRD, HT-XRD, BET and SEM analyses revealed that the Fe3O4-HBC composite at higher calcination temperature under nitrogen formed a new product (fayalite, Fe2SiO4) via phase transformation. In aqueous medium, ligand exchange between arsenic and the effective sorbent site ( = FeOOH) was established from the release of hydroxyl group. Langmuir model suggested data of the five adsorbent composites follow the order: Fe3O4-HBC-1000°C(N2)>Fe3O4-HBC (uncalcined)>Fe3O4-HBC-400°C(N2)>Fe3O4-HBC-400°C(air)>Fe3O4-HBC-1000°C(air) and the maximum As(V) and As(III) adsorption capacities were found to be about 3.35 mg g(-1) and 3.07 mg g(-1), respectively. The adsorption of As(V) and As(III) remained stable in a wider pH range (4-10) using Fe3O4-HBC-1000°C(N2). Additionally, adsorption data fitted well in pseudo-second-order (R2>0.99) rather than pseudo-first-order kinetics model. The adsorption of As(V) and As(III) onto adsorbent composites increase with increase in temperatures indicating that it is an endothermic process. Phosphate concentration (0.0l mM or higher) strongly inhibited As(V) and As(III) removal through the mechanism of competitive adsorption. This study suggests that the selective calcination process could be useful to improve the adsorbent efficiency for enhanced arsenic removal from contaminated water.

[Research on low-level Hg(II) removal from water by the heavy metal capturing agent].

Treatment of mercury containing wastewater using conventional approach is considered to be difficult to bring down its concentration to meet the discharge standard. In this study, we utilized dithiocarbamate (DTCR-2), 2,4,6-trimercaptotriazine(TMT-18B), Na2S and Ca(OH)2+ as the advanced treatment agents to remove low-level Hg2+ from water. Due to its better treatment effect, DTCR-2 was finally chosen as the most ideal option. The influence of pH value, dosage of DTCR-2, reaction time, initial Hg2+ concentration as well as other heavy metal ions on the Hg2+ removal were studied. The results showed that DTCR-2 had high removal efficiency under the following conditions: 100 microg x L(-1) of initial Hg2+ concentration, pH 8.0, 1.0 times stoichiometric ratio of DTCR-2 dosage and 10 min of reaction time, leading to 41.36 microg x L(-1) of residual Hg2+ concentration which was below the national discharge standard (50 microg x L(-1)). Moreover, three heavy metal ions including Cd2+, Pb2+ and Cu2+, inhibited the DTCR-2 capturing capacity towards Hg2+ and the inhibition effects followed this order: Cu2+ > Pb2+ > Cd2+, while Zn2+ promoted the Hg2+ removal. From this study, we could provide theoretical support for process design to deal with wastewater containing low mercury concentration using DTCR-2.

Water pollution and cyanobacteria's variation of rivers surrounding southern Taihu Lake, China.

The water quality and cyanobacterial variation of rivers surrounding southern Taihu Lake, China were purposively monitored from 2008 to 2010. Trophic level index (TLI) was used to evaluate the trophic levels of southern Taihu Lake. Results showed a considerable decline in the monitored data compared with 2007, and the data showed downward trends year after year. The TLI decreased from 55.6 to 51.3, which implied that southern Taihu Lake was mildly eutrophic. The water quality and cyanobacterial variation indicated a positive response to the adopted control measures in the southern Taihu Lake basin, but the intra- and inter-annual variability was still quite varied. High concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus typically lead to algae outbreaks, however, the cyanobacteria growth may result in a decline of the concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus. Temperature and other weather conditions are also important factors for algae outbreaks; the risk of blue-green algal blooms still persists.

Trace of the interesting "V"-shaped dynamic mechanism of interactions between water and ionic liquids.

The mixture of ionic liquid (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, bmimBF4) and water (2.5%, molar fraction) under isothermal conditions at 80 degrees C was investigated by FTIR spectroscopy and two-dimensional correlation infrared spectroscopy (2D-IR) methods. Three regions were focused: the OH stretching band of water (3755-3300 cm (-1)), the stretching band of CH on the imidazole ring (3300-3020 cm (-1)), and the BF stretching band of anions (1310-1260 cm (-1)). During this process, water was gradually evaporated as time passed, which produced influences on the interactions among cations, anions, and water molecules. In the FTIR analysis, we found an interesting "V"-shaped changing trend in peak areas of the C-H on the imidazole ring and the B-F stretching band; the inflection of the system was 913 s, gained through the "moving window" method. A two-step variation was accordingly found during this process. Hydrogen bonds formed by water molecules with cations or water molecules with anions were destroyed by the reduction of water, making a fall in the former period of "V" process, while electrostatic interactions newly formed between anions and cations leading to a rise during the latter period of this course. In this paper, various conformations formed among cations, anions, and water molecules were clearly assigned, and we managed to trace the whole dynamic mechanism of this isothermal process by 2D-IR techniques.