Natural fermentation quality, bacteria, and functional profiles of three cuttings of alfalfa silage in a year in Inner Mongolia, China.

Alfalfa is harvested two or three times a year in central and western Inner Mongolia, China. However, the variations in bacterial communities as affected by wilting and ensiling, and the ensiling characteristics of alfalfa among the different cuttings, are not fully understood. To enable a more complete evaluation, alfalfa was harvested three times a year. At each time of cutting, alfalfa was harvested at early bloom, wilted for 6 h, and then ensiled in polyethylene bags for 60 days. The bacterial communities and nutritional components of fresh alfalfa(F), wilted alfalfa(W) and ensiled alfalfa(S), and the fermentation quality and functional profile of bacterial communities of the three cuttings alfalfa silage, were then analyzed. Functional characteristics of silage bacterial communities were evaluated according to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. The results showed that all nutritional components, fermentation quality, bacterial communities, carbohydrate, amino acid metabolism and key enzymes of bacterial communities were influenced by cutting time. The species richness of F increased from the first cutting to the third cutting; it was not changed by wilting, but was decreased by ensiling. At phylum level, Proteobacteria were more predominant than other bacteria, followed by Firmicutes (0.063-21.39%) in F and W in the first and second cuttings. Firmicutes (96.66-99.79%) were more predominant than other bacteria, followed by Proteobacteria (0.13-3.19%) in S in the first and second cuttings. Proteobacteria, however, predominated over all other bacteria in F, W, or S in the third cutting. The third-cutting silage showed the highest levels of dry matter, pH and butyric acid (p < 0.05). Higher levels of pH and butyric acid were positively correlated with the most predominant genus in silage, and with Rosenbergiella and Pantoea. The third-cutting silage had the lowest fermentation quality as Proteobacteria were more predominant. This suggested that, compared with the first and second cutting, the third cutting is more likely to result in poorly preserved silage in the region studied.

Effects of a Furrow-Bed Seeding System on Stand Establishment, Soil Bacterial Diversity, and the Yield and Quality of Alfalfa Under Saline Condition.

Salt stress account for large decreases in crop yield all over the world. Furrow-bed system is an efficient practice to promote plant growth in saline soil. However, the effects of Furrow-bed system on the soil environment and the growth of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) in salinity are not clear. For a wider and more detail evaluation, alfalfa were planted in saline sandy loam soil in fall, the effects of two plant systems (FU, furrow-bed seeding system; FL, flat-bed seeding system) on soil moisture, root zone salinity, soil microbial community structure, seedling emergence number in the early stage of the growth period and soil nutrient contents, alfalfa production characteristics in the second growth year were determined in a 2-year field experiment. The result showed that, compared with FL, FU resulted in increased soil moisture content and seedling emergence, and significantly reduced relative abundance of Actinobacteria and Choroflexi in soil, but it did not affect root zone salinity at the seedling stage. In April of second growth year, the soil salinity was lower, and the soil available phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen, and soil organic matter contents of the root zone were higher in FU than in FL. Compared with FL, FU resulted in increased yield (by 37.5%), protein content (by 3.6%), and potassium concentration (by 33.2%), and decreased ash content (by 7.7%), and sodium concentration (by 19.0%) in alfalfa plants. Pearson's correlation analysis indicated that the increased yield was positively correlated with seedling emergence, soil available potassium, total nitrogen, and organic matter contents, and shoot potassium content and negatively correlated with shoot sodium content. The relative abundance of Actinobacteria was negatively correlated with alfalfa ash, calcium, and sodium concentrations, and positively correlated with shoot potassium content. Taken together, the results indicate that Furrow-bed seeding in early fall alleviated salt stress of alfalfa and have the potential to enhance the yield and quality of alfalfa cultivated in saline soils by improving the soil environment and regulating the growth and physiology of alfalfa. Graphical Abstract.

Strong Light-Matter Interactions in Single Open Plasmonic Nanocavities at the Quantum Optics Limit.

Reaching the quantum optics limit of strong light-matter interactions between a single exciton and a plasmon mode is highly desirable, because it opens up possibilities to explore room-temperature quantum devices operating at the single-photon level. However, two challenges severely hinder the realization of this limit: the integration of single-exciton emitters with plasmonic nanostructures and making the coupling strength at the single-exciton level overcome the large damping of the plasmon mode. Here, we demonstrate that these two hindrances can be overcome by attaching individual J aggregates to single cuboid Au@Ag nanorods. In such hybrid nanosystems, both the ultrasmall mode volume of ∼71 nm^{3} and the ultrashort interaction distance of less than 0.9 nm make the coupling coefficient between a single J-aggregate exciton and the cuboid nanorod as high as ∼41.6 meV, enabling strong light-matter interactions to be achieved at the quantum optics limit in single open plasmonic nanocavities.

[Early intellectual developmental outcome of late preterm infants].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the early intellectual developmental outcome of late preterm infants. METHODS: A total of 106 late preterm infants with a gestational age of 34-36+6 weeks who were admitted to the neonatal ward between January 2012 and January 2015, cured, discharged, and regularly followed up at the outpatient service for high-risk children were enrolled as the preterm group. A total of 120 healthy full-term infants during the same period were randomly selected as the term group. Neonatal behavioral neurological assessment (NBNA) was performed for late preterm infants at a corrected gestational age of 40 weeks and full-term infants at a gestational age of 40 weeks. The Gesell Developmental Scale was used for late preterm infants at a corrected age of 3, 6, and 12 months and full-term infants at an age of 3, 6, and 12 months. RESULTS: The preterm group had an NBNA score of <37 and a significantly lower NBNA score than the term group (P<0.05). At the corrected age of 3 months, the preterm group had significantly lower scores of gross motor, fine motor, and social competence than the term group (P<0.05). At the corrected age of 6 months, the preterm group had significantly lower scores of adaptability, gross motor, and fine motor than the term group (P<0.05). At the corrected age of 12 months, the preterm group had significantly lower scores of adaptability, gross motor, and social competence than the term group (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Late preterm infants have early intellectual developmental delay. It is necessary to perform neurodevelopmental monitoring for late preterm infants.

Effect of bronchopulmonary dysplasia on early intellectual development in preterm infants.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) on the early intellectual development of preterm infants. METHODS: From 2011 to 2015, 83 preterm infants diagnosed with BPD were recruited to the BPD group, and 89 preterm infants without BPD and 98 healthy term infants were randomly recruited to the non-BPD and term group, respectively. Neural and intellectual development according to the Gesell Development Scale were evaluated and compared between groups at 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, and 9-12 months of adjusted age for preterm infants and real age for term infants. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the associations between BPD and adverse neurological outcomes at 9-12 months of adjusted age. RESULTS: Compared with term infants, preterm infants had significantly lower developmental quotients for adaptability, gross motor, fine motor, language and social skills. At follow up, deficits in one or more neurofunctions related to adaptability, gross motor, fine motor, language and social skills were significantly more frequent in preterm children with BPD than in those with no history of BPD. BPD was independently associated with adverse neurological outcome at 9-12 months of adjusted age in preterm infants. CONCLUSIONS: Early intelligence disturbances occurred significantly more frequently in BPD infants than in non-BPD infants. Monitoring of the development of the nervous system in BPD infants should be strengthened.

Scalable, full-colour and controllable chromotropic plasmonic printing.

Plasmonic colour printing has drawn wide attention as a promising candidate for the next-generation colour-printing technology. However, an efficient approach to realize full colour and scalable fabrication is still lacking, which prevents plasmonic colour printing from practical applications. Here we present a scalable and full-colour plasmonic printing approach by combining conjugate twin-phase modulation with a plasmonic broadband absorber. More importantly, our approach also demonstrates controllable chromotropic capability, that is, the ability of reversible colour transformations. This chromotropic capability affords enormous potentials in building functionalized prints for anticounterfeiting, special label, and high-density data encryption storage. With such excellent performances in functional colour applications, this colour-printing approach could pave the way for plasmonic colour printing in real-world commercial utilization.