An ion release controlled Cr(VI) treatment agent: Nano zero-valent iron/carbon/alginate composite gel.

A simple iron/carbon composite was prepared by ion exchange and carbothermal reduction, and the characterization results showed that this material contained a large amount of nanoscale zero-valent iron. Then above material was coated with alginate to form a stable gel, which combined adsorption and reduction to remove Cr(VI) efficiently and controllably. The experiment showed that the optimal conditions for Cr(VI) removal were pH value, dosage and Cr(VI) concentration of 2, 2 g L-1 and 20 mg L-1, respectively. For 150 mL of 20 mg L-1 Cr(VI) solution, the removal efficiency could reach 100% in 6 h (dosage: 2 g L-1). Compared with activated carbon-alginate complex and pure alginate, the introduction of nanoscale zero-valent iron greatly accelerated the rate of Cr(VI) removal. In addition, adsorption isotherm and kinetics conformed to Freundlich and Elovich model, respectively. Under pH 2, the release of iron ion increased linearly with time and reached 51.87 mg L-1 in 8 h. The mechanism of Cr(VI) removal of iron/carbon composite coated with alginate might be controlled by two steps: the initial adsorption and fixation, and subsequent reduction. In general, the material is efficient, recyclable and controllable, which provides a new idea for the treatment of chromium-containing wastewater.

Genetic Analysis in Maize Foundation Parents with Mapping Population and Testcross Population: Ye478 Carried More Favorable Alleles and Using QTL Information Could Improve Foundation Parents.

The development of maize foundation parents is an important part of genetics and breeding research, and applying new genetic information to produce foundation parents has been challenging. In this study, we focused on quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and general combining ability (GCA) of Ye478, a widely used foundation parent in China. We developed three sets of populations for QTL mapping and to analyze the GCA for some agronomic traits. The assessment of 15 traits resulted in the detection of 251 QTLs in six tested environments, with 119 QTLs identified through a joint analysis across all environments. Further, analyses revealed that most favorable alleles for plant type-related traits were from Ye478, and more than half of the favorable alleles for yield-related traits were from R08, another foundation parent used in southwestern China, suggesting that different types of foundation parents carried different favorable alleles. We observed that the GCA for most traits (e.g., plant height and 100-kernel weight) was maintained in the inbred lines descended from the foundation parents. Additionally, the continuous improvement in the GCA of the descendants of the foundation parents was consistent with the main trend in maize breeding programs. We identified three significant genomic regions that were highly conserved in three Ye478 descendants, including the stable QTL for plant height. The GCA for the traits in the F7 generation revealed that the QTLs for the given traits per se were affected by additive effects in the same way in different populations.