Effects of Different Mulching Practices on Soil Environment and Fruit Quality in Peach Orchards.

Mulching practices have been used to improve peach growth and production across the globe. However, the impact of mulching on the physiochemical properties and soil characteristics of orchards remains largely unknown. This study aimed to decipher the impacts of various mulching patterns on the soil environment and the quality of Prunus persica fruit in "Zijinhuangcui". Three treatments were set up, which included black ground fabric mulch (BF) and two living grass mulch treatments (HV: hairy vetch and RG: ryegrass). The results showed that different mulching treatments have different effects on soil, plant growth, and fruit quality. Living grass mulch treatments, especially the HV treatment, significantly improved soil nutrients by enhancing nitrogen-related indicators. Of note, the BF treatment had higher total phosphorus and available phosphorus contents than the HV and RG treatments. The HV treatment had the highest relative abundance of Proteobacteria (33.49%), which is associated with symbiotic nitrogen fixation, followed by RG (25.62%), and BF (22.38%) at the young fruit stage. Similarly, the abundance of Terrimonas, which has a unique nitrogen fixation system at the genus level, was significantly higher in the living grass mulch (HV, 1.30-3.13% and RG, 2.27-4.24%) than in the BF treatment. Living grass mulch also promoted tree growth, increased fruit sugar content, sugar-related components, and sugar-acid ratio, and reduced the acid content. Collectively, the findings of this study show that living grass mulch can promote tree growth and improve fruit quality by improving soil fertility, bacterial diversity, and richness.

How does workplace support promote postdoctoral career growth? A conservation of resources perspective.

Background: Postdoctoral researchers are critical to scholarly advancements, and promoting postdoctoral career growth is an endogenous path to help postdocs break through the "encircled city of scientific research". However, further research is needed to fully explore the mechanisms that connect workplace support to postdoctoral career growth. Methods: Drawing from the Conservation of Resources theory, this study proposes a chain mediation model that demonstrates how workplace support enhances career growth by connecting psychological capital with work-life balance. To understand the motivation and career growth of postdocs in China, we conducted two questionnaires in 2021 and 2023 with the support of relevant stations. Results: Analyzing 367 questionnaires from Chinese postdocs, our research indicates that workplace support has a positive impact on career growth. Additionally, both psychological capital and work-life balance are key factors that contribute to career growth, serving as separate mediators and as part of a chain of mediators. Discussion: This study validates the appropriateness of the Conservation of Resources theory in the study of the influence mechanism of postdoctoral career growth and proposes targeted strategies for academic institutions to improve support systems, promoting more effective career development pathways.

Integrated analysis of HSP20 genes in the developing flesh of peach: identification, expression profiling, and subcellular localization.

BACKGROUND: Plant HSP20s are not only synthesized in response to heat stress but are also involved in plant biotic and abiotic stress resistance, normal metabolism, development, differentiation, survival, ripening, and death. Thus, HSP20 family genes play very important and diverse roles in plants. To our knowledge, HSP20 family genes in peach have not yet been characterized in detail, and little is known about their possible function in the development of red flesh in peach. RESULTS: In total, 44 PpHSP20 members were identified in the peach genome in this study. Forty-four PpHSP20s were classified into 10 subfamilies, CI, CII, CIII, CV, CVI, CVII, MII, CP, ER, and Po, containing 18, 2, 2, 10, 5, 1, 1, 2, 1, and 2 proteins, respectively. Among the 44 PpHSP20 genes, 6, 4, 4, 3, 7, 11, 5, and 4 PpHSP20 genes were located on chromosomes 1 to 8, respectively. In particular, approximately 15 PpHSP20 genes were located at both termini or one terminus of each chromosome. A total of 15 tandem PpHSP20 genes were found in the peach genome, which belonged to five tandemly duplicated groups. Overall, among the three cultivars, the number of PpHSP20 genes with higher expression levels in red flesh was greater than that in yellow or white flesh. The expression profiling for most of the PpHSP20 genes in the red-fleshed 'BJ' was higher overall at the S3 stage than at the S2, S4-1, and S4-2 stages, with the S3 stage being a very important period of transformation from a white color to the gradual anthocyanin accumulation in the flesh of this cultivar. The subcellular localizations of 16 out of 19 selected PpHSP20 proteins were in accordance with the corresponding subfamily classification and naming. Additionally, to our knowledge, Prupe.3G034800.1 is the first HSP20 found in plants that has the dual targets of both the endoplasmic reticulum and nucleus. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a comprehensive understanding of PpHSP20s, lays a foundation for future analyses of the unknown function of PpHSP20 family genes in red-fleshed peach fruit and advances our understanding of plant HSP20 genes.

Safety profile evaluation of different herbicides used on peach rootstock seedlings.

To screen out suitable herbicides for peach nurseries, we treated the potted seedlings of the peach rootstock 'Nemaguard' with eleven herbicides under recommended doses to investigate the changes of physiological indices and comprehensively evaluate the safety of different herbicides using principal component analysis (PCA). The results showed that soil application of quizalofop-p exhibited no detectable phytotoxicity on rootstock seedlings, while the remaining herbicides generated multiple symptoms, including green loss, wilting, spot, and withering. Starane caused rapid wilting and death, with a 100.0% phytotoxicity index (PI). Soil application of n-(phosphonomethyl)glycine, glufosinate-ammonium, acetochlor, and MCPA-Na showed a PI＞65.0%. As compared with the control, all herbicides inhibited leaf area growth to varying degrees, with a 10.0%-56.2% and 5.8%-44.4% reduction in young leaf area and mature leaf area, respectively. All herbicides, except quizalofop-p, increased the electrolyte permeability of leaf and root tip cells by 21.2%-145.0% and 36.9%-291.4%, respectively, and significantly inhibited root growth. The total root length, root surface area, root volume, and the number of root tips significantly decreased by 37.3%-75.3%, 35.7%-83.0%, 44.3%-89.9%, and 42.6%-73.7%, respectively. Although net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and transpiration rate (Tr) of leaves were not significantly affected by quizalofop-p, mesotrione-atrazine, MCPA-Na·bentazone, bensulfuron-methyl·quinclorac, and bensulfuron-methyl·acetochlor, there was significant reduction of 29.6%, 28.9%, 28.4% and 27.9% in Pn and 21.9%, 29.2%, 26.4%, and 19.7% in Tr post soil application of n-(phosphonomethyl)glycine, glufosinate-ammonium, acetochlor, and MCPA-Na. The overall safety ranking of the 11 examined herbicides is as follows: quizalofop-p>bensulfuron-methyl·acetochlor>bensulfuron-methyl·quinclorac>esotrione·atrazine> auizalofop-p·fluoroglycofen>acetochlor>MCPA-Na·bentazone>MCPA-Na>n-(phosphonomethyl)glycine>glufosinate-ammonium>sterane.

The influence of Big Five personality traits on college students' key competencies: the mediating effect of psychological capital.

Background: In recent years, both society and employers have put forward higher requirements for the comprehensive quality of college students in the new era. Based on the conservation of resources theory and life-cycle approach, this study aimed to examine the relationship between the Big Five personality traits, the psychological capital, and the key competencies among college students and analyzed the mediating role of the psychological capital in this link. Methods: A total of 1,132 Chinese undergraduates (67.40% girls; 48.67% from key universities) participated. Participants completed self-report questionnaires that evaluated the five key characteristics of personality, psychological capital, and key competencies. Results: There were extremely significant university-type differences in key competencies of college students. And the mediating role of psychological capital in the link between Big Five personality traits and key competencies was validated according to PROCESS model 4. Psychological capital serves as a partial mediator in the relationships between neuroticism and critical thinking, openness and creativity, conscientiousness and creativity, openness and communication, conscientiousness and communication, extraversion and collaboration, as well as openness and collaboration. The proportion of mediating effects for the above models was 5.97, 10.89, 11.82, 12.24, 11.98, 12.39, and 22.72%, respectively. Discussion: The findings provide a better understanding of the key competencies of college students from the perspectives of the Big Five personality traits and psychological capital and suggest a greater emphasis to focusing on personality and improving psychological capital.

[Effects of glyphosate and paraquat on root morphology and aboveground growth of Prunus persica seedlings]. / è‰ç”˜è†¦å’Œç™¾è‰æž¯å¯¹æ¯›æ¡ƒå¹¼è‹—æ ¹ç³»å½¢æ€åŠåœ°ä¸Šéƒ¨ç”Ÿé•¿çš„å½±å“.

To ascertain the safety of herbicides in peach production, we examined the effects of two herbicides (glyphosate and paraquat) on vegetative growth, root structure, root-tip cell mitosis and photosynthesis in rootstock Prunus persica seedlings. The results showed that the growth of both shoot and root of the P. persica seedlings was significantly inhibited under the glyphosate treatment. Compared with the control, plant height decreased by 31.5%, total root length, root surface area, root volume and the number of root tips decreased by 39.5%, 39.5%, 49.8% and 44.6%, respectively. The paraquat treatment had no significant differences compared with the control. The mitotic index of root tip cells decreased by 38.0% and 35.9% under both herbicide treatments, respectively. The proportion of cells at metaphase against the total number of mitotic cells in the root tips was significantly reduced by glyphosate treatment compared with the control and the paraquat treatment. Root tip cells of peach were sensitive to both kinds of herbicides. The leakage of electrolytes from the cells in root tips was significantly higher than that of the control from the second day to the thirtieth day after treatments. After five days of glyphosate treatment, electrolyte leakage rate of leaves was raised, the bases of young leaves turned yellow, and spread to leaf tips, parts of which ultimately withered. Net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, and transpiration rate were reduced more strongly under the glyphosate treatment than the paraquat treatment. In conclusion, both kinds of herbicides reduced cell mitotic index of root tip cells and leaf net photosynthetic rate, increased the electrolyte leakage rate of the root tip cells in P. persica seedlings. Glyphosate had a greater effect on vegetative growth and leaf photosynthesis, which could cause young leaves yellowing and leaf tips scorching.

The Impact of Haze Pollution on Regional Eco-Economic Treatment Efficiency in China: An Environmental Regulation Perspective.

"The Gray Great Wall" formed by haze pollution is an increasingly serious issue in China, and the resulting air pollution has brought severe challenges to human health, the socio-economy and the world ecosystem. Based on the facts above, this paper uses China's province-level panel data from 2009 to 2016, systematically measures the heterogeneous structure of regional ecological economic (eco-economic) treatment efficiency through a Super Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) model and dynamic threshold models, and analyzes the forcing mechanism of haze pollution pressure on regional eco-economic treatment efficiency from an environmental regulation perspective. Results indicated that China's eco-economic treatment has been vigorously promoted, which is significantly conducive to green growth upgrading. However, the process has a large developmental scope due to regional heterogeneity. Interestingly, the forcing impact of haze pollution on regional eco-economic treatment efficiency is limited by the "critical mass" of environmental regulations: a weak degree of regulation will facilitate an increase in regional eco-economic treatment efficiency through the forcing effect of haze pollution pressure. Once environmental regulation reaches a critical level, a stronger degree of regulation will suppress the forcing effect of haze pollution in turn and it will decrease the regional eco-economic treatment efficiency. This paper endeavors to clarify the differences, suitability and dependency in the process of ecological transformation for Chinese local governments in different regions and provide policy references for a regional ecological transformation matching system.