Leaf hydraulics coordinated with leaf economics and leaf size in mangrove species along a salinity gradient.

Independence among leaf economics, leaf hydraulics and leaf size confers plants great capability in adapting to heterogeneous environments. However, it remains unclear whether the independence of the leaf traits revealed across species still holds within species, especially under stressed conditions. Here, a suite of traits in these dimensions were measured in leaves and roots of a typical mangrove species, Ceriops tagal, which grows in habitats with a similar sunny and hot environment but different soil salinity in southern China. Compared with C. tagal under low soil salinity, C. tagal under high soil salinity had lower photosynthetic capacity, as indicated directly by a lower leaf nitrogen concentration and higher water use efficiency, and indirectly by a higher investment in defense function and thinner palisade tissue; had lower water transport capacity, as evidenced by thinner leaf minor veins and thinner root vessels; and also had much smaller single leaf area. Leaf economics, hydraulics and leaf size of the mangrove species appear to be coordinated as one trait dimension, which likely stemmed from co-variation of soil water and nutrient availability along the salinity gradient. The intraspecific leaf trait relationship under a stressful environment is insightful for our understanding of plant adaption to the multifarious environments.

[Multivariate Calibration Combined with Mass Spectrometry for Rapid Analysis].

A mixture of four substances of benzaldehyde, iso-octane, butyl acetate, acetophenone were quantitatively analyzed by mass spectrometry combined with chemometrics. The mass chromatogram data of mixture were proceeded with two methods for quantitative analysis. One is feature selection--Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and the other is full spectrum--Partial Least Squares (PLS). The results show that the RMSEP of benzaldehyde were 0.062 and 0.091 after selecting m/z spectrum and full spectrum respectively; RMSEP of isooctane were 0.048 and 0.057 after selecting spectrum and full spectrum respectively; which of butyl acetate were 0.021 and 0.020 and of acetophenone were 0.010 and 0.032. The feature selection results of the mixture were better than that of the full spectrum modeling results expect butyl acetate which got similar results by the two methods.

[Determination of calcium and magnesium in tobacco by near-infrared spectroscopy and least squares-support vector machine].

The purpose of the present paper is to determine calcium and magnesium in tobacco using NIR combined with least squares-support vector machine (LS-SVM). Five hundred ground and dried tobacco samples from Qujing city, Yunnan province, China, were surveyed by a MATRIX-I spectrometer (Bruker Optics, Bremen, Germany). At the beginning of data processing, outliers of samples were eliminated for stability of the model. The rest 487 samples were divided into several calibration sets and validation sets according to a hybrid modeling strategy. Monte-Carlo cross validation was used to choose the best spectral preprocess method from multiplicative scatter correction (MSC), standard normal variate transformation (SNV), S-G smoothing, 1st derivative, etc., and their combinations. To optimize parameters of LS-SVM model, the multilayer grid search and 10-fold cross validation were applied. The final LS-SVM models with the optimizing parameters were trained by the calibration set and accessed by 287 validation samples picked by Kennard-Stone method. For the quantitative model of calcium in tobacco, Savitzky-Golay FIR smoothing with frame size 21 showed the best performance. The regularization parameter λ of LS-SVM was e16.11, while the bandwidth of the RBF kernel σ2 was e8.42. The determination coefficient for prediction (Rc(2)) was 0.9755 and the determination coefficient for prediction (Rp(2)) was 0.9422, better than the performance of PLS model (Rc(2)=0.9593, Rp(2)=0.9344). For the quantitative analysis of magnesium, SNV made the regression model more precise than other preprocess. The optimized λ was e15.25 and σ2 was e6.32. Rc(2) and Rp(2) were 0.9961 and 0.9301, respectively, better than PLS model (Rc(2)=0.9716, Rp(2)=0.8924). After modeling, the whole progress of NIR scan and data analysis for one sample was within tens of seconds. The overall results show that NIR spectroscopy combined with LS-SVM can be efficiently utilized for rapid and accurate analysis of calcium and magnesium in tobacco.

[Simultaneous determination of instant coffee, plant fat and sugar content in liquid coffee beverage by diffuse reflectance near-infrared spectroscopy].

The diffuse reflectance near-infrared spectra of 20 liquid coffee beverage samples were collected by FT-NIR spectrometer combined with integral sphere in this thesis. The quantitative calibration models of instant coffee, plant fat and sugar were developed respectively. The result indicated that for the calibration models of instant coffee, plant fat and sugar, the dimensions of the calibration models are 4, 5 and 4 respectively; the determination coefficients (R2) are 98.97%, 99.94% and 99.18% respectively; the root mean square errors of calibration (RMSEC) are 1.62, 0.42 and 1.58 respectively; the root mean square errors of cross validation (RMSECV) are 2.12, 0.72 and 2.01 respectively. The result of F-test showed that a very remarkable correlation exists between the estimated and specified values for each calibration model. This research indicated that NIR spectroscopy can be applied in the rapid, accurate and simultaneous determination of the three main ingredients in liquid coffee beverage. This research can provide some references for the quality control of liquid coffee beverage and the determination of the substance with chemical-fixation composition in liquid formula food.

Periodicity of monoisotopic mass isomers and isobars in proteomics.

We report trends in the theoretically derived number of compositionally distinct peptides (i.e., peptides made up of different amino acid residues) up to a nominal mass of 1000. A total of 21 amino acid residues commonly found in proteomics studies are included in this study, 19 natural, nonisomeric amino acid residues as well as oxidated methione and acetamidated cysteine. The number of possibilities is found to increase in an exponential fashion with increasing nominal mass, and the data show a periodic oscillation that starts at mass ~200 and continues throughout to 1000. Note that similar effects are reported in the companion article on fragment ions from electron capture/transfer dissociation (ECD/ETD) (Mao et al. Anal. Chem.2011, DOI: 10.1021/ac201619t). The spacing of this oscillation is ~15 mass units at lower masses and ~14 mass units at higher nominal masses. This correlates with the most common mass differences between the amino acid building blocks. In other words, some mass differences are more common than others, thus determining the periodicity in this data. From an analytical point of view, nominal masses with a larger number of compositionally distinct peptides include a substantial number of isomers, which cannot be separated based on mass. Consequently, even ultrahigh mass accuracy (i.e., 0.5 ppm) does not lead to a substantially enhanced rate of identification. Conversely, for adjacent nominal masses with a lower number of isomers, moderately accurate mass (i.e., 10 ppm) gives a higher degree of certainty in identification. These effects are limited to the mass range between 200 and 500 Da. At higher masses, the percentage of uniquely identified peptides drops off to close to zero, independent of nominal mass, due the inherently high number of isomers. While the exact number of isobars/isomers at each nominal mass depends on the amino acid building blocks that are considered, the periodicity in the data is found to be remarkably robust; for instance, inclusion of phosphorylated residues barely affects the pattern at lower masses (i.e., <500 Da).

Overexpression of the Arabidopsis α-expansin gene AtEXPA1 accelerates stomatal opening by decreasing the volumetric elastic modulus.

Guard cell walls of stomata are highly specialized in plants. Previous research focused on the structure and anatomy of guard cell walls, but little is known about guard cell regulation during stomata movement. In this work, we investigate the possible biological role of the Arabidopsis expansin gene AtEXPA1 in stomatal opening. The AtEXPA1 promoter drove the expression of the GUS reporter gene specifically in guard cells. Light-induced stomatal opening was accelerated in 35S::AtEXPA1 lines, whereas the anti-AtEXPA1 antibody decelerated light-induced stomatal opening. The inhibition of the anti-AtEXPA1 antibody on stomatal opening was largely dependent on the environmental pH. The volumetric elastic modulus (ε) was measured as an indicator of changes in the cell wall. The ε value of guard cells in 35S::AtEXPA1 lines was smaller than in the wild types. The putative role of AtEXPA1 as controller of stomatal opening rate and its regulation are discussed.

[Study on rapid determination of active ingredient of agrochemicals by near-infrared spectroscopy].

The main problem of disqualification of the agrochemicals is the insufficiency and abuse of its active ingredient, but lacking of the rapid and on the site analysis method. In the present thesis, the content of haloxyfop-r-methyl in the emulsifiable concentration was analyzed quantitatively by the FT-NIR spectroscopy combined with partial least square (PLS) method. The calibration models of haloxyfop-r-methyl were developed, the determination coefficients (R2) of the calibration models were no less than 0.999 9, the SEC were less than 0.019, and the SEP were less than 0.030. Meanwhile, the factors affecting the calibration model were studied and the validation was done by the actual sample. The result indicated that the method of near-infrared spectroscopy can predict the content of the active ingredient in emulsifiable concentration accurately; while the resolution of the instrument and the content of addition agent will not affect the prediction precision of the calibration model remarkably. Therefore, it is a feasible, convenient and quick method to analyze the active ingredient in the commodity agrochemicals by near-infrared spectroscopy, which has an important significance in the on-line determination, analysis on site in the enterprise and the rapid quantitative analysis of agrichemicals in the department of quality monitoring.

[Spectrofluorimetric study of supramolecular inclusion between rodenticide brodifacoum and beta-cyclodextrin and application].

The supramolecular interaction between beta-cyclodextrin and brodifacoum, an anticoagulant rodenticide of the second generation, was studied by spectroscopy. The results showed that brodifacoum and beta-cyclodextrin could form an inclusion complex with an association constant of 1.048 x 10(4) L x mol(-1) and a 1 : 1 stoichiometry based on Benesi-Hildebrand equation. The inclusion mechanism was proposed to explain the inclusion mode. It was indicated that the hydrophobic group of brodifacoum molecule, biphenyl, entered into the cavity of beta-cyclodextrin. At the same time, it was also observed the significant enhancement of fluorescence of brodifacoum after forming inclusion complex. According to the fluorescence enhancement phenomenon, a spectrofluorimetric method of detecting brodifacoum in aqueous media was established with the linear range of 8.0 x 10(-8)-4.0 x 10(-6) mol x L(-1) and the correlation coefficient of 0.999 4. The detection limit of the method was 8.8 x 10(-9) mol x L(-1). The proposed method was successfully applied to determine the trace amount of brodifacoum in environment water and the recovery was in the range of 87.3% to 103.9%.

[Quantitative analysis of the content of deltamethrin in agrochemicals by near-infrared, attenuated total reflectance infrared and raman spectroscopy].

The method of near-infrared, attenuated total reflectance infrared and Raman spectroscopy was used for the rapid determination of the content of deltamethrin in agrochemicals. The quantitative models were established by PLS (partial least squares) method and optimized. The independent validation sets were used to evaluate the model accuracy. The determination coefficient R2 and RMSECV of the near-infrared model and mid-infrared model were 0.9999, 0.022 and 0.9996 and 0.056, respectively. The accuracy of both was similar. The determination coefficient R2 and RMSECV of Raman were 0. 996 7 and 0.172, which exhibits the lower accuracy. The result indicated that near-infrared, mid-infrared and Raman spectroscopy can be applied to the rapid determination of the content of the active ingredients precisely, which has an important significance in the on-line determination, analysis on site in the enterprise and the rapid quantitative analysis of agrichemicals in the department of quality monitoring.

[Fast determination of the proportion of metalaxyl-M enantiomers by UV spectroscopy].

In the present study, beta-cyclodextrin(betaCD) was used as chiral selector to detect the proportion of chiral isomers of metalaxyl. The proportion of metalaxyl enantiomers can be detected by ultraviolet (UV)spectroscopy since the interaction between the R, S isomer of metalaxyl with beta-CD is different. The quantitative models were established by partial least squares regression (PLS) and the robust of models was evaluated by independent validation samples. The determination coefficient R2 of calibration set in the quantitative model was 0.999 0. The standard error of calibration set (SEC) and the relative standard deviation (RSD) of the model was respectively 0.006 7 and 0.89%; The correlation coefficient r of estimated value and specified value of the 6 independent validation samples was 0.998 5. The standard error of prediction (SEP) and RSD was respectively 0.008 9 and 1.17%. This method is rapid and easy to operate in practical applications.

[Effects and mechanisms of plant roots on slope reinforcement and soil erosion resistance: a research review].

Plant roots play an important role in resisting the shallow landslip and topsoil erosion of slopes by raising soil shear strength. Among the models in interpreting the mechanisms of slope reinforcement by plant roots, Wu-Waldron model is a widely accepted one. In this model, the reinforced soil strength by plant roots is positively proportional to average root tensile strength and root area ratio, the two most important factors in evaluating slope reinforcement effect of plant roots. It was found that soil erosion resistance increased with the number of plant roots, though no consistent quantitative functional relationship was observed between them. The increase of soil erosion resistance by plant roots was mainly through the actions of fiber roots less than 1 mm in diameter, while fiber roots enhanced the soil stability to resist water dispersion via increasing the number and diameter of soil water-stable aggregates. Fine roots could also improve soil permeability effectively to decrease runoff and weaken soil erosion.

[The mechanism of carbofuran interacts with calf thymus DNA].

Carbofuran is an insecticide used on a variety of corps. Acute and chronic occupational exposure of humans to carbofuran has been observed to cause cholinesterase inhibition, but little is known about the interaction of carbofuran with DNA. Using the technique of UV spectrum and fluorescence quenching respectively, the interaction between carbofuran and ct DNA was studied. The UV spectrum showed that ct DNA can lead to the hypochromic effect and red shift of the UV spectrum of carbofuran. The quenching process was proved to be the single static quenching and quenching constant decreases with temperature increasing. The basis of this specificity is intercalation of insecticide between base pairs to produce ct DNA-carbofuran adducts. Furthermore, ethanol can produce Franck-condon effect on the ct DNA-carbofuran adducts. At different sodium chloride concentrations, quenching constant had no significant change, which appeared that there was little electrostatic interaction between ct DNA and carbofuran and it was intercalation.

[Study on the resonance scattering light spectra of atrazine-RNA and its analytical application].

The Resonance Light Scattering (RLS) spectra of atrazine with yeast ribonucleic acid (yRNA) had been studied. At pH 1.50, the enhanced RLS of atrazine-yRNA system is characterized by the maximum scattering peaks at 320 nm and the RLS intensity is proportional to the concentration of yRNA. Under optimal conditions, the linear ranges of the calibration were 0.6-5.0 microg x mL(-1), the linear regression equation was I = 25.88 + 140.0 c(yRNA, microg x mL(-1)), r = 0.9975, with the limit of detection 20.7 ng x mL(-1) (3delta). The method was applied to the determination of yRNA in synthetic samples and RNA in salt cress (Thellungiella halophila) sample satisfactorily. Mechanism studies show that there are two interaction modes between atrazine and RNA: electrostatic mode and intercalative mode.

[Determination of deoxyribonuceic acids by resonance light scattering technique with benzidine in the presence of the sensitizing sodium dodecyl sulfate].

The resonance light scattering (RLS) spectra of benzidine with deoxyribonucleic acid (ctDNA) in the presence of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate had been studied. RLS intensity of SDS-benzidine system was enhanced by trace ctDNA and was proportional to the concentrationof ctDNA. Under optima conditions, the linear ranges of the calibration were 0.3-4 mg x L(-1), the linear regression equation was I = 37.17c (ctDNA, mg x L(-1)) + 208.9, r = 0.9992. The limit of detection were 0.17 mg x L(-1) (3delta), RSD% = 3.5%. The method had been applied to the determination of DNA in synthetic samples and gene tobacco sample, and the results were satisfactory.