Morphology Regulation of UiO-66-2I Supporting Systematic Investigations of Shape-Dependent Catalytic Activity for Degradation of an Organophosphate Nerve Agent Simulant.

Phosphonate-based nerve agents, as a kind of deadly chemical warfare agent, are a persistent and evolving threat to humanity. Zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks (Zr-MOFs) are a kind of highly porous crystalline material that includes Zr-OH-Zr sites and imitates the active sites of the phosphotriesterase enzyme, representing significant potential for the adsorption and catalytic hydrolysis of phosphonate-based nerve agents. In this work, we present a new Zr-MOF, UiO-66-2I, which attaches two iodine atoms in the micropore of the MOF and exhibits excellent catalytic activity on the degradation of a nerve agent simulant, dimethyl 4-nitrophenyl phosphate (DMNP), as the result of the formation of halogen bonds between the phosphate ester bonds and iodine groups. Furthermore, various morphologies of UiO-66-2I, such as blocky-shaped nanoparticles (NPs), two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets, hexahedral NPs, stick-like NPs, colloidal microspheres, and colloidal NPs, have been obtained by adding acetic acid (AA), formic acid (FA), propionic acid (PA), valeric acid (VA), benzoic acid (BA), and trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) as modulators, respectively, and show different catalytic hydrolysis activities. Specifically, the catalytic activities follow the trend UiO-66-2I-FA (t1/2 = 1 min) > UiO-66-2I-AA-NP (t1/2 = 4 min) ≈ UiO-66-2I-VA (t1/2 = 4 min) > UiO-66-2I-BA (t1/2 = 5 min) > UiO-66-2I-PA (t1/2 = 15 min) > UiO-66-2I-TFA (t1/2 = 18 min). The experimental results show that the catalytic hydrolysis activity of Zr-MOF is regulated by the crystallinity, defect quantity, morphologies, and hydrophilicity of these samples, which synergistically affect the accessibility of catalytic sites and the diffusion of phosphate in the pores of Zr-MOFs.

Guest-Induced Multilevel Charge Transport Strategy for Developing Metal-Organic Frameworks to Boost Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction.

Encapsulating photogenerated charge-hopping nodes and space transport bridges within metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is a promising method of boosting the photocatalytic performance. Herein, this work embeds electron transfer media (9,10-bis(4-pyridyl)anthracene (BPAN)) in MOF cavities to build multi-level electron transfer paths. The MOF cavities are accurately regulated to investigate the significance of the multi-level electron transfer paths in the process of CO2 photoreduction by evaluating the difference in the number of guest media. The prepared MOFs, {[Co(BPAN)(1,4-dicarboxybenzene)(H2 O)2 ]·BPAN·2H2 O} and {[Co(BPAN)2 (4,4'-biphenyldicarboxylic acid)2 (H2 O)2 ]·2BPAN·2H2 O} (denoted as BPAN-Co-1 and BPAN-Co-2), exhibit efficient visible-light-driven CO2 conversion properties. The CO photoreduction efficacy of BPAN-Co-2 (5598 µmol g-1  h-1 ) is superior to that of most reported MOF-based catalysts. In addition, the enhanced CO2 photoreduction ability is supported by density functional theory (DFT). This work illustrates the feasibility of realizing charge separation characteristics in MOF catalysts at the molecular level, and provides new insight for designing high-performance MOFs for artificial photosynthesis.

Rational Construction of Metal Organic Framework Hybrid Assemblies for Visible Light-Driven CO2 Conversion.

Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to value-added chemicals is known to be a promising approach for CO2 conversion. The design and preparation of ideal photocatalysts for CO2 conversion are of pivotal significance for the sustainable development of the whole society. In this work, we integrated two functional organic linkers to prepare a novel metal organic framework (MOF) photocatalyst {[Co(9,10-bis(4-pyridyl)anthracene)0.5(bpda)]·4DMF} (Co-MOF). The existence of anthryl and amino groups leads to a wide range of visible light absorption and efficient separation of photogenerated electrons. To extend the lifetime of photogenerated electrons in the photocatalytic system, we modified Co-MOF particles onto g-C3N4. As expected, Co-MOF/g-C3N4 composites exhibited an ultrahigh selectivity (more than 97%) in the photocatalytic process, and the highest CO production rate (1824 µmol/g/h) was 7.1 and 27.2 times of Co-MOFs and g-C3N4, respectively. What's more, we also discussed the reaction mechanism of the Co-MOF/g-C3N4 photocatalytic CO2 reduction, and this work paves the pathway for designing photocatalysts with ideal CO2 reduction performance.

Fine mapping of powdery mildew and stripe rust resistance genes Pm5V/Yr5V transferred from Dasypyrum villosum into wheat without yield penalty.

KEY MESSAGE: The novel wheat powdery mildew and stripe rust resistance genes Pm5V/Yr5V are introgressed from Dasypyrum villosum and fine mapped to a narrowed region in 5VS, and their effects on yield-related traits were characterized. The powdery mildew and stripe rust seriously threaten wheat production worldwide. Dasypyrum villosum (2n = 2x = 14, VV), a relative of wheat, is a valuable resource of resistance genes for wheat improvement. Here, we describe a platform for rapid introgression of the resistance genes from D. villosum into the wheat D genome. A complete set of new wheat-D. villosum V (D) disomic substitution lines and 11 D/V Robertsonian translocation lines are developed and characterized by molecular cytogenetic method. A new T5DL·5V#5S line NAU1908 shows resistance to both powdery mildew and stripe rust, and the resistances associated with 5VS are confirmed to be conferred by seedling resistance gene Pm5V and adult-plant resistance gene Yr5V, respectively. We flow-sort chromosome arm 5VS and sequence it using the Illumina NovaSeq 6000 system that allows us to generate 5VS-specific markers for genetic mapping of Pm5V/Yr5V. Fine mapping shows that Pm5V and Yr5V are closely linked and the location is narrowed to an approximately 0.9 Mb region referencing the sequence of Chinese Spring 5DS. In this region, a NLR gene in scaffold 24,874 of 5VS orthologous to TraesCS5D02G044300 is the most likely candidate gene for Pm5V. Soft- and hard-grained T5DL·5V#5S introgressions confer resistance to both powdery mildew and stripe rust in diverse wheat genetic backgrounds without yield penalty. Meanwhile, significant decrease in plant height and increase in yield were observed in NIL-5DL·5V#5S compared with that in NIL-5DL·5DS. These results indicate that Pm5V/Yr5V lines might have the potential value to facilitate wheat breeding for disease resistance.

A Fast Weighted Fuzzy C-Medoids Clustering for Time Series Data Based on P-Splines.

The rapid growth of digital information has produced massive amounts of time series data on rich features and most time series data are noisy and contain some outlier samples, which leads to a decline in the clustering effect. To efficiently discover the hidden statistical information about the data, a fast weighted fuzzy C-medoids clustering algorithm based on P-splines (PS-WFCMdd) is proposed for time series datasets in this study. Specifically, the P-spline method is used to fit the functional data related to the original time series data, and the obtained smooth-fitting data is used as the input of the clustering algorithm to enhance the ability to process the data set during the clustering process. Then, we define a new weighted method to further avoid the influence of outlier sample points in the weighted fuzzy C-medoids clustering process, to improve the robustness of our algorithm. We propose using the third version of mueen's algorithm for similarity search (MASS 3) to measure the similarity between time series quickly and accurately, to further improve the clustering efficiency. Our new algorithm is compared with several other time series clustering algorithms, and the performance of the algorithm is evaluated experimentally on different types of time series examples. The experimental results show that our new method can speed up data processing and the comprehensive performance of each clustering evaluation index are relatively good.

The 50-Fold Enhanced Proton Conductivity Brought by Aqueous-Phase Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Central Metal Exchange.

Coordination polymer {[Co3L2(H2O)6]·2H2O}n goes through aqueous-phase single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SC-SC) central metal exchange to produce {[Cu3L2(H2O)6]·2H2O}n. The daughter product presents a higher proton conductivity of 0.004 S cm-1 at 95 °C and 100% RH, increasing by 50-fold relative to the parent product. The water vapor adsorption reveals that the uptake capacity of 2 reaches 145.08 mg/g, which is 7.5 times that of 1 (19.36 mg/g). High water affinity is confirmed by the smaller water contact angle of 2. Replacing water vapor with vapors of dilute hydrochloric acid and ammonia, the improvement of proton conductivity is also realized. Exchanged products all give enhanced conductivities in different vapor atmospheres, which shows that the aqueous-phase central metal exchange is a judicious choice for the preparation of excellent proton conducting coordination polymers.

Direct Conversion of Benzothiadiazole to Benzimidazole: New Benzimidazole-Derived Metal-Organic Frameworks with Adjustable Honeycomb-Like Cavities.

Up to now, the direct conversion of the thiadiazole ring to other heterocyclic rings has been a very challenging task. Herein, a CdII -mediated alcohol-substitution strategy for direct conversion from benzothiadiazole to benzimidazole is reported. Experimental and molecular modeling studies on the role of the chelated metal ion in this in situ alcohol-substitution reaction revealed that it serves as an all-rounder that is involved in the insertion of alcohol, activation of the thiadiazole ring by coordinative interaction, and the sulfur-extrusion process. Interestingly, the insertion of alcohol occurs much earlier than the sulfur-extrusion process, supported by a water-mediated proton-transfer process. This strategy also is suitable for constructing new benzimidazole-derived MOFs [Cd2 (HMBIDC2- )2 ]⋅4 H2 O (Cd-BID-MOF-1, HMBIDC2- =2-methyl-1H-benzimidazole-4,7-dicarboxylate) and [Cd2 (HPBIDC2- )2 ]⋅1/3 H2 O (Cd-BID-MOF-2, HPBIDC2- =2-(3-hydroxypropyl)-2H-benzimidazole-4,7-dicarboxylate). Because the terminal hydroxyl group on the imidazole ring protrudes into the circular channel in rhombohedral Cd-BID-MOF-2, the cavity is closer to hydrophilic than the honeycomb-like cavity in Cd-BID-MOF-1 with similar 3D structure. This rare observation will provide a new strategy to develop in situ ligand-reaction synthesis of functional MOFs and useful chelation-assisted catalytic reactions in heteroaromatic chemistry.

Investigation of Regulating Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Property by Coordination Interaction.

In this paper, a series of organic compounds (L1-L6) with a D-π-A conjugation system were prepared. The investigations of third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties indicate that L1-L6 show different degrees of third-order NLO responses. It is surprising that introducing metal ions can effectively regulate their third-order NLO properties and even change the type of nonlinear absorption signal from reverse saturable absorption to saturable absorption, which can be attributed to the formation of coordination bonds between metal ions and L1-L6. It has aroused our tremendous interests in regulating third-order NLO performance. The regulation mechanisms were also discussed through the pump-probe measurements and the density functional theory. The enhancement of electron transfer efficiency is considered to be the key to improving NLO performance. Furthermore, we also obtained two coordination complexes [Cu(L1)2(NO3)2] (1) and [Cd(L1)2I2] (2) based on L1, which further proved the coordination between metal ions and L1-L6. Ligand-to-metal or metal-to-ligand charge transfer makes more electronic delocalization, leading to better third-order NLO properties. This work provides new ideas and explorations for the excogitation of third-order NLO materials.

Co-Cluster-Based Metal-Organic Frameworks as Selective Catalysts for Benzene Tandem Acylation-Nazarov Cyclization to Benzocyclopentanone.

One-step selective benzene acylation-Nazarov cyclization is an attractive, yet challenging method for the synthesis of the benzocyclopentanone skeleton, which is key intermediate of many natural products. Herein, two metal-cluster-based metal-organic frameworks (MCOFs) {(H3 O)2 [Co4 (pbcd)2 (µ3 -OH)2 ]⋅CH3 CH2 OH⋅4 H2 O}n (1; pbcd=9,9'-(propan-1,3-diyl)bis(9H-carbazole-3,6-dicarboxylic acid) and {[Co5.25 (mcd)2 (HCO2 )(µ2 -O)0.5 (µ3 -OH)0.5 (H2 O)4 ]⋅6 H2 O⋅5 DMF}n (2; mcd=9,9'-methylenebis(9H-carbazole-3,6-dicarboxylic acid) were developed to catalyze a tandem Nazarov cyclization reaction of 1,3-dimethoxybenzene with α,ß-unsaturated carboxylic acids for the synthesis of cyclopentenone[b]benzenes. MCOFs 1 and 2, which were constructed from tetranuclear CoII cluster [Co4 (µ3 -OH)2 ] and hexanuclear CoII cluster [Co6 (HCO2 )(µ2 -O)(µ3 -OH)], respectively, exhibit high catalytic activity arising not only from their suitable channel size and accessible catalytic sites, but also because of their high density of Lewis acidic sites within the frameworks and the synergic activity among CoII ions. In contrast, {[Co2 (pbcd)(bpe)]⋅2 H2 O⋅2 DMF}n (3; bpe=1,2-bis(pyridin-4-yl)ethane) containing binuclear CoII and having large pore windows is a highly selective catalyst for obtaining exclusively the acylation products. Easy product separation, simple reaction procedures, and catalyst recycling make the catalyst system attractive. This work highlights the synergistic effect among ions of MCOFs in interacting with substrates in a sequential or cooperative manner to achieve tandem catalysis.

Dynamic Virtual Network Reconfiguration Method for Hybrid Multiple Failures Based on Weighted Relative Entropy.

Network virtualization can offer more flexibility and better manageability for next generation Internet. With the increasing deployments of virtual networks in military and commercial networks, a major challenge is to ensure virtual network survivability against hybrid multiple failures. In this paper, we study the problem of recovering virtual networks affected by hybrid multiple failures in substrate networks and provide an integer linear programming formulation to solve it. We propose a heuristic algorithm to tackle the complexity of the integer linear programming formulation, which includes a faulty virtual network reconfiguration ranking method based on weighted relative entropy, a hybrid multiple failures ranking algorithm, and a virtual node migration method based on weighted relative entropy. In the faulty virtual network reconfiguration ranking method based on weighted relative entropy and virtual node migration method based on weighted relative entropy, multiple ranking indicators are combined in a suitable way based on weighted relative entropy. In the hybrid multiple failures ranking algorithm, the virtual node and its connective virtual links are re-embedded, firstly. Evaluation results show that our heuristic method not only has the best acceptance ratio and normal operation ratio, but also achieves the highest long-term average revenue to cost ratio compared with other virtual network reconfiguration methods.

Highly Selective Turn-On Fluorescent Chemodosimeter for AlIII Detection through AlIII -Promoted Hydrolysis of C=N Double Bonds in the 8-Hydroxyquinoline Aldehyde Schiff Base.

Fluorescent chemodosimeters based on small organic molecules are widely used in the detection of various analytes. However, chemodosimeters for metal ion detection are still limited to a few transition metals, such as HgII , CuII , FeIII , AuIII , etc. In this work, a fluorescent chemodosimeter of 5-chloro-7-phenyliminomethyl-8-hydroxyquinoline (2) for the detection of AlIII is reported. Chemodosimeter 2 exhibits a turn-on fluorescence response to AlIII owing to an AlIII -promoted hydrolysis of carbon-nitrogen double bonds. This reaction yielded a 1-Al complex, which exhibited high fluorescence emission at 487 nm based on inhibition of excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT). Because of the specific catalytic ability of AlIII , the selectivity of 2 to AlIII is excellent both in aqueous solutions and in solid matrix. The fluorescence enhancement was as high as 582-fold and the turn-on fluorescence can be observed even by the naked eye upon an irradiation with a UV lamp. The detection limit of 2 for AlIII sensing is 54 nmol L-1 and the linear range is 0-50 µmol L-1 . This work provides a new strategy for designing main-group-metal chemodosimeters based on small organic molecules.

Genome-wide identification of the LEA gene family in Panax ginseng: Evidence for the role of PgLEA2-50 in plant abiotic stress response.

Ginseng frequently encounters environmental stress during its growth and development. Late Embryogenesis Abundant (LEA) proteins play a crucial role in combating adversity stress, particularly against abiotic challenges In this study, 107 LEA genes from ginseng, spanning eight subfamilies, were identified, demonstrating significant evolutionary conservation, with the LEA2 subfamily being most prominent. Gene duplication events, primarily segmental duplications, have played a major role in the expansion of the LEA gene family, which has undergone strong purifying selection. PgLEAs were unevenly distributed across 22 chromosomes, with each subfamily featuring unique structural domains and conserved motifs. PgLEAs were expressed in various tissues, exhibiting distinct variations in abundance and tissue specificity. Numerous regulatory cis-elements, related to abiotic stress and hormones, were identified in the promoter region. Additionally, PgLEAs were regulated by a diverse array of abiotic stress-related transcription factors. A total of 35 PgLEAs were differentially expressed following treatments with ABA, GA, and IAA. Twenty-three PgLEAs showed significant but varied responses to drought, extreme temperatures, and salinity stress. The transformation of tobacco with the key gene PgLEA2-50 enhanced osmoregulation and antioxidant levels in transgenic lines, improving their resistance to abiotic stress. This study offers insights into functional gene analysis, focusing on LEA proteins, and establishes a foundational framework for research on ginseng's resilience to abiotic stress.

Wheat Pm55 alleles exhibit distinct interactions with an inhibitor to cause different powdery mildew resistance.

Powdery mildew poses a significant threat to wheat crops worldwide, emphasizing the need for durable disease control strategies. The wheat-Dasypyrum villosum T5AL·5 V#4 S and T5DL·5 V#4 S translocation lines carrying powdery mildew resistant gene Pm55 shows developmental-stage and tissue-specific resistance, whereas T5DL·5 V#5 S line carrying Pm5V confers resistance at all stages. Here, we clone Pm55 and Pm5V, and reveal that they are allelic and renamed as Pm55a and Pm55b, respectively. The two Pm55 alleles encode coiled-coil, nucleotide-binding site-leucine-rich repeat (CNL) proteins, conferring broad-spectrum resistance to powdery mildew. However, they interact differently with a linked inhibitor gene, SuPm55 to cause different resistance to wheat powdery mildew. Notably, Pm55 and SuPm55 encode unrelated CNL proteins, and the inactivation of SuPm55 significantly reduces plant fitness. Combining SuPm55/Pm55a and Pm55b in wheat does not result in allele suppression or yield penalty. Our results provide not only insights into the suppression of resistance in wheat, but also a strategy for breeding durable resistance.

Rapid detection and quality evaluation of Shuang-Huang-Lian injection by ATR-IR and NIR spectroscopy combined with chemometrics.

Quality evaluation and consistency evaluation of drugs are the keys to ensure the therapeutic effect and safety of drugs. In this study, attenuated total refraction infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometrics were used for rapid detection and quality evaluation of active components of Shuang-Huang-Lian injection (SHLI), a traditional Chinese medicine preparation commonly used in China. Taking the chromatographic detection results as a reference, the partial least squares (PLS) model based on ATR-IR and NIR data was constructed by removing the bands with serious noise interference and low signal frequency band. The results showed that the PLS model achieved satisfactory results for the prediction of the three active components (chlorogenic acid, baicalin and phillyrin) in SHLI, indicating that the two spectral techniques combined with the PLS regression method could be successfully used for rapid quantitative analysis of the three active ingredients in SHLI. Relatively, the PLS model based on the ATR-IR spectrum has higher R2 and smaller RMSE than it based on the NIR spectrum. Furthermore, based on the rapid quantitative analysis of the three active ingredients in SHLI, the quality of 140 SHLI samples from seven manufacturers was evaluated by TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution) analysis, and the consistency of different batches of SHLI products from the same manufacturer was evaluated. The results showed that there were differences in the quality of SHLI produced by different manufacturers, and the quality of different batches of SHLI produced by the same manufacturer was not completely consistent. In conclusion, ATR-IR and NIR spectroscopy combined with chemometrics can be used for accurate and rapid quantitative analysis and quality evaluation of SHLI. This study provides a good idea for the rapid quantitative analysis and quality evaluation of drugs or food based on spectroscopic technology and chemometrics.

Application of UPLC-Orbitrap-HRMS targeted metabolomics in screening of allelochemicals and model plants of ginseng.

Continuous cropping of ginseng leads to serious declines in yield and quality because of self-toxicity of allelochemicals and other factors in soil. However, because of the long growth cycle and low survival rate of ginseng, rapid screening of autotoxic activity is difficult. Therefore, it is important to analyze the allelochemicals and identify a model plant with autotoxic responses similar to those of ginseng. In this study, UPLC-Orbitrap-HRMS targeted metabolomics and verification of autotoxic activity were used to analyze a problem soil from continuously cropped ginseng. Allelochemical markers were screened by OPLS-DA. Seeds and seedlings of maize, Chinese cabbage, cucumber, green beans, wheat, sunflower, and oats were selected to identify potential model plants. Model plants with autotoxic responses similar to those of ginseng were evaluated by comparing morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics. The n-butanol extract of the continuously cropped problem soil had the most significant autotoxic activity. Twenty-three ginsenosides and the contributions to autotoxic effects were screened and evaluated. Of potential model plants, seeds and seedlings of cucumber showed similar growth inhibition to that of ginseng under the action of allelochemicals. Thus, metabolomics can be used to screen allelochemicals in soil and predict the autotoxic effects, and the cucumber plant model can be used to rapidly screen allelopathic activity of ginseng. The study will provide reference for methodology in allelopathy research on ginseng.

A comparative study on classification of edible vegetable oils by infrared, near infrared and fluorescence spectroscopy combined with chemometrics.

Driven by economic benefits like any other foods, vegetable oil has long been plagued by mislabeling and adulteration. Many studies have addressed the field of classification and identification of vegetable oils by various analysis techniques, especially spectral analysis. A comparative study was performed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), visible near-infrared spectroscopy (Vis-NIR) and excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy (EEMs) combined with chemometrics to distinguish different types of edible vegetable oils. FTIR, Vis-NIR and EEMs datasets of 147 samples of five vegetable oils from different brands were analyzed. Two types of pattern recognition methods, principal component analysis (PCA)/multi-way principal component analysis (M-PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA)/multilinear partial least squares discriminant analysis (N-PLS-DA), were used to resolve these data and distinguish vegetable oil types, respectively. PCA/M-PCA analysis exhibited that three spectral data of five vegetable oils showed a clustering trend. The total correct recognition rate of the training set and prediction set of FTIR spectra of vegetable oil based on PLS-DA method are 100%. The total recognition rate of Vis-NIR based on PLS-DA are 100% and 97.96%. However, the total correct recognition rate of training set and prediction set of EEMs data based on N-PLS-DA method is 69.39% and 75.51%, respectively. The comparative study showed that FTIR and Vis-NIR combined with chemometrics were more suitable for vegetable oil species identification than EEMs technique. The reason may be concluded that almost all chemical components in vegetable oil can produce FTIR and NIR absorption, while only a small amount of fluorophores can produce fluorescence. That is, FTIR and NIR can provide more spectral information than EEMs. Analysis of EEMs data using self-weighted alternating trilinear decomposition (SWATLD) also showed that fluorophores were a few and irregularly distributed in vegetable oils.

Highly porous BiOBr@NU-1000 Z-scheme heterojunctions for synergistic efficient adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline.

Designing an effective photoactive heterojunction having dual benefits towards photoenergy conversion and pollutant adsorption is regarded as an affordable, green method for eliminating tetracycline (TC) from wastewater. In this regard, a series of BiOBr@NU-1000 (BNU-X, X = 1, 2 and 3) heterojunction photocatalysts are constructed. BNU-X preserves the original skeleton structure of the parent NU-1000, and its high porosity and specific surface area enable superior TC adsorption. At the same time, BNU-X is an effective Z-scheme photocatalyst that improves light trapping, promotes photoelectron-hole separation, and shows excellent photocatalytic degradation efficiency towards TC with the value of the photodegradation kinetic rate constant k being 2.2 and 24.8 times those of NU-1000 and BiOBr, respectively. The significant increase in the photocatalytic activity is ascribed to the construction of an efficient Z-scheme photocatalyst, which promotes the formation of superoxide radicals (˙O2-) and singlet oxygen (1O2) as the main oxidative species in the oxidation system. This research has the advantage of possibilities for the development of porous Z-scheme photocatalysts based on photoactive MOF materials and inorganic semiconductors for the self-purification and photodegradation of organic contaminants.

Rapid detection of adulteration of olive oil with soybean oil combined with chemometrics by Fourier transform infrared, visible-near-infrared and excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy: A comparative study.

Several spectroscopic techniques have been used to detect olive oil adulteration. To evaluate the performance of these spectral techniques on this issue, this work performed a comparative study on identifying adulterated olive oil with different concentrations of soybean oil based on Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), visible-near-infrared (Vis-NIR) and excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy (EEMs) combined with chemometrics. Principal component analysis (PCA)/ multi-way-PCA analysis showed the feasibility of the three spectral methods for the identification of olive oil adulteration. The accuracy of FTIR and Vis-NIR based on partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) for adulterated olive oil was 100%, while the accuracy of EEMs based on unfold-PLS-DA was only 73%. The accuracy of EEMs combined with back-propagation artificial neural network based on self-weighted alternating trilinear decomposition is 100%. In comparison, FTIR and Vis-NIR are superior for the detection of olive oil adulteration due to the convenience of instrument operation and modeling.

Comparative Study on Chemical Constituents of Ginseng Flowers with Four Consecutive Cultivation Age.

The harvest period of cultivated ginseng is generally 4-6 years. Ginseng flowers (GFs), the nonmedicinal parts, are usually removed every autumn, in which components are generally believed to stay unchanged with the increasing cultivation age. Recently, few documents were reported on the variation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other components about ginseng flowers. This study had an insight into the variation of the chemical constituents with the cultivation ages through the comparison of the volatile organic compounds, gross ginsenosides, crude polysaccharide, and gross proteins of ginseng flowers from 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-yr-old (GF3, GF4, GF5, and GF6) which were conducted by headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-QQQ/MS) and spectroscopic analysis combined with multivariate statistical analysis, including one-way ANOVA analysis and T test. The results indicated that the crude polysaccharide contents raised significantly depending on cultivation age except 6-yr-old, whereas the gross ginsenosides and the gross protein content were indistinctive. According to the peak intensity of determined VOCs, the contents of most differential compounds arranged in an order from high to low are GF3, GF4, GF5, and GF6, such as the compounds 2-15, 17-19, 22, and 25-26, therefore, they can be inferred that they are important markers to identify the age of GFs. 461 common differential compounds were gained and 26 common volatile organic compounds were identified with RSI >800 and RI and RIx no more than 30, including alcohols (such as 11, 12, and 15), sesquiterpenes (such as 2, 3, and 4), esters (such as 1 and 26), naphthalene and naphthol (such as 7 and 20), which had potential effects on curing Alzheimer's disease, inflammatory diseases, and prostate cancer based on network pharmacology analysis. This paper firstly revealed the variation rules of constitutions of GFs, which may provide a reference for the harvest and making rational application.

Comprehensive regulatory networks for tomato organ development based on the genome and RNAome of MicroTom tomato.

MicroTom has a short growth cycle and high transformation efficiency, and is a prospective model plant for studying organ development, metabolism, and plant-microbe interactions. Here, with a newly assembled reference genome for this tomato cultivar and abundant RNA-seq data derived from tissues of different organs/developmental stages/treatments, we constructed multiple gene co-expression networks, which will provide valuable clues for the identification of important genes involved in diverse regulatory pathways during plant growth, e.g. arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis and fruit development. Additionally, non-coding RNAs, including miRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs were also identified, together with their potential targets. Interacting networks between different types of non-coding RNAs (miRNA-lncRNA), and non-coding RNAs and genes (miRNA-mRNA and lncRNA-mRNA) were constructed as well. Our results and data will provide valuable information for the study of organ differentiation and development of this important fruit. Lastly, we established a database (http://eplant.njau.edu.cn/microTomBase/) with genomic and transcriptomic data, as well as details of gene co-expression and interacting networks on MicroTom, and this database should be of great value to those who want to adopt MicroTom as a model plant for research.