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Carbon based materials are becoming a promising candidate for thermoelectricity. Among them, graphene shows limited scope due to its ultra-high thermal conductivity (κ). To develop graphene-based thermoelectric devices, reduction of κ is highly desired while maintaining reasonably high electrical conductivity (σ). Herein, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and carbon black (CB) fillers have been added into few layered graphene (FLG) to produce all-carbon composites yielding ultra-low thermal conductivity (κ) desired for thermoelectric applications. The novel preparation method of pristine FLG realized very low κ of 6.90 W m−1 K−1 at 1248 K, which further reduced to 0.32, 0.55 and 0.50 W m−1 K−1 at 824 K, 874 K and 974 K for FLG+MWCNTs, FLG+CB and FLG+MWCNTs+CB, respectively. As prepared FLG composites also maintained reasonably high σ, whilst the Seebeck coefficient showed over a factor of five improvement after the inclusion of carbon-based fillers. Consequently, power factor (PF) has been significantly improved. The ultralow κ is attributed to the increased thermal boundary resistance between graphene sheet boundaries. The realisation of ultralow κ with simultaneous improvement in Seebeck coefficients and relatively small drops in σ with a facile and unique synthesis technique, highlight the potential of these composites.

Malus baccata (L.) Borkh. is widely used as an apple rootstock in northern China. Previous studies have shown that jasmonic acid (JA) can alleviate the oxidative damage in M. baccata roots under low root-zone temperature (LT), yet the regulatory mechanism is unclear. To uncover the mechanism of JA in regulating the response of roots to LT, the differential expression of proteins was profiled using TMT combined with MRM. Of the 4979 proteins quantified, 403 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) responded to the LT treatment and 264 DEPs responded to the JA + LT treatment. A bioinformatic analysis showed that protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum, alpha-linolenic acid metabolism, and secondary metabolites play key roles in the regulation of JA in M. baccata roots exposed to LT. In addition, proteins involved in the stress response, such as peroxidases and calcium-dependent protein kinase, also participated in the regulation of JA. The quantitative data were then confirmed using MRM, thereby proving that the TMT results were reliable. The results can provide theoretical reference for the regulation of apple roots under low-temperature stress.

Malus baccata Borkh., an apple rootstock, is found to be damaged by oxidation at sub-low root-zone temperature. In previous studies, we have found that exogenous sucrose could alleviate oxidative damage and increase the indole acetic acid (IAA) in roots under sub-low temperature (L). However, the role of IAA in sucrose-induced tolerance to L remains unclear. A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of exogenous sucrose and IAA synthesis/transport inhibitors (2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid, TIBA; 4-biphenylboronic acid, BBo) on growth, IAA levels, sugars, and the antioxidant system of M. baccata under L. The results showed that the L treatment decreased IAA contents by 23.69% (48 h) and induced significant increases in root contents of malondialdehyde (MDA) and reactive oxygen (ROS), along with increasing catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) activities, while superoxide dismutase (SOD) and monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) activities first increased (24 h) and then decreased (48 h), and glutathione reductase (GR) and peroxidase (POD) activities significantly decreased. The L treatment also decreased ascorbate/oxidized ascorbate (AsA/DHA), glutathione/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG), and coenzyme II/oxidized coenzyme II (NADPH/NADP+) ratios. Furthermore, the L treatment increased the contents of sucrose, fructose, glucose and sorbitol in the roots and suppressed plant growth. Sucrose pretreatment significantly increased IAA contents (12.42%, 24 h and 14.44%, 48 h) and decreased MDA and ROS contents, which improved the activities of antioxidant enzymes other than APX and increased the contents of AsA, GSH, and NADPH, and increased sucrose, fructose, and sorbitol contents and promoted plant growth. However, the sucrose + TIBA or BBo treatments decreased IAA contents and attenuated or almost abolished the positive effects of exogenous sucrose under sub-low temperature. Our findings indicate that IAA is involved in the sucrose-induced regulation of the antioxidant system in M. baccata roots under sub-low temperature and we provided theoretical references for further study on the adaptability of apple roots to low temperature.

Biochar application as a soil amendment has attracted worldwide attention. Nevertheless, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) formed during biochar production might enter into ecosystems and threaten human health after application to soil. Continuous pyrolysis systems tend to cause an accumulation of PAHs in biochar owing to short residence time and rapid cooling. This study conducted a comprehensive assessment regarding potential risk of PAHs in biochars produced by a continuous pyrolysis system based on bioavailability, leaching behavior, toxic equivalent quantity, health risk and phytotoxicity of PAHs. Results showed that the concentrations of total PAHs in biochars were in the range of 93.40–172.40 mg/kg, exceeding the European Biochar Certificate standard. 3-rings PAHs were the predominant groups. The percentages of total freely dissolved and leachable PAHs were lower than 1%. RH contained the least bioavailable and leachable PAHs concentration and phytotoxicity compared with CS and PS, which might attribute to the characteristic of three biochars. CS and PS were acidic and exhibited high levels of DOC and VFAs, while RH was strongly alkaline and presented greater aromaticity and higher surface area, which might have resulted in high adsorptive capacity and decreased bioavailability of PAHs. When the biochar application rate was higher than 0.6 t/ha, the incremental lifetime cancer risk value for human exposure to biochar-borne PAHs through the biochar-amended soil was over 10−6, suggesting carcinogenic risks. Germination index values of biochars ranged from 25.66 to 88.95%. Phytotoxicity mainly was caused by bioavailable PAHs and dissolved organic compounds. Overall, these findings highlighted that although the percentage of bioavailable PAHs was low, the potential health risk and phytotoxicity of PAHs in biochars produced by a continuous pyrolysis system was of a great concern. High biochar application rates should be avoided without processing both for soil safety and human health.

Modern semiconductor materials are increasingly used in multidisciplinary systems demonstrating cross-interactions between mechanical strains and electronic potentials, which gives rise to ubiquitous applications in high sensitivity, self-powered sensor devices. One of fundamental prerequisites for such semiconductor materials to exhibit piezoelectric properties is the noncentrosymmetry of the crystal structures. $��$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ has been an emerging compound semiconductor material due to its ultra-wide bandgap. However the pristine $��$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ has an inversion center, displaying no piezoelectric effect. This work discovered that substitutionally doped $��$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ possesses piezoelectric property by using first principles method, while majority of previous research on its substitutional doping has been focusing on the purposes of increasing electrical conductivity and formation of the semiconductor heterojunctions. More interestingly, it is unveiled from this work that the formation energy has a clear relation with the piezoelectric coefficient., 11 pages, 6 figures

Soil temperature is known to affect plant growth and productivity. In this study we found that low root-zone temperature (LRT) inhibited the growth of apple (Malus baccata Borkh.) seedlings. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of LRT response, we performed comparative proteome analysis of the apple roots under LRT for 6 days. Total proteins of roots were extracted and separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and 29 differentially accumulated proteins were successfully identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry. They were involved in protein transport/processing/degradation (21%), glycometabolism (20%), response to stress (14%), oxidoreductase activity (14%), protein binding (7%), RNA metabolism (7%), amino acid biosynthesis (3%) and others (14%). The results revealed that LRT inhibited glycometabolism and RNA metabolism. The up-regulated proteins which were associated with oxidoreductase activity, protein metabolism and defense response, might be involved in protection mechanisms against LRT stress in the apple seedlings. Subsequently, 8 proteins were selected for the mRNA quantification analysis, and we found 6 of them were consistently regulated between protein and mRNA levels. In addition, the enzyme activities in ascorbate-glutathione (AsA-GSH) cycle were determined, and APX activity was increased and GR activity was decreased under LRT, in consistent with the protein levels. This study provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms of M. baccata in responding to LRT.

In the conversion coatings, some uniformly distributed micro surface cracks always occur but the surface cracks behavior is rarely studied due to the frequent initiation in the real test conditions. In this work, computer simulation of micro surface cracks behavior and internal stresses generated in the anhydrous chemical conversion coating was carried out using the finite element method with the help of ABAQUS software. The Mises stress distribution, S11 stress variation, and the stress-time curves were obtained. The results show that the internal stresses generated in the conversion coating increase obviously with increasing time, and the stresses at the center and boundary of coating pieces are bigger than the ones in other areas while the S11 stresses around the center are bigger than the ones near the boundary. The cracks at the interface of coating pieces develop gradually and are as V-type cracks finally. The width of crack mouth opened is different since the contraction degree of each coating piece is different.

Potassium (K) is a major plant nutrient, and its deficiency can limit plant growth and development. Coronatine (COR) could increase cotton seedling tolerance to K deficiency, which was hypothesized to be in relation to improving the physiological and proteomic profile of xylem sap. To test this hypothesis, cotton seedlings growth, physio-biochemical and proteomic profile of xylem sap treated with (0 and 10 nM COR) under deficient K solution (0.05 mM KCl) were explored. Compared with control, COR treatment significantly increased lateral root number and root diameter and decreased contents of malondialdehyde (MDA), some cations like potassium and calcium in xylem sap and its volume. These morphological and physiological presentations were well evidenced by differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in the xylem sap. For instance, increasing the average root diameter and lateral roots were related to up-regulation of cobalamin-independent methionine synthase family proteins, auxin-responsive protein, and cell wall remodeling proteins such as dirigent-like protein, laccase, and the pectin lyase; lessening xylem sap volume and some cations contents was in connections with down-regulation of uclacyanin 1 and up-regulation of calmodulin-domain protein kinase 7; the MDA content reducing was associated with many PCD-related proteins’ down-regulation or loss. Furthermore, COR potentially weakened plant defense, owing to lessening or disappearing lipid-transfer proteins, signaling proteins, and other proteins positively involved in plant defense.

Histograms are important tools for data mining and analysis. Several differentially private publishing schemes for histograms have been proposed recently. Existing differentially private histogram publication schemes have shown that histogram reconstruction is a promising idea for the improvement of publication histograms' accuracy. However, none of these have properly considered the problem outliers in the original histogram, which can cause significant reconstruction errors. Based on the problem, the publication of histogram outliers under differential privacy, this paper puts forward a publication method for histograms with outliers under differential privacy: Outlier-HistoPub. Our method deals with the count sequence of the original histogram first, using a "global sort" to reduce the degree of alternative distribution a concept proposed in this paper, which may eliminate the influence of outliers during reconstruction. To avoid individual privacy leakage in the reconstruction process, an exponential mechanism is used to select the most similar adjacent bins of the uniformity distribution histogram to merge each time, and the Laplace mechanism is utilized to generate noisy data to perturb the count sequence of the reconstruction histogram. Experiments prove that the method proposed in this paper can improve the efficiency and accuracy of histogram publication. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The effects of calcium on respiratory and nitrogen metabolism of apple roots (Malus baccata Borkh.) exposed to temperature stress (5°C ~ 20°C ~ 0°C) were investigated. Seedlings were treated with distilled water (control), calcium chloride (CaCl2) or calmodulin antagonist trifluoperazine (TFP) before temperature stress. Temperature was increased from 5°C to 20°C (1°C h -1 ) and then decreased to 0°C (1°C h -1 ). Temperature stress decreased root vitality and increased root malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration, the effect of which was exacerbated by TFP treatment. Treatment with CaCl2 improved root vitality and decreased root MDA concentration. At 20°C, exogenous CaCl2 alleviated the negative effects of temperature stress on the total respiration rate by enhancing the activity of tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA). Activities of key enzyme in nitrogen metabolism were strongly inhibited by temperature stress. Exogenous CaCl2 significantly increased key enzyme activities of nitrogen metabolism compared to the control. However, the TFP treatment markedly reduced the activity of glutamate synthase (GOGAT) at 20°C and noticeably inhibited glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) activity during the entire temperature stress period. The data showed that the Ca 2+ -calmodulin (Ca 2+ -CaM) signal system was involved in increase of GOGAT and GDH activity that occurred with an increase in temperature, and played a role in the increase in the total respiration rate and GDH activity which occurred with a decrease in temperature. Cultural practices that improve plant calcium (Ca) status in the early spring may mitigate damage induced by temperature stress. © 2016 Friends Science Publishers

At the beginning of silking, maize production began to form, but leaves started senescence and photosynthetic capacity decreased at this time, all of those severely restricted the formation of the production. In order to study the effects of exogenous substances on the process of leaf senescence, 40 mg • L −1 DCPTA and 20 mg • L −1 CCC were mixed in the research. When the maize grew to the six expanded leaves stage, 10 mL compound mixtures (TR) were sprayed on both sides of leaves for per plant, and the control was treated with water (CK). Three plants were selected randomly for determination of physiological index at the 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 days after silking. The results showed that TR could increase the chlorophyll content significantly, F v /F m , F v /F 0 and Y (II) values of TR were higher than those of CK while F 0 values were opposite. Compared with CK, TR increased SOD and POD activity and soluble protein content, reduced MDA content. Correlation analysis showed that chlorophyll content had negative correlation with F 0 , and MDA content had negative correlation with other indexes. Compared with CK, TR reduced the negative correlation effect between chlorophyll content and MDA, increased the positive correlation effect between chlorophyll content and F v /F m , SOD, POD, soluble protein. The study provided theoretical and experimental evidence for the application of the compound mixtures of DCPTA and CCC to the production.

Jasmonic acid (JA), which is an important phytohormone, plays a key role in plant growth, development and stress responses. Here, Malus baccata Borkh. seedlings were used to study the mechanism by which JA alleviates the oxidative damage induced by low root-zone temperature (5 °C) through regulating the ascorbate–glutathione (AsA–GSH) cycle. The roots of M. baccata Borkh. were subjected to three treatments [5 °C, 5 °C + JA, and 5 °C + ibuprofen (IBU)] for 0, 12, 24, and 48 h. The results showed that treatment with low root-zone temperature could modulate the non-enzymatic and enzymatic components of the AsA–GSH cycle, significantly inducing the accumulation of MDA and H2O2. Additionally, the endogenous JA content changed dramatically, and the expression levels of the related genes [lipoxygenase (LOX), allene oxide synthase (AOS), and allene oxide cyclase (AOC)] showed different trends. In plants pretreated with JA, the endogenous JA content increased at 24 h, and the gene expression levels of LOX, AOS, and AOC were upregulated. We also found a marked increase in the activities of antioxidant enzymes [ascorbate peroxidase (APX), monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR), and glutathione reductase (GR)], a decrease in oxidized glutathione (GSSG) and an increased GSH/GSSG ratio, which resulted in lower MDA and H2O2 contents. Thus, the oxidative stress was alleviated. Plants pretreated with IBU experienced an opposite effect on the function of the AsA–GSH cycle and the gene expression in the JA synthesis route relative to those subjected to exogenous JA treatment, indicating that endogenous JA can alleviate oxidative damage by regulating the function of the AsA–GSH cycle under low root-zone temperature.

In order to realize the social logistics resource integration and provide customized logistics services to the customers, this paper presents a regional logistics public information platform construction scheme based on analyzing the conception and characteristics of cloud computing. A system configuration model of regional logistics public information platform is advanced on the basis of analysis. Technical scheme and system configuration model can be widely used in the construction of regional logistics information system. Finally, a proposal to adopting the mode of Cooperative operation leading by the enterprise is provided combining the development situation of cloud computing and logistics information public platform in china. This paper examines recent patents that awarded from The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and State Intellectual Property Office of the P.R.C. The main methodologies used in logistics information public platform have been reviewed in this paper. The following techniques have been covered: (i) Cloud computing system, (ii) logistics information platform, and (iii) operation mode based on Cloud Computing. The qualitative analysis of the work done by various authors has been presented based on (a) public cloud, (b) private cloud, (c) hybrid cloud.

A new design about the integration of temperature sensor and RFID tag is provided. This is a dual-tag design, in which the temperature element is connected to one of the RFID tag antennas to form a parallel structure. In this design, some of the functions of the sensor are transferred to the RFID reader so that some components of the sensor can be cut, reducing the production costs of existing design. By defining the signal strength of the first tag as a reference value, the problem of setting a standard is solved in the temperature detection process. RF module can be used to make the energy transformation without requiring the entire design to have an external continuous power source to provide energy. In addition, experimental data proves the feasibility of this design.

This paper is based on the (α, k)-anonymity models by introducing the individualized privacy-sensitive factor then computing the individualized privacy preservation demand degree of each sensitive value to realize the individualized service of each sensitive value. It combining with the top-down local codes and the sensitive attribute generalization anonymous technology proposes a method based on the attribute classification tree to realize the individualized (α, k)- anonymity models. At last, the results of simulation show that this method could complete the anonymilization and meet the demand of individualized privacy preservation, and the information loss is lower than the original one.

Design and characterization of a miniature microwave dielectric biosensor based on distributed microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transmission lines (DMTL) is reported in this paper. The biosensor has been realized by bonding the DMTL device with an acrylic fluidic channel. In order to demonstrate the sensing mechanism, the sensor is used to detect the small variation of the concentration of aqueous glucose solutions by measuring the electromagnetic resonant frequency shift of the device. It is observed from the results that the second notch of the reflection coefficient (S-11) varies from 7.66 to 7.93 GHz and the third notch of the reflection coefficient varies from 15.81 to 15.24 GHz when the concentration of the glucose solution ranges from 0 to 347 mg/ml, which indicates that higher order notches have higher sensitivities if looking at the absolute change in frequency.

Thermoelectric energy harvesters can have a much higher conversion efficiency by implementing quantum dots/wells between the high temperature region and the low temperature region. However they still suffer a limitation of the maximum output power, represented by the maximum $\Delta E$ (maximum energy gap of two quantum dots/wells layers). In this work, we use the piezoelectric material in the high temperature region, which has conceptually addressed the problem of the maximum power limitation. Full analysis of device physics including comparison with the existing technology and quantum simulation has been conducted to validate this concept. Results show that with the new concept, the maximum output power has been increased by at least an order of magnitude with the same power input and identical device dimensions., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

For t-Closeness which did not give a specific algorithm, and the semantic privacy can't custom question, on the basis of model of t-Closeness and enhanced k-anonymity technology, Enhanced t-closeness privacy protection method is proposed in this paper, gives a semantic privacy degree measure and specific implementation of the algorithm. This article gives two specific algorithms: a top-down approach and a method based on the genetic classification. Using this method can enhance the ability of resistance similar to sexual assault, effectively prevent privacy leaks, and ensure the availability of the data quality.

In the actual analysis of grey clustering evaluation, it has been found that the length of the grey clustering interval is partially larger, which is determined by the method of grey clustering evaluation based on the center-point triangular whitenization weight function. In order to solve this problem, a new grey evaluation method based on reformative triangular whitenization weight function is researched. The existing end-point triangular whitenization weight function and center-point triangular whitenization weight function are revised, and a new compact-center-point triangular whitenization weight function is constructed. Then the rules for grey category intervalof the three triangular whitenization weight functions are compared, and an example about the evaluation of the modernization of hydraulic projects management is proposed for analyzing the three methods to further verify that the improved grey clustering evaluation method based on the compact-center-point triangular whitenization weight function is feasible and effective. The results show that the compact-center-point triangular whitenization weight function is superior to both the end-point triangular whitenization weight function and the center-point triangular whitenization weight function.