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We report that the nanocrystalline CoOx glass composed of mixed amorphous parts and crystalline domains shows high-performance for electrochemical hydrogen production because of the synergistic effects among the nanocrystals and amorphous matrix.

The variegated cardinalfish Fowleria variegata produces grunt and hoot calls during agonistic and courtship interactions. Both sounds are tonal and occur as single and multiunit calls. Grunts are of short duration with variable frequency spectra. Hoots are longer, have a higher fundamental frequency, and a more developed harmonic structure. Agonistic grunt calls and short hoot calls (1–2 hoots) are produced during chases and when striking an individual or a mirror. Grunts are produced primarily in male-female and mirror-image encounters, and short hoot calls are produced primarily in male-male interactions. During the reproductive period, long hoot calls (three and four hoots) are the main sound type in a mix-sexed tank and at Dongsha Atoll. These are likely produced by males because isolated females are silent, and isolated males emit long hoot calls. Courtship interactions are mostly silent, and males are silent after capturing eggs for oral brooding. Tank sounds peak at dusk to early evening with a smaller peak at noon, although there are dusk and dawn peaks at Dongsha Atoll. Tank sounds exhibit a semilunar rhythm with peaks at the new and full moon. Other cardinalfish species from the atoll produce grunts but not hoot calls.

AimGlobal forests and their structural and functional features are shaped by many mechanisms that impact tree vital rates. Although many studies have tried to quantify how specific mechanisms influence vital rates, their relative importance among forests remains unclear. We aimed to assess the patterns of variation in vital rates among species and in space and time across forests to understand and provide a baseline for expectations of the relative importance of the different mechanisms in different contexts.Location21 forest plots worldwide.Time period1981-2021Major taxa studiedWoody plantsMethodsWe developed a conceptual and statistical framework (variance partitioning of multilevel models) that attributes the variability in growth, mortality, and recruitment to variation in species, space, and time, and their interactions, which we refer to asorganising principles(OPs). We applied it to data from 21 forest plots covering more than 2.9 million trees of approximately 6,500 species.ResultsDifferences among species, thespeciesOP, were a major source of variability in tree vital rates, explaining 28-33% of demographic variance alone, and in interaction withspace14-17%, totalling 40-43%. Models with small spatial grain sizes (quadrats at 5 × 5 m) retained most of the spatial OP, but a large proportion of variance remained unexplained (31-55%). The average variability among species declined with species richness across forests, indicating that diverse forests featured smaller interspecific differences in vital rates.Main conclusionsDecomposing variance in vital rates into the proposed OPs showed that taxonomy is crucial to predictions and understanding of tree demography. Our framework has a high potential for identifying the structuring mechanisms of global forest dynamics as it highlights the most promising avenues for future research both in terms of understanding the relative contributions of mechanisms to forest demography and diversity and for improving projections of forest ecosystems.

1. Organisms of all species must balance their allocation to growth, survival and recruitment. Among tree species, evolution has resulted in different life-history strategies for partitioning resources to these key demographic processes. Life-history strategies in tropical forests have often been shown to align along a trade-off between fast growth and high survival, that is, the well-known fast–slow continuum. In addition, an orthogonal trade-off has been proposed between tall stature—resulting from fast growth and high survival—and recruitment success, that is, a stature−recruitment trade-off. However, it is not clear whether these two independent dimensions of life-history variation structure tropical forests worldwide. 2. We used data from 13 large-scale and long-term tropical forest monitoring plots in three continents to explore the principal trade-offs in annual growth, survival and recruitment as well as tree stature. These forests included relatively undisturbed forests as well as typhoon-disturbed forests. Life-history variation in 12 forests was structured by two orthogonal trade-offs, the growth−survival trade-off and the stature−recruitment trade-off. Pairwise Procrustes analysis revealed a high similarity of demographic relationships among forests. The small deviations were related to differences between African and Asian plots. 3. Synthesis. The fast–slow continuum and tree stature are two independent dimensions structuring many, but not all tropical tree communities. Our discovery of the consistency of demographic trade-offs and life-history strategies across different forest types from three continents substantially improves our ability to predict tropical forest dynamics worldwide.

The growth and survival of individual trees determine the physical structure of a forest with important consequences for forest function. However, given the diversity of tree species and forest biomes, quantifying the multitude of demographic strategies within and across forests and the way that they translate into forest structure and function remains a significant challenge. Here, we quantify the demographic rates of 1961 tree species from temperate and tropical forests and evaluate how demographic diversity (DD) and demographic composition (DC) differ across forests, and how these differences in demography relate to species richness, aboveground biomass (AGB), and carbon residence time. We find wide variation in DD and DC across forest plots, patterns that are not explained by species richness or climate variables alone. There is no evidence that DD has an effect on either AGB or carbon residence time. Rather, the DC of forests, specifically the relative abundance of large statured species, predicted both biomass and carbon residence time. Our results demonstrate the distinct DCs of globally distributed forests, reflecting biogeography, recent history, and current plot conditions. Linking the DC of forests to resilience or vulnerability to climate change, will improve the precision and accuracy of predictions of future forest composition, structure, and function.

This paper presents the first application of pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs) to giant trevally (Caranx ignobilis) in a "no-take" marine protected area (MPA) comprising in a major reef system in the South China Sea (Dongsha Attol National Park). In order to determine appropriate management strategies in an around the MPA and to delimit stock boundaries to help restore populations, fundamental ecological information is required on movement patterns, habitat preferences and home range. In total 10 giant trevally were tagged from May 2016 to September 2018. Eight tags reported and remained affixed from 17 to 243 days and linear displacements ranged from 26 to 826 km from deployment to pop-up locations. Fish were mainly confined to the mixed-layer but occasionally made deeper descents (~50 -60 m) during nighttime and the distributions of time spent at depth (~0 - 67 m) and temperature (21.5 - 35.4°C) were significantly different between daytime and nighttime but the transitions were not pronounced. Most probable tracks calculated from a state-space Kalman filter suggested site-fidelity and/or cyclic N-S dispersal patterns possibly related to spawning or foraging as about half of the pop-up locations were within ~100 km of the tagging location. Given these findings and implications, it is possible that giant trevally may need to be managed at small spatial scales to preserve genetic diversity. Additional tagging studies, however, using genetic data and conventional tags to maximize cost-benefit and augmented with a sub-set of PSATs, will be required to test this hypothesis at a higher level of statistical power.

All species must balance their allocation to growth, survival and recruitment. Among trees, evolution has resulted in different strategies of partitioning resources to these key demographic processes, i.e. demographic trade-offs. It is unclear whether the same demographic trade-offs structure tropical forests worldwide. Here, we used data from 13 large-scale and long-term tropical forest plots to estimate the principal trade-offs in growth, survival, recruitment, and tree stature at each site. For ten sites, two trade-offs appeared repeatedly. One trade-off showed a negative relationship between growth and survival, i.e. the well-known fast−slow continuum. The second trade-off distinguished between tall-statured species and species with high recruitment rates, i.e. a stature−recruitment trade-off. Thus, the fast-slow continuum and tree stature are two independent dimensions structuring most tropical tree communities. Our discovery of the consistency of demographic trade-offs and strategies across forest types in three continents substantially improves our ability to predict tropical forest dynamics worldwide.

All species must balance their allocation to growth, survival and recruitment. Among trees, evolution has resulted in different strategies of partitioning resources to these key demographic processes, i.e. demographic trade-offs. It is unclear whether the same demographic trade-offs structure tropical forests worldwide. Here, we used data from 13 large-scale and long-term tropical forest plots to estimate the principal trade-offs in growth, survival, recruitment, and tree stature at each site. For ten sites, two trade-offs appeared repeatedly. One trade-off showed a negative relationship between growth and survival, i.e. the well-known fast−slow continuum. The second trade-off distinguished between tall-statured species and species with high recruitment rates, i.e. a stature−recruitment trade-off. Thus, the fast-slow continuum and tree stature are two independent dimensions structuring most tropical tree communities. Our discovery of the consistency of demographic trade-offs and strategies across forest types in three continents substantially improves our ability to predict tropical forest dynamics worldwide.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EcM) associations are critical for host-tree performance. However, how mycorrhizal associations correlate with the latitudinal tree beta-diversity remains untested. Using a global dataset of 45 forest plots representing 2,804,270 trees across 3840 species, we test how AM and EcM trees contribute to total beta-diversity and its components (turnover and nestedness) of all trees. We find AM rather than EcM trees predominantly contribute to decreasing total beta-diversity and turnover and increasing nestedness with increasing latitude, probably because wide distributions of EcM trees do not generate strong compositional differences among localities. Environmental variables, especially temperature and precipitation, are strongly correlated with beta-diversity patterns for both AM trees and all trees rather than EcM trees. Results support our hypotheses that latitudinal beta-diversity patterns and environmental effects on these patterns are highly dependent on mycorrhizal types. Our findings highlight the importance of AM-dominated forests for conserving global forest biodiversity., The relationship of mycorrhizal associations with latitudinal gradients in tree beta-diversity is unexplored. Using a global dataset approach, this study examines how trees with arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal associations contribute to latitudinal beta-diversity patterns and the environmental controls of these patterns.

Identifying biomarkers is important for assessment of disease progression, prediction of symptom development, and determination of treatment effectiveness. While unbiased analyses of differential gene expression using next-generation sequencing methods are now routinely conducted, proteomics studies are more challenging because of traditional methods predominantly being low throughput and offering a limited dynamic range for simultaneous detection of hundreds of proteins that drastically differ in their intracellular abundance. We utilized a sensitive and high-throughput proteomic technique, reverse phase protein array (RPPA), to attain protein expression profiles of primary fibroblasts obtained from patients with Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA) and unaffected controls (CTRLs). The RPPA was designed to detect 217 proteins or phosphorylated proteins by individual antibody, and the specificity of each antibody was validated prior to the experiment. Among 62 fibroblast samples (44 FRDA and 18 CTRLs) analyzed, 30 proteins/phosphoproteins were significantly changed in FRDA fibroblasts compared with CTRL cells (p < 0.05), mostly representing signaling molecules and metabolic enzymes. As expected, frataxin was significantly downregulated in FRDA samples, thus serving as an internal CTRL for assay integrity. Extensive bioinformatics analyses were conducted to correlate differentially expressed proteins with critical disease parameters (e.g., selected symptoms, age of onset, guanine–adenine–adenine sizes, frataxin levels, and Functional Assessment Rating Scale scores). Members of the integrin family of proteins specifically associated with hearing loss in FRDA. Also, RPPA data, combined with results of transcriptome profiling, uncovered defects in the retinoic acid metabolism pathway in FRDA samples. Moreover, expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase family 1 member A3 differed significantly between cardiomyopathy-positive and cardiomyopathy-negative FRDA cohorts, demonstrating that metabolites such as retinol, retinal, or retinoic acid could become potential predictive biomarkers of cardiac presentation in FRDA., Graphical abstract, Highlights • RPPA analyzing Friedreich's ataxia cells reveals changed expression of 30 proteins. • Integrin expression correlates with hearing loss in Friedreich's ataxia samples. • Retinol levels are lower in serum of patients with Friedreich's ataxia than controls., In Brief We conducted a sensitive and high-throughput reverse phase protein array to attain protein expression profiles of primary fibroblasts from patients with Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA) and unaffected controls using a pool of 217 validated antibodies. Our extensive bioinformatics analyses correlated differentially expressed (DE) proteins with critical disease parameters. Expression levels of several integrin proteins specifically associated with hearing loss in FRDA. Also, reverse phase protein array data integrated with transcriptome data uncovered defects in retinoic acid metabolism in FRDA samples.

In this report, the mild synthetic strategies for the synthesis of two series of boron-containing tetrazoles were included. For the first series, a boron-containing isocyanide reacted with TMS-N3 to afford the desire products. The reaction took place at 60 °C in TFE for 30 min under microwave irradiation. For the second series, the Ugi four-component reaction (Ugi-4CR) was deployed to synthesize the desire products. The reaction took place simply in MeOH at ambient temperature for 2 h. The synthetic strategies included could provide access to ranges of boron-containing tetrazole libraries, which might possess unique biological properties.

The proton therapy has fulfil many requirements set by the advanced particle therapy for the cancer patients. Based on the compactness and stabilization design guideline, a compact superconducting proton cyclotron project has been launched at Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Superconducting magnet is the most crucial and challenging subsystem for the cyclotron to provide high central magnetic field and average magnetic field to beam extraction. The superconducting coil has been designed and manufactured last year. A cryogenic test platform was set up to verify the coil electrical performance and the superconducting power quench protection system. In this paper, The R&D of the superconducting coil system are outlined in detail, including the coil design and energizing process. The test results are also presented.

ForestGEO is a network of scientists and long-term forest dynamics plots (FDPs) spanning the Earth's major forest types. ForestGEO's mission is to advance understanding of the diversity and dynamics of forests and to strengthen global capacity for forest science research. ForestGEO is unique among forest plot networks in its large-scale plot dimensions, censusing of all stems ≥1 cm in diameter, inclusion of tropical, temperate and boreal forests, and investigation of additional biotic (e.g., arthropods) and abiotic (e.g., soils) drivers, which together provide a holistic view of forest functioning. The 71 FDPs in 27 countries include approximately 7.33 million living trees and about 12,000 species, representing 20% of the world's known tree diversity. With >1300 published papers, ForestGEO researchers have made significant contributions in two fundamental areas: species coexistence and diversity, and ecosystem functioning. Specifically, defining the major biotic and abiotic controls on the distribution and coexistence of species and functional types and on variation in species' demography has led to improved understanding of how the multiple dimensions of forest diversity are structured across space and time and how this diversity relates to the processes controlling the role of forests in the Earth system. Nevertheless, knowledge gaps remain that impede our ability to predict how forest diversity and function will respond to climate change and other stressors. Meeting these global research challenges requires major advances in standardizing taxonomy of tropical species, resolving the main drivers of forest dynamics, and integrating plot-based ground and remote sensing observations to scale up estimates of forest diversity and function, coupled with improved predictive models. However, they cannot be met without greater financial commitment to sustain the long-term research of ForestGEO and other forest plot networks, greatly expanded scientific capacity across the world's forested nations, and increased collaboration and integration among research networks and disciplines addressing forest science.

The development of new non-precious metal catalysts and understanding the origin of their activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are essential for rationally designing highly active low-cost catalysts as alternatives to state-of-the-art precious metal catalysts. Herein, manganese oxide/hydroxide was demonstrated as a highly active electrocatalysts for the HER by fabricating MnO2 nanosheets coated with Cu2O nanowire arrays (Cu2O@MnO2 NW@NS) on Cu foam followed by an in situ chronopotentiometry (CP) treatment. It was discovered that the in situ transformation of Cu2O@MnO2 into Cu@Mn(OH)2 NW@NS by the CP treatment drastically boosted the catalytic activity for the HER due to an enhancement of its intrinsic activity. Together with the benefits from such three-dimensional (3D) core–shell arrays for exposing more accessible active sites and efficient mass and electron transfers, the resulting Cu@Mn(OH)2 NW@NS exhibited excellent HER activity and outstanding durability in terms of a low overpotential of 132 mV vs. RHE at 10 mA/cm2. Overall, we expect these findings to generate new opportunities for the exploration of other Mn-based nanomaterials as efficient electrocatalysts and enable further understanding of their catalytic processes.

Nickel-based non-noble-metal materials have emerged as promising catalysts for electrochemical hydrogen production in view of their attractive intrinsic activities, electrical properties and low cost. Exploring new candidates for further improving the performances of nickel-based catalysts and understanding the structure–activity relationship are still necessary to reduce the overpotential of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) thus advancing their application in electrochemical water splitting. Herein, we developed a facile two-step self-templated strategy for fabricating a three-dimensional (3D) nanoporous nickel/vanadium oxide (Ni/V2O3) nanoplate assembly as a new efficient catalyst for alkaline HER. It is found that by controllably annealing the Ni–V–O assembly as a single precursor, Ni and V2O3 components are uniformly integrated in the nanoporous composite, showing a synergistically enhancing effect on the HER. The resulting 3D nanoporous structure not only creates numerous active sites accessible for the HER but also provides a conductive open network towards efficient electron/mass transport. Consequently, the nanoporous Ni/V2O3 nanoplate assembly exhibits excellent catalytic performance for alkaline HER in terms of a low overpotential of 61 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a small Tafel slope of 79.7 mV dec−1 together with excellent long-term durability. These findings provide new insights into good design and construction of other highly active catalysts for diverse applications.

The tropical forests of Borneo and Amazonia may each contain more tree species diversity in half a square kilometre than do all the temperate forests of Europe, North America, and Asia combined. Biologists have long been fascinated by this disparity, using it to investigate potential drivers of biodiversity. Latitudinal variation in many of these drivers is expected to create geographic differences in ecological and evolutionary processes, and evidence increasingly shows that tropical ecosystems have higher rates of diversification, clade origination, and clade dispersal. However, there is currently no evidence to link gradients in ecological processes within communities at a local scale directly to the geographic gradient in biodiversity. Here, we show geographic variation in the storage effect, an ecological mechanism that reduces the potential for competitive exclusion more strongly in the tropics than it does in temperate and boreal zones, decreasing the ratio of interspecific-to-intraspecific competition by 0.25% for each degree of latitude that an ecosystem is located closer to the Equator. Additionally, we find evidence that latitudinal variation in climate underpins these differences; longer growing seasons in the tropics reduce constraints on the seasonal timing of reproduction, permitting lower recruitment synchrony between species and thereby enhancing niche partitioning through the storage effect. Our results demonstrate that the strength of the storage effect, and therefore its impact on diversity within communities, varies latitudinally in association with climate. This finding highlights the importance of biotic interactions in shaping geographic diversity patterns, and emphasizes the need to understand the mechanisms underpinning ecological processes in greater detail than has previously been appreciated.

In a unique phenomenon restricted to the ever wet forests of Southeast Asia, hundreds of species from dozens of plant families reproduce synchronously at irregular, multi-year intervals. The proximate environmental cues that synchronize these general flowering events have not been evaluated systematically because there have been no long-term, high temporal resolution, species-level records from the region. We present 13 years of weekly flowering records for five Shorea species as well as daily temperature and rainfall records from the Pasoh Forest Reserve, Peninsular Malaysia. We constructed models to evaluate hypothesized relationships between flowering and cool temperature, drought, and additive and synergistic effects of cool temperature and drought for each species. Model parameters include periods of time for floral cue accumulation and flower development and temperature and/or rainfall thresholds required for floral initiation. Parameters estimated using flowering observations from 2001 to 2011 were used to forecast flowering for 2011–2014. We show that drought and cool temperatures acting synergistically best explain the timing of flowering events for all Shorea species in the section Mutica and forecast the largest general flowering event accurately. Periods estimated for signal accumulation ranged from 54 to 90 days among species. Periods estimated for flowers to develop ranged between 43 and 96 days and closely followed the interspecific sequence of flowering in the Shorea species. Drought and temperature thresholds also varied among species, with Shorea maxwelliana requiring the most severe drought and Shorea leprosula the lowest temperatures. Synthesis. Our results indicate that cool temperatures and low rainfall occurring on seasonal time-scales of about 2–3 months rather than brief cold snaps or brief droughts best explain general flowering in Shorea species at the Pasoh Forest Reserve. Low rainfall is equally likely in winter (December–February) and summer (July–August) and cool temperatures are most likely in winter at Pasoh, which explains why general flowering events are restricted to spring and fall, with more frequent and stronger flowering in spring. In addition, species-specific sensitivity to environmental cues suggests that future climate change will have differential impacts on the frequency of reproduction, with potential consequences for regeneration of these dominant species of lowland tropical forests.

Developing bifunctional efficient and durable non-noble electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is highly desirable and challenging for overall water splitting. Herein, Co–Mn carbonate hydroxide (CoMnCH) nanosheet arrays with controllable morphology and composition were developed on nickel foam (NF) as such a bifunctional electrocatalyst. It is discovered that Mn doping in CoCH can simultaneously modulate the nanosheet morphology to significantly increase the electrochemical active surface area for exposing more accessible active sites and tune the electronic structure of Co center to effectively boost its intrinsic activity. As a result, the optimized Co1Mn1CH/NF electrode exhibits unprecedented OER activity with an ultralow overpotential of 294 mV at 30 mA cm–2, compared with all reported metal carbonate hydroxides. Benefited from 3D open nanosheet array topographic structure with tight contact between nanosheets and NF, it is able to deliver a high and...

The exploration of new efficient OER electrocatalysts based on nonprecious metals and the understanding of the relationship between activity and structure of electrocatalysts are important to advance electrochemical water oxidation. Herein, we developed an efficient OER electrocatalyst with nickel boride (Ni3B) nanoparticles as cores and nickel(II) borate (Ni-Bi) as shells (Ni-Bi@NB) via a very simple and facile aqueous reaction. This electrocatalyst exhibited a small overpotential of 302 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and Tafel slope of 52 mV dec−1. More interestingly, it was found that the OER activity of Ni-Bi@NB was closely dependent on the crystallinity of the Ni-Bi shells. The partially crystalline Ni-Bi catalyst exhibited much higher activity than the amorphous or crystalline analogues; this higher activity originated from the enhanced intrinsic activity of the catalytic sites. These findings open up opportunities to explore nickel(II) borates as a new class of efficient nonprecious metal OER electrocatalysts, and to improve the electrocatalyst performance by modulating their crystallinity.

Exploring facile and easily-scalable methods for synthesizing earth-abundant, cost-effective and efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts is essential for the mass production of hydrogen as a clean and sustainable energy carrier. We report here a simple strategy to produce Mo2C nanocrystals embedded in carbon network (Mo2C@C) by the direct pyrolysis of ammonium molybdate and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). It is found that PVP can be effectively used as a single source to form carbides and carbon network. The long polymer chain and coordinating capability with transition metal of PVP make it possible to form connected porous carbon network and well-dispersed Mo2C nanocrystals in several nanometers. The carbonization of PVP not only effectively in-situ prevents the aggregation of Mo2C nanocrystals during their formation, but also provides conductive porous matrix. As a result, the Mo2C@C composite exhibits the superior electrocatalytic performance for HER, which can be ascribed to the large number of active sites from plenty of small Mo2C nanocrystals and the efficient mass and electron transport network from carbon matrix. This strategy may inspire the exploration of cost-effective functional polymer as single source for both carbon precursor and nanostructure-directed reagent to mass-produce well-defined metal carbides nanostructures embedded in porous carbon network for energy applications.

The regenerator is a key component that transfers energy between heat and work. The conversion efficiency is significantly influenced by the acoustic field in the regenerator. Much effort has been spent to quantitatively determine this influence, but few comprehensive experimental verifications have been performed because of difficulties in modulating and measuring the acoustic field. In this paper, a method requiring two compressors is introduced and theoretically investigated that achieves acoustic field modulation in the regenerator. One compressor outputs the acoustic power for the regenerator; the other acts as a phase shifter. A RC load dissipates the acoustic power out of both the regenerator and the latter compressor. The acoustic field can be modulated by adjusting the current in the two compressors and opening the RC load. The acoustic field is measured with pressure sensors instead of flow-field imaging equipment, thereby greatly simplifying the experiment.

Many species of Dipterocarpaceae and other plant families reproduce synchronously at irregular, multi-year intervals in Southeast Asian forests. These community-wide general flowering events are thought to facilitate seed survival through satiation of generalist seed predators. During a general flowering event, closely related Shorea species (Dipterocarpaceae) stagger their flowering times by several weeks, which may minimize cross pollination and interspecific competition for pollinators. Generalist, pre-dispersal seed predators might also track flowering hosts and influence predator satiation. We addressed the question of whether pre-dispersal seed predation differed between early and late flowering Shorea species by monitoring flowering, fruiting and seed predation intensity over two general flowering events at the Pasoh Research Forest, Malaysia. Pre-dispersal insect seed predators killed up to 63 percent of developing seeds, with Nanophyes shoreae, a weevil that feeds on immature seeds being the most important predator for all Shorea species. This weevil caused significantly greater pre-dispersal seed predation in earlier flowering species. Long larval development time precluded oviposition by adults that emerged from the earliest flowering Shorea on the final flowering Shorea. In contrast, larvae of weevils that feed on mature seeds before seed dispersal (Alcidodes spp.), appeared in seeds of all Shorea species almost simultaneously. We conclude that general flowering events have the potential to satiate post-dispersal seed predators and pre-dispersal seed predators of mature fruit, but are less effective at satiating pre-dispersal predators of immature fruit attacking early flowering species.

In this research, zinc oxide (ZnO) films are doped with various amounts of Al dopants, from 0 to 13 at.%, using ion-beam co-sputtering for Zn and Al metallic targets at room temperature. The Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films appear to have lower transmittances in the UV and near-IR ranges. The electrical and optical properties of each film are successfully analyzed by using the spectroscopic ellipsometry of two Lorentz oscillators for the two lower transmittances. The optimal AZO film is deposited with an Al-dopant of 1.5 at.% at an oxygen partial pressure of 0.12 mTorr, it has the smallest resistivity of 7.8 × 10−4 Ω cm and high transmittance of &gt, 80% in the visible regions. The free carrier concentration and mobility evaluated using ellipsometry are different from those measured using the Hall effect. This phenomenon was the result of the grain boundary scattering due to the small ~20-nm grain size of the AZO film used in this study.

Formaldehyde is a common poisonous and harmful substance in food. The detection of formaldehyde is of great significance in food analysis. In this study, a rapid and sensitive quantitative detection method for formaldehyde (HCHO) has been developed based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) using a 4-amino-3-hydrazino-5-mercapto-1,2,4-triazol (AHMT)-formaldehyde derivative reaction. Gold nanorods (GNRs) were synthesized by a seed growth method to facilitate the collection of the SERS spectra of the extracts. After optimizing several parameters, including the aspect ratios of the GNRs, the multi-hotspots formed by the solvent and microenvironment around the GNRs, the dosages of different reagents, and the selectivity and uniformity of the methods were explored. The SERS analysis of the pure formaldehyde solution used a wide dynamic concentration range from 1.089 nM to 1.089 mM, with the limit of detection (LOD) as low as 0.86 nM and an enhancement factor of 3.9 × 107. The recovery of this quantification method was calculated to be between 89.45% and 103.2%, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) was not >6.74% for intentionally contaminated rice noodles, steamed buns, and liquor. Compared to that in previous reports, this analytical method made full use of the enhanced function of GNRs to further reduce the detection limit of formaldehyde. In summary, the developed method has the advantages of simplicity, rapid performance, and cost effectiveness.