Spores (collected at 10 +/- 1 A degrees C, 2 h after releasing) and young gametophytes (newly generated from spores cultured at 10 A +/- 1 A degrees C for 8 days) of Saccharina japonica were first cultured at 15 A +/- 1, 19 A +/- 1, and 23 A +/- 1 A degrees C for various times (2, 5, and 8 days) and then at 10 A +/- 1 A degrees C (culturing patterns S and G, respectively). Spores were also cultured at a constant of 10 A +/- 1 A degrees C (pattern C) and used as the control. The length and percentage of young gametophytes, size and percentage of gametophytes, and ratio of female to male gametophytes were measured in order to determine the effect of temperature on the development of gametophytes. Temperature and exposure time of spores and young gametophytes at the first culturing temperature significantly affected the development of gametophytes as were indicated by all biological parameters except the ratio of female to male gametophytes. The spores were more sensitive to temperature than young gametophytes. Gametophytes developed from the spores that survived temperature stress can recover their growth. High temperature selection at the early developmental stages of gametophytes was effective for screening gametophytes applicable for breeding high temperature-resistant varieties and hybrids.
BackgroundRobotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery (MIS) can benefit both patients and surgeons. However, the learning curve for robotically assisted procedures can be long and the total system costs are high. Therefore, there is considerable interest in new methods and lower cost controllers for a surgical robotic system. MethodsIn this study, a knife-master and a forceps-master, shaped similarly to a surgical knife and forceps, were developed as input devices for control of a master-slave surgical robotic system. In addition, a safety strategy was developed to eliminate the master-slave orientation difference and stabilize the surgical system. ResultsMaster-slave tracking experiments and a ring-and-bar experiment showed that the safety tracking strategy could ensure that the robot system moved stably without any tremor in the tracking motion. Subjects could manipulate the surgical tool to achieve the master-slave operation with less training compared to a mechanical master. ConclusionsDirect manipulation of the small, light and low-cost surgical tools to control a robotic system is a possible operating mode. Surgeons can operate the robotic system in their own familiar way, without long training. The main potential safety issues can be solved by the proposed safety control strategy. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Zhang, Linan
Zhang, Miao
Ren, Haiyan
Pu, Pan
Kong, Pan
Zhao, Haojun
Soil macronutrient monitoring is of crucial importance for fertilizer recommendation and site-specific fertilization. Compared to the conventional methods, ion-selective electrode (ISE) shows advantages on its rapid response, inexpensive cost and simple operation. In this study, two kinds of novel solid-state ISEs (S-ISEs) were manufactured and evaluated. In standard solution measurement, quasi-ideal Nernstian performances were observed on both of the monolayer and bilayer S-ISEs. Besides, S-ISEs demonstrated the faster response time of less than 30s, which was 60% time reduction of the conventional PVC polymeric ISE (PVC-ISE). The bilayer S-ISE illustrated more stable potential responses than the monolayer S-ISE in the continuous 500 s detection. In soil extract measurement, the nitrate bilayer S-ISE provided the smallest absolute error(AE) of 6.8 mg L-1 among the tested three ISEs. The potassium bilayer S-ISE generated the similar testing ability as the monolayer S-ISE and PVC-ISE. In soil slurry measurement, obvious disturbance was placed on all of the tested ISEs. Thus, the filtration was an necessary operation of soil pretreatment for the ISE-based soil detection. More soil samples of a broader geographical area should be tested for the validation of the applicability of S-ISEs. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Zhang, Linan
Sharada, Shaama Mallikarjun
Singh, Aayush R.
Rohr, Brian A.
Su, Yanjing
Qiao, Lijie
Norskov, Jens K.
Ammonia synthesis is one of the most studied reactions in heterogeneous catalysis. To date, however, electrochemical N-2 reduction in aqueous systems has proven to be extremely difficult, mainly due to the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Recently, it has been shown that transition metal complexes based on molybdenum can reduce N2 to ammonia at room temperature and ambient pressure in a non-aqueous system, with a relatively small amount of hydrogen output. We demonstrate that the non-aqueous proton donor they have chosen, 2,6-lutidinium (LutH(+)), is a viable substitute for hydronium in the electrochemical process at a solid surface, since this donor can suppress the HER rate. We also show that the presence of LutH(+) can selectively stabilize the *NNH intermediate relative to *NH or *NH2 via the formation of hydrogen bonds, indicating that the use of non-aqueous solvents can break the scaling relationship between limiting potential and binding energies.