Analysis of arable land loss and its impact on rural sustainability in Southern Jiangsu Province of China

Rapid urbanization and industrialization in southern Jiangsu Province have consumed a huge amount of arable land. Through comparative analysis of land cover maps derived from TM images in 1990, 2000 and 2006, we identified the trend of arable land loss. It is found that most arable land is lost to urbanization and rural settlements development. Urban settlements, rural settlements, and industrial park-mine-transport land increased, respectively, by 87 997 ha (174.65%), 81 041 ha (104.52%), and 12 692 ha (397.99%) from 1990 to 2006. Most of the source (e.g., change from) land covers are rice paddy fields and dryland. These two covers contributed to newly urbanized areas by 37.12% and 73.52% during 1990-2000, and 46.39% and 38.86% during 2000-2006. However, the loss of arable land is weakly correlated with ecological service value, per capita net income of farmers, but positively with grain yield for some counties. Most areas in the study site have a low arable land depletion rate and a high potential for sustainable development. More attention should be directed at those counties that have a high depletion rate but a low potential for sustainable development. Rural settlements should be controlled and rationalized through legislative measures to achieve harmonious development between urban and rural areas, and sustainable development for rural areas with a minimal impact on the ecoenvironment. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Polyaniline for corrosion prevention of mild steel coupled with copper

Polyaniline emeraldine base/epoxy resin (EB/ER) coating was investigated for corrosion protection of mild steel coupled with copper in 3.5% NaCl solution. EB/ER coating with 5-10 wt% EB had long-term corrosion resistance on both uncoupled steel and copper due to the passivation effect of EB on the metal surfaces. During the 150 immersion days, the impedance at 0.1 Hz for the coating increased in the first 1-40 days and subsequently remained constant above 10(9) Omega cm(2), whereas that for pure ER coating fell below 10(6) Omega cm(2) after only 30 or 40 days. Immersion tests on coated steel-copper galvanic couple showed that EB/ER coating offered 100 times more protection than ER coating against steel dissolution and coating delamination on copper, which was mainly attributed to the passive metal oxide films formed by EB blocking both the anodic and cathodic reactions. Salt spray tests showed that 100 mu m EB/ER coating protected steel-copper couple for at least 2000 h.

Polyaniline as marine antifouling and corrosion-prevention agent

Conductive polyaniline was found to have special marine antifouling property. The coating from conducting polyaniline and epoxy resin(or polyurethane) can last 6-9 months in Southern China sea, i.e., less than 10% of the coating surface was fouled during this period. The conducting polyaniline has special synergetic antifouling effect on other antifouling agents like cuprous oxide or 4, 4'-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane. The conductivity of the polyaniline was found to be extremely important for its antifouling effect. Moreover, employing aliphatic polyamine as solvent of emeraldine base and curing agent of epoxy resin, a new technique to process corrosion prevention coating containing emeraldine base was developed, therefrom the emeraldine base and epoxy resin was in molecular level blending. This technique was solvent free and extremely effective, i.e., only 1wt% of emeraldine base in the coating can have good corrosion prevention property.

Irreversible capacity loss of graphite electrode in lithium-ion batteries

The irreversible capacity loss of the carbon electrode in lithium-ion batteries at the first cycle is caused mostly by surface film growth. We inspected an unknown irreversible capacity loss (UICL) of the natural graphite electrodes. The charge/discharge behavior of graphite and meso-phase carbon microbeads heat-treated at 2800 degrees C (MCMB28) as the materials of the carbon anode in the lithium-ion battery were compared. It was found that the capacity loss of the natural graphite electrode in the first cycle is caused not only by surface film growth, but also by irreversible lithium-ion intercalation on the new formed surface at the potential range of lithium intercalation, while the capacity loss of the MCMB28 electrode is mainly originated from surface film growth. The reason for the difference of their irreversible capacity losses of these two kinds of carbon material was explained in relation to their structural characteristics. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science S.A.

STUDIES ON RADIATION-INDUCED LOSS OF WEIGHT OF A COPOLYMER OF TETRAFLUOROETHYLENE AND HEXAFLUOROPROPYLENE

The radiation-induced loss of weight of F-46 was found to be proportional to irradiation dose and affected markedly by irradiation temperature.

A transglutaminase from Chinese shrimp (Fenneropenaeus chinensis), full-length cDNA cloning, tissue localization and expression profile after challenge

Transglutaminase can catalyze the cross-linking reaction between soluble clotting protein molecules from the plasma for prevention of excess blood loss from a wound and obstructing micro-organisms from invading the wound in crustaceans. A novel transglutaminase (FcTG) gene was cloned from hemocytes of Chinese shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis by 3' and 5' rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) PCR. The full-length cDNA consists of 2972 bp, encoding 757 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 84.96 kDa and a theoretical isoelectric point of 5.61. FcTG contains a typical transglutaminase-like homologue (TGc domain: E-value = 1.94e-38). Three catalytic sites (Cys-324, His-391 and Asp-414) are present in this domain. The deduced amino acid sequence of FcTG showed high identity with black tiger shrimp TG, kuruma shrimp TG and crayfish TG. Transcripts of FcTG mRNA were mainly detected in gill, lymphoid organ and hemocytes by RT-PCR. RNA in situ hybridization further confirmed that FcTG was constitutively expressed in hemocytes both in the circulatory system and lymphoid organ. The variation of mRNA transcription level in hemocytes and lymphoid organ following injection of killed bacteria or infection with white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) was quantified by RT-PCR. The up-regulated expression of FcTG in shrimp lymphoid organ following injection of bacteria indicates that it is inducible and might be associated with bacterial challenge. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Loss of allele diversity in introduced populations of the hermaphroditic bay scallop Argopecten irradians

The bay scallop Argopecten irradians is a hermaphroditic bivalve native to the Atlantic coast of the United States that was introduced to China for aquaculture production in 1982. It now supports a major aquaculture industry in China. Introduced species often start with limited genetic variability, which is problematic for the further selective breeding. Bay scallop aquaculture is exclusively hatchery based and as the initial introduction consisted of only 26 scallops, there have been concerns about inbreeding and inbreeding depression in cultured populations in China. In this study, eleven simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to compare genetic variation in cultured populations from China with that in a natural population from the east coast of America. Although the difference in heterozygosity was small, the Chinese populations lost 9 of the 45 alleles (20%) found in the wild population. The reduced allele diversity suggests that the Chinese bay scallop populations experienced a bottleneck in genetic diversity that remains significant despite several recent introductions of new stocks aimed at expanding the gene pool. The loss of allele diversity may affect future efforts in selective breeding and domestication, and results of this study highlight the need for additional introductions, advanced breeding programs that minimize inbreeding and continued genetic monitoring. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Determination of fractional energy loss of waves in nearshore waters using an improved high-order Boussinesq-type model

Fractional energy losses of waves due to wave breaking when passing over a submerged bar are studied systematically using a modified numerical code that is based on the high-order Boussinesq-type equations. The model is first tested by the additional experimental data, and the model's capability of simulating the wave transformation over both gentle slope and steep slope is demonstrated. Then, the model's breaking index is replaced and tested. The new breaking index, which is optimized from the several breaking indices, is not sensitive to the spatial grid length and includes the bottom slopes. Numerical tests show that the modified model with the new breaking index is more stable and efficient for the shallow-water wave breaking. Finally, the modified model is used to study the fractional energy losses for the regular waves propagating and breaking over a submerged bar. Our results have revealed that how the nonlinearity and the dispersion of the incident waves as well as the dimensionless bar height (normalized by water depth) dominate the fractional energy losses. It is also found that the bar slope (limited to gentle slopes that less than 1:10) and the dimensionless bar length (normalized by incident wave length) have negligible effects on the fractional energy losses.

Tandem duplication-random loss is not a real feature of oyster mitochondrial genomes

Duplications and rearrangements of coding genes are major themes in the evolution of mitochondrial genomes, bearing important consequences in the function of mitochondria and the fitness of organisms. Yu et al. (BMC Genomics 2008, 9: 477) reported the complete mt genome sequence of the oyster Crassostrea hongkongensis (16,475 bp) and found that a DNA segment containing four tRNA genes (trnK(1), trnC, trnQ(1) and trnN), a duplicated (rrnS) and a split rRNA gene (rrnL5') was absent compared with that of two other Crassostrea species. It was suggested that the absence was a novel case of "tandem duplication-random loss" with evolutionary significance. We independently sequenced the complete mt genome of three C. hongkongensis individuals, all of which were 18,622 bp and contained the segment that was missing in Yu et al.'s sequence. Further, we designed primers, verified sequences and demonstrated that the sequence loss in Yu et al.'s study was an artifact caused by placing primers in a duplicated region. The duplication and split of ribosomal RNA genes are unique for Crassostrea oysters and not lost in C. hongkongensis. Our study highlights the need for caution when amplifying and sequencing through duplicated regions of the genome.

Prevention of fish oil rancidity by phlorotannins from Sargassum kjellmanianum

Known only in the Phaeophyceae, phlorotannins (brown algal polyphenols) are a class of natural products with potential uses in pharmacology. This study reports that phlorotannins from Sargassum kjellmanianum can prevent fish oil from rancidification; the antioxidation activity was about 2.6 times higher than that of 0.02% BHT (tertbutyl-4-hydroxytoluene).

Pure mechanical wear loss measurement in corrosive wear

The method for the measurement of the pure mechanical wear loss for 321 stainless steel, 1045 steel and pure iron in the study of the synergy between corrosion and wear was studied, The methods studied included the measurement in distilled water, by cathodic protection and by adding inhibitor KI, and all were compared with the wear loss in air. The experiment showed that the pure mechanical wear losses and friction coefficients obtained by the three methods were close to each other and can be used to calculate the various wear components in the study of the interaction of corrosion and wear, but the measurements in distilled water for pure iron and 1045 steel are not recommended due to their corrosion.

Experimental warming causes large and rapid species loss, dampened by simulated grazing, on the Tibetan Plateau

We investigated the independent and combined effects of experimental warming and grazing on plant species diversity on the north-eastern Tibetan Plateau, a region highly vulnerable to ongoing climate and land use changes. Experimental warming caused a 26-36% decrease in species richness, a response that was generally dampened by experimental grazing. Higher species losses occurred at the drier sites where N was less available. Moreover, we observed an indirect effect of climate change on species richness as mediated by plant-plant interactions. Heat stress and warming-induced litter accumulation are potential explanations for the species' responses to experimental warming. This is the first reported experimental evidence that climate warming could cause dramatic declines in plant species diversity in high elevation ecosystems over short time frames and supports model predictions of species losses with anthropogenic climate change.