A cell hybridization-based method of generating recombinant rabbit monoclonal antibodies for detecting cytokines.

Recombinant rabbit monoclonal antibodies (rabbit rAbs) have shown promise in various biomedical fields. However, it is challenging and costly to generate rabbit rAbs using traditional techniques. Here we describe a convenient and cost-effective method.

Thermodynamic sensitivity of ammonia oxidizers-driven NO fluxes under oxic-suboxic realms.

In terrestrial ecosystems, the nitrogen dynamics, including NO production, are majorly regulated by a complex consortium of microbes favored by different substrates and environmental conditions. To better predict the daily, seasonal and annual variation in NO fluxes, it is critical to estimate the temperature sensitivity of different microbial groups for NO fluxes under oxic and suboxic conditions prevalent in soil and wetlands. Here, we studied the temperature sensitivity of two groups of ammonia oxidizers, archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB), in relation to NO fluxes through both nitrification and nitrifier-denitrification pathways across a wide temperature gradient (10-55 °C).

Soil microbiome feedback to climate change and options for mitigation.

Microbes are a critical component of soil ecosystems, performing crucial functions in biogeochemical cycling, carbon sequestration, and plant health. However, it remains uncertain how their community structure, functioning, and resultant nutrient cycling, including net GHG fluxes, would respond to climate change at different scales. Here, we review global and regional climate change effects on soil microbial community structure and functioning, as well as the climate-microbe feedback and plant-microbe interactions.

Visual Cu Detection of Gold-Nanoparticle Probes and its Employment for Cu Tracing in Circuit System.

Highly sensitive, simple and reliable colorimetric probe for Cu-ion detection was visualized with the L-cysteine functionalized gold nanoparticle (LS-AuNP) probes. The pronounced sensing of Cu with high selectivity was rapidly featured with obvious colour change that enabled to visually sense Cu ions by naked eyes. By employing systemic investigations on crystallinities, elemental compositions, microstructures, surface features, light absorbance, zeta potentials and chemical states of LS-AuNP probes, the oxidation-triggered aggregation effect of LS-AuNP probes was envisioned.

Environment is associated with chytrid infection and skin microbiome richness on an amphibian rich island (Taiwan).

Growing evidence suggests that the origins of the panzootic amphibian pathogens Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) are in Asia. In Taiwan, an island hotspot of high amphibian diversity, no amphibian mass mortality events linked to Bd or Bsal have been reported. We conducted a multi-year study across this subtropical island, sampling 2517 individuals from 30 species at 34 field sites, between 2010 and 2017, and including 171 museum samples collected between 1981 and 2009.

Scientists' warning of threats to mountains.

Mountains are an essential component of the global life-support system. They are characterized by a rugged, heterogenous landscape with rapidly changing environmental conditions providing myriad ecological niches over relatively small spatial scales. Although montane species are well adapted to life at extremes, they are highly vulnerable to human derived ecosystem threats.

Assessing the influence of environmental niche segregation in ammonia oxidizers on NO fluxes from soil and sediments.

Understanding the environmental niche segregation of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) and its impact on their relative contributions to nitrification and nitrous oxide (NO) production is essential for predicting NO dynamics within an ecosystem. Here, we used ammonia oxidizer-specific inhibitors to measure the differential contributions of AOA and AOB to potential ammonia oxidization (PAO) and NO fluxes over pH (4.0-9.

Measuring Responses of Dicyandiamide-, 3,4-Dimethylpyrazole Phosphate-, and Allylthiourea-Induced Nitrification Inhibition to Soil Abiotic and Biotic Factors.

Nitrification inhibitors (NIs) such as dicyandiamide (DCD), 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP), and allylthiourea (AT) are commonly used to suppress ammonia oxidization at different time scales varying from a few hours to several months. Although the responses of NIs to edaphic and temperature conditions have been studied, the influence of the aforementioned factors on their inhibitory effect remains unknown. In this study, laboratory-scale experiments were conducted to assess the short-term (24 h) influence of eight abiotic and biotic factors on the inhibitory effects of DCD, DMPP, and AT across six cropped and non-cropped soils at two temperature conditions with three covariates of soil texture.

Exploring hybrid consensus models to assess roadkill.

Accurate information provided by reliable models is essential for identifying hotspots and mitigating roadkill. However, existing methods, such as kernel density estimation (KDE) and maximum entropy modeling (ME) may individually identify only a subset of the suitable locations for mitigation, because KDE cannot detect hotspots once local abundances are depressed, and ME may only partially identify current hotspots due to imperfect discrimination skill. Here, we propose a hybrid consensus modeling (HCM) approach that leverages the strengths of both KDE and ME by using their consensus to identify the core subset of hotspots.

A spatial prioritization method for identifying potential eco-risk distributions of heavy metals in soil and birds.

Geochemical approaches are popular for evaluations based on heavy metal concentrations in sediments or soils for eco-risk assessment. This study proposes a systematic geochemical approach (SymGeo) to explore six heavy metals in topsoils and bird tissues and organs of the target birds. We assume that the proposed approach based on field-collected heavy metals in topsoils and feathers can predict the areas with the potential risk of the heavy metals in birds.

Topsoil microbial community structure responds to land cover type and environmental zone in the Western Pacific region.

Soil encompasses diverse microbial communities that are essential for fundamental ecosystem functions such as biogeochemical cycling. To better understand underlying biogeochemical processes, it is necessary to know the structure of soil archaeal and bacterial communities and their responses to edaphic and climate variables within and across various land cover types (LCTs) and environmental zones (ENZs). Here we sampled eighty-nine sites across five ENZs and four LCTs within the Western Pacific region.

A GIS-based policy support tool to determine national responsibilities and priorities for biodiversity conservation.

Efficient biodiversity conservation requires that limited resources be allocated in accordance with national responsibilities and priorities. Without appropriate computational tools, the process of determining these national responsibilities and conservation priorities is time intensive when considering many species across geographic scales. Here, we have developed a computational tool as a module for the ArcGIS geographic information system.

Climate and land cover shape the fungal community structure in topsoil.

Globally, soils are subject to radical changes in their biogeochemistry as rampant deforestation and other forms of land use and climate change continue to transform planet Earth. To better understand soil ecosystem functioning, it is necessary to understand the responses of soil microbial diversity and community structure to changing climate, land cover, and associated environmental variables. With next-generation sequencing, we investigated changes in topsoil fungi community structure among different land cover types (from Forest to Cropland) and climate zones (from Hot to Cold zones) in the Western Pacific Region.

Real-Time Identification of Irrigation Water Pollution Sources and Pathways with a Wireless Sensor Network and Blockchain Framework.

Real-time identification of irrigation water pollution sources and pathways (PSP) is crucial to ensure both environmental and food safety. This study uses an integrated framework based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and the blockchain technology that incorporates a directed acyclic graph (DAG)-configured wireless sensor network (WSN), and GIS tools for real-time water pollution source tracing. Water quality sensors were installed at monitoring stations in irrigation channel systems within the study area.

Assessing the association and predictability of heavy metals in avian organs, feathers, and bones using crowdsourced samples.

Birds are bioindicators for research on the relationship between environmental heavy metal concentration levels and accumulation levels in bird tissues. We use roadkill samples, collected by citizen science participants, to investigate the accumulation levels and associations of seven heavy metals in internal organs (heart, liver, and kidney), feathers (primary and breast), and bones (sternum and femur) of two focal species, Amaurornis phoenicurus and Gallinula chloropus. We found that heavy metal accumulation varied by target tissue, and that variables are associated with bird species and heavy metal type.

Ligand-induced conformational changes in a SMALP-encapsulated GPCR.

The adenosine 2A receptor (AR), a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), was solubilised and purified encapsulated in styrene maleic acid lipid particles (SMALPs). The purified AR-SMALP was associated with phospholipids characteristic of the plasma membrane of Pichia pastoris, the host used for its expression, confirming that the AR-SMALP encapsulated native lipids. The fluorescence spectrum of the AR-SMALP showed a characteristic broad emission peak at 330 nm, produced by endogenous Trp residues.

Relative Abundance of Ammonia Oxidizing Archaea and Bacteria Influences Soil Nitrification Responses to Temperature.

Ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) are thought to contribute differently to soil nitrification, yet the extent to which their relative abundances influence the temperature response of nitrification is poorly understood. Here, we investigated the impact of different AOA to AOB ratios on soil nitrification potential (NP) across a temperature gradient from 4 °C to 40 °C in twenty different organic and inorganic fertilized soils. The temperature responses of different relative abundance of ammonia oxidizers for nitrification were modeled using square rate theory (SQRT) and macromolecular rate theory (MMRT) models.

Assessing thermodynamic parameter sensitivity for simulating temperature responses of soil nitrification.

Soil nitrification responses to temperature have major implications for the global nitrogen cycle. Temperature sensitivity of soil nitrification has been modeled using several mathematical models, yet the extent to which model-generated thermodynamic parameters are accurate and sensitive in describing temperature sensitivity is unclear. In this study, we performed global sensitivity analysis to identify the key thermodynamic parameters that are most influential when simulating the temperature response of the soil nitrification potential (NP) across two different temperature gradients (4-40 °C and 20-45 °C) which are imposed upon sixteen different soils with square root growth (SQRT) and macromolecular rate theory (MMRT) models.

Modeling Nitrogen Dynamics in a Waste Stabilization Pond System Using Flexible Modeling Environment with MCMC.

This study presents an approach for obtaining realization sets of parameters for nitrogen removal in a pilot-scale waste stabilization pond (WSP) system. The proposed approach was designed for optimal parameterization, local sensitivity analysis, and global uncertainty analysis of a dynamic simulation model for the WSP by using the R software package Flexible Modeling Environment (R-FME) with the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. Additionally, generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) was integrated into the FME to evaluate the major parameters that affect the simulation outputs in the study WSP.

Fabrication of Multilayer Borophene on Insulator Structure.

The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra indicate the peak of BB bonds, implying that the elemental boron structure might be formed after the process. The multilayer β-borophene is directly observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the lattice parameters are valid. The middle SiNx layer also can be identified in TEM image.

A method for detergent-free isolation of membrane proteins in their local lipid environment.

Despite the great importance of membrane proteins, structural and functional studies of these proteins present major challenges. A significant hurdle is the extraction of the functional protein from its natural lipid membrane. Traditionally achieved with detergents, purification procedures can be costly and time consuming.

A decision-making approach for delineating sites which are potentially contaminated by heavy metals via joint simulation.

This work develops a new approach for delineating sites that are contaminated by multiple soil heavy metals and applies it to a case study. First a number of contaminant sample data are transformed into multiple spatially un-correlated factors using Uniformly Weighted Exhaustive Diagonalization with Gauss iterations (U-WEDGE). Sequential Gaussian simulation (sGs) is then used to generate sets of realizations of each resultant factor.