Single-shot spatial light interference microscopy for dynamic monitoring of membrane fluctuations.

Single-shot spatial light interference microscopy (SS-SLIM) with a pair of non-polarizing beam splitters is proposed for substantially enhancing the speed and efficiency of conventional SLIM systems. Traditional methods are limited by the need for multiple-frame serial modulation and acquisition by spatial light modulators and detectors. Our approach integrates non-polarizing beam splitters to simultaneously capture four phase-shifted intensity images, increasing the imaging speed by at least fourfold while maintaining high quality.

Methyl jasmonate-loaded composite biofilm sustainably alleviates chilling lignification of loquat fruit during postharvest storage.

In this work, the MeJA-loaded gelatin/pullulan/chitosan composite biofilm was prepared to inhibit the chilling lignification of the loquat fruit during storage at 0 °C. The firmness and lignin content were decreased by 89 % and 81.77 % after MeJA-loaded biofilm treatment.

Application of atomic force microscopy in the characterization of fruits and vegetables and associated substances toward improvement in quality, preservation, and processing: nanoscale structure and mechanics perspectives.

Fruits and vegetables are essential horticultural crops for humans. The quality of fruits and vegetables is critical in determining their nutritional value and edibility, which are decisive to their commercial value. Besides, it is also important to understand the changes in key substances involved in the preservation and processing of fruits and vegetables.

The calcium-mediated homogalacturonan pectin complexation in cell walls contributes the firmness increase in loquat fruit during postharvest storage.

Introduction: Postharvest textural changes in fruit are mainly divided into softening and lignification. Loquat fruit could have severe lignification with increased firmness during postharvest storage. Pectin is mainly associated with the postharvest softening of fruit, but some studies also found that pectin could be involved in strengthening the mechanical properties of the plant.

Virome of ticks by metagenomic analysis in Guangdong, southern China.

Tick-borne viruses (TBVs) have increasingly caused a global public health concern. This study collected ticks in Guangdong, southern China to identify RNA viruses. Meta-transcriptome analysis revealed the virome in ticks, resulting in the discovery of 10 viruses, including Lihan tick virus, Brown dog tick phlebovirus 1 and 2 in the family Mivirus and Wuhan tick virus 2 in the family , Wuhan tick virus 1 in the family bovine hepacivirus in the family , Guangdong tick quaranjavirus (GTQV) in the family , Guangdong tick orbivirus (GTOV) in the family , and Guangdong tick Manly virus (GTMV) of an unclassified family.

Hybrid Label-Free Molecular Microscopies for Simultaneous Visualization of Changes in Cell Wall Polysaccharides of Peach at Single- and Multiple-Cell Levels during Postharvest Storage.

Softening of fruit during the postharvest storage, which is mainly associated with both compositional and spatial changes of polysaccharides within cell wall, affects the texture and quality of fruit. Current research on the fruit softening mechanism lacks an understanding of the overall softening at the cell level. The objective of this work was to investigate the change in the spatial distribution of cell wall polysaccharides in peach flesh cells at both single- and multiple-cell levels in a label-free way during the postharvest storage.

Fabrication of lysozyme/κ-carrageenan complex nanoparticles as a novel carrier to enhance the stability and in vitro release of curcumin.

In this manuscript, lysozyme/κ-carrageenan (LYS-CRG) complexes were prepared and used to encapsulate curcumin. The LYS-CRG complexes demonstrate good encapsulation of curcumin (CUR), and the encapsulation efficiency (EE) and loading capacity (LC) reach 96.2% and 2.

6 Gbps real-time optical quantum random number generator based on vacuum fluctuation.

We demonstrate a 6 Gbps real-time optical quantum random number generator by measuring vacuum fluctuation. To address the common problem that speed gap exists between fast randomness generation and slow randomness extraction in most high-speed real-time quantum random number generator systems, we present an optimized extraction algorithm based on parallel implementation of Toeplitz hashing to reduce the influence of classical noise due to the imperfection of devices. Notably, the real-time rate of randomness extraction we have achieved reaches the highest speed of 12 Gbps by occupying less computing resources, and the algorithm has the ability to support hundreds of Gbps randomness extraction.

Quantitative visualization of pectin distribution maps of peach fruits.

Pectin content is an important quality index of fruits, as pectin content undergoes significant changes during the peach ripening process. The commonly used carbazole colorimetry method measures only the total content value of each kind of pectin for each pulp sample and cannot provide distribution maps of the pectin contents for the whole fruit pulp. This work used the hyperspectral imaging technique to quantitatively visualize the distribution maps of pectin contents inside peach pulp at the pixel level.

Fine mapping of the qLOP2 and qPSR2-1 loci associated with chilling stress tolerance of wild rice seedlings.

Using leaf osmotic potential and plant survival rate as chilling-tolerant trait indices, we identified two major quantitative trait loci qLOP2 and qPSR2 - 1 (39.3-kb region) and Os02g0677300 as the cold-inducible gene for these loci. Chilling stress tolerance (CST) at the seedling stage is an important trait affecting rice production in temperate climate and high-altitude areas.

Fine mapping of qRC10-2, a quantitative trait locus for cold tolerance of rice roots at seedling and mature stages.

Unlabelled: Cold stress causes various injuries to rice seedlings in low-temperature and high-altitude areas and is therefore an important factor affecting rice production in such areas. In this study, root conductivity (RC) was used as an indicator to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) of cold tolerance in Oryza rufipogon Griff., Dongxiang wild rice (DX), at its two-leaf stage.

[Effects of cadmium stress on photosynthetic functions of strawberry].

With pot experiment, this paper studied the effects of cadmium stress on the leaf chlorophyll content, photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, and intercellular CO2 concentration of strawberry. The results showed that cadmium reduced the chlorophyll content, and changed the chlorophyll a/b ratio. Cadmium reduced the photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance, though they were increased by low concentration cadmium at the initial stage of cadmium stress.

Some properties of the allantoate amidohydrolase from French bean seedlings.

Allantoate degradation was demonstrated in the extracts of ungerminated seeds and roots, stems and leaves in germinated seedlings of French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Activity of allantoate-degrading enzyme could only be measured when phenylhydrazine was included in the assay mixture.

[Content and extractability of heavy metals in cultivated soil in Fujian province].

The total and extractable contents of 7 heavy metals in cultivated soil in Fujian Province were determined. Statistical results indicated that the cultivated soil in Fujian Province was polluted by heavy metals, but different heavy metals caused different pollution levels. The extractable contents of heavy metals accounted for 10.