Chromosome-level Genome Assembly and Annotation of the Arctic Moss Ptychostomum knowltonii.

The polar regions host a diverse array of moss species that have evolved to thrive extreme environments. These mosses exhibit remarkable adaptations, including tolerance to freezing temperatures, desiccation, and ultraviolet radiation. Despite their ecological significance, genomic data on these organisms are still limited, impeding our understanding of their evolutionary history and adaptive mechanisms in the context of climate change.

Absence of Amorphous Forms When Ice XIc Is Compressed at Low Temperature.

It is generally believed that ice crystal-to-crystal transitions do not occur below the glass-transition temperature. For instance, under compression, ice I becomes a metastable state but does not transform into other high-pressure ice crystals, and applying excessive pressure ends up causing its collapse into high-density amorphous ice (HDA). Here, we perform molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to demonstrate that a hydrogen-ordered form of cubic ice (ice Ic) transforms to a hydrogen-ordered form of ice IV without yielding HDA.

Towards a Green Equal City: Measuring and matching the supply-demand of green exposure in urban center.

Exposure to green environments is crucial for human health. However, urbanization has reduced the contact of urban residents with natural environments, causing a mismatch between the supply and demand for green exposure. Research in this field is hindered by the lack of long-term, reliable data sources and methodologies, leading to insufficient consideration of temporal variations in green exposure.

Mechanism of poly(-isopropylacrylamide) cononsolvency in aqueous methanol solutions explored oxygen K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

The cononsolvency mechanism of poly(-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM), dissolving in pure methanol (MeOH) and water (HO) but being insoluble in MeOH-HO mixtures, was investigated by O K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The cononsolvency emerges from the aggregation of PNIPAM with MeOH clusters, leading to the collapse of the hydrophobic hydration of PNIPAM.

Computational investigation of a 3D-printed skin substitute with orthotropy in mechanical property.

As a promising treatment for third-degree burns, grafting with bioengineering skin substitutes shows a capability to overcome the deficiency of donor skin. Similar mechanical properties with human skin are required for employed skin substitutes to avoid secondary damage to patients. Given the representativeness of orthotropy in mechanical properties, there is a need for developing orthotropic skin substitutes.

Solvent-derived defects suppress adsorption in MOF-74.

Defects in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have great impact on their nano-scale structure and physiochemical properties. However, isolated defects are easily concealed when the frameworks are interrogated by typical characterization methods. In this work, we unveil the presence of solvent-derived formate defects in MOF-74, an important class of MOFs with open metal sites.

Palaeobotanical evidence reveals the living conditions of Miocene Lufengpithecus in East Asia.

Background: Understanding the relationship between human evolution and environmental changes is the key to lifting the veil on human origin. The hypothesis that environmental changes triggered the divergence of humans from apes (ca. 9.

Identification and functional studies of microbial volatile organic compounds produced by Arctic flower yeasts.

Microbial volatile organic compounds (mVOCs) can serve as a communication channel among microorganisms, insects and plants, making them important in ecosystem. In order to understand the possible role of mVOCs in Arctic ecology, the microbes in Arctic flowers and their mVOCs and effects on plants were investigated. This study aims to isolate different yeast species from the flowers of five Arctic plant species and further to explore the function of mVOCs emitted by these microbes to plant.

New insights into the origin of buckwheat cultivation in southwestern China from pollen data.

Buckwheat is an important crop which originated in China and spread widely across Eurasia. However, exactly where in China domestication took place remains controversial. Archaeological and palynological records suggest a longer cultivation history of buckwheat in northern China than in southwestern China, but this conflicts with phylogenetic evidence implicating southwestern China as the centre of origin and diversity of buckwheat.

Investigation on the Temperature Control Accuracy of a Print Head for Extrusion 3D Printing and Its Improved Design.

For the extrusion 3D printing process, the printing temperature has a significant impact on the filament formation process because the rheological properties of the printed materials are extremely thermal sensitive, which requires a high temperature control accuracy of the print head. This paper presents a numerical and experimental investigation on the temperature field of a homemade print head. A finite element simulation model for analyzing the temperature field of the print head was established, by which the temperature distribution inside the print head can be acquired.

Breaking the nanoparticle's dispersible limit via rotatable surface ligands.

Achieving versatile dispersion of nanoparticles in a broad range of solvents (e.g., water, oil, and biofluids) without repeatedly recourse to chemical modifications are desirable in optoelectronic devices, self-assembly, sensing, and biomedical fields.

Solubility of Hydrophobes into Macrocyclic Hosts.

The intrinsic nature of macrocyclic molecules to preferentially absorb a specific solute has been opening up supramolecular chemistry. Nevertheless, the determinant factor with molecular perspectives in promoting host-guest complexations remains inconclusive, due to the lack of rigorous thermodynamic examination on the guest solubility inside the host. Here, we quantify the solute-solvent energetic and entropic contributions between the end states and on the docking route during inclusion of noble gases in cucurbit[5]uril, cucurbit[6]uril, and α-cyclodextrin, using molecular dynamics simulations in combination with the potential distribution theorem.

A case study in forensic soil comparison.

Soil examination can provide useful forensic information about the spatial location and suspect's activities. Many techniques have been applied for soil comparison and provenance determination in criminal investigations. Pollen and diatom identification, which has the potential to provide an independent ecological assessment of soil evidence, is currently underused in forensic soil analysis.

Bridging the knowledge gap on the evolution of the Asian monsoon during 26-16 Ma.

The evolution of the Asian monsoon from the Late Oligocene to the Early Miocene is poorly understood. Here, we first reconstruct the precipitation data of central Tibet during 26-16 million years ago (Ma), applying the coexistence approach to sedimentary pollen data, and detect an intensified Asian monsoon with ∼1.35 Ma and ∼0.

BMP Signaling in the Development and Regeneration of Cranium Bones and Maintenance of Calvarial Stem Cells.

The bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway is highly conserved across many species, and its importance for the patterning of the skeletal system has been demonstrated. A disrupted BMP signaling pathway results in severe skeletal defects. Murine calvaria has been identified to have dual-tissue lineages, namely, the cranial neural-crest cells and the paraxial mesoderm.

Inhibition of Rho-associated protein kinase improves the survival of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes after dissociation.

Heart disease remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have the ability to differentiate into cardiomyocytes (CMs), rendering this cell type to be a promising pre-cursor of cardiomyocytes for cell-based cardiac regeneration. Obtaining CMs with a high yield and purity coupled with improved subsequent survival could prove to be invaluable for the future cell replacement therapeutic strategies.

Regional difference in microRNA regulation in the skull vault.

Background: The murine calvaria has several membrane bones with different tissue origins (e.g., neural crest-derived frontal bone vs.

Effects of aerosols on the surface ozone generation via a study of the interaction of ozone and its precursors during the summer in Shanghai, China.

Previous studies have shown that heavy aerosol pollution can inhibit the surface ozone generation. More recent studies, however, have revealed that aerosol loading is positively correlated with ozone concentrations in large cities, such as Shanghai, particularly during the summer. Whether the correlation between aerosol pollution and ozone concentrations is positive or negative, it is an issue that needs to be considered by atmospheric scientists.

Small-Scale Soil Microbial Community Heterogeneity Linked to Landform Historical Events on King George Island, Maritime Antarctica.

Although research on microbial biogeography has made great progress in the past decade, distributions of terrestrial microbial communities in extreme environments such as Antarctica are not well understood. In addition, knowledge of whether and how historical contingencies affect microbial distributions at small spatial scales is lacking. Here, we analyzed soil-borne microbial (bacterial, archaeal, and fungal) communities in 12 quadrat plots around the Fildes Region of King George Island, maritime Antarctica, and the communities were divided into two groups according to the soil elemental compositions and environmental attributes of Holocene raised beach and Tertiary volcanic stratigraphy.

Dataset of pollen morphological traits of 56 dominant species among desert vegetation in the eastern arid central Asia.

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled "Pollen spectrum, a cornerstone for tracing the evolution of the eastern central Asian desert" (JQSR 5260) (Lu et al., 2018) [1] In this paper, we supply a dataset, which provides a descriptive and general summary of pollen characteristic of desert dominant species in the eastern arid central Asia (ACA). The other important component is the illustration on pollen grains traits under light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Pollen-based reconstruction of vegetational and climatic change over the past ~30 ka at Shudu Lake in the Hengduan Mountains of Yunnan, southwestern China.

The Hengduan Mountains, with a distinct altitudinal differentiation and strong vertical vegetation zonation, occupy an important position in southwestern China as a global hotspot of biodiversity. Pollen analysis of lake sediments sampled along an altitudinal gradient in this region helps us to understand how this vegetation zonation arose and how it has responded to climate change and human impacts through time. Here we present a ~30-ka pollen record and interpret it in terms of vegetational and climatic change from a 310 cm-long core from Shudu Lake, located in the Hengduan Mountains region.

Vertical distribution of ambient aerosol extinctive properties during haze and haze-free periods based on the Micro-Pulse Lidar observation in Shanghai.

Ambient aerosols make a significant contribution to the environment and climate through their optical properties. In this study, the aerosol extinction coefficient and Aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieved using the Fernald Method from the ground-based Micro-Pulse Lidar (MPL) were used to investigate the characteristics of aerosols during haze and haze-free periods in Shanghai. There were 216 haze days including 145 dry haze days, 39 damp haze days and 32days of both dry and damp haze in Shanghai from March 2009 to February 2010.

Endophytic Fungal Communities Associated with Vascular Plants in the High Arctic Zone Are Highly Diverse and Host-Plant Specific.

This study assessed the diversity and distribution of endophytic fungal communities associated with the leaves and stems of four vascular plant species in the High Arctic using 454 pyrosequencing with fungal-specific primers targeting the ITS region. Endophytic fungal communities showed high diversity. The 76,691 sequences obtained belonged to 250 operational taxonomic units (OTUs).

Environmental reconstruction of Tuyoq in the Fifth Century and its bearing on Buddhism in Turpan, Xinjiang, China.

The Thousand Buddha Grottoes of Tuyoq, Turpan, Xinjiang, China were once a famous Buddhist temple along the ancient Silk Road which was first constructed in the Fifth Century (A.D.).