TY - JOUR A1 - Li, Huashu A1 - Liu, Xingqi A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike A1 - Cao, Xianyong A1 - Yu, Zhitong A1 - Wang, Yong T1 - Vegetation and climate changes since the middle MIS 3 inferred from a Wulagai Lake pollen record, Inner Mongolia, Northeastern China JF - Review of palaeobotany and palynology : an international journal N2 - The climate conditions during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 were similar to present-day conditions, but whether humidity then exceeded present levels is debated, and the driving mechanisms of palaeoclimate evolution since MIS 3 remain unclear. Here, we use pollen data from Wulagai Lake, Inner Mongolia, to reconstruct vegetation and climate changes since the middle MIS 3. The steppe biome is reconstructed as the first dominant biome and the desert biome as the second, and the results show that the vegetation was steppe over the last 43,800 years. Poaceae, Artemisia, Caryophyllaceae and Humulus were abundant from middle to late MIS 3, indicating humid climate conditions. As drought-tolerant species such as Hippophae, Nitraria and Chenopodiaceae spread during MIS 2, the climate became arid. The Holocene is characterized by the dominance of steppe with mixed coniferous-broadleaved forests in the Greater Hinggan Range, and the desert biome retains high affinity scores, indicating that the climate was semi-arid. The climate from middle to late MIS 3 was wetter than in the Holocene; this shift was related to changes in the Northern Hemisphere's solar insolation and ice volume. The humid conditions during MIS 3 were attributed to strong ice–albedo feedback, which led to evaporation that was less than the precipitation. The enhanced evaporation caused by increased solar insolation and decreased ice volume might have exceeded the precipitation during the Holocene and resulted in low effective humidity in the Wulagai Lake basin. KW - Pollen KW - Biome KW - Ice volume KW - Solar insolation Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2018.12.006 SN - 0034-6667 SN - 1879-0615 VL - 262 SP - 44 EP - 51 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zhang, Kai A1 - Chen, Zhiming A1 - Armin, Ardalan A1 - Dong, Sheng A1 - Xia, Ruoxi A1 - Yip, Hin-Lap A1 - Shoaee, Safa A1 - Huang, Fei A1 - Cao, Yong T1 - Efficient large area organic solar cells processed by blade-coating with single-component green solvent JF - Solar Rrl N2 - While the performance of laboratory-scale organic solar cells (OSCs) continues to grow, development of high efficiency large area OSCs remains a big challenge. Although a few attempts to produce large area organic solar cells (OSCs) have been reported, there are still challenges on the way to realizing efficient module devices, such as the low compatibility of the thickness-sensitive active layer with large area coating techniques, the frequent need for toxic solvents and tedious optimization processes used during device fabrication. In this work, highly efficient thickness-insensitive OSCs based on PTB7-Th:PC71BM that processed with single-component green solvent 2-methylanisole are presented, in which both junction thickness limitation and solvent toxicity issues are simultaneously addressed. Careful investigation reveals that this green solvent prevents the evolution of PC71BM into large area clusters resulting in reduced charge carrier recombination, and largely eliminates trapping centers, and thus improves the thickness tolerance of the films. These findings enable us to address the scalability and solvent toxicity issues and to fabricate a 16 cm(2) OSC with doctor-blade coating with a state-of-the-art power conversion efficiency of 7.5% using green solvent. KW - doctor-blade coating KW - green solvents KW - large area devices KW - organic solar cells KW - thickness insensitive active layers Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.201700169 SN - 2367-198X VL - 2 IS - 1 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wang, Wei-Hong A1 - Köhler, Barbara A1 - Cao, Feng-Qiu A1 - Liu, Guo-Wei A1 - Gong, Yuan-Yong A1 - Sheng, Song A1 - Song, Qi-Chao A1 - Cheng, Xiao-Yuan A1 - Garnett, Trevor A1 - Okamoto, Mamoru A1 - Qin, Rui A1 - Müller-Röber, Bernd A1 - Tester, Mark A1 - Liu, Lai-Hua T1 - Rice DUR3 mediates high-affinity urea transport and plays an effective role in improvement of urea acquisition and utilization when expressed in Arabidopsis JF - New phytologist : international journal of plant science N2 - Despite the great agricultural and ecological importance of efficient use of urea-containing nitrogen fertilizers by crops, molecular and physiological identities of urea transport in higher plants have been investigated only in Arabidopsis. We performed short-time urea-influx assays which have identified a low-affinity and high-affinity (Km of 7.55 mu M) transport system for urea-uptake by rice roots (Oryza sativa). A high-affinity urea transporter OsDUR3 from rice was functionally characterized here for the first time among crops. OsDUR3 encodes an integral membrane-protein with 721 amino acid residues and 15 predicted transmembrane domains. Heterologous expression demonstrated that OsDUR3 restored yeast dur3-mutant growth on urea and facilitated urea import with a Km of c. 10 mu M in Xenopus oocytes. Quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis revealed upregulation of OsDUR3 in rice roots under nitrogen-deficiency and urea-resupply after nitrogen-starvation. Importantly, overexpression of OsDUR3 complemented the Arabidopsis atdur3-1 mutant, improving growth on low urea and increasing root urea-uptake markedly. Together with its plasma membrane localization detected by green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagging and with findings that disruption of OsDUR3 by T-DNA reduces rice growth on urea and urea uptake, we suggest that OsDUR3 is an active urea transporter that plays a significant role in effective urea acquisition and utilisation in rice. KW - high-affinity transporter KW - leaf senescence KW - nitrogen remobilization KW - OsDUR3 KW - overexpression KW - rice plant KW - urea transport and utilization Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011.03929.x SN - 0028-646X VL - 193 IS - 2 SP - 432 EP - 444 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Malden ER -