Meijo University

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives.

This review article deals with the growth mechanism and mass production of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Different aspects of CNT synthesis and growth mechanism are reviewed in the light of latest progresses and understandings in the field. Materials aspects such as the roles of hydrocarbon, catalyst and catalyst support are discussed. Many new catalysts and new carbon sources are described. Growth-control aspects such as the effects of temperature, vapor pressure and catalyst concentration on CNT diameter distribution and single- or multi-wall formation are explained. Latest reports of metal-catalyst-free CNT growth are considered. The mass-production aspect is discussed from the perspective of a sustainable CNT technology. Existing problems and challenges of the process are addressed with future directions.

We have studied the influence of piezoelectric fields on luminescence properties of GaInN strained quantum wells. Our calculation suggests that an electric field of 1.08 MV/cm is induced by the piezoelectric effect in strained Ga 0.87 In 0.13 N grown on GaN. The photoluminescence peak energy of the Ga 0.87 In 0.13 N strained quantum wells showed blue shift with increasing excitation intensity. Moreover, the well-width dependence of its luminescence peak energy was well explained when the piezoelectric fields were taken into account. These results clearly showed that the piezoelectric field induced the quantum-confined Stark effect.

A freestanding single layer of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has been successfully fabricated by controlled energetic electron irradiation through a layer-by-layer sputtering process. We have successfully resolved atomic defects in h-BN with triangle shapes by means of an aberration corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy with exit-wave reconstruction. Boron monovacancies are found to be preferably formed and the dominating zigzag-type edges are proved to be nitrogen terminated.

The rice slender mutant (slr1-1) is caused by a single recessive mutation and results in a constitutive gibberellin (GA) response phenotype. The mutant elongates as if saturated with GAs. In this mutant, (1) elongation was unaffected by an inhibitor of GA biosynthesis, (2) GA-inducible alpha-amylase was produced by the aleurone layers without gibberellic acid application, and (3) endogenous GA content was lower than in the wild-type plant. These results indicate that the product of the SLR1 gene is an intermediate of the GA signal transduction pathway. SLR1 maps to OsGAI in rice and has significant homology with height-regulating genes, such as RHT-1Da in wheat, D8 in maize, and GAI and RGA in Arabidopsis. The GAI gene family is likely to encode transcriptional factors belonging to the GRAS gene superfamily. DNA sequence analysis revealed that the slr1-1 mutation is a single basepair deletion of the nuclear localization signal domain, resulting in a frameshift mutation that abolishes protein production. Furthermore, introduction of a 6-kb genomic DNA fragment containing the wild-type SLR1 gene into the slr1-1 mutant restored GA sensitivity to normal. These results indicate that the slr1-1 mutant is caused by a loss-of-function mutation of the SLR1 gene, which is an ortholog of GAI, RGA, RHT, and D8. We also succeeded in producing GA-insensitive dwarf rice by transforming wild-type rice with a modified SLR1 gene construct that has a 17-amino acid deletion affecting the DELLA region. Thus, we demonstrate opposite GA response phenotypes depending on the type of mutations in SLR1.

Sugiyamal Y., Fukui M., Kikuchi M., et al. Traffic jams without bottlenecks-experimental evidence for the physical mechanism of the formation of a jam. New Journal of Physics 10, 033001 (2008); https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/10/3/033001.

Recent development of technology and understanding of the growth mechanism in heteroepitaxial growth of nitrides on highly-mismatched substrates have enabled us to grow high-quality GaN, AlGaN, GaInN and their quantum well structures. Conductivity control of both n-type and p-type nitrides has also been achieved. These achievements have led to the commercialization of high-brightness blue, green and white light-emitting diodes and to the realization of short wavelength laser diodes and high-speed transistors based on nitrides. The performance of these devices is still progressing, but still requires advances in many areas of materials science and device fabrication.

Supercapacitor electrodes fabricated from single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are shown to be capable of durable operation at 4 V, exceeding the operating voltage limit of activated carbon electrodes (AC, 3 V), while delivering significantly higher energy and power (see figure). Dual exploitation of SWNTs as combined electrodes and current collectors is also explored.

Stable and rigid carbon atomic chains were experimentally realized by removing carbon atoms row by row from graphene through the controlled energetic electron irradiation inside a transmission electron microscope. The observed structural dynamics of carbon atomic chains such as formation, migration, and breakage were well explained by density-functional theory calculations. The method we reported here is promising to investigate all-carbon-based devices with the carbon atomic chains as the conducting channel, which can be regarded as the ultimate basic component of molecular devices.

Dynamic behavior of ultrafine particles of gold around 20 A\r{} in size was examined at the level of the atomic resolution by an electron microscope equipped with a real-time video recording system. In real time, it was observed that the shape of the particles changed continually through an internal transformation from a single crystal to a twinned crystal, and vice versa. The transformations were induced to some extent by the irradiation of the electron beam. They took place abruptly in less than 0.1 sec.

We have identified piezoelectric fields in strained GaInN/GaN quantum well p-i-n structures using the quantum-confined Stark effect. The photoluminescence peak of the quantum wells showed a blueshift with increasing applied reverse voltages. This blueshift is due to the cancellation of the piezoelectric field by the reverse bias field. We determined that the piezoelectric field points from the growth surface to the substrate and its magnitude is 1.2 MV/cm for Ga0.84In0.16N/GaN quantum wells on sapphire substrate. In addition, from the direction of the field, the growth orientation of our nitride epilayers can be determined to be (0001), corresponding to the Ga face.

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in water has been proposed as a promising solar fuel instead of gaseous hydrogen because of advantages on easy storage and high energy density, being used as a fuel of a one-compartment H2O2 fuel cell for producing electricity on demand with emitting only dioxygen (O2) and water. It is highly desired to utilize the most earth-abundant seawater instead of precious pure water for the practical use of H2O2 as a solar fuel. Here we have achieved efficient photocatalytic production of H2O2 from the most earth-abundant seawater instead of precious pure water and O2 in a two-compartment photoelectrochemical cell using WO3 as a photocatalyst for water oxidation and a cobalt complex supported on a glassy-carbon substrate for the selective two-electron reduction of O2. The concentration of H2O2 produced in seawater reached 48 mM, which was high enough to operate an H2O2 fuel cell.

Electron microscope imaging for gadolinium metallofullerenes encapsulating in single-wall carbon nanotubes $[(\mathrm{Gd}@\mathrm{C}{}_{82}{)}_{n}@\mathrm{SWNTs}]$ identifies the single Gd atom encaged in each. The intermolecular distance between $\mathrm{Gd}@\mathrm{C}{}_{82}$ is extremely regular, regarding the chains of $\mathrm{Gd}@\mathrm{C}{}_{82}$ as novel one-dimensional crystals. Chemical state analysis of Gd atoms suggests evidence for charge transfer from Gd to either a fullerene cage or a nanotube. The slopes of the temperature dependence of electric resistance for the matlike films of $(\mathrm{Gd}@\mathrm{C}{}_{82}{)}_{n}@\mathrm{SWNTs}$ and $(\mathrm{C}{}_{60}{)}_{n}@\mathrm{SWNTs}$ are much steeper than that for empty SWNTs, suggesting the electron scattering due to the electrostatic potential from inside fullerenes playing an important role.

We calculated the crystal orientation dependence of piezoelectric fields in wurtzite strained Ga 0.9 In 0.1 N/GaN heterostructures. The highest longitudinal piezoelectric field of 0.7 MV/cm can be generated in (0001)-oriented biaxial-strained Ga 0.9 In 0.1 N layer coherently grown on GaN. On the contrary, no longitudinal piezoelectric field is induced in strained layers grown along orientations at an off angle of 39° or 90° from (0001). The high symmetry planes with these angles are, for instance, (1124) and (1012) for 39°, and (1120) and (1010) for 90°. We also calculated the crystal orientation dependence of the transition probability in a 3-nm strained Ga 0.9 In 0.1 N/GaN quantum well, which indicated that the transition probability with these non-(0001) orientations becomes 2.3 times larger than that with the (0001) orientation. We conclude that high-performance strained nitride-based optical devices can be obtained by control of the crystal orientation.

Abstract

A cDNA encoding the new member of the multispecific organic anion transporter family, OAT3, was isolated by the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction cloning method. Degenerate primers were designed based on the sequences conserved among OAT1, OAT2, and organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1), and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was performed using rat brain poly(A)+ RNA. The 536-amino acid protein sequence encoded by OAT3 showed 49, 39, and 36% identity to those of OAT1, OAT2, and OCT1, respectively. Northern blot analysis revealed that rat OAT3 mRNA is expressed in the liver, brain, kidney, and eye. When expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes, OAT3 mediated the uptake of organic anions, such as p-aminohippurate (Km = 65 microM), ochratoxin A (Km = 0.74 microM), and estrone sulfate (Km = 2.3 microM) and a cationic compound, cimetidine. OAT3-mediated uptake of [3H]estrone sulfate was sodium-independent. para-Aminohippuric acid, estrone sulfate or ochratoxin A did not show any trans-stimulatory effect on either influx or efflux of [3H]estrone sulfate via OAT3. Organic anions such as sulfobromophthalein, probenecid, indocyanine green, bumetanide, piroxicam, furosemide, azidodeoxythymidine, 4, 4'-diisothiocyanostilbene-3,3'-disulfonic acid, and benzylpenicillin inhibited OAT3-mediated estrone sulfate uptake, while ouabain and digoxin did not. Organic cations such as tetraethylammonium, guanidine, verapamil, and quinidine did not interact with OAT3. Acidic metabolites of neurotransmitters derived from dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and serotonin inhibited the uptake of estrone sulfate via OAT3. These results suggest an important role of OAT3 in the excretion/detoxification of endogenous and exogenous organic anions, especially from the brain.

The "advanced Marfey's method" proposed in our preceding paper has been developed to nonempirically determine the absolute configuration of constituent amino acids in a peptide using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS). For the establishment of this method, we had to resolve the following three problems: (1) elucidation of the limitation of Marfey's method, which is chosen as the chromatography technique, and its separation mechanism, because this proposed method relies on the elution order of an amino acid derivatized with 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrophenyl-5-l-alaninamide (l-FDAA) to determine its absolute configuration; (2) how to effectively combine Marfey's method with mass spectrometry in order to detect and identify a desired amino acid without a standard sample; and (3) how to obtain the corresponding enantiomer from either the l- or d-amino acid in a peptide sample. In a preceding paper, we investigated problem 1 and finally described the rational application guideline for Marfey's method to elucidate the elution order of a desired amino acid according to the proposed separation mechanism. In this paper, we further investigated the two remaining problems. Because the sensitivity of the amino acids derivatized with the original derivatizing reagent, l-FDAA, was poor for LC/MS analysis using any interfaces due to their possible thermal instability and low hydrophobicity, we chose electrospray ionization and frit-fast atom bombardment (Frit-FAB) as the interface and developed 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrophenyl-5-l-leucinamide (l-FDLA) instead of l-FDAA as a new derivatizing reagent in order to combine Marfey's method with mass spectrometry. Furthermore, we introduced a racemization procedure using 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrophenyl-5-dl-leucinamide (dl-FDLA), the "dl-FDLA derivatization", instead of the conventional chemical racemization for obtaining the corresponding enantiomer from either the l- or d-amino acid. Thus, we have established a nonempirical method using LC/MS, the "advanced Marfey's method". The method was successfully applied to the characterization of constituent amino acids in microcystin LR produced by cyanobacteria.

A group III, nitride based, separate confinement heterostructure (SCH) single quantum well (SQW) structure, with an active layer thickness as small as 1.5 nm, was fabricated. It shows the shortest lasing from semiconductor lasers by current injection at room temperature to date. Line width is as little as 0.15 nm.

The discrete Weibull distribution is defined to correspond with the Weibull distribution in continuous time. A few properties of the discrete Weibull distribution are discussed.

Preparation of single-layer manganese oxide nanosheets (monosheets) comprised of edge-shared MnO(6) octahedra has relied on multistep processing involving a high-temperature solid-state synthesis of bulk templates, and ion-exchange and exfoliation reactions in solutions, requiring high cost and long processing time. Here we demonstrate the first single-step approach to directly access the MnO(2) monosheets, by the chemical oxidation of Mn(2+) ions in the presence of tetramethylammonium cations in an aqueous solution. Of importance is that this template-free reaction readily proceeds within a day at room temperature. The ability of the MnO(2) monosheets to self-assemble allows aggregation, to form layered structures with potassium cations and cationic tetrathiafulvalene analogues as intercalants. Furthermore, Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films composed of the MnO(2) monosheets were successfully fabricated by the LB deposition method, in which about one layer of the monosheets was deposited for each process.