We purified many kinds of antifreeze proteins with high activity from the leaves of Ammopiptanthus mongolicus by several biochemical techniques. The antifreeze activities of these AFPs were measured by both osmometry and differential scanning calorimetry, and the inhibition of growth of ice crystals by the AFPs was obvious. Additionally, the antifreeze proteins were analyzed by sequencing, glycosylation reaction, mass spectroscopy, and circular dichroism spectroscopy. Both samples have some other unique structures different from those of fishes and of insects. It was suggested that plant AFPs might have a particular antifreeze mechanism in comparison with that of fish and insects.

Background: Since late December 2019, novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia (NCP) emerged in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. Meanwhile, NCP rapidly spread from China to other countries, and several countries' government rush to evacuate their citizens from Wuhan. We analyzed the infection rate of the evacuees and extrapolated the results in Wuhan's NCP incidence estimation. Methods: We collected the total number and confirmed cases of 2019-nCov infection in the evacuation of Korea, Japan, Germany, Singapore, and France and estimated the infection rate of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) among people who were evacuated from Wuhan with a meta-analysis. NCP incidence of Wuhan was indirectly estimated based on data of evacuation.

Photoluminescence quantum efficiency and energy transfer were studied in ErRE (RE = Y, Yb) silicate thin films. For the first time, we experimentally determined the radiative/non-radiative decay rates of ErYb and ErY silicates and obtained photoluminescence quantum efficiencies of 0.28 ± 0.08 and 0.39 ± 0.13, respectively. Energy transfer between Yb and Er in ErYb silicate was investigated by comparing the effective excitation cross sections of ErYb and ErY silicate. At different pumping wavelengths, forward and backward energy transfer caused by the presence of Yb was experimentally demonstrated.

Research on the environmental factors in promoting longer walks has focussed on the outside environment. This research concerns factors in the willingness to walk (WTW) in underground space, in a tropical climate, that of Singapore. Participants were accompanied on a pre-determined itinerary and responded to a questionnaire at intervals on perceptions of their experience and their willingness to continue walking. Several environmental factors were related to WTW. Participants ranked corridor width and the volume of pedestrians as the most important factors in comfort. Although WTW observed a distance-decay function as expected, there were restoration episodes across the participant group, strongly suggesting conditions that enable longer walks in underground space.

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