Given the growing challenges to food and eco-environmental security as well as sustainable development of animal husbandry in the farming and pastoral areas of northeast China, it is crucial to identify advantageous intercropping modes and some constraints limiting its popularization. In order to assess the performance of various intercropping modes of maize and alfalfa, a field experiment was conducted in a completely randomized block design with five treatments: maize monoculture in even rows, maize monoculture in alternating wide and narrow rows, alfalfa monoculture, maize intercropped with one row of alfalfa in wide rows and maize intercropped with two rows of alfalfa in wide rows. Results demonstrate that maize monoculture in alternating wide and narrow rows performed best for light transmission, grain yield and output value, compared to in even rows. When intercropped, maize intercropped with one row of alfalfa in wide rows was identified as the optimal strategy and the largely complementary ecological niches of alfalfa and maize were shown to account for the intercropping advantages, optimizing resource utilization and improving yield and economic incomes. These findings suggest that alfalfa/maize intercropping has obvious advantages over monoculture and is applicable to the farming and pastoral areas of northeast China.

This paper reports a facile fabrication method for robust and separated polycrystalline Ta 4 N 5 nanocolumn arrays on a FTO/glass substrate that involves using reactive sputtering, which provides an alternative approach to fabricating nitrides without using caustic NH 3 gases. The bandgap of Ta 4 N 5 nanocolumns made at 600 • C was observed to be approximately 2.5 eV. The excellent photodegradation performance was demonstrated in an environment with a pH of 10, in which approximately 80% of methylene blue (5 ppm) was photodegraded in 90 min. The incident photon-to-current efficiency of the 600 • C sample showed equivalent or superior characteristics compared with the Ta 3 N 5 and IrO 2 /Ta 3 N 5 thin films reported in the literature. The photoelectrochemical current measurement also demonstrated the stability of the sample. These features suggest that Ta Photodecomposition of organic pollutants that entails using longlasting solar power is one of the most sustainable applications of photocatalysis, 1 in addition to photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen (H 2 ) production.2,3 Although various semiconductors have been proposed for such applications, most of these semiconductors exhibited various problems and limitations; for example, PbS and CdS 4,5 are toxic and easily photocorroded in a solution; ZnO is photocorrosive 6 and difficult to synthesize using solution-based processes because of its low solubility in water;7 Fe 2 O 3 , SnO 2 , and WO 3 require additional power to trigger harvesting of H 2 because of the unsuitable conduction band edges. 8 TiO 2 has been the most studied photocatalyst, 9,10 but exhibits excellent photocatalytic activity only under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation because of its wide bandgap (approximately 3.2 eV for anatase and 3.0 eV for rutile 9 ). A desirable photocatalytic process should occur in the visible light range, which comprises the prevailing portion (approximately 43%) of the solar spectrum. 3,11Tantalum nitride, existing in various stable and metastable phases, 12,13 represents another promising material system because it exhibits various favorable properties. The microstructure, as well as the mechanical and electrical properties, can be modulated within a wide range, depending on the deposition techniques 14 and the stoichiometry of nitrogen. 19,[24][25][26] and photodecomposition of organic pollutants. In particular, Ta 3 N 5 has received considerable attention because of its advantageous band structure (E g ∼ = 1.5 eV-2.1 eV).19,27-30 Studies have typically synthesized Ta 3 N 5 by using a two-step approach; Ta 2 O 5 was first grown, and subsequent nitridation was employed to obtain Ta 3 N 5 in a moisturized NH 3 atmosphere. 25,[30][31][32][33] This method typically exhibited the poor control of film thickness and structural discontinuities during oxidation and nitridation. 31 Consequently, high defect densities of Ta 3 N 5 were attained, thus compensating the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance. 34 In addition, the chemical and functional instability of Ta 3 N 5...

In this study, we experiment with light expand clay aggregate medium used in landscape industry in order to find the ideal lightweight media combination that is helpful for plant growth, without the price being high. We mixed the light-weight medium with sandy loam for use in landscape construction in southern Taiwan. We tested 8 plants and 3 medium and tested light expand clay aggregate base, thus achieving the results. The prescription for medium pH value is detected, with most of the medium showing a low-alkaline environment. The ratio of light expand clay aggregate to sandy loam is 2:8, thus increasing the coverage and growth for Duranta repens, Murraya paniculata, Portulaca grandiflora, and Zoysia matrella. The prescription, whereby the ratio of light expands clay aggregate to sandy loam is 5:5, is suitable for Liriope platyphylla, Spathoglottis plicata. The prescription, whereby the ratio of light expand clay aggregate to sandy loam is 8:2, is suitable for Alpinia speciosa, Podocarpus costalis. The prescription, whereby the ratio of light expands clay aggregate to sandy loam is 8:2, is suitable for Portulaca grandiflora during the rainy season. Light expand clay aggregate medium is more suitable for Liriope platyphylla, Spathoglottis plicata. The prescriptions, whereby the ratio of lightweight medium (light expand clay aggregate to sandy loam) is 2:8, which is suitable for more kinds of plants. Different media prescriptions are well-grown planting combinations, in which one can choose different plant species based on the environment and in order to create biodiversity. This can be achieved to reduce the building load and may provide a good environment for the growth of plants and create space in favor of green roofs.