Defense Suppression through Interplant Communication Depends on the Attacking Herbivore Species

In response to herbivory, plants emit volatile compounds that play important roles in plant defense. Herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) can deter herbivores, recruit natural enemies, and warn other plants of possible herbivore attack. Following HIPV detection, neighboring plants often respond by enhancing their anti-herbivore defenses, but a recent study found that herbivores can manipulate HIPV-interplant communication for their own benefit and suppress defenses in neighboring plants. Herbivores induce species-specific blends of HIPVs and how these different blends affect the specificity of plant defense responses remains unclear. Here we assessed how HIPVs from zucchini plants (Cucurbita pepo) challenged with different herbivore species affect resistance in neighboring plants. Volatile “emitter” plants were damaged by one of three herbivore species: saltmarsh caterpillars (Estigmene acrea), squash bugs (Anasa tristis), or striped cucumber beetles (Acalymma vittatum), or were left as undamaged controls. Neighboring “receiver” plants were exposed to HIPVs or control volatiles and then challenged by the associated herbivore species. As measures of plant resistance, we quantified herbivore feeding damage and defense-related phytohormones in receivers. We found that the three herbivore species induced different HIPV blends from squash plants. HIPVs induced by saltmarsh caterpillars suppressed defenses in receivers, leading to greater herbivory and lower defense induction compared to controls. In contrast, HIPVs induced by cucumber beetles and squash bugs did not affect plant resistance to subsequent herbivory in receivers. Our study shows that herbivore species identity affects volatile-mediated interplant communication in zucchini, revealing a new example of herbivore defense suppression through volatile cues.

     

Cold gas dynamic manufacturing: A non-thermal approach to freeform fabrication

This paper reports on the development of a novel freeform fabrication technique using a cold spray (CS) system. In the CS process, metallic powder particles are accelerated in a supersonic gas jet and impacted with a substrate at speeds in excess of 600 m/s. The non-melting nature of its deposition mechanism ensures that the sprayed material is free from thermally induced tensile stresses, while the underlying substrate remains unchanged. The process is seen as a viable method for additive manufacturing because of its high deposition rates and controllable spray jet. A process was developed to investigate the potential of non-thermal freeform fabrication and was coined Cold Gas Dynamic Manufacturing (CGDM). Here, additive and subtractive techniques were combined to enable the production of complex geometries. Whereas most CS facilities concentrate on the application of wear or corrosion-resistant coatings, CGDM is dedicated to the production of freeform components, whilst still retaining an inherent coating ability. The process can produce functional forms using novel manufacturing strategies that are unique to CS. This paper presents information on the process, and details the various strategies employed during component fabrication. It was possible to construct components from many materials, including titanium, which exhibited freeform surfaces, internal channels and embedded devices. A breakdown of the process economics is also provided, with and without helium recycling.     

Bright-field scanning confocal electron microscopy using a double aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope

Scanning confocal electron microscopy (SCEM) offers a mechanism for three-dimensional imaging of materials, which makes use of the reduced depth of field in an aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope. The simplest configuration of SCEM is the bright-field mode. In this paper we present experimental data and simulations showing the form of bright-field SCEM images. We show that the depth dependence of the three-dimensional image can be explained in terms of two-dimensional images formed in the detector plane. For a crystalline sample, this so-called probe image is shown to be similar to a conventional diffraction pattern. Experimental results and simulations show how the diffracted probes in this image are elongated in thicker crystals and the use of this elongation to estimate sample thickness is explored.     

Monte Carlo simulations of microchannel plate detectors. I. Steady-state voltage bias results

X-ray detectors based on straight-channel microchannel plates (MCPs) are a powerful diagnostic tool for two-dimensional, time-resolved imaging and time-resolved x-ray spectroscopy in the fields of laser-driven inertial confinement fusion and fast Z-pinch experiments. Understanding the behavior of microchannel plates as used in such detectors is critical to understanding the data obtained. The subject of this paper is a Monte Carlo computer code we have developed to simulate the electron cascade in a MCP under a static applied voltage. Also included in the simulation is elastic reflection of low-energy electrons from the channel wall, which is important at lower voltages. When model results were compared to measured MCP sensitivities, good agreement was found. Spatial resolution simulations of MCP-based detectors were also presented and found to agree with experimental measurements.     

量化网络风险

基本风险分析技术能帮助您从整个电力行业分布的角度了解工业控制系统和SCADA(数据采集与监控)系统中的网络威胁。这一步骤将帮助您规划一个防御性的策略。2006年8月19号,Brown' s Ferry核电站因为过程控制网络流量过大而堵塞,导致了再循环泵的损坏。操作员按照操作手册要求将其关闭,并将系统调整到安全状态。一份后续的美国核管理委员会(NRC)报告确定其根源为未确定来源的车间计算机网络通信量过大。由此采取了运     

Hemispherical concentrators and spectral filters for planar sensors in diffuse radiation fields

A dielectric hemisphere of refractive index N can act as an N(2) concentrator of isotropic diffuse radiation under appropriate conditions. We give an analytic expression for the gain of a concentrator of arbitrary radius, neglecting surface reflections, and numerical methods for calculating the gain when the surface transmissivity is an arbitrary function of incidence angle. The theory is applied to the design of multilayer spectral filters for hemispherical concentrators. When an appropriate wavelength shift is incorporated into the design process, an 11-layer, coupled-cavity spectral filter on the surface of a hemisphere of index 1.5 shows excellent bandpass performance with a concentrator radius as small as 3 times the sensor radius. This concentrator-filter combination shows a peak response of 97% of the ideal N(2) response at 950 nm, together with a FWHM of 55 nm.     

Mice deficient for 5-lipoxygenase, but not leukocyte-type 12-lipoxygenase, display altered immune responses during infection with Schistosoma mansoni

Periovular granuloma formation during Schistosoma mansoni infection is a complex, multifaceted immunologic response. Products of arachidonic acid metabolism have been shown to contribute to this response through studies in which general inhibitors of lipoxygenase function reduce granulomatous inflammation. To determine which lipoxygenases are important for granuloma development in schistosomiasis, wild type mice or mice deficient for 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) or "leukocyte-type" 12-lipoxygenase (12-LO) were infected with S. mansoni and studied for responses to schistosome eggs and egg antigens. At the acute stage of infection, when granuloma formation is usually maximal, 5-LO deficient mice developed smaller granulomas around liver-deposited schistosome eggs compared with wild type or 12-LO deficient mice. 5-LO mice also displayed less antibody-mediated (5 h) and cell-mediated, delayed-type (24 h) hypersensitivity to schistosome egg antigens than did the other two infection groups. In an attempt to determine possible mechanisms for the reduced inflammatory responses, we also measured hepatic mRNA levels of cytokines that have been shown to influence granuloma size (IL-4, IL-10, and IFN-gamma). The mRNA levels for IL-10 were significantly lower in 5-LO-deficient mice, but SEA-stimulated spleen cells did not demonstrate a significant difference in IL-10 production between wild type and 5-LO mice. These data suggest that 5-LO plays a role in host responses to schistosomiasis via a mechanism that cannot be explained solely by changes in expression of these cytokines.     

User-Sensitive Inclusive Design

Although “User-Centred”, “Participatory”, and other similar design approaches have proved to be very valuable for mainstream design, their principles are more difficult to apply successfully when the user group contains, or is composed of, older and/or disabled users. In the field of design for older and disabled people, the “Universal Design”, “Inclusive Design” and “Design for All” movements have encouraged designers to extend their design briefs to include older and disabled people. The downside of these approaches is that they can tend to encourage designers to follow a traditional design path to produce a prototype design, and only then investigate how to modify their interfaces and systems to cope with older and/or disabled users. This can lead to an inefficient design process and sometimes an inappropriate design, which may be “accessible” to people with disabilities, but in practice unusable. This paper reviews the concept that the authors have called “User-Sensitive Inclusive Design”, which suggests a different approach to designing for marginalised groups of people. Rather than suggesting that designers rely on standards and guidelines, it is suggested that designers need to develop a real empathy with their user groups. A number of ways to achieve this are recommended, including the use of ethnography and techniques derived from professional theatre both for requirements gathering and for improving designers’ empathy for marginalised groups of users, such as older and disabled people.