Oviposition Deterrents in Larval Frass of Four Ostrinia Species Fed on an Artificial Diet

Behavioral bioassays have shown that volatile oviposition-deterring chemicals are present in the frass of Ostrinia zealis, O. furnacalis, O. scapulalis, and O. latipennis larvae fed on an artificial diet. These chemicals were extractable with acetone, and could be partitioned into a polar lipid fraction. This fraction mainly included palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids. No significant differences among the four Ostrinia species were found in the amount and composition of these free fatty acids. A mixture of the five authentic fatty acids of the composition found in the larval frass of O. zealis exhibited significant oviposition-deterring effects on all four species.     

Local Administration of Low-Dose Nerve Growth Factor Antibody Reduced Pain in a Rat Osteoarthritis Model

Systemic injection of a nerve growth factor (NGF) antibody has been proven to have a significant relevance in relieving osteoarthritis (OA) pain, while its adverse effects remain a safety concern for patients. A local low-dose injection is thought to minimize adverse effects. In this study, OA was induced in an 8-week-old male Sprague–Dawley (SD) rat joint by monoiodoacetate (MIA) injection for 2 weeks, and the effect of weekly injections of low-dose (1, 10, and 100 µg) NGF antibody or saline (control) was evaluated. Behavioral tests were performed, and at the end of week 6, all rats were sacrificed and their knee joints were collected for macroscopic and histological evaluations. Results showed that 100 µg NGF antibody injection relieved pain in OA rats, as evidenced from improved weight-bearing performance but not allodynia. In contrast, no significant differences were observed in macroscopic and histological scores between rats from different groups, demonstrating that intra-articular treatment does not worsen OA progression. These results suggest that local administration yielded a low effective NGF antibody dose that may serve as an alternative approach to systemic injection for the treatment of patients with OA.     

Flame retardancy of poly(butylene terephthalate) blended with phosphorous compounds

The thermal degradation and flame retardancy of poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) were studied with a focus on the effect of phosphorous compounds. Thermogravimetric analysis, pyrolysis/gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py/GC/MS), and elemental analysis were used to analyze the flame retardancy, which were observed by an Underwriters Laboratory UL‐94 test and a cone calorimeter. The 50% degradation temperatures of PBT blends with phosphorous compounds were the same as that of neat PBT. Six scission products were assigned by Py/GC/MS. The burning times of the UL test of several PBT blends were much shorter than that of neat PBT. The relation between flame retardancy and thermal degradation was analyzed with respect to the results of the scission products and the char in burned polymers. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 2326–2333, 2004     

In Vitro Investigation of Crosstalk between Fatty Acid and Polyketide Synthases in the Andrimid Biosynthetic Assembly Line

Andrimid (Adm) synthase, which belongs to the type II system of enzymes, produces Adm in Pantoea agglomerans. The adm biosynthetic gene cluster lacks canonical acyltransferases (ATs) to load the malonyl group to acyl carrier proteins (ACPs), thus suggesting that a malonyl‐CoA ACP transacylase (MCAT) from the fatty acid synthase (FAS) complex provides the essential AT activity in Adm biosynthesis. Here we report that an MCAT is essential for catalysis of the transacylation of malonate from malonyl‐CoA to AdmA polyketide synthase (PKS) ACP in vitro. Catalytic self‐malonylation of AdmA (PKS ACP) was not observed in reactions without MCAT, although many type II PKS ACPs are capable of catalyzing self‐acylation. This lack of self‐malonylation was explained by amino acid sequence analysis of the AdmA PKS ACP and the type II PKS ACPs. The results show that MCAT from the organism's FAS complex can provide the missing AT activity in trans, thus suggesting a protein–protein interaction between the fatty acid and polyketide synthases in the Adm assembly line.     

Molecular design of high-performance polyimide membranes for gas separations

The main objective of this study is to acquire a better understanding of the relationships between the chemical structure of polymers and their permeability to different gases. This information is required for the development of new membrane processes for the separation of industrial gases. Based on our previous investigation of structure/permeability relationships, this study provides additional information on gas diffusivity and solubility data in different polyimides. The control factors of this relationship are identified as the structures of diamine and dianhydride, the degree of curing, and the chain morphology and mobilities.This study confirms that both the gas selectivity and permeability of polyimides can be enhanced simultaneously. The desired membrane materials can be achieved by synthesizing polyimides with over 60% aromatic rings and containing bulky functional groups, such as(CF₃)₂, which impede chain rotation and act as spacers to increase intersegmental distances. In addition, the diamine moieties must be short and rigid to produce a high gas selectivity. Polyimide membranes, then, behave as polymeric molecular sieves. This is demonstrated by the fact that the systematic changes in the structure of the polyimides affect mainly the diffusivity rather than thesolubility of the penetrant gases.     

Assessment of protective function of steel rust layers by N2 adsorption

The specific surface area (SA) of the rusts formed by exposing various kinds of steels in different situations was determined by N₂ adsorption. The SA values of the rusts increased with the increase of corrosion rate, implying that the rust layers with large SA exhibit a high resistance to corrosion. The suppression of rusting by compact rust layers was interpreted by the blockage of pores in rust layers by the adsorption and capillary condensation of water. The SA values clearly reflect the corrosion levels estimated by the external observation. It was convinced that the SA measurement is a universal quantitative technique to appraisal the protective function of rust layers.     

Self-propagating high-temperature synthesis of La(Sr)Ga(Mg)O3−δ for electrolyte of solid oxide fuel cells

This paper describes self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) of an electrolyte for solid oxide fuel (SOFC), in comparison to a conventional solid-state reaction method (SRM). Doped-lanthanum gallate: La_0.9Sr_0.1Ga_0.8Mg_0.2O_3−δ (LSGM9182) and LSGM9173 as the SOFC electrolyte, was prepared by the SHS and sintered at different temperatures, for measuring the electrical conductivity of the sintered LSGM and the power generating performance at 1073 K, in comparison to the SRM. In the SHS, the LSGM powders with smaller size were obtained and easily sintered at the 100 K-lower temperature, 1673 K, than in the SRM. Most significantly, the electrical conductivity of the sintered LSGM9182 was as high as 0.11 S cm⁻¹ and its maximum power density was a value of 245 mW cm⁻² in the cell configuration of Ni/LSGM9182 (0.501 mm in thickness)/Sm_0.5Sr_0.5CoO₃. The conclusion was that the proposed SHS-sintering method with many benefits of minimizing the energy requirement and the processing time in the production, easing temperature restriction for the sintering, and improving the electrolyte performance up to a conventional level is practicable for producing the LSGM-electrolyte of SOFC at an intermediate-temperature application.     

Direct observation of X-ray induced atomic motion using scanning tunneling microscope combined with synchrotron radiation

X-ray induced atomic motion on a Ge(111)-c(2 x 8) clean surface at room temperature was directly observed with atomic resolution using a synchrotron radiation (SR)-based scanning tunneling microscope (STM) system under ultra high vacuum condition. The atomic motion was visualized as a tracking image by developing a method to merge the STM images before and after X-ray irradiation. Using the tracking image, the atomic mobility was found to be strongly affected by defects on the surface, but was not dependent on the incident X-ray energy, although it was clearly dependent on the photon density. The atomic motion can be attributed to surface diffusion, which might not be due to core-excitation accompanied with electronic transition, but a thermal effect by X-ray irradiation. The crystal surface structure was possible to break even at a lower photon density than the conventionally known barrier. These results can alert X-ray studies in the near future about sample damage during measurements, while suggesting the possibility of new applications. Also the obtained results show a new availability of the in-situ SR-STM system.     

Modelling of overall plastic deformation in rubber-toughened polymers

Summary. In this paper, we provide a constitutive model for overall (macroscopic) plastic deformation behavior in a rubber-toughened polymer blend. A porous plasticity theory is employed as a basis for the constitutive modeling. In our investigation, the polycarbonate (PC) is chosen as a matrix material of polymer blend. First, the true uniaxial stress-strain relation for PC, which is an important part of the constitutive model, is carefully measured. Secondly, finite element analyses of neck propagation in a tensile specimen of PC are performed to test the efficiency of the introduction of the accurately measured true stress-strain relation into the model. Then, in order to investigate local and average deformation behavior of the matrix material (PC) around cavitated rubber particles in polymer blend, an axisymmetric unit cell analysis is carried out. Finally, finite element analyses of the neck propagation in a tensile specimen of a rubber-toughened PC are performed, and the numerical results are compared to experimental results. It is revealed that the present constitutive model has the ability to well reproduce the behavior of a rubber-toughened polymer blend with rather small volume fraction of rubber particles, which is up to about 10%. However, for blends with larger volume fraction of the rubber particles, the discrepancy between the computational and the experimental results increases. Several possibilities of enhancing the model are discussed.     

Physical properties of a new cuprate superconductor Pr2Ba4Cu7O15−δ

We present studies of the thermal, magnetic, and electrical transport properties of reduced polycrystalline Pr₂Ba₄Cu₇O_15−δ (Pr247) showing a superconducting transition at T_c=10–16 K, and compare them with those of as-sintered non-superconducting Pr247. The electrical resistivity in the normal state exhibited T² dependence up to approximately 150 K. A clear specific heat anomaly was observed at T_c for Pr247 reduced in a vacuum for 24 h, proving the bulk nature of the superconducting state. By the reduction treatment, the magnetic ordering temperature T_N of Pr moments decreased from 16 to 11 K, and the entropy associated with the ordering increased, while the effective paramagnetic moments obtained from the DC magnetic susceptibility varied from 2.72 to 3.13μ_B. The sign of Hall coefficient changed from positive to negative with decreasing temperature in the normal state of a superconducting Pr247, while that of the as-sintered one was positive down to 5 K. The electrical resistivity under high magnetic fields was found to exhibit T^α dependence (α=0.08–0.4) at low temperatures. A possibility of superconductivity in the so-called CuO double chains is discussed.