Identification of Components of the Aggregation Pheromone of the Guam Strain of Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle,Oryctes rhinoceros,and Determination of Stereochemistry

The coconut rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros (Linnaeus 1758) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae) (CRB), is endemic to tropical Asia where it damages both coconut and oil palm. A new invasion by CRB occurred on Guam in 2007 and eradication attempts failed using commonly applied Oryctes rhinoceros nudivirus (OrNV) isolates. This and subsequent invasive outbreaks were found to have been caused by a previously unrecognized haplotype, CRB-G, which appeared to be tolerant to OrNV. The male-produced aggregation pheromone of the endemic, susceptible strain of O. rhinoceros (CRB-S) was previously identified as ethyl 4-methyloctanoate. Following reports from growers that commercial lures containing this compound were not attractive to CRB-G, the aim of this work was to identify the pheromone of CRB-G. Initial collections of volatiles from virgin male and female CRB-G adults from the Solomon Islands failed to show any male- or female-specific compounds as candidate pheromone components. Only after five months were significant quantities of ethyl 4-methyloctanoate and 4-methyloctanoic acid produced by males but not by females. No other male-specific compounds could be detected, in particular methyl 4-methyloctanoate, 4-methyl-1-octanol, or 4-methyl-1-octyl acetate, compounds identified in volatiles from some other species of Oryctes. Ethyl 4-methyloctanoate elicited a strong electroantennogram response from both male and female CRB-G, but these other compounds, including 4-methyloctanoic acid, did not. The enantiomers of ethyl 4-methyloctanoate and 4-methyloctanoic acid were conveniently prepared by enzymatic resolution of the commercially-available acid, and the enantiomers of the acid, but not the ester, could be separated by gas chromatography on an enantioselective cyclodextrin phase. Using this approach, both ethyl 4-methyloctanoate and 4-methyloctanoic acid produced by male CRB-G were shown to be exclusively the (R)-enantiomers whereas previous reports had suggested male O. rhinoceros produced the (S)-enantiomers. However, re-examination of the ester and acid produced by male CRB-S from Papua New Guinea showed that these were also the (R)-enantiomers. In field trapping experiments carried out in the Solomon Islands, both racemic and ethyl (R)-4-methyloctanoate were highly attractive to both male and female CRB-G beetles. The (S)-enantiomer and the corresponding acids were only weakly attractive. The addition of racemic 4-methyloctanoic acid to ethyl 4-methyloctanoate did significantly increase attractiveness, but the addition of (R)- or (S)-4-methyloctanoic acid to the corresponding ethyl esters did not. Possible reasons for the difference in assignment of configuration of the components of the CRB pheromone are discussed along with the practical implications of these results.

     

The reduction of sulphur dioxide by carbon monoxide on a La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 catalyst

The semiconducting perovskite oxide, La_0.5Sr_0.5CoO₃, is a catalyst for the reduction of sulphur dioxide by carbon monoxide. Unlike aluminia-supported metal catalysts, La_0.5Sr_0.5CoO₃ tolerates high levels of oxygen in the gas stream if sufficient carbon monoxide is present to react with all the oxygen. Water vapour (2%) does not adversely affect the reaction; unwanted byproducts H₂S and COS are reduced for contact times less than 0.25 s. A computer model is used to predict equilibrium gas compositions for systems containing oxygen and water vapour. During the reaction the catalyst itself reacts with sulphur producing metal sulphides, possibly of simple cubic structure. The perovskite sulphides LaCoS₃ and La_0.5Sr_0.5CoS₃ are theoretically unstable.     

Coriolis mass flowmeters: Overview of the current state of the art and latest research

This paper is an update of the overview given by Baker RC [Coriolis flowmeters: Industrial practice and published information. Flow Meas Instrum 1994;5(4):229–46]. Overviews about mass flowmetering are also given in Baker RC [Flow measurement handbook. Cambridge University Press; 2000]. Furthermore, Drahm W and Linnartz H [Coriolis-massflowmeters: State of the art review and innovations. In: Proceedings FLUCOME 2003. 2003] reported about latest innovations in Coriolis technology.

The published information of the last decade is reviewed and the conclusions of the different papers are briefly described.     

DSC-cell - A versatile tool to study thermo-oxidation of aviation lubricants

The versatility of a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) cell in studying thermal and/or thermal-oxidative degradation of lubricants is shown using ester-based aviation turbine oils as an example. The following applications are discussed: 1. quality control of fresh and used oils by pressure differential scanning calorimetry; 2. influence of metal catalysis on oil degradation; 3. identification of volatile degradation products by PDSC gas chromatography-mass spectrometry via a TENAX trap; 4. determination of spontaneous ignition temperatures; 5. influence of metall metal oxides, wear debris and oil degradation products on ignition behaviour; 6. inhibition of spontaneous ignition by antioxidants.     

Tunable Spectrum Selectivity for Multiphoton Absorption with Enhanced Visible Light Trapping in ZnO Nanorods

Observation of visible light trapping in zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs) correlated to the optical and photoelectrochemical properties is reported. In this study, ZnO NR diameter and c‐axis length respond primarily at two different regions, UV and visible light, respectively. ZnO NR diameter exhibits UV absorption where large ZnO NR diameter area increases light absorption ability leading to high efficient electron–hole pair separation. On the other hand, ZnO NR c‐axis length has a dominant effect in visible light resulting from a multiphoton absorption mechanism due to light reflection and trapping behavior in the free space between adjacent ZnO NRs. Furthermore, oxygen vacancies and defects in ZnO NRs are associated with the broad visible emission band of different energy levels also highlighting the possibility of the multiphoton absorption mechanism. It is demonstrated that the minimum average of ZnO NR c‐axis length must satisfy the linear regression model of Z _p,min = 6.31d to initiate the multiphoton absorption mechanism under visible light. This work indicates the broadening of absorption spectrum from UV to visible light region by incorporating a controllable diameter and c‐axis length on vertically aligned ZnO NRs, which is important in optimizing the design and functionality of electronic devices based on light absorption mechanism.     

An optimization approach to estimate and calibrate column water vapour for hyperspectral airborne data

The article describes a novel approach to estimate and calibrate column water vapour (CWV), a key parameter for atmospheric correction of remote-sensing data. CWV is spatially and temporally variable, and image-based methods are used for its inference. This inference, however, is affected by methodological and numeric limitations, which likely propagate to reflectance estimates. In this article, a method is proposed to estimate CWV iteratively from target surface reflectances. The method is free from assumptions for at sensor radiance-based CWV estimation methods. We consider two cases: (a) CWV is incorrectly estimated in a processing chain and (b) CWV is not estimated in a processing chain. To solve (a) we use the incorrect estimations as initial values to the proposed method during calibration. In (b), CWV is estimated without initial information. Next, we combined the two scenarios, resulting in a generic method to calibrate and estimate CWV. We utilized the hyperspectral mapper (HyMap) and airborne prism experiment (APEX) instruments for the synthetic and real data experiments, respectively. Noise levels were added to the synthetic data to simulate real imaging conditions. The real data used in this research are cloud-free scenes acquired from the airborne campaigns. For performance assessment, we compared the proposed method with two state-of-the-art methods. Our method performed better as it minimizes the absolute error close to zero, only within 8–10 iterations. It thus suits existing operational chains where the number of iterations is considerable. Finally, the method is simple to implement and can be extended to address other atmospheric trace gases.     

Large scale fabrication of asymmetric 2D and 3D micro/nano array pattern structures using multi-beam interference lithography technique for Solar cell texturing application

Microsystem Technologies - A method for the large scale fabrication of nano/micro array patterned structure for solar Photovoltaics (PV) is demonstrated by the use of laser interference lithography...     

Probabilistic performance prediction model for Austrian torrent control infrastructure

Due to the growing stock of torrent control structures and decreasing investments, the protection level can be reduced in the long term. Therefore, the focus of the future investments has been shifted on efficiency improvement and maintenance of existing structures. The maintenance of the existing structures is necessary to ensure safety from natural hazards, which are increasing as a consequence of the climate change. Due to the increasing number of structures, there is a strong need to develop a good maintenance management for these infrastructure works. This study is based on data from the condition rating programme of the Austrian Service for Torrent and Avalanche Control. For the structures relevant in this work, 75,343 records were available. The data were examined for different construction type and construction materials. The reliability of the structures was determined by means of the Markov chain. The study describes a homogeneous Markov chain model formed by the data of the condition rating. The result of this study is a proposal for a time to failure (TTF) and a time to repair (TTR) for several construction types with different construction materials as well as the time-dependent use of construction materials in the sector of the Austrian torrent control infrastructure.     

Statistical methods for reservoir fluid composition distribution analysis

This paper presents statistical methods for analyzing the molar distribution of components in petroleum fluids. Reservoir fluid characterization is very significant in Equation of State modeling and in some flow assurance- related problems. Heptanes plus components (C₇₊) are usually lumped together as a pseudo-component, hence, characterizing it improves modeling. Three statistical methods were assumed for analyzing the distribution of components using two reservoir fluid data. The statistical methods selected were validated for best fit of the molar distribution data using methods including the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. The goodness of fit for each test is presented. A new model showing the relationship while using data of Kolmogorov–Smirnov test is presented with high r².