Engineering Climate-Change-Resilient Crops: New Tools and Approaches

Environmental adversities, particularly drought and nutrient limitation, are among the major causes of crop losses worldwide. Due to the rapid increase of the world’s population, there is an urgent need to combine knowledge of plant science with innovative applications in agriculture to protect plant growth and thus enhance crop yield. In recent decades, engineering strategies have been successfully developed with the aim to improve growth and stress tolerance in plants. Most strategies applied so far have relied on transgenic approaches and/or chemical treatments. However, to cope with rapid climate change and the need to secure sustainable agriculture and biomass production, innovative approaches need to be developed to effectively meet these challenges and demands. In this review, we summarize recent and advanced strategies that involve the use of plant-related cyanobacterial proteins, macro- and micronutrient management, nutrient-coated nanoparticles, and phytopathogenic organisms, all of which offer promise as protective resources to shield plants from climate challenges and to boost stress tolerance in crops.     

DSMC versus WENO-BTE: A double gate MOSFET example

Time-dependent solutions to the Boltzmann-Poisson system in two spatial dimensions and three-dimensional velocity space are obtained by using a recently developed high order WENO scheme. The collision operator of the Boltzmann equation models the scattering processes between electrons and phonons which are assumed to be in thermal equilibrium. In this paper, the deterministic numerical solutions for a double gate silicon MOSFET are compared with Monte Carlo simulations. The main aim of this investigation is to show how direct solutions of the Boltzmann transport equation coupled with the Poisson equation can, through comparisons, suggest improvements of the DSMC algorithms such as, in particular, the charge assignment to the mesh, the treatment of the boundary conditions and the free flight duration.     

Hip Osteoarthritis in Dogs: A Randomized Study Using Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Adipose Tissue and Plasma Rich in Growth Factors

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of a single intra-articular injection of adipose mesenchymal stem cells (aMSCs) versus plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF) as a treatment for reducing symptoms in dogs with hip osteoarthritis (OA). Methods: This was a randomized, multicenter, blinded, parallel group. Thirty-nine dogs with symptomatic hip OA were assigned to one of the two groups, to receive aMSCs or PRGF. The primary outcome measures were pain and function subscales, including radiologic assessment, functional limitation and joint mobility. The secondary outcome measures were owners’ satisfaction questionnaire, rescue analgesic requirement and overall safety. Data was collected at baseline, then, 1, 3 and 6 months post-treatment. Results: OA degree did not vary within groups. Functional limitation, range of motion (ROM), owner’s and veterinary investigator visual analogue scale (VAS), and patient’s quality of life improved from the first month up to six months. The aMSCs group obtained better results at 6 months. There were no adverse effects during the study. Our findings show that aMSCs and PRGF are safe and effective in the functional analysis at 1, 3 and 6 months; provide a significant improvement, reducing dog’s pain, and improving physical function. With respect to basal levels for every parameter in patients with hip OA, aMSCs showed better results at 6 months.     

Ionic liquids in supercritical methanol greatly enhance transesterification reaction for high‐yield biodiesel production

Biodiesel production is one of the most promising future alternatives to replacing fossil fuels. This work studies the use of ionic liquids (ILs) as potential catalysts in supercritical methanol for biodiesel production from non‐edible oil. The transesterification reaction of karanja oil was investigated in supercritical methanol in the presence of two respective ILs, [BMIM⁺][ ] and [Chol⁺][H₂ ]. The reaction was performed in a one‐step batch process at several temperatures and percentages by weight of catalyst (w/w_oil). The results obtained show that the IL [Chol⁺][H₂ ] allows a high yield of fatty acid methyl esters to be achieved in a short reaction time (above 95% in 45 min). A catalytic mechanism is also proposed for the IL that offered significant catalytic activity. This work investigates the effects of the use of ionic liquids as potential catalysts in supercritical methanol for the transesterification reaction of non‐edible oil. The reported reaction times to obtain biodiesel yields above 90% through the transesterification reaction of karanja oil range between 90 min and 8 h. ILs as catalysts in supercritical methanol drastically reduce reaction time (45 min) to obtain high fatty acid methyl ester yield (95.6%). © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 3842–3846, 2016     

A Neuroprotective Bovine Colostrum Attenuates Apoptosis in Dexamethasone-Treated MC3T3-E1 Osteoblastic Cells

Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIO) is one of the most common secondary forms of osteoporosis. GIO is partially due to the apoptosis of osteoblasts and osteocytes. In addition, high doses of dexamethasone (DEX), a synthetic glucocorticoid receptor agonist, induces neurodegeneration by initiating inflammatory processes leading to neural apoptosis. Here, a neuroprotective bovine colostrum against glucocorticoid-induced neuronal damage was investigated for its anti-apoptotic activity in glucocorticoid-treated MC3T3-E1 osteoblastic cells. A model of apoptotic osteoblastic cells was developed by exposing MC3T3-E1 cells to DEX (0–700 μM). Colostrum co-treated with DEX was executed at 0.1–5.0 mg/mL. Cell viability was measured for all treatment schedules. Caspase-3 activation was assessed to determine both osteoblast apoptosis under DEX exposure and its potential prevention by colostrum co-treatment. Glutathione reduced (GSH) was measured to determine whether DEX-mediated oxidative stress-driven apoptosis is alleviated by colostrum co-treatment. Western blot was performed to determine the levels of p-ERK1/2, Bcl-XL, Bax, and Hsp70 proteins upon DEX or DEX plus colostrum exposure. Colostrum prevented the decrease in cell viability and the increase in caspase-3 activation and oxidative stress caused by DEX exposure. Cells, upon colostrum co-treated with DEX, exhibited higher levels of p-ERK1/2 and lower levels of Bcl-XL, Bax, and Hsp70. Our data support the notion that colostrum may be able to reduce DEX-induced apoptosis possibly via the activation of the ERK pathway and modulation of the Hsp70 system. We provided preliminary evidence on how bovine colostrum, as a complex and multi-component dairy product, in addition to its neuroprotective action, may affect osteoblastic cell survival undergoing apoptosis.     

Characterization of mixed fiber nylon composites incorporating composite scrap

Recycling of engineering thermoplastics and their composites represents both a challenge and an opportunity in today's material science. A study on nylon 6,6 based composites with mixed glass-fiber and carbon-fiber reinforcement, including nylon composite scrap in their formulation, is reported. Several formulations were prepared by injection molding and were characterized by stress-strain-measurements, impact testing, simultaneous differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetry (DTA-TG), density measurements and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). No dependence on mechanical properties due to increasing amounts of scrap in the composites was found up to 10.4 wt%. The generated recycled composites generally showed lower mechanical properties as compared with the virgin composite because of a poor matrix-fiber adhesion.