Rapid Herbivore-Induced Changes in Mountain Birch Phenolics and Nutritive Compounds and Their Effects on Performance of the Major Defoliator, Epirrita autumnata

Insect damage changes plant physiology and chemistry, and such changes may influence the performance of herbivores. We introduced larvae of the autumnal moth (Epirrita autumnataBorkh.) on individual branches of its main host plant, mountain birch (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii (Orlova) Hämet-Ahti) to examine rapid-induced plant responses, which may affect subsequent larval development. We measured systemic responses to herbivory by analyzing chemistry, photosynthesis, and leaf growth, as well as effects on larval growth and feeding, in undamaged branches of damaged and control trees. Larvae reared on leaves from intact branches of the herbivore-damaged trees grew faster than those reared on leaves of control trees, indicating systemic-induced susceptibility. Herbivore damage did not lead to systemic changes in levels of primary nutrients or phenolic compounds. The analyses of photosynthetic activity and individual hydrolyzable tannins revealed a reversal of leaf physiology-herbivore defense patterns. On control trees, consumption by E. autumnata larvae was positively correlated with photosynthetic activity; on damaged trees, this correlation was reversed, with consumption being negatively correlated with photosynthetic activity. A similar pattern was found in the relationship between monogalloylglucose, the most abundant hydrolyzable tannin of mountain birch, and leaf consumption. Among the control trees, consumption was positively correlated with concentrations of monogalloylglucose, whereas among herbivore-damaged trees, this correlation was reversed and became negative. Our results suggest that herbivore performance is related to both concentrations of phenolic compounds and photosynthetic activity in leaves. This linkage between herbivore performance, leaf chemistry, and physiology was sensitive to induced plant responses caused by slight herbivore damage.     

Effect of heat treating gel films on the formation of superhydrophobic boehmite flaky structures on austenitic stainless steel

The effect of heat treating gel films at different temperatures on the formation of the boehmite flaky structures on AISI 316 type austenitic stainless steel is investigated. After heating at different temperatures, the reactivity of the gel films with boiling water to form boehmite flakes was different, which resulted in different morphologies and different contact angle values after coating with hydrolyzed (heptadecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrodecyl)trimethoxysilane (FAS). When the gel film was heat treated from 200 to 600 °C, the resulting contact angle was above 150°, indicating superhydrophobic behavior. However, when the gel film was heat treated below 200 °C as well as at 700 and 800 °C, only some boehmite flakes were formed; when the gel film was heat treated at 900 °C, no boehmite flakes were observed. In these cases the surface roughness is insufficient for the superhydrophobicity. The formation condition of the boehmite flakes by reaction of the gel film with boiling water is also tentatively discussed.     

Decarboxylation of rosin acids in fusion synthesis of Ca‐resinates—Thermogravimetric studies

Fusion synthesis of Ca‐resinates was studied in a laboratory reactor and in a thermobalance. In the syntheses, the resination reaction takes place at 235°C and it is followed by the thermal decarboxylation of rosin acids at 265°C. The kinetics of the thermal decarboxylation was modelled in the synthesis reactor using calcium contents corresponding to the theoretical target acid values 50 to 90 mg(KOH)/g. In the thermobalance, the kinetics of the decarboxylation reaction could be continuously followed and accurate kinetic results were thus obtained in different reaction conditions. The oxidative and thermal decarboxylation were separately studied in the thermobalance at the reaction temperature range of 245°C to 275°C and in different atmospheres (air, N₂, CO₂) at 260°C. The oxidative decarboxylation was observed to be faster than the thermal decarboxylation during the first 2 h. After that, however, the oxidative decarboxylation was restricted by the apparent reaction equilibrium.     

Softwood Distillate as a Bio-Based Additive in Wood-Plastic Composites

The possibility of using softwood distillate as a bio-based additive or filler in wood-plastic composites (WPCs) was studied by adding various amounts (1–20 wt%) of distillate to a commercial WPC consisting of thermally treated sawdust in a polypropylene (PP) matrix. Softwood distillate was obtained as a secondary product from industrial ThermoWood® processing and it was further processed in the laboratory. The addition of softwood distillate significantly enhanced the mechanical properties of WPC when the distillate content was 2 wt%; tensile strength increased by 5%, tensile modulus by 3%, flexural strength by 3%, and modulus of elasticity by almost 2% compared with the unmodified WPC. In addition, a considerable decrease (over 16%) in water absorption was observed on distillate addition. Proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass-spectrometry (PTR-TOF-MS) analyses revealed that the addition of softwood distillate increased release rates of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in general, and that the odor of acetaldehyde and guaiacol is detectable in several WPCs. Overall, softwood distillate had positive effects on this particular WPC.     

BIOTIN AND THE METABOLISM OF BAKER'S YEAST

Based on experimental results and the results presented in the literature a model for the metabolism of baker's yeast under biotin deficiency is presented. In these conditions the most sensitive point in the metabolism is the carboxylation of pyruvate to oxaloacetate catalyzed by the biotin-containing pyruvate carboxylase. Because the rate of glycolysis is not affected by biotin-deficiency pyruvate accumulates in the cells and is partially excreted into the medium. The high pyruvate pool in the cells means that the metabolism is mainly fermentative even in vigorously aerated cultures. The oxidation of pyruvate to acetyl-CoA proceeds almost unaffected, as can be seen by the production of elevated amounts of ethyl acetate by yeast grown under sub-optimal biotin concentrations. Acetyl-CoA carboxylase, which also has biotin as the prosthetic group, is not as sensitive to a deficiency of this growth factor as is pyruvate carboxylase. In yeast grown without biotin the amounts of fatty acids and lipids are the same or even higher than in cells grown under optimal conditions. The metabolism from oxaloacetate towards the TCA cycle and glutamate is not affected as strongly as is the metabolism to aspartate, which is present in cells in strictly limited amounts. This causes an over-production of metabolic intermediates, e.g. diazotizable arylamine and hypoxanthine as well as citrulline. Their conversion to normal cell constituents, purine nucleotides and arginine, is dependent on the aspartate available and is thus depressed by lack of biotin.     

Ultrahigh Carrier Mobility Achieved in Photoresponsive Hybrid Perovskite Films via Coupling with Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Organolead trihalide perovskites have drawn substantial interest for photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications due to their remarkable physical properties and low processing cost. However, perovskite thin films suffer from low carrier mobility as a result of their structural imperfections such as grain boundaries and pinholes, limiting their device performance and application potential. Here we demonstrate a simple and straightforward synthetic strategy based on coupling perovskite films with embedded single‐walled carbon nanotubes. We are able to significantly enhance the hole and electron mobilities of the perovskite film to record‐high values of 595.3 and 108.7 cm² V^?1 s^?1, respectively. Such a synergistic effect can be harnessed to construct ambipolar phototransistors with an ultrahigh detectivity of 3.7 × 10¹⁴ Jones and a responsivity of 1 × 10⁴ A W^?1, on a par with the best devices available to date. The perovskite/carbon nanotube hybrids should provide a platform that is highly desirable for fields as diverse as optoelectronics, solar energy conversion, and molecular sensing.     

Performance evaluation of a Kademlia-based communication-oriented P2P system under churn

The phenomenon of churn has a significant effect on the performance of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks, especially in mobile environments that are characterized by intermittent connections and unguaranteed network bandwidths. A number of proposals have been put forward to deal with this problem; however, we have so far not seen any thorough analysis to guide the optimal design choices and parameter configurations for structured P2P networks. In this article, we present a performance evaluation of a structured communication-oriented P2P system in the presence of churn. The evaluation is conducted using both simulation models and a real-life prototype implementation. In both evaluation environments, we utilize Kademlia with some modifications as the underlying distributed hash table (DHT) algorithm, and Peer-to-Peer Protocol (P2PP) as the signaling protocol. The results from the simulation models created using Nethawk EAST (a telecommunication simulator software) suggest that, in most situations, a lookup parallelism degree of 3 and resource replication degree of 3 are enough for guaranteeing a high resource lookup success ratio. We also notice that, with the parallel lookup mechanism, a good success ratio is achieved even without the KeepAlive traffic that is used for detecting the aliveness of nodes. A prototype system that works in mobile environment is implemented to evaluate the feasibility of mobile nodes acting as full-fledged peers. The measurements made using the prototype show that, from the viewpoints of CPU load and network traffic load, it is feasible for the mobile nodes to take part in the overlay. Through energy consumption measurements, we draw the conclusion that in general the UMTS access mode consumes slightly more power than the WLAN access mode. Protocol packets with sizes of 200 bytes or less are observed to be the most energy efficient in the UMTS access mode.     

Structural Properties and Hydrolysability of Paulownia elongate: The Effects of Pretreatment Methods Based on Acetic Acid and Its Combination with Sodium Sulfite or Sodium Sulfite

The effects of CH₃COOH and Na₂SO₃ pretreatment on the structural properties and hydrolyzability of fast-growing Paulownia elongate were investigated. Acetic acid increased cellulose’s crystallinity and hydrolyzability when combined with alkaline sodium sulfite and sodium hydroxide. The cellulose content increased by 21%, the lignin content decreased by 6%, and the product showed better enzymatic digestibility. With a cellulase dose of 30 FPU/g DM, after 72 h hydrolysis, the hydrolysis yields of glucose and xylose were 78% and 83%, respectively, which were 51% and 69% higher than those of untreated materials. When the enzyme dosage was 20 FPU/g DM, after 72 h hydrolysis, the hydrolysis yields of glucose and xylose were 74% and 79%, respectively. The high hydrolyzability, low enzyme loading, and high hydrolysis yield demonstrate the potential of the proposed system for producing platform sugars from fast-growing Paulownia elongate.     

Low level gas multicounter for 14C dating of small samples

A compact gas multicounter has been constructed and is undergoing tests. Up to 14 methane samples can be counted simultaneously in an array of 10 ml (at NTP) copper counters at a pressure of 1–8 bar. The gas filling, application of high voltage and decay energy monitoring are microprocessor controlled. Multichannel analyses (256 ch. sample and cosmic detector energy data), sample identity, counting time and critical validity parameters are stored on disc. Numerical discrimination and manipulations of counting parameters can be performed without destroying the original data set. Statistical quality control is based on chi-square and Poisson distribution of countrates around their mean in user defined energy regions as well as “ time of arrival” (TA) of pulses mode. TA analysis offers the user an early means of recognition of some types of system malfunction that otherwise might remain undetected for long periods of time. Pulse shape analysis is used to discriminate sample beta from environmental radiation pulses resulting in a low background with compact and relatively inexpensive shielding.     

PicSOM – content-based image retrieval with self-organizing maps

We have developed a novel system for content-based image retrieval in large, unannotated databases. The system is called PicSOM, and it is based on tree structured self-organizing maps (TS-SOMs). Given a set of reference images, PicSOM is able to retrieve another set of images which are similar to the given ones. Each TS-SOM is formed with a different image feature representation like color, texture, or shape. A new technique introduced in PicSOM facilitates automatic combination of responses from multiple TS-SOMs and their hierarchical levels. This mechanism adapts to the user's preferences in selecting which images resemble each other. Thus, the mechanism implements a relevance feedback technique on content-based image retrieval. The image queries are performed through the World Wide Web and the queries are iteratively refined as the system exposes more images to the user.