Specific Polyphenols and Tannins are Associated with Defense Against Insect Herbivores in the Tropical Oak Quercus oleoides

The role of plant polyphenols as defenses against insect herbivores is controversial. We combined correlative field studies across three geographic regions (Northern Mexico, Southern Mexico, and Costa Rica) with induction experiments under controlled conditions to search for candidate compounds that might play a defensive role in the foliage of the tropical oak, Quercus oleoides. We quantified leaf damage caused by four herbivore guilds (chewers, skeletonizers, leaf miners, and gall forming insects) and analyzed the content of 18 polyphenols (including hydrolyzable tannins, flavan-3-ols, and flavonol glycosides) in the same set of leaves using high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. Foliar damage ranged from two to eight percent per region, and nearly 90% of all the damage was caused by chewing herbivores. Damage due to chewing herbivores was positively correlated with acutissimin B, catechin, and catechin dimer, and damage by mining herbivores was positively correlated with mongolinin A. By contrast, gall presence was negatively correlated with vescalagin and acutissimin B. By using redundancy analysis, we searched for the combinations of polyphenols that were associated to natural herbivory: the combination of mongolinin A and acutissimin B had the highest association to herbivory. In a common garden experiment with oak saplings, artificial damage increased the content of acutissimin B, mongolinin A, and vescalagin, whereas the content of catechin decreased. Specific polyphenols, either individually or in combination, rather than total polyphenols, were associated with standing leaf damage in this tropical oak. Future studies aimed at understanding the ecological role of polyphenols can use similar correlative studies to identify candidate compounds that could be used individually and in biologically meaningful combinations in tests with herbivores and pathogens.     

Environmental performance assessment of a provider of logistical services in an industrial supply chain

This paper presents a method for assessing environmental performance in industrial operations. The method was applied to three logistical operations in an industrial supply chain performed by a single operator: road transportation, warehousing, and urban transportation. Environmental performance was treated as a complex object and was structured according to the following five criteria: atmospheric emissions, liquid effluents, solid waste, natural and energy resources, and managerial and legal regulations. The first four criteria address a direct impact on the environment, whereas the last is a necessary condition for the first four to have a satisfactory performance. Six experts in environmental management prioritized the criteria and defined sets of indicators for the field appraisal. The indicators were expected to be correlated for the same criteria. The validity of the indicators was assessed through questionnaires answered by six managers of the operation. Finally, three overall indices corresponding to the environmental performance of the three logistical operations were calculated for the operations and were found to be 73.58, 79.21, and 76.28% (higher is better). These indicate good results because the maximum performance is expected to be 100%. This environmental performance assessment can aid in reformulating the environmental strategies embedded in the operational strategy of the company.     

Influence of mesostasis in volcanic rocks on the alkali-aggregate reaction

Mesostasis material present in the interstices of volcanic rocks is the main cause of the alkali-aggregate reaction (AAR) in concretes made with these rock aggregates. Mesostasis often is referred to as volcanic glass, because it has amorphous features when analyzed by optical microscopy. However, this study demonstrates that mesostasis in the interstitials of volcanic rocks most often consists of micro to cryptocrystalline mineral phases of quartz, feldspars, and clays. Mesostasis has been identified as having different characteristics, and, thus, this new characterization calls for a re-evaluation of their influence on the reactivity of the volcanic rocks. The main purpose of this study is to correlate the characteristics of mesostasis with the AAR in mortar bars containing basalts and rhyolites.     

Onset of virus systemic infection in plants is determined by speed of cell-to-cell movement and number of primary infection foci

The cornerstone of today''s plant virology consists of deciphering the molecular and mechanistic basis of host–pathogen interactions. Among these interactions, the onset of systemic infection is a fundamental variable in studying both within- and between-host infection dynamics, with implications in epidemiology. Here, we developed a mechanistic model using probabilistic and spatio-temporal concepts to explain dynamic signatures of virus systemic infection. The model dealt with the inherent characteristic of plant viruses to use two different and sequential stages for their within-host propagation: cell-to-cell movement from the initial infected cell and systemic spread by reaching the vascular system. We identified the speed of cell-to-cell movement and the number of primary infection foci in the inoculated leaf as the key factors governing this dynamic process. Our results allowed us to quantitatively understand the timing of the onset of systemic infection, describing this global process as a consequence of local spread of viral populations. Finally, we considered the significance of our predictions for the evolution of plant RNA viruses.     

Plant oil bioconversion into increase biological activity through lipases derived from wastes

The aim of this study was to show that abundant and inexpensive plant oils can be biotransformed to increase biological activity (antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxicity) through hydrolysis reaction catalysed by lipases. We tested homemade and commercial lipases through the biotransformation of nine different plant oils in forty different combinations. First, the chemical composition of the samples was investigated. Thereafter, biological tests were conducted to assess the antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the sampled biotransformation products, as well as analyzed their influence on the viability of healthy and cancer cells. Summarising, sunflower, corn and olive oils modified by orange waste-obtained lipases presented the most promising results, reaching up to 90% of antioxidant activity increase and significant growth inhibition of bacteria colonies belonging to genera Escherichia, Listeria, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas and Salmonella. In addition, those compounds affected human oral squamous carcinoma cells. The bioconversion of plant oils through lipases improves their biological properties and might be an option for biotechnological application.     

Modification of coconut fibers with polyaniline for manufacture of pressure‐sensitive devices

This article studies the modification of coconut fibers with polyaniline (PAni) with help of statistical experimental design techniques. The main factors studied here were the techniques used for particle dispersion (sonication vs. magnetic stirring) and the type of initiator (ammonium persulfate, APS, vs. ammonium cerium sulfate dihydrate, Ce(IV)). The obtained materials were characterized through low field nuclear magnetic resonance, small‐and wide‐angle X‐ray scattering, scanning electron microscopy, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy. Additionally, the electrical resistivities and respective sensitivities to variations of the applied pressure were evaluated for all obtained samples, with help of standard volume resistivity measurements and electro‐mechanical tests. The materials prepared through magnetic stirring with APS presented the best electrical and electromechanical properties, although materials prepared through sonication with Ce(IV) also presented good electrical and electromechanical properties and could be prepared much faster. As a consequence, modification of coconut fibers with PAni, using sonication as the particle dispersion technique and Ce(IV) as initiator, constitutes a very promising procedure for manufacture of pressure‐sensitive devices. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:2887–2895, 2014. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Construction of baselines for VoIP traffic management on open MANs

In the last century, owing to the constant evolution of technologies telecommunication networks have become increasingly robust, being able to support multiple services. These services are part of the heterogeneous network traffic that can be carried through the Internet. Many of these services, including VoIP, are latency sensitive. In other words, this means that their quality depends directly on the network quality of service. Since users tend to become more sensitive with the instability and unavailability of the network, it is important to improve traffic management. A particular type of data that could be used to improve VoIP traffic management is the Internet Protocol Detail Record (IPDR). IPDRs are tickets created by all VoIP call attempts which contain a group of information related to the call history. Because of its full range of information, IPDRs can be used to create VoIP traffic baselines. This paper presents the development of baselines based on IPDRs to support VoIP traffic management in open‐access Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Algorithm transformation methods to reduce the overhead of software-based fault tolerance techniques

This paper introduces a framework that tackles the costs in area and energy consumed by methodologies like spatial or temporal redundancy with a different approach: given an algorithm, we find a transformation in which part of the computation involved is transformed into memory accesses. The precomputed data stored in memory can be protected then by applying traditional and well established ECC algorithms to provide fault tolerant hardware designs. At the same time, the transformation increases the performance of the system by reducing its execution time, which is then used by customized software-based fault tolerant techniques to protect the system without any degradation when compared to its original form. Application of this technique to key algorithms in a MP3 player, combined with a fault injection campaign, show that this approach increases fault tolerance up to 92%, without any performance degradation.     

Experimental analyses of the poly(vinyl chloride) foams' mechanical anisotropic behavior

Assessing a full set of mechanical properties is a rather complicate task in the case of foams, especially if material models must be calibrated with these results. Many issues, for example anisotropy and heterogeneity, influence the mechanical behavior. This article shows through experimental analyses how the microstructure affects different experimental setups and it also quantifies the degree of anisotropy of a poly(vinyl chloride) foam. Monotonic and cyclic experimental tests were carried out using standard compression specimens and non‐standard tensile specimens. Results are complemented and compared with the aid of a digital image correlation technique and scanning electron microscopy analyses. Mechanical properties (e.g., elastic and plastic Poisson's ratios) are evaluated for compression and tensile tests, for two different material directions (normal and in‐plane). The material is found to be transversely isotropic. Differences in the results of the mechanical properties can be as high as 100%, or even more depending on the technique used and the loading direction. Also, the experimental analyses show how the material's microstructure behavior, like the evolution of the herein identified “yield fronts” and a “spring back” phenomenon, can influence the phenomenological response and the failure mechanisms as well as the hardening curves. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers