Biochemical mechanisms conferring cross-resistance to fumigant toxicities of essential oils in a chlorpyrifos-methyl resistant strain of Oryzaephilus surinamensis L. (Coleoptera: Silvanidae)

The fumigant toxicities of lavender and ylang-ylang essential oils were tested against a chlorpyrifos-methyl resistant strain (QVOS102) and an insecticide-susceptible reference strain (VOS48) of the saw-toothed grain beetle, Oryzaephilus surinamensis L. (Coleoptera: Silvanidae). The resistant strain showed 1.3- and 1.6-fold higher tolerance against lavender and ylang-ylang fumigation toxicity, respectively, relative to the susceptible strain. LT₅₀ values calculated as the time to attain 50% mortality of tested insects during fumigation were determined at two different concentrations. At 15 μl/l of air, QVOS102 had 2.9- and 1.4-fold higher LT₅₀ values for lavender and ylang-ylang fumigation toxicity, respectively, than VOS48. At 200 μl/l air, QVOS102 had 6.4- and 2.9-fold higher LT₅₀ values for lavender and ylang-ylang fumigation toxicity, respectively, than VOS48. Piperonyl butoxide, a potential inhibitor of cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenase, increased fumigant toxicities of the two essential oils against QVOS102. The enhanced tolerance for the essential oil may have resulted from the enhancement of detoxifying enzymes associated with insecticide resistance.     

Performance comparison of tracking filters in terms of predicted hitting point

This article describes the performance comparison of several tracking filters from the viewpoint of gun fire control. It is common that filter performance can be represented by the RMSE of the current state. However, for the design of a gun fire control system, the performance of the tracking filter in terms of prediction is more important since the current state proceeds with a designed dynamic model to a certain future which is used for the final gun order. It is shown that the predicted results amplify the current state RMSE and can be a good measure.     

Tannylated Calcium Carbonate Materials with Antacid,Anti-Inflammatory,and Antioxidant Effects

Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃)-based materials have received notable attention for biomedical applications owing to their safety and beneficial characteristics, such as pH sensitivity, carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas generation, and antacid properties. Herein, to additionally incorporate antioxidant and anti-inflammatory functions, we prepared tannylated CaCO₃ (TA-CaCO₃) materials using a simple reaction between tannic acid (TA), calcium (Ca²⁺), and carbonate (CO₃²⁻) ions. TA-CaCO₃ synthesized at a molar ratio of 1:75 (TA:calcium chloride (CaCl₂)/sodium carbonate (Na₂CO₃)) showed 3–6 μm particles, comprising small nanoparticles in a size range of 17–41 nm. The TA-CaCO₃ materials could efficiently neutralize the acid solution and scavenge free radicals. In addition, these materials could significantly reduce the mRNA levels of pro-inflammatory factors and intracellular reactive oxygen species, and protect chondrocytes from toxic hydrogen peroxide conditions. Thus, in addition to their antacid property, the prepared TA-CaCO₃ materials exert excellent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects through the introduction of TA molecules. Therefore, TA-CaCO₃ materials can potentially be used to treat inflammatory cells or diseases.     

Spray deposition of electrohydrodynamically atomized polymer mixture for active layer fabrication in organic photovoltaics

Printing and spray technologies are the most recent and novel approaches to form organic photovoltaics (OPV) with inexpensive, high speed, and environmentally friendly process. With an electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) approach, the active layer composed of polymer mixture (P3HT:PCBM) was successively fabricated. Operating conditions for obtaining the stable cone jet mode were determined with various applied voltages and liquid feed flow rates. The size distribution of EHDA droplets was characterized by aerodynamic particle sizer (APS) measurement. The mode diameters of the droplets were 580 and 670 nm, respectively, when the liquid flow rates were 1 and 20 μl/min. The maximum power conversion efficiency of 0.48% was obtained under AM 1.5 solar simulation for an OPV device fabricated in air.     

Programming magnetic anisotropy in polymeric microactuators

Polymeric microcomponents are widely used in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and lab-on-a-chip devices, but they suffer from the lack of complex motion, effective addressability and precise shape control. To address these needs, we fabricated polymeric nanocomposite microactuators driven by programmable heterogeneous magnetic anisotropy. Spatially modulated photopatterning was applied in a shape-independent manner to microactuator components by successive confinement of self-assembled magnetic nanoparticles in a fixed polymer matrix. By freely programming the rotational axis of each component, we demonstrate that the polymeric microactuators can undergo predesigned, complex two- and three-dimensional motion.     

A Network-Failure-Tolerant Message-Passing System for Terascale Clusters

The Los Alamos Message Passing Interface (LA-MPI) is an end-to-end network-failure-tolerant message-passing system designed for terascale clusters. LA-MPI is a standard-compliant implementation of MPI designed to tolerate network-related failures including I/O bus errors, network card errors, and wire-transmission errors. This paper details the distinguishing features of LA-MPI, including support for concurrent use of multiple types of network interface, and reliable message transmission utilizing multiple network paths and routes between a given source and destination. In addition, performance measurements on production-grade platforms are presented.     

A high-performance ceramic composite anode for protonic ceramic fuel cells based on lanthanum strontium vanadate

The composite electrodes for protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFC) were fabricated by infiltration of (La_0.8Sr_0.2)FeO_3−δ (LSF) cathode and (La_0.7Sr_0.3)V_0.90O_3−δ (LSV) anode into a porous protonic ceramic, Ba(Ce_0.51Zr_0.30Y_0.15Zn_0.04)O_3−δ (BCZY-Zn), respectively. Further, Pd-ceria catalysts were added into the composite anode. In the same method, the oxygen ion conducting fuel cells with the yttria-stabilized zirconia as an electrolyte (YSZ cell) were also fabricated. At 973 K, the non-ohmic area specific resistance (ASR) of PCFC (0.09 Ω cm²) was much smaller than that of the YSZ cell (0.28 Ω cm²) although the protonic conductivity of BCZY-Zn was slightly smaller than the oxygen ion conductivity of YSZ. According to the analysis of the symmetric cells with BCZY-Zn as an electrolyte, the LSV-composite anode showed better performance than the LSF-composite cathode at low temperatures.     

Photocatalytic activity of Ag-TiO2 nanoparticles encapsulated with titanium oxide layer

The deposition of nanosized Ag on the TiO2 matrix was first prepared by the sonochemical reduction of silver precursor and the Ag-deposited TiO2 was subsequently encapsulated with titanium oxide layer through an ultrasonic-assisted sol-gel process. The resulting Ag-TiO2 nanocomposites (Ag-TiO2@TiOx) exhibited the lower PL spectra and higher photocatalytic activity as compared to pristine TiO2, indicating the increased separation efficiency of electron-hole pairs at the optimal thickness of TiOx. The excessive encapsulation of TiOx, however, induced the decrease of photocatalytic activity of Ag-TiO2@TiOx owing to the formation of amorphous titanium oxide with less photocatalytic activity. The annealed Ag-TiO2@TiOx at 500 degrees C for 2 hrs exhibited an enhanced photocatalytic activity as compared to non-annealed samples because of the partial transformation of amorphous TiOx into crystalline TiO2.     

Coelectrolysis of steam and CO2 in a solid oxide electrolysis cell with ceramic composite electrodes

Lanthanum strontium vanadate (LSV) was used as the cathode of a solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) containing a yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte for the coelectrolysis of steam and CO₂. Pd and CeO₂ were added to the composite cathode, and the electrolysis mechanism in the coelectrolysis mode changed according to the type of catalyst in the LSV/YSZ composite cathode. The effect of steam on the coelectrolysis performance was investigated by varying the steam vapor pressure. The electrolysis performance under dry CO₂ without steam degraded with time under electrochemical reduction conditions owing to the deactivation of catalysts.     

Facile synthesis of titania-encapsulated magnetites with controlled magnetism and surface morphology

Titania-encapsulated magnetites (A-Fe₃O₄@TiO₂) were facilely fabricated through the modified sol–gel reaction of APTMS-complexed Fe₃O₄ (A-Fe₃O₄) with tetraethyl orthotitanate (TEOT). The magnetism and surface morphology of A-Fe₃O₄@TiO₂ were controlled by adjusting the thickness of titania capsule layer. A-Fe₃O₄@TiO₂ exhibited the superparamagnetic characteristics of negligible remanence and coercity. Thermal analysis of A-Fe₃O₄@TiO₂ showed that the amorphous titania was transformed into crystalline phase at around 440 °C. The core–shell magnetite–titanium nanocomposites can be an attractive candidate for recyclable photocatalysts with magnetite core and/or active Fe₃O₄ electrode materials with buffering TiO₂ capsules.