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Downy mildew caused by Sclerospora graminicola is a systemic disease that affects the yield and quality of foxtail millet. This obligate biotrophic oomycete manipulates host physiology and immune processes through numerous effectors. A thorough comprehension of effector biology is crucial to unravel disease mechanisms and understand host plant resistance. In this study, bioinformatic analyses revealed 498 potentially secreted proteins in S. graminicola, of which 62 were identified as RXLR effectors; 46 RXLR‐encoding genes exhibited upregulated expression during the early stages of infection. To elucidate the functions of these secreted proteins, a heterogeneous expression system was developed using Nicotiana benthamiana. Twenty‐one RXLR effectors secreted by S. graminicola were transiently expressed in N. benthamiana, of which four could suppress INF1‐triggered cell death. Various defence responses in N. benthamiana were attenuated, including inhibition of defence gene expression, reduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and diminished callose deposition. The expression of SG_RXLR41 also enhanced the growth of Phytophthora capsici on N. benthamiana leaves. These findings indicate that S. graminicola facilitates infection and expansion through the secretion of multiple RXLR effectors, and SG_RXLR41 is an important virulence‐related effector that is involved in manipulating plant immunity by suppressing cell death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ants use species‐specific trail pheromones to coordinate their sophisticated foraging behavior. During the past decades, many trail pheromone components with various structures have been identified in ants, including the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, a notorious invasive species worldwide. Four compounds, Z,E‐ (ZEF) and E,E‐α‐farnesene (EEF), Z,E‐ (ZEHF) and E,E‐α‐homofarnesene (EEHF), have been reported as components of S. invicta trail pheromone. However, another study reported an analog of α‐farnesene, Z,Z,Z‐allofarnesene, as a key trail pheromone component. These contrasting results caused some uncertainty about the trail pheromone composition in S. invicta. In this study, we synthesized ZEF and EEF, ZEHF and EEHF, and reanalyzed the chemicals in the Dufour gland extract and in the trail pheromone fraction of S. invicta worker body extract. The reported isomers of farnesene and homofarnesene were detected and showed trail‐following activity, with ZEF as the major compound, while no allofarnesene was found, neither in the Dufour gland extract nor in the whole‐body extract. Our results confirm ZEF and EEF, ZEHF and EEHF as trail pheromone components of S. invicta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, HDPE/UHMWPE microporous films were prepared by blending UHMWPE and HDPE with DOP as the diluent via thermally‐induced phase separation (TIPS) method. Morphological studies showed that the phase separation mode of the mixed systems was hardly changed in the presence of UHMWPE. Both average pore size and porosity of the blend films increased firstly and then decreased with increasing UHMWPE content. When UHMWPE content reached 1.5 wt%, both porosity and average pore size of the film reached their maximum values (with a porosity of 84.8% and an average pore size of 0.79 μm). The addition of UHMWPE was found to not only enhance the thermal stability of the HDPE/UHMWPE blend films, but also greatly reduce their thermal shrinkage rate as well as the closed cell temperature, which made the diaphragms containing UHMWPE have good prospect for the application in lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, Ni@graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) nanohybrids are obtained via an interfacial reaction growth method and a series of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/Ni@GNP composites are prepared by a solution mixing‐ultrasonic dispersion‐hot pressing technology. The influence of Ni@GNP on the electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, dielectric, and thermal management behaviors of the composites is intensively investigated. The microcapacitors formed using Ni@GNP as plates and PMMA as matrix significantly improve the dielectric properties of the composites. Enhancement on thermal conduction and EMI properties of PMMA composites with increasing Ni@GNP content can be ascribed to the unique structure of Ni@GNP and it is the filler interconnection network that renders the composite's desirable thermally conductive and thermomechanical properties. A facile way of fabricating polymeric composites with satisfactory thermal conductivity and high‐performance electromagnetic shielding is provided here. The obtained polymer composites display highly promising applications in the thermal management and EMI shielding of electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) is the largest accretionary orogenic belt in the world and its formation involved a complicated process of arc–continent collision. Large‐scale Mesozoic volcanic activity in the Great Xing'an Range (GXAR) in northeastern China, which constitutes part of the eastern CAOB, has received much recent research attention. However, the petrogenesis and formation mechanism of the late Mesozoic igneous rocks remain enigmatic. This paper investigates the geochronology, petrogenesis, and formation mechanism of late Mesozoic magmatic rocks in the Kelihe area of the GXAR based on zircon U–Pb dating, petrology, and geochemistry. Late Mesozoic magmatism in the Kelihe area occurred during the Late Jurassic (165–155 Ma) and Early Cretaceous (130–120 Ma). These igneous rocks generated by this magmatism are characterized by high SiO2 (69.97–75.49 wt%) and low MgO (0.11–0.68 wt%), Cr (10–30 ppm), Co (0.2–2.6 ppm), and Ni (0.5–1.6 ppm) contents. Trace elements show enrichment in Rb, Th, U, Zr, and K, and depletion in Ba, P, Nb, and Ti. These features indicate that the rocks were derived from partial melting of the crust. Furthermore, the rhyolites have high Na2O (5.02–5.44 wt%) and K2O (3.94–4.88 wt%) contents, similar to those of melts formed by the partial melting of basaltic crust. Combining the present results with the findings of previous studies, it is inferred that the Mesozoic igneous rocks formed in a post‐collisional extensional setting related to lithospheric thinning and asthenospheric upwelling after the closure of the Mongol–Okhotsk Ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to N, O and P as directing functional atoms, the application of directing group containing sulfur atoms for transition metal-catalyzed C-H activation is much more difficult for the known reason (some metal catalysts are easily poisoned by sulfur). Here, the disulfide-directed C-H activation for thew synthesis of sulfonyl diphenyl sulfides was realized for the first time by a copper-catalyzed, tandem, one-step C-S coupling/hydroxylation of disulfides and arylboronic acids with oxygen as the oxidant. This method provides a mild and easy method for the synthesis of sulfonyl diphenyl sulfides and 2-(phenylthio)phenol derivatives and avoids producing sulfoxides and sulfones under air conditions and elevated temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of calcination temperature and feedstock pretreatment on the catalytic performance of Co/γ-Al2O3 catalysts were studied for partial oxidation of methane (POM) to synthesis gas, with emphasis on the role of feedstock pretreatment. The physicochemical properties of the catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), H2 temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR), and Raman spectroscopy. The results showed that the pretreatment of the catalyst by reaction gas significantly improved the catalytic activity and stability for the POM reaction. On the other hand, the effect of calcination temperature was less significant. Although the initial activity was increased by an increased calcination temperature, the catalyst without the feedstock pretreatment suffered a rapid deactivation. The reaction-atmosphere pretreatment was revealed as a process that mainly modified the surface structure of the catalyst. In that process, the formation of a CoAl2O4-like compound led to high Co metal dispersion after reduction, and the transformation of the carrier into α-Al2O3 occurred over the catalyst surface. Both the high dispersion of cobalt and the presence of α-Al2O3 surface phase were assumed as the important factors resulting in an excellent catalytic performance in terms of high activity and high stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel method for the determination of proteins was developed, based on the enhancement of fluorescence with 4-chloro-(2′-hydroxylophenylazo)rhodanine-Ti(IV) [ClHARP-Ti(IV)] complex as a fluorescence probe. The excitation and emission wavelengths of the system were 335 nm and 376 nm, respectively. The presence of bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulphosuccinate sodium salt (AOT) microemulsion greatly increased the sensitivity of the system. Under optimal conditions, four kinds of proteins, including bovine serum albumin (BSA), human serum albumin (HSA), egg albumin (Ova), and γ-globin ( γ-G) were studied. The detection limits were 0.182 µg/mL for BSA, 0.0788 µg/mL for HSA, 0.216 µg/mL for Ova and 0.484 µg/mL for γ-G. The linear ranges of the calibration were 0-12.0, 0-10.0, 0-18.0 and 0-18.0 µg/mL, respectively. The method possessed high sensitivity, good selectivity and was applied to the analysis of protein in milk powder and cornmeal with satisfactory results. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a robust independent component analysis (ICA) approach for noise reduction. Noise reduction is a difficult problem in ICA model. In general signal processing applications, there is more than one interference signal which may have unknown characteristics. In these situations, traditional linear ICA may lead to poor results. Hence, noise reduction is preferred to be performed with nonlinear adaptive filtering. In this paper, a radial basis function network (RBFN) is employed to transform the observed signals into output space in a nonlinear manner. The weights of RBFN are updated by utilizing a modified fixed-point algorithm. The proposed method has not only the capacity of recovering the mixed signals, but also reducing noise with unknown characteristics from observed signals. The simulation results and analysis show that the proposed algorithm is suitable for practical unsupervised noise reduction problem. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 91(3): 45–52, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10073 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title composite is prepared from mixtures of V2O5, Li2CO3, NH4H2PO4, and meso-tetraphenyl porphyrin as the carbon source (350 °C for 4 h followed by sintering at 800 °C for 8 h in N2 atmosphere). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]