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Colletotrichum nymphaeae is the dominant species causing anthracnose disease of peach in China. In this study, 140 isolates of C. nymphaeae were assessed for their sensitivity to six fungicides. It was found that C. nymphaeae was highly resistant to carbendazim, procymidone, and boscalid but sensitive to pyraclostrobin and prochloraz. For fludioxonil, the fungus exhibited differential sensitivities (i.e., approximately 14% of isolates were resistant to fludioxonil and the resistance was stable). Fludioxonil-resistant isolates had a mean EC50 value of 2.2380 µg/ml, whereas the mean EC50 value was 0.0194 µg/ml in fludioxonil-sensitive isolates. The mean EC50 values of C. nymphaeae for pyraclostrobin and prochloraz were 0.0083 µg/ml and 0.002 µg/ml, respectively. No cross-resistance was observed between fungicides from different groups. Mycelial growth rate, control efficacy, and osmotic stress responses were significantly different (P < 0.05) between fludioxonil-sensitive (FluS) and -resistant (FluR) isolates, but no significant difference was observed (P > 0.05) in virulence and sporulation between FluS and FluR isolates. No mutation was detected in coding regions of the CnOs-1, Cal, Hk1, Hog1, TPI, and Mrr1 genes. Interestingly, with fludioxonil treatment, the expression of ABC transporter gene atrB was significantly overexpressed in some resistant isolates. However, overexpression of the atrB gene was not detected in one moderately and one highly resistant isolate, indicating that other unknown mechanisms may be involved. Current findings uncovered several effective chemicals and provided the foundation for designing management strategies to practically control peach anthracnose with the most effective demethylation inhibitor fungicides and quinone outside inhibitor fungicides.

The dual-parameter sensors based on topological ring structure are proposed and experimentally demonstrated, which has obvious advantages in relative humidity (RH) and displacement measurement. The topological ring structures are composed of two separated optical microfiber couplers (OMCs) as independent sensing units. The two OMCs are connected by two 30 cm length single-mode fibers (SMFs). The first sensor is formed by introducing OMC into the loop resonator (LR). The second sensor is constructed by introducing OMC into the Sagnac interferometer (SI). The LR-OMC and SI-OMC structures are made by splicing the two ports of OMC with two ports on one side of the different central axis. The coupling coefficient and effective refractive index (ERI) of OMC vary with RH and displacement. The reason for the wavelength shift caused by RH is that water molecules trigger the change ERI of the OMC evanescent. Furthermore, the RH measurement is realized without any humidity-sensitive material. Here, we present a topological ring structure that can measure two parameters discretely, eliminating the problem of RH and displacement crosstalk. The LR-OMC structure and SI-OMC structure have different RH and displacement sensitivity. The proposed topology sensors could find applications in the multi-parameter RH and displacement sensing due to their simple fabrication and low cross-sensitivity.

Anthracnose, mainly caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides species complex including Colletotrichum fructicola and Colletotrichum siamense, is a devastating disease of peach. Chemical control has been widely used for years, but management failures have increased with the commonly used fungicides. Therefore, screening of sensitivity of Colletotrichum spp. to fungicides with different modes of action is needed to make proper management strategies for peach anthracnose. In this study, the sensitivity of 80 isolates of C. fructicola and C. siamense was screened for pyraclostrobin, procymidone, prochloraz, and fludioxonil based on mycelial growth inhibition at discriminatory doses. Results showed that C. fructicola and C. siamense isolates were highly resistant to procymidone and fludioxonil with 100% resistance frequencies to both fungicides, but sensitive to prochloraz, i.e., no resistant isolates were found. For pyraclostrobin, 74% of C. fructicola isolates showed high resistance, 26% showed low resistance, and all of the C. siamense isolates showed low resistance. No positive cross-resistance was observed between pyraclostrobin and azoxystrobin even when they are members of the same quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) fungicide group or between pyraclostrobin and non-QoIs. Resistant isolates to QoI fungicides were evaluated for the fitness penalty. Results showed that no significant differences except for the mycelial growth rates that were detected between high- and low-resistance isolates of C. fructicola. Molecular characterization of the Cyt b gene revealed that the G143A point mutation was the determinant of the high resistance in C. fructicola. This study demonstrated the resistance status of C. fructicola and C. siamense to different fungicides and briefly discussed implications of that resistance. Demethylation inhibitor fungicides were found to be the best option among the different chemicals studied here, to control peach anthracnose in China.

A polarization-controlled strain fiber sensorwith a low detection limit and high sensitivity is proposed and demonstrated using a helical birefringence fiber loop mirror (HBFLM). The HBFLM is consists of a micro-helix region, a macro-helix region, and a fiber ring mirror (FLM). The two standard single-mode fibers (SMFs) are pre-surrounded by each other and use hydrogen flame heating and stretching techniques to prepare the micro-helix region (MIHR). The pre- rotation turns of the MIHR determine the coupling length. The MIHR is influenced by a twisting force. The purpose of the macro-helix region (MAHR) is to regulate the x- and y-polarizationstates in the fiber (applying stress inducesdouble refraction). At the same time, the envelope of the transmission spectrum is modulated to ultimately control the strain sensor. The polarization control of the strain sensor is realized by using the principle of stress birefringence of the SMF. The reasons for the polarization control spectrum are analyzed theoretically. The strain and temperature characteristics were indicated in the experiment. Polarization-controlled strain sensors are expected to be used in high-precision and varying strain range measurements.

In this study, the phase composition, morphology, and element distribution of Mg impurities in a low-grade titanium slag and in its chlorinated residue after carbochlorination were identified using XRD, SEM-EDS, and MLA. Most Mg impurities existed as anosovite, rutile, titanaugite, and Ti silicate phases before the carbochlorination process. The thermodynamic analysis revealed that the chlorination tendencies of Mg, Ti, Ca, Fe, and Mn oxides in the original titanium slag was much higher than those of Si and Al oxides in the temperature range of 700–850 °C. In addition, the binary phase diagram analysis indicates that the magnesium chloride (MgCl2) byproduct formed Na2MgCl4 eutectic salts in the NaCl-based salt bath. The carbochlorination experiments of the Mg-bearing titanium slag show that the chlorination ratio of magnesium oxide was above 93% under the suitable industrial conditions used for the extraction of titanium from Mg-bearing titanium slag. In addition, the formation of Na2MgCl4 eutectic salts after carbochlorination was confirmed, indicating that the negative effect of MgCl2 on the chlorination process was effectively eliminated. The Mg impurities in the chlorinated residue existed as titanaugite, quartz, chlorite, and rutile phases. Furthermore, we found that the carbochlorination of Mg-bearing titanium slag in chloride media effectively improved the comprehensive utilization efficiency of the Mg-bearing titanium slag. We believe that the proposed carbochlorination mechanism of the Mg-bearing titanium slag will provide thorough understanding and useful guidance on the practical industrial application of Mg-bearing titanium slag.

Fungicide hormesis has implications for the application of fungicides to control plant diseases. We investigated the hormetic effects of the dicarboximide fungicide dimethachlone on mycelial growth and virulence of the necrotrophic plant pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Dimethachlone at sublethal doses in potato dextrose agar (PDA) increased the mycelial growth of S. sclerotiorum. After the growth-stimulated mycelia were subcultured on fresh PDA and inoculated on rapeseed leaves, increased mycelial growth and virulence were observed, indicating that hormetic traits were passed down to the next generation. Dimethachlone applied to leaves at 0.002 to 500 μg/ml stimulated virulence, with a maximum stimulation amplitude (MSA) of 31.4% for the isolate HLJ4, which occurred at 2 μg/ml. Dimethachlone-resistant isolates and transformants had a mean virulence MSA of 30.4%, which was significantly higher (P = 0.008) than the MSA for sensitive isolates (16.2%). Negative correlations were detected between MSA and virulence in the absence of any fungicide (r = –0.872, P < 0.001) and between MSA and mycelial growth on PDA (r = –0.794, P = 0.002). Studies on hormetic mechanisms indicated that dimethachlone had no significant effects on expression levels of three virulence-associated genes, that is, a cutinase-encoding gene SsCut, a polygalacturonase gene SsPG1, or an oxaloacetate acetylhydrolase gene SsOah1. The results will contribute to understanding hormesis and have implications for the judicious application of fungicides to control plant diseases.

We demonstrate a switchable and flexible comb filter/interleaver based on ring-resonator (RR) in which the directional couplers are replaced by tunable couplers. The tunable coupler is composed of an even-arm-length Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with a micro-heater embedded in one of the arms. For the sake of discussion, we convert the heating power of the micro-heater into a pure phase shift value independent of the waveguide material and size. By changing the phase shift value, the filter can be switched between comb filter and interleaver. Meanwhile, the insertion loss ( IL ), full width at half maximum ( FWHM ), extinction ratio ( ER ), and the shape of the response spectrum can also be reconfigured. The switchable and flexible comb filter/interleaver may provide a potential application in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical communication systems.

Pyrimethanil is an anilinopyrimidine (AP) fungicide that is highly effective in controlling green mold caused by Penicillium digitatum but has not yet been registered in China to control postharvest diseases of citrus. In this study, baseline sensitivity of P. digitatum to pyrimethanil was established based on the effective concentrations for 50% inhibition (EC50) values of 127 isolates collected from five major citrus-growing regions of China. The distribution of these EC50 values was unimodal but with a long right tail. The mean ± SD EC50 value was 0.137 ± 0.046 μg/ml, and the minimum and maximum were 0.073 and 0.436 μg/ml, respectively. Pyrimethanil in potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 0.20 μg/ml decreased methionine production in the mycelia by 21.6% and reduced the activity of cell wall-degrading enzymes cellulase and pectinase by 9.1 and 32.8%, respectively. Twelve pyrimethanil-resistant mutants were obtained by consecutive subculturing of 12 arbitrarily selected sensitive isolates on pyrimethanil-amended PDA for four generations, and the resistance factors ranged from 69 to 3,421. There was no cross-resistance between pyrimethanil and prochloraz (r = 0.377, P = 0.123). Compared with their parental isolates, pyrimethanil-resistant mutants had reduced pathogenicity to citrus fruit but higher tolerance to hydrogen peroxide. No differences were detected in tolerance to NaCl, CaCl2, Congo red, or sodium dodecyl sulfate. The exogenous addition of methionine into PDA partially alleviated pyrimethanil toxicity to the sensitive isolates but had no significant effect on toxicity to the resistant mutants. Sequencing of cystathionine γ-synthase encoding genes CGS1 and CGS2, the potential target genes for pyrimethanil, showed that there was no nucleotide mutation in the coding region of CGS of the pyrimethanil-resistant mutants. However, the relative expression of CGS1 and CGS2 of the pyrimethanil-resistant mutants was reduced by 42.5 and 57.4%, respectively. These results have important implications for applications of pyrimethanil to control P. digitatum and for understanding the modes of action and resistance mechanisms of pyrimethanil.

A compact, high-performance bending sensor based on fiber microspheres array (FMA) Michelson interferometer (MI) was experimentally proved. The sensor consists of a refractive index modulation region (RIMR) fused by three microspheres, interference arm and end face protection. The RIMR acts as a modal coupling device between core and cladding modes. Due to the different stress for the RIMR in the middle (lowest point) of the stepper motor or the side (high point) during the bending process, the mode field distribution excited to the cladding is inconsistent which shows a discrepancy in sensitivity. The results show that the bending sensitivity at the lowest point is lower than the high point, which is consistent with the theory. Meanwhile, the variable range method is used to realize the repeatability verification of the sensor. Besides, the relative sensitivity (the ratio of wavelength sensitivity to intensity sensitivity) is defined to realize the resolution of strain and bending.

The demethylation inhibitor (DMI) fungicide prochloraz has been widely used in China to control citrus green mold, which is caused by Penicillium digitatum. The 50% effective concentration (EC50) values of prochloraz for 129 isolates of P. digitatum collected in 2017 from citrus groves of four provinces of China ranged from 0.0032 to 0.4582 mg/liter. Analysis of the distribution of natural logarithms of EC50 values indicated that 111 isolates with EC50 values lower than 0.05 mg/liter could be considered sensitive to prochloraz. Relative baseline sensitivity was established based on the 111 sensitive isolates, and the mean EC50 value was 0.0090 ± 0.0054 mg/liter (SD). Prochloraz at 60, 100, and 140 mg/liter provided preventive efficacies of 67.8, 93.0, and 96.4%, respectively. Prochloraz at 0.005 and 0.01 mg/liter disrupted cell membrane integrity of conidia but reduced cell membrane permeability of mycelia. Prochloraz at 0.01 mg/liter reduced ergosterol content in mycelia by 41.8%. Two prochloraz-resistant isolates with EC50 values of 3.97 and 5.68 mg/liter were attained by consecutive subculturing on prochloraz-amended PDA. Studies on the expression levels of three potential target genes, CYP51A, CYP51B, and CYP51C, demonstrated that whether in the absence or presence of prochloraz, only CYP51B in the resistant isolates was overexpressed at least 10-fold higher than that of the sensitive ones. Sequencing of the three genes showed that only CYP51B in the resistant isolates had a 199-bp insertion in the promoter region. In addition, only CYP51B displayed point mutations of G405S, G389C, and Y390S in the coding regions in the resistant isolates. These results were important for understanding the resistance mechanisms of P. digitatum to prochloraz.

Osteoclast (OC) abnormalities represent osteoporosis's critical mechanism (OP). OCs undergo multiple processes that range from monocytic to functional. Different drugs target OCs at different developmental stages; however, almost no Suitable drug-targeted delivery systems exist. Therefore, we designed two dual-targeting nanoparticles to target OCs at different functional stages. Using the calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor (CGRPR), which OC precursors highly express, and specific TRAPpeptides screened in the bone resorption lacuna, where mature OCs function, respectively, two types of dual-targeted nanoparticles were constructed. Afterwards, nanoparticles were grafted with hyaluronic acid (HA), which specifically binds to CD44 on the surface of the OCs.

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) undergoes rapid postnatal development and then protects against cold and obesity into adulthood. However, the molecular mechanism that determines postnatal development and maturation of BAT is largely unknown. Here we show that METTL3 (a key RNA methyltransferase) expression increases significantly in interscapular brown adipose tissue (iBAT) after birth and plays an essential role in the postnatal development and maturation of iBAT. BAT-specific deletion of Mettl3 severely impairs maturation of BAT in vivo by decreasing m6A modification and expression of Prdm16, Pparg, and Ucp1 transcripts, which leads to a marked reduction in BAT-mediated adaptive thermogenesis and promotes high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity and systemic insulin resistance. These data demonstrate that METTL3 is an essential regulator that controls iBAT postnatal development and energy homeostasis., N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is one of the most prevalent mRNA modifications in eukaryotes. Here the authors show that the m6A writer protein methyltransferase-like (METTL) 3 plays an important role for the development of brown adipose tissue.

Hormetic effects of fungicides on phytopathogens are of great importance for proper application of fungicides. The aim of the present study was to investigate the stimulatory effects of the fungicide boscalid on mycelial growth and virulence of the devastating plant pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Boscalid in potato dextrose agar (PDA) at a dosage range from 0.0005 to 0.002 μg/ml exerted statistically significant (P ≤ 0.015) stimulations on mycelial growth of S. sclerotiorum, and the maximum stimulation magnitudes were 5.55 ± 0.73% (mean ± SD) for the four isolates tested. Boscalid in PDA at 0.02 μg/ml inhibited mycelial growth of isolates HLJ3H and HLJ4H by 15.0 and 8.9%, respectively. However, after the growth-inhibited mycelia were inoculated on rapeseed leaves, isolates HLJ3H and HLJ4H exhibited virulence stimulations of 8.7 and 17.8%, respectively, indicating that hormesis may be masked by inhibitions. Boscalid sprayed at 0.0001 to 0.1 μg/ml on detached rapeseed leaves had significant (P ≤ 0.041) stimulations on virulence of S. sclerotiorum, and the maximum stimulation magnitudes were 17.90 ± 5.94% (mean ± SD) for the four isolates tested. Experiments on 12 isolates with different levels of virulence showed there was a negative correlation (R = –0.663, P = 0.019) between the maximum virulence stimulation magnitude and virulence of S. sclerotiorum in the absence of fungicide. Boscalid at stimulatory concentrations had no significant effect on the expression levels of three virulence-associated genes that encode cutinase (SsCut), polygalacturonase (SsPG1), and oxaloacetate acetylhydrolase (SsOah1). The molecular mechanisms for hormetic effects of boscalid on S. sclerotiorum remain to be studied in the future.

A configuration based on a parallel double Fabry–Perot interferometers (FPIs) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated to enhance the temperature sensitivity by Vernier-effect. Two separated FPIs constructed by suspended-core microstructured optical fiber (SCMF) are connected by a 3-dB coupler to form a parallel structure. FPI-2 is used for temperature sensing, while FPI-1 as a reference. With the temperature increasing from 40 °C to 220 °C, both the fine interference fringes and envelope have a linear redshift. This parallel double-FPIs configuration shows an enhanced temperature sensitivity of 153.8 pm/°C with an amplification factor ${M} =14.6$ . Moreover, since the free reference FPI-1 is away from the temperature sensing environment, this simple and novel parallel double-FPIs configuration provides good reversibility and stability during the heating and cooling processes.

Stimulatory effects of low doses of fungicides on the virulence of phytopathogens have profound implications for applications of fungicides. The present study demonstrated that carbendazim sprayed at 0.001 to 0.03 μg/ml had stimulatory effects on the virulence of mycelia of Botrytis cinerea, and the maximum percent stimulations were 15.5 and 21.4% for isolates HB459 and HB536, respectively. Potato dextrose agar (PDA) amended with carbendazim at 0.01, 0.02, and 0.05 μg/ml inhibited mycelial growth of isolate HB536 by 0.8, 10.0, and 30.6%, respectively. However, after the inhibited mycelia were inoculated on cucumber leaves, virulence increased by 10.1, 12.9, and 10.8%, respectively. With respect to sclerotial production, carbendazim at 0.005 and 0.02 μg/ml in PDA significantly (P < 0.05) increased, while at 0.1 μg/ml significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the sclerotial number and weight of both isolates compared with nontreated controls. Conidia germination percentages slightly yet statistically significantly (P < 0.05) increased after being inoculated on PDA amended with carbendazim at 0.001 and 0.005 μg/ml. Carbendazim at 0.001∼0.02 μg/ml, either sprayed on cucumber leaves or cosuspended with conidia, exerted significantly (P < 0.05) stimulatory effects on the virulence of B. cinerea conidia. Mechanism studies showed that sublethal doses of carbendazim did not increase the expression levels of pathogenicity-related pectin methylesterase gene Bcpme1, endopolygalacturonase gene Bcpg2, cutinase gene CutA, xylanase gene Xyn11A, or NADPH oxidase gene BcnoxA.

It is a common practice to add salicylhydroxamic acid (SHAM) into artificial medium in the in vitro sensitivity assay of fungal phytopathogens to the quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) fungicides. The rationale for adding SHAM is to inhibit fungal alternative oxidase, which is presumed to be inhibited by secondary metabolites of plants. Therefore, the ideal characteristics of SHAM should be almost nontoxic to phytopathogens and have no significant effect on control efficacy of fungicides. However, this study showed that the average effective concentration for 50% inhibition (EC50) of mycelial growth values of SHAM were 97.5 and 401.4 μg/ml for Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Botrytis cinerea, respectively. EC50 values of the three QoI fungicides azoxystrobin, kresoxim-methyl, and trifloxystrobin in the presence of SHAM at 20 and 80 μg/ml for S. sclerotiorum and B. cinerea, respectively, declined by 52.7 to 78.1% compared with those without SHAM. For the dicarboximide fungicide dimethachlone, the average EC50 values in the presence of SHAM declined by 18.2% (P = 0.008) for S. sclerotiorum and 35.9% (P = 0.012) for B. cinerea. Pot experiments showed that SHAM increased control efficacy of the three QoI fungicides against the two pathogens by 43 to 83%. For dimethachlone, SHAM increased control efficacy by 134% for S. sclerotiorum and 86% for B. cinerea. Biochemical studies showed that SHAM significantly inhibited peroxidase activity (P = 0.024) of B. cinerea and esterase activity (P = 0.015) of S. sclerotiorum. The strong inhibitions of SHAM per se on mycelial growth of B. cinerea and S. sclerotiorum and significant influences on the sensitivity of the two pathogens to both the QoI fungicides and dimethachlone as well as inhibitions on peroxidase and esterase indicate that SHAM should not be added in the in vitro assay of sensitivity to the QoI fungicides.

Previous studies showed that dimethachlone has significant hormetic effects on phytopathogenic fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. The present study investigated hormetic effects of mixtures of dimethachlone and prochloraz on mycelial growth and virulence of two dimethachlone-resistant isolates of S. sclerotiorum. The stimulatory dimethachlone dosage range was around 1 to 100 μg/ml in potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium for mycelial growth of the two isolates, and dimethachlone at 10 and 50 μg/ml had the maximum percent stimulations of 80.6 and 19.3% for isolates JMS14 and HLJ4, respectively. Prochloraz at 0.0003 and 0.002 μg/ml had the maximum percent stimulations of 9.3 and 11.1% for isolates JMS14 and HLJ4, respectively. However, dimethachlone and prochloraz mixed at their respective stimulatory concentrations had the maximum percent stimulations of 48.1 and 9.3% for isolates JMS14 and HLJ4, respectively. After the mycelia with increased and inhibited growth on fungicide-amended PDA were subcultured on PDA without fungicide, mycelial growth for the second generation increased compared with the nontreated control. After the mycelia grown on fungicide-amended PDA were inoculated on rapeseed leaves, the amplitude of virulence stimulation was much greater than that of mycelial growth on PDA amended with fungicide, and the inhibited mycelia also showed substantially increased virulence on leaves. The mixture of dimethachlone at 100 μg/ml and prochloraz at 0.03 μg/ml in PDA inhibited mycelial growth of isolate JMS14 by 59.4%; however, after the inhibited mycelia were inoculated on rapeseed leaves, virulence was stimulated by 69.0%. Spraying sublethal doses of dimethachlone and prochloraz on rapeseed leaves also exhibited significant stimulatory effects on virulence. For isolate JMS14, the stimulatory concentration ranges for dimethachlone and prochloraz were around 1 to 600 μg/ml and 0.0003 to 0.18 μg/ml, respectively. The fitted curve of virulence stimulation for the mixture of dimethachlone and prochloraz shifted to the left on the x axis, denoting dose-additive interactions between the two fungicides with regard to virulence stimulation. Spraying dimethachlone alone at 10 to 50 μg/ml had significant stimulations on virulence, whereas prochloraz alone at 10 to 50 μg/ml had significant inhibitory effects on virulence, and the mixture of dimethachlone and prochloraz at the concentration ratio of 1:1 had greater inhibitory effects than prochloraz alone, indicating dose-additive interactions for the inhibitory effects. Dimethachlone and prochloraz and their mixtures increased tolerance of mycelia to hydrogen peroxide. Dimethachlone significantly increased, whereas prochloraz reduced mycelial cell membrane permeability, and the mixture of the two fungicides had effect-additive interactions with respect to effects on cell membrane permeability. These studies will advance our understanding of hormesis of fungicide mixtures.

Histidine kinases (HK) are implicated in virulence, vegetative mycelial growth, and osmotic and oxidative responses in pathogenic fungi. Our previous work showed that transcriptional levels of the group III HK gene Sshk are higher in field dimethachlone-resistant isolates of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum compared with sensitive isolates. However, it is not clear whether the overexpression of Sshk is the major mechanism for resistance to dimethachlone. In this study, we constructed Sshk silencing and overexpression vectors and assessed dimethachlone resistance levels, virulence, mycelial growth, and sensitivity to osmotic stress for the Sshk-silenced and -overexpression transformants. Overexpression of Sshk resulted in resistance to dimethachlone and increased sensitivity to various stresses and to the cell-wall-perturbing agents sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and Congo red (CR). Compared with the parent isolate, Sshk-silenced transformants had reduced resistance to dimethachlone, significantly higher (P < 0.05) mycelial growth and virulence, and lower sclerotium production, and were less sensitive to various exogenous stresses such as sodium chloride. Compared with the parent sensitive isolate HLJMG1, dimethachlone resistance ratios of the three overexpression transformants ∆C101, ∆C21, and ∆C10 increased 168.1-, 189.5-, and 221.2-fold, respectively. The three overexpression transformants were more sensitive to CR and SDS than their parent isolate. These findings suggest that overexpression of Sshk is a major mechanism for dimethachlone resistance in some isolates of S. sclerotiorum, and that Sshk plays an important role in maintaining the integrity of the cell wall. Our findings reveal a novel molecular mechanism for dimethachlone resistance in plant-pathogenic fungi.

The succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor (SDHI) fungicide boscalid is an excellent broad-spectrum fungicide but has not been registered in China to control Penicillium digitatum, the causal agent of green mold of citrus. The present study evaluated the risk and molecular mechanisms for boscalid resistance in P. digitatum. Resistance induction with four arbitrarily selected sensitive isolates of P. digitatum by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation on conidia plated on boscalid-amended potato dextrose agar (PDA) and consecutive growing on boscalid-amended PDA produced five highly resistant isolates with EC

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, the causal agent of Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR) of oilseed rape, is a broad-host-range pathogen. The demethylation inhibitor (DMI) fungicide propiconazole was officially approved in China in 2014 for control of this pathogen. In this study, baseline sensitivity of S. sclerotiorum to propiconazole was established. The distribution of the 50% effective concentration (EC50) values was unimodal and fitted a normal distribution, but skewed to the right. The mean EC50 values for isolates collected in 2008 and 2014 were 0.338 ± 0.174 μg/mL (mean ± standard deviation, SD) and 0.315 ± 0.135 μg/mL (mean ± SD), respectively. There was no significant difference (P = 0.375) in EC50 values between 2008 and 2014. There was a significant correlation (P

The ergosterol biosynthesis inhibitor prochloraz is a broad-spectrum fungicide and has been registered in China since 2007 for control of the economically important necrotrophic pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. In this study, relative baseline sensitivity and toxic actions of prochloraz on S. sclerotiorum were investigated. The mean EC50 values (effective concentrations causing 50% mycelial growth inhibition) for isolates collected in 2008 (n = 73) and 2014 (n = 76) were 0.0463 and 0.0434 µg/ml, respectively. There was no significant difference (P = 0.348) in EC50 values between the two years. Both frequency distributions of EC50 values for 2008 and 2014 were unimodal. The curative efficacy of prochloraz was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than that of the reference fungicide carbendazim. Prochloraz in potato dextrose agar (PDA) at concentrations from 0.01 to 0.36 µg/ml had no significant (P = 0.574) effects on the weight of sclerotia, but the number of sclerotia per plate increased for treatments with prochloraz at 0.15 and 0.36 µg/ml. Light microscopic observations showed that prochloraz in PDA at 0.03 µg/ml increased the number of hyphal offshoots. Observations with a transmission electron microscope showed that the cell wall of the prochloraz-treated hyphae became thicker and darker than the nontreated control. Prochloraz at 0.01 and 0.04 µg/ml significantly (P < 0.001) reduced rather than increased cell membrane permeability. Prochloraz significantly (P = 0.041) increased the mannan content in the cell wall of S. sclerotiorum. The observed mycelial growth inhibitions for the mixtures of prochloraz at 0.03 µg/ml and Congo red at a dose range from 0.05 to 0.4% (w/v) were lower than the expected inhibitions, indicating prochloraz might reduce the content of chitin in S. sclerotiorum. These results demonstrate that prochloraz has significant effects on the morphology and components of the cell wall of S. sclerotiorum and thus will advance our understanding of the toxic actions of prochloraz on phytopathogenic fungi.

A refractive index (RI) sensor based on three microspheres array (TMSA) Michelson interferometer (MI) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The sensor was composed of a TMSA which introduces higher-order cladding mode and a section of silica fiber which is used to transmit light. Due to the flatness and cleanliness requirements of Michelson’s Fresnel reflector, a special packaging method by microtubule was used to protect the end face. The coupling efficiency between the core and the cladding of MI is proved by the coupled mode theory. The results show that the greater the effective refractive index difference (ERID) between different modes, the greater the coupling coefficient can be obtained, and the TMSA achieves the improvement in the ERID between modes. The interference arm of the sensor is 2.7cm, and the size of the microsphere is less than 230 μm. It is discussed in further detail that the order of the excited cladding mode is closely related to the sensitivity of the RI sensing. The experimental results show that the sensitivity of the RI is -56.121nm/RIU. The characteristics of TMSA make it suitable for operation in a variable environment without cross-sensitivity, which may open up new avenues for local temperature sensing.

We experimentally demonstrated a scheme for the magnetic field measurement based on an in-line Michelson interferometer (MI) and magnetic fluid (MF). The tip packaged technology of a Michelson interferometer is proposed. The sensor is composed of microspherical structure, single-mode fiber (SMF), hollow-core fiber (HCF), quartz tube, and MF. Since the refractive index of the MF will be changed with the intensity of the magnetic field, the effective refractive index (ERI) of the cladding can be changed, which leads to correlative moves of the reflection spectrum. The magnetic field sensitivity of -118.7 pm/mT is obtained in the magnetic range from 1.36 to 11.8mT. We present a sensing structure, compared with other sensors, that has the advantages of simple, compact, and easy integration. The proposed sensor is expected to offer significant potential for detecting weak magnetic fields.

Fungicide hormesis has implications for the application of fungicides to control plant diseases. We investigated the hormetic effects of the dicarboximide fungicide dimethachlone on mycelial growth and virulence of the necrotrophic plant pathogen

We propose to introduce a phase shift in each ring of the multi-stage interleavers based on add-drop resonator Mach–Zehnder interferometer to quantitatively measure the wavelength offset of each interleaver, thus a demultiplexer with uniformly segmented multi-channel output can be obtained. It is found that the additional phase of a certain interleaver is equal to the offset value of this stage plus the accumulated offset value of all previous stages. Following this rule, the quantitative cascade rule can be summarized, and theoretically an infinite-channel demultiplexer will be obtained. Combining fine-tuning and thermal tuning machining method, this cascade rule can guide the fabrication of stable and tunable demultiplexers in the integrated silicon photonics technology. Our method will provide a potential application for the fabrication of dense wavelength-division multiplexing systems with ultra-large capacity.

Pyrimethanil is an anilinopyrimidine (AP) fungicide that is highly effective in controlling green mold caused by

Hormetic effects of fungicides on phytopathogens are of great importance for proper application of fungicides. The aim of the present study was to investigate the stimulatory effects of the fungicide boscalid on mycelial growth and virulence of the devastating plant pathogen

We propose a method of magnetic-field tuning whispering gallery modes (WGMs) based on a hollow microbubble resonator (HMBR) with Terfenol-D-fixed. WGMs are excited by the evanescent field from a tapered fiber coupling with an HMBR. Both ends of the HMBR are fixed with Terfenol-D and vary with different lengths of the Terfenol-D. The length of the Terfenol-D varies with the external magnetic field for the high magnetostriction coefficient of Terfenol-D. The magnetic field sensitivity of 0.081 pm/mT in the magnetic field range of 0.14 mT–21.8 mT is achieved. The $Q$Q-factor of the HMBR can be regulated up to ${2.07} \times {{10}^4}$2.07×104 with physical stretching HMBR. This work provides a novel tuning whispering gallery mode scheme and a broad application prospect in the fields of optical measurement and precise optical clocks in the future.

The titanium resources in Panxi reign, China, have a high-impurities content of Ca and Mg, which is usually processed by the molten salt chlorination process. This process allows higher Ca and Mg content in its furnace burdens. However, there is a huge amount of molten salt chlorinated slag produced by this process, consisting of complex compounds and waste NaCl/KCl salts. These slags are always stockpiled without efficient utilization, causing serious environmental pollutions. To recycle the NaCl in the slag back to the molten salt chlorination process, a novel process to deal with those molten salt chlorinated slags with phase conversion at high temperature is presented in this paper. The calcium-containing solid phase was generated when Na2SiO3 was added to the molten salt chlorinated slags at high temperature, while NaCl was kept as a liquid. Thus, liquid NaCl was easily separated from the calcium-containing solid phase, and it could be reused in the molten salt chlorination process. The conversion of calcium-containing phases and their separation of NaCl are the key parts of this work, and they have been systematically studied in this paper; thermodynamic analysis, phase transformation behavior, and calcium removal behavior have all been investigated. The calcium removal rate is 78.69% when the molar ratio of CaCl2:Na2SiO3 is 1:1.5 at 1173 K and N2 atmosphere.

The controlled release of pesticides based on nanoparticle platforms has emerged as a new technology for increasing the efficiency of pesticides and for reducing environmental pollution because of their size-dependent and target-modifying properties. In the present study, pH/cellulase dual stimuli-responsive controlled-release formulations (PYR-HMS-HPC) were designed by grafting hydroxypropyl cellulose onto pyraclostrobin-loaded hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles via an ester linkage. The PYR-HMS-HPC formulations were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analyzer, transmission electron microscope and scanning electron microscope. The results demonstrated that PYR-HMS-HPC with a loading capacity of 12.1 wt% showed excellent pyraclostrobin release behaviors in response to acidic environments and the introduction of cellulase, could effectively prevented pyraclostrobin from photolysis. Compared with commercial pyraclostrobin formulations, the PYR-HMS-HPC formulations showed much stronger and statistically significant fungicidal activity against Magnaporthe oryzae from 7 to 21 days. Furthermore, the Allium cepa chromosome aberration assay demonstrated that the PYR-HMS-HPC formulations reduced the genotoxicity of pyraclostrobin. These pH/cellulase dual stimuli-responsive controlled-release formulations are of great interest for sustainable on-demand crop disease protection.

A mechanical strain tuning of whispering gallery mode (WGM) in a hollow-peanut-shaped optical microresonator (HPSOM) is demonstrated. The HPSOM is fabricated by fusion splicing two hollow bubbles. The central resonator is formed by the solid structure in the middle, and the near end (far end) resonator is formed by the hollow structure on both sides. The hollow microresonator can improve the strain response-ability compared with the solid micro resonant. The resonator structure and strain response characteristics of the HPSOM are researched theoretically and experimentally researched. It is worth noting that due to the elliptical effect of the central resonator during the manufacturing process, the central resonator cannot confine the light field to the equator and form the WGM. In the coupled spectrum, the WGMs of bilateral HPSOM with low Q-mode are easier to distinguish and monitor. Therefore, a low Q-mode is selected for strain measurement. The testing highest sensitivity is 6.96 pm/μɛ in the strain range 0–25 μɛ. Relative to the large-strain dynamic testing, low-strain testing has broad application prospects in geotechnical engineering testing, structural testing, and engineering geophysical prospecting. Being of general interest, our findings pave the way for improved perception of strain.

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a necrotrophic fungal plant pathogen with a broad host range. The dicarboximide fungicide dimethachlone has been used to control this pathogen for more than a decade and resistance to dimethachlone has recently been reported in China. Compared with sensitive isolates, the three dimethachlone resistant isolates with resistance ratios of 78.3, 85.5, and 94.8 exhibited significantly (P0.05) higher cell membrane permeability and peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase activities. Dimethachlone at 0.25μg/mL significantly increased cell membrane permeability and enhanced activity of the two enzymes in both resistant and sensitive isolates. There were no significant differences in glycerol or oxalate content between the resistant and sensitive isolates. Dimethachlone treatment increased glycerol content in the resistant isolates and reduced in the sensitive isolates (P0.01). Sequencing of three genes involved in two-component signal pathway and of three genes in mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase cascade demonstrated that the dimethachlone resistant isolates HLJ4 and HLJ6 harbored point mutations of I232T and G1087D, respectively, in the deduce amino acid sequence of the histidine kinase (HK) gene Sshk. HLJ4 had a point mutation of P96L in the deduced amino acid sequence of the MAP kinase-kinase gene SsPbs. The expression levels of the Sshk gene were higher in HLJ4 and HLJ6 than in HLJ3 and the sensitive isolate HLJMG2, and transcription of the Sshk gene was up-regulated by dimethachlone for the three resistant isolates.

Stimulatory effects of low doses of fungicides on the virulence of phytopathogens have profound implications for applications of fungicides. The present study demonstrated that carbendazim sprayed at 0.001 to 0.03 μg/ml had stimulatory effects on the virulence of mycelia of