Search

Tomato gray mold, caused by Botrytis cinerea, is one of the most devastating diseases affecting tomato plants. In this study, Pantoea jilinensis D25 fermentation broth (PJFB) was used to inhibit B. cinerea growth. The optimum fermentation time was 7 days. PJFB antifungal activity decreased when PJFB was heated to ≥60°C, whereas it was the strongest at pH 8. Moreover, ultraviolet treatment for a long time reduced its antifungal effect. PJFB, applied at 10 % (v/v), could inhibit B. cinerea growth by inhibiting its mycelial diameter, conidial production, and mycelial dry weight with the inhibition rates of 57.3 %, 51.2 %, and 78.6 %, respectively. PJFB could also increase conductivity and malondialdehyde (MDA) content in B. cinerea. Furthermore, PJFB inhibited B. cinerea on not only the leaf tissues but also the seedlings of tomato. The secondary metabolites in PJFB were determined through gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Through laboratory toxicity analysis, we found that the major compounds in PJFB were 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid bis(2-methylpropyl) ester (14.3098 %), 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol (3.8036 %), 2,6,10,14-tetramethyl pentadecane (2.9947 %), and 1,3-dimethyl naphthalene (1.8586 %).

RNA therapeutics have the potential to resolve a myriad of diseases caused by gene deficiency. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are one of the most successful RNA delivery systems. However, expanding their application hinges on the discovery of next generation LNPs with high potency, cyto-specific targeting, and low side effects. Overcoming the difficulty of releasing cargo from endocytosed LNPs remains a significant hurdle. The endosomal escape of viral and non-viral nanoparticles relies on the topological transformation of membrane fusion pore formation followed by RNA translocation into the cytosol. In this study we show that LNP-RNA nanostructure modulates the energetic cost of LNP fusion with a target membrane. The inclusion of a new class of structurally-active lipids leads to superior LNP endosomal fusion, fast evasion of endosomal entrapment, and efficacious RNA delivery. Specifically, bicontinuous cubic RNA-LNPs, cuboplexes, have significantly higher endosomal escape rates and deliver more RNA compared to regular lamellar LNPs.

In this paper the mechanical properties of mudstone with different immersion durations (e.g., immersion in water for 0, 7 and 14 days), at different temperatures (20, 35 and 50 °C) and in different confining pressures (0.6 and 1.2 MPa) were investigated using uniaxial compression tests, conventional triaxial compression tests and scanning electron microscopy. The test results indicate that in the temperature range from 20 °C to 50 °C the water content can significantly reduce the mechanical parameters, including the strength and elastic modulus of the mudstone samples. In contrast, the Poisson ratio of the mudstone samples increases with the increase in the water content. In addition, there is little difference between the effects of an immersion time of 7 days and 14 days on the mudstone samples, indicating that the confining pressure plays a protective role on the mudstone samples.

Over the past decade, we have witnessed an enormous amount of research effort dedicated to the design of efficient outlier detection techniques while taking into consideration efficiency, accuracy, high-dimensional data, and distributed environments, among other factors. In this article, we present and examine these characteristics, current solutions, as well as open challenges and future research directions in identifying new outlier detection strategies. We propose a taxonomy of the recently designed outlier detection strategies while underlying their fundamental characteristics and properties. We also introduce several newly trending outlier detection methods designed for high-dimensional data, data streams, big data, and minimally labeled data. Last, we review their advantages and limitations and then discuss future and new challenging issues.

With PEG-like properties, such as hydrophilicity and stealth effect against protein absorption, oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG)-functionalized polypeptides have emerged as a new class of biomaterials alternative to PEG with polypeptide-like properties. Synthesis of this class of materials, however, has been demonstrated very challenging, as the synthesis and purification of OEG-functionalized N-carboxyanhydrides (OEG-NCAs) in high purity, which is critical for the success in polymerization, is tedious and often results in low yield. OEG-functionalized polypeptides are therefore only accessible to a few limited labs with expertise in this specialized NCA chemistry and materials. Here, we report the controlled synthesis of OEG-functionalized polypeptides in high yield directly from the OEG-functionalized amino acids via easy and reproducible polymerization of non-purified OEG-NCAs. The prepared amphiphilic block copolypeptides can self-assemble into narrowly dispersed nanoparticles in water, which show properties suitable for drug delivery applications.

Linking users as private partners of utility tunnel public–private partnership (PPP) projects means treating users as internal core stakeholders in the designing, building, and operating phases, which is beneficial for precisely determining user needs, enhancing operational efficiency, and reducing user opposition. However, tunnel PPP projects are quasi-commercial projects, and users are not motivated to become linked. A reasonable incentive mechanism must thus be set up based on a systematic analysis of usersꞌ behaviors and incentive measures. Users of tunnel PPP projects were categorized as high- and low-cost users according to the difference in their traditional direct-buried costs. An evolutionary game model was established incrementally to investigate the incentive factors and their priority affecting the willingness and degree of users to be linked in tunnel PPP projects. The theoretical model was verified with a real Chinese tunnel PPP project, which suggested that the optimized scheme under the incentive mechanism is more efficient than the original solution. The research results indicate that the main factors influencing usersꞌ willingness and degree of being linked are the government subsidy rate, price discount rate, probability of enjoying a price discount, capital proportion, capital appreciation rate, and synergistic operational rate.

The unfrozen water content is a result of soil freezing, and its variation is closely related to temperature. To study the change in unfrozen water content, a relationship between water pr...

Objective To study the effect of deletion of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) gene on insulin resistance and polarization of macrophages in mice. Methods The wild-type (WT) and TLR2 knockout (TLR2

Botrytis cinerea is the causative agent of a common and serious disease, gray mold of tomato, which can infect the flower, fruit, leaf, and stem tissues. The occurrence of gray mold account for dramatic decrease of tomato yield, threatening the food security, with rarely effective biocontrol approach. In this study, we isolated 56 bacterial strains from tomato rhizosphere, with 7 strains among which had great control effect against B. cinerea. Among the 7 identified strains, Pantoea jilinensis D25 which had the strongest inhibitory effect, was a new strain. Further we found that P. jilinensis D25 can inhibit the mycelial growth and spore production of B. cinerea, with alterations of the mycelial morphology of B. cinerea. The highest growth inhibition (83.1%) of B. cinerea occurred upon the exposure to a concentration of 5.0×105 cfu/mL of P. jilinensis D25, at pH 6 and 25 °C. The inhibitory effect against B. cinerea by P. jilinensis D25 was further validated with inoculation assay on tomato leaf tissues and tomato seedlings. The results demonstrated that P. jilinensis D25 strain from soils of tomato growing areas is a new and effective biocontrol agent against notorious tomato gray mold disease.

In light of the rapid development of underground spaces in China and the intense demands of professionals for underground space, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China has permitted the offering of the urban underground space engineering professional degree program in universities since 2001. This professional degree has now been established in more than 80 universities across China. In this study, the authors have analyzed and discussed the background, history, disciplinary source, learning goals, curricula, and core courses of this profession in great depth. The authors hope that our findings shall contribute to the advancement and development of global efforts to train professionals in urban underground space engineering, promote the development of this profession, and improve the quality of professional cultivation efforts in this field, which in turn drives the scientific development and utilization of underground spaces.

In order to improve the teaching of the course of statistical physics in universities, in this article we introduce nonextensive statistics, a new statistical theory about complex systems. We study the two modification coefficients a and b in the van der Waals' equation in nonextensive statistics and thus understand the possible relation between the van der Waals' equation and the nonextensivity. We express these coefficients when a real gas is regarded as the nonextensive gas and then relate them to the q-parameter in nonextensive statistics. Furthermore, we derive the q-parameter of a real gas, which contain the intermolecular Lennard-Jones potential, but also strongly depend on the state parameter and molecular number of the gas. From the new statistical physics, we show that the nonextensivity plays a significant role in the coefficients of the van der Waals' equation if the gas contains limited number of molecules or the gas is regarded as a few-body system. This article is suitable to read for senior undergraduate students, graduate students and teachers who teach the course of statistical physics in universities., Comment: 7 pages, 34 references

File transfer is a critical component in the application of cloud computing, moreover, efficient and flexible file transfer with reliability has an important role in guaranteeing a good quality of service for users. Thus this paper brings forward a creative thinking of a novel structure for adaptive file transfer based on strategies and multiprotocol, and proposes the idea of guaranteeing the quality of service for each file transfer by ensuring the quality of service of network under suitable level, and on those bases, the algorithm for adaptive file transfer, or the AFTA, is proposed. Experiments indicate that the algorithm based on the policy library, knowledge library, info library and quality of service of the network can transfer a file with more efficiency, flexibility and reliability according to file's attributes and other facts.

According to the realistic difficulty of the quality test of karst roadbed of the highspeed railway, based on the field typical geological section, it has built the indoor model of stenopeic limestone and carried out series analysis of resistivity sounding test data on multiple sections before and after grouting, and also compared it with the real diffusion area in the model. It dedicates that after the cement flow injection, apparent resistivity has decreased obviously than before grouting. When the decreased extent is equal to or above 15% after grouting, its effect is good. The rational test time is 7 days after grouting. However the field test basically verifies the model test's results, it is significantly controlled by underground water level, and this would cause partial fault judgments.