In October 2003, a new bacterial disease with symptoms similar to those caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. poinsettiicola was observed on poinsettia leaves at a flower nursery in Zhejiang Province of China. Three Xanthomonas strains were isolated from infected plants and classified as X. axonopodis. They were differentiated from the pathotype strain LMG849 of X. axonopodis pv. poinsettiicola causing bacterial leaf spot of poinsettia by comparison of pathogenicity, substrate utilization and BOX-PCR genomic fingerprints.

Confocal laser scanning microscopy was used to observe the spatio-temporal expression of the pathway-specific gene redD during S. coelicolor cell cultivation. The corresponding mutant S. coelicolor lyqRY1522 carrying redD::eyfp in the chromosome

Mutation (substitution, deletion, insertion, etc.) in nucleotide acid causes the maximal sequence lengths of exact match (MALE) between paralogous members from a duplicate event to become shorter during evolution. In this work, MALE changes betw

An approach was established using RP-HPLC (reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography) to identify ten species of Rhodiola, R. coccinea A. Bor, R. junggarica C.Y. Yang et N.R. Cui spn., R. heterodonta A. Bor, R. linearifolia A. Bor, R

The ?°Huang gua?± melons were measured for their physical properties including firmness and static elastic modulus. The vibrational characteristics of fruits and vegetables are governed by their elastic modulus (firmness), mass, and geometry. Ther

Four rhizobacteria selected out of over 500 isolates from rhizosphere of the vegetables in China were further studied for suppression of the root-knot nematode and soil-borne fungal pathogens in laboratory and greenhouse in Belgium. They were id

The characteristics of fruit ripening and expression of ripening-related genes were investigated in epi, an ethylene overproduction mutant of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). The epi produces apparently more ethylene than its wild type VF

Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides have been shown to have antihypertensive effects and have been utilized for physiologically functional foods and pharmaceuticals. The ACE inhibitory ability of a hydrolysate is determined by its peptide composition. However, the peptide composition of a hydrolysate depends on proteolytic enzyme and the hydrolysis conditions. In this study, the effect of process conditions on the ACE inhibitory activity of rice dregs hydrolyzed with a trypsin was investigated systematically using response surface methodology. It was shown that the ACE inhibitory activity of rice dregs hydrolysates could be controlled by regulation of five process conditions. Hydrolysis conditions for optimal ACE inhibition were defined using the response surface model of fractional factorial design (FFD), steepest ascent design, and central composite design (CCD).

A derivative ratio spectrophotometric method was used for the simultaneous determination of |?-carotene and astaxanthin produced from Phaffia rhodozyma. Absorbencies of a series of the standard carotenoids in the range of 441 nm to 490 nm demonst

The natural ventilation widely used in greenhouses has advantages of saving energy and reducing expense. In order to provide information for climate control of greenhouse, a model was developed to predict the variation of air temperature in the

It has long been thought that bioprocess, with their inherent measurement difficulties and complex dynamics, posed almost insurmountable problems to engineers. A novel software sensor is proposed to make more effective use of those measurements

An automatic system for marine meiobenthos separation was developed by using laser-induced fluorescence technology. Rose Bengal was used as organism dye and the spectrums of Rose Bengal were measured. Laser-induced fluorescence system was established to detect marine meiobenthos in sediments. Data obtained from experiments were analyzed by using a mathematical model. The results showed that laser-induced fluorescence technology worked well in the system. The system could select the meiobenthos efficiently and precisely.

The effectiveness of vitamin C in treating Cr(VI)-contaminated water is being evaluated. Cr(VI) is an identified pollutant of some soils and groundwater. Vitamin C, an important biological reductant in humans and animals, can be used to transform Cr(VI) to essentially nontoxic Cr(III). The removal efficiency was 89% when the mass concentration of vitamin C was 80 mg/L in 60 min, and nearly 100% Cr(VI) was removed when the mass concentration was 100 mg/L. Our data demonstrated that the removal efficiency was affected by vitamin C concentration, the reaction temperature and the dissolved oxygen concentration. The reaction mechanism of Cr(VI) by vitamin C was presented. Our study opens the way to use vitamin C to remediate Cr(VI)-contaminated soils and groundwater.

A new configuration integrated ion exchange effect system with both electro-migration and electrochemical reaction in a single cell was developed to effectively retrieve metal ions from simulated wastewater using ion exchange resins without additive chemicals. By simply assembling cation exchange resins and anion exchange resins separated by homogeneous membranes, we found that the system will always be acidic in the concentrate compartment so that ion exchange resins could be in-situ regenerated without hydroxide precipitation. Such a realizable design will be really suitable for wastewater purification.

Elsholtzia argyi and Elsholtzia splendens, which are Chinese endemic Pb/Zn mined and Cu mined ecotype respectively, were investigated in the aspect of their response to Pb toxicity in the presence or absence of EDTA addition. After 8 d?ˉs Pb trea

Study on the effects of sonolysis, ozonolysis and US/O3 system on the decomposition of p-chlorophenol in aqueous solutions indicated that in the cases of US/O3 system, individual ozonolysis and sonolysis, the decomposition rate of p-chlorophenol reached 78.78%, 56.20%, 2.79% after a 16-min reaction while its CODcr (chemical oxygen demand) removal rate was 97.02%, 62.17%, 3.67% after a 120-min reaction. The decomposition reaction of p-chlorophenol follows pseudo-first-order kinetics. The enhancement factors of p-chlorophenol and its CODcr under US/O3 system reached 63% and 237% respectively. The main intermediates during the decomposition include catechol, hydroquinone, p-benzoquinone, phenol, fumaric acid, maleic acid, oxalic acid and formic acid. The decomposition mechanism of p-chlorophenol was also discussed.

A self-made anaerobic bio-filter bed which was inoculated with special sludge showed high efficiency in removing hexavalent chromium. When pump flow was 47 ml/min and CODCr of wastewater was about 140 mg/L, it took 4 h to decrease the Cr6+ concentrations from about 60 mg/L to under 0.5 mg/L, compared with 14 h without carbon source addition. Cr6+ concentrations ranged from 64.66 mg/L to 75.53 mg/L, the system efficiency was excellent. When Cr6+ concentration reached 95.47 mg/L, the treatment time was prolonged to 7.5 h. Compared with the contrast system, the system with trace metals showed clear superiority in that the Cr6+ removal rate increased by 21.26%. Some analyses also showed that hexavalent chromium could probably be bio-reduced to trivalent chromium, and that as a result, the chrome hydroxide sediment was formed on the surface of microorganisms.

Appropriate addition of CuO/V2O5 and the reduction of the granularity of the raw materials particle decrease the sintering temperature of NiZn ferrite from 1200 ??C to 930 ??C. Furthermore, the magnetic properties of the NiZn ferrite prepared at low temperature of 930 ??C is superior to that of the NiZn ferrite prepared by sintering at high temperature of 1200 ??C because the microstructure of the NiZn ferrite sintered at 930 ??C is more uniform and compact than that of the NiZn ferrite sintered at 1200 ??C. The high permeability of 1700 and relative loss coefficient tan|?/|ìi of 9.0?á10−6 at 100 kHz was achieved in the (Ni0.17Zn0.63Cu0.20)Fe1.915O4 ferrite.

The geometries of azobenzene compounds are optimized with B3LYP/6-311G* method, and analyzed with nature bond orbital, then their visible absorption maxima are calculated with TD-DFT method and ZINDO/S method respectively. The results agree well

The interaction in two mixtures of a nonionic surfactant AEO9 (C12H25O(CH2CH2O)9H) and different ionic surfactants was investigated. The two mixtures were AEO9/sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and AEO9/cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) at molar

Study of geometries of 16 possible isomers for C76N2 based on C78(C2v) by intermediate neglect of differential overlap (INDO) series of methods indicated that the most stable geometry 25,78-C76N2 where two nitrogen atoms substitute two apexes C(25) and C(78) near the shortest X axis and Y axis formed by two hexagons and a pentagon. Electronic structures and spectra of C76N2 were investigated. The reason for the red-shift for absorptions of C76N2 compared with that of C78(C2v) is discussed.

The quantum chemical method is employed to study the modified asymmetric allylation of benzaldehyde controlled by diisopropyl D-(-)-tartrate auxiliary. All the structures are optimized completely at the B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) level. The (R)-secondary alcohol can be achieved mainly through a six-membered ring chair-like transition state structure. From the relative reaction rates theory the main product configuration predicted is in agreement with the experiment result.

RNA methyltransferase is responsible for transferring methyl and resulting in methylation on the bases or ribose ring of RNA, which existed widely but mostly remains an open question. A recombinant protein PH1948 predicting RNA methyltransferase from Pyrococcus horikoshii OT3 has been crystallized. The crystals of selenomethionyl PH1948 belong to space group C2, with unit-cell parameters a=207.0 Å, b=43.1 Å, c=118.2 Å, β=92.1°, and diffract X-rays to 2.2 Å resolution. The V_M value was determined to be 2.8 ų/Da, indicating the presence of four protein molecules in the asymmetric unit.

The entomopathogenic bacterium, Xenorhabdus nematophila was isolated from the hemolymph of Galleria mellonella infected with Steinernema carpocapsae. The bacterial cells and its metabolic secretions have been found lethal to the Galleria larvae. Toxic secretion in broth caused 95% mortality within 4 d of application whereas the bacterial cells caused 93% mortality after 6 d. When filter and sand substrates were compared, the later one was observed as appropriate. Similarly, bacterial cells and secretion in broth were more effective at 14% moisture and 25 °C temperature treatments. Maximum insect mortality (100%) was observed when bacterial concentration of 4×10⁶ cells/ml was used. Similarly, maximum bacterial cells in broth (95%) were penetrated into the insect body within 2 h of their application. However, when stored bacterial toxic secretion was applied to the insects its efficacy declined. On the other hand, when the same toxic secretion was dried and then dissolved either in broth or water was proved to be effective. The present study showed that the bacterium, X. nematophila or its toxic secretion can be used as an important component of integrated pest management against Galleria.

Least squares support vector machines (LS-SVMs), a nonlinear kemel based machine was introduced to investigate the prospects of application of this approach in modelling water vapor and carbon dioxide fluxes above a summer maize field using the dataset obtained in the North China Plain with eddy covariance technique. The performances of the LS-SVMs were compared to the corresponding models obtained with radial basis function (RBF) neural networks. The results indicated the trained LS-SVMs with a radial basis function kernel had satisfactory performance in modelling surface fluxes; its excellent approximation and generalization property shed new light on the study on complex processes in ecosystem.

This paper describes measurement of vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data of methyldichlorosilane-methyltrichlorosilane-dimethyldichlorosilane system and that of the three binary systems at 101.325 kPa with a new pump-ebulliometer. The equilibrium composition of the vapor phase was calculated from pTx by indirect method. The model parameters of the liquid activity coefficient of the Wilson, NRTL, Margules and van Laar equations was corrected by the least square method. The ternary system VLE data were predicted by the Wilson equation, with the calculated boiling points showing good agreement with the experimental data.

Chlorophenols are typical priority pollutants listed by USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). The removal of chlorophenol could be carried out by a combination of electrochemical reduction and oxidation method. Results showed that it was feasible to degrade contaminants containing chlorine atoms by electrochemical reduction to form phenol, which was further degraded on the anode by electrochemical oxidation. Chlorophenol removal rate was more than 90% by the combined electrochemical reduction and oxidation at current of 6 mA and pH 6. The hydrogen atom is a powerful reducing agent that reductively dechlorinates chlorophenols. The instantaneous current efficiency was calculated and the results indicated that cathodic reduction was the main contributor to the degradation of chlorophenol.

Catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of o-chlorophenol in wastewater was studied in a stainless steel autoclave using four different Fe catalysts in the temperature range of 100–200 °C. Experimental results showed that high rate of o-chlorophenol and COD_Cr (Chemical Oxygen Demand, mg/L) removal by CWAO was obtained at relatively low temperature and pressure. The catalysts Fe₂(SO₄)₃, FeSO₄, Fe₂O₃ and FeCl₃ all exhibited high catalytic activity. More than 93.7% of the initial COD_Cr and nearly 100% of o-chlorophenol were removed at 150 °C after 150 min with FeSO₄ as catalyst. The CWAO of o-chlorophenol was found to be pseudo-first order reaction with respect to o-chlorophenol, with activation energy of 75.56 kJ/mol in the temperature range of 100–175 °C.

A naphtha catalytic reforming unit with four reactors in series is analyzed. A physical model is proposed to describe the catalytic reforming radial flow reactor. Kinetics and thermodynamics equations are selected to describe the naphtha catalytic reforming reactions characteristics based on idealizing the complex naphtha mixture by representing the paraffin, naphthene, and aromatic groups by single compounds. The simulation results based above models agree very well with actual operation unit data.