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Silicon-containing polyester from tetramethoxysilane, ethylene glycol, and o-Phthalic anhydride were used as encapsulating materials for silicon nano powders (SiNP) via electrospinning, with Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as spinning additives. In the correct quantities, SiNP could be well encapsulated in nano fibers (200–400 nm) using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The encapsulating materials were then carbonized to a Si-O-C material at 755 °C (Si@C-SiNF-5 and Si@C-SiNF-10, with different SiNP content). Fiber structure and SiNP crystalline structure were reserved even after high-temperature treatment, as SEM and X-ray diffraction (XRD) verified. When used as lithium ion battery (LIB) anode materials, the cycling stability of SiNPs increased after encapsulation. The capacity of SiNPs decreased to ~10 mAh/g within 30 cycles, while those from Si@C-SiNF-5 and Si@C-SiNF-10 remained over 500 mAh/g at the 30th cycle. We also found that adequate SiNP content is necessary for good encapsulation and better cycling stability. In the anode from Si@C-SiNF-10 in which SiNPs were not well encapsulated, fibers were broken and pulverized as SEM confirmed; thus, its cycling stability is poorer than that from Si@C-SiNF-5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetohydrodynamics are widely used in medicine and biotechnology, such as drug targeting, molecular biology, cell isolation and purification. In this paper, we prove the existence of a global strong solution to the one-dimensional compressible magnetohydrodynamics system with temperature-dependent heat conductivity in unbounded domains and a large initial value by the Lagrangian symmetry transformation, when the viscosity μ is constant and the heat conductivity κ , which depends on the temperature, satisfies κ = κ ¯ θ b (b > 1) . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved spectral reflectance estimation method was developed to transform captured RGB images to spectral reflectance. The novelty of our method is an iteratively reweighted regulated model that combines polynomial expansion signals, which was developed for spectral reflectance estimation, and a cross-polarized imaging system, which is used to eliminate glare and specular highlights. Two RGB images are captured under two illumination conditions. The method was tested using ColorChecker charts. The results demonstrate that the proposed method could make a significant improvement of the accuracy in both spectral and colorimetric: it can achieve 23.8% improved accuracy in mean CIEDE2000 color difference, while it achieves 24.6% improved accuracy in RMS error compared with classic regularized least squares (RLS) method. The proposed method is sufficiently accurate in predicting the spectral properties and their performance within an acceptable range, i.e., typical customer tolerance of less than 3 DE units in the graphic arts industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as citrus greening, is the most notorious citrus disease worldwide. Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CaLas) is a phloem-restricted bacterium associated with HLB. Because there is no mutant library available, the pathogenesis of CaLas is obscure. In this study, we employed tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) to express two mature secretion proteins CLIBASIA_03915 (m03915) and CLIBASIA_04250 (m04250) in Nicotiana benthamiana (N. benthamiana). Phloem necrosis was observed in the senescent leaves of N. benthamiana that expressed the two low molecular weight proteins, while no phloem necrosis was observed in the plants that expressed the control, green fluorescent protein (GFP). Additionally, no phloem necrosis was observed in the senescent leaves of N. benthamiana that expressed the null mutation of m03915 and frameshifting m04250. The subcellular localizations of m03915 and m04250 were determined by fusion with GFP using confocal microscopy. The subcellular localization of m03915 was found to be as free GFP without a nuclear localization sequence (NLS). However, m04250 did have an NLS. Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) was carried out to probe the citrus proteins interacting with m03915 and m04250. Six citrus proteins were found to interact with m03915. The identified proteins were involved in the metabolism of compounds, transcription, response to abiotic stress, ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation, etc. The prey of m04250 was involved in the processing of specific pre-mRNAs. Identification of new virulence factors of CaLas will give insight into the pathogenesis of CaLas, and therefore, it will eventually help develop the HLB-resistant citrus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]