ZSM-5/SBA-15 versus Al-SBA-15 as supports for the hydrocracking/hydroisomerization of alkanes

[EN] Al-SBA-15 and ZSM-5/SBA-15 (ZSC) composite were synthesized following hydrothermal procedures in the presence of triblock copolymer Poly(ethylene glycol)- poly(propylene glycol)-poly(ethylene glycol) (Pluronic P123) and a mixture of tetrapropylammonium bromide (TPABr)/Pluronic P123 templates, respectively. Pt (0.5 wt.%)/Al-SBA-15 and ZSC bifunctional catalysts were then prepared by a wet impregnation methodology and investigated in the hydrocracking/hydroisomerization of n-decane. Pt/ZSC, containing a trimodal porous texture and high Bronsted acidity, exhibited hydrocracking activity while Pt/Al-SBA-15, showing merely Lewis acidity, was active for hydroisomerization. At 300 degrees C the conversion of n-decane on Pt/ZSC reached 98% and cracking selectivity was about 99%. Both catalysts were exhaustively characterized.This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under grant number 104.05-2014.21. CM aknowledges financial support by the Spanish Government-MINECO through "Severo Ochoa" (SEV 2012-0267) and CTQ2015-70126-R.Huyen, PT.; Nam, LTH.; Vinh, TQ.; Martínez, C.; Parvulescu, VI. (2018). ZSM-5/SBA-15 versus Al-SBA-15 as supports for the hydrocracking/hydroisomerization of alkanes. Catalysis Today. 306:121-127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cattod.2017.03.040S12112730

New species of cylindrocladiella from plantation soils in South-East Asia

Cylindrocladiella spp. are widely distributed especially in tropical and sub-tropical regions, where they are mainly known as saprobes although some species are plant pathogens. Very little is known about these fungi in South-East Asia. The aim of this study was to identify a collection of Cylindrocladiella isolates from soils collected in forest nurseries and plantations in Vietnam and Malaysia. This was achieved using DNA sequence comparisons and morphological observations. The study revealed two previously described species, Cy. lageniformis and Cy. peruviana as well as five novel taxa, described here as Cy. arbusta sp. nov., Cy. malesiana sp. nov., Cy. obpyriformis sp. nov., Cy. parvispora sp. nov. and Cy. solicola sp. nov. A relatively small collection of isolates from a limited geographic sampling revealed an unexpectedly high level of Cylindrocladiella diversity suggesting that many more species in this genus await discovery in South-East Asia.The Tree Protection and Cooperation Programme (TPCP) and the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB), South Africa.https://mycokeys.pensoft.netForestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI

Soil-borne Calonectria (Hypocreales, Nectriaceae) associated with Eucalyptus plantations in Colombia

Eucalyptus spp. are widely planted in Colombia as an important component of a growing paper and pulp industry. Leaf and shoot blight caused by Calonectria spp. was one of the first disease problems to emerge in these plantations. A survey of Eucalyptus plantations in four forestry regions of Colombia during 2016 resulted in a large number of Calonectria isolates from soil samples collected in the understories of trees having symptoms of Calonectria leaf and shoot blight. The aim of this study was to identify and resolve the phylogenetic relationships for these isolates using DNA sequence comparisons of six gene regions as well as morphological characters. From a collection of 107 isolates, seven Calonectria species residing in three species complexes were identified. Two of these represented undescribed species, namely C. exiguispora sp. nov. and C. guahibo sp. nov. Calonectria parvispora and C. spathulata were the most commonly isolated species, each of which accounted for approximately 30% of the isolates. The results suggest that Colombia has a wide diversity of Calonectria spp. and that these could challenge Eucalyptus plantation forestry in the future.The DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Plant Health Biotechnology (CPHB), South Africa.https://mycokeys.pensoft.netam2023BiochemistryForestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)GeneticsMicrobiology and Plant PathologyPlant Production and Soil Scienc

Characterisation of the mating-type loci in species of Elsinoe causing scab diseases

DATA AVAILABILITY : The genome sequence of Elsinoe necatrix (CMW 56129) has been deposited in DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under the accession number JANZYI000000000. Annotations of the MAT1 locus of all genomes used in this study (GenBank format) were deposited in Figshare (10.6084/m9.figshare.23925177).The genus Elsinoe includes many aggressive plant pathogens that infect various economically important agricultural, horticultural and forestry plants. Significant diseases include citrus scab caused by E. fawcettii and E. australis, grapevine spot anthracnose by E. ampelina, and the emerging Eucalyptus scab and shoot malformation disease caused by the recently described E. necatrix. Despite their importance as plant pathogens, little is known regarding the biology of many Elsinoe spp. To gain insights into the reproductive biology of these fungi, we characterized the mating-type loci of seven species using whole genome sequence data. Results showed that the MAT1 locus organization and its flanking genes is relatively conserved in most cases. All seven species manifested a typical heterothallic mating system characterized by having either the MAT1-1 or MAT1-2 idiomorph present in an isolate. These idiomorphs were defined by the MAT1-1-1 or the MAT1-2-1 gene, respectively. A unique MAT1-1 idiomorph containing a truncated MAT1-2-1 gene, and a MAT1-1-1 gene, was identified in E. necatrix and E. fawcettii genomes. Additionally, two idiomorph-specific proteins were found in the MAT1-1 and MAT1-2 idiomorphs of E. australis. Universal mating-type markers confirmed heterothallism across 21 Elsinoe spp., are poised to advance future studies regarding the biology of these fungi.The bilateral agreement between the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI, University of Pretoria, South Africa and the April Group, RGE, Indonesia.https://www.elsevier.com/locate/funbiohj2024BiochemistryForestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)GeneticsMicrobiology and Plant PathologyPlant Production and Soil ScienceSDG-15:Life on lan

Extreme temperature impairs growth and productivity in a common tropical marine copepod

Abstract Shallow, tropical marine ecosystems provide essential ecosystem goods and services, but it is unknown how these ecosystems will respond to the increased exposure to the temperature extremes that are likely to become more common as climate change progresses. To address this issue, we tracked the fitness and productivity of a key zooplankton species, the copepod Pseudodiaptomus annandalei, acclimated at two temperatures (30 and 34 °C) over three generations. 30 °C is the mean temperature in the shallow water of the coastal regions in Southeast Asia, while 34 °C simulated a temperature extreme that occurs frequently during the summer period. For each generation, we measured the size at maturity and reproductive success of individuals. In all three generations, we found strong negative effects of warming on all measured fitness-related parameters, including prolonged development time, reduced size at maturity, smaller clutch sizes, lower hatching success, and reduced naupliar production. Our results suggest that P. annandalei are already exposed to temperatures that exceed their upper thermal optimum. Increased exposure to extreme temperatures may reduce the abundance of these tropical marine copepods, and thus reduce the availability of resources to higher trophic levels

First report of the wattle rust pathogen, Uromycladium acaciae (Raveneliaceae, Pucciniales) in Ethiopia

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The data underlying this article are available in the GenBank Nucleotide Database at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ and can be accessed with accession number listed in Table 2.Australian Acacia species are among the most important trees planted for wood and pulp production in several African countries, including Ethiopia. In 2020, symptoms of a serious shoot and leaf rust disease were observed on black wattle (Acacia mearnsii De Wild.) trees across the three main wattle growing regions of Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to describe the disease and identify its causal agent based on morphological characteristics as well as DNA sequence data for the ITS and LSU regions of ribosomal DNA. Here we report for the first time, the presence of the wattle rust pathogen, Uromycladium acaciae, in Ethiopia.The Australian Government and the ACIAR.https://academic.oup.com/forestry2024-08-09hj2023BiochemistryForestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)GeneticsMicrobiology and Plant PathologyPlant Production and Soil ScienceSDG-15:Life on lan

Quantitative imaging of concentrated suspensions under flow

We review recent advances in imaging the flow of concentrated suspensions, focussing on the use of confocal microscopy to obtain time-resolved information on the single-particle level in these systems. After motivating the need for quantitative (confocal) imaging in suspension rheology, we briefly describe the particles, sample environments, microscopy tools and analysis algorithms needed to perform this kind of experiments. The second part of the review focusses on microscopic aspects of the flow of concentrated model hard-sphere-like suspensions, and the relation to non-linear rheological phenomena such as yielding, shear localization, wall slip and shear-induced ordering. Both Brownian and non-Brownian systems will be described. We show how quantitative imaging can improve our understanding of the connection between microscopic dynamics and bulk flow.Comment: Review on imaging hard-sphere suspensions, incl summary of methodology. Submitted for special volume 'High Solid Dispersions' ed. M. Cloitre, Vol. xx of 'Advances and Polymer Science' (Springer, Berlin, 2009); 22 pages, 16 fig

Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017) includes a comprehensive assessment of incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability (YLDs) for 354 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2017. Previous GBD studies have shown how the decline of mortality rates from 1990 to 2016 has led to an increase in life expectancy, an ageing global population, and an expansion of the non-fatal burden of disease and injury. These studies have also shown how a substantial portion of the world's population experiences non-fatal health loss with considerable heterogeneity among different causes, locations, ages, and sexes. Ongoing objectives of the GBD study include increasing the level of estimation detail, improving analytical strategies, and increasing the amount of high-quality data. Methods: We estimated incidence and prevalence for 354 diseases and injuries and 3484 sequelae. We used an updated and extensive body of literature studies, survey data, surveillance data, inpatient admission records, outpatient visit records, and health insurance claims, and additionally used results from cause of death models to inform estimates using a total of 68 781 data sources. Newly available clinical data from India, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Nepal, China, Brazil, Norway, and Italy were incorporated, as well as updated claims data from the USA and new claims data from Taiwan (province of China) and Singapore. We used DisMod-MR 2.1, a Bayesian meta-regression tool, as the main method of estimation, ensuring consistency between rates of incidence, prevalence, remission, and cause of death for each condition. YLDs were estimated as the product of a prevalence estimate and a disability weight for health states of each mutually exclusive sequela, adjusted for comorbidity. We updated the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a summary development indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and total fertility rate. Additionally, we calculated differences between male and female YLDs to identify divergent trends across sexes. GBD 2017 complies with the Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting. Findings: Globally, for females, the causes with the greatest age-standardised prevalence were oral disorders, headache disorders, and haemoglobinopathies and haemolytic anaemias in both 1990 and 2017. For males, the causes with the greatest age-standardised prevalence were oral disorders, headache disorders, and tuberculosis including latent tuberculosis infection in both 1990 and 2017. In terms of YLDs, low back pain, headache disorders, and dietary iron deficiency were the leading Level 3 causes of YLD counts in 1990, whereas low back pain, headache disorders, and depressive disorders were the leading causes in 2017 for both sexes combined. All-cause age-standardised YLD rates decreased by 3·9% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 3·1–4·6) from 1990 to 2017; however, the all-age YLD rate increased by 7·2% (6·0–8·4) while the total sum of global YLDs increased from 562 million (421–723) to 853 million (642–1100). The increases for males and females were similar, with increases in all-age YLD rates of 7·9% (6·6–9·2) for males and 6·5% (5·4–7·7) for females. We found significant differences between males and females in terms of age-standardised prevalence estimates for multiple causes. The causes with the greatest relative differences between sexes in 2017 included substance use disorders (3018 cases [95% UI 2782–3252] per 100 000 in males vs s1400 [1279–1524] per 100 000 in females), transport injuries (3322 [3082–3583] vs 2336 [2154–2535]), and self-harm and interpersonal violence (3265 [2943–3630] vs 5643 [5057–6302]). Interpretation: Global all-cause age-standardised YLD rates have improved only slightly over a period spanning nearly three decades. However, the magnitude of the non-fatal disease burden has expanded globally, with increasing numbers of people who have a wide spectrum of conditions. A subset of conditions has remained globally pervasive since 1990, whereas other conditions have displayed more dynamic trends, with different ages, sexes, and geographies across the globe experiencing varying burdens and trends of health loss. This study emphasises how global improvements in premature mortality for select conditions have led to older populations with complex and potentially expensive diseases, yet also highlights global achievements in certain domains of disease and injury. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation