Fabrication of metastable crystalline nanocomposites by flash annealing of Cu47.5Zr47.5Al5 metallic glass using joule heating

Flash Joule-heating was applied to the Cu47.5Zr47.5Al5 metallic glass for designing fully crystalline metastable nanocomposites consisting of the metastable B2 CuZr and low-temperature equilibrium Cu10Zr7 phases. The onset of crystallization was in situ controlled by monitoring resistivity changes in the samples. The effect of heating rate and annealing time on the volume fraction of the crystalline phases and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites was studied in detail. Particularly, an increase of the heating rate and a decrease of the annealing time lead to a lower number of equilibrium Cu10Zr7 precipitates and an increase of tensile ductility. Tailoring of these non-equilibrium microstructures and mechanical properties may not be possible unless one starts with a fully glassy material that opens new perspectives for designing metastable nanomaterials with unique physical properties. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.EC 111/26-1, MA 3333/13-105K2012European Research Council, ERC: ERC-2013-ADG-340025Funding: This research was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Science BMBF, grant number 05K2012, the German Science Foundation under the Leibniz Program, grant numbers EC 111/26-1 and MA 3333/13-1, and the European Research Council (ERC) under the ERC Advanced Grant INTELHYB, grant number ERC-2013-ADG-340025

Fabrication of metastable crystalline nanocomposites by flash annealing of Cu47.5Zr47.5Al5 metallic glass using joule heating

Flash Joule-heating was applied to the Cu47.5Zr47.5Al5 metallic glass for designing fully crystalline metastable nanocomposites consisting of the metastable B2 CuZr and low-temperature equilibrium Cu10Zr7 phases. The onset of crystallization was in situ controlled by monitoring resistivity changes in the samples. The effect of heating rate and annealing time on the volume fraction of the crystalline phases and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites was studied in detail. Particularly, an increase of the heating rate and a decrease of the annealing time lead to a lower number of equilibrium Cu10Zr7 precipitates and an increase of tensile ductility. Tailoring of these non-equilibrium microstructures and mechanical properties may not be possible unless one starts with a fully glassy material that opens new perspectives for designing metastable nanomaterials with unique physical properties

CYTOGENETIC ASPECTS HIGHLIGHTED IN MERISTEMATIC TISSUES OF CUCUMBERS (CUCUMIS SATIVUS) UNDER ACTION OF COPPER SULPHATE

The frequent use of pesticides in agriculture, as well as alarming increase of pollution of the ecosystems, justify the assessment of the cytotoxicity of these polluting agents on plants. Copper sulphate is used for the control of downy mildew to vegetables, fruit trees and vines. From this point of view, it is very often used in cucumber crops to combat downy mildew produced by the fungus Pseudoperonospora cubensis. The purpose of research was to assess the influence of copper sulphate on cytological activity in radicular meristematic tissues to Cucumis sativus (cucumber), one of the most popular vegetables for its freshness. The study reveals the mitodepresive effect of copper sulphate as well as a direct correlation between its concentration and the frequency of cytogenetic changes (sticky chromosomes, vagrant chromosomes, micronucleus, C-mitosis) identified in the meristematic tissues of Cucumis sativus. This suggests caution in the excessive use of copper sulphate for plant protection and, in particular, strict adherence to treatment concentrations

STUDIES ON SOME QUALITY COMPONENTS IN A LANDRACE COLLECTION OF CLIMBING BEANS (PHASEOLUS VULGARIS VAR. COMMUNIS)

The study aimed at evaluating a landraces collection of climbing beans regarding some characters that contribute to quality of grains or green pods. The biological material was formed of 56 landraces and 2 varieties of climbing beans from which the grains or green pods can be used in food. The landraces were collected from western and southwestern Romania. The experimentation was performed over three years in a collection-type experience, arranged in three repetitions. As elements of quality we determined: the percentage of husks from beans, boiling coefficient, the percentage of bean total protein, 1000 grain weight, the percentage of sugar in green pods. The experimental data were processed by analysis of variance and applying the t-test for determination of differences from the variety ‘Aurie de Bacau’ used as a control. The collection includes precious populations for all studied characters, but their number is reduced. For the percentage of grain husks and the protein content of grain, the most populations are below the control variety. For sugar percentage in green pod and the coefficient of boiling, the landraces are similar to control variety. In the collection, there are populations that can be processed by selection or can be used as parents in hybridization programs

Ex situ BEHAVIOUR OF SOME OAT (Avena sativa L.) LANDRACES COLLECTED FROM A POLLUTED AREA IN THE MIDDLE JIU RIVER BASIN (GORJ DISTRICT)

Avena sativa is a specie which can be cultivated on soils with a high amount of heavy metals or with some radionuclids, it being phytoextractive for some elements (zinc, copper, cadmium, uranium, a/o). On the sterile waste dumps from the middle Jiu river basin (Gorj district), and on neighbour area, this species is cultivated more than 20 years ago. The landraces of Avena sativa present adaptation at the presence in soil of a high content in heavy metals and/or radionuclides. From the population farmsteads situated in this area, were harvested 23 landraces of Avena sativa, which were cultivated ex situ in the Experimental Research Station of USAMVB-Timişoara (Timiş district). The analysis of the main quantitative features of these landraces, in comparison with Mureş sort (Control), point out significant differences (notable in some cases), which underlined the variability in this species and the adaptation to environmental conditions. The best oat genotypes, can be used further in a breeding program, in order to obtain for culture on the degraded soils (with a high content in heavy metals and radionuclides), the most proper sorts

Insecticidal Activity of the Essential Oils from Different Plants Against Three Stored-Product Insects

This study was conducted to determine the insecticidal activity of essential oils from oregano, Origanum onites L. (Lamiales: Lamiaceae), savory, Satureja thymbra L. (Lamiales: Lamiaceae), and myrtle, Myrtus communis L. (Rosales: Myrtaceae) against three stored-product insects. Essential oils from three species of plants were obtained by Clevenger-type water distillation. The major compounds in these essential oils were identified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and their insecticidal activity was tested against adults of the Mediterranean flour moth Ephestia kuehniella Zeller (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), the Indian meal moth Plodia interpunctella Hübner (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) and the bean weevil Acanthoscelides obtectus Say (Coleoptera: Bruchidae). While the major compound found in oregano and savory was carvacrol, the main constituent of the myrtle was linalool. Among the tested insects, A. obtectus was the most tolerant species against the essential oils. However, the insecticidal activity of the myrtle oil was more pronounced than other oils tested against A. obtectus adults. The essential oils of oregano and savory were highly effective against P. interpunctella and E. kuehniella, with 100% mortality obtained after 24 h at 9 and 25 µl/l air for P. interpunctella and E. kuehniella, respectively. LC50 and LC99 values of each essential oil were estimated for each insect species

Apium plants: Beyond simple food and phytopharmacological applications

Apium plants belong to the Apiaceae family and are included among plants that have been in use in traditional medicine for thousands of years worldwide, including in the Mediterranean, as well as the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Africa. Some highlighted medical benefits include prevention of coronary and vascular diseases. Their phytochemical constituents consist of bergapten, flavonoids, glycosides, furanocoumarins, furocoumarin, limonene, psoralen, xanthotoxin, and selinene. Some of their pharmacological properties include anticancer, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antifungal, nematocidal, anti-rheumatism, antiasthma, anti-bronchitis, hepatoprotective, appetizer, anticonvulsant, antispasmodic, breast milk inducer, anti-jaundice, antihypertensive, anti-dysmenorrhea, prevention of cardiovascular diseases, and spermatogenesis induction. The present review summarizes data on ecology, botany, cultivation, habitat, medicinal use, phytochemical composition, preclinical and clinical pharmacological efficacy of Apium plants and provides future direction on how to take full advantage of Apium plants for the optimal benefit to mankind.N. Martins would like to thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT-Portugal) for the strategic project ref. UID/BIM/04293/2013 and “NORTE2020-Northern Regional Operational Program” (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000012)

Symphytum Species: A Comprehensive Review on Chemical Composition, Food Applications and Phytopharmacology

Symphytum species belongs to the Boraginaceae family and have been used for centuries for bone breakages, sprains and rheumatism, liver problems, gastritis, ulcers, skin problems, joint pain and contusions, wounds, gout, hematomas and thrombophlebitis. Considering the innumerable potentialities of the Symphytum species and their widespread use in the world, it is extremely important to provide data compiling the available literature to identify the areas of intense research and the main gaps in order to design future studies. The present review aims at summarizing the main data on the therapeutic indications of the Symphytum species based on the current evidence, also emphasizing data on both the e cacy and adverse e ects. The present review was carried out by consulting PubMed (Medline), Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Database, Science Direct and Google Scholar (as a search engine) databases to retrieve the most updated articles on this topic. All articles were carefully analyzed by the authors to assess their strengths and weaknesses, and to select the most useful ones for the purpose of review, prioritizing articles published from 1956 to 2018. The pharmacological e ects of the Symphytum species are attributed to several chemical compounds, among them allantoin, phenolic compounds, glycopeptides, polysaccharides and some toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Not less important to highlight are the risks associated with its use. In fact, there is increasing consumption of over-the-counter drugs, which when associated with conventional drugs can cause serious and even fatal adverse events. Although clinical trials sustain the folk topical application of Symphytum species in musculoskeletal and blunt injuries, with minor adverse e ects, its antimicrobial potency was still poorly investigated. Further studies are needed to assess the antimicrobial spectrum of Symphytum species and to characterize the active molecules both in vitro and in vivo

GOPred: GO Molecular Function Prediction by Combined Classifiers

Functional protein annotation is an important matter for in vivo and in silico biology. Several computational methods have been proposed that make use of a wide range of features such as motifs, domains, homology, structure and physicochemical properties. There is no single method that performs best in all functional classification problems because information obtained using any of these features depends on the function to be assigned to the protein. In this study, we portray a novel approach that combines different methods to better represent protein function. First, we formulated the function annotation problem as a classification problem defined on 300 different Gene Ontology (GO) terms from molecular function aspect. We presented a method to form positive and negative training examples while taking into account the directed acyclic graph (DAG) structure and evidence codes of GO. We applied three different methods and their combinations. Results show that combining different methods improves prediction accuracy in most cases. The proposed method, GOPred, is available as an online computational annotation tool (http://kinaz.fen.bilkent.edu.tr/gopred)