The order Mucorales, the largest in number of species within the Mucoromycotina, comprises typically fast-growing saprotrophic fungi. During a study of the fungal diversity of undiscovered taxa in Korea, two novel mucoralean strains, CNUFC-GWD3-9 and CNUFC-EGF1-4, were isolated from specific habitats including freshwater and fecal samples, respectively, in Korea. On the basis of their morphological characteristics and sequence analyses of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and large subunit (LSU) of 28S ribosomal DNA regions, the CNUFC-GWD3-9 and CNUFC-EGF1-4 isolates were confirmed to be Gilbertella persicaria and Pilobolus crystallinus, respectively. It is ecologically, pathologically and mycologically significant to find such rare zygomycetous fungi in such specific habitats.

Nonwoven fabrics have been widely used in textile manufacturing industry as a sheet or web structure because of soft, water-repellent, recycle, ecological and resilient functions. Ultrasonic welding method has been applied for bonding nonwoven fabrics due to clean, fast and reliable approach. In this work, the ultrasonic stepped horn is designed to generate uniform amplitudes on the working surface by using finite element analysis (FEA) simulation. Chromium carbon steels are utilized to produce ultrasonic horns due to high wear resistant and hardness. Isotactic polypropylene nonwoven fabrics fabricated by spunbond process were bonded by continuous ultrasonic sewing machine. Ultrasonic horn with 70 mm in diameter working at 20 kHz, polypropylene (PP) nonwoven density of 80 gsm and various design of welding joints were applied. A typical image in the case of number one was investigated by the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of inter-facial micro-structure. However, welding joints of totally eight roller patterns was test the tensile strength of the ultrasonic welding joints on PP nonwoven fabrics. The tensile strength of the welding joints is proportional to the area ratio between the welding area and cycling area. The results showed that the melted zone without welding defects such as crack or blowhole can be seen. Furthermore, the tensile strength of welding joints in eight cases of roller patterns (No.1-No.8) was described in details. The ultrasonic welding joints with brick structures give higher tensile strength while the solid line in the pattern gave less strength.

This investigation aims to discuss the formation process of eddies and the heat transportation in plasma keyhole arc welding. In order to clarify this issue, the measurement of the convection inside the weld pool, the convection on the weld pool surface, also the temperature distribution on the weld pool surface were carried out. The results showed that two eddies were found in the weld pool, which is controlled mainly through the shear force by the plasma flow acting on the weld pool surface. The magnitude, extent and direction of the shear force are thought to be determined primarily by the variation of keyhole profile. The relative shape and strength of each eddy is largely changed depending on the change of the keyhole profile when nozzle diameter changed. These relative strengths of each eddy are considered to decisively govern the heat transport in the weld pool coinciding with the direction of eddies. A larger eddy near the lower part of the keyhole inside the weld pool was found out in the case of 1.6 mm, meanwhile a upward larger eddy was found out near the upper part of the keyhole inside the weld pool in the case of 2.4 mm.

Proper satellite-based crop monitoring applications at the farm-level often require near-daily imagery at medium to high spatial resolution. The synthesizing of ongoing satellite missions by ESA (Sentinel 2) and NASA (Landsat7/8) provides this unprecedented opportunity at a global scale; nonetheless, this is rarely implemented because these procedures are data demanding and computationally intensive. This study developed a complete stream processing in the Google Earth Engine cloud platform to generate harmonized surface reflectance images of Landsat7,8 and Sentinel 2 missions. The harmonized images were generated for two agriculture schemes in Bekaa (Lebanon) and Ninh Thuan (Vietnam) during the period 2018-2019. We evaluated the performance of several pre-processing steps needed for the harmonization including image co-registration, brdf correction, topographic correction, and band adjustment. This study found that the miss-registration between Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 images, varied from 10 meters in Ninh Thuan, Vietnam to 32 meters in Bekaa, Lebanon, and if not treated, posed a great impact on the quality of the harmonized dataset. Analysis of a pair overlapped L8-S2 images over the Bekaa region showed that after the harmonization, all band-to-band spatial correlations were greatly improved from (0.57, 0.64, 0.67, 0.75, 0.76, 0.75, 0.79) to (0.87, 0.91, 0.92, 0.94, 0.97, 0.97, 0.96) in bands (blue, green, red, nir,swir1,swir2, ndvi) respectively. We demonstrated that dense observation of the harmonized dataset can be very helpful for characterizing cropland in highly dynamic areas. We detected unimodal, bimodal and trimodal shapes in the temporal NDVI patterns (likely cycles of paddy rice) in Ninh Thuan province only during the year 2018. We fitted the temporal signatures of the NDVI time series using harmonic (Fourier) analysis. Derived phase (angle from the starting point to the cycle's peak) and amplitude (the cycle's height) were combined with max-NDVI to generate an R-G-B image. This image highlighted croplands as colored pixels (high phase and amplitude) and other types of land as grey/dark pixels (low phase/amplitude). Generated harmonized datasets that contain surface reflectance images (bands blue, green, red, nir, swir1, swir2, and ndvi at 30 meters) over the two studied sites are provided for public usage and testing.

The amino acid transporters SLC38A5 and SLC7A11 are upregulated in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). SLC38A5 transports glutamine, methionine, glycine and serine, and therefore activates mTOR signaling and induces epigenetic modifications. SLC7A11 transports cystine and increases cellular levels of glutathione, which protects against oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation via glutathione peroxidase, a seleno (Se)-enzyme. The primary source of Se is dietary Se-methionine (Se-Met). Since SLC38A5 transports methionine, we examined its role in Se-Met uptake in TNBC cells. We found that SLC38A5 interacts with methionine and Se-Met with comparable affinity. We also examined the influence of Se-Met on Nrf2 in TNBC cells. Se-Met activated Nrf2 and induced expression of Nrf2-target genes, including SLC7A11. Our previous work discovered niclosamide, an antiparasitic drug, as a potent inhibitor of SLC38A5. Here we found SLC7A11 to be inhibited by niclosamide with an IC50 value in the range of 0.1-0.2 M. In addition to the direct inhibition of SLC38A5 and SLC7A11, pretreatment of TNBC cells with niclosamide reduced the expression of both transporters. Niclosamide decreased glutathione levels, inhibited proliferation, suppressed GPX4 expression, increased lipid peroxidation, and induced ferroptosis in TNBC cells. It also significantly reduced the growth of the TNBC cell line MB231 in mouse xenografts.

Soybean seed sugars are among the most abundant beneficial compounds for human and animal consumption in soybean seeds. Higher seed sugars such as sucrose are desirable as it contributes to taste and flavor in soy-based food. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to use ‘Forrest’ by ‘Williams 82’ (F×W82) recombinant inbred line (RIL) soybean population (n=309) to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) and candidate genes that control seed sugar (sucrose, stachyose, and raffinose) contents in two environments (North Carolina and Illinois) over two years (2018 and 2020). A total of 26 QTL that control seed sugars contents were identified and mapped on 16 soybean chromosomes (chrs.). Interestingly, five QTL regions were identified in both locations, Illinois and North Carolina, in this study on chrs. 2, 5, 13, 17, and 20. Amongst 57 candidate genes identified in this study, 16 were located within 10 Megabase (MB) of the identified QTL. Amongst them a cluster of four genes involved in the sugars’ pathway was collocated within 6 MB with two QTL that were detected in this study on chr. 17. Further functional validation of the identified genes could be beneficial in breeding programs to produce soybean lines with high beneficial sucrose and low raffinose family oligosaccharides.

Mutations in p53 and KRAS are seen in most cases of colon cancer. The impact of these mutations on signaling pathways related to cancer growth has been studied in depth, but relatively less is known on their effects on amino acid transporters in cancer cells. This represents a significant knowledge gap because amino acid nutrition in cancer cells profoundly influences macropinocytosis and ferroptosis, two processes with opposing effects on tumor growth. Here we used isogenic colon cancer cell lines to investigate the effects of p53 loss and KRAS activation on two amino acid transporters relevant to macropinocytosis (SLC38A5) and ferroptosis (SLC7A11). Our studies show that the predominant effect of p53 loss is to induce SLC7A11 with resultant potentiation of antioxidant machinery and protection of cancer cells from ferroptosis whereas KRAS activation induces not only SLC7A11 but also SLC38A5, thus offering protection from ferroptosis as well as improving amino acid nutrition in cancer cells via accelerated macropinocytosis. Niclosamide, an FDA-approved anti-helminthic, blocks the functions of SLC7A11 and SLC38A5, thus inducing ferroptosis and suppressing macropinocytosis with resultant effective reversal of tumor-promoting actions of oncogenic mutations in p53 and KRAS. These findings underscore the potential of this drug in colon cancer treatment.

A novel type of phosphazene containing additive that act both as catalyst and as flame retardant for benzoxazine binders is presented in this study. The synthesis of a derivative of hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene (HCP) and meta-toluidine was carried out in the medium of the latter, which made it possible to achieve complete substitution of chlorine atoms in the initial HCP. Thermal and flammability characteristics of modified compositions are revealed. The modifier catalyzes the process of curing and shifts the beginning of reaction from 222.0 C for pure benzoxazine to 205.9 C for composition with 10 phr of modifier. The additive decreases the glass transition temperature of compositions. Achievement of the highest category of flame resistance (V-0 in accordance with UL-94) is ensured both by increasing the content of phenyl residues in the composition and by the synergistic effect of phosphorus and nitrogen. Brief research of the curing kinetics disclosed the complex nature of the reaction. An accurate two-step model is obtained using extended Prout-Tompkins equation for both steps.