A sophisticated design of copper core to converge rotating eddy current control for detecting cracks in conductive materials.

Eddy current (EC) testing has been selected as a standard candidate for detecting defects in conductive materials in the past few decades. Nevertheless, inventing EC probes capable of detecting minor defects has always been challenging for researchers due to the tradeoff between the probe dimensions and the strength of the EC generated on the surface of the test piece. Here, we use a copper core with a sophisticated design to converge the rotating EC at the tip of the copper core to detect small cracks in all directions in conductive materials. In this method, we can arbitrarily accommodate a large excitation coil so that a larger rotating uniform EC is generated in a small area of the test piece. Hence, the probe can detect cracks in all directions in conductive materials.

Carbon capture and biocatalytic oxygen production of photosystem II from thylakoids and microalgae on nanobiomaterials.

Enhanced carbon capture and oxygen production via water splitting was observed by controlling the plasmon-induced resonance energy transfer (PIRET) for photosystem II (PSII) in thylakoid extracts and spirulina assembled on gold nanoparticle (AuNP) dimer arrays. The two types of vertical (V) and horizontal (H) AuNP dimer arrays were uniformly inserted inside pore diameter-controlled templates. Based on the theoretical calculations, the longitudinal mode of the H AuNP dimer array was found to be sensitive to the nanogap distances between the two AuNPs in resonance with the absorption at P680 of the PSII. The longitudinal modes that interacted with P680 of PSII increased from the V to the H conformer. The optical properties from the H AuNP dimer array caused overlapping absorbance and photoluminescence with PSII, and the H AuNP dimer arrays exhibited a significant increase in carbon capture and oxygen generation rates in comparison with those of the bare PSII protein complex under light irradiation via the controlled PIRET process.

PERMANENT GENETIC RESOURCES: Consensus primers of cyp73 genes discriminate willow species and hybrids (Salix, Salicaceae).

Consensus primers, based on exon sequences of the cyp73 gene family coding for cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H) of the lignin biosynthesis pathway, were designed for the tetraploid willow species Salix alba and Salix fragilis. Diagnostic alleles at species level were observed among introns of three cyp73 genes and allowed unambiguous detection of the first generation and introgressed hybrids in populations. Progeny analysis of a female S. alba with a male introgressed hybrid confirmed the codominant inheritance of each intron. Sequences of the diagnostic alleles of both species were similar to those found in the hybrids.