Treesearch

Twenty genera of hypogeous fungi or truffles are reported and illustrated from the State of Tamaulipas. The truffles belong to the following phyla: Glomeromycota (Glomus); Zygomycota (Endogone); hypogeous Ascomycota (Elaphomyces, Genabea, Genea, Hydnobolites, Pachyphloeus, Tuber); and Basidiomycota (Arcangeliella, Aroramyces, Cystangium, Gautieria, Gymnomyces, Hymenogster; Hysterangium, Melanogaster, Octaviania, Rhizopogon, Sclerogaster and Thaxterogasier) . Comments on their ecology and taxonomic status are provided for most genera.

A groundline remedial treatment containing 3.1% copper hydroxide (2% elemental copper) and 40% sodium tetraborate decahydrate (borax) was applied to unseasoned pine posts prior to placement in a test site in southern Mississippi. The soundness of the posts was periodically evaluated using a push test. After 3.5, 6.5, 10, 15 and 20 years, sections were taken from two posts to determine retention of borax and copper hydroxide as a function of vertical position above ground and distance from the wood surface. Within 3.5 years of exposure all untreated control posts had failed. The upper...

As the demand for sustainable materials increases, there are unique challenges and opportunities to develop light-weight green composites materials for a wide range of applications. Thus wood-based composite materials from renewable forests may provide options for some niche applications while helping to protect our environment. In this paper, the wood-based tri-axial sandwich composite materials either made from hardboard or laminated paper are being studied for various applications having different performance requirements. The wood-based tri-axial sandwich composite is composed of a...

Thin-film deposition on ultra-thin substrates poses unique challenges because of the potential for a dynamic response to the film stress during deposition. While theoretical studies have investigated film stress related changes in bulk substrates, little has been done to learn how stress might evolve in a film growing on a compliant substrate. We use silicon nanomembranes (SiNMs), extremely thin sheets of single-crystalline Si, as a substrate for the growth of amorphous SiNx to begin to address this question. Nanomembranes are released from a silicon-on-insulator wafer with selective...

With global focus on the conversion of biomass into products, fuels, and energy, there is a strong need for information that will lead to new sustainable products, applications, and biotechnological advances. The omics approach to biology is a discovery-driven method that may deliver solutions to these overarching problems. It gives scientists the ability to obtain a systems-level understanding of life that begins with identifying the genome or genes in an organism. The pivotal technology that enabled this revolutionary approach is next generation DNA sequencing. New fields bring new...

In the present study, 3D FT-IR spectroscopic imaging measurements were applied to study the phase separation of a poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB)/poly(L-lactic acid) (PLA) (50:50 wt.%) polymer blend film. While in 2D projection imaging the z-dependent information is overlapped, thereby complicating the analysis, FT-IR spectro-micro-tomography, obtained from computed tomographic back projection calculations, results in distinct 3D chemical images that provide detailed information of phase separation of the two polymer components that are well separated.

Xylans, including methylglucuronoxylans (MeGXn) and methylglucuronoarabinoxylans (MeGAXn), are the predominant polysaccharides in hemicellulose fractions of dicots and monocots available for conversion to biofuels and chemicals. Paenibacillus sp. strain JDR-2 (Pjdr2) efficiently depolymerizes MeGXn and MeGAXn and assimilates the generated oligosaccharides, resulting in efficient saccharification and subsequent metabolism of these polysaccharides. A xylan utilization regulon encoding a cell associated GH10 (glycoside hydrolase family 10) endoxylanase, transcriptional regulators, ABC (ATP...

Endoxylanases classified into glycoside hydrolase family 30 subfamily 8 (GH30-8) are known to hydrolyze the hemicellulosic polysaccharide glucuronoxylan (GX) but not arabinoxylan or neutral xylooligosaccharides. This is owing to the specificity of these enzymes for the -1,2-linked glucuronate (GA) appendage of GX. Limit hydrolysis of this substrate produces a series of aldouronates each containing a single GA substituted on the xylose penultimate to the reducing terminus. In this work, the structural and biochemical characterization of xylanase 30A from Clostridium papyrosolvens (CpXyn30A)...

The application of anthraquinone (AQ) as a pulping catalyst has been well documented in scientific studies and mill applications. AQ is known to increase the rate of delignification, enabling a reduction in pulping time, temperature, or chemical charge and an increase in pulp yield. This review does not focus extensively on specific details of AQ use but rather on critical milestones in the AQ process lifecycle, including its initial introduction, investigation of the reaction mechanism, and evaluation of best use by the pulping industry. The importance and difficulty of an economic...

A method to pattern infrared-absorbing gold black by conventional photolithography and lift-off is described. A photo-resist pattern is developed on a substrate by standard photolithography. Gold black is deposited over the whole by thermal evaporation in an inert gas at ~ 1 Torr. SiO2 is then deposited as a protection layer by electron beam evaporation. Lift-off proceeds by dissolving the photoresist in acetone. The resulting sub-millimeter size gold black patterns that remain on the substrate retain high infrared absorption out to ~5 μm wavelength and exhibit good mechanical stability....