Methods for extracting PCR-amplifiable DNA from the spores of rusts and other plant pathogenic, obligately parasitic fungi are hindered by small cell size and thick spore walls that make uniform disruption or digestion difficult and by the abundant pigments, oils, protein, and RNA that can interfere with the subsequent purification and PCR amplification (6,14). For some rusts for which abundant...

Until now it has not been possible to separate fermenting activity from living yeast cells; the following describes a procedure that solves this problem. One thousand grams of brewer’s yeast1 that had been cleaned as a prerequisite for the preparation of compressed yeast, but to which no potato starch had been added, is carefully mixed with the same weight of quartz sand2 and 250 g Kieselguhr. ...

Silicon is produced in a variety of ways as an ultra-high capacity lithium-ion battery (LIB) anode material. The traditional carbothermic reduction process required is expensive and energy-intensive; in this work, we use an efficient magnesiothermic reduction to convert the silica-based frustules within diatomaceous earth (diatomite, DE) to nanosilicon (nanoSi) for use as LIB anodes. Polyacryli...

An expected global increase in bioenergy-crop cultivation as an alternative to fossil fuels will have consequences on both global climate and local air quality through changes in biogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).While greenhouse gas emissionsmay be reduced through the substitution of next-generation bioenergy crops such as eucalyptus, giant reed, and switchgrass for fossi...

flour beetles, Tribolium confusum. Efficacy was assessed on wheat and maize at three dosages of spinosad dust formulation (corresponding to 0.0625, 0.1875 and 0.625ppm of active ingredient [AI] for S. oryzae and to 0.1875, 0.625 and 1.25 ppm of AI for T. confusum), alone or combined with SilicoSec at 150ppm for S. oryzae and 250 ppm for T. confusum. The mortality of S. oryzae exposed for 14d on...

OBJECTIVE To use various exposure-response models to estimate the risk of mortality from lung cancer due to occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica dust. METHODS Data from a cohort mortality study of 2342 white male California diatomaceous earth mining and processing workers exposed to crystalline silica dust (mainly cristobalite) were reanalyzed with Poisson regression and Cox...