Assessing frost hardiness of Pinus bungeana shoots and needles by electrical impedance spectroscopy with and without freezing tests

Aims Nursery and forest operations require that frost hardiness results be produced faster than can be provided by controlled freezing tests.There is a great challenge to develop a rapid method for predicting frost hardiness that might not necessitate controlled freezing tests.The aim of this study was to examine the assessment of the frost hardiness of shoots and needles of Pinus bungeana by electrical impedance spectroscopy(EIS)with and without controlled exposure to freezing.Methods The frost hardiness of current-year shoots and needles of P.bungeana in an 8-year-old provenance field trial was measured at Shisanlin Nursery in Beijing,China,from September 2006 to January 2007 by means of EIS and conventional electrolyte leakage(EL).In the same plants,but without controlled freezing test,were monitored the EIS parameters in current-year shoots and needles.Important Findings The results showed that(i)after controlled freezing tests,the frost hardiness estimated by EIS parameters(extracellular resistance,re,and membrane time constant,sm)was significantly correlated with the frost hardiness assessed by EL method(r=0.95)and(ii)for the samples not exposed to controlled freezing treatment,the relaxation time s1 for shoots and b for needles had greater correlations with the frost hardiness estimated by EL after controlled freezing tests relative to the other parameters(r=
0.90 for shoots and r=0.84 for needles,respectively).The parameters re of shoots and needles and sm of needles might be applied for measuring frost hardiness of samples after exposed to controlled freezing tests.The frost hardiness results can be obtained within 48 h.The parameters s1 of shoots and b of needles could be used for estimating the frost hardiness of samples without using a controlled freezing test.The frost hardiness results can be obtained within 24 h.

Early diagnosis and monitoring of nitrogen nutrition stress in tomato leaves using electrical impedance spectroscopy

Nitrogen(N)is a life element for crop growth.In tomato growth and development,N stress often occurs and degrades crop yield and quality.Superfluous N can noticeably increase the nitrate content,which can be degraded into strong carcinogenic substance-nitrite.An accurate and timely monitoring and diagnosis of nutrition during crop growth is premise to realize a precise nutrient management.Crop N monitoring methods have been developed to improve N fertilizer management,and most of them are based on leaf or canopy optical property measurements.Although many optical/spectral plant N sensors have already commercialized for production use,low accuracy for phosphorus(P)and potassium(K)detection and diagnosis remains an important drawback of these methods.To explore the potential of N diagnosis by electrical impedance and perform study for nutrition status of plant NPK meanwhile by the electrical impedance,it is necessary that evaluate the N nutrition level by leaf impedance spectroscopy.Electrical impedance was applied to determine the physiological and nutritional status of plant tissues,but few studies related to plant N contents have been reported.The objective of this study was to evaluate the N nutrition level by leaf impedance spectroscopy and realize the early diagnosis and monitoring of N nutrition stress in tomato.Five sets of tomato plant samples with different N contents were cultivated in a Venlo greenhouse.N content of leaves was determined,and electrical impedance data were recorded in a frequency range of 1 Hz to 1 MHz.The obtained impedance data were analyzed using an equivalent circuit model for cellular tissues.The variation of equivalent parameters along with N content was analyzed,and the sensitive impedance spectroscopy characteristics of N nutrition level were extracted.Furthermore,the effect of moisture content on impedance measurement was discussed and the prediction model for N content was developed.Results showed that electrical impedance can be conveniently applied to early diagnosis and monitoring for tomato N nutrition stress.

Maturity assessment of tomato fruit based on electrical impedance spectroscopy

Ripening is important to tomato quality,taste and nutrition.In this study,the maturity of plant-fruit was on-line investigated based on electrical impedance spectroscopy(EIS).The electrodes with sensing unit for contact force between samples and electrodes were designed.After fruits turn into green-white,impedance measurements were conducted on the fruit samples at various ripening stages in the range of 1 Hz to 1 MHz.The optimal frequencies(100 Hz,1 kHz and 1 MHz)for maturity assessment were selected and five electrical impedance parameters at three sensitive frequencies were determined.The equivalent circuit model with CPE was developed and the model performance was evaluated.The soluble solid content and pH of fruit were determined and analyzed to explain the variations in EIS parameters sufficiently.Results showed that the impedance,phase angle,resistance,reactance and capacitance increased with the progression of maturity.The selected impedance parameters could be used to classify tomato samples into immature class or mature class with the accuracy of 88.3%.Impedance analysis for different samples from the same branch demonstrated that the ripening stage of all other samples could be predicted and assessed by the impedance spectroscopy from one sample.

Microcontroller-Based Sinusoidal Voltage Generation for Electrical Bio-Impedance Spectroscopy Applications

A sinusoidal voltage wave generator is proposed based on the use of micro-processor digital signals with programmable duty-cycles, with application to real-time Electrical Cell-substrate Impedance Spectroscopy (ECIS) assays in cell cultures. The working principle relies on the time convolution of the programmed microcontroller (μC) digital signals. The expected frequency is easily tuned on the bio-impedance spectroscopy range [100 Hz, 1 MHz] thanks to the μC clock frequency selection. This system has been simulated and tested on the 8 bits μC ArduinoTM Uno with ATmega328 version. Results obtained prove that only three digital signals are required to fit the general specification in ECIS experiments, below 1% THD accuracy, and show the appropriateness of the system for the real-time monitoring of this type of biological experiments.

Research on Electric Impedance Spectroscopy of Living Cell Suspensions by a Chip with Microelectrodes

A microfabricated electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) chip with microelectrodes was developed.The substrate and the electrodes of the chip were made of glass and gold,respectively.The experimental results demonstrated that the EIS-chip could distinguish different solutions (physiological saline,culture medium,living cell suspension etc.) by scanning from 10Hz to 45kHz.A 6-element circuit model was used for fitting the real part and the imaginary part admittance curves of the living cell suspension.An actual circuit was also built and tested to verify the 6-element circuit model proposed.The micro-EIS chip has several advantages including the use of small sample volumes,high resolution and ease of operation.It shows good application prospects in the areas of cellular electrophysioiogy,drug screening and bio-sensors etc.

Assessment of tolerance of willows to saline soils through electrical impedance measurements

One-year-old potted clone plants of four willow species （Salix matsudana alba, S. babylonica, S. psam- rnophila and S. cheilophila） were cultivated and irrigated with saline solutions of different concentrations, while their elec- Lrical impedance spectroscopy （EIS） parameters and other physical parameters were monitored. The results indicate i） that under salt stress, height and basal diameter of all species are inhibited, and ii） that relative conductivity of cellular exudates increases while intracellular resistance （r~） and extracelluar resistance （r） drop. Both r, and r were positively correlated with height growth and basal diameter while they were significantly and negatively correlated with electric conductivity. The concentration of Na in the shoots of willows was negatively correlated with both r and re, whereas the concentration of K in the shoots was positively correlated with both r, and r. Hence, electrical impedance spectroscopy is a reliable tool for evaluating the capacity of willow species for tolerance to saline soils, with r as the most accurate pa- rameter.

Microstructures, mechanical properties, corrosion, and biocompatibility of extruded Mg-Zr-Sr-Ho alloys for biodegradable implant applications

In this study,the microstructures,mechanical properties,corrosion behaviors,and biocompatibility of extruded magnesium-zirconiumstrontium-holmium(Mg-Zr-Sr-Ho)alloys were comprehensively investigated.The effect of different concentrations of Ho on the microstructural characteristics,tensile and compressive properties,corrosion resistance,and biocompatibility were investigated.The microstructures of the extruded Mg-1Zr-0.5Sr-xHo(x=0.5,1.5,and 4 wt.%)alloys consisted ofα-Mg matrix,fineα-Zr particles,and intermetallic phase particles of Mg_(17)Sr_(2) and Ho_(2)Mg mainly distributed at the grain boundaries.Extensive{1012}tensile twins were observed in the partially recrystallized samples of Mg-1Zr-0.5Sr-0.5Ho and Mg-1Zr-0.5Sr-1.5Ho.Further addition of Ho to 4 wt.%resulted in a complete recrystallization due to activation of the particle stimulated nucleation around the Mg_(17)Sr_(2) particles.The evolution of a rare earth(RE)texture was observed with the Ho addition,which resulted in the weakened basal and prismatic textures.Furthermore,a drastic increase of 200%in tensile elongation and 89%in compressive strain was observed with Ho addition increased from 0.5 to 4 wt%,respectively.The tension-compression yield asymmetry was significantly decreased from 0.62 for Mg-1Zr-0.5Sr-0.5Ho to 0.98 for Mg-1Zr-0.5Sr-4Ho due to the weakening of textures.Corrosion analysis of the extruded Mg-Zr-Sr-Ho alloys revealed the presence of pitting corrosion.A minimum corrosion rate of 4.98 mm y^(−1) was observed in Mg-1Zr-0.5Sr-0.5Ho alloy.The enhanced corrosion resistance is observed due to the presence of Ho_(2)O_(3) in the surface film which reduced galvanic effect.The formation of a stabilized surface film due to the Ho_(2)O_(3) was confirmed through the electrical impedance spectroscopy and XPS analysis.An in vitro cytotoxicity assessment revealed good biocompatibility and cell adhesion in relation to SaOS2 cells.

Clarification of the dispersion mechanism of three typical chemical dispersants in lithium-ion battery (LIB) slurry

This paper mainly clarified the dispersion mechanism of three typical chemical dispersants which are polyethylene glycol octylphenyl ether(Triton X-100,T-100),polyethylene pyrrolidone(PVP)and carboxymethyl cellulose(CMC)within lithium-ion battery(LIB)slurry.Initially,the optimum amounts of T-100,PVP and CMC are selected from 0%,0.5%,1.5%and 2.5%by evaluating the impedance of LIB slurry in the case of adding each typical chemical dispersant with EIS method.Moreover,the impedance spectrum of three different slurry samples which are PVDF-NMP solution,LiCoO_(2) slurry and Carbon Black(CB)slurry with the optimum amount of each dispersant are also investigated.After using SEM and C element distribution images of LIB slurry to verify the correctness of the dispersion mechanism of each dispersant,it is concluded that the dispersion CMC with its optimum amount 1.5%is the best one to promote the formation of conductive paths and CB-coated LiCoO_(2) network structure within LIB slurry,which has the considerably potential to improve the performance of LIB.