Changes in extreme high-temperature tolerance and activities of antioxidant enzymes of sacred lotus seeds

Sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. ‘Tielian’) seed is long-lived and extremely tolerant of high temperature. Water content of lotus and maize seeds was 0.103 and 0.129 g H2O [g DW] ?1, respectively. Water content, germination percentage and fresh weight of seedlings produced by surviving seeds gradually decreased with increasing treatment time at 100℃. Germination percentage of maize (Zea mays L. ‘Huangbaogu’) seeds was zero after they were treated at 100℃ for 15 min and that of lotus seeds was 13.5% following the treatment at 100℃ for 24 h. The time in which 50% of lotus and maize seeds were killed by 100℃ was about 14.5 h and 6 min, respectively. With increasing treatment time at 100℃, relative electrolyte leakage of lotus axes increased significantly, and total chlorophyll content of lotus axes markedly decreased. When treatment time at 100℃ was less than 12 h, subcellular structure of lotus hypocotyls remained fully intact. When treatment time at 100℃ was more than 12 h, plasmoly-sis gradually occurred, endoplasmic reticulum became unclear, nuclei and nucleoli broke down, most of mitochondria swelled, lipid granules accumulated at the cell periphery, and organelles and plas-molemma collapsed. Malondialdehyde (MDA) content of lotus axes and cotyledons decreased during 0-12 h of the treatment at 100℃ and then increased. By contrast, the MDA content of maize embryos and endosperms increased during 5-10 min of the treatment at 100℃ and then decreased slightly. For lotus seeds: (1) activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione reductase (GR) of axes and cotyledons and of catalase (CAT) of axes increased during the early phase of treatment at 100℃ and then decreased; and (2) activities of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) of axes and cotyledons and of CAT of cotyledons gradually decreased with increasing treat-ment time at 100℃. For maize seeds: (1) activities of SOD and DHAR of embryos and endosperms and of GR of embryos increased during the early phase of the treatment at 100℃ and then decreased; and (2) activities of APX and CAT of embryos and endosperms and of GR of endosperms rapidly decreased with increasing treatment time at 100℃. With decrease in seed germination, activities of SOD, APX, CAT, GR and DHAR of axes and cotyledons of lotus seeds decreased slowly, and those of embryos and endosperms of maize seeds decreased rapidly.

丁香属植物光合机构的热响应特征研究

为研究植物迁地保育的引种适应机制,以丁香属广布种和狭域种4种代表种质为试验材料,研究了丁香属种间叶片光合气体交换、叶绿素荧光的热响应特征。结果显示,引种地旱季37℃高温使4种丁香净光合速率(Pn)呈不同变化趋势,气孔导度(Gs)和胞间CO2浓度(Ci)均呈上升趋势;与冷凉处理相比,适度高温下4种丁香叶片羧化效率(CE)不同程度下降,而蒸腾速率(Tr)与之相反;高温下,4种丁香光系统II(PSII)的激发能捕获效率(Fv′/Fm′)、光化学淬灭(qP)、实际光化学效率(ΦPSII)和电子传递速率(ETR)与净光合速率变化相一致。与紫丁香和暴马丁香相比,红丁香和羽叶丁香的非光化学淬灭(NPQ)均显著升高。综合分析表明:(1)在适度高温下,非气孔因素是丁香狭域种光合速率下降的主要原因;(2)较高的蒸腾速率和较强的光能利用效率可能是丁香广布种在适度高温下保持光合机构热稳定性的重要原因;(3)紫丁香、暴马丁香较耐热,羽叶丁香的耐热性最差。

Performance evaluation of laponite as a mud-making material for drilling fluids

In this study, laponite was tested as a mud-making material for drilling fluids. Laponite is a synthetic smectite clay with a structure and composition closely resembling the natural clay mineral hectorite. Commercially available laponite was characterized by X-ray di ractometry, scanning electron microscopy and infrared spectrometry. Its dispersibility, salt resistance and high-temperature resistance were evaluated. The results showed that laponite possessed superior cation exchange capacity(140.4 mmol/100 g) with interlayer cations of Na^+ and Li^+. Laponite could easily be dispersed in water to yield increased viscosity with no influence from hydration time or temperature. On the other hand, laponite dispersions displayed an excellent heat resistance, with invariant apparent viscosity at high temperatures. For instance, the apparent viscosity of the2 wt% laponite dispersion underwent changes between 22 and 24 mPa s after hot rolling at 180–240 °C for 16 h. Compared to existing mud-making materials, laponite exhibited better mud-making properties. Furthermore, laponite revealed good compatibility with other additives, and the water-based drilling fluids prepared with laponite as mud-making material showed an excellent stability at elevated temperatures and superior performance–cost ratios. Overall, these findings indicated that laponite had an excellent dispersibility at high temperatures and hence would have promising applications as high-temperature mud-making material for preparing water-based drilling fluids designed for ultra-high-temperature environments.

High‑Temperature‑Tolerant Artificial Muscles Using Poly(p‑phenylene benzobisoxazole)Composite Yarns

Today the developed yarn muscles or actuators still cannot satisfy the requirements of working in high-temperature environ-ments.Thermal resistivity is highly needed in aerospace and industrial protection applications.Herein,an artificial muscle with high-temperature tolerance is prepared using carbon nanotube(CNT)wrapped poly(p-phenylene benzobisoxazole)(PBO)composite yarns.A thermal twisting method was utilized to reorientate the stiff PBO molecular chains into a uniform and twist-stable coiled structure.The CNT/PBO composite yarn muscle generates reversible contractile strokes up to 18.9%under 5.4 MPa tension and outputs 1.3 kJ kg^(-1) energy density.In contrast to previous actuators,which are normally oper-ated at room temperatures,the CNT/PBO composite yarn muscles can work at ambient temperatures up to 300℃ with high contractile stroke and long-term stability.A bionic inchworm robot,a deployable structure,and smart textiles driven by the high-temperature-tolerant yarn muscles were demonstrated,showing the promise as a soft actuator towards high-temperature environment applications.