Toxicity of S-metolachlor to non-target crop Vigna angularis: Influences from soil properties to molecular mechanism.

S-metolachlor (ME) is a widely used pre-emergence herbicide, and yet there are frequent incidents of non-target crop damage caused by ME application in production practice. Understanding the factors and mechanisms influencing the toxicity of ME on non-target crops is crucial for ensuring the rational use of pesticides in agriculture. This study shows that while the permissible concentration of ME does not significantly affect the germination rate of Vigna angularis (V.

Quantitative detection of urinary bladder cancer antigen via peptide-immobilized magnetic bead-based SERS probe.

Antibody pairing is a difficult step in developing all immune-sandwich assay for antigen detection. Urinary bladder cancer (UBC) antigen is a typical bladder cancer biomarker for the early diagnosis of bladder cancer. Based on peptide-antibody pairing, a surface-enhanced Raman scattering platform for the ultrasensitive detection of UBC is presented.

Hermetic Welding of an Optical Fiber Fabry-Pérot Cavity for a Diaphragm-Based Pressure Sensor Using CO Laser.

A diaphragm-based hermetic optical fiber Fabry-Pérot (FP) cavity is proposed and demonstrated for pressure sensing. The FP cavity is hermetically sealed using one-step CO laser welding with a cavity length from 30 to 100 μm. A thin diaphragm is formed by polishing the hermetic FP cavity for pressure sensing.

Local electronic descriptors for solute-defect interactions in bcc refractory metals.

The interactions between solute atoms and crystalline defects such as vacancies, dislocations, and grain boundaries are essential in determining alloy properties. Here we present a general linear correlation between two descriptors of local electronic structures and the solute-defect interaction energies in binary alloys of body-centered-cubic (bcc) refractory metals (such as W and Ta) with transition-metal substitutional solutes. One electronic descriptor is the bimodality of the d-orbital local density of states for a matrix atom at the substitutional site, and the other is related to the hybridization strength between the valance sp- and d-bands for the same matrix atom.

Dislocation nucleation facilitated by atomic segregation.

Surface segregation-the enrichment of one element at the surface, relative to the bulk-is ubiquitous to multi-component materials. Using the example of a Cu-Au solid solution, we demonstrate that compositional variations induced by surface segregation are accompanied by misfit strain and the formation of dislocations in the subsurface region via a surface diffusion and trapping process. The resulting chemically ordered surface regions acts as an effective barrier that inhibits subsequent dislocation annihilation at free surfaces.