Weedy rice refers to the unwanted plants of the genus Oryza that have some undesirable agronomic traits and pose a major threat to sustainable rice production worldwide. Widespread adoption of direct seeded rice and hybridization or gene flow between cultivated rice and their wild relatives has resulted in the creation and dissemination of weedy rice. Currently, weedy rice (Oryza sativa f. spontanea) has become one of the most common weeds infesting rice fields worldwide. In this paper, we review the biology, physiology, evolution, and genetic features of weedy rice. We also discuss the major obstacles in weedy rice management, including high diversity of weedy rice, ecological impacts of gene flow on weedy rice, changing climate, and weedy rice management. We then present a framework for the sustainable management and utilization of weedy rice. Our main emphasis is to explore the reservoir of natural variations in weedy germplasm and to utilize them for crop improvement. This review outlines some of the latest biotechnological tools to dissect the genetic backgrounds of several favorable traits of weedy rice that may prove beneficial for breeding and evolutionary studies on cultivated rice. We suggest that by merging the disciplines of genomics, breeding, and weed management, we can achieve the goal of sustainable rice production.

Interconnected macroporous polymers were prepared by copolymerizing methyl acrylate (MA) via Pickering high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) templates with modified silica particles. The pore structure of the obtained polymer foams was observed by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Gas permeability was characterized to evaluate the interconnectivity of macroporous polymers. The polymerization shrinkage of continuous phase tends to form open pores while the solid particles surrounding the droplets act as barriers to produce closed pores. These two conflicting factors are crucial in determining the interconnectivity of macroporous polymers. Thus, poly-Pickering HIPEs with high permeability and well-defined pore structure can be achieved by tuning the MA content, the internal phase fraction, and the content of modified silica particles.

We investigate the impact of center segment dispersity on the phase behavior of 17 lithium salt-doped poly­(styrene-block-oligo­(ethylene oxide) carbonate-block-styrene) (bSOS) triblock polymers, in which broad dispersity O blocks ( Đ O = M w/M n ≈ 1.45) are situated between narrow dispersity S segments ( Đ S ≤ 1.18) with volume fractions f O = 0.33–0.69 and total M n = 11.6–43.8 kg/mol. Broad dispersity bSOS triblocks are synthesized by a tandem polycondensation and atom transfer radical polymerization reaction sequence. Using temperature-dependent small-angle X-ray scattering, we map the morphology diagrams for bSOS samples variously doped with lithium bis­(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)­imide (LiTFSI) with r = (mol Li+)/(mol ethylene oxide) = 0.00–0.09. As compared to the phase behavior exhibited by 13 LiTFSI-doped, narrow dispersity SOS triblocks with f O = 0.30–0.58 and M n = 7.1–45.2 kg/mol, we demonstrate that O segment dispersity shifts the lamellar morphology window to higher f O/salt and the lamellar microdomains dilate at each r value. The critical segregation strength for microphase separation is calculated to be (χN/2)ODT = 10.3–11.1 for r = 0.01–0.05 as compared to the mean-field theory prediction (χN/2)ODT = 8.95. These findings are interpreted in terms of a competition between amplified monomer concentration fluctuations due to O segment dispersity in these high χ/low N triblocks and ordered morphology stabilization due to preferential lithium salt solvation in the O domains.

The Joint Safety Team (JST) was conceived in 2012 by the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Chemistry at the University of Minnesota and the Dow Chemical Company as a model student-led safety organization. The JST initiative was aimed at improving academic safety through four core areas: compliance, awareness, resources, and education. Since its inception, the JST has taken great strides to develop a culture of peer-led safety at Minnesota. We describe the evolution of the structure of the organization over the last 8 years and the innovative methodologies employed by the JST to educate and evaluate safety in academic laboratories. The continuous efforts of the student members of the JST have enabled the organization to be recognized as a leader in peer-to-peer safety. The Minnesota model of “inform and reform” is now being adopted at other academic institutions to develop safety organizations emulating the JST.

Punch-sticking during tablet compression is a common problem for many active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which renders tablet formulation development challenging. Herein, we demonstrate that the punch-sticking propensity of a highly sticky API, celecoxib (CEL), can be effectively reduced by spherical crystallization enabled by a polymer assisted quasi-emulsion solvent diffusion (QESD) process. Among three commonly used pharmaceutical polymers, poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP), hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), HPMC was the most effective in stabilizing the transient emulsion during QESD and retarding the coalescence of emulsion droplets and the initiation of CEL crystallization. These observations may arise from stronger intermolecular interactions between HPMC and CEL, consistent with solution 1 H NMR analyses. SEM and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the presence of a thin layer of HPMC on the surfaces of spherical particles. Thus, the sticking propensity was significantly reduced because the HPMC coating prevents direct contact between CEL and the punch tip during tablet compression.