NAC (NAM-ATAF1, 2-CUC2) family members play important roles in various environmental responses. Here, we cloned a full-length NAC gene (954 bp) from Solanum lycopersicum (SlNAC1). This gene belonged to ATAF subfamily which included ATAF1 and ATAF2 of Arabidopsis thaliana. SlNAC1 expression was induced by chilling stress (4°C), heat stress (40°C), high salinity, osmotic stress and mechanical wounding. SlNAC1 transcripts were enhanced after application of abscisic acid, methyl jasmonate, salicylic acid, gibberellin, ethylene, methyl viologen and hydrogen peroxide. The seedlings of transgenic plants overexpressing SlNAC1 grew more leaves but were shorter than wild-type (WT) plants. SlNAC1 overexpression increased the chilling tolerance of tomato plants by maintaining the higher maximal photochemical efficiency of photosystem II and oxygen-evolving activities. Compared with WT plants, transgenic plants showed higher superoxide dismutase (EC 1.15.1.1) and catalase (EC 1.11.1.6) activities, which reduced levels of H2 O2 and superoxide anion radicals and promoted lower ion leakage and malondialdehyde content. The expression level of SlCBF1 in transgenic plants was also higher than that in WT plants under both normal conditions and chilling stress; this increased expression may be the main factor influencing the high chilling tolerance of transgenic plants. The results suggest that SlNAC1 plays important roles in diversiform plant-stress responses and diverse signaling pathways.

The roles of a tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) chloroplast-targeted DnaJ protein (LeCDJ1) were investigated using wild-type (WT) and sense transgenic tomatoes. The LeCDJ1 expression was upregulated by 38 °C, 42 °C, 45 °C, NaCl, PEG, methyl viologen (MV) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), but not by 30 °C and 35 °C. Meanwhile, LeCDJ1 was involved in the response of plants to abscisic acid (ABA). Under heat stress, the sense plants showed better growth, higher chlorophyll content, lower malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation and relative electrical conductivity (REC), and also less PSII photoinhibition than WT. Interestingly, the sense plants treated with streptomycin (SM), an inhibitor of organellar translation, still showed higher maximum photochemistry efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) and D1 protein levels than the SM-untreated WT, suggesting that the protective effect of LeCDJ1 on PSII was, at least partially, independent of D1 protein synthesis. Furthermore, the relatively lower superoxide radical (O2(•-)) and H2O2 levels in the sense plants were considered to be due to the higher ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, which seemed unlikely dependent on their transcription level. These results indicated that LeCDJ1 overexpression facilitated heat tolerance in transgenic tomatoes.

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Vanadium-doped silicon cluster anions, V 3 Si n − (n = 3−14), have been generated by laser vaporization and investigated by anion photoelectron spectroscopy. The vertical detachment energies (VDEs) and adiabatic detachment energies (ADEs) of these clusters were obtained. Meanwhile, genetic algorithm (GA) combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations are employed to determine their groundstate structures systematically. Excellent agreement is found between theory and experiment. Among the V 3 Si n − clusters, V 3 Si 5 − , V 3 Si 9 − , and V 3 Si 12 − are relatively more stable. Generally speaking, three V atoms prefer to stay close with others and form strong V−V bonds. Starting from V 3 Si 11 − , cage configurations with one interior V atom emerge.

We study transient ®nite deformations of a neoHookean beam or plate with piezoelectric (PZT) patches bonded to its upper and lower surfaces. The constitutive relations for the PZTs are taken to be linear in the Green-Lagrange strain tensor but quadratic in the driving voltage. A ®nite element code using 8-noded brick elements has been developed and validated by comparing computed results with either analytical solutions or experimental observations. For¯exural waves propagating through a cantilever beam, the sensor output is in¯uenced a little by the presence of a defect placed symmetrically about the centroidal axis. A simple feedback control algorithm is shown to control the motion of a neoHookean plate subjected to an impulsive load.

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The selection and design of modern high-performance structural engineering materials such as nanostructured metallic multilayers (NMMs) is driven by optimizing combinations of mechanical properties and requirements for predictable and noncatastrophic failure in service. Here, the Cu/X (X = Zr, Cr) nanolayered micropillars with equal layer thickness (h) spanning from 5–125 nm are uniaxially compressed and it is found that these NMMs exhibit a maximum strain hardening capability and simultaneously display a transition from bulk-like to small-volume materials behavior associated with the strength at a critical intrinsic size h ~ 20 nm. We develop a deformation mode-map to bridge the gap between the interface characteristics of NMMs and their failure phenomena, which, as shrinking the intrinsic size, transit from localized interface debonding/extrusion to interface shearing. Our findings demonstrate that the optimum robust performance can be achieved in NMMs and provide guidance for their microstructure sensitive design for performance optimization.