The potential involvement of antioxidants (α-tocopherol, lutein, zeaxanthin, β-carotene, and ferulic acid) in the resistance of maize varieties to Fusarium ear rot was the focus of this study. These antioxidants were present in all maize kernel stages, indicating that the fumonisin-producing fungi (mainly Fusarium verticillioides and Fusarium proliferatum ) are likely to face them during ear colonization. The effect of these compounds on fumonisin biosynthesis was studied in F. verticillioides liquid cultures. In carotenoid-treated cultures, no inhibitory effect of fumonisin accumulation was observed while a potent inhibitory activity was obtained for sublethal doses of α-tocopherol (0.1 mM) and ferulic acid (1 mM). Using a set of genotypes with moderate to high susceptibility to Fusarium ear rot, ferulic acid was significantly lower in immature kernels of the very susceptible group. Such a relation was nonexistent for tocopherols and carotenoids. Also, ferulic acid in immature kernels ranged from 3 to 8.5 mg/g, i.e., at levels consistent with the in vitro inhibitory concentration. Overall, our data support the fact that ferulic acid may contribute to resistance to Fusarium ear rot and/or fumonisin accumulation.

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Real industrial examples have been used to evaluate the viability of several cavitation erosion risk indicators (ERIs). Industry standard endurance tests resulted in non-critical cavitation erosion of a shoe and shoe-guide assembly in a high-pressure fuel pump. A design modification was made which eliminated the erosion. Transient CFD simulations of the two designs were run. The distribution and intensity of the resulting ERIs were evaluated against photographic evidence of erosion taken after endurance testing. Details of the component dynamics and the resulting cavitation formation and collapse are presented, along with an analysis of the ERIs for their potential usefulness. Of the 11 ERIs studied, two were found to be particularly good indicators, one of which is newly derived for this research. It is now anticipated that using these ERIs to guide product design and development will save considerable time and cost.

A discontinuous Galerkin method for the numerical approximation for the time-dependent Maxwell's equations in "stable medium" with supraconductive boundary, is introduced and analysed. its hp-analysis is carried out and error estimates that are optimal in the meshsize h and slightly suboptimal in the approximation degree p are obtained.