No abstract

Water treeing is one of the main deterioration phenomena observed in the polymeric insulation of extruded crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) cables, which can affect the service life of power cables. In this work, we investigated the effect of grafting of a silane (vinyl trimethoxysilane, VTMS) on the resistance of XLPE to water treeing. A series of water-treeing tests, the mechanical and dielectric measurements indicated that the silane-grafting could significantly improve the water tree resistance of the conventional XLPE cable insulation with little influences on its dielectric properties, e.g., the dielectric breakdown strength, dielectric constant and loss tangent, and its mechanical performance. It was found that there exists an optimum value of VTMS concentration (about 0.6 phr) corresponding to the minimum water tree length. The water tree resistance mechanism of silane-grafted XLPE was proposed on the basis of the process of silane hydrolysis and crosslinking.

Male sterility is an important agronomic trait for hybrid vigor utilization and hybrid seed production, but its underlying mechanisms remain to be uncovered. Here, we investigated the mechanisms of male sterility in peach using a combined cytology, physiology, and molecular approach. Cytological features of male sterility include deformed microspores and tapetum cells along with absence of pollen grains. Microspores had smaller nucleus at the mononuclear stage and were compressed into belts and subsequently disappeared in the anther cavity, whereas tapetum cells were swollen and vacuolated, with a delayed degradation to flowering time. Male sterile anthers had an ROS burst and lower levels of major antioxidants, which may cause abnormal development of microspores and tapetum, leading to male sterility in peach. In addition, the male sterility appears to be cytoplasmic in peach, which could be due to sequence variation in the mitochondrial genome. Our results are helpful for further investigation of the genetic mechanisms underlying male sterility in peach.