Abstract Kernel direct harvesting is the mainstream technology of maize harvesting in the world today, it has significant impact on the maize kernel subsequent food processing. Direct harvest technology in china is not well developed due to the influence of growth environment, agronomy, etc., which leads kernel damage. The kernel damage is necessary studied in maize direct harvesting technology. Therefore, “Zheng Dan 958” was selected, the entrance clearance, export clearance, and cylinder speed as variables to carry out the kernel damage experiment. Processed the image of threshed maize kernel, extracted the crack and boundary characteristics of kernel damage, and established the BP neural network model to study the direct harvesting damage and optimize parameters. The results indicated that kernel damage increased with decreasing threshing clearance and increasing threshing intensity. In a certain threshing clearance, cylinder speed was the key factor affecting kernel damage. The R of model was above 0.95, the accuracy of damage quantitative identification was above 85%. When inlet clearance was 35 mm, outlet clearance was 15 mm, and cylinder speed was 300 rpm, kernel damage was small. Our findings will provide reference for kernel direct harvesting technology and improve harvest quality to meet food processing industry demands.

A series of Cu-MCM-41 catalysts were synthesized through in-situ hydrothermal preparation method, calcinated at different temperatures and characterized by thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC), N2 adsorption-desorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FI-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and hydrogen temperature-programmed (H2-TPR). The effect of calcination temperature on the structural properties and selective oxidation of dimethoxymethane (DMM) to dimethyl carbonate (DMC) were discussed in detail. The results showed that the calcination temperature played important role on the microstructure and catalytic activity of the Cu-MCM-41 catalysts. At the calcination temperature 550 °C, the Cu-MCM-41 catalyst possessed higher surface area, smaller pore diameter, stronger metal-support interaction, and better CuO dispersion compared the other catalysts, and the corresponding catalyst exhibited excellent activity and stability for the DMC synthesis. Under the reaction conditions at 2.0 MPa and 130 °C, the highest DMM conversion was 99.47% with the best DMC selectivity of 85.01%. In addition, the catalyst was reused four times without significant loss of performance.

The endophytic fungus strain 0248, isolated from garlic, was identified as Trichoderma brevicompactum based on morphological characteristics and the nucleotide sequences of ITS1-5.8SITS2 and tef1. The bioactive compound T2 was isolated from the culture extracts of this fungus by bioactivity-guided fractionation and identified as 4β-acetoxy-12,13-epoxy-Δ9-trichothecene (trichodermin) by spectral analysis and mass spectrometry. Trichodermin has a marked inhibitory activity on Rhizoctonia solani, with an EC50 of 0.25 µgmL-1. Strong inhibition by trichodermin was also found for Botrytis cinerea, with an EC50 of 2.02 µgmL-1. However, a relatively poor inhibitory effect was observed for trichodermin against Colletotrichum lindemuthianum (EC50 = 25.60 µgmL-1). Compared with the positive control Carbendazim, trichodermin showed a strong antifungal activity on the above phytopathogens. There is little known about endophytes from garlic. This paper studied in detail the identification of endophytic T. brevicompactum from garlic and the characterization of its active metabolite trichodermin.