Provivi (United States)

The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (Smith), has been problematic in Southeast Asia since its invasion in 2019. Fall armyworm management in these areas largely depends on synthetic insecticide application, and alternative management practices are very few and impractical. The demand for new and more sustainable tools for managing this pest has increased. In this study, we tested the mating disruption (MD) efficacy of fall armyworm sex pheromone in low-density polyethylene dispensers containing 2.5 g of blended active ingredients, (Z)-9-tetradecen-1-yl acetate (Z9-14Ac) and (Z)-11-hexadecen-1-yl acetate (Z11-16Ac) in a ratio of 87:13. The primary objective was to evaluate the optimal density of the dispensers/ha and understand the benefits of MD in reducing the damage caused by fall armyworm and associated insecticide applications as compared to conventional growers’ practices in Indonesia and Thailand. Research was conducted at 16 locations across Indonesia and Thailand in 2020 and 2021 in 9-ha treatment plots and compared to conventional growers practice. Trap reduction, a measure of MD, was significantly higher (74–90%) with 30 dispensers/ha than with non-dispenser areas, suggesting high levels of mating suppression. MD’s primary benefit is damage reduction, where 30 dispensers/ha reduced damage caused by fall armyworm larvae by 34–35% while simultaneously enabling a greater than 50% reduction in insecticide usage compared to the conventional growers’ practice. Our results show the effectiveness and feasibility of MD using pheromones as an essential management tactic for fall armyworm. These results represent a potential step towards more efficacious and sustainable pest management in Southeast Asia.

The growing need for high-power and compact-size microelectronic integrated circuits (ICs) in modern microelectronic industries and 5G communication systems demands low dielectric constant (κ) polymer dielectrics with excellent temperature capability, mechanical property and processability. However, conventional molecular design strategies often face difficulties of a trade-off between optimizing the dielectric performance of polymers and maintaining the aforementioned properties. Herein, we present an innovative and facile strategy that utilizes the space charge distribution characteristics of the target co-monomer to solve this trade-off. Based on this design strategy, a novel polyaryl ether ketone (PAEK) with two different charge distribution units (BAF and SBI) was designed and synthesized. Both the experimental results and computational simulations confirm that these two components serve to weaken the polarization of molecular chains in the electric field, induce higher molecular chain packing density and fewer weaknesses, and synchronously regulate the κ, dielectric loss (tan δ), thermal and mechanical properties and processability by generating a strong inter-chain electrostatic interaction. The resultant copolymer, PAEK-4F6S, exhibits exceptional low κ and tan δ values of 1.98 and 0.0024 at 1 MHz, respectively, and these values remain stable over a broad frequency (1-106 Hz, 8.2-12.4 GHz) and temperature range (30-150 °C). Furthermore, the resultant copolymer demonstrates excellent thermal stability and mechanical properties, with a glass transition temperature (Tg) of 195 °C, 5 wt% decomposition temperature (Td5%) of 498 °C under N2, tensile strength of 63.5 MPa and tensile modulus of 1011.2 MPa, respectively. The synthesis procedure of these resultant copolymers is facile, and they are found to have favorable solution and melt processing properties, making them suitable for processing and scalable production. More importantly, this design strategy is beneficial for lowering the κ and tan δ values, and simultaneously enhancing the comprehensive performances of the objective polymers, which provides a completely novel and facile approach for the design and fabrication of high performance low-κ polymers suitable for the needs of microelectronics and communication fields.