New RPL Protocol for IoT Applications

The Objective Function (OF) can be used by the Routing protocol for low power lossy networks (RPL) to construct a Destination Oriented Directed Acyclic Graph (DODAG) based on routing metrics. The standard OFs suffer from long hops when selecting the route, which may cause consume the node\u27s energy faster. In this paper, we suggest an improvement of RPL OF that considers three metrics. The results show that the proposed protocol increases network lifetime by reducing energy consumption, increasing efficiency, increasing Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), and decreasing packet loss ratio. In terms of PDR, packet loss ratio, and average power consumption, the best performance of the proposed protocol is shown in the network with 70 nodes and when the transmission range is 50m. Compared with the MRHOF, the proposed protocol increased the PDR by 58.425%, decreased the packet loss ratio by 0.21765, and decreased the total power consumption by 181.815mW. In terms of the average Expected Transmission Count (ETX) the best performance of the proposed protocol is shown in the network with 60 nodes and the transmission range is 40m. The proposed protocol reduced the average ETX by 49 compared to the MRHOF

Green Building Insurance

This paper addresses fundamental issues in green building insurance. Thus it discusses the modernity of the insurance for such buildings, the scope of insurance liability in green insurance, the role of the judge in developing the provisions of this contract through his modernized judgment, parties to the green insurance contract and the nature of the green insurance contracts for them, along with the applicable law, and it highlights the cases that may arise between the parties. The paper concludes a number of results, most important, that the nature and novelty of green buildings may be accompanied by unusual risks in traditional buildings which requires special insurance contract to cover such risks and to create specialized experts in green buildings to be relied upon by the court in issuing decisions as the judiciary may play a major role in developing the legal rules for green building, and finally it stresses the necessity to make the green building insurance contract obligatory. Key words: green building, LEED, traditional buildings, green insurance, risks, green material

Contractual Suggestions for Engineer in Green Buildings

This paper discusses green buildings construction contracts with very important suggestions related to an engineer who is either a consultant, a designer, a site engineer or a supervisor over such constructions. This research discusses the commitment of an engineer to the green buildings’ code and the importance of previous consultancy on such constructions in addition to the commitment of an engineer to green engineer standard and adoption of typical contracts. The engineer should consider the consequences of using green materials and the additional works, services and guarantees that should be provided after the implementation. In addition, an engineer should avoid the disadvantages of offering his previous experience and promises extensively. This paper concludes with many results and recommendations, most important of which is that the commitment to green codes is absolutely different from traditional standards required by an engineer to avoid liability. Keywords: Green engineer, green engineer standard, green buildings, green code, construction materials, additional works, experience, LEED, and traditional buildings

Contractual Suggestions for the Contractor in Green Buildings

Many contractors are seeking to practice green buildings and to enter green market without realizing risks that might rise thereof. This paper will suggest the important issues relating to green construction contracts, to be considered by the contractor whether to include or exclude from the contract with an owner, to avoid liability. Thus, it discusses the material used in green building, guarantees for obtaining green certification, the delays in works implementation, determination of obligation and its related risk and the contractor understanding of his obligation. It concludes that the contractor should take care upon conclusion of the contract to include all the provisions that ensure the integrity of performance and to avoid liability and the Jordanian legislator shall provide legal ambit for green building construction.   Key word: green building, construction, liability, contractor

Double feature selection and cluster analyses in mining of microarray data from cotton

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cotton fiber is a single-celled seed trichome of major biological and economic importance. In recent years, genomic approaches such as microarray-based expression profiling were used to study fiber growth and development to understand the developmental mechanisms of fiber at the molecular level. The vast volume of microarray expression data generated requires a sophisticated means of data mining in order to extract novel information that addresses fundamental questions of biological interest. One of the ways to approach microarray data mining is to increase the number of dimensions/levels to the analysis, such as comparing independent studies from different genotypes. However, adding dimensions also creates a challenge in finding novel ways for analyzing multi-dimensional microarray data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mining of independent microarray studies from Pima and Upland (TM1) cotton using double feature selection and cluster analyses identified species-specific and stage-specific gene transcripts that argue in favor of discrete genetic mechanisms that govern developmental programming of cotton fiber morphogenesis in these two cultivated species. Double feature selection analysis identified the highest number of differentially expressed genes that distinguish the fiber transcriptomes of developing Pima and TM1 fibers. These results were based on the finding that differences in fibers harvested between 17 and 24 day post-anthesis (dpa) represent the greatest expressional distance between the two species. This powerful selection method identified a subset of genes expressed during primary (PCW) and secondary (SCW) cell wall biogenesis in Pima fibers that exhibits an expression pattern that is generally reversed in TM1 at the same developmental stage. Cluster and functional analyses revealed that this subset of genes are primarily regulated during the transition stage that overlaps the termination of PCW and onset of SCW biogenesis, suggesting that these particular genes play a major role in the genetic mechanism that underlies the phenotypic differences in fiber traits between Pima and TM1.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The novel application of double feature selection analysis led to the discovery of species- and stage-specific genetic expression patterns, which are biologically relevant to the genetic programs that underlie the differences in the fiber phenotypes in Pima and TM1. These results promise to have profound impacts on the ongoing efforts to improve cotton fiber traits.</p

Effect of Quality and Quantity of Locally Produced Filler on Moisture Damage Hot Asphaltic Mixtures

The modern road network is of the most important requirements of the present life. The filler is regarded as one of its major components, and it has great importance in the mixture. When improving its properties and specifications, the hot mixing properties of the asphalt mix are improved . The results of the tests conducted for this research showed that the addition of 1.5% H.L to the control mixture led to a significant increase in the stability of Marshall and air voids, with a rise in (20.4 and 7%), respectively, with an increase in the optimum asphalt content. Moreover, the increase in the tensile strength ratio (TSR) was at the same rate and amounted to 13.6% when compared to the control mixture. The mixtures containing cement kiln dust also led to an increase in the stability of Marshall and air voids. The most significant increase was when replacing it by 50% (23.5 and 6%), respectively, with an increase in the asphalt content. The ratio of indirect tensile strength to tensile strength when CKD is 25% and 50% increases by (6.4% and 12.3%) respectively. These properties deteriorate when the cement kiln dust content increases or hydrated lime increases

Genomic and small RNA sequencing of Miscanthus × giganteus shows the utility of sorghum as a reference genome sequence for Andropogoneae grasses

Genomic data together with sequencing of tissue specific small RNA libraries reveals insights into the genome content, small RNA repertoire and evolutionary origins of the grass Miscanthus × giganteus

Gapless Assembly of Maize Chromosomes Using Long-Read Technologies

Creating gapless telomere-to-telomere assemblies of complex genomes is one of the ultimate challenges in genomics. We use two independent assemblies and an optical map-based merging pipeline to produce a maize genome (B73-Ab10) composed of 63 contigs and a contig N50 of 162 Mb. This genome includes gapless assemblies of chromosome 3 (236 Mb) and chromosome 9 (162 Mb), and 53 Mb of the Ab10 meiotic drive haplotype. The data also reveal the internal structure of seven centromeres and five heterochromatic knobs, showing that the major tandem repeat arrays (CentC, knob180, and TR-1) are discontinuous and frequently interspersed with retroelements

Molecular Mechanisms of Fiber Differential Development between G. barbadense and G. hirsutum Revealed by Genetical Genomics

Cotton fiber qualities including length, strength and fineness are known to be controlled by genes affecting cell elongation and secondary cell wall (SCW) biosynthesis, but the molecular mechanisms that govern development of fiber traits are largely unknown. Here, we evaluated an interspecific backcrossed population from G. barbadense cv. Hai7124 and G. hirsutum acc. TM-1 for fiber characteristics in four-year environments under field conditions, and detected 12 quantitative trait loci (QTL) and QTL-by-environment interactions by multi-QTL joint analysis. Further analysis of fiber growth and gene expression between TM-1 and Hai7124 showed greater differences at 10 and 25 days post-anthesis (DPA). In this two period important for fiber performances, we integrated genome-wide expression profiling with linkage analysis using the same genetic materials and identified in total 916 expression QTL (eQTL) significantly (P<0.05) affecting the expression of 394 differential genes. Many positional cis-/trans-acting eQTL and eQTL hotspots were detected across the genome. By comparative mapping of eQTL and fiber QTL, a dataset of candidate genes affecting fiber qualities was generated. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis confirmed the major differential genes regulating fiber cell elongation or SCW synthesis. These data collectively support molecular mechanism for G. hirsutum and G. barbadense through differential gene regulation causing difference of fiber qualities. The down-regulated expression of abscisic acid (ABA) and ethylene signaling pathway genes and high-level and long-term expression of positive regulators including auxin and cell wall enzyme genes for fiber cell elongation at the fiber developmental transition stage may account for superior fiber qualities