Characterization of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) NAC transcription factors suggests conserved functions compared to both monocots and dicots

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The NAC transcription factor family is involved in the regulation of traits in both monocots and dicots of high agronomic importance. Understanding the precise functions of the NAC genes can be of utmost importance for the improvement of cereal crop plants through plant breeding. For the cereal crop plant barley (<it>Hordeum vulgare </it>L.) only a few <it>NAC </it>genes have so far been investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Through searches in publicly available barley sequence databases we have obtained a list of 48 barley <it>NAC </it>genes (<it>HvNACs</it>) with 43 of them representing full-length coding sequences. Phylogenetic comparisons to Brachypodium, rice, and Arabidopsis NAC proteins indicate that the barley NAC family includes members from all of the eight NAC subfamilies, although by comparison to these species a number of <it>HvNACs </it>still remains to be identified. Using qRT-PCR we investigated the expression profiles of 46 <it>HvNACs </it>across eight barley tissues (young flag leaf, senescing flag leaf, young ear, old ear, milk grain, late dough grain, roots, and developing stem) and two hormone treatments (abscisic acid and methyl jasmonate).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Comparisons of expression profiles of selected barley <it>NAC </it>genes with the published functions of closely related <it>NAC </it>genes from other plant species, including both monocots and dicots, suggest conserved functions in the areas of secondary cell wall biosynthesis, leaf senescence, root development, seed development, and hormone regulated stress responses.</p

The Chinese Service Industry as a Challenge for European SME: A Systematic Approach for Market Entry

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityCompared to industrial firms, the market share of foreign companies in the Chinese service industry is rather low. Especially western small and medium-sized service providing enterprises face different problems when they try to establish a business in China. Therefore an approach has been developed within a research project, which aims to support these companies in planning and successfully realising a service market entry in China. Methods are presented, which allow a systematic benchmark and selection of the target markets and a detailed definition and agreement of the cooperation between the Chinese and the western company.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Compan

Planning, control and improvement of cross-site production process chains

The production of technologically challenging products often requires a number of highly specialised manufacturing technologies. The resulting process is characterised more and more by cross-site or even cross-enterprise cooperation. With an increasing number of participating facilities or enterprises the management of these process chains can not be accomplished without subsidiary methods. This paper presents an approach for the planning; control and improvement of cross site production process chains. The approach contains the harmonization of the customer-supplier-relationship for the process participants; as well as the application of an internet based workflow tool and the process improvement through application of the method TRIZ

Hardware-in-the-Loop Methods for Real-Time Frequency-Response Measurements of on-Board Power Distribution Systems

The operation of more electric aircraft is dependent on the embedded power grid. Therefore, the on-board power-distribution system must be reliable, having a high level of survivability, and promptly respond to any change in aircraft's operation. Recent studies have presented a number of frequency-response-based tools with which to analyze both single- and multiconverter systems. The methods can be efficiently applied for on-board system analysis, stability assessment, and adaptive control design. Most often, wideband measurement techniques have been applied to obtain the frequency response from a specific converter or a subsystem required for the analysis. In the methods, a broadband excitation such as a pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) is used as an external injection, and Fourier techniques are applied to extract the spectral information. This paper presents implementation techniques of the wideband methods using power-hardware-in-the-loop measurements based on OPAL-RT real-time simulator. The presented methods make it possible to modify the system characteristics, such as impedance behavior, in real time, thereby providing means for various stability and control design tools for on-board power distribution systems. Experimental measurements are shown from a high-power energy distribution system recently developed at DNV GL, Arnhem, The Netherlands