RNAi-directed downregulation of OsBADH2 results in aroma (2-acetyl-1-pyrroline) production in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Aromatic rice is popular worldwide because of its characteristic fragrance. Genetic studies and physical fine mapping reveal that a candidate gene (<it>fgr</it>/<it>OsBADH2</it>) homologous to <it>betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase </it>is responsible for aroma metabolism in fragrant rice varieties, but the direct evidence demonstrating the functions of <it>OsBADH2 </it>is lacking. To elucidate the physiological roles of <it>OsBADH2</it>, sequencing approach and RNA interference (RNAi) technique were employed to analyze allelic variation and functions of <it>OsBADH2 </it>gene in aroma production. Semi-quantitative, real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), as well as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) were conducted to determine the expression levels of <it>OsBADH2 </it>and the fragrant compound in wild type and transgenic <it>OsBADH2</it>-RNAi repression lines, respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results showed that multiple mutations identical to <it>fgr </it>allele occur in the 13 fragrant rice accessions across China; <it>OsBADH2 </it>is expressed constitutively, with less expression abundance in mature roots; the disrupted <it>OsBADH2 </it>by RNA interference leads to significantly increased 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline production.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We have found that the altered expression levels of <it>OsBADH2 </it>gene influence aroma accumulation, and the prevalent aromatic allele probably has a single evolutionary origin.</p

The silicon isotope composition of Ethmodiscus rexlaminated diatom mats from the tropical West Pacific: Implications for silicate cycling during the Last Glacial Maximum

The cause of massive blooms of Ethmodiscus rex laminated diatom mats (LDMs) in the eastern Philippine Sea (EPS) during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) remains uncertain. In order to better understand the mechanism of formation of E. rex LDMs from the perspective of dissolved silicon (DSi) utilization, we determined the silicon isotopic composition of single E. rex diatom frustules (δ30SiE. rex) from two sediment cores in the Parece Vela Basin of the EPS. In the study cores, δ30SiE. rex varies from −1.23‰ to −0.83‰ (average −1.04‰), a range that is atypical of marine diatom δ30Si and that corresponds to the lower limit of reported diatom δ30Si values of any age. A binary mixing model (upwelled silicon versus eolian silicon) accounting for silicon isotopic fractionation during DSi uptake by diatoms was constructed. The binary mixing model demonstrates that E. rex dominantly utilized DSi from eolian sources (i.e., Asian dust) with only minor contributions from upwelled seawater sources (i.e., advected from Subantarctic Mode Water, Antarctic Intermediate Water, or North Pacific Intermediate Water). E. rex utilized only ~24% of available DSi, indicating that surface waters of the EPS were eutrophic with respect to silicon during the LGM. Our results suggest that giant diatoms did not always use a buoyancy strategy to obtain nutrients from the deep nutrient pool, thus revising previously proposed models for the formation of E. rex LDMs

Production disruption management for R/M integrated supply chain using system dynamics methodology

The impacts of production disruption in Remanufacturing/Manufacturing (R/M) integrated supply chain on the sales and the methods of production disruption management were studied. A system dynamics model for the R/M integrated supply chain with production disruption was improved by system dynamics methodology. The numerical examples were shown to illustrate the simulation results. The impacts of different recovery times of production disruption on the sales were presented. In order to mitigate the disruption risks and ensure the sales at the needed sales ratio, the methods for setting multi-echelon inventory levels before the occurring of the production disruption and the methods for making back-up plans after the production disruption occurs were given

A Novel Encryption Frame for Medical Image with Watermark Based on Hyperchaotic System

An encryption frame of medical image with watermark based on hyperchaotic system is proposed in this paper. Medical information, such as the patients’ private information, data needed for diagnosis, and information for authentication or protection of medical files, is embedded into the regions of interest (ROI) in medical images with a high capacity difference-histogram-based reversible data-hiding scheme. After that, the watermarked medical images are encrypted with hyperchaotic systems. In the receiving end, the receiver with encryption key can decrypt the image to get similar images for diagnosis. If the receiver has the key for data hiding at the same time, he/she can extract the embedded private information and reversibly recover the original medical image. Experiments and analyses demonstrate that high embedding capacity and low distortion have been achieved in the process of data hiding, and, at the same time, high security has been acquired in the encryption phase

Price Decisions of New Product Based on Subsidy-pricedepending and Payment-sharing

AbstractIn order to stimulate private spending and curb pollution, the Chinese government has decided to offer financial subsidy to carry out home-appliance replacement from June 1, 2009 to May 31, 2010. Because the financial subsidy can be offered until May 31, 2010, the manufacturer must face the problem: if the government stops to offer the financial subsidy, whether to continue the home-appliance replacement or not? If continue to carry out the homeappliance replacement, the manufacturer should give the payment to the replacement consumer. In this case, there is a potential risk for the manufacturer: the unit cost of the new product will increase. In this paper, we studied the price decisions for the manufacturer and the retailer under two cases: case I, the government offers the financial subsidy which is depended on the retail price; case II, the government stops to offer the financial subsidy, the manufacturer will share the payment with the retailer. At the same time, we analyze the impacts of the subsidizing rate and the sharing ratio on the optimal results by a numerical example

Improvement of Hierarchical Routing Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Network

To prolong the life cycle of the network and increase the effective data transmission quantity of the network, several classic network layer routing algorithms are analyzed and they are implemented with programming language, which verifies their real advantages and disadvantages. In the model of ring networking, the optimal number of cluster heads in the annular region is deduced with the goal of minimizing the average energy consumption of cluster heads in each ring,and the formation mechanism of cluster heads is proposed for the purpose of preferentially using nodes with more residual energy as cluster heads.To further optimize energy consumption performance, a dynamic self-organizing multi-hop routing selection mode is proposed.Finally, the network simulation software is applied to construct the model based on ring network, and the optimization algorithm is adopted to obtain the flow chart of actual programming and some programming methods.The results show that the proposed algorithm achieves the ultimate optimization goal, which increases the number of effective monitoring data packets.</span

Improvement of Hierarchical Routing Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Network

To prolong the life cycle of the network and increase the effective data transmission quantity of the network, several classic network layer routing algorithms are analyzed and they are implemented with programming language, which verifies their real advantages and disadvantages. In the model of ring networking, the optimal number of cluster heads in the annular region is deduced with the goal of minimizing the average energy consumption of cluster heads in each ring,and the formation mechanism of cluster heads is proposed for the purpose of preferentially using nodes with more residual energy as cluster heads.To further optimize energy consumption performance, a dynamic self-organizing multi-hop routing selection mode is proposed.Finally, the network simulation software is applied to construct the model based on ring network, and the optimization algorithm is adopted to obtain the flow chart of actual programming and some programming methods.The results show that the proposed algorithm achieves the ultimate optimization goal, which increases the number of effective monitoring data packets

A Joint Encryption and Reversible Data Hiding Scheme Based on Integer-DWT and Arnold Map Permutation

A joint encryption and reversible data hiding (joint encryption-RDH) scheme is proposed in this paper. The cover image is transformed to the frequency domain with integer discrete wavelet transform (integer DWT) for the encryption and data hiding. Additional data is hidden into the permuted middle (LH, HL) and high (HH) frequency subbands of integer DWT coefficients with a histogram modification based method. A combination of permutations both in the frequency domain and in the spatial domain is imposed for the encryption. In the receiving end, the encrypted image with hidden data can be decrypted to the image with hidden data, which is similar to the original image without hidden data, by only using the encryption key; if someone has both the data hiding key and the encryption key, he can both extract the hidden data and reversibly recover the original image. Experimental results demonstrate that, compared with existing joint encryption-RDH schemes, the proposed scheme has gained larger embedding capacity, and the distribution of the encrypted image with data hidden has a random like behavior. It can also achieve the lossless restoration of the cover image