Over-Expression of a Maize N-Acetylglutamate Kinase Gene (ZmNAGK) Improves Drought Tolerance in Tobacco

Water deficit is a key limiting factor that affects the growth, development and productivity of crops. It is vital to understand the mechanisms by which plants respond to drought stress. Here an N-acetylglutamate kinase gene, ZmNAGK, was cloned from maize (Zea mays). ZmNAGK was expressed at high levels in maize leaves and at lower levels in root, stem, female flower and male flower. The expression of ZmNAGK was significantly induced by PEG, NaCl, ABA, brassinosteroid and H2O2. The ectopic expression of ZmNAGK in tobacco resulted in higher tolerance to drought compared to plants transformed with empty vector. Further physiological analysis revealed that overexpression of ZmNAGK could enhance the activities of antioxidant defense enzymes, and decrease malondialdehyde content and leakage of electrolyte in tobacco under drought stress. Moreover, the ZmNAGK transgenic tobacco accumulated more arginine and nitric oxide (NO) than control plants under drought stress. In addition, the ZmNAGK transgenic tobaccos activated drought responses faster than vector-transformed plants. These results indicate that ZmNAGK can play a vital role in enhancing drought tolerance by likely affecting the arginine and NO accumulation, and ZmNAGK could be involved in different strategies in response to drought stress

Reconstruction and Analysis of a Genome-Scale Metabolic Model of Ganoderma lucidum for Improved Extracellular Polysaccharide Production

In this study, we reconstructed for the first time a genome-scale metabolic model (GSMM) of Ganoderma lucidum strain CGMCC5.26, termed model iZBM1060, containing 1060 genes, 1202 metabolites, and 1404 reactions. Important findings based on model iZBM1060 and its predictions are as follows: (i) The extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) biosynthetic pathway was elucidated completely. (ii) A new fermentation strategy is proposed: addition of phenylalanine increased EPS production by 32.80% in simulations and by 38.00% in experiments. (iii) Eight genes for key enzymes were proposed for EPS overproduction. Model iZBM1060 provides a useful platform for regulating EPS production in terms of system metabolic engineering for G. lucidum, as well as a guide for future metabolic pathway construction of other high value-added edible/ medicinal mushroom species

Design an Interfacing mechanism for a water bolus with base-unit

ABSTRACT In recent years, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) has emerged as a non-invasive surgical modality and also through understanding of the physical principles in the interactions of HIFU with biological tissue in parallel with the progress in transducer technology, the development towards the adoption of HIFU approach promising in permitting contact-free in-depth tissue accessible for ultrasound. In addition to that, robotic techniques are looked into to provide complex maneuver that can achieve the objectives of precise and accurate mechanical manipulations in various configurations. With robot assistance into the surgical arena, it allows surgeon to work with greater accuracy. A interaction robotic with HIFU system will provide great feasibility for surgery dealing with brain tumours. The aim of this project is to understand the existing design of water bolus and base unit. Thereafter design an integrated interface unit for water bolus with base unit, which will be used in brain tumour treatments. Design procedures such as function analysis, morphological chart are used. Conceptual designs were generated and configurations were discussed. The selections of designs were based on analytical evaluations of various designs. Calculation of critical areas was done. Simulation and selection of parts were involved to determine the feasibility of the design. Testing was carried out for the prototype using Galil Controller and thus achieved the objective.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering

Development of Computational Approach for Analyzing In-Process Thermal-Mechanical Condition during Friction Stir Welding for Prediction of Material Bonding Defect

Unlike the conventional fusion welding process, friction stir welding (FSW) relies on solid-state bonding (SSB) to join metal surfaces. In this study, a straightforward computational methodology is proposed for predicting the material bonding defects during FSW using quantitative evaluation of the in-process thermal-mechanical condition. Several key modeling methods are integrated for predicting the material bonding defects. FSW of AA2024 is taken as an example to demonstrate the performance of the computational analysis. The dynamic sticking (DS) model is shown to be able to predict the geometry of the rotating flow zone near the welding tool. Butting interface tracking (BIT) analysis shows a significant orientation change occurring to the original butting interface, owing to the material flow in FSW, which has a major impact on the bonding pressure at the butting interface. The evolution of the interfacial temperature and the interfacial pressure at the butting interface was obtained to analyze their roles in the formation of material bonding. Four bonding-quality indexes for quantifying the thermal-mechanical condition are tested to show their performance in characterizing the bonding quality during FSW. When the BQI is below a critical value, a bonding defect will be generated. The paper indicates that the simulation-based prediction of a material bonding defect is highly feasible if the developed methodology is extended to quantitatively determine the critical value of the bonding quality index for successful SSB for various alloys

A New Remote Monitoring System Application in Laser Power Based on LabVIEW

In this paper, a new remote monitoring system based on LabVIEW was proposed to measure laser power automatically and remotely. This system consists of four basic components: an DH-JG2 optical power meter, a NI-USB 6008 data acquisition card, a personal computer (PC), and HP laserJet 1020 Plus printer. Since power output of laser is generally so unstable that abnormal work situation could not retroaction to inspectors right away, new system was designed to solve this problem. The detection system realized function of remote control by TCP protocol and mobile phone. Laser power curve that is measured by detection system demonstrated that the design has a good performance in real-time detection and operability

A New Remote Monitoring System Application in Laser Power Based on LabVIEW

In this paper, a new remote monitoring system based on LabVIEW was proposed to measure laser power automatically and remotely. This system consists of four basic components: an DH-JG2 optical power meter, a NI-USB 6008 data acquisition card, a personal computer (PC), and HP laserJet 1020 Plus printer. Since power output of laser is generally so unstable that abnormal work situation could not retroaction to inspectors right away, new system was designed to solve this problem. The detection system realized function of remote control by TCP protocol and mobile phone. Laser power curve that is measured by detection system demonstrated that the design has a good performance in real-time detection and operability

Texture Features Based on Area Ternary Pattern for Classification Collagen Second Harmonic Generation Images of Skin Scar

We proposed a method that based on area ternary pattern (ATP) operator to extract texture features of collagen second harmonic generation (SHG) images of skin scar. The proposed method includes texture feature extraction in collagen SHG images of skin scar, and classification with a support vector machine. By comparing with other texture feature extractive methods relating to the accuracy with specificity and sensibility, the method was demonstrated to obtain higher accuracy and better performance. It is credible that the proposed method improves clinical diagnosis of scar types and educes the development of new curative methods for dermatology and plastic surgery

Texture Features Based on Area Ternary Pattern for Classification Collagen Second Harmonic Generation Images of Skin Scar

We proposed a method that based on area ternary pattern (ATP) operator to extract texture features of collagen second harmonic generation (SHG) images of skin scar. The proposed method includes texture feature extraction in collagen SHG images of skin scar, and classification with a support vector machine. By comparing with other texture feature extractive methods relating to the accuracy with specificity and sensibility, the method was demonstrated to obtain higher accuracy and better performance. It is credible that the proposed method improves clinical diagnosis of scar types and educes the development of new curative methods for dermatology and plastic surgery