295 research outputs found
Relative Rate Observer Self-Tuning of Fuzzy PID Virtual Inertia Control for An Islanded microgrid
Expanding the usage of renewable energy in islanded microgrids leads to a reduction in its total inertia. Low inertia microgrids have difficulties in voltage and frequency control. That affected saving its stability and preventing a blackout. To improve low inertia islanded microgrids\u27 dynamic response and save their stability, this paper presented relative rate observer self-tuning fuzzy PID (RROSTF-PID) based on virtual inertia control (VIC) for an islanded microgrid with a high renewable energy sources (RESs) contribution. RROSTF-PID based on VIC\u27s success in showing remarkable improvement in the microgrid\u27s dynamic response and enhancement of its stability. Moreover, it handles different contingency conditions successfully by giving the desired frequency support. Ant colony optimization (ACO) technique is used to find the optimal values of the RROSTF-PID based on VIC parameters. Furthermore, using MATLAB TM/Simulink, RROSTF-PID based on VIC response is compared to Optimal Fuzzy PID (OF-PID) based VIC, Fuzzy PID (F-PID) based VIC, PID-based VIC, conventional VIC responses, and the microgrid without VIC response under different operation conditions
Texture evaluation of whey protein concentrate incorporated ice cream by Back Extrusion technique
Back extrusion technique was employed to evaluated texture properties of partial substituted whey protein concentrate (WPC) with milk solids not fat (1, 2, 3 and 4%) in ice cream formula.
There was no remarkable effect of adding WPC on total solids or fat %. Total protein increased, while ash, and lactose content were significantly decreased.
Back-extrusion results represented a decrease in hardness values of resultant ice cream, while, during storage, there was a slight increase. Energy input values decreased by increasing substitution levels of WP. Although, energy output inversely correlated with substitution levels of WP it correlated with storage period indicating a strong structure for stored ice cream. Load at target deformation (50%) applied to the samples when fresh and after 14 days storage showing decreased values proportional to increasing substitution levels of WP. The resilience showed decreased ratio indicating more visco-elastic properties in fresh ice cream. The recovered height and deformation increased with increasing substitution levels of WP and storage period. Therefore, more sticking properties were obtained in resultant ice cream. Adhesive force decreased significantly with increasing substitution levels of WP and storage period. Adhesiveness values were significantly higher in all treatments than control.
The texture of the ice cream became smoother by replacing milk solid not fat with WPC up to 3%. From the data obtained, it could be recommended that ice cream can be produced with high quality by substituting milk solid not fat with WPC up to 3%
Therapeutic effect of antimyeloma antibodies conjugated with gold nanoparticles on the growth of myeloma cell line
Nanobiotechnology is a field of biomedical application of nanosize system which is a rapidly developing area within nanotechnology among these nonmaterial, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) which receive a significant attention due to their unique physical, chemical and biological properties. AuNPs and bio-conjugated AuNPs have been widely used in cancer treatment besides other application on cancer detection and diagnosis. In this study the potential therapeutic effects of polyclonal Antimyeloma antibody (AbMM) conjugated to AuNPs in comparison with naked (AbMM) or AuNPs alone in modulation of proliferation capacity in vitro and different stages of MM cell cycle have been evaluated besides evaluation of their effects on tumor growth delay. Effect of AuNPs , (AbMM) and (Nanogold -Antimyeloma Antibodies conjugate) (gold-AbMM) on growth of myeloma cells showed decreasing in multiple myeloma SP2OR (MM) viability with increasing dose of these treatments compared to that of control also a significant enhancement in the apoptosis after conjugation of Nanogold to the Antimyeloma was observed. The induction of apoptosis with gold-AbMM was significantly higher than the MM cells exposed to only AbMM or AuNPs. The study concluded that the efficacy of (gold-AbMM) on induced myeloma growth inhibition is better than that of individual AuNPs and AbMM
AGO1 and AGO2 Act Redundantly in miR408-Mediated Plantacyanin Regulation
Background: In Arabidopsis, AGO1 and AGO2 associate with small RNAs that exhibit a Uridine and an Adenosine at their 59 end, respectively. Because most plant miRNAs have a 59U, AGO1 plays many essential roles in miRNA-mediated regulation of development and stress responses. In contrast, AGO2 has only been implicated in antibacterial defense in association with miR393*, which has a 59A. AGO2 also participates in antiviral defense in association with viral siRNAs. Principal Findings: This study reveals that miR408, which has a 59A, regulates its target Plantacyanin through either AGO1 or AGO2. Indeed, neither ago1 nor ago2 single mutations abolish miR408-mediated regulation of Plantacyanin. Only an ago1 ago2 double mutant appears compromised in miR408-mediated regulation of Plantacyanin, suggesting that AGO1 and AGO2 have redundant roles in this regulation. Moreover, the nature of the 59 nucleotide of miR408 does not appear essential for its regulatory role because both a wildtype 59A-MIR408 and a mutant 59U-MIR408 gene complement a mir408 mutant. Conclusions/Significance: These results suggest that miR408 associates with both AGO1 and AGO2 based on criteria that differ from the 59 end rule, reminiscent of miR390-AGO7 and miR165/166-AGO10 associations, which are not based on the nature of the 59 nucleotide
Arabidopsis thaliana PGR7 Encodes a Conserved Chloroplast Protein That Is Necessary for Efficient Photosynthetic Electron Transport
A significant fraction of a plant's nuclear genome encodes chloroplast-targeted proteins, many of which are devoted to the assembly and function of the photosynthetic apparatus. Using digital video imaging of chlorophyll fluorescence, we isolated proton gradient regulation 7 (pgr7) as an Arabidopsis thaliana mutant with low nonphotochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence (NPQ). In pgr7, the xanthophyll cycle and the PSBS gene product, previously identified NPQ factors, were still functional, but the efficiency of photosynthetic electron transport was lower than in the wild type. The pgr7 mutant was also smaller in size and had lower chlorophyll content than the wild type in optimal growth conditions. Positional cloning located the pgr7 mutation in the At3g21200 (PGR7) gene, which was predicted to encode a chloroplast protein of unknown function. Chloroplast targeting of PGR7 was confirmed by transient expression of a GFP fusion protein and by stable expression and subcellular localization of an epitope-tagged version of PGR7. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that the PGR7 protein has two domains that are conserved in plants, algae, and bacteria, and the N-terminal domain is predicted to bind a cofactor such as FMN. Thus, we identified PGR7 as a novel, conserved nuclear gene that is necessary for efficient photosynthetic electron transport in chloroplasts of Arabidopsis
Aflibercept or ranibizumab for diabetic macular edema
Background: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is the primary substance involved in retinal barrier breach. VEGF overexpression may cause diabetic macular edema (DME). Laser photocoagulation of the macula is the standard treatment for DME; however, recently, intravitreal anti-VEGF injections have surpassed laser treatment. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of intravitreal injections of aflibercept or ranibizumab for managing treatment-naive DME.
Methods: This single-center, retrospective, interventional, comparative study included eyes with visual impairment due to treatment-naive DME that underwent intravitreal injection of either aflibercept 2 mg/0.05 mL or ranibizumab 0.5 mg/0.05 mL at Al-Azhar University Hospitals, Egypt between March 2023 and January 2024. Demographic data and full ophthalmological examination results at baseline and 1, 3, and 6 months post-injection were collected, including the best-corrected distance visual acuity (BCDVA) in logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) notation, slit-lamp biomicroscopy, dilated fundoscopy, and central subfield thickness (CST) measured using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.
Results: Overall, the 96 eyes of 96 patients with a median (interquartile range [IQR]) age of 57 (10) (range: 20–74) years and a male-to-female ratio of 1:2.7 were allocated to one of two groups with comparable age, sex, diabetes mellitus duration, and presence of other comorbidities (all P >0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in baseline diabetic retinopathy status or DME type between groups (both P >0.05). In both groups, the median (IQR) BCDVA significantly improved from 0.7 (0.8) logMAR at baseline to 0.4 (0.1) logMAR at 6 months post-injection (both P = 0.001), with no statistically significant difference between groups at all follow-up visits (all P >0.05). The median (IQR) CST significantly decreased in the aflibercept group from 347 (166) µm at baseline to 180 (233) µm at 6 months post-injection, and it decreased in the ranibizumab group from 360 (180) µm at baseline to 190 (224) µm at 6 months post-injection (both P = 0.001), with no statistically significant differences between groups at all follow-up visits (all P >0.05). No serious adverse effects were documented in either group.
Conclusions: Ranibizumab and aflibercept were equally effective in achieving the desired anatomical and functional results in patients with treatment-naive DME in short-term follow-up without significant differences in injection counts between both drugs. Larger prospective, randomized, double-blinded trials with longer follow-up periods are needed to confirm our preliminary results. 
Normalized long read RNA sequencing in chicken reveals transcriptome complexity similar to human
Background: Despite the significance of chicken as a model organism, our understanding of the chicken transcriptome is limited compared to human. This issue is common to all non-human vertebrate annotations due to the difficulty in transcript identification from short read RNAseq data. While previous studies have used single molecule long read sequencing for transcript discovery, they did not perform RNA normalization and 5'-cap selection which may have resulted in lower transcriptome coverage and truncated transcript sequences. Results: We sequenced normalised chicken brain and embryo RNA libraries with Pacific Bioscience Iso-Seq. 5' cap selection was performed on the embryo library to provide methodological comparison. From these Iso-Seq sequencing projects, we have identified 60 k transcripts and 29 k genes within the chicken transcriptome. Of these, more than 20 k are novel lncRNA transcripts with ~3 k classified as sense exonic overlapping lncRNA, which is a class that is underrepresented in many vertebrate annotations. The relative proportion of alternative transcription events revealed striking similarities between the chicken and human transcriptomes while also providing explanations for previously observed genomic differences. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the chicken transcriptome is similar in complexity compared to human, and provide insights into other vertebrate biology. Our methodology demonstrates the potential of Iso-Seq sequencing to rapidly expand our knowledge of transcriptomics
Overexpression of AtCpNifS enhances selenium tolerance and accumulation in Arabidopsis
Selenium (Se) is an essential element for many organisms but is toxic at higher levels. CpNifS is a chloroplastic NifS-like protein in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) that can catalyze the conversion of cysteine into alanine and elemental sulfur (S 0 ) and of selenocysteine into alanine and elemental Se (Se 0 ). We overexpressed CpNifS to investigate the effects on Se metabolism in plants. CpNifS overexpression significantly enhanced selenate tolerance (1.9-fold) and Se accumulation (2.2-fold). CpNifS overexpressors showed significantly reduced Se incorporation into protein, which may explain their higher Se tolerance. Also, sulfur accumulation was enhanced by approximately 30% in CpNifS overexpressors, both on media with and without selenate. Root transcriptome changes in response to selenate mimicked the effects observed under sulfur starvation. There were only a few transcriptome differences between CpNifS-overexpressing plants and wild type, besides the 25-to 40-fold increase in CpNifS levels. Judged from x-ray analysis of near edge spectrum, both CpNifS overexpressors and wild type accumulated mostly selenate (Se VI ). In conclusion, overexpression of this plant NifS-like protein had a pronounced effect on plant Se metabolism. The observed enhanced Se accumulation and tolerance of CpNifS overexpressors show promise for use in phytoremediation
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