Improvement of Pitch Motion Control of an Aircraft Systems

The movement of the aircraft pitch is very important to ensure the passengers and crews are in intrinsically safe and the aircraft achieves its maximum stability.The objective of this study is to provide a solution to the control system that features particularly on the pitch angle motion of aircraft systemin order to have a comfort boarding. Three controllers were developed in these projects which wereproportional integral derivative (PID), fuzzy logic controller (FLC), and linear quadratic regulator (LQR) controllers. These controllers will help improving the pitch angle and achievingthe target reference. By improving the pitch motion angle, the flight will be stabilized and in steady cruise (no jerking effect), hence provides all the passengers withthe comfort zone. Simulation results have been done and analyzed using Matlab software. The simulation results demonstrated LQR and FLC were better than PID in the pitch motion system due to the small error performance. In addition, withstrong external disturbances, a single controller is unable to control the system, thus, the combination of PID and LQR managed to stabilize the aircraft

Tolerance level of grafted papaya plants against papaya dieback disease

Papaya (Carica papaya) cultivars commonly grown in Malaysia, namely Sekaki and Eksotika, are very susceptible to papaya dieback disease (PDD), resulting in reduced production of papayas. As an alternative, grafted papaya seedling using Viorica variety as a highly tolerant rootstock can be introduced to combat PDD. Three grafting combinations of scion/rootstock were used in this study namely Eksotika/Eksotika (E/E), Eksotika/Viorica (E/V) and Viorica/Viorica (V/V). These grafted plants were tested over hot-spot diseased location to evaluate their field tolerance levels against PDD for 14 months of exposure. The occurrence of PDD on grafted papaya plants showed that the disease was mostly found in the E/E combination, with disease severity of 86.7% and a disease score of 4.34, whereas the disease severity and disease score of E/V grafting was 71.0% and 3.55, respectively. The lowest disease occurrence was recorded on V/V plants, with a disease severity of 34.3% and a disease score of 1.72. Results showed that E/E and E/V were highly susceptible, while V/V was tolerant against PDD. Therefore, papaya var. Viorica rootstock proved that it could influence the tolerance level of papaya cv. Eksotika scion against PDD

Microsatellite markers for the molecular characterisation of potentially commercial mango (Mangifera indica) progenies

Mango, or Mangifera indica as it is scientifically known, is a fruit crop that has significant importance to the global economy. This study characterised 10 commercially potential mango progenies using a total of 10 SSR markers. The analysis of the 10 SSR markers revealed the presence of 34 alleles. Each locus had 2–6 alleles equal to an average of 3.40 alleles per locus. The data also showed 0.115 (MiIIHR21) to 0.692 (MiIIHR28) polymorphic information content (PIC), equal to an average of 0.431. Each locus had heterozygosity and gene diversity values ranging from 0.044 (M1) to 0.957 (MiIIHR29) and from 0.122 (MiIIHR21) to 0.730 (MiIIHR29), respectively, averaging 0.480 and 0.476 each. The range of the pairwise genetic distance was 0.000 (ND014↔ND019) to 0.611 (ND020↔SB003). The dendrogram analysis showed that each mango progeny was successfully differentiated using the 10 SSR markers except for ND014 and ND019. The allele combination using these 10 SSR markers could be used to develop a DNA profile for fingerprinting purposes for each progeny except for ND014 and ND019, which can only be differentiated with the addition of an extra marker. The developed DNA fingerprinting profile could be used for cultivar identification and authentication. Additionally, breeders could also use the developed DNA profiles for plant variety protection (PVP) purposes

Recombinant Protein Foliar Application Activates Systemic Acquired Resistance and Increases Tolerance Against Papaya Dieback Disease

Similar to animals, plants possess ‘immune memory’ in response to invading pathogens that lead to enhanced defense reaction following pathogen exposure. Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) is a well-characterized type of plant immunity and is associated with coordinated expression of a set of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes and proteins also known as SAR markers. Induction of SAR in plants was shown to be initiated by group of chemicals and biological compounds known as SAR inducers that can be used for the management of important plant diseases. Elucidation and characterization of potential SAR inducers as potential elicitors that can protect papaya from the papaya dieback disease pathogen were carried out using HRPX protein, which was produced as a recombinant protein in an Escherichia coli system. Disease severity analysis in a glasshouse experiment indicated lower disease infection rates in the HRPX-treated plants than in water-treated plants. Selected SAR-associated defense gene expression was also shown to increase in treated plants, via quantitative real-time PCR analysis, confirming enhanced disease response through SAR activation. In this report, the selected recombinant protein was shown to activate the SAR mechanism in papaya for increased tolerance against papaya dieback disease, which was proven via physiological and molecular analysis

Recombinant Protein Foliar Application Activates Systemic Acquired Resistance and Increases Tolerance Against Papaya Dieback Disease

Similar to animals, plants possess ‘immune memory’ in response to invading pathogens that lead to enhanced defense reaction following pathogen exposure. Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) is a well-characterized type of plant immunity and is associated with coordinated expression of a set of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes and proteins also known as SAR markers. Induction of SAR in plants was shown to be initiated by group of chemicals and biological compounds known as SAR inducers that can be used for the management of important plant diseases. Elucidation and characterization of potential SAR inducers as potential elicitors that can protect papaya from the papaya dieback disease pathogen were carried out using HRPX protein, which was produced as a recombinant protein in an Escherichia coli system. Disease severity analysis in a glasshouse experiment indicated lower disease infection rates in the HRPX-treated plants than in water-treated plants. Selected SAR-associated defense gene expression was also shown to increase in treated plants, via quantitative real-time PCR analysis, confirming enhanced disease response through SAR activation. In this report, the selected recombinant protein was shown to activate the SAR mechanism in papaya for increased tolerance against papaya dieback disease, which was proven via physiological and molecular analysis