Effect of sunlight shielding on leaf structure and amino acids concentration of light sensitive albino tea plant

Light sensitive albino tea cultivar ‘Jinguang’ (Camellia sinensis) which grows albinism leaf in yellow colour, results to high level of amino acids but low levels of photosynthetic pigments including chlorophylls, neoxanthin, violaxanthin, phytoxanthin and β-carotene when it is exposed to high sunlight illumination in the summer season. In this case, the chloroplasts showed partially lysed, with few thylakoids. The leaf albinism was reverted when the leaf was shielded from direct illumination of strong sunlight. It is considered that the blocked development of chloroplast and photosynthetic pigments in the albinism leaf inhibited the biosynthesis of leaf proteins, resulting in an accumulation of free amino acids.Keywords: Camellia sinensis, leaf albinism, light intensity, photosynthetic pigments, amino acids, chloroplastAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(36), pp. 5535-553

The influence of yarn parameters on the ultraviolet protection of yarns

 Improving ultraviolet (UV) protection of textiles is essential to protect wearers against UV radiation induced risks. In addition to fabric parameters, yarn parameters are important factors affecting UV protection of textiles. This work is to examine the influence of yarn parameters on UV protection in order to set up a statistical model for predicting the UV protection of yarns. Wool yarns with different variables were used to test the ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) values for data analysis and the model verification. The model provides the optimized parameters for the UV protective fabric design. This work is helpful as a pre-cursor to the development of a more advanced optical model, which will look at understanding the penetration of UV light through fibres, yarns and fabrics

Emerging Methods for Color Image and Video Quality Enhancement

n/

Towards the generic conceptual and numerical framework for the simulation of CO2 sequestration in different types of georeservoirs

In this paper, conceptual and numerical modeling of coupled thermo-hydromechanical (THM) processes during CO2 injection and storage is presented. The commonly used averaging procedure combining the Theory of Mixtures and the Concept of Volume Fractions serves as background for the complex porous media approach presented here. Numerical models are based on a generalized formulation of the individual and overall balance equations for mass and momentum, as well as, in non-isothermal case, the energy balance equation. Within the framework of a standard Galerkin approach, the method of weighted residuals is applied to derive the weak forms of governing equations. After discretizing spatially these weak forms, a system of nonlinear algebraic equations can be obtained. For the required time discretization a generalized first order difference scheme is applied, linearization is performed using Picard or Newton-Raphson methods. The corresponding models are implemented within the scientific open source finite element code OpenGeoSys (OGS) developed by the authors, which is based on object oriented programming concepts. This assists the efficient treatment of different physical processes, whose mathematical models are of similar structure. Thus, the paper is mainly focused on a generic theoretical framework for the coupled processes under consideration. Within this context, CO2 sequestration in georeservoirs of different type can be simulated (e.g., saline aquifers, (nearly) depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs)

Ab initio calculations of structural and electronic properties of CdTe clusters

We present results of a study of small stoichiometric $Cd_{n}Te_{n}$ ($1{\leq}n{\leq}6$) clusters and few medium sized non-stoichiometric $Cd_{m}Te_{n}$ [($m,n= 13, 16, 19$); ($m{\neq}n$)] clusters using the Density Functional formalism and projector augmented wave method within the generalized gradient approximation. Structural properties {\it viz.} geometry, bond length, symmetry and electronic properties like HOMO-LUMO gap, binding energy, ionization potential and nature of bonding {\it etc.} have been analyzed. Medium sized non-stoichiometric clusters were considered as fragments of the bulk with T{$_{d}$} symmetry. It was observed that upon relaxation, the symmetry changes for the Cd rich clusters whereas the Te rich clusters retain their symmetry. The Cd rich clusters develop a HOMO-LUMO gap due to relaxation whereas there is no change in the HOMO-LUMO gap of the Te rich clusters. Thus, the symmetry of a cluster seems to be an important factor in determining the HOMO-LUMO gap.Comment: 8 pages 16 figure

PTHGRN: unraveling post-translational hierarchical gene regulatory networks using PPI, ChIP-seq and gene expression data

Interactions among transcriptional factors (TFs), cofactors and other proteins or enzymes can affect transcriptional regulatory capabilities of eukaryotic organisms. Post-translational modifications (PTMs) cooperate with TFs and epigenetic alterations to constitute a hierarchical complexity in transcriptional gene regulation. While clearly implicated in biological processes, our understanding of these complex regulatory mechanisms is still limited and incomplete. Various online software have been proposed for uncovering transcriptional and epigenetic regulatory networks, however, there is a lack of effective web-based software capable of constructing underlying interactive organizations between post-translational and transcriptional regulatory components. Here, we present an open web server, post-translational hierarchical gene regulatory network (PTHGRN) to unravel relationships among PTMs, TFs, epigenetic modifications and gene expression. PTHGRN utilizes a graphical Gaussian model with partial least squares regression-based methodology, and is able to integrate protein-protein interactions, ChIP-seq and gene expression data and to capture essential regulation features behind high-throughput data. The server provides an integrative platform for users to analyze ready-to-use public high-throughput Omics resources or upload their own data for systems biology study. Users can choose various parameters in the method, build network topologies of interests and dissect their associations with biological functions. Application of the software to stem cell and breast cancer demonstrates that it is an effective tool for understanding regulatory mechanisms in biological complex systems. PTHGRN web server is publically available at web site http://www.byanbioinfo.org/pthgrn.published_or_final_versio

Development of specific RAPD markers for identifying albino tea cultivars ‘Qiannianxue’ and ‘Xiaoxueya’

Albino tea cultivars grow white leaves at low temperature which are valuable materials for processing green tea, but they develop green leaves in summer and autumn seasons. It is difficult to discriminate albino tea cuttings from the normal tea cuttings by leaf colour and plant morphological characteristics.Specific RAPD markers for identifying albino tea cultivars ‘Qiannianxue’ and ‘Xiaoxueya’ were developed in the present paper and they can be used in the authentication of the two albino tea cultivars. An amplified fragment (about 1500 bp) from Primer (S 12 (Sangon Biological Engineering Technology and Services Co., Ltd.) was identified in the albino teas and not from the widely cultivated cultivar; Fudingdabai

An integrative method to decode regulatory logics in gene transcription

Modeling of transcriptional regulatory networks (TRNs) has been increasingly used to dissect the nature of gene regulation. Inference of regulatory relationships among transcription factors (TFs) and genes, especially among multiple TFs, is still challenging. In this study, we introduced an integrative method, LogicTRN, to decode TF-TF interactions that form TF logics in regulating target genes. By combining cis-regulatory logics and transcriptional kinetics into one single model framework, LogicTRN can naturally integrate dynamic gene expression data and TF-DNA binding signals in order to identify the TF logics and to reconstruct the underlying TRNs. We evaluated the newly developed methodology using simulation, comparison and application studies, and the results not only show their consistence with existing knowledge, but also demonstrate its ability to accurately reconstruct TRNs in biological complex systems.published_or_final_versio

GANimation: anatomically-aware facial animation from a single image

The final publication is available at link.springer.comRecent advances in Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have shown impressive results for task of facial expression synthesis. The most successful architecture is StarGAN, that conditions GANs' generation process with images of a specific domain, namely a set of images of persons sharing the same expression. While effective, this approach can only generate a discrete number of expressions, determined by the content of the dataset. To address this limitation, in this paper, we introduce a novel GAN conditioning scheme based on Action Units (AU) annotations, which describes in a continuous manifold the anatomical facial movements defining a human expression. Our approach allows controlling the magnitude of activation of each AU and combine several of them. Additionally, we propose a fully unsupervised strategy to train the model, that only requires images annotated with their activated AUs, and exploit attention mechanisms that make our network robust to changing backgrounds and lighting conditions. Extensive evaluation show that our approach goes beyond competing conditional generators both in the capability to synthesize a much wider range of expressions ruled by anatomically feasible muscle movements, as in the capacity of dealing with images in the wild.Peer ReviewedAward-winningPostprint (author's final draft