Linkage Mapping of Stem Saccharification Digestibility in Rice

Rice is the staple food of almost half of the world population, and in excess 90% of it is grown and consumed in Asia, but the disposal of rice straw poses a problem for farmers, who often burn it in the fields, causing health and environmental problems. However, with increased focus on the development of sustainable biofuel production, rice straw has been recognized as a potential feedstock for non-food derived biofuel production. Currently, the commercial realization of rice as a biofuel feedstock is constrained by the high cost of industrial saccharification processes needed to release sugar for fermentation. This study is focused on the alteration of lignin content, and cell wall chemotypes and structures, and their effects on the saccharification potential of rice lignocellulosic biomass. A recombinant inbred lines (RILs) population derived from a cross between the lowland rice variety IR1552 and the upland rice variety Azucena with 271 molecular markers for quantitative trait SNP (QTS) analyses was used. After association analysis of 271 markers for saccharification potential, 1 locus and 4 pairs of epistatic loci were found to contribute to the enzymatic digestibility phenotype, and an inverse relationship between reducing sugar and lignin content in these recombinant inbred lines was identified. As a result of QTS analyses, several cell-wall associated candidate genes are proposed that may be useful for marker-assisted breeding and may aid breeders to produce potential high saccharification rice varieties

Dynamics of Non-Viscously Damped Distributed Parameter Systems

Linear dynamics of Euler-Bernoulli beams with non-viscous non-local damping is considered. It is assumed that the damping force at a given point in the beam depends on the past history of velocities at different points via convolution integrals over exponentially decaying kernel functions. Conventional viscous and viscoelastic damping models can be obtained as special cases of this general damping model. The equation of motion of the beam with such general damping model results in a linear partial integro-differential equation. Exact closed-form expressions of the natural frequencies and mode-shapes of the beam are derived. The analytical method is capable of handling complex boundary conditions. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the new results

Dynamics of Non-viscously Damped Distributed Parameter Systems

Linear dynamics of Euler-Bernoulli beams with non-viscous non-local damping is considered. It is assumed that the damping force at a given point in the beam depends on the past history of velocities at different points via convolution integrals over exponentially decaying kernel functions. Conventional viscous and viscoelastic damping models can be obtained as special cases of this general damping model. The equation of motion of the beam with such general damping model results in a linear partial integro-differential equation. Exact closed-form expressions of the natural frequencies and mode-shapes of the beam are derived. The analytical method is capable of handling complex boundary conditions. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the new results