Effect of nano materials in geopolymer concrete

SummaryIn general, cement based concrete can be replaced by low calcium fly-ash based geopolymer concrete regarding the adverse effect of the manufacture of ordinary Portland cement on environment. Nowadays, nano technology has an important role in the field of construction industries. It has been seen that several properties of cement based concrete are affected by different nano materials. As low calcium fly-ash based geopolymer concrete is an alternate option for cement based concrete, nano materials may also have some influence on it. An experimental program has been taken up on low calcium fly-ash based M25 grade geopolymer concrete having 16 (M) concentration of activator liquid. Different percentage of nano materials viz. nano silica, carbon nano tube, titanium di-oxide were also used to investigate the effect of nano materials on geopolymer concrete. Geopolymer concrete with 1% titanium di-oxide shows appreciable improvement in compressive strength although pH remains almost same in all cases

Global transcriptome analysis reveals fungal disease responsive core gene regulatory landscape in tea

Abstract Fungal infections are the inevitable limiting factor for productivity of tea. Transcriptome reprogramming recruits multiple regulatory pathways during pathogen infection. A comprehensive meta-analysis was performed utilizing previously reported, well-replicated transcriptomic datasets from seven fungal diseases of tea. The study identified a cumulative set of 18,517 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in tea, implicated in several functional clusters, including the MAPK signaling pathway, transcriptional regulation, and the biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids. Gene set enrichment analyses under each pathogen stress elucidated that DEGs were involved in ethylene metabolism, secondary metabolism, receptor kinase activity, and various reactive oxygen species detoxification enzyme activities. Expressional fold change of combined datasets highlighting 2258 meta-DEGs shared a common transcriptomic response upon fungal stress in tea. Pervasive duplication events caused biotic stress-responsive core DEGs to appear in multiple copies throughout the tea genome. The co-expression network of meta-DEGs in multiple modules demonstrated the coordination of appropriate pathways, most of which involved cell wall organization. The functional coordination was controlled by a number of hub genes and miRNAs, leading to pathogenic resistance or susceptibility. This first-of-its-kind meta-analysis of host–pathogen interaction generated consensus candidate loci as molecular signatures, which can be associated with future resistance breeding programs in tea