Assimilate transport in maize (Zea mays L.) seedlings at vertical low temperature gradients in the root zone

Even moderate chilling temperatures may cause important modifications in assimilate movement in maize seedlings from the shoot to the roots, but there is no information on long-distance transport of assimilates in plants subjected to vertical gradients of moderately low temperatures in the root zone. Seedlings of a chilling-tolerant (KW1074) and a chilling-sensitive inbred line (CM109) of maize were grown in a system that allowed the maintenance of temperature gradients between the topsoil (0-10 cm) and the subsoil (10-50 cm). After pregrowth at 24°C until the thirdleaf stage, plants were subjected to chilling-stress regimes for 6 d (17/17/17 °C, 17/17/12°C, 12/12/12°C, 12/12/17°C, air/topsoil/subsoil). The time taken for the assimilates to enter the phloem from the second leaf increased at low temperatures for both lines, but to a much greater extent in CM109. Although mainly influenced by air and topsoil temperature, low temperature in the subsoil also affected this trait in CM109. The speed of assimilate transport between the second leaf and the mesocotyl in KW1074 was strongly reduced by cool temperatures in the shoot and topsoil as well as by 12°C in the subsoil in CM109, because the latter line had a larger portion of its root system in the subsoil as compared to KW1074. The portion of assimilates allocated to the root decreased at low temperatures in both lines, but to a greater extent in CM 109, and was controlled mostly by the subsoil temperature. After rewarming, values of all measured parameters of assimilate transport returned to near pregrowth levels within a few day

Production of tropane alkaloids in Hyoscyamus niger (black henbane) hairy roots grown in bubble-column and spray bioreactors

Hairy root cultures of Hyoscyamus niger were cultivated in shake-flasks, a bubble-column bioreactor and a hybrid bubble-column/spray bioreactor and evaluated for alkaloid production. The latter gave the highest anisodamine content (0.67 mg/g dry wt) whereas scopolamine, hyoscyamine and cuscohygrine concentrations were highest in the bubble-column reactor (5.3, 1.6 and 26.5 mg/g dry wt, respectively). Both bioreactors gave similar productivities of scopolamine (1 and 0.98 mg/l day) and cuscohygrine (5 and 5.4 mg/l day), but anisodamine productivity was 3.5-fold higher in the hybrid bioreactor (HB) (0.02 and 0.07 mg/l day, respectively). Elicitation with methyl jasmonate increased scopolamine productivity by 146 % in roots grown in the HB whereas their permeabilization with DMSO caused 4-, 5-, 25- and 28-fold increase in scopolamine, hyoscyamine, anisodamine and cuscohygrine concentrations in the growth medium. In situ extraction with Amberlite XAD-2 doubled scopolamine productivity in the hybrid reactor after 50 days

Intelligence graphs for threat intelligence and security policy validation of cyber systems

While the recent advances in Data Science and Machine Learning attract lots of attention in Cyber Security because of their promise for effective security analytics, Vulnerability Analysis, Risk Assessment and Security Policy Validation remain slightly aside. This is mainly due to the relatively slow progress in the theoretical formulation and the technologi-cal foundation of the cyber security concepts such as logical vulnerability, threats and risks. In this article we are proposing a framework for logical analysis, threat intelligence and validation of security policies in cyber systems. It is based on multi-level model, consisting of ontology of situations and actions under security threats, security policies governing the security-related activities, and graph of the transactions. The framework is validated using a set of scenarios describing the most common security threats in digital banking and a proto-type of an event-driven engine for navigation through the intelligence graphs has been im-plemented. Although the framework was developed specifically for application in digital banking, the authors believe that it has much wider applicability to security policy analysis, threat intelligence and security by design of cyber systems for financial, commercial and business operations

Building a big data platform using software without licence costs

This chapter presents the experience in developing and utilizing Big Data platforms using software without license costs, acquired while working on several projects at two research institutions – the Cyber Security Research Centre of London Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom and the GATE Institute of Sofia University in Bulgaria. Unlike the universal computational infrastructures available from large cloud service providers such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others, which provide only a wide range of universal tools, we implemented a more specialized solution for Big Data processing on a private cloud, tailored to the needs of academic institutions, public organizations and smaller enterprises which cannot afford high running costs, or do significant in-house development. Since most of the currently available commercial platforms for Big Data are based on open-source software, such a solution is fully compatible with enterprise solutions from leading vendors like Cloudera, HP, IBM, Oracle and others. Although such an approach may be considered less reliable due to the limited support, it also has many advantages, making it attractive for small institutions with limited budgets, research institutions working on innovative solutions and software houses developing new platforms and applications. It can be implemented entirely on the premises, avoiding cloud service costs and can be tailored to meet the specific needs of the organizations. At the same time, it retains the opportunity for scaling up and migrating the developed solutions as the situations evolve

Assimilate transport in maize (Zea mays L.) seedlings at vertical low temperature gradients in the root zone

ISSN:1460-2431ISSN:0022-095

Data integration and visualization of air quality in urban environment

Air quality visualization importance cannot be overestimated for several reasons, ranging from public health and environmental awareness to policy-making and urban planning. The tool described here is meant to bridge the gap between scientific data and general audience, promoting greater understanding and prevention of air pollution through taking the hourly readings from 23 Develiot stations in the city of Sofia and overlaying them onto terrain map and 3d buildings layer (coming from Open Street Maps). Various open source / non-commercial tools are used for data preprocessing, analysis, and integration. The languages and data formats are explained. Implementation of the platform, transformation, integration, and visualisation of sensor, historical, and geolocation data are discussed in detail. Integrating 3d building reconstruction and triangulation of measurements for arbitrary points in the map are explained. Finally, the data flow from the sensors through the API, MongoDB database, Flask framework to the frontend web application is shown. Users can interact with the data, zoom in/out, rotate the view, and access additional information about specific data points. All elements of the map are interactive – clicking on the air quality stations domes gives the station details and measurements, selecting an OSM 3d building shows the semantic context (address, type of building, name in Bulgarian and English, owner, etc.). Double clicking on any point in map creates a triangulated marker

Absence of the RET+3:T allele in the MTC patients

Abstract The mutations of the RET proto-oncogene contributes to the development of MTC by increasing the activity of the receptor encoded by this gene. Variant T of polymorphism rs2435357 located in the enhancer of the RET gene reduces the enhancer’s activity. The opposite effects of rs2435357 and the mutations causing medullary thyroid carcinoma resulted in the investigation of the status of this polymorphism in patients with MTC. In our study, we compared the frequency of polymorphism rs2435357 in the group of 48 MTC patients with its frequency in Polish population. The frequency of heterozygotes C/T at rs2435357 reached almost 12% (18/152) for the Polish population, in contrast to the group of MTC patients where not even a single T allele was found. The frequency difference is statistically significant. This observation might indicate that the presence of the heterozygous T allele at rs2435357 may be associated with the inhibition of medullary thyroid carcinoma development.</p

Toward Polyethylene–Polyester Block and Graft Copolymers with Tunable Polarity

The synthesis and characterization of polyethylene–polyester block and graft copolymers and their potential as compatibilizers in polyethylene-based polymer blends are being described. The various routes to functionalized polyethylenes and the corresponding block/graft copolymers have been compared and evaluated for their scalability to industrial scale production. Hydroxyl chain-end and randomly OH-functionalized HDPE as well as randomly OH-functionalized LLDPE were employed as macroinitiators for producing the corresponding block and graft copolymers. These materials were prepared using two different strategies. The <i>grafting from</i> approach entails catalytic ring-opening polymerization of lactones, i.e., ε-caprolactone and ω-pentadecalactone and hydroxyl-functionalized polyethylenes as macroinitiator. The alternative <i>grafting onto</i> approach involves the preparation of block and graft copolymers via simple and convenient transesterification of polycaprolactone or polypenta­decalactone with OH-functionalized polyethylenes. The copolymers were characterized in terms of their molecular weight (SEC), chemical structure (liquid state NMR), topology (MALDI-ToF-MS), supramolecular assembly (solid state NMR), and thermal properties (DSC analysis). The applied techniques for synthesizing the copolymers allow preparation of the products with sufficiently high molecular weight of the final materials. The copolymers were tested as compatibilizers for polyethylene/polycarbonate blends. As proven by SEM analysis, addition of the compatibilizers resulted in a significant improvement of the blend morphology