In vitro mutagenesis of Cymbidium La bell “Anna Belle” by γ-rays irradiation and oligochitosan interaction

The optimum media for multiplication of protocorm like bodies (PLBs) and shoot buds of Cymbidium La bell “Anna Belle” were studied in order to prepare the in vitro samples for irradiation. The values of LD50 (lethal dose of 50% samples) of PLBs, shoot buds and plantlets of tested Cymbidium after cultivation of 4 months were also determined about 35.0, 41.0 and 83.1 Gy, respectively. The addition of oligochitosan played as an very important trigger for promotion on the generation of shoot bud from PLBs after irradiation. The in vitro variations have been generated by γ-rays irradiation of PLBs with doses in range of 20 - 50 Gy. The highest mutant frequency (3.83‰) of C. La bell was found by the irradiation of PLB samples at 30 Gy. The different properties of obtained in vitro variations compared to wild types were found to be chlorophyll, short leaves, long leaves, and violet pericardium variations. The genetic relationships among generated variant lines in M1V4 and wild type were analyzed using RAPD techniques

Collaborative Trolley Transportation System with Autonomous Nonholonomic Robots

Cooperative object transportation using multiple robots has been intensively studied in the control and robotics literature, but most approaches are either only applicable to omnidirectional robots or lack a complete navigation and decision-making framework that operates in real time. This paper presents an autonomous nonholonomic multi-robot system and an end-to-end hierarchical autonomy framework for collaborative luggage trolley transportation. This framework finds kinematic-feasible paths, computes online motion plans, and provides feedback that enables the multi-robot system to handle long lines of luggage trolleys and navigate obstacles and pedestrians while dealing with multiple inherently complex and coupled constraints. We demonstrate the designed collaborative trolley transportation system through practical transportation tasks, and the experiment results reveal their effectiveness and reliability in complex and dynamic environments

Characterization of high-resolution aerosol mass spectra of primary organic aerosol emissions from Chinese cooking and biomass burning

Aerosol mass spectrometry has proved to be a powerful tool to measure submicron particulate composition with high time resolution. Factor analysis of mass spectra (MS) collected worldwide by aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) demonstrates that submicron organic aerosol (OA) is usually composed of several major components, such as oxygenated (OOA), hydrocarbon-like (HOA), biomass burning (BBOA), and other primary OA. In order to help interpretation of component MS from factor analysis of ambient OA datasets, AMS measurements of different primary sources is required for comparison. Such work, however, has been very scarce in the literature, especially for high resolution MS (HR-MS) measurements, which performs improved characterization by separating the ions of different elemental composition at each <i>m</i>/<i>z</i> in comparison with unit mass resolution MS (UMR-MS) measurements. In this study, primary emissions from four types of Chinese cooking (CC) and six types of biomass burning (BB) were simulated systematically and measured using an Aerodyne High-Resolution Time-of-Flight AMS (HR-ToF-AMS). The MS of the CC emissions show high similarity, with <i>m</i>/<i>z</i> 41 and <i>m</i>/<i>z</i> 55 being the highest signals; the MS of the BB emissions also show high similarity, with <i>m</i>/<i>z</i> 29 and <i>m</i>/<i>z</i> 43 being the highest signals. The MS difference between the CC and BB emissions is much bigger than that between different CC (or BB) types, especially for the HR-MS. The O/C ratio of OA ranges from 0.08 to 0.13 for the CC emissions and from 0.18 to 0.26 for the BB emissions. The UMR ions of <i>m</i>/<i>z</i> 43, <i>m</i>/<i>z</i> 44, <i>m</i>/<i>z</i> 57, and <i>m</i>/<i>z</i> 60, usually used as tracers in AMS measurements, were examined for their HR-MS characteristics in the CC and BB emissions. In addition, the MS of the CC and BB emissions are also compared with component MS from factor analysis of ambient OA datasets observed in China, as well as with other AMS measurements of primary sources in the literature. The MS signatures of cooking and biomass burning emissions revealed in this study can be used as important reference for factor analysis of ambient OA datasets, especially for the relevant studies in East Asia

Therapeutic effect of Dongbai-Tonglin-Fang, a Chinese herbal formula, on urinary tract infection in rat model.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has many obvious advantages in the treatment of chronic conditions such as urinary tract infection (UTI). Dongbai-Tonglin-Fang (DBTL), a Chinese herbal formula, has been used for the treatment of UTI for more than 40 years with proven efficacy. However, its mechanism of action is still unknown. AIM OF THE STUDY: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of DBTL and its mechanism of action in a rat UTI model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: E. coli solution induced UTI rat model was used to evaluate the therapeutic effect of DBTL on UTI. Biochemical indicators related to UTI were measured. The kidney tissue was stained with hematoxylin-eosin (HE) to observe pathological changes whilst the ear swelling, feet swelling, hot plate and body torsion tests were used to estimate the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of DBTL. RESULTS: After treatment with different doses of DBTL (1, 2, 4 g/kg), a decrease in weight of the kidney in the UTI rat model was observed. The contents of white blood cell, nitrite, urinary albumin, ketone body, bilirubin and occult blood in the urine were also reduced whilst an increase in the pH of urine was observed. HE staining showed that the pathological changes in the kidney tissue were alleviated. At the same time, ear swelling assay showed that the weight and the degree of swelling of the ear of the mice in DBTL groups were decreased remarkably. DBTL also reduced the degree of feet swelling of the rats caused by the adjuvant. Furthermore, with the DBTL treatment, the latency period of foot licking induced by thermal stimulation was increased while the number of twists was lessened. CONCLUSION: These results show that DBTL has an excellent therapeutic effect on UTI rats accompanying with anti-inflammation and analgesia. The data presented here lays the foundations for further investigations in the treatment of UTI

Centralized Inverted Decoupling Control

This paper presents a new methodology of multivariable centralized control based on the structure of inverted decoupling. The method is presented for general n×n processes, obtaining very simple general expressions for the controller elements with a complexity independent of the system size. The possible configurations and realizability conditions are stated. Then, the specification of performance requirements is carried out from simple open loop transfer functions for three common cases. As a particular case, it is shown that the resulting controller elements have PI structure or filtered derivative action plus a time delay when the process elements are given by first order plus time delay systems. Comparisons with other works demonstrate the effectiveness of this methodology through the use of several simulation examples and an experimental lab process

Time series canopy phenotyping enables the identification of genetic variants controlling dynamic phenotypes in soybean

Advances in plant phenotyping technologies are dramatically reducing the marginal costs of collecting multiple phenotypic measurements across several time points. Yet, most current approaches and best statistical practices implemented to link genetic and phenotypic variation in plants have been developed in an era of single-time-point data. Here, we used time-series phenotypic data collected with an unmanned aircraft system for a large panel of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) varieties to identify previously uncharacterized loci. Specifically, we focused on the dissection of canopy coverage (CC) variation from this rich data set. We also inferred the speed of canopy closure, an additional dimension of CC, from the time-series data, as it may represent an important trait for weed control. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) identified 35 loci exhibiting dynamic associations with CC across developmental stages. The time-series data enabled the identification of 10 known flowering time and plant height quantitative trait loci (QTLs) detected in previous studies of adult plants and the identification of novel QTLs influencing CC. These novel QTLs were disproportionately likely to act earlier in development, which may explain why they were missed in previous single-time-point studies. Moreover, this time-series data set contributed to the high accuracy of the GWASs, which we evaluated by permutation tests, as evidenced by the repeated identification of loci across multiple time points. Two novel loci showed evidence of adaptive selection during domestication, with different genotypes/haplotypes favored in different geographic regions. In summary, the time-series data, with soybean CC as an example, improved the accuracy and statistical power to dissect the genetic basis of traits and offered a promising opportunity for crop breeding with quantitative growth curves

Dental and prosthodontic status of an over 40 year-old population in Shandong Province, China

Contains fulltext : 97791.pdf (postprint version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: This study aims to (1) describe the dental status using DMFT for the whole dentition and the anterior, premolar and molar regions; (2) determine associations of demographic variables and socio-economic status (SES) with DMFT and tooth replacement; (3) analyze to what extent the goal as proposed by the WHO -'the retention of not less than 20 teeth throughout life' is achieved. METHODS: DMFT and tooth replacement data of 1588 subjects over 40 years from urban and rural sites in Qingdao (Shandong Province, China) were collected. Relative D, M, and F scores per dental region were calculated and compared by paired T-tests. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine relationships with age, gender, place of residence, and SES. RESULTS: Mean numbers of D and F were low (1.36 respectively 0.27) at all ages. Molars had highest chance for D and M. For the molar region every additional year of age gave significantly lower chance for D and higher chance for M (OR: 0.98 and 1.02 respectively; both p </= 0.01). Mean number of M was associated with age (approximately 1.5 in each jaw at 40 years and 6 at 80 years). Females had higher chance for D (OR: 1.34; p </= 0.05) and F (OR: 1.69; p </= 0.01), and lower chance for M (OR: 0.60; p </= 0.01). Urban and rural subjects had similar chance for D; urban subjects had approximately 5 times more chance for F (p </= 0.01). SES had no relationship with D and M, however SES low was associated with F (OR: 0.45; p </= 0.01). Replacements were significantly associated with age (all dental regions except anterior region), gender (all dental regions), place of residence (whole dentition and molar region), and SES (whole dentition and premolar and molar regions). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of subjects presented a reduced dentition. Molars were most frequently affected by D and M. D, M, F and replaced teeth were associated with the background variables, however differently for different dental regions. Above the age of 70 years, only 64% of the subjects presented 'not less than 20 natural teeth'