Wind tunnel design and fabrication for lift force investigation

This report will elaborate on the modification of unused wind tunnel into an aerofoil testing platform that can be used to demonstrate the lift forces produced by an aerofoil and also to investigate on the lift coefficient. The target audience for this platform will be high school students that have an interest in aerodynamics and wish to do more hands on experiments. This platform will be used to increase exposure of students into aerodynamics. This project will begin with a simple modification process of converting the wind tunnel by cutting out portion of the air duct to make it accessible for the purpose of this project. Once completed, experiments will be conducted to record the lift force with 2 aerofoils that were prepared using 3D printer. A step by step experimental step will be discussed in this report. These data will be tabulated into a graph and discussions on the results will be state. Finally, this report will cover possible limitations that could have caused the inaccuracy of this experiment and will list possible future improvements for a more accurate testing platform.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering

An inducible RNA interference system in Physcomitrella patens reveals a dominant role of augmin in phragmoplast microtubule generation

Mitosis is a fundamental process of eukaryotic cell proliferation. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying mitosis remain poorly understood in plants partly because of the lack of an appropriate model cell system in which loss-of-function analyses can be easily combined with high-resolution microscopy. Here, we developed an inducible RNA interference (RNAi) system and three-dimensional time-lapse confocal microscopy in the moss Physcomitrella patens that allowed in-depth phenotype characterization of the moss genes essential for cell division. We applied this technique to two microtubule regulators, augmin and γ-tubulin complexes, whose mitotic roles remain obscure in plant cells. Live imaging of caulonemal cells showed that they proceed through mitosis with continual generation and self-organization of acentrosomal microtubules. We demonstrated that augmin plays an important role in γ-tubulin localization and microtubule generation from prometaphase to cytokinesis. Most evidently, microtubule formation in phragmoplasts was severely compromised after RNAi knockdown of an augmin subunit, leading to incomplete expansion of phragmoplasts and cytokinesis failure. Knockdown of the γ-tubulin complex affected microtubule formation throughout mitosis. We conclude that postanaphase microtubule generation is predominantly stimulated by the augmin/γ-tubulin machinery in moss and further propose that this RNAi system serves as a powerful tool to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying mitosis in land plants

Oleic Acid-Containing Phosphatidylinositol Is a Blood Biomarker Candidate for SPG28

Hereditary spastic paraplegia is a genetic neurological disorder characterized by spasticity of the lower limbs, and spastic paraplegia type 28 is one of its subtypes. Spastic paraplegia type 28 is a hereditary neurogenerative disorder with an autosomal recessive inheritance caused by loss of function of DDHD1. DDHD1 encodes phospholipase A1, which catalyzes phospholipids to lysophospholipids such as phosphatidic acids and phosphatidylinositols to lysophosphatidic acids and lysophoshatidylinositols. Quantitative changes in these phospholipids can be key to the pathogenesis of SPG28, even at subclinical levels. By lipidome analysis using plasma from mice, we globally examined phospholipids to identify molecules showing significant quantitative changes in Ddhd1 knockout mice. We then examined reproducibility of the quantitative changes in human sera including SPG28 patients. We identified nine kinds of phosphatidylinositols that show significant increases in Ddhd1 knockout mice. Of these, four kinds of phosphatidylinositols replicated the highest level in the SPG28 patient serum. All four kinds of phosphatidylinositols contained oleic acid. This observation suggests that the amount of oleic acid-containing PI was affected by loss of function of DDHD1. Our results also propose the possibility of using oleic acid-containing PI as a blood biomarker for SPG28

An action plan of Japan toward development of demo reactor

An action plan presented here is the plan toward construction of a Demo reactor in Japan. A Task-force for development strategy of Tokamak Demo Reactors was established and has considered an action plan to construct the Demo in the 2040s. The action plan will lead works in a Joint Special Design Team for Fusion Demo established for design and R&D of the Demo reactor in Japan. Although the first version of action plan was reported in March 2016, a revised version, presented here, is being drafted in order to correspond to the new schedule of the ITER project agreed in 2016, because the ITER progress is one of critical issues in the action plan