Application of Numerical Newton-Raphson Method in Calculation of Emitter Water Discharge of Drip Irrigation System in “Mutis Cemerlang” Coffee Plantation

Based on the slope class, the shape of the area and the elevation of dry land in Nusa Tenggara, agricultural land in Noepesu Village is suitable for planting coffee plants with an agroforestry scheme. To overcome the problem of limited water, drip irrigation system technology can be applied. The use of drip irrigation as an agricultural technology in Noepesu village has been carried out by many farmer groups. Still, the installation process does not consider the pipe specifications (pipe length and pipe diameter) and the condition of agricultural land. This causes the service life of drip irrigation to be not long. If this continues, of course, it will increase system installation costs. To optimize service life, a hydraulics analysis method is needed for drip irrigation pipe network systems that take into account pipe specifications and agricultural land conditions.The hydraulics analysis of the drip irrigation network system determines the emitter’s water flow rate. The emitter flow rate forms a nonlinear equation known as the closed pipe equation. In the process of solving these equations, numerical methods can be used, specifically the Newton-Raphson method. This study focuses on applying the Newton-Raphson method to calculate the amount of water discharge from each emitter of the drip irrigation network system on the farmland of the Mutis Cemerlang Farmer Group in Noepesu Village. The drip irrigation system is designed with 250 nodes, 275 pipes, 26 loops, and 86 outlets divided into two sides, with the left side containing 84 outlets with one emitter and the right side containing 102 outlets with two emitters. The amount of water discharge for each emitter is 0,0008 ml/second≤Q≤2,6 ml/second for the left side and 0,001 ml/second≤Q≤1,1 ml/second for the right side, as determined by simulation calculations utilizing the Newton-Raphson method and Matlab software. The simulation results show that the amount of water discharge at each emitter is ideal in the first iteration because it has a discharge correction value (∆Q)≈0

Human Sclera Maintains Common Characteristics with Cartilage throughout Evolution

BACKGROUND: The sclera maintains and protects the eye ball, which receives visual inputs. Although the sclera does not contribute significantly to visual perception, scleral diseases such as refractory scleritis, scleral perforation and pathological myopia are considered incurable or difficult to cure. The aim of this study is to identify characteristics of the human sclera as one of the connective tissues derived from the neural crest and mesoderm. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We have demonstrated microarray data of cultured human infant scleral cells. Hierarchical clustering was performed to group scleral cells and other mesenchymal cells into subcategories. Hierarchical clustering analysis showed similarity between scleral cells and auricular cartilage-derived cells. Cultured micromasses of scleral cells exposed to TGF-betas and BMP2 produced an abundant matrix. The expression of cartilage-associated genes, such as Indian hedge hog, type X collagen, and MMP13, was up-regulated within 3 weeks in vitro. These results suggest that human 'sclera'-derived cells can be considered chondrocytes when cultured ex vivo. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our present study shows a chondrogenic potential of human sclera. Interestingly, the sclera of certain vertebrates, such as birds and fish, is composed of hyaline cartilage. Although the human sclera is not a cartilaginous tissue, the human sclera maintains chondrogenic potential throughout evolution. In addition, our findings directly explain an enigma that the sclera and the joint cartilage are common targets of inflammatory cells in rheumatic arthritis. The present global gene expression database will contribute to the clarification of the pathogenesis of developmental diseases such as high myopia

Natural selection increases female fitness by reversing the exaggeration of a male sexually selected trait

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordData availability: The data that support the findings of this study are provided in Supplementary Data 1. This includes population mean trait values during and on completion of experimental evolution, fighting data, predation-mandible size data and the pedigree data. Source data are provided with this paper.Theory shows how sexual selection can exaggerate male traits beyond naturally selected optima and also how natural selection can ultimately halt trait elaboration. Empirical evidence supports this theory, but to our knowledge, there have been no experimental evolution studies directly testing this logic, and little examination of possible associated effects on female fitness. Here we use experimental evolution of replicate populations of broad-horned flour beetles to test for effects of sex-specific predation on an exaggerated sexually selected male trait (the mandibles), while also testing for effects on female lifetime reproductive success. We find that populations subjected to male-specific predation evolve smaller sexually selected mandibles and this indirectly increases female fitness, seemingly through intersexual genetic correlations we document. Predation solely on females has no effects. Our findings support fundamental theory, but also reveal unforseen outcomes—the indirect effect on females—when natural selection targets sex-limited sexually selected characters.Leverhulme TrustJapan Society for the Promotion of Scienc

Curvature fluctuations and Lyapunov exponent at Melting

We calculate the maximal Lyapunov exponent in constant-energy molecular dynamics simulations at the melting transition for finite clusters of 6 to 13 particles (model rare-gas and metallic systems) as well as for bulk rare-gas solid. For clusters, the Lyapunov exponent generally varies linearly with the total energy, but the slope changes sharply at the melting transition. In the bulk system, melting corresponds to a jump in the Lyapunov exponent, and this corresponds to a singularity in the variance of the curvature of the potential energy surface. In these systems there are two mechanisms of chaos -- local instability and parametric instability. We calculate the contribution of the parametric instability towards the chaoticity of these systems using a recently proposed formalism. The contribution of parametric instability is a continuous function of energy in small clusters but not in the bulk where the melting corresponds to a decrease in this quantity. This implies that the melting in small clusters does not lead to enhanced local instability.Comment: Revtex with 7 PS figures. To appear in Phys Rev

Evidence for an Essential Deglycosylation-Independent Activity of PNGase in Drosophila melanogaster

BACKGROUND: Peptide:N-glycanase (PNGase) is an enzyme which releases N-linked glycans from glycopeptides/glycoproteins. This enzyme plays a role in the ER-associated degradation (ERAD) pathway in yeast and mice, but the biological importance of this activity remains unknown. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this study, we characterized the ortholog of cytoplasmic PNGases, PNGase-like (Pngl), in Drosophila melanogaster. Pngl was found to have a molecular weight of approximately 74K and was mainly localized in the cytosol. Pngl lacks a CXXC motif that is critical for enzymatic activity in other species and accordingly did not appear to possess PNGase activity, though it still retains carbohydrate-binding activity. We generated microdeletions in the Pngl locus in order to investigate the functional importance of this protein in vivo. Elimination of Pngl led to a serious developmental delay or arrest during the larval and pupal stages, and surviving mutant adult males and females were frequently sterile. Most importantly, these phenotypes were rescued by ubiquitous expression of Pngl, clearly indicating that those phenotypic consequences were indeed due to the lack of functional Pngl. Interestingly, a putative "catalytic-inactive" mutant could not rescue the growth-delay phenotype, indicating that a biochemical activity of this protein is important for its biological function. CONCLUSION: Pngl was shown to be inevitable for the proper developmental transition and the biochemical properties other than deglycosylation activity is important for its biological function

Derivation of Human Differential Photoreceptor-like Cells from the Iris by Defined Combinations of CRX, RX and NEUROD

Examples of direct differentiation by defined transcription factors have been provided for beta-cells, cardiomyocytes and neurons. In the human visual system, there are four kinds of photoreceptors in the retina. Neural retina and iris-pigmented epithelium (IPE) share a common developmental origin, leading us to test whether human iris cells could differentiate to retinal neurons. We here define the transcription factor combinations that can determine human photoreceptor cell fate. Expression of rhodopsin, blue opsin and green/red opsin in induced photoreceptor cells were dependent on combinations of transcription factors: A combination of CRX and NEUROD induced rhodopsin and blue opsin, but did not induce green opsin; a combination of CRX and RX induced blue opsin and green/red opsin, but did not induce rhodopsin. Phototransduction-related genes as well as opsin genes were up-regulated in those cells. Functional analysis; i.e. patch clamp recordings, clearly revealed that generated photoreceptor cells, induced by CRX, RX and NEUROD, responded to light. The response was an inward current instead of the typical outward current. These data suggest that photosensitive photoreceptor cells can be generated by combinations of transcription factors. The combination of CRX and RX generate immature photoreceptors: and additional NEUROD promotes maturation. These findings contribute substantially to a major advance toward eventual cell-based therapy for retinal degenerative diseases

Defining Developmental Potency and Cell Lineage Trajectories by Expression Profiling of Differentiating Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

Biologists rely on morphology, function and specific markers to define the differentiation status of cells. Transcript profiling has expanded the repertoire of these markers by providing the snapshot of cellular status that reflects the activity of all genes. However, such data have been used only to assess relative similarities and differences of these cells. Here we show that principal component analysis of global gene expression profiles map cells in multidimensional transcript profile space and the positions of differentiating cells progress in a stepwise manner along trajectories starting from undifferentiated embryonic stem (ES) cells located in the apex. We present three ‘cell lineage trajectories’, which represent the differentiation of ES cells into the first three lineages in mammalian development: primitive endoderm, trophoblast and primitive ectoderm/neural ectoderm. The positions of the cells along these trajectories seem to reflect the developmental potency of cells and can be used as a scale for the potential of cells. Indeed, we show that embryonic germ cells and induced pluripotent cells are mapped near the origin of the trajectories, whereas mouse embryo fibroblast and fibroblast cell lines are mapped near the far end of the trajectories. We suggest that this method can be used as the non-operational semi-quantitative definition of cell differentiation status and developmental potency. Furthermore, the global expression profiles of cell lineages provide a framework for the future study of in vitro and in vivo cell differentiation

Establishment of Functioning Human Corneal Endothelial Cell Line with High Growth Potential

Hexagonal-shaped human corneal endothelial cells (HCEC) form a monolayer by adhering tightly through their intercellular adhesion molecules. Located at the posterior corneal surface, they maintain corneal translucency by dehydrating the corneal stroma, mainly through the Na+- and K+-dependent ATPase (Na+/K+-ATPase). Because HCEC proliferative activity is low in vivo, once HCEC are damaged and their numbers decrease, the cornea begins to show opacity due to overhydration, resulting in loss of vision. HCEC cell cycle arrest occurs at the G1 phase and is partly regulated by cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (CKIs) in the Rb pathway (p16-CDK4/CyclinD1-pRb). In this study, we tried to activate proliferation of HCEC by inhibiting CKIs. Retroviral transduction was used to generate two new HCEC lines: transduced human corneal endothelial cell by human papillomavirus type E6/E7 (THCEC (E6/E7)) and transduced human corneal endothelial cell by Cdk4R24C/CyclinD1 (THCEH (Cyclin)). Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analysis of gene expression revealed little difference between THCEC (E6/E7), THCEH (Cyclin) and non-transduced HCEC, but cell cycle-related genes were up-regulated in THCEC (E6/E7) and THCEH (Cyclin). THCEH (Cyclin) expressed intercellular molecules including ZO-1 and N-cadherin and showed similar Na+/K+-ATPase pump function to HCEC, which was not demonstrated in THCEC (E6/E7). This study shows that HCEC cell cycle activation can be achieved by inhibiting CKIs even while maintaining critical pump function and morphology