Functional Characterization of Siberian Wild Rye Grass \u3cem\u3eEsHSP 16.9\u3c/em\u3e Gene Conferring Diverse Stress Tolerance in Prokaryotic Cells

Siberian wild rye (Elymus sibiricus L.) is a perennial, caespitose, and self-pollinating grass indigenous to Northern Asia and also is widely distributed from Northern Europe to Japan. The plant shows strong environmental adaptability with tolerance to drought and cold; thus, it is often used as forage resources (Yan et al., 2007). Environmental stresses caused by global warming are acknowledged to be as a serious issue in agriculture due to reductions of crop productivity (Ahuja et al., 2010). Genetic natural breeding of Siberian wild rye would potentially increase the productivity of forage crops; however, genetic studies on this grass have yet to be conducted. Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are the well characterized stress inducible proteins playing as molecular chaperones in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. We have also identified two differently localized small Hsps: rice chloroplastic and alfalfa mitochondrial Hsps confer tolerance to oxidative and heat stresses in tall fescue and to salinity and arsenic stresses in E. coli, tobacco, and tall fescue, respectively (Lee et al., 2012a; Lee et al., 2012b). Here, we cloned the small Hsp16.9 gene from various heat stress-induced fragments in Siberian wild rye using differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis. We examined the mRNA expression of EsHsp16.9, in vitro molecular chaperone activity and in vivo stress tolerance by using a prokaryotic system against diverse environmental stresse

The investigation of ship maneuvering with hydrodynamic effects between ships in curved narrow channel

AbstractThe hydrodynamic interaction between two large vessels can't be neglected when two large vessels are closed to each other in restricted waterways such as in a harbor or narrow channel. This paper is mainly concerned with the ship maneuvering motion based on the hydrodynamic interaction effects between two large vessels moving each other in curved narrow channel. In this research, the characteristic features of the hydrodynamic interaction forces between two large vessels are described and illustrated, and the effects of velocity ratio and the spacing between two vessels are summarized and discussed. Also, the Inchon outer harbor area through the PALMI island channel in Korea was selected, and the ship maneuvering simulation was carried out to propose an appropriate safe speed and distance between two ships, which is required to avoid sea accident in confined waters. From the inspection of this investigation, it indicates the following result. Under the condition of SP12≤0.5L, it may encounter a dangerous tendency of grounding or collision due to the combined effect of the interaction between ships and external forces. Also considering the interaction and wind effect as a parameter, an overtaken and overtaking vessel in narrow channel can navigate while keeping its own original course under the following conditions; the lateral separation between two ships is about kept at 0.6 times of ship length and 15 degrees of range in maximum rudder angle. On the other hand, two ships while overtaking in curved narrow channel such as Inchon outer harbor in Korea should be navigated under the following conditions; SP12 is about kept at 1.0 times of ship length and the wind velocity should not be stronger than 10 m/s

Can We Trust an AI Agent? Interaction Effects of Its Machine Learning Performance and Digital Character

AI-powered digital characters, AI agents, are expanding their scope of application to various fields. However, research on the key factors influencing consumer attitude is insufficient. This experimental study focuses on machine learning (ML) performance (i.e., the behavioral (intelligence) realism of AI agents), which determines users’ trust. This study further investigates the interaction role of the different forms of digital character (i.e., the form realism of AI agents) in the relationship between ML performance and trust. The findings of this study provide a novel understanding of human-AI interaction, expand academic understanding of AI anthropomorphism, and suggest new research directions for digital humans. The results will also guide business practitioners in developing AI services

GBParsy: A GenBank flatfile parser library with high speed

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>GenBank flatfile (GBF) format is one of the most popular sequence file formats because of its detailed sequence features and ease of readability. To use the data in the file by a computer, a parsing process is required and is performed according to a given grammar for the sequence and the description in a GBF. Currently, several parser libraries for the GBF have been developed. However, with the accumulation of DNA sequence information from eukaryotic chromosomes, parsing a eukaryotic genome sequence with these libraries inevitably takes a long time, due to the large GBF file and its correspondingly large genomic nucleotide sequence and related feature information. Thus, there is significant need to develop a parsing program with high speed and efficient use of system memory.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed a library, GBParsy, which was C language-based and parses GBF files. The parsing speed was maximized by using content-specified functions in place of regular expressions that are flexible but slow. In addition, we optimized an algorithm related to memory usage so that it also increased parsing performance and efficiency of memory usage. GBParsy is at least 5 - 100× faster than current parsers in benchmark tests.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>GBParsy is estimated to extract annotated information from almost 100 Mb of a GenBank flatfile for chromosomal sequence information within a second. Thus, it should be used for a variety of applications such as on-time visualization of a genome at a web site.</p

Cases of ethical violation in research publications: through editorial decision making process

Purpose – To improve and strengthen existing publication and research ethics, KODISA has identified and presented various cases which have violated publication and research ethics and principles in recent years. The editorial office of KODISA has been providing and continues to provide advice and feedback on publication ethics to researchers during peer review and editorial decision making process. Providing advice and feedback on publication ethics will ensure researchers to have an opportunity to correct their mistakes or make appropriate decisions and avoid any violations in research ethics. The purpose of this paper is to identify different cases of ethical violation in research and inform and educate researchers to avoid any violations in publication and research ethics. Furthermore, this article will demonstrate how KODISA journals identify and penalize ethical violations and strengthens its publication ethics and practices. Research design, data and methodology – This paper examines different types of ethical violation in publication and research ethics. The paper identifies and analyzes all ethical violations in research and combines them into five general categories. Those five general types of ethical violations are thoroughly examined and discussed. Results – Ethical violations of research occur in various forms at regular intervals; in other words, unethical researchers tend to commit different types of ethical violations repeatedly at same time. The five categories of ethical violation in research are as follows: (1) Arbitrary changes or additions in author(s) happen frequently in thesis/dissertation related publications. (2) Self plagiarism, submitting same work or mixture of previous works with or without using proper citations, also occurs frequently, but the most common type of plagiarism is changing the statistical results and using them to present as the results of the empirical analysis; (3) Translation plagiarism, another ethical violation in publication, is difficult to detect but occurs frequently; (4) Fabrication of data or statistical analysis also occurs frequently. KODISA requires authors to submit the results of the empirical analysis of the paper (the output of the statistical program) to prevent this type of ethical violation; (5) Mashup or aggregator plagiarism, submitting a mix of several different works with or without proper citations without alterations, is very difficult to detect, and KODISA journals consider this type of plagiarism as the worst ethical violation. Conclusions – There are some individual cases of ethical violation in research and publication that could not be included in the five categories presented throughout the paper. KODISA and its editorial office should continue to develop, revise, and strengthen their publication ethics, to learn and share different ways to detect any ethical violations in research and publication, to train and educate its editorial members and researchers, and to analyze and share different cases of ethical violations with the scholarly community

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THERMAL STRATIFICATION IN THE UPPER PLENUM OF THE MONJU FAST REACTOR

A numerical analysis of thermal stratification in the upper plenum of the MONJU fast breeder reactor was performed. Calculations were performed for a 1/6 simplified model of the MONJU reactor using the commercial code, CFX-13. To better resolve the geometrically complex upper core structure of the MONJU reactor, the porous media approach was adopted for the simulation. First, a steady state solution was obtained and the transient solutions were then obtained for the turbine trip test conducted in December 1995. The time dependent inlet conditions for the mass flow rate and temperature were provided by JAEA. Good agreement with the experimental data was observed for steady state solution. The numerical solution of the transient analysis shows the formation of thermal stratification within the upper plenum of the reactor vessel during the turbine trip test. The temporal variations of temperature were predicted accurately by the present method in the initial rapid coastdown period (∼300 seconds). However, transient numerical solutions show a faster thermal mixing than that observed in the experiment after the initial coastdown period. A nearly homogenization of the temperature field in the upper plenum is predicted after about 900 seconds, which is a much shorter-term thermal stratification than the experimental data indicates. This discrepancy may be due to the shortcoming of the turbulence models available in the CFX-13 code for a natural convection flow with thermal stratification

N-(Pyridin-2-ylmeth­yl)pyridin-2-amine

The title compound, C11H11N3, crystallizes with two mol­ecules (A and B) in the asymmetric unit. The geometries of both mol­ecules are very similar, with the exception of the torsion angles of the inter-ring chains; the values for C—N—C—C are 67.4 (5) and −69.3 (5)° for mol­ecules A and B, respectively. The dihedral angles between the pyridyl ring planes are 84.0 (2) and 83.2 (2)° for mol­ecules A and B, respectively. In the crystal, weak inter­molecular N—H⋯N hydrogen bonds and C—H⋯π inter­actions contribute to the stabilization of the packing