Isolation And Characterization Of Disease And Stress Related Genes From Muskmelon (Cucumis Melo L.)

Soil salinity and attack by pathogen a re the major abiotic stresses in plant agriculture worldwide. Past efforts to improve plant tolerance to osmotic stress and pathogen attack through breeding and genetic engineering have shown limited success owing to the genetic complexity of stress responses. Large-scale partial sequencing of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) towards cataloging and categorizing genetically abiotic stress responses can assist a means for the rapid discovery of stress-specific genes. A combination of two types of abiotic stresses (200mM of NaCI and 14 min of 254nm UV-irradiation) were applied to muskmelon seedlings prior to the isolation of RNA for cDNA library construction. Cold plaque hybridisation using non-induced cDNA as probe to screen the stress-induced cDNA library for stress and disease-related genes was performed. A total of 550 ESTs were generated from a stress-induced cDNA library with a cDNA insert size ranging between 500-2500bp. Classification of the ESTs based on their designated functions showed that the majority of isolated genes were involved in salt tolerance and disease resistance. The results showed that the generation of stress-induced ESTs by partial sequencing of random cDNA clones along with expression analysis are efficient approach to identify isolated genes that a re responsible for salt tolerance and disease resistance on a large scale. We believe our dbEST and the associated DNA materials would be a useful resource to scientists engaged in studies on stress-tolerance and disease resistance. MYB proteins a re known to regulate different branches of flavonoid metabolism in plants in response to wounding, UV irradiation and ethephon treatment. Their role as transcriptional regulators in response to stress treatment and pathogen attack also has been reported (Urao et al., 1993; Abe et al., 1997). A 279bp partial MYB-related protein was also isolated by an RT-PCR method using the degenerate primers. At the same time, the double induced stress-related muskmelon cDNA library of salt and UV irradiation provide a good source to study the gene expression and regulatory of MYB gene in relation to the stress and UV treatment. Due to the high similarity of the partial MYB sequence to the cloning vector, p Bluescript SK(+), screening of the full length MYB gene was unsuccessful

A Study of Appraisers’ Managerial Competencies towards the Intentions of Appraiser to Practice the Informal Performance Appraisal Process

Selain daripada barangan dan modal, pekerja merupakan aset yang paling besar kepada sesuatu organisasi. Apart from products, goods and capital, it is the employees who are the biggest asset of an organization

Filmwise condensation on a horizontal tube in the presence of forced convection and non-condensing gas

PhDAccurate and repeatable heat-transfer data have been obtained for filmwise condensation from pure vapours (steam and Refrigerant 113) and vapour-gas (steam-air, steam-hydrogen, Refrigerant 1 13-air and Refrigerant 113- hydrogen) mixtures flowing vertically downward over single horizontal tubes. The tube surface could be viewed to ensure that the filmwise mode of condensation prevailed throughout all tests. Two copper tubes having diameters 12.5 mm and 25.25 mm were used. Surface temperatures at four positions were obtained from thermocouples embedded in the tube wall. The heat flux was obtained from coolant measurements which were checked against values obtained by condensate collection. The vapour mass flow rate was obtained from the electrical power input to the boiler. (The mass flow rate determination incorporated a correction for relatively small 'thermal losses' to the environment which were established by preliminary measurements in which all the vapour supplied to the test section was condensed and. collected. Non-condensing gases could be supplied continuously via variable-aperture float-type flowmetera to the boiler. The working length (r11O mm) of the condenser tube was located, centrally in the cylindrical test section (152.4 mm). The vapour Reynolds number (based on the teat section diameter) was generally greater than 2000. The mean vapour approach velocity over the working length was determined on the basis of a 'seventh power profile' in conjunction with the measured flow rate. The approximate ranges of the variables used were:- pressure (4 - 124 kpa), heat flux (12 - 466 kW/m2 ), vapour velocit' (0.3 - 26 n/a), gas mole (mass) fraction (o.i % (0.02 %) - 35 % (32 %)). The vapour-gas combinations were chosen to give a wide range of Schmidt number (about 0.05 - 0.5). For pure vapoura, the results are in overall agreement with earlier data (mostly steam) at moderate approach velocities. While discrepancies exist at higher velocities, both the present and earlier results show satisfactory agreement with theory at low and moderate velocities. The vapour-gas data are in good agreement with the limited earlier measurements (steam-air only) and with theory. In particular, the theoretically predicted Schmidt number dependence was clearly established

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) by recombinant phaeodactylum tricornutum via light-emitting diode cultivation and microwave-assisted extraction

Bioplastic such as poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is an alternative approach to replace petroleum-derived plastic. However, high substrate cost and slow extraction process have hindered wide application of PHB. In this research, genetically modified Phaeodactylum tricornutum was used as an alternative PHB producer because it is able to utilize carbon dioxide. Ammonium and nitrate were used as nitrogen sources in the cultivation to suppress and activate PHB synthesis of this strain, respectively. The first phase of this study aimed to simplify the cultivation process by substituting the ammonium at its complete depletion point on day 5 with nitrate and enhance PHB productivity by different light wavelengths strategy. In the simplified cultivation method or known as one-step cultivation (OSC) for PHB synthesis, the steps in cell harvesting were removed when switching the nitrogen sources. Findings revealed that OSC is feasible as no sign of PHB synthesis suppression was present. In fact, the PHB productivity has improved to 9.75±0.64 (117.02±7.73 mg/L) from 7.40±0.52 mg/L/day (85.26±1.83 mg/L) which was achieved via multiple-step cultivation. In different light wavelength studies, red light was determined as better wavelength where the culture revealed higher specific growth rate and approximately 1.45-fold higher PHB productivity against white light culture. In the second phase of the study, PHB was extracted from wet biomass using microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and propylene carbonate/isopropanol (PC/IPA). PC/IPA has high PHB solubility of 94.8±1.5%, boiling point of 99.1 oC, good dielectric properties, and miscible with water. Two-level full factorial design was used to evaluate the effect of the parameters that were A: extraction temperature (65-85 oC), B: extraction duration (5-15 min), and C: solvent-to-biomass ratio (5-15 mL/g) in PHB MAE. The results revealed that factor A and C significantly influenced the PHB recovery. The PHB MAE was optimized using central composite design. Based on prediction, the optimum PHB recovery of 97.89% can be achieved at 88 oC for 15 min with solvent-to-biomass ratio of 6.4 mL/g. The experimental PHB recovery of 95.63±0.70% with purity of 75±4% achieved by MAE method were significantly higher than conventional heating extraction (CHE) using chloroform (recovery: 79.53±2.87%, purity: 97±2%). The recovered PHB by MAE has high molecular weight of 1.4 x 106 Da. However, the melting point, melting enthalpy, and crystallinity were lower than PHB recovered from CHE using chloroform. The outcomes revealed the MAE system was excellent for PHB extraction as it offers high PHB recovery, cell breaking feature, safe processing conditions, wet biomass extraction and less hazardous compared to chloroform

Relationship between motivational factors and satisfaction among teachers

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between motivational factors and satisfaction among teachers, along external motivators and internal motivators, jointly or singly. It also attempted to establish the relationship between personal characteristics and satisfaction, along gender, race, marital status, qualifications, length of service, and age. A 34-item, bilingual questionnaire was employed to measure the variables. A pilot test conducted in S.M. Teknik TARP with a random sample of 30 teachers showed that the instrument yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.8693 (external motivators), 0.5709 (internal motivators), 0.9418 (satisfaction with external motivators) and 0.8506 (satisfaction with internal motivators); which were measured using Cronbach's Alpha. Proportionate stratified random sampling was adopted to select a sample of 328 respondents from a population of 2208 secondary school teachers in Georgetown, Penang. Data collected were tested using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings indicated a positive and significant relationship between satisfaction and motivational factors, but satisfaction generally does not differ between males and females. Gender only affects satisfaction with external motivators. There is no significant difference in satisfaction with internal motivators among the races, but the difference in satisfaction with external motivators was found to be significant among the various ethnic groups. No significant difference in satisfaction was observed among teachers of various marital status, and qualifications. The variance in satisfaction was significant and explained by both external and internal motivators, but not length of service, and age. External motivators, however, appear to be the best predictor for satisfaction, in this study

Continuous Monitoring of Distributed Data Streams over a Time-based Sliding Window

The past decade has witnessed many interesting algorithms for maintaining statistics over a data stream. This paper initiates a theoretical study of algorithms for monitoring distributed data streams over a time-based sliding window (which contains a variable number of items and possibly out-of-order items). The concern is how to minimize the communication between individual streams and the root, while allowing the root, at any time, to be able to report the global statistics of all streams within a given error bound. This paper presents communication-efficient algorithms for three classical statistics, namely, basic counting, frequent items and quantiles. The worst-case communication cost over a window is $O(\frac{k} {\epsilon} \log \frac{\epsilon N}{k})$ bits for basic counting and $O(\frac{k}{\epsilon} \log \frac{N}{k})$ words for the remainings, where $k$ is the number of distributed data streams, $N$ is the total number of items in the streams that arrive or expire in the window, and $\epsilon < 1$ is the desired error bound. Matching and nearly matching lower bounds are also obtained.Comment: 12 pages, to appear in the 27th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS), 201

Aesthetics of Experiment: Imagism, Vorticism and the European Avant-Garde

This dissertation is a critical re-assessment of Imagism and Vorticism in relation to the European avant-garde, which both movements aspired towards in their reactions against the contemporary English arts and letters. I explore the implementation of such aspirations in the English arts by chronicling the complex relationship between the English movements and Cubism, the Parisian avant-garde, Italian Futurism and German Expressionism. The thesis argues that Imagism and Vorticism simultaneously modelled themselves on and reacted against their Continental counterparts, in terms of aesthetic concepts, artistic techniques and promotional tactics in creating a modern art. As movements with contributors of different nationalities and working in different artistic media, including poetry, painting and sculpture, there necessarily exists many aesthetic varieties within Imagism and Vorticism apart from foundational consensus shared by group members. In order to address the complexity of the groups’ make-up and the interdisciplinarity of their avant-garde aesthetics, the enquiry is made through a two-fold approach: firstly, by conducting contextual and comparative studies of significant individuals of the movements, including T. E. Hulme, Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound, to gauge their individual perspectives on literature, visual arts and aesthetic theories; secondly, by considering the heterogeneous nature of these movements and exploring the group dynamics, tensions and rivalries within the movements and with other contemporary groups. With this dual focus, my thesis reconstructs the cultural milieu through the artists’ works and correspondence, as well as the circulation network of little magazines, publicity and patronage, in order to reconcile the aesthetic and social contexts of Imagism and Vorticism, both in England and beyond. Ultimately, my thesis provides a more comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the English movements’ aesthetics, their relationship with the European avant-garde, and their impact on artistic and literary experimentation in modernist English literature and visual arts

Learning english language with technology : case study of a primary school in Kota Belud, Sabah

Teaching English language in primary school using ICT technology is a great challenge for language teachers. The study investigates how 40 voluntary student teachers of a public university in Sabah use ICT and multisensory approach to teach English. The study employs The Learner Centric Ecology of Resources Framework (Luckin, 2008) as a guide to observe knowledge scaffolding of students learning. Focus group interviews to elicite qualitative data were done with some selected student teachers who participated in the voluntary teaching job at selected primary school in Kota Belud, Sabah. The results showed that the majority of the student teachers were motivated to teach English using multisensory approach because it helped them to connect English with outside world via visual aids (multimedia). The student teachers’ reflective journals also indicated that they were able to align the ICT materials with the proficiency level of the students, create interactive teaching and learning materials, using ICT to improve class control because the graphics and sounds attracted students’ attention. All the actions by the student teachers proved that they were frequently updating each other in teaching like how the Luckin’s framework suggested. If this method of learning is practiced by more schools, it would make language learning interesting