Chloroplast to chromoplast transition in tomato fruit: spectral confocalmicroscopy analyses of carotenoids and chlorophylls in isolated plastids and time-lapse recording on intact live tissue

During evolution, chromoplasts have emerged as plastid structures which accumulate pigments to facilitate flower pollination and seed dispersal of fleshy fruit. There is good evidence that chromoplasts derive from chloroplasts (Pyke, 2007), even if nobody has ever recorded this transition. Structural changes occurring during chloroplast to chromoplast transition have been described in fleshy fruit by electron microscopy primarily in tomato (Rosso, 1968; Harris and Spurr, 1969) and in bell pepper (Spurr and Harris, 1968). During the differentiation process controlled breakdown of chlorophyll and disruption of the thylakoid membrane occurred, concomitant with an increase in the aggregation of carotenoids. Different carotenoid-accumulating bodies have been described, including plastoglobules, crystalline and microfibrillar structures, and internal membranous structures

On the security of a provably secure, efficient, and flexible authentication scheme for ad hoc wireless sensor networks

In a recent paper, Chang and Le proposed an efficient smart card?based authenticated key exchange protocol (which is referred to as CL scheme) for heterogeneous ad hoc wireless sensor networks. However, we found that the CL scheme is subject to sensor capture attack which breaks the session key security of the CL scheme. An improved protocol is proposed to fix this problem.Peer reviewe

Metabolic and molecular events occurring during chromoplast biogenesis

Chromoplasts are nonphotosynthetic plastids that accumulate carotenoids. They derive from other plastid forms, mostly chloroplasts. The biochemical events responsible for the interconversion of one plastid form into another are poorly documented. However, thanks to transcriptomics and proteomics approaches, novel information is now available. Data of proteomic and biochemical analysis revealed the importance of lipid metabolism and carotenoids biosynthetic activities. The loss of photosynthetic activity was associated with the absence of the chlorophyll biosynthesis branch and the presence of proteins involved in chlorophyll degradation. Surprisingly, the entire set of Calvin cycle and of the oxidative pentose phosphate pathwaypersisted after the transition from chloroplast to chromoplast. The role of plastoglobules in the formation and organisation of carotenoid-containing structures and that of the Or gene in the control of chromoplastogenesis are reviewed. Finally, using transcriptomic data, an overview is given the expression pattern of a number of genes encoding plastid-located proteins during tomato fruit ripening

Rhyme chinoiserie. Chinese traditional patterns and handicraft in contemporary bag design

LAUREA MAGISTRALElo Stile cinese e l'artigianato tradizionale (ricamo, carta-taglio, Origami, nodo cinese ...) sono sempre più diffusi e ne troviamo esempi in tutte le tipologie di prodotto da prodotti comuni a prodotti di alta gamma. la ricerca che voglio affrontare rigurderà i modelli iconografici, artigianali, di borse, ma anche riguardanti tecnologia e i materiali utilizzati. Il mio obiettivo è quindi esplorare come gli schemi artigianali tradizionali cinesi si adattano in un nuovo sistema, e questo col fine di esplorare come questo design viene applicato nella realizzazione di borse.Chinese patterns and traditional handicrafts (Embroidery, Paper-cutting, Origami, Chinese knot...) are more and more applied in all kinds of products by luxury fashion brands, the research is around "pattern""handicraft""bags"and"materials and technologies" to explore how to transform the traditional Chinese patterns and crafts into new appearance to create contemporary bag design

Sequential Solvent Extraction of Argonne Premium Coal Samples

Five coals from the Argonne Premium Coal Sample program, ranging in rank from sub-bituminous to low volatile bituminous, before and following artificial weathering, were exhaustively extracted with solvents in the sequence: toluene, tetrahydrofuran, N,N-dimethyl-formamide, and pyridine. Sequential solvent extraction reveals more insight into the coal structure than single solvent extraction because fractions are isolated on the basis of both molecular size and polarity. The recovered extracts and residue from the extraction are monitored by FT-IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, phenol content, solvent swelling, and Gel Permeation Chromatography analysis (GPC). The extraction results show that for fresh coals, the total extract yields are coal rank dependent, but trends are less clear for oxidized coals. A correlation between the total extract yields and the molecular weights of the extracts are found by GPC analysis. FT-IR spectra of extracts reveal changes with coal rank and upon oxidation in more detail than spectra of the whole coals. Fresh and oxidized coals of middle rank are less rich in carbonyl groups. The oxygen content in fresh subbituminous coal is dominated by acid groups. Higher rank coals (up to 89% C daf) exhibit more diverse oxygen-containing function groups than lower rank coals. Air oxidation of higher rank coals brings complicated changes in FT-IR spectra of extracts. For high volatile bituminous coals, it is concluded that the loss of extractability upon air oxidation is due to the formation of ether linkages