Characterization of Granulovirus and Nucleopolyhedrovirus Isolated from Spodoptera Litura

Two baculoviruses were isolated and identified from Spodoptera litura; S. litura nucleopolyhedrovirus (SpltNPV) and S. litura granulovirus (SpltGV). The polyhedra of SpltNPV were about 0.9-1.83 µm in diameter containing multiple virions measuring about 100-280 nm wide and 320-410 nm long. The SpltNPV virions contained nucleocapsids (47-60 nm wide and 300-350 nm long) within an envelope, and the size of capsids measured about 58-60 nm wide and 300-330 nm long. The capsules of SpltGV were about 0.2-0.3 µm wide and 0.45-0.55 µm long containing single virion (60-73 nm wide and 245-267 nm long). The SpltGV nucleocapsids measured approximately 54-60 nm wide and 287-410 nm long, and found singly enclosed within an envelope. The SpltGV capsids measured about 36- 58 nm wide and 175-277 nm long. The restriction endonuclease analyses (REN) revealed that these two baculoviruses did not show any identical restriction pattern. The DNA size of the SpltNPV and the SpltGV was estimated to be 132 kb and 124 kb, respectively. The nucleotide sequence analysis of the polyhedrin gene of SpltNPV had 98% sequence identity to the known SpltNPV (accession number: AF037262); while the granulin gene of SpltGV had 81 % sequence identity to the granulin gene of Xestia c-nigrum granulovirus (accession number: U70069). Based on the sequence analysis, the SpltNPV and the SpltGV are placed as a taxon of Group II NPV and Group GV, respecti vely. Both viruses exhibited general symptoms of polyhedrosis and granulosis. The SpltNPV-infected larvae showed pinkish yellow at the dorsal and lateral sides, while the SpltGV-infected larvae exhibited whitish ventral. The SpltNPV caused a reduction in the larval size while the SpltGV-infected larvae increased in size with bloated integument when lower viral dosages were given. Both viruses infected fat bodies, Malphigian tubules, tracheal matrices, hypodermis, muscles and midguts. The SpltNPV replicated in the nucleus and spread the disease to susceptible tissues within 24-h postinoculation (pj). The SpltGV was found replicating in both nucleus and cytoplasm, and the disease spread gradually after 48-h pj. The LDso of both viruses in neonate larvae of S. litura were 9 .04xl02 polyhedra for SpltNPV and 1.26xl04 capsules for SpltGV. The LTso of both viruses were similar when neonate larvae were fed with similar ranges of viral dosages. The SpltNPV showed a higher virulence in S. litura larvae than the SpltGV. The characterization of these baculoviruses is of particular interest in view of its possible use in biological or integrated control

Immersive analytics for oncology patient cohorts

This thesis proposes a novel interactive immersive analytics tool and methods to interrogate the cancer patient cohort in an immersive virtual environment, namely Virtual Reality to Observe Oncology data Models (VROOM). The overall objective is to develop an immersive analytics platform, which includes a data analytics pipeline from raw gene expression data to immersive visualisation on virtual and augmented reality platforms utilising a game engine. Unity3D has been used to implement the visualisation. Work in this thesis could provide oncologists and clinicians with an interactive visualisation and visual analytics platform that helps them to drive their analysis in treatment efficacy and achieve the goal of evidence-based personalised medicine. The thesis integrates the latest discovery and development in cancer patients’ prognoses, immersive technologies, machine learning, decision support system and interactive visualisation to form an immersive analytics platform of complex genomic data. For this thesis, the experimental paradigm that will be followed is in understanding transcriptomics in cancer samples. This thesis specifically investigates gene expression data to determine the biological similarity revealed by the patient's tumour samples' transcriptomic profiles revealing the active genes in different patients. In summary, the thesis contributes to i) a novel immersive analytics platform for patient cohort data interrogation in similarity space where the similarity space is based on the patient's biological and genomic similarity; ii) an effective immersive environment optimisation design based on the usability study of exocentric and egocentric visualisation, audio and sound design optimisation; iii) an integration of trusted and familiar 2D biomedical visual analytics methods into the immersive environment; iv) novel use of the game theory as the decision-making system engine to help the analytics process, and application of the optimal transport theory in missing data imputation to ensure the preservation of data distribution; and v) case studies to showcase the real-world application of the visualisation and its effectiveness

Synthesis, Characterization and Modification of Metal Organic Framework-74 for CO2 Adsorption

Currently, CO2 capture is a topical issue in environmental preservation and sustainable growth in development. This review highlights the recent studies on synthesis and characterization in metal organic framework (Mg-MOF-74) for CO2 capture and also the recent advances in the development of amine functionalized Mg-MOF-74 for CO2 capture. In this study, CO2 adsorption on Magnesium-MOF-74 and Magnesium-MOF-74-AMP were investigated and compared. Fitting in as fascinating class of nano-porous materials, MOFs have been considered potential candidates for CO2 capture due to its capability of adsorption. However, water stability is often considered a big weakness of all kinds of metal-organic framework structures available for now. As such, Mg-MOF-74 does not exhibit such degradation which has a characteristic of strong coordination bond strength and remarkable as one of the highest CO2 uptake capacity among MOFs. Here, Mg-MOF-74 was synthesized by using magnesium nitrate, Mg(NO3)2·6H2O and 2,5-dihydroxyterephthalte acid in the presence of dimethylformamide (DMF) , ethanol and deionized water under conventional hydrothermal method. Thereafter, Mg-MOF-74 was grafted with 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP). Characterization techniques applied are Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), thermogravimetry analysis (TGA), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and the performance of CO2 adsorption on both MOFs is studied using BET method. It was found that amine grafted MOF-74 (MOF-74-AMP) has higher CO2 adsorption capacity with a reported value of 0.0046mol/g as compared to MOF-74 with a reported value of 0.002mol/g. This work may be helpful in the integration of amine-grafted MOF-74 applications in CO2 capture

Anomalous thermoelectric transport of Dirac particles in graphene

We report a thermoelectric study of graphene in both zero and applied magnetic fields. As a direct consequence of the linear dispersion of massless particles, we find that the Seebeck coefficient Sxx diverges with 1 /, where n2D is the carrier density. We observe a very large Nernst signal Sxy (~ 50 uV/K at 8 T) at the Dirac point, and an oscillatory dependence of both Sxx and Sxy on n2D at low temperatures. Our results underscore the anomalous thermoelectric transport in graphene, which may be used as a highly sensitive probe for impurity bands near the Dirac point

Mirror of Atiyah flop in symplectic geometry and stability conditions

We study the mirror operation of the Atiyah flop in symplectic geometry. We formulate the operation for a symplectic manifold with a Lagrangian fibration. Furthermore we construct geometric stability conditions on the derived Fukaya category of the deformed conifold and study the action of the mirror Atiyah flop on these stability conditions.Comment: v2: 45 pages, 18 figures; revised expositio