Cloning and characterization of a putative transcription factor induced by abiotic stress in Zea mays

bZIP transcription factors have been reported to play important roles in plant responses to abiotic stresses. Here, we reported the cloning and characterization of a putative bZIP transcription factor (ZmbZIP17) from maize inbred line Han21, which is up-regulated by drought treatment. The open reading frame sequence of ZmbZIP17 was obtained by using 5’RACE and RT-PCR. Sequence analysis showed that ZmbZIP17 encodes a polypeptide of 563 amino acids with predicted molecular mass of59.8 kDa and pI of 5.6. Southern blot analysis showed that ZmbZIP17 exists as a single copy gene in maize genome. Subcellular localization of ZmbZIP17 was identified in nucleus. The results of real-time PCR analysis indicated that ZmbZIP17 was up-regulated by drought, heat, ABA and NaCl stressimmediately, which suggested that ZmbZIP17 is an early stage responsive gene to various abiotic stresses. The result also showed that ZmbZIP17 expressed much higher in leaves than in other organs in maize seedlings

A digital grayscale generation equipment for image display standardization

The standardization of grayscale display is essentially significant for image signal communication, transmission, and terminal reading. The key step of this standardization is establishing a traceable equipment of grayscale. As a relative value, grayscale is transferred to two different absolute values to satisfy different traceability methods, including optical density for hardcopy image and luminance for softcopy. For luminance, a generation equipment is designed to build the relationship between luminance and grayscale. In this work, novel equipment is established using digital light processing (DLP) by time-frequency modulation, and the corresponding uncertainty is analyzed. The experiment result shows that this digital equipment builds the relationship between grayscale and luminance in the range of 0.16-4000 cd/m2. It enables traceable measurement of grayscale to luminance on this equipment with high accuracy and can provide a standardized reference for the display of grayscale images in the fields of medicine, remote sensing, non-destructive testing, etc.</jats:p

A smart cushion for real-time heart rate monitoring

10.1109/BioCAS.2012.64185122012 IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference: Intelligent Biomedical Electronics and Systems for Better Life and Better Environment, BioCAS 2012 - Conference Publications53-5

Optimal Indoor Air Temperature Considering Energy Savings and Thermal Comfort in the Shanghai Area

Indoor air temperature is the most important control parameter in air conditioning systems. It not only impacts the thermal comfort of occupants, but also also greatly affects the energy consumption in air conditioning systems. The lower the indoor air temperature is in summer or the higher the indoor temperature is in winter, the more energy the air conditioning system will consume. For the sake of energy conservation, the indoor air should be set as high as possible in summer and as low as possible in winter. Meanwhile, indoor thermal comfort should be considered. This paper will establish the optimal indoor air temperature for an air-conditioning system aiming at both energy savings and thermal comfort in the Shanghai area, based on the PMV equation and extensive field investigation

Pricing perishable products with compound poisson demands

2011-2012 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Association of Exposure to Particular Matter and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Long time exposure to particular matter has been linked to myocardial infarction, stroke and blood pressure, but its association with atherosclerosis is not clear. This meta-analysis was aimed at assessing whether PM2.5 and PM10 have an effect on subclinical atherosclerosis measured by carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT). Methods: Pubmed, Ovid Medline, Embase and NICK between 1948 and 31 March 2015 were searched by combining the keywords about exposure to the outcome related words. The random-effects model was applied in computing the change of CIMT and their corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI). The effect of potential confounding factors was assessed by stratified analysis and the impact of traffic proximity was also estimated. Results: Among 56 identified studies, 11 articles satisfied the inclusion criteria. In overall analysis increments of 10 μg/m3 in PM2.5 and PM10 were associated with an increase of CIMT (16.79 μm; 95% CI, 4.95–28.63 μm and 4.13 μm; 95% CI, −5.79–14.04 μm, respectively). Results shown in subgroup analysis had reference value for comparing with those of the overall analysis. The impact of traffic proximity on CIMT was uncertain. Conclusions: Exposure to PM2.5 had a significant association with CIMT and for women the effect may be more obvious