Simulation of running impact using a viscoelastic model considering contact phase

AbstractThe purposes of this study were to develop and validate a new viscoelastic model which can consider the contact phases of running. For these purposes, a simple mechanical model of the human body including two contact points was developed. Three healthy male performed barefoot running at different speeds. The simulated values during the passive phase using this model were well estimated. It was shown that this new model may be useful to analyze the impact force during running

Urban Growth Prediction of Special Economic Development Zone in Mae Sot District, Thailand

Since the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was activated in 2015, eight subdistricts of Mae Sot district in Tak province, Thailand have been regarded as special economic development zones (SEZ) due to their situation on the border of Thailand near the pathway of the East-West Economic Corridor project (EWEC). Thus, the Thai Government is developing many infrastructure projects there, and the urban areas are likely to expand, as the population is increasing dramatically. The study of land use could aid in more efficient decision-making in urban planning, and could mitigate the effects of uncontrolled urban development. Based on this background, land use change monitoring was performed based on Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) using high-resolution satellite images. The images were captured by QuickBird in 2006, and by Thaichote in 2011 and 2016. The object-based classification considers not only the reflectance of the pixels but also the size, shape, color, smoothness, and compactness of the objects. This technique will bring higher accuracy to land use classification. The eCognition Developer was employed in this study for object-based classification. The mean and standard deviation of the original band was used for principle component analysis (PCA), and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was also applied to land use classification. The types of land use were divided into five categories that followed the definitions given by the Land Development Department of Thailand (LDD): agricultural area, forest, urban area, water body, and miscellaneous land. The results of land use classification showed that urban areas increased drastically year by year. The GIS dataset for land use compiled by the LDD was employed to evaluate the accuracy of our results. The overall accuracies based on the images captured in 2006 and 2011 were 86.00% and 79.88%, respectively. To evaluate urban growth in 2015, the states of land use in 2006 and 2011 were applied to a Markov Chain and Cellular Automata model (CA-Markov), which is a model for the prediction of land use change from one period to another. The Markov model evaluates the transition probability matrix to project future change, while CA-Markov performs the spatial variations in cell time transition and neighborhood based on its element cell space, cell states, time steps, transition rules, and neighbors. The accuracy of the land use prediction obtained from CA-Markov in 2016 was evaluated by comparing it with land use classification from the object-based classification of the image captured by Thaichote in 2016. The overall accuracy was 68.45%. The pattern of land use change detected from both the projection map and the classification map showed that the urban area would spread following the development of transportation infrastructure, and would encroach on the agricultural areas, while forest areas would become agricultural areas

Progress in Somatic Embryogenesis of Japanese Pines

Somatic embryogenesis (SE) in not only one of the most promising techniques for mass propagation of selected trees, but also is a valuable tool for basic research studies in cell biology and genetic engineering, and it allows the long-term ex situ conservation of genetic resources by cryopreservation techniques. This review reports the most recent progress in SE, protoplast culture, and cryopreservation of four important Japanese pines (Pinus thunbergii, Pinus densiflora, Pinus armandii var. amamiana, and Pinus luchuensis). Induction of embryogenic tissues (ET), embryogenic culture maintenance/proliferation, production of somatic embryos, germination, and conversion to plants are described focusing on the protocols most commonly reported for plant production in Pinus species through to SE

L-Fucose-containing arabinogalactan-protein in radish leaves.

The carbohydrate moieties of arabinogalactan-proteins (AGPs) have β-(1 → 3)-galactan backbones to which side chains of (1 → 6)-linked β-Gal residues are attached through O-6. Some of these side chains are further substituted with other sugars. We investigated the structure of L-Fuc-containing oligosaccharides released from the carbohydrate moieties of a radish leaf AGP by digestion with α-L-arabinofuranosidase, followed by exo-β-(1 → 3)-galactanase. We detected a series of neutral β-(1 → 6)-galactooligosaccharides branching variously at O-3 of the Gal residues, together with corresponding acidic derivatives terminating in 4-O-methyl-GlcA (4-Me-GlcA) or GlcA at the non-reducing terminals. In neutral oligosaccharides with degree of polymerization (dp) mainly higher than 10, L-Fuc groups were attached through L-Ara residues as the sequence, α-L-Fucp-(1 → 2)-α-L-Araf-(1 →. This sequence was verified by isolation of the pentasaccharide α-L-Fuc-(1 → 2)-α-L-Araf-(1 → 3)-β-Gal-(1 → 6)-β-Gal-(1 → 6)-Gal upon digestion of the higher oligosaccharides with endo-β-(1 → 6)-galactanase. By contrast, in lower polymerized (predominantly dp 4) acidic oligosaccharides, L-Fuc groups were attached directly at the non-reducing terminals through α-(1 → 2)-linkages, resulting in the release of the tetrasaccharides, α-L-Fucp-(1 → 2)-β-GlcA-(1 → 6)-β-Gal-(1 → 6)-Gal and α-L-Fucp-(1 → 2)-β-4-Me-GlcA-(1 → 6)-β-Gal-(1 → 6)-Gal. In long acidic oligosaccharides with dp mainly higher than 13, L-Fuc groups localized on branches were attached to the uronic acids directly and/or L-Ara residues as in the neutral oligosaccharides.The authors would like to thank Prof. M. Hisamatsu, Mie University, Tsu, Japan, for a gift of cyclic β-(1→2)-glucan. This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research no. 23570048 to Y.T. and no. 24114006 to Y.T. and T.K.). Support was also provided by BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre: Cell wall sugars program (Grant No. BB/G016240/1) to P.D.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carres.2015.07.00

Endosymbiotic Gene Transfer in Tertiary Plastid-Containing Dinoflagellates

Plastid establishment involves the transfer of endosymbiotic genes to the host nucleus, a process known as endosymbiotic gene transfer (EGT). Large amounts of EGT have been shown in several photosynthetic lineages but also in present-day plastid-lacking organisms, supporting the notion that endosymbiotic genes leave a substantial genetic footprint in the host nucleus. Yet the extent of this genetic relocation remains debated, largely because the long period that has passed since most plastids originated has erased many of the clues to how this process unfolded. Among the dinoflagellates, however, the ancestral peridinin-containing plastid has been replaced by tertiary plastids on several more recent occasions, giving us a less ancient window to examine plastid origins. In this study, we evaluated the endosymbiotic contribution to the host genome in two dinoflagellate lineages with tertiary plastids. We generated the first nuclear transcriptome data sets for the “dinotoms,” which harbor diatom-derived plastids, and analyzed these data in combination with the available transcriptomes for kareniaceans, which harbor haptophyte-derived plastids. We found low level of detectable EGT in both dinoflagellate lineages, with only 9 genes and 90 genes of possible tertiary endosymbiotic origin in dinotoms and kareniaceans, respectively, suggesting that tertiary endosymbioses did not heavily impact the host dinoflagellate genomes