Development of Transgenic Sorghum Plants with Improved In Vitro Kafirin Digestibility

Improvement of nutritional value of crops is one of the main goals of plant biotechnology. These studies are extremely important for sorghum—a unique drought‐tolerant cereal crop that is of special importance for sustainable grain production in the arid regions. The major cause of relatively low nutritive value of sorghum grain is the resistance of one of its seed storage proteins, γ‐kafirin, to protease digestion. Using Agrobacterium‐mediated genetic transformation, we have obtained transgenic sorghum plants harboring a genetic construct for RNA interference (RNAi) silencing of the γ‐kafirin gene. In T1 generation, transgenic plants with modified endosperm texture were found. These plants had lowered level of the 28‐kDa γ‐kafirin protein and kafirin oligomers, which are formed by natural kafirin polymerization. In vitro protein digestibility analysis showed that the amount of undigested protein in transgenic plants was reduced by 2.9–3.2 times, in comparison with the original line, the digestibility index reached 85–88% (60% in the original line). HPLC analysis showed that total amino acid content in transgenic plants was reduced, while the lysine proportion was increased by 1.6–1.7 times. PCR analysis confirmed inheritance of the genetic construct up to T4 generation

Effect of grain refinement on deformation behavior of technical grade titanium under tension

The paper deals with the study on the impact of grain refinement by severe plastic deformation upon the microstructure, as well as deformation and fracture behavior under tensile loading of technical grade titanium. The microstructure of coarse- and ultra-fine grain technical grade titanium was investigated by optical, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. In situ monitoring of deformation behavior was conducted by means of acoustic emission and digital image correlation. Scanning electron microscopy was employed for fracture surface observation. The results of the tensile tests have revealed significant growth in ultimate strength and decrease of ductility due to grain-boundary strengthening. The experimental data obtained allow one to get the appropriate understanding of the mechanisms responsible for variation of mechanical properties and fracture patterns as well as to attain quantitative estimation of strain localization induced by the grain refinement

Experimental investigation of high-energy photon splitting in atomic fields

The new data analysis of the experiment, where the photon splitting in the atomic fields has been observed for the first time, is presented. This experiment was performed at the tagged photon beam of the ROKK-1M facility at the VEPP-4M collider. In the energy region of 120-450 MeV, the statistics of $1.6\cdot 10^9$ photons incident on the BGO target was collected. About 400 candidates to the photon splitting events were reconstructed. Within the attained experimental accuracy, the experimental results are consistent with the cross section calculated exactly in an atomic field. The predictions obtained in the Born approximation significantly differ from the experimental results.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, LaTe

EXPERIENCE OF SURGICAL TREATMENT OF BENIGN TUMORS AND DYSPLATIC PROCESSES OF THE MANDIBLE BY THE METHOD OF REPLANTATION OF THE RECTURAL BONE, SUBJECTED TO FREEZING

The purpose of the study is the development of indications and evaluation of the long-term results of surgical treatment of benign tumors and dysplastic processes of the mandible by the method of replantation of resected bone exposed to extraorganic freezing. Material and methods. A method for the surgical treatment of benign tumors and dysplastic processes of the mandible has been developed. It involves resection of an afflicted by pathological process segment of bone within healthy tissues, its mechanical processing, freezing in liquid nitrogen followed by slow thawing, and replantation. The evaluation of the treatment results has been carried out on the base of clinical, radiation and functional research methods. Long-term follow-up after surgery has been ranged from one to 25 years. Results and discussion. Positive results of surgical treatment were recorded in 72 patients (88,9 %). The indications for the developed method use have been established. It was found that the reconstruction of the mandible with a resected bone segment exposed to extraorganic cryosurgery, eliminates the recurrence of a benign tumor, provides for the restoration of the anatomical integrity of the jaw, and reduces the invasiveness of the operation. Conclusion. Long-term clinical experience has shown that mandible direct reconstruction in the surgical treatment of benign tumors and dysplastic processes with the method of resection, external freezing of the afflicted jaw area and its replantation is available, simple, and highly effective and can be recommended in the practice of medical institutions

Grothendieck ring of varieties, D- and L-equivalence, and families of quadrics

We discuss a conjecture saying that derived equivalence of smooth projective simply connected varieties implies that the difference of their classes in the Grothendieck ring of varieties is annihilated by a power of the affine line class. We support the conjecture with a number of known examples, and one new example. We consider a smooth complete intersection X of three quadrics in P5 and the corresponding double cover Y→P2 branched over a sextic curve. We show that as soon as the natural Brauer class on Y vanishes, so that X and Y are derived equivalent, the difference [X]−[Y] is annihilated by the affine line class

Анализ механических свойств трансверсально-изотропных композитов с учетом межфазного слоя

The problem of theoretical prediction of composite's properties taking into account of interface layer, has been shown. For this aim the modification of three-phase model of fiber reinforcing transverse-isotropic composite has been proposed. The calculated parameters have been compared with the results of alternative simplified methods. This modification (four-phase model) allows us to take into account the interface layer parameters and to obtain nonlinear dependencies of the elastic properties of composite on fibers content, relative thickness and shear modulus of the interface layer in the expanded range of reinforcing.Рассмотрена проблема теоретического прогнозирования свойств композитов с учетом межфазного слоя. С этой целью предложена модификация трехфазной модели армированного волокном трансверсально-изотропного композита Полученные расчетные оценки сопоставлены с результатами использования альтернативных упрощенных методик. Использование модифицированной (четырехфазной) модели позволило получить нелинейные зависимости упругих свойств композита от объемного содержания волокон, относительной толщины и модуля сдвига межфазного слоя в широком диапазоне армирования