Cloning and expression trait of UDP-glucose:flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase gene (UF3GT) in turnip

Anthocyanin is a class of important secondary metabolites in plants. UDP-glucose:flavonoid  3-O-glucosyltransferase (UF3GT) is a committed catalytic enzyme in the late stage of anthocyanin  biosynthesis. BrUF3GT1 and BrUF3GT2 genes were cloned by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction  (RT-PCR) method from ‘Tsuda’ and ‘Yurugi Akamaru’ turnips. The open reading frame (ORF) of BrUF3GT1 and  BrUF3GT2 genes contained 1407 bp encoding proteins of 468 amino acids. Amino acid sequence analysis  showed that BrUF3GT1 and BrUF3GT2 had 87% identity to UF3GT of Arabidopsis thaliana, and the  glycosyltransferase protein family domain was in the amino acids sequence from 16 to 453. The nucleotide  sequence of BrUF3GT1 and BrUF3GT2 genes showed only seven nucleotide differences, and one common  deduced amino acid sequence. The northern blotting results showed that the expression of BrUF3GT1 and BrUF3GT2 genes could be induced by irradiation of ultra-violet A (UV-A), and the expression of the genes was correlated with light-exposure time. The 51.88 and 51.89 KDa proteins of BrUF3GT1 and BrUF3GT2 were  successfully purified after prokaryotic induced expression.Key words: Turnip, UDP-glucose:flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase (UF3GT) gene, gene clone, sequence analysis, gene expression

A Novel Strategy to Construct Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae Strains for Very High Gravity Fermentation

Very high gravity (VHG) fermentation is aimed to considerably increase both the fermentation rate and the ethanol concentration, thereby reducing capital costs and the risk of bacterial contamination. This process results in critical issues, such as adverse stress factors (ie., osmotic pressure and ethanol inhibition) and high concentrations of metabolic byproducts which are difficult to overcome by a single breeding method. In the present paper, a novel strategy that combines metabolic engineering and genome shuffling to circumvent these limitations and improve the bioethanol production performance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains under VHG conditions was developed. First, in strain Z5, which performed better than other widely used industrial strains, the gene GPD2 encoding glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase was deleted, resulting in a mutant (Z5ΔGPD2) with a lower glycerol yield and poor ethanol productivity. Second, strain Z5ΔGPD2 was subjected to three rounds of genome shuffling to improve its VHG fermentation performance, and the best performing strain SZ3-1 was obtained. Results showed that strain SZ3-1 not only produced less glycerol, but also increased the ethanol yield by up to 8% compared with the parent strain Z5. Further analysis suggested that the improved ethanol yield in strain SZ3-1 was mainly contributed by the enhanced ethanol tolerance of the strain. The differences in ethanol tolerance between strains Z5 and SZ3-1 were closely associated with the cell membrane fatty acid compositions and intracellular trehalose concentrations. Finally, genome rearrangements in the optimized strain were confirmed by karyotype analysis. Hence, a combination of genome shuffling and metabolic engineering is an efficient approach for the rapid improvement of yeast strains for desirable industrial phenotypes

Risk factors for overweight and obesity, and changes in body mass index of Chinese adults in Shanghai

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Over the past two decades, the prevalence of overweight or obesity has increased in China. The aims of this study were to firstly assess the baseline prevelences and the risk factors for overweight and obesity, and secondly to detect the changes of body mass index (BMI) over a follow-up period in Chinese adults in Shanghai.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The data set of a population-based longitudinal study was analyzed. Anthropometric and biochemical data were collected for 5364 subjects (aged 25–95 years) during a period of 1998–2001. Among those individuals, 3032 subjects were interviewed and reexamined at the second survey from 2003 to 2004. Then the standardized prevalences for overweight and obesity were calculated using baseline data; the possible contributing factors of overweight and obesity were detected using binary logistic regression analysis; and the changes of BMI were evaluated after an average of 3.6-year follow-up period.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>(1) According to the WHO standard and the Chinese standard, the sex- and age-standardized prevalences were 27.5% and 32.4% for overweight, and 3.7% and 9.1% for obesity, respectively. (2) The risks of overweight and obesity differed among different age groups. Family history of obesity increased the risk of overweight and obesity by about 1.2-fold for both genders. Current male smokers had a lower risk of overweight and obesity (OR = 0.76, <it>p </it>< 0.05) than nonsmokers. In contrast, current male drinkers had a higher risk of overweight and obesity (OR = 1.42, <it>p </it>< 0.05) than nondrinkers. Compared with low-educated women, medium- and high- educated women were at lower risk of overweight and obesity, and the corresponding ORs (95% CIs) were 0.64 (0.52–0.79) and 0.50(0.36–0.68), respectively. (3) The annual changes of BMI means ranged from an increase of 0.1 kg/m²to a decrease of 0.2 kg/m²(by genders and age groups). Meanwhile, the BMI increase was statistically significant in the 35–44 years age group, and the BMI decrease was significant above 65 years for both genders.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study showed high prevalence of overweight and obesity in Shanghai metropolis populations. The risk factors of overweight and obesity were multifactorial and gender specific. After 3.6 years, BMI means changed slightly, BMI increased mainly in middle-aged individuals and decreased in old individuals.</p

Study on Supply Chain Management in Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce has been changing the operation models of firms to adjust the ever more competitive environment in the the commercial field, and the new ones of cooperation amonge firms have been formed by it. In the globalized electronic commerce, the old and traditional models of supply chain management have fade away by being failed to fill the needs in the electronic commerce, and the new models of, therefore, should be created. Firms strive to adapt their supply chains to the electronic commerce, and they need to decide how much and in what sequence they will be investing in various supply chain efforts to leverage the benefits of the new technology. In this paper three main aspects are described. First, based on the present a comprehensive definition of supply chain managemen，relevant characters of it that have risen to the importance with the prevalence of electronic commerce are provided. By using the universal criteria in the Internet, the information in many directions being flowed has been already realized, so, the commercial partners can build a automatic and integral supply chain, and the chain can operate as a whole. Second, the stratigies of implementing suply chain management are discussed. By applying the supply chain management in electronic commerce, the time of communication between companies has been shorten; the nicety has been realized; and the effeciency of stock and conveyance has been greatly improved. Moreover, by integrating multi-enterprise, the implementations of concurrent engineering and inventory-reinforce plan have been allowed

Design and Optimization of a Machine-Vision-Based Complementary Seeding Device for Tray-Type Green Onion Seedling Machines

Green onion (Allium fistulosum L.) is mainly available as factory-produced seedlings. Although factory seedling production is highly automated, miss-seeding during the seeding process considerably affects subsequent transplanting and the final yield. To solve the problem of miss-seeding, the current main method is manual complementary seeding, which is labor-intensive and inefficient work. In this study, an automatic machine-vision-based complementary seeding device was proposed to reduce the miss-seeding rate and as a replacement of manual complementary seeding. The device performs several main functions, including the identification of miss-seeding holes, control of seed case movement, and the seed uptake and release from the seed suction nozzle array. A majority-mechanism-based miss-seeding tray hole rapid-detection method was proposed to enable the real-time identification of miss-seeding tray holes in the tray under high-speed moving conditions. The structural parameters of the vacuum-generated seed suction nozzle were optimized through numerical simulations and orthogonal experiments, and the seed suction nozzle array and seed case were produced using 3D-printing technology. Finally, the complementary seeding device was installed on the tray-type green onion seeding machine and the effectiveness of the complementary seeding was confirmed by experiments. The results revealed that the average values of the precision, recall, and F1 scores for identifying miss-seeding tray holes were 98.48%, 97.00%, and 97.73%, respectively. The results revealed that the rate of miss-seeding tray holes decreased from 5.37% to 0.89% after complementary seeding

Extracting graphite sketch of the mural using Hyper-Spectral Imaging method

Kako vrijeme prolazi murali postaju sve zagađeniji te originalni mural postaje nejasan i teško prepoznatljiv; stoga je važno dobivanje jasne grafitne skice murala. U ovom smo radu primijenili nevidljive spektre, posebice skoro-infracrvene pojaseve (near-infrared (NIR) bands), kako bismo otkrili podatke o grafitu i učvrstili karakteristične informacije o muralu za dobivanje grafitne skice. Ovo je prvo istraživanje u svrhu dobivanja osnovne linije konture iz skice murala primjenom tehnologije hiper-spektralnog slikovnog prikaza (hyper-spectral imaging (HSI). Najprije se metodama spektralne kompatibilnosti identificirao pigment osnovne konture te se grafit odredio kao osnovni pigment skice. Tada su se odabrali karakteristični pojasevi analizom spektra pigmenata. Nakon toga, metodom izvlačenja informacija dobivena su saznanja o grafitu. Rezultati su pokazali da se tom metodom mogla značajno povećati učinkovitost dobivanja novih spoznaja o grafitu. Ključni postupci ove metode obuhvatili su dobivanje spektra završnog elementa osnovne konture grafita, te mapiranje sive slike spektra osnovne konture grafita. Konačno, rekonstruirana je vizualno povećana slika primjenom alpha blending metode fuzije s originalno vidljivom slikom i slikom informacija o grafitu. Učinkovitost rezultata izmjerena je kvantitativnim metodama. U radu se također objašnjavaju i razmatraju dvije ključne točke izbornih pragova za dobivanje grafitne skice. Ovi rezultati pokazuju da je metoda učinkovita za dobivanje grafitne skice na temelju hiper-spektralnih podataka o muralu i da može dati korisne informacije u istraživanju kulturnih relikata i davanju podrške nekim drugim zaštićenim istraživanjima.Many contaminants appear in murals as time passes, which make the original mural blurred and difficult to recognize; therefore, extracting a clear graphite sketch of the mural is significant. In this study, we used invisible spectra, particularly near-infrared (NIR) bands, to detect the graphite information and strengthen the features of the mural information to obtain a graphite sketch. This is the first study to extract the contour line from the draft of the mural using hyper-spectral imaging (HSI) technology. First, spectral matching methods were used to identify the pigment of the contour line and graphite was determined as the main pigment of the draft. Then, the characteristic bands were selected by analysing the spectra of the pigments. After that, the information extraction method was used to extract the graphite information. The results showed that the method could improve the efficiency of graphite information extraction significantly. The key steps of the current method involved extracting the graphite contour line end-member spectrum, followed by mapping the grey image of the graphite contour line spectrum. Finally, the visually enhanced image was reconstructed using the alpha blending fusion method with the original visible image and the graphite information image. The efficiency of results is evaluated by quantitative methods. The study also explained and discussed the two key points of election thresholds in obtaining the graphite sketch. These results demonstrate that the method is efficient for extracting graphite sketch based on hyper-spectral data of mural, and that it could provide useful information to explore cultural relics and to support some other protection researches

Facile synthesis of tetrahedral Ag3PO4 mesocrystals and its enhanced photocatalytic activity

A novel and rapid strategy has been developed to synthesize tetrahedral Ag3PO4 mesocrystals with the help of surfactant oleic acid. Homogeneous Ag3PO4 tetrahedron with average apex-to-apex length of 1.1 μm could be synthesized under optimized conditions. Oleic acid is considered to be essential for the formation of this homogeneous tetrahedral morphology. The as-prepared tetrahedral Ag3PO4 mesocrystals could be formed through the close-packed assembly of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles, thus the formation of tetrahedral Ag3PO4 mesocrystals is explained by the oriented aggregation mechanism based on time-dependent experiments. Furthermore, the obtained tetrahedral Ag3PO4 mesocrystals exhibit enhanced visible-light photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) solutions compared to the reported micro-sized spherical Ag3PO4 particles with high photocatalytic performance.Accepted versio