Effect of water deficit on growth and photosynthetic characteristics of 13 winter wheat

Wheat is one of the major crops in the world and is rather sensitive to water deficit and differences between genotypes for water tolerance have been previously testified. Experiment was conducted in a greenhouse with 13 cultivars grown in control and water deficit conditions. Gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, above ground biomass and total leaf area were measured to determine water tolerance. Drought susceptibility indexes were used to estimate the relative tolerance of wheat cultivars to water deficit. Water deficit decreased total leaf area, above-ground biomass, net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, internal CO2 concentration and the actual quantum yield of PS II electron transport relative to cultivars that were grown under control condition. Measurement of stomatal conductance provided useful information to assess genetic differences in wheat for absolute performance when subjected to water deficit. Besides, CY20 and XN979 showed more drought tolerance than other wheat cultivars in terms of drought susceptibility indexes.Key words: Wheat cultivars, growth, chlorophyll fluorescence, gas exchange, water deficit

Optimized operator-splitting methods in numerical integration of Maxwell's equations

Optimized operator splitting methods for numerical integration of the time domain Maxwell's equations in computational electromagnetics (CEM) are proposed for the first time. The methods are based on splitting the time domain evolution operator of Maxwell's equations into suboperators, and corresponding time coefficients are obtained by reducing the norm of truncation terms to a minimum. The general high-order staggered finite difference is introduced for discretizing the three-dimensional curl operator in the spatial domain. The detail of the schemes and explicit iterated formulas are also included. Furthermore, new high-order Padé approximations are adopted to improve the efficiency of the proposed methods. Theoretical proof of the stability is also included. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the schemes. It is found that the optimized schemes with coarse discretized grid and large Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) number can obtain satisfactory numerical results, which in turn proves to be a promising method, with advantages of high accuracy, low computational resources and facility of large domain and long-time simulation. In addition, due to the generality, our optimized schemes can be extended to other science and engineering areas directly. © 2012 Z. X. Huang et al.published_or_final_versio

Fast computation of radar cross-section by fast multipole method in conjunction with lifting wavelet-like transform

The fast multipole method (FMM) in conjunction with the lifting wavelet-like transform scheme is proposed for the scattering analysis of differently shaped three-dimensional perfectly electrical conducting objects. As a flexible and efficient matrix compression technique, the proposed method can sparsify the aggregation matrix and disaggregation matrix in real time with compression ratio about 30%. The computational complexity and choice of proper wavelet are also discussed. Numerical simulation and complexity analysis have shown that the proposed method can speed up the aggregation and disaggregation steps of the FMM with lower memory requirements. © 2010 The Institution of Engineering and Technology.postprin

A Novel Eigenvalue Algorithm for the Complex Band Structure and Eigenmodes of Plasmonic Crystals

published_or_final_versio

EGFR Tyrosine kinase regulates small conductance Ca2+-activated K+ (hSKCa1) channels expressed in HEK 293 cells

SKCa (small-conductance Ca(2+)-activated K(+)) channels are widely distributed in different tissues, including the brain, pancreatic islets and myocardium and play an important role in controlling electrical activity and cellular functions. However, intracellular signal modulation of SKCa channels is not fully understood. The present study was designed to investigate the potential regulation of hSKCa1 (human SKCa1) channels by PTKs (protein tyrosine kinases) in HEK (human embryonic kidney)-293 cells expressing the hSKCa1 (KCNN1) gene using approaches of whole-cell patch voltage-clamp, immunoprecipitation, Western blotting and mutagenesis. We found that the hSKCa1 current was inhibited by the broad-spectrum PTK inhibitor genistein, the selective EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) kinase inhibitors T25 (tyrphostin 25) and AG556 (tyrphostin AG 556), but not by the Src-family kinases inhibitor PP2. The inhibitory effect of these PTK inhibitors was significantly antagonized by the PTP (protein tyrosine phosphatase) inhibitor orthovanadate. The tyrosine phosphorylation level of hSKCa1 channels was reduced by genistein, T25 or AG556. The reduced tyrosine phosphorylation was countered by orthovanadate. Interestingly, the Y109F mutant hSKCa1 channel lost the inhibitory response to T25 or AG556, and showed a dramatic reduction in tyrosine phosphorylation levels and a reduced current density. These results demonstrate the novel information that hSKCa1 channels are inhibited by genistein, T25 and AG556 via EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibition, which is related to the phosphorylation of Tyr(109) in the N-terminus. This effect may affect electrical activity and cellular functions in brain, pancreatic islets and myocardium.postprin

A MIMO antenna for mobile applications

A multiband Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna for mobile phones applications in the next generation is proposed. The proposed MIMO antenna consists of two identical elements, each having three branches to generate two frequency bands, a wide higher and narrow lower frequency bands. Simulation results show that these two frequency bands can cover the lower band for Long-Term Evolution (LTE), the DCS1800, PCS1900 and UMTS-2100 bands, the Wibro Band, the 2.4-GHz band for the WLAN system and also the upper band for the WiMAX. By cutting a slit on the printed circuit board (PCB) serving the ground plane, a great enhancement of isolation between the two antenna elements can be achieved for the two frequency bands. © 2013 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Adaptive frequency sweep analysis for electromagnetic problems using the Thiele interpolating continued fractions

A direct rational approximation method based on Thiele interpolating continued fractions theory is proposed for fast frequency sweep analysis of electromagnetic problems. And an adaptive algorithm is also formed. Compared with the conventional rational approximation method, the proposed method can get a rational approximation directly without a great number of matrix inverse computations and doesn't need to allocate much memory for high derivatives of the dense impedance matrix. Meanwhile, the computation of surface currents by continued fractions can be sped up as compared with the traditional rational approximation. Numerical simulations for broad band scattering analysis of different shaped objects are discussed to shown the effectiveness of the present method. © 2010 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe 2nd International Conference on Education Technology and Computer (ICETC 2010), Shanghai, China, 22-24 June 2010. In Proceedings of 2nd ICETC, 2010, v. 5, p. 126-12

Globular adiponectin, acting via AdipoR1/APPL1, protects H9c2 cells from hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced apoptosis

Cardiomyocyte apoptosis is an important remodeling event contributing to heart failure and adiponectin may mediate cardioprotective effects at least in part via attenuating apoptosis. Here we used hypoxia-reoxygenation (H/R) induced apoptosis in H9c2 cells to examine the effect of adiponectin and cellular mechanisms of action. We first used TUNEL labeling in combination with laser scanning cytometry to demonstrate that adiponectin prevented H/R-induced DNA fragmentation. The anti-apoptotic effect of adiponectin was also verified via attenuation of H/R-induced phosphatidylserine exposure using annexin V binding. H/R-induced apoptosis via the mitochondrial-mediated intrinsic pathway of apoptosis as assessed by cytochrome c release into cytosol and caspase-3 activation, both of which were attenuated by adiponectin. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that adiponectin enhanced anti-oxidative potential in these cells which led to attenuation of the increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) caused by H/R. To further address the mechanism of adiponctins anti-apoptotic effects we used siRNA to efficiently knockdown adiponectin receptor (AdipoR1) expression and found that this attenuated the protective effects of adiponectin on ROS production and caspase 3 activity. Knockdown of APPL1, an important intracellular binding partner for AdipoR, also significantly reduced the ability of adiponectin to prevent H/R-induced ROS generation and caspase 3 activity. In summary, H/R-induced ROS generation and activation of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway was prevented by adiponectin via AdipoR1/APPL1 signaling and increased anti-oxidant potential. © 2011 Park et al.published_or_final_versio

Promotion of ganoderic acid production in Ganoderma sinense by the addtion of an ether extract from Eupolyphaga sinensis, a medicinal insect

To screen stimulators from Chinese medicinal insects for mycelial growth and ganoderic acid (GA) production by Ganoderma sinense, the fungus was inoculated into the media with and without supplementation of a medicinal insect extract. The results show that all the water and ether extracts from the medicinal insects had no significant stimulatory effect on the biomass production (P > 0.05), and the extracts of Hydrotrechus remigator and Mylabris phalerata significantly inhibited the mycelial growth. However, the ether extract of Eupolyphaga sinensis at a concentration of 60 mgL-1 led to a significant increase in GA concentration from 187.6 ± 8.32 to 251.3 ± 11.27 mgL-1 (P < 0.01). Analysis of fermentation kinetics of G. sinense suggests that glucose concentration in the E. sinensis extract treatment group decreased more quickly as compared to the control group in the last 4 days of fermentation process, while the GA biosynthesis was promoted at the same period. However, the culture pH profile was not affected by the addition of the ether extract of E. sinensis.Key words: Medicinal fungus, Ganoderma sinense, submerged fermentation, Eupolyphaga sinensis, ganoderic acid

Simultaneous determination of flavonoids and triterpenoids in Cyclocarya paliurus leaves using high-performance liquid chromatography

Background: Cyclocarya paliurus is an endangered plant and endemic to China. The leaves of C. paliurus have been used in drug formulations and as ingredients in functional foods in China. The aim of this study was to develop an effective method to extract most of the compounds and to establish a simplified HPLC analytical method to determine the contents of major bioactive compounds simultaneously.Materials and methods: High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with a photodiode array detector (PDA) was used for the simultaneous determination of the major flavonoids and triterpenoids in C. paliurus leaves.Results: Ultrasonic extraction in 100% methanol for 30 min was adopted as the optimal extraction method for C. paliurus leaves. The separation conditions were optimized using a Phenomenex C18 ODS column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) with a mobile phase of acetonitrile and 0.02% formic acid and a detection wavelength of 205 nm. The validation data indicated that this new HPLC analytical method successfully quantified the provenance and seasonal variations of seven major compounds (three flavonoids and four triterpenoids) in C. paliurus leaves.Conclusion: The study provided a novel and simplified approach to simultaneously determine the quantity of major flavonoids and triterpenoids in C. paliurus leaves. The results could promote the optimization of silvicultural systems for quality control of C. paliurus.Key words: Cyclocarya paliurus; HPLC; flavonoids; triterpenoid