Induction Kinetics of Photosystem I-Activated P700 Oxidation in Plant Leaves and Their Dependence on Pre-Energization

Absorbance changes ¿A 810 were measured in pea (Pisum sativum L., cv. Premium) leaves to track redox transients of chlorophyll P700 during and after irradiation with far red (FR) light under various preillumination conditions in the absence and presence of inhibitors and protonophorous uncoupler of photosynthetic electron transport. It was shown that cyclic electron transport (CET) in chloroplasts of pea leaves operates at its highest rate after preillumination of leaves with white light and is strongly suppressed after preillumination with FR light. The FR light-induced suppression was partly released during prolonged dark adaptation. Upon FR illumination of dark-adapted leaves, the induction of CET was observed, during which CET activity increased to the peak from the low level and then decreased gradually. The kinetics of P700 oxidation induced by FR light of various intensities in leaves preilluminated with white light were fit to empirical sigmoid curves containing two variables. In leaves treated with a protonophore FCCP, the amplitude of FR light-induced changes ¿A 810 was strongly suppressed, indicating that the rate of CET is controlled by the pH gradient across the thylakoid membran

Conventional Vickers and true instrumented indentation hardness determined by instrumented indentation tests

We evaluate Vickers hardness and true instrumented indentation test (IIT) hardness of 24 metals over a wide range of mechanical properties using just IIT parameters by taking into account the real contact morphology beneath the Vickers indenter. Correlating the conventional Vickers hardness, indentation contact morphology, and IIT parameters for the 24 metals reveals relationships between contact depths and apparent material properties. We report the conventional Vickers and true IIT hardnesses measured only from IIT contact depths; these agree well with directly measured hardnesses within ±6% for Vickers hardness and ±10% for true IIT hardness

Case Histories of Designing Tunnel Linings in Seismic Regions

The original approach to the problem of designing tunnel linings upon the seismic effects consisting in the determination of the most unfavourable stress state in the every lining normal section at different combinations and any directions of long longitudinal and shear waves propagating in the plane of the lining cross-section is described in the paper presented. The analytical methods and corresponding computer programs based on that approach have been developed for the design of tunnel linings of an arbitrary cross-section shape, circular linings inducting the multi-layer ones of the complex of parallel mutually influencing tunnels etc. Two case histories of applying those methods at the design and construction of the railway tunnel and six parallel vertical turbine shafts of the hydro-electric power- station are given

So Much in So Little: Creating Lightweight Embeddings of Python Libraries

In software engineering, different approaches and machine learning models leverage different types of data: source code, textual information, historical data. An important part of any project is its dependencies. The list of dependencies is relatively small but carries a lot of semantics with it, which can be used to compare projects or make judgements about them. In this paper, we focus on Python projects and their PyPi dependencies in the form of requirements.txt files. We compile a dataset of 7,132 Python projects and their dependencies, as well as use Git to pull their versions from previous years. Using this data, we build 32-dimensional embeddings of libraries by applying Singular Value Decomposition to the co-occurrence matrix of projects and libraries. We then cluster the embeddings and study their semantic relations. To showcase the usefulness of such lightweight library embeddings, we introduce a prototype tool for suggesting relevant libraries to a given project. The tool computes project embeddings and uses dependencies of projects with similar embeddings to form suggestions. To compare different library recommenders, we have created a benchmark based on the evolution of dependency sets in open-source projects. Approaches based on the created embeddings significantly outperform the baseline of showing the most popular libraries in a given year. We have also conducted a user study that showed that the suggestions differ in quality for different project domains and that even relevant suggestions might be not particularly useful. Finally, to facilitate potentially more useful recommendations, we extended the recommender system with an option to suggest rarer libraries.Comment: The work was carried out at the end of 2020. 11 pages, 4 figure

Development of Model of Risk-Based Approach to the Formation of Industry Standard in the Field of Occupational Safety and Health at Liquefied Natural Gas Bunkering Facilities

The aim of the study is to increase the level of industrial safety of enterprises engaged in bunkering of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for shipment by sea. The objectives of the study are to conduct a comprehensive and structural analysis of the production and transportation of LNG, identify promising and economically significant projects for the sale of LNG for export and Russian market, prepare a matrix of regulatory legal regulation in the field of requirements for industrial facilities implementing LNG supplies. The main criteria are requirements, presented to the transport and unloading hub, ports, factories, education and training of staff, ensuring the performance of technological operations. The hypothesis of the study is to identify gaps in the existing legislation, which are proposed to be filled by developing a risk management concept that will not only ensure the identification of risks at individual production sites, but also allow to determine the structure of the occupational health and safety management system, requirements for personal protective equipment, development and the introduction of barriers to potential danger, as well as prevention of emergencies and emergency situations. The result of the research is a concept based on a risk-based approach to managing an organization

SPHINCS+^+ post-quantum digital signature scheme with Streebog hash function

Many commonly used public key cryptosystems will become insecure once a scalable quantum computer is built. New cryptographic schemes that can guarantee protection against attacks with quantum computers, so-called post-quantum algorithms, have emerged in recent decades. One of the most promising candidates for a post-quantum signature scheme is SPHINCS$^+$, which is based on cryptographic hash functions. In this contribution, we analyze the use of the new Russian standardized hash function, known as Streebog, for the implementation of the SPHINCS$^+$ signature scheme. We provide a performance comparison with SHA-256-based instantiation and give benchmarks for various sets of parameters.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 3 table

Strong alkalinization of Chara cell surface in the area of cell wall incision as an early event in mechanoperception

AbstractMechanical wounding of cell walls occurring in plants under the impact of pathogens or herbivores can be mimicked by cell wall incision with a glass micropipette. Measurements of pH at the surface of Chara corallina internodes following microperforation of cell wall revealed a rapid (10–30s) localized alkalinization of the apoplast after a lag period of 10–20s. The pH increase induced by incision could be as large as 3 pH units and relaxed slowly, with a halftime up to 20min. The axial pH profile around the incision zone was bell-shaped and localized to a small area, extending over a distance of about 100μm. The pH response was suppressed by lowering cell turgor upon the replacement of artificial pond water (APW) with APW containing 50mM sorbitol. Stretching of the plasma membrane during its impression into the cell wall defect is likely to activate the Ca2+ channels, as evidenced from sensitivity of the incision-induced alkalinization to the external calcium concentration and to the addition of Ca2+-channel blockers, such as La3+, Gd3+, and Zn2+. The maximal pH values attained at the incision site (~10.0) were close to pH in light-dependent alkaline zones of Chara cells. The involvement of cytoskeleton in the origin of alkaline patch was documented by observations that the incision-induced pH transients were suppressed by the inhibitors of microtubules (oryzalin and taxol) and, to a lesser extent, by the actin inhibitor (cytochalasin B). The results indicate that the localized increase in apoplastic pH is an early event in mechanoperception and depends on light, cytoskeleton, and intracellular calcium

The Use of Uavs Groups for the Monitoring of Terrestrial Infrastructure Objects

The paper discusses the basic principles of UAF application to the task of monitoring the terrestrial areas. The emphasis is made on the problem of controlling the UAVs groups and the distribution of functions between the UAVs in the group and the on-land control centres