Rapid Herbivore-Induced Changes in Mountain Birch Phenolics and Nutritive Compounds and Their Effects on Performance of the Major Defoliator, Epirrita autumnata

Insect damage changes plant physiology and chemistry, and such changes may influence the performance of herbivores. We introduced larvae of the autumnal moth (Epirrita autumnataBorkh.) on individual branches of its main host plant, mountain birch (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii (Orlova) Hämet-Ahti) to examine rapid-induced plant responses, which may affect subsequent larval development. We measured systemic responses to herbivory by analyzing chemistry, photosynthesis, and leaf growth, as well as effects on larval growth and feeding, in undamaged branches of damaged and control trees. Larvae reared on leaves from intact branches of the herbivore-damaged trees grew faster than those reared on leaves of control trees, indicating systemic-induced susceptibility. Herbivore damage did not lead to systemic changes in levels of primary nutrients or phenolic compounds. The analyses of photosynthetic activity and individual hydrolyzable tannins revealed a reversal of leaf physiology-herbivore defense patterns. On control trees, consumption by E. autumnata larvae was positively correlated with photosynthetic activity; on damaged trees, this correlation was reversed, with consumption being negatively correlated with photosynthetic activity. A similar pattern was found in the relationship between monogalloylglucose, the most abundant hydrolyzable tannin of mountain birch, and leaf consumption. Among the control trees, consumption was positively correlated with concentrations of monogalloylglucose, whereas among herbivore-damaged trees, this correlation was reversed and became negative. Our results suggest that herbivore performance is related to both concentrations of phenolic compounds and photosynthetic activity in leaves. This linkage between herbivore performance, leaf chemistry, and physiology was sensitive to induced plant responses caused by slight herbivore damage.     

Cover Image,Volume 92, Issue 4

The cover image, Sandeep Ramesh Hadpe et al., is based on the Research Article ATF for cell culture harvest clarification: mechanistic modelling and comparison with TFF, DOI: 10.1002/jctb.5165 .

     

Interactive Effects of Genotype, Environment, and Ontogeny on Resistance of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) to the Generalist Herbivore, Spodoptera exigua

Host-plant genotype, environment, and ontogeny all play a role in determining plant resistance to herbivory, yet little is known about the nature of the interactions among these factors. We investigated resistance of cucumber plants Cucumis sativus to the generalist herbivore Spodoptera exigua in a manipulative experiment involving three factors. In particular, we tested the effects of bitter (cucurbitacins present) vs. sweet (cucurbitacins absent) plants (genotype), with or without previous herbivory (environment), and cotyledons vs. true leaves (ontogeny). Contrary to our expectations, S. exigua growth was 54% higher on bitter plants than on sweet plants; growth was 63% higher, however, on undamaged plants compared to damaged plants, and 59% higher on true leaves compared to cotyledons. Moreover, all two-way interaction terms between genotype, environment, and ontogeny were significant. For example, S. exigua performance was higher on bitter than on sweet plants; however, this effect was strongly influenced by whether the tissue consumed was a cotyledon or true leaf and also whether it had been previously damaged. An examination of leaf nutritional chemistry revealed that some of our results could be explained by genotypic, environmental, and ontogenic differences in foliar nitrogen content. In contrast, the cucurbitacin content of plants did not appear to affect caterpillar growth. Our results provide evidence for the importance of interactions between genotype, environment, and ontogeny in determining herbivory and illustrate the value of manipulative experiments in revealing the complexities of these interactions.     

Structure–property relationship studies in amine functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes filled polypropylene composite fiber

Amine functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (a‐MWNT) based polypropylene (PP) composite fibers were prepared in the presence of polypropylene‐g‐maleic anhydride (PP‐g‐MA) by melt‐mixing followed by melt‐spinning with subsequent post‐drawing of the as‐spun fibers of varying draw ratio (DR). In order to enhance the interfacial interaction, a‐MWNT were utilized in combination with PP‐g‐MA during melt‐mixing. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic analysis revealed the formation of imide bonds between MA functionality of PP‐g‐MA and amine functional group of a‐MWNT. Higher tensile properties of PP/a‐MWNT/PP‐g‐MA composite fibers were registered with varying DR of the as‐spun fiber. Orientation factors of a‐MWNT and PP chains along the fiber axis were correlated with the higher tensile modulus and tensile strength of PP/a‐MWNT/PP‐g‐MA composite fiber of varying DR. Crystallization studies indicated the role of hetero‐nucleating action of a‐MWNT in PP/a‐MWNT/PP‐g‐MA composite fiber. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Identification of influential vertices in complex networks: A hitting time-based approach

Unravelling the dynamics of network vertices is pivotal, and traditional centrality measures have limitations in adapting to structural changes, directed and weighted networks, and temporal analyses. This paper introduces a ground breaking approach - hitting time-based centrality. Utilizing network matrix notations and a random walk model on a connected network , we establish a Markov chain to quantify the hitting time, hitting distance, and hitting centrality, providing a nuanced measure prioritizing central vertices. Through extensive experiments using Kendall's tau coefficient, the paper evaluates the method's correlation with actual influence in the Susceptible-Infectious (SI) model, showcasing superior performance across diverse network sizes and structures. The hitting centrality method exhibits sensitivity to connectivity dynamics, effective incorporation of temporal dynamics, and robust handling of weighted and directed networks. Positive Kendall's tau coefficients underline the method's proficiency in prioritizing influential vertices by correlating hitting centrality values with actual infection ability. The demonstrated robustness to structural changes enhances its utility for dynamic network analysis. In conclusion, our hitting time-based centrality approach emerges as a promising method, mitigating the shortcomings of traditional measures. By integrating information propagation speed, accommodating network dynamics, and enabling time-dependent analyses, it offers a comprehensive tool for evaluating vertex importance and influence in complex networks.     

Gray-scale image watermarking using GA-BPN hybrid network

In this paper, a novel watermarking scheme is proposed by embedding a binary watermark into gray-scale images using a hybrid GA-BPN intelligent network. HVS characteristics of the images in DCT domain are used to obtain a sequence of weighting factor from a GA-BPN. This weighting factor is used to embed and extract the watermark from the image in DWT domain. The GA-BPN is trained by 27 inference rules that includes three input HVS parameters namely luminance sensitivity, edge sensitivity computed using threshold and contrast sensitivity computed using variance. The robustness of the embedding scheme is examined by executing seven different image processing attacks. Visual quality of signed images before and after the attacks is examined by PSNR. The extracted watermarks from signed and attacked images show a high degree of similarity with the embedded content. Overall, the algorithm is robust against selected attacks and is well optimized.     

Distributed self-tuning of sensor networks

This work is motivated by the need for an ad hoc sensor network to autonomously optimise its performance for given task objectives and constraints. Arguing that communication is the main bottleneck for distributed computation in a sensor network we formulate two approaches for optimisation of computing rates. The first is a team problem for maximising the minimum communication throughput of sensors and the second is a game problem in which cost for each sensor is a measure of its communication time with its neighbours. We investigate adaptive algorithms using which sensors can tune to the optimal channel attempt rates in a distributed fashion. For the team problem, the adaptive scheme is a stochastic gradient algorithm derived from the augmented Lagrangian formulation of the optimisation problem. The game formulation not only leads to an explicit characterisation of the Nash equilibrium but also to a simple iterative scheme by which sensors can learn the equilibrium attempt probabilities using only the estimates of transmission and reception times from their local measurements. Our approach is promising and should be seen as a step towards developing optimally self-organising architectures for sensor networks. Aditya Karnik obtained his B.E. from the University of Pune, Pune, India, and M.E. and Ph.D. (2004) in electrical communication engg. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada. He was a recipient of the IBM Research Fellowship. His research interests are in performance evaluation, optimisation and control of communication networks. Anurag Kumar obtained his B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, and the PhD degree from Cornell University, both in Electrical Engineering. He was then with Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, N.J., for over 6 years. Since 1988 he has been with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, in the Dept. of Electrical Communication Engineering, where he is now a Professor, and is also the Chairman of the department. From 1988 to 2003 he was the Coordinator at IISc of the Education and Research Network Project (ERNET), India’s first wide-area packet switching network. His area of research is communication networking, specifically, modeling, analysis, control and optimisation problems arising in communication networks and distributed systems. Recently his research has focused primarily on wireless networking. He has been elected Fellow of the IEEE, and the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), both from 2006, and has been a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) since 1998. He is an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Networking, and of IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials. He is a coauthor of the advanced text-book “Communication Networking: An Analytical Approach,” by Kumar, Majunath and Kuri, published by Morgan-Kaufman/Elsevier. Vivek Borkar got his B. Tech. (Elec. Engg.) from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, in 1976, M. S. (Systems and Control) from Case Western Reserve Uni. in 1977, and Ph.D. (Elec. Engg. and Computer Sci.) from the Uni. of California, Berkeley, in 1980. He was with TIFR Centre, Bangalore (1982–1989) and Indian Institute of Science (1989–1999) before taking up his present position at the School of Technology and Computer Science, Tata Inst. of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, Indian National Academy of Engineers and the IEEE. His research interests are stochastic control, stochastic algorithms and applications. He is on the editorial boards of Sadhana, Systems and Control Letters, SIAM J. Control and Optim., and Applicationes Mathematicae. He is the author of ‘Optimal Control of Diffusion Processes’ (Longman, 1989), ‘Topics in Controlled Markov Chains’ (Longman, 1991), ‘Probability Theory: An Advanced Course’ (Springer, 1995).     

Analysis of F-shape microstrip line fed dualband antenna for WLAN applications

An analysis of microstrip line fed antennas has been presented theoretically using circuit theory concept. The theoretical investigations of F-shape antenna parameters such as return loss, VSWR, gain and efficiency have been calculated. It is found that antenna resonate at 2.4 and 5.2 GHz for lower and upper resonance frequencies respectively. The bandwidth of the F-shape antenna at lower resonance frequency is 20.08 % (simulated) and 17.05 % (theoretical) whereas at upper resonance frequency, it is 5.93 % (simulated) and 5.78 % (theoretical). The characteristics of the F-shape antenna is compared with other microstrip line fed antennas. It is found that F-shape antenna is linearly polarised along the X direction. The theoretical results are compared with IE3D simulation results as well as reported experimental results and they are in close agreement.     

Design of Sheet-Beam Electron Gun with Planar Cathode for Terahertz Devices

The design of a sheet-beam electron gun with planar cathode was made with the help of a three-dimensional electrostatic field solver that was capable of forming a sheet-beam of 19 mA at 12 kV. It uses one-dimensional three-fold beam cross-sectional area compression meets the specific requirement of a beam to be formed of height 30 μm and width 600 μm at the beam–waist position with over 100 A/cm² uniform current density and 0.068 π-mm-mrad emittance, typically, for 0.5 THz devices. A novel beam focusing electrode (BFE) provided with extended-corner rectangular-aperture geometry alleviating the commonly encountered sheet-beam formation problem with a gun that uses a conventional BFE, as well as it reduced beam emittance more than 50%. The practicability of the design was tested by the high-voltage, the thermal and structural analyses. Work has been initiated to test the performance of special high current scandate cathode using anode-aperture mapping.