Genome-Wide Analysis of the Peroxidase Gene Family and Verification of Lignin Synthesis-Related Genes in Watermelon

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is an important horticultural crop worldwide, but peel cracking caused by peel hardness severely decreases its quality. Lignification is one of the important functions of class III peroxidase (PRX), and its accumulation in the plant cell wall leads to cell thickening and wood hardening. For in-depth physiological and genetical understanding, we studied the relationship between peel hardness and lignin accumulation and the role of PRXs affecting peel lignin biosynthesis using genome-wide bioinformatics analysis. The obtained results showed that lignin accumulation gradually increased to form the peel stone cell structure, and tissue lignification led to peel hardness. A total of 79 ClPRXs (class III) were identified using bioinformatics analysis, which were widely distributed on 11 chromosomes. The constructed phylogenetics indicated that ClPRXs were divided into seven groups and eleven subclasses, and gene members of each group had highly conserved intron structures. Repeated pattern analysis showed that deletion and replication events occurred during the process of ClPRX amplification. However, in the whole-protein sequence alignment analysis, high homology was not observed, although all contained four conserved functional sites. Repeated pattern analysis showed that deletion and replication events occurred during ClPRXs’ amplification process. The prediction of the promoter cis-acting element and qRT-PCR analysis in four tissues (leaf, petiole, stem, and peel) showed different expression patterns for tissue specificity, abiotic stress, and hormone response by providing a genetic basis of the ClPRX gene family involved in a variety of physiological processes in plants. To our knowledge, we for the first time report the key roles of two ClPRXs in watermelon peel lignin synthesis. In conclusion, the extensive data collected in this study can be used for additional functional analysis of ClPRXs in watermelon growth and development and hormone and abiotic stress response.     

General sustainability indicator of renewable energy system based on grey relational analysis

This research answers the question of how to measure the sustainability of a renewable energy systems (RESs) as a physical parameter. Renewable energy is considered as a solution for mitigating the energy crisis, climate change and environmental pollution; however, an important problem of its application is that it is very difficult to evaluate the sustainability of RESs. This study develops a general sustainability indicator which is a tool to evaluate sustainability of RESs precisely and comprehensively. Based on the Triple Bottom Line approach, 11 Basic Sustainability Indicators with different dimensions and various units are selected from environmental, economic and social sustainability assessment criteria. In order to deal with the uncertainties in the definition and the assessment of sustainability, the grey regression analysis method is employed to quantify the basic indicators and to aggregate them into the general indicator. In addition, for explaining application of the general indicator, the cases of four RESs in hot‐arid Australia are presented. In the case study, the grey indicator is used to assess the sustainability of four systems with different combinations of grid, solar photovoltaic and wind renewable energy. The final results are compared with the general indicator based on fuzzy sets theory developed in previous studies. It is found that for the case of Australian system, the grey sustainability indicator has a good linear correlation to the fuzzy indicator results. The grey indicator is an effective way to assess the sustainability of RESs and provides a good tool for designers, users, decision makers and researchers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Incremental prognostic value of adenosine stress myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography and impact on subsequent management in patients with or suspected of having myocardial ischemia

We examined 1,159 consecutive patients who underwent adenosine stress dual isotope single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and had follow-up performed at a mean of 27.5 +/- 9.1 months (94% complete) for hard events (cardiac death and myocardial infarction) and referral to cardiac catheterization after nuclear testing. During follow-up, 120 hard events occurred (11.0% hard event rate; 72 cardiac deaths [6.7% cardiac death rate] and 57 myocardial infarctions [5.3% myocardial infarction rate]). Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed that nuclear testing added incremental value after adjusting for clinical and historical variables (global chi-square increased 13 to 98 for cardiac death as the end point, global chi-square increased 19 to 105 for hard events as the end point; p <0.0001 for both). Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that after clinical risk stratification of the patient population, the results of nuclear testing were further able to significantly stratify both low- and intermediate- to high-risk patients. Patients with both normal and mildly abnormal scans were at low risk of cardiac death (<1% cardiac death per year of follow-up) and the risk of events increased significantly with worsening scan result. Multivariable analysis revealed that the only predictor of referral to catheterization was the extent and severity of reversible defect present on the scan. Referral rates to early catheterization were very low in patients with normal scans and increased significantly as a function of worsening scan results. In patients who underwent myocardial perfusion SPECT using adenosine stress, the results of nuclear testing yielded incremental prognostic information and clinically relevant risk stratification. Referring physicians predominantly utilized nuclear information when referring patients to catheterization after nuclear testing and do so at rates comparable with those after exercise SPECT despite the higher risk of events in patients undergoing pharmacologic stress.     

Timing and rate of nitrogen application influence grain quality and yield in maize planted at high and low densities

BACKGROUND: Efficient use of nitrogen (N) is considered one of the most important inputs needed for increasing grain quality and crop productivity. Hypothesis was that grain quality and yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in north‐west Pakistan are enhanced by increasing the rate of N, and that response to applied N is greater with an increase in the number of N split applications at high plant density compared to low density. RESULTS: Field experiments were carried out on maize (cv. Azam) in summer 2002 and 2003 consisting of two planting densities and three N rates as main plots, and six split N applications as sub‐plots. Year 1 had higher shelling percentage and stover yield (SY). Harvest index (HI) decreased but SY increased with increase in plant density. Increase in N rate and number of split N applications increased grain weight and protein content, HI and SY. CONCLUSION: The highest N rate in four to five split applications increased maize grain quality and yield at both densities. Maize response to the interactive effect of year × plant density, year × N rate, and year × N timing suggests zonal specific effective N management practices for sustainable maize production in different agro‐ecological zones. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Rational Design of Nanoporous MoS2/VS2 Heteroarchitecture for Ultrahigh Performance Ammonia Sensors

2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have received widespread interest by virtue of their excellent electrical, optical, and electrochemical characteristics. Recent studies on TMDs have revealed their versatile utilization as electrocatalysts, supercapacitors, battery materials, and sensors, etc. In this study, MoS₂ nanosheets are successfully assembled on the porous VS₂ (P‐VS₂) scaffold to form a MoS₂/VS₂ heterostructure. Their gas‐sensing features, such as sensitivity and selectivity, are investigated by using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) technique. The QCM results and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal the impressive affinity of the MoS₂/VS₂ heterostructure sensor toward ammonia with a higher adsorption uptake than the pristine MoS₂ or P‐VS₂ sensor. Furthermore, the adsorption kinetics of the MoS₂/VS₂ heterostructure sensor toward ammonia follow the pseudo‐first‐order kinetics model. The excellent sensing features of the MoS₂/VS₂ heterostructure render it attractive for high‐performance ammonia sensors in diverse applications.     

Influence of fluorine doping on the transport properties of GdBa2Cu3O7-X

Undoped and fluorine-doped materials of GdBa₂Cu₃O_7-XF_x (with x = O, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2) were prepared at high temperature (950° C) by solid state reaction followed by oxygen treatment. X-ray diffractograms of the undoped sample showed single orthorhombic phase. Resistivity measurements showed thatT _c(0) decreases with fluorine concentration. Thermopower measurements indicated a peak just before the onset of the superconducting transition. The reasons for the decrease ofT _c and the anomalous behaviour of thermopower have been explained.     

Adaptive quantization for fading channels with feedback

The effect of the presence of a feedback channel on the transmission of information was first considered by Shannon, who showed that the capacity of a memoryless channel is not increased by the existence of a feedback link even if the feedback link is noiseless. Later it was shown that the information on a feedback channel can be used to improve considerably the performance of channel coding. In this work we study the transmission of an information source through a fading channel with feedback, modeled by a finite-state channel in the Gilbert-Elliot sense. We show that by employing the feedback information in the quantizer design for this finite-state channel, one can achieve lower overall distortion compared to the case where feedback is not available. The feedback channel is used to estimate the channel state using a hidden Markov model, and a quantizer matched to the channel state is chosen based on this information.     

Environment friendly fluid loss additives to protect the marine environment from the detrimental effect of mud additives

The exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon from the ocean dictate the use of environment friendly muds and mud additives to protect the existing wealths such as fishes, coastal areas and other habitats of the ocean. Hence, the preservation of the Australian as well as global ocean environments from the detrimental effects of muds and mud additives dictates the design of better environment friendly drilling mud systems using mud additives having no/negligible environmental impact. This paper describes the fluid loss characteristics of several starches and provides a comparative assessment with respect to a widely used modified starch.Experimental results indicate that some of the starches have static and dynamic fluid loss characteristics similar to or better than those of a widely used modified starch used by the mud industry. The static fluid loss properties measured after thermal treatment at different temperatures indicate that the newly developed starch products can be used as fluid loss additives for drilling boreholes having bottom hole temperature up to 150 °C.The products developed by gelatinization using a reactive extrusion technique have negligible impurities, need no solvent during gelatinization, produce no waste water as a by-product and thus are suitable for environment sensitive areas. The products have been developed from local resources and have lower manufacturing cost and thus expected to decrease the cost of drilling mud significantly.     

Impact of exercise single-photon emission computed tomographic imaging on appropriateness of coronary revascularization

This study examined the predictors of early coronary revascularization in 816 patients with chest pain syndromes who had coronary artery disease by angiography and exercise single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) thallium imaging. Multivariate analysis of clinical, stress, nuclear, and catheterization variables revealed the presence of SPECT reversibility as the most powerful predictor (chi-square = 43) of early revascularization.