Plant Responses to Herbivory,Wounding, and Infection

Plants have various self-defense mechanisms against biotic attacks, involving both physical and chemical barriers. Physical barriers include spines, trichomes, and cuticle layers, whereas chemical barriers include secondary metabolites (SMs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Complex interactions between plants and herbivores occur. Plant responses to insect herbivory begin with the perception of physical stimuli, chemical compounds (orally secreted by insects and herbivore-induced VOCs) during feeding. Plant cell membranes then generate ion fluxes that create differences in plasma membrane potential (Vm), which provokes the initiation of signal transduction, the activation of various hormones (e.g., jasmonic acid, salicylic acid, and ethylene), and the release of VOCs and SMs. This review of recent studies of plant–herbivore–infection interactions focuses on early and late plant responses, including physical barriers, signal transduction, SM production as well as epigenetic regulation, and phytohormone responses.     

Analytical expressions for blocking and dropping probabilities for mobile streaming users in wireless cellular networks

We consider a wireless cellular network serving streaming traffic. We study in this context the effect of the users mobility on their quality of service (QoS). If the arrival of a new user violates the capacity constraint, then his call is blocked. If the user is first admitted but the capacity constraint is violated later when he attempts to move, then his call is dropped. The blocking and dropping probabilities are the main QoS indicators in this model called forced termination (FT). We introduce an alternative model, called transitions backtrack (TB), where a user backtracks when his motion violates the capacity constraint. In this model, a relevant QoS indicator is the number of times the user backtracks called number of motion blocking per call. We propose some explicit expressions for the above QoS indicators as functions of the mean user speed. These expressions are validated by simulations. In particular we observe that the dropping probability in the FT model is well approximated by the number of motion blocking per call in the TB model which is expressed analytically.     

Soft-Computing-Based Embedded Design of an Intelligent Wall/Lane-Following Vehicle

Soft computing techniques are generally well suited for vehicular control systems that are usually modeled by highly nonlinear differential equations and working in unstructured environments. To demonstrate their applicability in real-world applications, two intelligent controllers based on fuzzy logic and artificial neural network are designed for performing a wall-following task. Based on performance and flexibility considerations, the two controllers are implemented onto a reconfigurable hardware platform, namely a field-programmable gate array. As comparative studies of these two embedded hardware controllers designed for the same vehicular application are limited in literature, this research also presents an evaluation of the two controllers, comparing them in terms of hardware resource requirements, operational speeds, and trajectory tracking errors in following different predefined trajectories.     

Design and development of dynamic Agri-ontology for IoT interoperability

In recent years, the usage and applications of Internet of Things (IoT) have increased exponentially. IoT connects multiple heterogeneous devices like sensors, micro controllers, actuators, smart devices like mobiles, watches, etc. IoT contributes the data produced in the context of data collection, including the domains like military, agriculture, healthcare, etc. The diversity of possible applications at the intersection of the IoT and the web semantics has prompted many research teams to work at the interface between these two disciplines. This makes it possible to collect data and control various objects in transparent way. The challenge lies in the use of this data. Ontologies address this challenge to meet specific data needs in the IoT field. This paper presents the implementation of a dynamic agriculture ontology-building tool that parses the ontology files to extract full data and update it based on the user needs. The technology is used to create the angular library for parsing the OWL files. The proposed ontology framework would accept user-defined ontologies and provide an interface for an online updating of the owl files to ensure the interoperability in the agriculture IoT.     

A Novel Sprague-Dawley Rat Model Presents Improved NASH/NAFLD Symptoms with PEG Coated Vitexin Liposomes

Chronic liver disease (CLD) is a global threat to the human population, with manifestations resulting from alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) and non-alcohol fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD, if not treated, may progress to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Furthermore, inflammation leads to liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Vitexin, a natural flavonoid, has been recently reported for inhibiting NAFLD. It is a lipogenesis inhibitor and activates lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation. In addition, owing to its antioxidant properties, it appeared as a hepatoprotective candidate. However, it exhibits low bioavailability and low efficacy due to its hydrophobic nature. A novel rat model for liver cirrhosis was developed by CCL4/Urethane co-administration. Vitexin encapsulated liposomes were synthesized by the ‘thin-film hydration’ method. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) was coated on liposomes to enhance stability and stealth effect. The diseased rats were then treated with vitexin and PEGylated vitexin liposomes, administered intravenously and orally. Results ascertained the liposomal encapsulation of vitexin and subsequent PEG coating to be a substantial strategy for treating liver cirrhosis through oral drug delivery.     

Automated brain tumor segmentation on multi-modal MR image using SegNet

Computational Visual Media - The potential of improving disease detection and treatment planning comes with accurate and fully automatic algorithms for brain tumor segmentation. Glioma, a type of...     

Determination of dyers’ perceived components of colour difference (depth,brightness and hue) between two similar colours from their spectral reflectance values

The partitioning of colour differences into ΔL^*, ΔC^* and ΔH^* is not directly equivalent to the dyer’s method of partitioning. The dyer’s method involves separation into the components of depth (ΔD), brightness (ΔB) and hue (ΔH), of which only hue difference has a qualitative (and quantitative) equivalent in the CIELAB system. Depth and brightness are important terms to dyers. Depth is related to the amount of dye taken up by a textile material and brightness to that component of colour difference that is neither depth nor hue. Brightness is best defined as the opposite of dullness, dullness being related to the amount of neutral grey present in the colour. An algorithm, called the Wardman–Smith–Farooq algorithm, has been developed to compute the dyers’ variables of ΔD,ΔB and ΔH from spectral reflectance values, enabling dyers to take full advantage of colorimetry. The algorithm is based on extensive experimental work to map surfaces of constant visual depth through the colour space and this paper describes the methodology of the calculation. The correlations of the values of ΔD,ΔB and ΔH, determined using the Wardman–Smith–Farooq algorithm with other empirical models for 117 sample pairs, are given.     

Low temperature preparation and characterization of nanospherical anatase TiO2 and its photocatalytic activity on Congo red degradation under sunlight

Nanospherical titanium oxide with anatase structure was obtained at low temperature and normal pressure using a simple method of preparation. The dilute titanium (III) chloride solution was stirred at room temperature for several hours, and then ammonium hydroxide with hydrogen peroxide was added. A yellow gel TiO₂·xH₂O was obtained with nanodot shape and amorphous structure. Heated at 300 °C, it crystallized to pure anatase structure with nanospherical shape. The anatase particles prepared show good adsorption and photodegradation of Congo red solution under the sunlight. Materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis, transmission electron microscope and UV spectroscopy.     

MONTE CARLO SIMULATION OF SPIN-POLARIZED SECONDARY ELECTRONS FROM IRON

A Monte Carlo model considering the electron spin direction and spin asymmetry has been developed. The energy distribution of the secondary electron polarization and the primary energy dependence of the polarization from Fe are studied. The simulation results show that: (1) the intensity of the spin-up secondary electrons is larger thanvthat of thevspin-down secondary electrons, suggesting the secondary electrons are spin polarized; (2) the spin polarization of secondary electrons with nearly zero kinetic energy is higher than the average valance spin polarization, Pb=27% for Fe. With increasing kinetic energy, the spin polarization of the secondary electrons decreases to the value of Pu remaining constant at higher kinetic energies; (3) the spin polarization increases with an increase in the primary energy and reaches a saturation value at higher primary energy in both the Monte Carlo simulation and experimental results.     

ENERGY DISTRIBUTION OF BACKSCATTERED ELECTRONS FROM HEAVY METALS

The full energy distribution of backscattered electrons from the elastic peak down to the true-secondaty electron peak for heavy metals, Ta, W, Pt and Au, in Auger electron spectroscopy in the EN(E) mode has been studied with a Monte Carlo simulation method, which includes cascade-secondary-electron production. The simulation model is based on the use of a dielectric function for describing inelastic scattering and secondary excitation, and on the use of Mott cross sections for elastic scattering. A systematic comparison between the calculated and experimental spectra measured with a cylindrical mirror analyzer has been made for primary energies ranging from 1 to 5keV. Excellent agreement was obtained for these heavy metals on the backscattering background at primary energies in the keV region. A significant contribution of cascade secondary electrons to the measured spectra on the low-energy side was found.