Stenderbranch8015
and inhibited fungal growth.Kernel hardness is a key trait of wheat seeds, largely controlled by two tightly linked genes Puroindoline a and b (Pina and Pinb). Genes homologous to Pinb, namely Pinb2, have been studied. Whether these genes contribute to kernel hardness and other important seed traits remains inconclusive. Using the high-quality bread wheat reference genome, we show that PINB2 are encoded by three homoeologous loci Pinb2 not syntenic to the Hardness locus, with Pinb2-7A locus containing three tandem copies. PINB2 proteins have several features conserved for the Pin/Pinb2 phylogenetic cluster but lack a structural basis of significant impact on kernel hardness. Pinb2 are seed-specifically expressed with varied expression levels between the homoeologous copies and among wheat varieties. Using the high-quality genome information, we developed new Pinb2 allele specific markers and demonstrated their usefulness by 1) identifying new Pinb2 alleles in Triticeae species; and 2) performing an association analysis of Pinb2 with kernel hardness. find more The association result suggests that Pinb2 genes may have no substantial contribution to kernel hardness. Our results provide new insights into Pinb2 evolution and expression and the new allele-specific markers are useful to further explore Pinb2's contribution to seed traits in wheat.Objectives Premature birth, defined as less than 37 weeks gestation, affects approximately 12% of all live births around the world. Advances in neonatal care have resulted in the increased survival of infants born prematurely. Although prematurity is a known risk factor for different cardiovascular diseases, little is known about the pathophysiology of vasculature during premature gestation and angiopoietic factors network during premature birth. Aims The objective of this study was to determine whether the profile of several pro-angiogenic and anti-angiogenic factors in umbilical cord blood (UCB) is different in healthy appropriate-for-gestational-age preterm newborns and normal term babies. The second aim of this study was to investigate the microRNA (miRNAs) expression profile in UCB from preterm labor and to detect miRNAs potentially taking part in control of angogenesis-related processes (Angio-MiRs). Methods Using an immunobead Luminex assay, we simultaneously measured the concentration of Angiogenin, Ae an increased risk for improper development and function of cardiovascular system in the adulthood. This work also contributes to a better understanding of the role of miRNAs potentially involved in angiogenesis control in preterm newborns.Salmonella enterica serovar (ser.) Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) is a foodborne pathogen often associated with contaminated poultry products. This study evaluated the anti-adherence and intracellular clearance capability of oligosaccharides extracted from palm kernel cake (PKC), a by-product of the palm oil industry, and compared its efficacy with commercial prebiotics- fructooligosaccharide (FOS) and mannanoligosaccharide (MOS)-against S. Enteritidis in vitro. Based on the degree of polymerization (DP), PKC oligosaccharides were further divided into 'Small' (DP ≤ 6) and 'Big' (DP > 6) fractions. Results showed that the Small and Big PKC fractions were able to reduce (p less then 0.05) S. Enteritidis adherence to Cancer coli-2 (Caco-2) cells at 0.1 mg/ mL while MOS and FOS showed significant reduction at 1.0 mg/mL and 10.0 mg/mL, respectively. In terms of S. Enteritidis clearance, oligosaccharide-treated macrophages showed better S. Enteritidis clearance over time at 50 µg/mL for Small, Big and MOS, while FOS required a concentration of 500 µg/mL for a similar effect. This data highlights that oligosaccharides from PKC, particularly those of lower DP, were more effective than MOS and FOS at reducing S. Enteritidis adherence and enhancing S. Enteritidis clearance in a cell culture model.This paper is about designing a 3D no n-stationary wideband indoor channel model for radio-frequency sensing. The proposed channel model allows for simulating the time-variant (TV) characteristics of the received signal of indoor channel in the presence of a moving object. The moving object is modelled by a point scatterer which travels along a trajectory. The trajectory is described by the object's TV speed, TV horizontal angle of motion, and TV vertical angle of motion. An expression of the TV Doppler frequency caused by the moving scatterer is derived. Furthermore, an expression of the TV complex channel transfer function (CTF) of the received signal is provided, which accounts for the influence of a moving object and fixed objects, such as walls, ceiling, and furniture. An approximate analytical solution of the spectrogram of the CTF is derived. The proposed channel model is confirmed by measurements obtained from a pendulum experiment. In the pendulum experiment, the trajectory of the pendulum has been measured by using an inertial-measurement unit (IMU) and simultaneously collecting CSI data. For validation, we have compared the spectrogram of the proposed channel model fed with IMU data with the spectrogram characteristics of the measured CSI data. The proposed channel model paves the way towards designing simulation-based activity recognition systems.Non-intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) systems aim at identifying and monitoring the power consumption of individual appliances using the aggregate electricity consumption. Many issues hinder their development. For example, due to the complexity of data acquisition and labeling, datasets are scarce; labeled datasets are essential for developing disaggregation and load prediction algorithms. In this paper, we introduce a new NILM system, called Integrated Monitoring and Processing Electricity Consumption (IMPEC). The main characteristics of the proposed system are flexibility, compactness, modularity, and advanced on-board processing capabilities. Both hardware and software parts of the system are described, along with several validation tests performed at residential and industrial settings.The present study proposes a new approach for indexing heavy metals ions to examine groundwater quality in North Kurdufan Province, Sudan. The new approach is developed based on the most frequently used methods for indexing heavy metals pollution in water. It is created in order to avoid the weaknesses of the current indexing systems. As per the new indexing approach, heavy metal contamination in water samples is evaluated by two types of indices the negative evaluation index (NEI) and positive evaluation index (PEI). The water worthiness is assessed based on a pair of indices, NEI and PEI. Water quality increases with the decrease of PEI and NEI values. NEI indicates the contribution of heavy metals with a concentration not exceeding the highest desirable limit (I i ) in the water sample, while vice versa regarding the PEI. If all heavy metals concentrations in the water sample do not exceed I i , the sum of NEI should be less than zero, but not less than -100, implying that the sum of PEI will be zero. When all heavy metals concentration exceeds I i , the sum of NEI should be equal to zero, and PEI will be greater than zero.