Search

The MYB- basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH)-WD40 complexes regulating anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin (PA) biosynthesis in plants are not fully understood. Here Medicago truncatula bHLH MtTT8 was characterized as a central component of these ternary complexes that control anthocyanin and PA biosynthesis. Mttt8 mutant seeds have a transparent testa phenotype with reduced PAs and anthocyanins. MtTT8 restores PA and anthocyanin productions in Arabidopsis tt8 mutant. Ectopic expression of MtTT8 restores anthocyanins and PAs in mttt8 plant and hairy roots and further enhances both productions in wild-type hairy roots. Transcriptomic analyses and metabolite profiling of mttt8 mutant seeds and M. truncatula hairy roots (mttt8 mutant, mttt8 mutant complemented with MtTT8, or MtTT8 overexpression lines) indicate that MtTT8 regulates a subset of genes involved in PA and anthocyanin biosynthesis. MtTT8 is genetically regulated by MtLAP1, MtPAR and MtWD40-1. Combinations of MtPAR, MtLAP1, MtTT8 and MtWD40-1 activate MtTT8 promoter in yeast assay. MtTT8 interacts with these transcription factors to form regulatory complexes. MtTT8, MtWD40-1 and an MYB factor, MtPAR or MtLAP1, interacted and activated promoters of anthocyanidin reductase and anthocyanidin synthase to regulate PA and anthocyanin biosynthesis, respectively. Our results provide new insights into the complex regulation of PA and anthocyanin biosynthesis in M. truncatula.

The demands of improving energy efficiency for high performance scientific applications arise crucially nowadays. Software-controlled hardware solutions directed by Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) have shown their effectiveness extensively. Although DVFS is beneficial to green computing, introducing DVFS itself can incur non-negligible overhead, if there exist a large number of frequency switches issued by DVFS. In this paper, we propose a strategy to achieve the optimal energy savings for distributed matrix multiplication via algorithmically trading more computation and communication at a time adaptively with user-specified memory costs for less DVFS switches, which saves 7.5% more energy on average than a classic strategy. Moreover, we leverage a high performance communication scheme for fully exploiting network bandwidth via pipeline broadcast. Overall, the integrated approach achieves substantial energy savings (up to 51.4%) and performance gain (28.6% on average) compared to ScaLAPACK pdgemm() on a cluster with an Ethernet switch, and outperforms ScaLAPACK and DPLASMA pdgemm() respectively by 33.3% and 32.7% on average on a cluster with an Infiniband switch.

Silica-filled polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite membranes are prepared on a polytetrafluoroethylene support structure. The structure and the performance of the membranes are characterized by scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetry. The pervaporation process for acetic/water separation is performed within the PDMS membranes. The vulcanization temperature was found to have a great influence on the separation performance of the membrane. The addition of silica can significantly improve the pervaporation flux and enhance the thermal stability of the membrane. With an increase in the feed temperature, selectivity decreases and permeation flux increases. Performed with a pure PDMS membrane vulcanized at 30°C, the separation factor at first will increase, then decrease when the feed flow rate was increased from 14 to 38 L · h−1. The maximum separation factor is achieved when the feed flow rate is 26 L · h−1. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2011. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers

This work presented a system to encourage children and adolescents with autism and cerebral palsy (CP) to improve their abilities of self-care, mobility and sociality. A study was conducted with 51 children with autism and 36 children with CP using the Game System for Rehabilitation with Kinect at intervals of one month. The scope of this study was aimed to evaluate the effects of Game System for Rehabilitation in terms of self-care, mobility and social function of children and adolescents with autism and CP. Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) was used to determine the functional abilities of self-care, mobility and sociability. Data obtained allowed us to conclude that the positive effects of the Game System for Rehabilitation on the func- tional abilities of self-care, mobility and social function with disabilities were significant. The Game System for Rehabilitation applied for children and adolescents with autism and CP was effective for the targeted population. And it gives a new light for children with autism and CP to continue their rehabilitation successfully.

Boosting performance and energy efficiency of scientific applications running on high performance computing systems arise cruicially nowadays. Software and hardware based solutions for improving communication performance have been recognized as significant means of achieving performance gain and thus energy savings for such applications. As a fundamental component of most numerical linear algebra algorithms, improving performance and energy efficiency of distributed matrix multiplication is of major concerns. For such purposes, we propose a high performance communication scheme that fully exploits network bandwidth via non-blocking pipeline broadcast with tuned chunk size. Empirically, substantial performance gain up to 8.4% and energy savings up to 6.9% are achieved compared to blocking pipeline broadcast, and against binomial tree broadcast, performance gain up to 6.5% and energy savings up to 6.1% are observed on a 64-core cluster.

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes with different silica content were prepared without support. The characterization and performance of the membranes were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM), thermogravimetry analysis (TGA), contact angle meter and swelling experiment. The pervaporation process was investigated with acetic acid/water mixture. And the process of mass transfer was analysed depending on the solution-diffusion model. The addition of silica could greatly improve the pervaporation flux and enhance the thermal stability of membrane. With an increase in feed temperature, selectivity decreased and permeation flux increased for the unfilled PDMS membrane. However, the separation factor of silica loading of 10 wt. % membranes, exhibited a maximum at 50 °C, and it was higher than unfilled membrane when feed temperature was above 40 °C. With the enhancement of acetic acid concentration, flux and separation factor increased. And the unfilled membrane and the silica filled membrane were prior permeation membranes for water when the downstream pressure of unfilled membrane and silica filled membrane was over 1000 Pa and 1500 Pa respectively.