Polyp bail-out is a stress response exhibited by some pocilloporid corals with mechanisms and consequences distinct from those of bleaching. Although induction of polyp bail-out has been demonstrated in the laboratory, molecular mechanisms underlying this response have rarely been discussed. We conducted genetic analyses of Pocillopora acuta during initiation of hyperosmosis-induced polyp bail-out, using both transcriptomic and qPCR techniques. Beyond upregulation of apoptosis and genes related to extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation, corals showed significant activation of tumor necrosis factor and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling pathways throughout a 24-h polyp bail-out induction experiment. A common gene expression profile was found between the FAS and CASP8 genes, which reached their expression peaks at 12 h, whereas a different profile showing significant upregulation up to 18 h was displayed by ECM-degrading proteases and genes in the FGF signaling pathway. These results suggest parallel involvement of an extrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway and FGF-mediated ECM degradation in polyp bail-out. Furthermore, in XIAP, JNK, and NFKB1 genes, we detected a third expression profile showing linear upregulation throughout the 24-h experiment period, indicating activation of anti-apoptotic and cell survival signals during polyp bail-out. Our results provide new insights into signaling pathways inducing polyp bail-out and suggest the feasibility of inducing bail-out by specifically triggering these pathways without exerting lethal stresses on the corals.. This will enable acquisition of viable polyps for possible use in coral reef restoration and in coral research.

Plants employ a diverse set of defense mechanisms to mediate interactions with insects and fungi. These relationships can leave lasting impacts on host plant genome structure such as rapid expansion of gene families through tandem duplication. These genomic signatures provide important clues about the complexities of plant/biotic stress interactions and evolution. We used a pseudo-backcross hybrid family to identify Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) controlling associations between Populus trees and several common Populus diseases and insects. Using whole genome sequences from each parent, we identified candidate genes that may mediate these interactions. Candidates were partially validated using mass spectrometry to identify corresponding QTL for defensive compounds. We detected significant QTL for two interacting fungal pathogens and three insects. The QTL intervals contained candidate genes potentially involved in physical and chemical mechanisms of host-plant resistance and susceptibility. In particular, we identified overlapping QTLs for a phenolic glycoside and Phyllocolpa sawfly abundance. There was also significant enrichment of recent tandem duplications in the genomic intervals of the native parent, but not the exotic parent. Tandem gene duplication may be an important mechanism for rapid response to biotic stressors, enabling trees with long juvenile periods to reach maturity despite many coevolving biotic stressors.

As essential source for human consumption, plants of wheat, rice and soybean are highly sensitive to ozone (O3), resulting in significant agricultural losses under O3 pollution. However, little is known about the effects of elevated O3 on their metabolite profiling. In this study, three model cultivars were used for the metabolome analysis under elevated O3 and charcoal filtered air. Our study revealed that wheat and rice differed significantly from soybean in metabolic number and certain pathways. Metabolites response to elevated O3 were less in soybean, whilst those in wheat and rice were considerably larger. Under O3 stress, tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) was impaired in three crop plants. Methylerythritol 4-phosphate pathway and glycerol phosphate pathway were altered in wheat and rice with reduced terpene accumulation and high level of phospholipids. However, these pathways were not affected in soybean. Meanwhile, O3 suppressed the generation of flavonoid via benzoic acid pathway in three crop plants. Accordingly, the expressional level of genes coding key enzymes which catalyzed the synthesis or degradation of these metabolites. These findings provide valuable information for understanding of ozone’s effects on the metabolite profiling of crop plants, exploring the metabolite differences of three crop plants under elevated O3.

Aim: We aim to document the extent to which climate oscillation and rat infestation on islands affect the distribution of seabirds at sea. Location: The Chagos Archipelago, British Indian Ocean Territory, Central Indian Ocean Methods: At sea observations of seabirds (n = 425) were collected from 2012 to 2017 during the breeding season. We used generalized additive models to identify relationships between dominant seabird families (Laridae, Sulidae, and Procellariidae), geomorphology, oceanographic variability, and climate oscillation. We built boosted regression trees to quantify the effects of proximity to both rat-free and rat-infested islands on seabird distribution, identifying breaking point thresholds in distribution. Results: We identified oceanic hotspots and common geomorphic and oceanographic drivers for all seabird families. We documented positive relationships between Sulidae and Procellariidae abundance and the Indian Ocean Dipole, as represented by the Dipole Mode Index. The abundance of Laridae and Sulidae declined abruptly with greater distance to island. Both families aggregated more densely (1.08 and 1.25 times higher respectively) and in greater proximity (distribution thresholds at 16 and 44 km closer to islands, respectively) next to rat-free island compared with to rat-infested islands. In contrast, Procellariidae increased in abundance with greater distance to islands, plateauing at 83 km and were not significantly influenced by rat presence on nearby islands. We identified areas of increased abundance at sea under a scenario where rats are eradicated from infested islands with subsequent seabird recolonization. Main conclusions: Climate oscillations may cause shifts in seabird distribution, possibly through changes in regional productivity and prey distribution. Invasive species eradications and subsequent island recolonization can lead to predictable distribution gains and increased competition. Our analysis predicting range extension after successful eradications enables anticipatory threat-mitigation in these areas, minimising competition between colonies and thereby maximising the risk of success and the conservation impact of eradication programmes.

In this letter, we investigate the rebound dynamics of two equally sized droplets simultaneously impacting a superhydrophobic surface via lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) simulations. We discover three rebound regimes depending on the droplet distance: a complete-coalescence-rebound (CCR) regime, a partial-coalescence-rebound (PCR) regime, and a no-coalescence-rebound (NCR) regime. We demonstrate that the rebound regime is closely associated with dynamic behaviors of the formed liquid ridge or bridge between two droplets. We also present the contact time in the three regimes. Intriguingly, although partial coalescence takes places, the contact time is still dramatically shortened in the PCR regime, which is even smaller than that of a single droplet impact. These findings provide new insights into the contact time of multiple droplets impact, and thereby offering useful guidance for some application such as anti-icing, self-cleaning, and so forth.

=Sulphur-modification of matter confers improved heavy metal affinity and could be exploited in the treatment of heavy metal contaminated water. This paper is aimed at comparing the selective liquid-liquid Ag+ sorption capacities of normal and thiolated: palm oil (PO), palm kernel oil (PKO) and soybean oil (SBO), respectively. The vegetable oils were modified with 1-heptanethiol and the thioether-functionalized (TF) oils were utilized for the removal of Ag+ present as contaminant in water, while the unmodified oils acted as controls. Liquid-liquid equilibrium contact time was determined to be 6 hours. The result achieved after equilibration, revealed the effectiveness of TF oils in the removal of Ag+ from a 600 ppm AgNO3 (aq). While TF-SBO reduced the cation concentration to a level less than the detection limit, TF-PKO only showed appreciable sorption capacity (below 30 %) compared to the sorption-inactive normal oils. The order of Ag+ sorption capacity (TF-SBO > TF-PO > TF-PKO) was ascribed to the various levels of unsaturation of fatty acid chains encountered in the lipids, since higher number of sorption-active TF sites is achievable with greater degree of fatty acid unsaturation. On that note, highly unsaturated vegetable oils (such as that of Glycine max) were recommended.

The problem related to the water Resource Engineering are mostly non-linear in nature. It is becoming a difficult task for large scale nonlinear optimization problems to obtain the optimal solutions. Since various conflicting demands such as irrigation, generation of power, industrial and municipal water supply etc. should be satisfied with water available in reservoir, the optimal operating policy for multipurpose reservoir is a necessity. Further, the growth in population, urbanization, deforestation and industrialization has increased the demand of water day by day. In recent times, it is also noted that the global warming became a threat that affects availability of water resources both spatially and temporally in several parts of the world. Conventional approaches are found to be insufficient to deal with this problem. To contract with objective function information and elude difficulties related to determine derivate or other auxiliary information various statistical test such Analysis of Variance, t-Test, F-test, Z-test, Curve Fitting, wavelet are used along with the evolutionary algorithm for reservoir optimization

Information security is considered both an evolving field and a key concern in the modern mobile society. This research explores the vulnerabilities of public, free Wi-Fi hotspots, how their security can be compromised, and the perceptions of end-users, network administrators/owners and information security experts on cyber-security. Primary data was gathered through interviews with these three groups of stakeholders. An experimental test was also set up in a controlled environment to perform penetration testing. The goal of the experimental test was two-fold: to verify whether it is indeed practically possible to exploit the vulnerabilities of public Wi-Fi networks and to assess the level of difficulty for achieving this. The gathered insights were critically evaluated against the literature towards exploring the state of cyber-security in Cyprus. The findings from the thematic analysis of the interviews reaffirm what the literature suggests with regards to users’ and owners’ lack of awareness and technical skills. Additionally, convenience and cost were cited as major factors explaining why strict security measures are not deployed by small businesses. Coupled with these findings, the experimental test revealed the ease and speed with which public Wi-Fi networks can be compromised.

The Personal Software Process offers individuals with a self-controlled structure for doing a job. To improve individual and team ability is a crucial source of productivity and quality. Measuring an individual's performance is a challenging task in an agile environment as individuals work on several projects at the same time. No specific criteria exist, which gives personal growth in agile XP. This research study is based on an idea to align the personal software process with agile extreme programming and propose a new model for an individual's professional growth measurement. An evidence-based case study is conducted to accumulate knowledge about the measurement of an individual's performance in the agile extreme programming team. In this study, systematic mapping is used to collect issues in existing literature. The reason for systematic mapping is needed to recap the enhancement and need to classify the holes also requirements for upcoming studies related to agile with process improvement. This study supports to realize the variance between SPS and XP. This scientist mapping makes mindfulness for the procedure improvement with a mix of SPS and XP. We also proposed a solution model which we have implemented in our research.

In this paper, it is proposed a quantization procedure for the one-dimensional harmonic oscillator with time-dependent frequency, time-dependent driven force, and time-dependent dissipative term. The method is based on the construction of dynamical invariants previously proposed by the authors, in which fundamental importance is given to the linear invariants of the oscillator.Keywords: Dynamical Invariants; Quantum Damped Oscillator; Time-Dependent Systems; Dissipative Systems.

A document by Mahmud Matin, written on Authorea.

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1. IntroductionPesticides are used in order to protect valuable assets such as crops and human health against potential adverse impacts from pest, insects, weeds, and pathogens. As such, pesticide use is a major foundation of the agricultural intensification observed since the middle of the 20th century (Masiá et al., 2014; Silva et al., 2019). The global amount of pesticides used has been estimated at approximately 6 billion pounds in 2011 and 2012 (USEPA, 2017). This amount keeps increasing, particularly in low and middle income countries (Akter et al., 2018; Balmer et al., 2019; Phillips McDouglas Agribusiness Intelligence, 2019). The extensive and improper use of pesticides can also have negative impacts, e.g. on the crop itself, on human health and on ecosystems, especially in aquatic environments (Verger and Boobis, 2013; Tsaboula et al., 2016; Kapsi et al., 2019). In order to prevent such negative impacts, the marketing and use of pesticides are strictly regulated in most countries.Appropriate management of pesticides requires information on the types and amounts of pesticides used. Eurostat (2008) advocates collection of usage statistics in particular for: (1) provision of annual usage estimates in countries; (2) monitoring changes over time (Coupe and Capel, 2016); (3) environmental protection; (4)  consumer protection: providing information for residue monitoring; (5) operator protection (improving or optimizing use); (6) monitoring the potential movement of pesticides into water; (7) policy advise during review programs (reviewing use of existing pesticides); (8) providing information for approval of new pesticides. However, the public availability of pesticide use data is generally scarce, i.e. because of proprietary data issues, poor registration, lacking regulations or the costs involved. Eurostat (2008) stipulates that the cost benefits for gathering actual usage statistics far outstrip the investments. An excellent example of collecting usage data is the Pesticide Use Reporting Program in California in which farmers are required to monthly report pesticide use (California Department of Pesticide Regulation, 2000).Pesticide use data can take the form of sales data and usage data. Sales data are more generic and cannot be related directly to the actual use in time and space since they do not provide details on crop, timing, spatial variation and the dose applied (Eurostat, 2008). These details are needed in order to estimate pesticide emissions, model surface water contamination, estimate risks, set priorities and identify mitigation measures (Herrero-Hernández et al., 2017; Bidleman et al., 2002; Konstantinou et al., 2006; Al-Khazrajy & Boxall, 2016; Van Gils et al., 2019). Usage data do provide the kind of detail needed to satisfy this kind of governance, research and management needs. Unfortunately, usage data is typically unavailable or difficult to obtain for all crops produced in an area, particularly in low and middle income countries like Indonesia (Mariyono et al., 2018).The aim of the present study was to determine the pesticide use by farmers in the Upper Citarum River Basin (UCRB) and make the data open access. The study was initiated to obtain input data required for predicting surface water concentrations of pesticides in the UCRB. In order to acquire the data, a survey among 174 farmers was conducted, focusing on the types and amounts of pesticides used on major crop types.

A review of investigations on the effect of drag-reducing agents in curved pipe flows is presented in this work. Proposed mechanisms of drag reduction, as well as factors that influence their effectiveness also received attention. In addition, this review outlined proposed friction factor and fluid flux models for flow of drag-reducing agents in curved pipes. It was shown in this report that significant drag reduction in curved pipes can be achieved using drag-reducing agents. Drag reduction by additives in curved pipes are generally lower than the corresponding drag reduction in straight pipes. It decreases with increase in curvature ratio and is more pronounced in the transition and turbulent flow regimes. Drag reduction depends strongly on the concentration of polymers and surfactants as well as the bubble fraction of micro-bubbles. It is also reported that drag reduction in curved pipes depends on other factors such as temperature and presence of dissolved salts. Maximum drag reduction asymptote differed between straight and curved pipes and between polymer and surfactant. Due to the limited studies in the area of drag reduction for gas-liquid flow in curved pipes no definite conclusion could be drawn on the effect of drag-reducing agents on such flows. A number of questions remain such as the mechanism of drag reduction in curved pipes and how drag-reducing agents interact with secondary flows. Hence, some research gaps have been identified with recommendations for areas of future researches.

For two processes of large importance, catalysis and biocatalysis, were reported zones without reactants, so called dead zone (DZ). They results from diffusional transport limitations, when apparent reaction order is between (-1..1). Formation of DZ reduces effectiveness of catalyst and influence packed bed reactor productivity. For simple reaction kinetic model, a DZ width inside a pellet can be calculated analytically solving appropriate differential mass balance model. However, generally the analytical solution is unknown and only with using numerical method the position of DZ can be established. The problem with DZ appearance belongs to problems with moving boundaries. Its solution requires application of special numerical procedure and relatively long CPU time. In this work it was proposed a simple, very fast numerical method for calculation of DZ position inside pellet. The method proposed combined with orthogonal collocation on finite elements can be applied for analysis of work of packed bed reactor.

The eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (EQTP) is the source regions of the Yangtze, Lancang/Mekong, and Nujiang/Salween rivers. Their hydrologic dynamics are key to water resources in the downstream area. An analysis of the spatiotemporal variations in terrestrial water storage (TWS) in this region has practical significance for regional social prosperity and the stability of the ecological environment. In this paper, the monthly GRACE Level 2 Release 6 (RL06) products were employed to invert TWS changes from April 2002 to August 2016, and dominant factors contributing to the changes in TWS in subbasins and decreasing and increasing areas were analyzed systematically. We concluded that. (1) the TWS in EQTP showed a slight decreasing trend from 2002 to 2016 with the obvious spatial heterogeneity. The TWS trend ranged from -0.94~0.91 mm/m with a decreasing trend in the southwest and an increasing trend in the north. The pattern in TWS is approximately similar to the change in soil moisture (ΔSM). (2) the decrease in TWS may be attributed to the increase of evapotranspiration, which has approximately increased by 53%, and increase of glacial ablation and reduction of precipitation in EQTP. Moreover, the decrease in evapotranspiration can partly explain the increase in areas with TWS increase. However, we speculated that the lakes supplemented by glaciers are the main cause of the regional changes in TWS. Glacial ablation is the dominant factor in the region where a substantial decrease in TWS is observed (an approximately 69% contribution). (3) The decrease in TWS mainly occurs in summer and is mainly due to the increase in evaporation in summer because of warming, increase in wind speed and decrease in the relative humidity. (4) the mass balance of glaciers was estimated indirectly based on the GRACE results, but a further study is needed to determine the specific process.

The study aimed to determine the linkage between soil exchangeable potassium (K+) concentration and stream water K+ concentration during rainfall and snowmelt events. The research was performed in small catchments with different land use (i.e. woodland, traditional agriculture, experimental agriculture, mixed-use) in the Carpathian Foothills (Poland). All of the studied catchments whose hillslopes were covered with fragipan soils had a markedly lower hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) in the fragipan (Btx) than in the horizons lying above (A and E). These highly permeable horizons determine the K+ influx to streams during most event types except snowmelts with frozen soil. In the woodland catchment, stream water K+ concentrations during events are determined by a high vertical variability in Ksat and exchangeable K+ concentrations in soil profiles. Rapid flushing of K+ from the topsoil Ah horizon with higher Ksat and higher exchangeable K+ concentrations than in the lying lower E horizon resulted in a clockwise hysteresis of K+ in stream water during most events. In the agricultural catchments, changes in stream water K+ concentration during events were determined by distinct differences between soil exchangeable K+ concentrations on hillslopes and in riparian areas. For example, during rainfall events under dry antecedent conditions, exchangeable K+ concentrations in topsoil horizons on hillslopes were distinctly higher than concentrations of exchangeable K+ in riparian area soils. The inflow of alluvial water with a low dose of K+ before the inflow of throughflow from hillslopes with a high dose of K+ thus resulted in wide counterclockwise hystereses for streamwater K+.

A document by Md. Imran Hossain, written on Authorea.

V Phytophthora melonis is the causal agent of damping-off or crown rot, one of the most destructive cucumber disease that causes severe economic losses in in Iran and some other parts of the world. Despite intense research efforts made in the past years, no permanent cure currently exists for this disease. With the aim to understand the molecular mechanisms of defense against P. melonis, root collars and leaves of four cucumber genotypes consisting of resistant Ramezz; moderately resistant Baby and very susceptible Mini 6-23 and Extrem, were monitored for quantitative gene expression analysis of five antifungal and/or anti-oomycete genes (CsWRKY20, CsLecRK6.1, PR3, PR1-1a and LOX1) at three points after inoculation with P. melonis. The gene expression analysis indicated that P. melonis strongly enhanced the expression of these genes after inoculation in both leaves and root collars. Further, not only the transcript levels of these genes were significantly higher in the resistant and moderately resistance genotypes, but also the time point of the highest relative expression ratio for the five genes was different in the four cucumber genotypes. CsWRKY20 and PR3 showed the maximum expression in Ramezz at 48 hpi while CsLecRK6.1, and LOX1 showed the highest expression at 72 hpi. In addition, PR1-1a showed the maximum expression in the Baby at 72 hpi. Root collars responded faster than leaves and some responses were more strongly upregulated in root collars than in leaves. The genes found to be involved in disease resistance in two different organs of cucumber after pathogen infection. The results suggest that increased expression of these genes led to activation of defence pathways and could be responsible for a reduced P. melonis colonization capacity in Ramezz and Baby. Overally, this work represents a valuable resource for future functional genomics studies to unravel the molecular mechanisms of C. sativus- P. melonis interaction.

The field of landscape genetics has been rapidly evolving, adopting and adapting analytical frameworks to address research questions. As landscape genetic analyses have shifted away from Mantel-based analytical frameworks, studies are increasingly using regression-based frameworks to understand the individual contributions of landscape and habitat variables on genetic differentiation. This paper outlines appropriate and inappropriate uses of multiple regression for these purposes. Of concern is the prevalence of studies seeking to explain genetic differences by fitting regression models with effective distance variables calculated independently on separate landscape resistance surfaces. When moving across the landscape, organisms cannot respond independently and uniquely to habitat and landscape features. Therefore, independent resistance surfaces and their effective distance measures have no mechanistic meaning or relevant statistical interpretation. There are also tremendous challenges to fitting and interpreting regression models that include ‘independent’ effective distance measures as predictors, including statistical suppression. As such, regression analyses seeking to understand how landscape resistance affects gene flow should be univariate models, with the creation of a single resistance surface being a necessary precursor to the regression analysis. There are, however, important statistical advances underway that explicitly model the covariance of allele frequencies or genetic distances as functions of spatial landscape variables. The growth and evolution of landscape genetics as a field has been rapid and exciting. It is the goal of this opinion paper to highlight past missteps and to ensure that future use of regression models will appropriately consider the process being modeled, which will provide clarity to model interpretation.

Precipitation is an important phenomenon which contributes in the constant supply of water over entire earth. Atmospheric water accounts for less than 0.001% of total water yet it is responsible for the constant supply throughout the globe. It is important to know the distribution of precipitation along with space to know the pattern of precipitation spatially. In order to know this spatial pattern five different geospatial interpolation techniques totaling to 20 different models are applied for 30 years (1988 - 2018) of monthly average precipitation. These models are compared to know which one of these gives the best resemblance of the phenomena. Six performance measures, MAE, MBE, MSE, RMSE, ME and R2 are used to compare the different models. The model for which error is minimum (close to zero) and efficiency is maximum (close to unity) are preferable. After application of various models, it was found that IDW technique with weight parameter of 3 gives the best result with MBE of -0.1397, MAE of 2.9372, MSE of 13.0708, RMSE of 3.6154, ME of 0.7842 and R2 of 0.7744. Other models that performed well were Universal kriging and RBF. After evaluating the best model, error in the estimation of data by that model was also carried out to know the locations where error is intense. It is seen that where the precipitation is intense the errors associated increases. Temporal variation of rainfall is equally important to know have a clearer picture about the pattern of precipitation spatially as well as with seasonally. Therefore, after figuring out the best model, temporal variation of precipitation was also determined showing monthly variation of rainfall. So, after plotting spatial and temporal variation of precipitation it becomes easier for us to determine the precipitation at places which are not gauged.

Applications of transfer function to derivation of a high precision model of tracer flow in a commercial measurement system is presented. A transfer function concept makes easier development of models of complex systems and consequently allows for obtaining a model that matches in the best way a physical system. The method has an additional profit viz. the same numerical algorithm i.e. inverse Laplace transform can be employed to solve the model both on the stage of precise model development (boundary value problem) and to find real model parameters (inverse boundary value problem). As a result of concept application, a very precise model of commercial measurement instrument was developed and, next, it was employed to determination of axial dispersion coefficients for empty tube and packed bed. Presented method is precise in wide range of operating conditions and faster comparing to other methods previously described in literature. The paper shows that mathematical modelling can be exploited to enhance measurements for a commercial measurement instrument i.e unlock the full potential of the commercial measurement system with no equipment design changes. The method is also a fast alternative to computational fluid dynamics for high precision calculations.

A document by Preeti Tamrakar, written on Authorea.

This paper discuss about signal processing methods for harmonic analysis. Nowadays, emission in the range of high frequencies is increasing because of the fast improvement of energy saving equipment’s. The bulk usage of electronic apparatus, the progress of electric power utilization and rising non-linear loads on electrical system network loads etc… leads to many power quality issues. The high frequency emission becomes one of the major challenging power quality issues. During normal operation, some of present-day appliances can emit high frequency such as compact fluorescent lamp, light emitting diodes, PV inverters, chargers of battery, etc. In order to detect these emissions so many researches are undergoing at different areas. To investigate the harmonic analysis of inverter, several experiments were performed. Similar experiments were performed using FFT analysis, for the comparison. These comparisons proved the priority of the new signal processing methods.