Construction of Condition-Specific Gene Regulatory Network Using Kernel Canonical Correlation Analysis.

Gene expression profile or transcriptome can represent cellular states, thus understanding gene regulation mechanisms can help understand how cells respond to external stress. Interaction between transcription factor (TF) and target gene (TG) is one of the representative regulatory mechanisms in cells. In this paper, we present a novel computational method to construct condition-specific transcriptional networks from transcriptome data.

Application of Light-Emitting Diodes for Improving the Nutritional Quality and Bioactive Compound Levels of Some Crops and Medicinal Plants.

Light is a key factor that affects phytochemical synthesis and accumulation in plants. Due to limitations of the environment or cultivated land, there is an urgent need to develop indoor cultivation systems to obtain higher yields with increased phytochemical concentrations using convenient light sources. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have several advantages, including consumption of lesser power, longer half-life, higher efficacy, and wider variation in the spectral wavelength than traditional light sources; therefore, these devices are preferred for in vitro culture and indoor plant growth.

StressGenePred: a twin prediction model architecture for classifying the stress types of samples and discovering stress-related genes in arabidopsis.

Background: Recently, a number of studies have been conducted to investigate how plants respond to stress at the cellular molecular level by measuring gene expression profiles over time. As a result, a set of time-series gene expression data for the stress response are available in databases. With the data, an integrated analysis of multiple stresses is possible, which identifies stress-responsive genes with higher specificity because considering multiple stress can capture the effect of interference between stresses.

HTRgene: a computational method to perform the integrated analysis of multiple heterogeneous time-series data: case analysis of cold and heat stress response signaling genes in Arabidopsis.

Background: Integrated analysis that uses multiple sample gene expression data measured under the same stress can detect stress response genes more accurately than analysis of individual sample data. However, the integrated analysis is challenging since experimental conditions (strength of stress and the number of time points) are heterogeneous across multiple samples.

Results: HTRgene is a computational method to perform the integrated analysis of multiple heterogeneous time-series data measured under the same stress condition.

PropaNet: Time-Varying Condition-Specific Transcriptional Network Construction by Network Propagation.

Transcription factor (TF) has a significant influence on the state of a cell by regulating multiple down-stream genes. Thus, experimental and computational biologists have made great efforts to construct TF gene networks for regulatory interactions between TFs and their target genes. Now, an important research question is how to utilize TF networks to investigate the response of a plant to stress at the transcription control level using time-series transcriptome data.

The mRNA and miRNA transcriptomic landscape of Panax ginseng under the high ambient temperature.

Background: Ginseng is a popular traditional herbal medicine in north-eastern Asia. It has been used for human health for over thousands of years. With the rise in global temperature, the production of Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C.

AKR1B10-inhibitory Selaginella tamariscina extract and amentoflavone decrease the growth of A549 human lung cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Selaginella tamariscina (P.Beauv.) Spring is a traditional medicinal plant used to treat various human diseases, including cancer, in Asia.

Clustering and evolutionary analysis of small RNAs identify regulatory siRNA clusters induced under drought stress in rice.

Motivation: Drought tolerance is an important trait related to growth and yield in crop. Until now, drought related research has focused on coding genes. However, non-coding RNAs also respond significantly to environmental stimuli such as drought stress.

A highly efficient sorbitol dehydrogenase from Gluconobacter oxydans G624 and improvement of its stability through immobilization.

A sorbitol dehydrogenase (GoSLDH) from Gluconobacter oxydans G624 (G. oxydans G624) was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3)-CodonPlus RIL. The complete 1455-bp codon-optimized gene was amplified, expressed, and thoroughly characterized for the first time.

Enhanced Output Power of PZT Nanogenerator by Controlling Surface Morphology of Electrode.

Piezoelectric power generation using Pb(Zr,Ti)O3(PZT) nanowires grown on Nb-doped SrTiO3(nb:STO) substrate has been demonstrated. The epitaxial PZT nanowires prepared by a hydrothermal method, with a diameter and length of approximately 300 nm and 7 μm, respecively, were vertically aligned on the substrate. An embossed Au top electrode was applied to maximize the effective power generation area for non-uniform PZT nanowires.

Characterization of a Mannose-6-Phosphate Isomerase from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and Its Application in Fructose-6-Phosphate Production.

The BaM6PI gene encoding a mannose-6-phosphate isomerase (M6PI, EC 5.3.1.

Enhanced piezoelectric properties of vertically aligned single-crystalline NKN nano-rod arrays.

Piezoelectric materials capable of converting between mechanical and electrical energy have a great range of potential applications in micro- and nano-scale smart devices; however, their performance tends to be greatly degraded when reduced to a thin film due to the large clamping force by the substrate and surrounding materials. Herein, we report an effective method for synthesizing isolated piezoelectric nano-materials as means to relax the clamping force and recover original piezoelectric properties of the materials. Using this, environmentally friendly single-crystalline NaxK1-xNbO3 (NKN) piezoelectric nano-rod arrays were successfully synthesized by conventional pulsed-laser deposition and demonstrated to have a remarkably enhanced piezoelectric performance.

High output piezo/triboelectric hybrid generator.

Recently, piezoelectric and triboelectric energy harvesting devices have been developed to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Especially, it is well known that triboelectric nanogenerators have a simple structure and a high output voltage. However, whereas nanostructures improve the output of triboelectric generators, its fabrication process is still complicated and unfavorable in term of the large scale and long-time durability of the device.

Crystal structure and substrate specificity of D-galactose-6-phosphate isomerase complexed with substrates.

D-Galactose-6-phosphate isomerase from Lactobacillus rhamnosus (LacAB; EC 5.3.1.

New steroidal glycoside ester and aliphatic acid from the fruits of Lycium chinense.

Two new compounds stigmast-5-en-3β-ol-3-O-β-D-(2'-n-triacontanoyl) glucopyranoside (1) and 19,21-dimethyl triacont-17,22,24,26,28-pentaene-1-oic acid (2), along with the three known compounds n-tetracosanyl octadec-9-enoate (3), β-sitosterol, and β-sitosterol-3-O-β-D-glucoside, have been isolated from the methanol extract of Lycium chinense fruits. The structures of these phytoconstituents have been established on the basis of spectral data analysis and chemical reactions.

Immunotoxicity activity from the essential oils of coriander (Coriandrum sativum) seeds.

The seeds of the Coriandrum sativum were extracted and the essential oil composition and immunotoxicity effects were studied. The analysis of the essential oil was conducted by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy, which revealed 33 components, representing 99.99% of the total oil from the seeds of coriander.

Structural and functional analysis of phytotoxin toxoflavin-degrading enzyme.

Pathogenic bacteria synthesize and secrete toxic low molecular weight compounds as virulence factors. These microbial toxins play essential roles in the pathogenicity of bacteria in various hosts, and are emerging as targets for antivirulence strategies. Toxoflavin, a phytotoxin produced by Burkholderia glumae BGR1, has been known to be the key factor in rice grain rot and wilt in many field crops.

Screening 64 cultivars Catharanthus roseus for the production of vindoline, catharanthine, and serpentine.

The leaves of Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don.

Dynamic properties of an omni-directional piezoelectric motor for precision position control.

A piezoelectric motor capable of omni-directional movements has been developed to apply for robot joints, eyes, and precision positioning stage. The piezoelectric actuator has a simple structure of a cone type consisting of two piezoelectric ring-typed ceramics with electrodes divided into four segments and stainless steel elastic bodies. Before manufacturing the piezoelectric motor, the admittance characteristics and displacements of the actuator as a function of frequency were simulated.

A simple taste analyzing system design for visual and quantitative analysis of different tastes using multi-array chemical sensors and pattern recognition techniques.

In this paper, we describe design of a simple taste analyzing system using sensory system based on a multi-array chemical sensor (MACS) and personal digital assistant (PDA) for visual and quantitative analysis of different tastes using pattern recognition techniques. The sensory system is communicated with PDA, which has several interesting benefits for data analysis and display, via wireless using the Bluetooth. A various pattern recognition techniques are adapted including spider map, principal component analysis (PCA) and fuzzy C-means (FCM) algorithm to classify visually data patterns detected by the sensory system.

Analysis of isoflavones and phenolic compounds in Korean soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] seeds of different seed weights.

The seeds of 322 Korean soybean varieties were collected from six different cultivated sites in Korea and classified into three groups based on the 100-seed weight as small, medium, and large. Seeds were analyzed for their concentrations of isoflavones and phenolic compounds. The total average isoflavones in soybean cultivated at Iksan (2.

The definition of basic TEDS of IEEE 1451.4 for sensors for an electronic tongue and the proposal of new template TEDS for electrochemical devices.

It is important to define a standard method to store basic sensor information, such as the type and the structure of sensors for an electronic tongue system and there is no such method defined in the IEEE 1451.4 transducer electronic data sheet (TEDS) so far. The major challenge is to choose a suitable standard template that can be used with sensors for electronic tongues.

Structural and functional insights into intramolecular fructosyl transfer by inulin fructotransferase.

Inulin fructotransferase (IFTase), a member of glycoside hydrolase family 91, catalyzes depolymerization of beta-2,1-fructans inulin by successively removing the terminal difructosaccharide units as cyclic anhydrides via intramolecular fructosyl transfer. The crystal structures of IFTase and its substrate-bound complex reveal that IFTase is a trimeric enzyme, and each monomer folds into a right-handed parallel beta-helix. Despite variation in the number and conformation of its beta-strands, the IFTase beta-helix has a structure that is largely reminiscent of other beta-helix structures but is unprecedented in that trimerization is a prerequisite for catalytic activity, and the active site is located at the monomer-monomer interface.