Seasonal Characteristics of Temperature Gradient in a Glaciated Catchment in Eastern Himalaya

With climatic information from four stations in Rathong Chu valley for the period from 2017 to 2018, this study presents monthly and seasonal characteristics of the temperature lapse rate (TLR) in the eastern Himalayas. The station heights utilised in the study ranged from 1,742 to 4,450 m. The TLRs were assessed utilising a linear regression model. The mean yearly TLR for eastern Himalaya is less sheer (-0.52°C/100 m) beneath the tree line than (-0.47°C/100 m) over the tree line. The series of TLR exhibits two peaks in a year which confirms the distinctive controlling elements in the individual seasons. The highest TLR was found to be -0.60 °C/100 m during the pre-monsoon season below the tree line and -0.64 °C/100 m above the tree line. The post-monsoon has the second highest lapse rate change beneath the tree line (-0.58 °C/100 m) and in the monsoon (-0.57 °C/100 m) above the tree line. The minimum lapse rates were observed in the winter season below the treeline (-0.42 °C/100 m) and (-0.18 °C/100 m) above the tree line. The outcomes of this study add to the insight of elevation-dependent warming affected by worldwide climate change. Results also suggest that the climate and glacier modelling using the satellite temperature records or by applying the environmental lapse rate on temperature records from low altitudes may not be presenting the actual temperature trends.

Analytical Studies of SWCNTs Embedded in Nonlinear Viscous Elastic Media and the Chaotic Effect of Its Various Parameters

The analytical studies and chaotic behavior of forced vibration on Single-wall Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs) embedded in nonlinear viscous elastic medium subjected to parametric excitation are investigated. The analytical solution of the amplitude of nonlinear vibration is studied using Krylov–Bogoliubov–Mitropolsky (KBM) method. Both resonant and nonresonant cases are deduced. The computational techniques are used to draw graphs of time series, phase plot and Poincaré surface of section to analyze the chaotic behavior of the system considered. The plots are drawn for various values of different parameters like linear damping, nonlinear damping and amplitude of external forces in the considered model of SWCNTs. This work could be helpful in differentiating various elements of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) into the chaotic elements and controlling elements. The chaotic elements contributes to increase in the aging of CNTs while controlling elements can be used to control the irregular behavior of CNTs.

Devising a method to improve the accuracy of maintaining the pre-set temperature and humidity conditions at a vegetable storage facility under a food storing mode

A vegetable storage facility is an energy-consuming object with distributed parameters. The quality of product storage depends on the microclimate in the vegetable storage facility: current temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide level. Existing temperature controllers in a vegetable storage facility use a two-position law of control, which leads to the consumption of excess energy and product spoilage. The purpose of the study is to improve the work of the controller in the process of product storage at the storage phase due to closing the two-position controller through feedback in the form of a first-order aperiodic link. To achieve the goal, the procedure for calculating the transfer function of a control object through the equation of thermal balance was used. This procedure made it possible to take into consideration the parameters of a vegetable storage facility: the area and the type of thermal insulation material of floorings, the weight, and the type of a stored product, as well as thermal energy supplied to the vegetable storage facility. Based on the heat balance equation, the nature of the operation of controlling elements, transfer functions of a vegetable storage facility without a product, and the vegetable storage facility filled with a product, were calculated. The heat model of a vegetable storage facility was constructed in the MATLAB Simulink environment (USA) to check the algorithms of the temperature field control. The product storage for 180 days with changes in the daily temperature of outdoor air from minus 8 °C to plus 2 °C and changes in humidity from 50 % to 100 % was modeled. According to the results of modeling, it is possible to conclude that the addition of an aperiodic link to the feedback of the two-position controller will enable taking into consideration the inertia of a control object. This allows decreasing the maximum error in control of self-oscillations to 0.15 °C and decreasing the total operation time of controlling elements by 13 %

Autophagy-dependent survival is controlled with a unique regulatory network upon various cellular stress events

Although autophagy is a type of programmed cell death, it is also essential for cell survival upon tolerable level of various stress events. For the cell to respond adequately to an external and/or internal stimulus induced by cellular stress, autophagy must be controlled in a highly regulated manner. By using systems biology techniques, here we explore the dynamical features of autophagy induction. We propose that the switch-like characteristic of autophagy induction is achieved by a control network, containing essential feedback loops of four components, so-called autophagy inducer, autophagy controller, mTORC1 and autophagy executor, respectively. We show how an autophagy inducer is capable to turn on autophagy in a cellular stress-specific way. The autophagy controller acts as a molecular switch and not only promotes autophagy but also blocks the permanent hyperactivation of the process via downregulating the autophagy inducer. In this theoretical analysis, we explore in detail the properties of all four proposed controlling elements and their connections. Here we also prove that the kinetic features of this control network can be considered accurate in various stress processes (such as starvation, endoplasmic reticulum stress and oxidative stress), even if the exact components may be different. The robust response of the resulting control network is essential during cellular stress.

Nature-Based Solutions and Real-Time Control: Challenges and Opportunities

Nature-based solutions (NBS) as green infrastructures to urban drainage are an effective mitigation strategy both in terms of quantity and quality of runoff. Real-time control (RTC) can complement both flood mitigation and improvement of water quality by controlling elements of the drainage and sewage system. This study assessed the improvement opportunities with RTC of three NBS-related techniques commonly applied in urban drainage with different spatial scales: green roof, bioretention and detention basin and the remaining challenges to integrate both methods. Additionally, our investigations showed that the main difficulties reported involve the planning and monitoring stages of the RTC system. All of the studied devices can benefit from RTC. It is possible to observe that, despite the good results reported in the literature, the application of RTC to NBS studies on urban drainage are very recent. There are several opportunities that can be explored to optimize the performance.

Gene Cloning

The discovery of two naturally occurring biological molecules, plasmid DNA and restriction enzymes, with remarkable properties have made possible the development of methods to isolate and manipulate specific DNA fragments. Through this technology, a DNA fragment, even an entire gene and its controlling elements, can be isolated and rejoined with a plasmid or phage DNA, and the hybrid DNA molecule can be inserted into a bacterium. The foreign DNA insert can be multiplied inside the bacterial host and induced to express or synthesize the protein product of the foreign DNA. The entire process through which this can be achieved is called recombinant DNA technology or genetic engineering. The recombinant DNA technology has been extended to animal and plant cells. In this chapter, methods for isolation, modification, rejoining and replication of genomic DNA, and production of new or enhanced protein products within a host cell have been described.

Support for Adaptive and Distributed Deployment of CEP Continuous Queries for the IoMT

The current dissemination of IoT increases the deployment of stream processing solutions for monitoring and controlling elements of the real-world. One of those solutions is Complex Event Processing (CEP), and to handle the high volume, velocity and volatility of data streams from IoT sensors the CEP pipeline should be distributed, preferably having CEP operators both in the cloud/cluster and in edge devices. In this paper, we present a model for a distributed CEP platform and an implementation of this model called Global CEP Manager (GCM). GCM is a service of the ContextNet middleware that supports the deployment and dynamic rearrangement of CEP queries to CEP engines executing in the cloud and in M-Hubs, that are ContextNet’s mobile edge devices.

Ectopic expression of a maize gene is induced by Composite Insertions generated through Alternative Transposition

Transposable elements (TEs) are DNA sequences that can mobilize and proliferate throughout eukaryotic genomes. Previous studies have shown that in plant genomes, TEs can influence gene expression in various ways such as inserting in introns or exons to alter transcript structure and content, and providing novel promoters and regulatory elements to generate new regulatory patterns. Furthermore, TEs can also regulate gene expression at the epigenetic level by modifying chromatin structure, changing DNA methylation status and generating small RNAs. In this study, we demonstrated that Ac/fAc transposable elements are able to induce ectopic gene expression by duplicating and shuffling enhancer elements. Ac/fAc elements belong to the hAT family of Class II TEs. They can undergo standard transposition events, which involve the two termini of a single transposon, or alternative transposition events which involve the termini of two different, nearby elements. Our previous studies have shown that alternative transposition can generate various genome rearrangements such as deletions, duplications, inversions, translocations and Composite Insertions (CIs). We identified over 50 independent cases of CIs generated by Ac/fAc alternative transposition and analyzed 10 of them in detail. We show that these CIs induced ectopic expression of the maize pericarp color 2 (p2) gene, which encodes a Myb-related protein. All the CIs analyzed contain sequences including a transcriptional enhancer derived from the nearby p1 gene, suggesting that the CI-induced activation of p2 is effected by mobilization of the p1 enhancer. This is further supported by analysis of a mutant in which the CI is excised and p2 expression is lost. These results show that alternative transposition events are not only able to induce genome rearrangements, but also generate Composite Insertions that can control gene expression.SummaryWhen Barbara McClintock originally identified and characterized Transposable Elements (TEs) in maize, she termed them “Controlling Elements” due to their effects on gene expression. Here we show that maize Ac/Ds TEs can acquire a genomic enhancer and generate Composite Insertions (CIs) that activate expression of a nearby gene. CIs are structurally variable elements that include TE termini enclosing sequences from an original donor locus, and are formed when the termini of two nearby TEs transpose during S phase from a replicated to unreplicated site. In this way, TEs may acquire genomic enhancers to generate Controlling Elements as described by McClintock.

Be Careful How You Do It: The Distinct Effects of Observational Monitoring and Interactional Monitoring on Employee Trust

Research shows that employee trust could be impacted by monitoring measures. We contend that these impacts could be contingent on how monitoring is exercised. Specifically, while the controlling elements in monitoring signal suspicion and undermine employee trust, the interactive elements facilitate the organization–employee reciprocation and strengthen employee trust. We drew evidence from 354 Chinese employees. The results showed that observational monitoring/interactional monitoring was negatively/positively related to employee trust and that employee psychological safety fully mediated these effects. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.