Search

Transcriptome profiling and mutational analysis suggest a potential deficiency in anthocyanin transport by glutathione S-transferases and/or degradation mechanisms that might cause unpigmented berries.

With the recent increase in food demand, urban agriculture has gained attention as a way of increasing food self-sufficiency and providing recreational spaces in cities. In this study, the suitability of rooftop greenhouses (RGs), a type of urban agriculture, was analyzed by combining the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and geographic information systems (GIS) in Seoul, the capital city of Korea. To achieve this, we derived location suitability factors through expert consultations and calculated the weights of each factor through AHP. After building the spatial data according to these factors, they were weighted and summed then scaled to a score of 0–100. The highest weight of the RG location factors was for benefit (0.1782), followed by officially assessed land prices (0.0913) and supermarket density (0.0802). The weights of supermarket density and accessibility were high because they are considered the main distribution channels. When analyzing the location of RGs by linking these results with the spatial data according to factor, we revealed that Gangseo-gu (a district of Seoul) had relatively high location suitability scores. This trend was determined to be caused by the rather low officially assessed land price, high supermarket density, and productive population. This result could prove useful when selecting the approximate locations of RGs in Seoul and for promoting food self-sufficiency in cities.

The onset of flow instability (OFI) is a major threat to the operation of a fusion power plant. In particular, because the divertor is loaded with a high heat flux of up to 20 MW/m2, it may be vulnerable to OFI. Therefore, in this study, the OFI of a one-side heated flat heat sink was experimentally analyzed. When the effect of the system parameters on the OFI was analyzed, the faster the vapor inside the channel could be removed, the higher was the OFI that was experimentally recorded. As the flow rate and degree of subcooling increase, the OFI increases because it induces an enhancement of the forced convective heat transfer performance and a rapid coding rate, respectively. However, when the pressure is increased, the latent heat and liquid surface tension are reduced; thus, boiling occurs at a lower heat rate, which leads to a decrease in OFI. When the prediction performance of the existing OFI correlations developed under the subcooled flow boiling condition was evaluated, it showed a tendency to overpredict this experimental value significantly. This is because the evaluated correlations were developed based on relatively low heat flux conditions and narrow rectangular channels. Therefore, in this study, we developed a new OFI correlation optimized for experimental values using an artificial intelligence (AI) regression method. Because this correlation can be utilized under one-side high heat load conditions, it is expected that it will be especially useful when establishing the operation strategy of the cooling system of a fusion power plant.

A molecular dynamics simulation was used to investigate the effect of applied strain on the formation of primary defects and the probability of interstitial dislocation loops (IDLs) formation of tungsten (W) during a collision cascade event. The research investigated primary knock-on atom energies of 1, 6, 10, and 14 keV, applied on a deformed W structure (form −1.4~1.6%). The peak and surviving number of Frenkel pairs (FPs) increased with increasing tension; however, these increases were more pronounced under higher strain due to the formation of IDLs. For 10 self-interstitial atoms (SIA) lengths, the strain effect reduces the clustering energy of the IDLs by about 7 eV. In general, the current findings suggest that strain effects should be carefully considered in radiation-damaged environments, particularly in low-temperature, high-radiation-energy environments. The compressed condition may advantage materials used in high-radiation-damage devices and power systems.

Cities worldwide are presently contending with the intricate task of formulating urban infrastructure that seamlessly blends sustainability and resilience to effectively tackle urgent challenges. An increasingly prominent strategy gaining swift traction is the deployment of green infrastructure (GI), heralding a multitude of advantages for the urban milieu. As a growing body of research highlights the emergence of a new equity issue in our infrastructures from the perspective of environmental justice, it becomes evident that there is a significant gap in comprehensive studies investigating the combined temporal and spatial evolution of green infrastructure (GI) distribution. This research aims to address this gap by adopting a novel approach that explicitly considers the temporal dimension of GI distribution. Unlike previous studies that often rely on cross-sectional snapshots, this study employs a panel data analysis, which allows for a comprehensive examination of how GI distribution evolves over time. The primary research question addressed in this study is whether GI distribution in Washington D.C. exhibits a propensity to concentrate within certain communities. This inquiry delves into the pressing concern of the potential exacerbation of existing disparities through GI implementation. The study’s findings may drive evidence-based policy recommendations that foster equitable distribution strategies, guaranteeing that socially vulnerable communities reap the rewards of GI’s positive impacts.

As multiprocessor (or multicore) real-time systems become popular, there has been much research on multiprocessor real-time scheduling algorithms. This work evaluates EDZL (Earliest Deadline until Zero Laxity), a scheduling algorithm for real-time multiprocessor systems. First, we compare the performance of EDZL schedulability tests. We measure and compare the ratio of task sets admitted by each test. We also investigate the dominance between EDZL schedulability tests and discover that the union of the demand-based test and the utilization-based test is an effective combination. Second, we compare the schedulability of EDZL and EDF(k). We prove that the union of the EDZL schedulability tests dominates the EDF(k) schedulability test, i.e., the union of the EDZL schedulability tests can admit all task sets admitted by the EDF(k) schedulability test. We also compare the schedulability of EDZL and EDF(k) through scheduling simulation by measuring the ratio of successfully scheduled task sets. EDZL can successfully schedule 7.0% more task sets than EDF(k).

Code obfuscation is a technique that makes it difficult for code analyzers to understand a program by transforming its structures or operations while maintaining its original functionality. Android app developers often employ obfuscation techniques to protect business logic and core algorithm inside their app against reverse engineering attacks. On the other hand, malicious app writers also use obfuscation techniques to avoid being detected by anti-malware software. If malware analysts can mitigate the code obfuscation applied to malicious apps, they can analyze and detect the malicious apps more efficiently. This paper proposes a new tool, Deoptfuscator, to detect obfuscated an Android app and to restore the original source codes. Deoptfuscator detects an app control-flow obfuscated by DexGuard and tries to restore the original control-flows. Deoptfuscator deobfuscates in two steps: it determines whether an control-flow obfuscation technique is applied and then deobfuscates the obfuscated codes. Through experiments, we analyze how similar a deobfuscated app is to the original one and show that the obfuscated app can be effectively restored to the one similar to the original. We also show that the deobfuscated apps run normally.

Deep learning-based medical image analysis technology has been developed to the extent that it shows an accuracy surpassing the ability of a human radiologist in some tasks. However, data labeling on medical images requires human experts and a great deal of time and expense. Moreover, medical image data usually have an imbalanced distribution for each disease. In particular, in multilabel classification, learning with a small number of labeled data causes overfitting problems. The model easily overfits the limited number of labeled data, while it still underfits the large amount of unlabeled data. In this study, we propose a method that combines entropy-based Mixup and self-training to improve the performance of data-imbalanced chest X-ray classification. The proposed method is to apply the Mixup algorithm to limited labeled data to alleviate the data imbalance problem and perform self-training that effectively utilizes the unlabeled data while iterating this process by replacing the teacher model with the student model. Experimental results in an environment with a limited number of labeled data and a large number of unlabeled data showed that the classification performance was improved by combining entropy-based Mixup and self-training.

Muscadine berries display enhanced nutraceutical value due to the accumulation of distinctive phytochemical constituents with great potential antioxidant activity. Such nutritional and health merits are not only restricted to muscadine, but muscadine berries accumulate higher amounts of bioactive polyphenolics compared with other grape species. For the genetic study of the antioxidant trait in muscadine, a multi-locus genome-wide association study (GWAS) with 350 muscadine genotypes and 1,283 RNase H2 enzyme-dependent amplicon sequencing (rhAmpSeq) markers was performed. Phenotyping was conducted with several antioxidant-related traits, including total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity, and FRAP antioxidant assay in muscadine berry skin. The correlation coefficient analysis revealed that the TPC, and DPPH/FRAP activities were significantly correlated. Through the GWAS analysis, 12 QTNs were identified from the four traits, of which six were pleiotropic QTNs. Two pleiotropic QTNs, chr2_14464718 and chr4_16491374, were commonly identified from the TPC and DPPH/FRAP activities. Co-located genes with the two pleiotropic QTNs were isolated, and two candidate genes were identified with transcriptome analysis. UDP-glycosyltransferase and 4-hydroxy-4-methyl-2-oxoglutarate aldolase were the candidate genes that are positively and negatively correlated to the quantitative property of traits, respectively. These results are the first genetic evidence of the quantitative property of antioxidants in muscadine and provide genetic resources for breeding antioxidant-rich cultivars for both Muscadinia and Euvitis species.

This review comprehensively reviewed floating offshore wind power generation technology, which is being newly developed as a mid- to long-term plan for wind energy. From the perspective of investment permegawatt (MW), offshore wind power is still about 50 percent more expensive than land wind power. Nevertheless, many advanced countries began to investigate the data because they wondered why they were immersed in development and investment, and why offshore wind facilities installed on the beach and floating offshore wind installed in the middle of the sea, unlike the land wind we knew. We looked at the basic principles of offshore wind power generation and the technologies used in facilities, and looked at the advantages and disadvantages of offshore wind power generation compared to land wind power generation, and what differences between fixed offshore wind farms and floating offshore wind farms. It is investigated whether it is a realistic plan to verify residents’ opposition to the installation of offshore wind power facilities, the possibility of commercialization such as high operational management costs, and the feasibility of installing facilities for renewable energy 3020 as midto long-term goals. In addition, it compares foreign cases with offshore wind power development complexes in Korea, marine wind power generation complexes in operation, and high wind power in Scotland, the first floating offshore wind power in Ulsan, Korea, to overcome difficulties in installing facilities and suggest directions for domestic offshore wind power development. In addition, in Korea, where there are not many countries suitable for wind power generation unlike overseas, it was decided to investigate whether floating offshore wind power could be the answer as planned. The reason why the government is pushing for investment in renewable energy such as solar power and wind power is because energy sources from the sun are eco-friendly. However, the U.S. and Europe, which started the wind power project early, are having difficulty in handling the wings of wind power generators. The energy source looked at the contradictions caused by environmental pollution in the treatment of waste, although it was environmentally friendly, and investigated how waste was treated and utilized overseas. Compared to other countries that entered the offshore wind power business earlier, domestic power generation projects are in their infancy and should focus on developing technology and co-prosperity with neighboring residents rather than on excessive expansion.

Vehicle digital forensics includes the process of collecting and analysing digital data stored in vehicles to find evidence related to traffic accidents or crime scenes. Through this process, we can reconstruct digital events by recognizing various information such as driver behaviour, driving patterns, vehicle destinations, and smartphones connected to a vehicle. Recently, many vehicle digital forensic studies have been conducted, but few of them have dealt with Android-based infotainment (or audio video navigation, AVN) systems. While many AVN systems adopt Android as the operating system, digital forensics of Android-based AVN systems is not easy. This is because Android-based AVN systems support various storage devices and data formats and have various data sources, making consistent data collection or analysis difficult. In this article, we perform digital forensics on four AVN systems: two Android 4.2.2 Jellybean-based and two Android 4.4.2 KitKat-based, aiming to develop a data acquisition and analysis method appropriate for each Android version. As a data collection method for the AVN system forensics, logical data acquisition is performed on the Jellybean-based systems and physical data acquisition on the KitKat-based systems. For the collected data, we identify and analyse Bluetooth data, navigation data, and system logs individually. Next, we investigate the differences in the storage structure and file location of major digital artefacts depending on the Android versions and show the limitations of the individual data analysis. Finally, we construct a timeline for the driver’s activities by integrating and analysing the diverse artefacts which consist of Bluetooth data, navigation data, and system logs.

In this study, the heat transfer characteristics of one-side heated screw tubes were analyzed using subcooled flow boiling experiments. The experiments were performed until the critical heat flux was reached, while the applied heat flux was gradually increased. Subsequently, the boiling curves derived from the experimental results were divided into partial nucleate boiling (PDB) and fully developed nucleate boiling (FDB) regimes. As the flow rate increases, the forced convective heat transfer is enhanced, improving the single-phase heat transfer performance. However, as the FDB region is approached, most of the heat transfer proceeds via nucleate boiling heat transfer, so the heat transfer coefficient curve converges into the same straight line. The same trend was observed when analyzing the effect of the degree of subcooling. However, as the system pressure increased, and the liquid surface tension and latent heat decreased, a faster transition was observed from the single-phase regime to the PDB regime. From evaluating the prediction performance of the existing subcooled flow boiling heat transfer correlations, among the PDB regime; Liu and Winterton correlation, a kind of Chen-type correlation, showed the highest accuracy with mean absolute error (MAE) of 13.62% and root mean square error (RMSE) of 16.13%. However, most of the FDB correlations did not accurately predict the heat transfer performance of the one-side heated screw tube under a high heat flux load of several MW/m2. Therefore, a new screw tube FDB correlation was developed using Python code combined with artificial intelligence technology. The authors believe that the proposed correlation will be useful for not only predicting the heat transfer performance in the FDB region, but also establishing an operating map of the screw tube in the future.

Muscadine grapes accumulate higher amounts of bioactive phenolics compared with other grape species. To identify the molecular events associated with polyphenolic accumulation that influence antioxidant capacity, two contrasting muscadine genotypes (C5 and C6) with varied phenolic/flavonoid content and antioxidant activity were investigated via RNA-sequencing during berry development. The results showed that berry development is concomitant with transcriptome profile changes, which was more pronounced at the véraison (V) stage. Despite that the downregulation pattern of gene expression dominated the upregulation through berry development, the C5 genotype maintained higher expression levels. Comparative transcript profiling allowed the identification of 94 differentially expressed genes with potential relevance in regulating fruit secondary metabolism, including 18 transcription factors and 76 structural genes. The genes underlying the critical enzymes in the modification reactions of polyphenolics biosynthetic pathway, including hydroxylation, methylation, and glycosylation were more pronounced during the immature stages of prevéraison (PrV), V, and postvéraison (PoV) in the C5 genotype, resulting in more accumulation of biologically active phenolic/flavonoid derivatives. The results suggested that muscadine grapes, as in bunch grapes (Vitis sp.); possess a similar mechanism that organizes polyphenolics accumulation; however, the set of total flavonoids (TFs) and structural genes coordinating the pathway varies between the two species.

The threshold displacement energy (TDE) is an important measure of the extent of a material’s radiation damage. In this study, we investigate the influence of hydrostatic strains on the TDE of pure tantalum (Ta) and Ta–tungsten (W) alloy with a W content ranging from 5% to 30% in 5% intervals. Ta–W alloy is commonly used in high-temperature nuclear applications. We found that the TDE decreased under tensile strain and increased under compressive strain. When Ta was alloyed with 20 at% W, the TDE increased by approximately 15 eV compared to pure Ta. The directional-strained TDE (Ed,i) appears to be more influenced by complex ⟨i j k⟩ directions rather than soft directions, and this effect is more prominent in the alloyed structure than in the pure one. Our results suggest that radiation defect formation is enhanced by tensile strain and suppressed by compressive strain, in addition to the effects of alloying.

The bamboos (Bambusoideae, Poaceae) comprise a major grass lineage with a complex evolutionary history involving ancient hybridization and allopolyploidy. About 1700 described species are classified into three tribes, Olyreae (herbaceous bamboos), Bambuseae (tropical woody bamboos), and Arundinarieae (temperate woody bamboos). Nuclear analyses strongly support monophyly of the woody tribes, whereas plastome analyses strongly support paraphyly, with Bambuseae sister to Olyreae. Our objectives were to clarify the origin(s) of the woody bamboo tribes and resolve the nuclear vs. plastid conflict using genomic tools. For the first time, plastid and nuclear genomic information from the same bamboo species were combined in a single study. We sampled 51 species of bamboos representing the three tribes, estimated their genome sizes and generated low-depth sample sequence data, from which plastomes were assembled and nuclear repeats were analyzed. The distribution of repeat families was found to agree with nuclear gene phylogenies, but also provides novel insights into nuclear evolutionary history. We infer two early, independent hybridization events, one between an Olyreae ancestor and a woody ancestor giving rise to the two Bambuseae lineages, and another between two woody ancestors giving rise to the Arundinarieae. Retention of the Olyreae plastome associated with differential dominance of nuclear genomes and subsequent diploidization in some lineages explains the paraphyly observed in plastome phylogenetic estimations. We confirm ancient hybridization and allopolyploidy in the origins of the extant woody bamboo lineages and propose biased fractionation and diploidization as important factors in their evolution.

Abstract Plant chromatin dynamics are generally recognized as playing a role in the genomic response to environmental stress. Although stress‐induced transcriptional activities of LTR‐retrotransposons have been reported, whether the stress response can be detected at the level of chromatin structure for LTR‐retrotransposons is largely unknown. Using differential nuclease sensitivity profiling, we identified that two out of 29 maize LTR‐retrotransposon families change their chromatin structure in response to drought stress in leaf tissue. The two LTR‐retrotransposon families, uloh and vegu, are classified as nonautonomous LTR‐retrotransposons. Differently from other families, the chromatin structure of these two families shifted from more open in normal conditions to more closed following drought stress. Although uloh and vegu lack sequence similarity, most of them shared an intriguing feature of having a new and uncharacterized insertion of a DNA sequence near one side of an LTR. In the uloh family, nine members with a strong drought response also exhibited a drought‐induced reduction of published H3K4me3 histone modification in the inserted DNA region, implicating this modification in the chromatin structural changes. Our results provide new insight into how LTR‐retrotransposons can alter their chromatin structure following stress response in plants.

There are various types of Android apps, such as entertainment apps, health and fitness apps, travel apps, educational apps, business apps, and so on. Android apps can contain business logic, maintain sensitive personal information, and act as a bridge between IoT devices and cloud servers. Since illegal users frequently make a copy of a legitimate Android app and redistribute the plagiarized app for commercial or malicious purposes, many studies have been conducted to detect repackaged/cloned apps and make the Android ecosystem safer. A malicious attacker might apply code obfuscation to avoid app clone detection. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the effects of code obfuscation when detecting cloned apps. In this paper, we design and implement a tool called RomaDroid, which can detect efficiently cloned apps based on features inherent in each app's AndroidManifest.xml file. The manifest file is XML structure defined by tags or attributes and its XML document can be modeled as an ordered labeled tree. The RomaDroid creates a string from the hierarchical tree structure of tags as well as the class name of the components related to intent-filter tags in the manifest file, which are robust to code obfuscation. That is, we create a string from each manifest file of two apps to be compared and measure the similarity between the created two strings with the longest common subsequence (LCS) algorithm. If the measured similarity exceeds a certain threshold, the two apps are determined to be a clone pair (or similar app pair). To validate the RomaDroid, we perform various experiments with both non-obfuscated apps and their obfuscated versions generated by three obfuscation tools. The experimental results show that the RomaDroid detects accurately cloned apps even in the cases code obfuscation has been applied.

Abstract Background We aimed to find the exposure level of triclosan (TCS), a known endocrine disruptor, related to the use of personal care products using a nationally representative data of the general population in Korea. Methods This study included data of 6288 adults aged 19 years and older (2692 men, 3596 women), based on the Second Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS 2012–2014). The data were divided according to gender. The frequency and proportion of each variable were determined by dividing participants into two groups based on the top 75th percentile concentration of urinary TCS (male: 1.096 μg/g creatinine, female: 1.329 μg/g creatinine). Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated using logistic regression analysis for the high TCS exposure and low TCS exposure groups. Results Overall, the proportion of participants using personal care products was higher in women than in men. There was a significantly higher proportion of participants in the high TCS exposure group with younger age, higher education and income levels and with more frequent use of fragrance products, hair care products, body cleansers, cosmetics, and antimicrobial agents. In both men and women, ORs tended to increase with increased frequency of use of hair care products, body cleansers, and cosmetics before and after adjustment. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that as the frequency of use of personal care products increases, urine TCS concentration increases. Because TCS is a well-known endocrine disruptor, further studies are needed and explore other health effects with exposure to TCS in general population in Korea.

It has long been believed that the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) can only be observed in ferromagnets. However, any magnetic material can exhibit AHE due to the broken time-reversal symmetry. In this work, we present a nontrivial AHE on the compensated ferrimagnet Mn_{3}Al using symmetry arguments and first-principles calculations. Nonzero components of anomalous Hall conductivity σ_{αβ} are determined based on the magnetic space group of Mn_{3}Al. The explicit first-principles calculation confirms σ_{xy}=−320(Ωcm)^{−1}. The nature of Berry curvature responsible for the intrinsic origin of AHE is further identified using group theory: lifted degeneracies at 1/2KΓ, L, and 1/2K^{′}Γ induced by spin-orbit interactions. Moreover, the global behaviors of Berry curvatures are shown over the whole Brillouin zone which reveal the overlooked contributions around X^{′}.

Abstract Background This study aimed to analyze environmental tobacco smoking exposure in female nonsmokers by public transportation mode using representative data of Koreans. Methods Data from the Second Korean National Environmental Health Survey (2012–2014) were analyzed. Urine cotinine was analyzed by public transport behavior, secondhand smoke exposure, socioeconomic factors, and health-related factors. Participants were 1322 adult females; those with the top 75% urine cotinine concentrations were assigned to the high exposure group. A logistic regression analysis was performed considering appropriate weights and stratification according to the sample design of the Second Korean National Environmental Health Survey. Results The geometric mean of urine cotinine concentrations differed according to public transportation modes: subway (1.66 μg/g creatinine) bus (1.77 μg/g creatinine), and taxi (1.94 μg/g creatinine). The odds ratio [OR] was calculated for the high exposure group. The OR of the taxi (2.39; 95% confidence interval, 1.00–5.69) was statistically significantly higher than the subway value (reference), and marginally significant after adjusted with life style, sociodemographic factors and involuntary smoking frequency (2.42, 95% confidence interval, 0.97–6.04). Conclusions The odds ratio of passengers who mainly used taxis was marginally significantly higher than those of passengers who used subways and buses after adjusted with life style and sociodemographic factors. Implementation of supplementary measures and further studies on exposure to environmental tobacco smoking in taxis are warranted.

Abstract A supertube is a supersymmetric configuration in string theory which occurs when a pair of branes spontaneously polarizes and generates a new dipole charge extended along a closed curve. The dipole charge of a codimension-2 supertube is characterized by the U-duality monodromy as one goes around the supertube. For multiple codimension-2 supertubes, their monodromies do not commute in general. In this paper, we construct a supersymmetric solution of five-dimensional supergravity that describes two supertubes with such non-Abelian monodromies, in a certain perturbative expansion. In supergravity, the monodromies are realized as the multi-valuedness of the scalar fields, while in higher dimensions they correspond to non-geometric duality twists of the internal space. The supertubes in our solution carry NS5 and 522 dipole charges and exhibit the same monodromy structure as the SU(2) Seiberg-Witten geometry. The perturbative solution has AdS2 × S 2 asymptotics and vanishing four-dimensional angular momentum. We argue that this solution represents a microstate of four-dimensional black holes with a finite horizon and that it provides a clue for the gravity realization of a pure-Higgs branch state in the dual quiver quantum mechanics.

Malware family classification is grouping malware samples that have the same or similar characteristics into the same family. It plays a crucial role in understanding notable malicious patterns and recovering from malware infections. Although many machine learning approaches have been devised for this problem, there are still several open questions including, “Which features, classifiers, and evaluation metrics are better for malware familial classification”? In this paper, we propose a machine learning approach to Android malware family classification using built-in and custom permissions. Each Android app must declare proper permissions to access restricted resources or to perform restricted actions. Permission declaration is an efficient and obfuscation-resilient feature for malware analysis. We developed a malware family classification technique using permissions and conducted extensive experiments with several classifiers on a well-known dataset, DREBIN. We then evaluated the classifiers in terms of four metrics: macrolevel F1-score, accuracy, balanced accuracy (BAC), and the Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC). BAC and the MCC are known to be appropriate for evaluating imbalanced data classification. Our experimental results showed that: (i) custom permissions had a positive impact on classification performance; (ii) even when the same classifier and the same feature information were used, there was a difference up to 3.67% between accuracy and BAC; (iii) LightGBM and AdaBoost performed better than other classifiers we considered.

While horizontally transferred transposable elements (TEs) have been reported in several groups of plants, their importance for genome evolution remains poorly understood. To understand how horizontally transferred TEs contribute to plant genome evolution, we investigated the composition and activity of horizontally transferred TEs in the genomes of four Vitis species. A total of 35 horizontal transfer (HT) events were identified between the four Vitis species and 21 other plant species belonging to 14 different families. We determined the donor and recipient species for 28 of these HTs, with the Vitis species being recipients of 15 of them. As a result of HTs, 8–10 LTR retrotransposon clusters were newly formed in the genomes of the four Vitis species. The activities of the horizontally acquired LTR retrotransposons differed among Vitis species, showing that the consequences of HTs vary during the diversification of the recipient lineage. Our study provides the first evidence that the HT of TEs contributes to the diversification of plant genomes by generating additional TE subfamilies and causing their differential proliferation in host genomes.

Abstract Background Transposable elements are major evolutionary forces which can cause new genome structure and species diversification. The role of transposable elements in the expansion of nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich-repeat proteins (NLRs), the major disease-resistance gene families, has been unexplored in plants. Results We report two high-quality de novo genomes (Capsicum baccatum and C. chinense) and an improved reference genome (C. annuum) for peppers. Dynamic genome rearrangements involving translocations among chromosomes 3, 5, and 9 were detected in comparison between C. baccatum and the two other peppers. The amplification of athila LTR-retrotransposons, members of the gypsy superfamily, led to genome expansion in C. baccatum. In-depth genome-wide comparison of genes and repeats unveiled that the copy numbers of NLRs were greatly increased by LTR-retrotransposon-mediated retroduplication. Moreover, retroduplicated NLRs are abundant across the angiosperms and, in most cases, are lineage-specific. Conclusions Our study reveals that retroduplication has played key roles for the massive emergence of NLR genes including functional disease-resistance genes in pepper plants.

Abstract Background This study was aimed at finding out the exposure level of bisphenol A (BPA), a well-known endocrine disruptor, in relation to dietary factors using a data representing the Korean general population. Methods This study was performed on 5402 adults aged 19 years and older based on the Second Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS 2012–2014). The data analyzed urinary BPA concentration in relation to socio-demographic variables, health behavior-related variables, and dietary factor-related variables. Odds ratio (OR) was calculated through a logistic regression analysis after dividing the participants into high BPA exposure group and low BPA exposure group based on the top 75 percentile concentration. The logistic regression analysis was carried out considering the appropriate sample weight, stratification, and clustering of the second KoNEHS sample design. Results The group drinking bottled water at home and the group using zip-top bags/plastic bags showed significantly higher urinary BPA concentration in female. OR tends to increase as the intake frequency of frozen food increased and OR of frozen food consumption of more than once a week was 1.48 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02–2.24) for male and the group drinking bottled water showed significantly higher OR of 1.45 (95% CI 1.06–2.17) after adjusting the related factors for female. Conclusions BPA levels were high in female using bottled water and in male consuming frozen food, and therefore bottled water and frozen food need to be avoided to reduce BPA levels.

Abstract Background Sudden breath-holding episodes during sleep in young children are potentially related to sudden infant death syndrome and other life-threatening events. Additionally, these episodes can negatively affect child’s growth and development. Case presentation Here, we present 3 cases of preschool children with similar paroxysmal nocturnal waking events associated with choking that had different etiologies (nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy, nocturnal gastroesophageal reflux disease, and parasomnia, respectively). Conclusions It is important to take into consideration the fact that breath spells during sleep can occur as a rare manifestation of parasomnia due to gastroesophageal reflux or as a symptom of nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy. Full video electroencephalography, polysomnography, and simultaneous gastric pH monitoring should be used for the differential diagnosis of sleep-related disorders, such as breath spells, in children.

DEX files are executable files of Android applications. Since DEX files are in the format of Java bytecodes, their Java source codes can be easily obtained using static reverse engineering tools. This results in numerous Android application thefts. There are some tools (e.g. bangcle, ijiami, liapp) that protect Android applications against static reverse engineering utilizing dynamic code loading. These tools usually encrypt classes.dex in an APK file. When the application is launched, the encrypted classes.dex file is decrypted and dynamically loaded. However, these tools fail to protect multidex APKs, which include more than one DEX files (classes2.dex, classes3.dex, ...) to accommodate large-sized execution codes. In this paper, we propose a technique that protects multidex Android applications against static reverse engineering. The technique can encrypt/decrypt multiple DEX files in APK files and dynamically load them. The experimental results show that the proposed technique can effiectively protect multidex APKs.

Arrays of hydrophones were deployed within the Bransfield Strait and Scotia Sea (Antarctic Peninsula region) from 2005 to 2009 to record ambient ocean sound at frequencies of up to 125 and 500 Hz. Icequakes, which are broadband, short duration signals derived from fracturing of large free-floating icebergs, are a prominent feature of the ocean soundscape. Icequake activity peaks during austral summer and is minimum during winter, likely following freeze-thaw cycles. Iceberg grounding and rapid disintegration also releases significant acoustic energy, equivalent to large-scale geophysical events. Overall ambient sound levels can be as much as ~10-20 dB higher in the open, deep ocean of the Scotia Sea compared to the relatively shallow Bransfield Strait. Noise levels become lowest during the austral winter, as sea-ice cover suppresses wind and wave noise. Ambient noise levels are highest during austral spring and summer, as surface noise, ice cracking and biological activity intensifies. Vocalizations of blue (Balaenoptera musculus) and fin (B. physalus) whales also dominate the long-term spectra records in the 15-28 and 89 Hz bands. Blue whale call energy is a maximum during austral summer-fall in the Drake Passage and Bransfield Strait when ambient noise levels are a maximum and sea-ice cover is a minimum. Fin whale vocalizations were also most common during austral summer-early fall months in both the Bransfield Strait and Scotia Sea. The hydrophone data overall do not show sustained anthropogenic sources (ships and airguns), likely due to low coastal traffic and the typically rough weather and sea conditions of the Southern Ocean.

An intraspecific genetic map for watermelon was constructed using an F2 population derived from 'Arka Manik' × 'TS34' and transcript sequence variants and quantitative trait loci (QTL) for resistance to powdery mildew (PMR), seed size (SS), and fruit shape (FS) were analyzed. The map consists of 14 linkage groups (LGs) defined by 174 cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences (CAPS), 2 derived-cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence markers, 20 sequence-characterized amplified regions, and 8 expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat markers spanning 1,404.3 cM, with a mean marker interval of 6.9 cM and an average of 14.6 markers per LG. Genetic inheritance and QTL analyses indicated that each of the PMR, SS, and FS traits is controlled by an incompletely dominant effect of major QTLs designated as pmr2.1, ss2.1, and fsi3.1, respectively. The pmr2.1, detected on chromosome 2 (Chr02), explained 80.0% of the phenotypic variation (LOD = 30.76). This QTL was flanked by two CAPS markers, wsb2-24 (4.00 cM) and wsb2-39 (13.97 cM). The ss2.1, located close to pmr2.1 and CAPS marker wsb2-13 (1.00 cM) on Chr02, explained 92.3% of the phenotypic variation (LOD = 68.78). The fsi3.1, detected on Chr03, explained 79.7% of the phenotypic variation (LOD = 31.37) and was flanked by two CAPS, wsb3-24 (1.91 cM) and wsb3-9 (7.00 cM). Candidate gene-based CAPS markers were developed from the disease resistance and fruit shape gene homologs located on Chr.02 and Chr03 and were mapped on the intraspecific map. Colocalization of these markers with the major QTLs indicated that watermelon orthologs of a nucleotide-binding site-leucine-rich repeat class gene containing an RPW8 domain and a member of SUN containing the IQ67 domain are candidate genes for pmr2.1 and fsi3.1, respectively. The results presented herein provide useful information for marker-assisted breeding and gene cloning for PMR and fruit-related traits.

Atmospheric and surface ocean temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula region have increased by a few degrees Celsius over the last few decades, and they are the most rapid changes recorded in the Southern Hemisphere during this time period (Cook et al., 2005; Meredith and King, 2005). Associated with this ongoing warming are ice-sheet breakup, iceberg calving, and subsequent iceberg grounding that are accompanied by the release of acoustic energy into the Southern Ocean. Although much attention has been given to the increasing anthropogenic contributions to ocean noise, which may be as much as 12 dB over the last few decades (Hildebrand, 2009), the sounds created by ice breakup at the poles may represent an under­appreciated, yet significant, natural contribution to the ocean noise budget.

Authenticated key exchange protocols are of fundamental importance in securing communications and are now extensively deployed for use in various real-world network applications. In this work, we reveal major previously unpublished security vulnerabilities in the password-based authenticated three-party key exchange protocol according to Lee and Hwang (2010): (1) the Lee-Hwang protocol is susceptible to a man-in-the-middle attack and thus fails to achieve implicit key authentication; (2) the protocol cannot protect clients’ passwords against an offline dictionary attack; and (3) the indistinguishability-based security of the protocol can be easily broken even in the presence of a passive adversary. We also propose an improved password-based authenticated three-party key exchange protocol that addresses the security vulnerabilities identified in the Lee-Hwang protocol.

Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is an economically important crop with added nutritional value. Production of capsaicin is an important quantitative trait with high environmental variance, so the development of markers regulating capsaicinoid accumulation is important for pepper breeding programs. In this study, we performed association mapping at the gene level to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with capsaicin pathway metabolites in a diverse Capsicum annuum collection during two seasons. The genes Pun1, CCR, KAS and HCT were sequenced and matched with the whole-genome sequence draft of pepper to identify SNP locations and for further characterization. The identified SNPs for each gene underwent candidate gene association mapping. Association mapping results revealed Pun1 as a key regulator of major metabolites in the capsaicin pathway mainly affecting capsaicinoids and precursors for acyl moieties of capsaicinoids. Six different SNPs in the promoter sequence of Pun1 were found associated with capsaicin in plants from both seasons. Our results support that CCR is an important control point for the flux of p-coumaric acid to specific biosynthesis pathways. KAS was found to regulate the major precursors for acyl moieties of capsaicinoids and may play a key role in capsaicinoid production. Candidate gene association mapping of Pun1 suggested that the accumulation of capsaicinoids depends on the expression of Pun1, as revealed by the most important associated SNPs found in the promoter region of Pun1.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs approximately 21 nt in length which play important roles in regulating gene expression in plants. Although many miRNA studies have focused on a few model plants, miRNAs and their target genes remain largely unknown in hot pepper (Capsicum annuum), one of the most important crops cultivated worldwide. Here, we employed high-throughput sequencing technology to identify miRNAs in pepper extensively from 10 different libraries, including leaf, stem, root, flower, and six developmental stage fruits. Based on a bioinformatics pipeline, we successfully identified 29 and 35 families of conserved and novel miRNAs, respectively. Northern blot analysis was used to validate further the expression of representative miRNAs and to analyze their tissue-specific or developmental stage-specific expression patterns. Moreover, we computationally predicted miRNA targets, many of which were experimentally confirmed using 5' rapid amplification of cDNA ends analysis. One of the validated novel targets of miR-396 was a domain rearranged methyltransferase, the major de novo methylation enzyme, involved in RNA-directed DNA methylation in plants. This work provides the first reliable draft of the pepper miRNA transcriptome. It offers an expanded picture of pepper miRNAs in relation to other plants, providing a basis for understanding the functional roles of miRNAs in pepper.