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Aims: Increasing evidence indicates that plant responses to ions (uptake/transport, inhibition, and alleviation of inhibition) are dependent upon ion activities at the outer surface of root-cell plasma membranes (PMs) rather than activities in the bulk-phase rooting medium. Methods: A web-accessible computer program was written to calculate the electrical potential ( ψ) at the outer surface of root-cell PMs ( ψ). From these values of ψ, activities of ion I with charge Z ({ I}) can be calculated for the outer surface of the PM ({ I}). In addition, ψ and { I} in the Donnan phase of the cell walls ( ψ and { I}) can be calculated. Results: By reanalysing published data, we illustrate how this computer program can assist in the investigation of plant-ion interactions. For example, we demonstrate that in saline solutions, both Ca deficiency and Na uptake are more closely related to {Ca} and {Na} than to {Ca} and {Na} (activities in the bulk-phase media). Additional examples are given for Zn and P nutrition, Ni toxicity, and arsenate uptake. Conclusions: The computer program presented here should assist others to develop an electrostatic view of plant-ion interactions and to re-evaluate some commonly-held views regarding mechanisms of ion transport, toxicity, competition among ions, and other phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a technical difficulty to calculate the hydrodynamic parameters when autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) carries some complex shape appendages (equipment). The general hydrodynamics simulation software CFX and the SST turbulence model were used to calculate the hydrodynamics of AUV with CTD and GPS/Beidou antennas, obtain the AUV hydrodynamic variation of three models and analyze the influence of different appendages on the hydrodynamics of AUV. The results show that the horizontal of AUV with appendages is asymmetric, the pressure and speed change rapidly at the appendages, resulting in the great change of AUV hydrodynamic parameters and the flow field. The numerical results pro- vide a reference frame for the engineering design of AUV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exothermic question of lithium/thionyl chloride battery will affect the efficiency of battery compartment of underwater vehicle, and may cause serious safety problems. Thus, the thermal process in battery compartment is analyzed by using CFD. Its mathematical and physical models are established by using coupled fluid-solid heat transfer method, and the temperature contours and temperature-time curves are simulated by adopting FLUENT 6.2 software. Also, they are tested experimentally. The test results indicate that the temperature contours and temperature-time curves inside the battery compartment are mainly relevant to the discharging current of ER48660 lithium/thionyl chloride battery and the heat conductivity of media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is insufficiently powerful to compute multi-view images at a high enough frame or data rate to support high quality dynamic three-dimensional displays with the current computer software and hardware. According to the correspondence between lens position and elemental image, a real-time computer-generated content generation method for integral imaging based on cross perspective is presented. A GPU-driven rendering pipeline (GDRP) with geometry instancing and instance culling technique is designed, and the number of triangles processed in the rasterization stage is reduced greatly. Several virtual dynamic scenes including various materials and millions of vertices are used to verify the performance of the GDRP method in the experiment. Experimental results show that the frame rate can reach 60 fps with 3840 × 2160 resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Cytoscape is a popular bioinformatics package for biological network visualization and data integration. Version 2.8 introduces two powerful new features—Custom Node Graphics and Attribute Equations—which can be used jointly to greatly enhance Cytoscape's data integration and visualization capabilities. Custom Node Graphics allow an image to be projected onto a node, including images generated dynamically or at remote locations. Attribute Equations provide Cytoscape with spreadsheet-like functionality in which the value of an attribute is computed dynamically as a function of other attributes and network properties.Availability and implementation: Cytoscape is a desktop Java application released under the Library Gnu Public License (LGPL). Binary install bundles and source code for Cytoscape 2.8 are available for download from http://cytoscape.org.Contact: msmoot@ucsd.edu [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the current through conjugated aromatic molecular transistors modulated by a transverse field. The self-consistent calculation is realized with density function theory through the standard quantum chemistry software Gaussian03 and the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism. The calculated I - V curves controlled by the transverse field present the characteristics of different organic molecular transistors, the transverse field effect of which is improved by the substitutions of nitrogen atoms or fluorine atoms. On the other hand, the asymmetry of molecular configurations to the axis connecting two sulfur atoms is in favor of realizing the transverse field modulation. Suitably designed conjugated aromatic molecular transistors possess different I - V characteristics, some of them are similar to those of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET). Some of the calculated molecular devices may work as elements in graphene electronics. Our results present the richness and flexibility of molecular transistors, which describe the colorful prospect of next generation devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]