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Red radish (Raphanus sativus L.) cultivars are a rich source of health-promoting anthocyanins and are considered a potential source of natural colorants used in the cosmetic industry. However, the development of red radish cultivars via conventional breeding is very difficult, given the unusual inheritance of the anthocyanin accumulation trait in radishes. Therefore, molecular markers linked with radish color are needed to facilitate radish breeding. Here, we characterized the RsTT8 gene isolated from four radish genotypes with different skin and flesh colors. Sequence analysis of RsTT8 revealed a large number of polymorphisms, including insertion/deletions (InDels), single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and simple sequence repeats (SSRs), between the red-fleshed and white-fleshed radish cultivars. To develop molecular markers on the basis of these polymorphisms for discriminating between radish genotypes with different colored flesh tissues, we designed four primer sets specific to the RsTT8 promoter, InDel, SSR, and WD40/acidic domain (WD/AD), and tested these primers on a diverse collection of radish lines. Except for the SSR-specific primer set, all primer sets successfully discriminated between red-fleshed and white-fleshed radish lines. Thus, we developed three molecular markers that can be efficiently used for breeding red-fleshed radish cultivars.

Vertebrates rely on the most sophisticated adaptive immunity to defend themselves against various pathogens. This includes immunologic memory cells, which mount a stronger and more effective immune response against an antigen after its first encounter. Unlike vertebrates, invertebrates' defense completely depends on the innate immunity mechanisms including humoral and cell-mediated immunity. Furthermore, the invertebrate equivalent of the memory cells was discovered only recently. Since the discovery of transgenerational immune priming (TGIP) in crustaceans, numerous findings have proven the IP in invertebrate classes such as insects. TGIP can be induced through maternal priming pathways such as transcriptional regulation of antimicrobial peptides, and also paternal IP including the induction of proPO system activity. We appraise the diversity and specificity of IP agents to provide sustained immunologic memory in insects, particularly T. molitor in the review. An understanding of IP (more so TGIP) response in T. molitor will deepen our knowledge of invertebrate immunity, and boost the mass-rearing industry by reducing pathogen infection rates.

For sustainable crop cultivation in the face of global warming, it is important to unravel the genetic mechanisms underlying plant adaptation to a warming climate and apply this information to breeding. Thermomorphogenesis and ambient temperature signaling pathways have been well studied in model plants, but little information is available for vegetable crops. Here, we investigated genes responsive to warming conditions from two Brassica rapa inbred lines with different geographic origins: subtropical (Kenshin) and temperate (Chiifu). Genes in Gene Ontology categories &ldquo, response to heat&rdquo, &ldquo, heat acclimation&rdquo, response to light intensity&rdquo, response to oxidative stress&rdquo, and &ldquo, response to temperature stimulus&rdquo, were upregulated under warming treatment in both lines, but genes involved in &ldquo, response to auxin stimulus&rdquo, were upregulated only in Kenshin under both warming and minor-warming conditions. We identified 16 putative high temperature (HT) adaptation-related genes, including 10 heat-shock response genes, 2 transcription factor genes, 1 splicing factor gene, and 3 others. BrPIF4, BrROF2, and BrMPSR1 are candidate genes that might function in HT adaptation. Auxin response, alternative splicing of BrHSFA2, and heat shock memory appear to be indispensable for HT adaptation in B. rapa. These results lay the foundation for molecular breeding and marker development to improve warming tolerance in B. rapa.

Location awareness is an important part of many ubiquitous computing systems, but a perfect location system does not exist yet. Among many location tracking systems, we choose the radio frequency identification (RFID) system due to its various applications. However, the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) signals are too sensitive to the direction of the RFID reader's antenna, the orientation of the RFID tag, human interference, and the diversity of propagation media that might be present. As a result, the direct use of a conventional particle filter does not provide satisfactory tracking performance. To overcome this problem, we suggest a dual layer particle filter, where the lower layer determines the tag's location in the block level using a triangulation technique or the support vector machine (SVM) classifier, and the upper layer accurately estimates the tag's location using the conventional particle filter within the pre-computed or classified block. This layered structure improves the location estimation and the tracking performance, because the location evidence from the lower layer effectively restricts the range of possible locations of the upper layer. We implement the proposed location tracking method using a ubiquitous RFID wireless network in an intelligent office, where several RFID readers are located in fixed locations and people or objects with active RFID tags move around the office. Extensive experiments show that the proposed location tracking method is so precise and robust that it is a good choice for person or object tracking in ubiquitous computing contexts. We also validate the usefulness of the proposed location tracking method by implementing it for a real-time people monitoring system in a noisy and complex steel mill.

A dangerous workplace like the iron production company needs a durable monitoring of workers to protect them from an critical accident. This paper concerns about a robust and accurate location tracking method using ubiquitous RFID wireless network. The sensed RSSI signals obtained from the RFID readers are very unstable in the complicated and propagation-hazard workplace like the iron production company. So, the existing particle filter can not provide a satisfactory location tracking performance. To overcome this limitation, we propose a double layered particle filter, where the lower layer classifies the block in which the tag is contained by the SVM classifier and the upper layer estimates the accurate location of tag owner by the particle filter within the classified block. This layered structure improves the location estimation and tracking performance because the evidence about the location from the lower layer makes a effective restrict on the range of possible locations of the upper layer. We implement the proposed location estimation and tracking system using the ubiquitous RFID wireless network in a noisy and complicated workplace (100m × 50m) where which 49 RFID readers and 9 gateways are located in the fixed locations and the maximally 100 workers owning active RFID tags are moving around the workplace. Many extensive experiments show that the proposed location estimation and tracking system is working well in a real-time and the position error is about 2m at maximum.