Genotype x culture media interaction effects on regeneration response of three indica rice cultivars

Interactive effects of genotypes with callus induction and regeneration media combinations on green plantlet regeneration response were studied for three indica rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars, IR-72, IR-54 and Karnal Local. Isolated mature-embryoswere used to derive scutellar callus and fifteen media combinations involvingMS, N6, R2, SK1 and some modifications were tested. Regeneration percentage as well as the shoot-bud induction frequency were influenced by genotype, callus induction medium, regeneration medium, interaction between genotype and the two media (callus induction and regeneration) as well the interaction between the callus induction medium and regeneration medium. Basal media combination of SK1m (callusing) and MS (regeneration) was found to be the best for cv. Karnal Local in which regeneration frequency of 88% and shoot-bud induction of 233% was observed. In IR-72, the highest regeneration frequency of 47.5% and shoot-bud induction frequency of 77% was obtained on MS-MS combination. In IR-54, highest regeneration frequency (25%) was recorded on MMS(N)-MMS(N) combination, whereas, highest frequency of shoot-bud induction (50%) was observed on MMS(S)-MS combination. Although genotype and the composition of the callus induction basal medium were the major determinants of regeneration response, an overall analysis of variation also revealed a significant interaction between the media used for de-differentiation (callusing) and re-differentiation (plantlet regeneration)

CT and X-Ray analysis of sagittal curve changes following thoracoscopic anterior scoliosis surgery

Normal thoracic kyphosis Cobb angle for T5-T12 is most commonly reported as a range of 20-40º [1]. Patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) exhibit a reduced thoracic kyphosis or hypokyphosis [2] accompanying the coronal and rotary distortion components. As a result, surgical restoration of the thoracic kyphosis while maintaining lumbar lordosis and overall sagittal balance is a critical aspect of achieving good clinical outcomes in AIS patients. Previous studies report an increase in thoracic kyphosis after anterior surgical approaches [3] and a flattening of sagittal contours following posterior approaches [4]. Difficulties with measuring sagittal parameters on radiographs are avoided with reformatted sagittal CT reconstructions due to the superior endplate clarity afforded by this imaging modality and are the subject of analysis in this study.

Pore formation during dehydration of polycrystalline gypsum observed and quantified in a time-series synchrotron radiation based X-ray micro-tomography experiment

We conducted an in-situ X-ray micro-computed tomography heating experiment at the Advanced Photon Source (USA) to dehydrate an unconfined 2.3 mm diameter cylinder of Volterra Gypsum. We used a purpose-built X-ray transparent furnace to heat the sample to 388 K for a total of 310 min to acquire a three-dimensional time-series tomography dataset comprising nine time steps. The voxel size of 2.2 μm3 proved sufficient to pinpoint reaction initiation and the organization of drainage architecture in space and time. We observed that dehydration commences across a narrow front, which propagates from the margins to the centre of the sample in more than four hours. The advance of this front can be fitted with a square-root function, implying that the initiation of the reaction in the sample can be described as a diffusion process. Novel parallelized computer codes allow quantifying the geometry of the porosity and the drainage architecture from the very large tomographic datasets (20483 voxels) in unprecedented detail. We determined position, volume, shape and orientation of each resolvable pore and tracked these properties over the duration of the experiment. We found that the pore-size distribution follows a power law. Pores tend to be anisotropic but rarely crack-shaped and have a preferred orientation, likely controlled by a pre-existing fabric in the sample. With on-going dehydration, pores coalesce into a single interconnected pore cluster that is connected to the surface of the sample cylinder and provides an effective drainage pathway. Our observations can be summarized in a model in which gypsum is stabilized by thermal expansion stresses and locally increased pore fluid pressures until the dehydration front approaches to within about 100 μm. Then, the internal stresses are released and dehydration happens efficiently, resulting in new pore space. Pressure release, the production of pores and the advance of the front are coupled in a feedback loop.

Binder effect on microstructure and properties of YBa2Cu3O7-x extruded wires

YBa2Cu3O7-x wires have been extruded with 2 and 5 wt.% of hydroxy propyl methylcellulose (HPMC) as binder. Both sets of wires sintered below 930°C have equiaxed grains while the wires sintered above this temperature have elongated grains. In the temperature range which gives equiaxed grains, the wires extruded with 5 wt.% HPMC have higher grain size and density. Cracks along the grain boundaries are often observed in the wires having elongated grains. Critical current density, Jc, increases initially, reaches a peak and then decreases with the sintering temperature. The sintering temperature giving a peak in Jc strongly depends on the heat treatment scheme for the wires extruded with 5 wt.% HPMC. TEM studies show that defective layers are formed along grain boundaries for the wires extruded with 5 wt.% HPMC after 5 h oxygenation. After 55 h oxygenation, the defective layers become more localised and grain boundaries adopt an overall cleaner appearance. Densification with equiaxed grains and clean grain boundaries produces the highest Jc's for polycrystalline YBa2Cu3O7 wires.

Melt-textured YBa2Cu3O7-x wires having plate-like grains

YBCO wires which consist of well oriented plate-like fine grains are fabricated using a moving furnace to achieve higher mechanical strength. Melt-texturing experiments have been undertaken on YBCO wires with two different compositions: YBa1.5Cu2.9O7-x, and YBa1.8Cu3.0O7-x. Wires are extruded from a mixture of precursor powders (formed by a coprecipitation process) then textured by firing in a moving furnace. Size of secondary phases such as barium cuprate and copper oxide, and overall composition of the sample affect the orientation of the fine grains. At zero magnetic field, the YBa1.5Cu2.9O7-x wire shows the highest critical current density of 1,450 Acm-2 and 8,770 Acm-2 at 77K and 4.2K, respectively. At 1 T, critical current densities of 30 Acm-2 and 200 Acm-2, respectively, are obtained at 77K and 4.2K. Magnetisation curves are also obtained for one sample to evaluate critical current density using the Bean model. Analysis of the microstructure indicates that the starting composition of the green body significantly affects the achievement of grain alignment via melt-texturing processes.

Progress towards slip-casting YBa2Cu3O7-x monoliths

Sintered bars of YBa2Cu3O7-x obtained by slip-casting are investigated for drying and sintering behaviour. High J(cm) values (approximate to 10(6) A/cm(2) at 77K) are obtained, although J(ct) values are low (approximate to 10(2) A/cm(2) at 77K). Microstructural characterisation is undertaken on selected samples which demonstrate significant differences in physical density and critical current density.

The formation of YBa2Cu3O7-x in melt-texture heat treatments

A study of the bulk formation of YBa2Cu3O7-x from the Y2BaCuO5 plus liquid regime reveals that phase formation occurs at appreciable rates below 950°C in air. This result has been observed for phase-pure YBa2Cu3O7-x starting material given two types of heat treatment: held at 1100°C and slow-cooled from 1030°C at 6°C/h or heat-treated isothermally. Differential thermal analysis, with a cooling rate of 10°C/min indicates that the degree of undercooling for the peritectic formation of YBa2Cu3O7-x is greater than 100°C. © 1994.

The extrusion of continuous lengths of YBa2Cu3O7-x wire using hydroxypropyl methylcellulose

Wires of YBa2Cu3O7-x were fabricated by extrusion using a hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) binder. As little as 2 wt.% binder was added to an oxide prepared by a novel co-precipitation process, to produce a plastic mass which readily gave continuous extrusion of long lengths of wire in a reproducible fashion. Critical temperatures of 92K were obtained for wires given optimum high-temperature heat treatments. Critical current densities greater than 1000 A cm-1 were measured at 77.3K using heat treatments at around 910°C for 10h. These transport critical current densities, measured on centimeter-long wires, were obtained with microstructures showing a relatively dense and uniform distribution of randomly oriented, small YBa2Cu3O7-x grains. © 1993.

Transmission X-ray microscopy : a new tool in clay mineral floccules characterization

Effective flocculation and dewatering of mineral processing streams containing clays are microstructure dependent in clay-water systems. Initial clay flocculation is crucial in the design and for the development of a new methodology of gas exploitation. Microstructural engineering of clay aggregates using covalent cations and Keggin macromolecules have been monitored using the new state of the art Transmission X-ray Microscope (TXM) with 60 nm tomography resolution installed in a Taiwanese synchrotron. The 3-D reconstructions from TXM images show complex aggregation structures in montmorillonite aqueous suspensions after treatment with Na+, Ca2+ and Al13 Keggin macromolecules. Na-montmorillonite displays elongated, parallel, well-orientated and closed-void cellular networks, 0.5–3 μm in diameter. After treatment by covalent cations, the coagulated structure displays much smaller, randomly orientated and openly connected cells, 300–600 nm in diameter. The average distances measured between montmorillonite sheets was around 450 nm, which is less than half of the cell dimension measured in Na-montmorillonite. The most dramatic structural changes were observed after treatment by Al13 Keggin; aggregates then became arranged in compacted domains of a 300 nm average diameter composed of thick face-to-face oriented sheets, which forms porous aggregates with larger intra-aggregate open and connected voids.

Early-mid Cretaceous tectonic evolution of eastern Gondwana : from silicic LIP magmatism to continental rupture

The Early–mid Cretaceous marks the confluence of three major continental-scale events in eastern Gondwana: (1) the emplacement of a Silicic Large Igneous Province (LIP) near the continental margin; (2) the volcaniclastic fill, transgression and regression of a major epicontinental seaway developed over at least a quarter of the Australian continent; and (3) epeirogenic uplift, exhumation and continental rupturing culminating in the opening of the Tasman Basin c. 84 Ma. The Whitsunday Silicic LIP event had widespread impact, producing both substantial extrusive volumes of dominantly silicic pyroclastic material and coeval first-cycle volcanogenic sediment that accumulated within many eastern Australian sedimentary basins, and principally in the Great Australian Basin system (>2 Mkm3 combined volume). The final pulse of volcanism and volcanogenic sedimentation at c. 105–95 Ma coincided with epicontinental seaway regression, which shows a lack of correspondence with the global sea-level curve, and alternatively records a wider, continental-scale effect of volcanism and rift tectonism. Widespread igneous underplating related to this LIP event is evident from high paleogeothermal gradients and regional hydrothermal fluid flow detectable in the shallow crust and over a broad region. Enhanced CO2 fluxing through sedimentary basins also records indirectly, large-scale, LIP-related mafic underplating. A discrete episode of rapid crustal cooling and exhumation began c. 100–90 Ma along the length of the eastern Australian margin, related to an enhanced phase of continental rifting that was largely amagmatic, and probably a switch from wide–more narrow rift modes. Along-margin variations in detachment fault architecture produced narrow (SE Australia) and wide continental margins with marginal, submerged continental plateaux (NE Australia). Long-lived NE-trending cross-orogen lineaments controlled the switch from narrow to wide continental margin geometries.

Improved estimates of percolation and anisotropic permeability from 3-D X-ray microtomography using stochastic analyses and visualization

X-ray microtomography (micro-CT) with micron resolution enables new ways of characterizing microstructures and opens pathways for forward calculations of multiscale rock properties. A quantitative characterization of the microstructure is the first step in this challenge. We developed a new approach to extract scale-dependent characteristics of porosity, percolation, and anisotropic permeability from 3-D microstructural models of rocks. The Hoshen-Kopelman algorithm of percolation theory is employed for a standard percolation analysis. The anisotropy of permeability is calculated by means of the star volume distribution approach. The local porosity distribution and local percolation probability are obtained by using the local porosity theory. Additionally, the local anisotropy distribution is defined and analyzed through two empirical probability density functions, the isotropy index and the elongation index. For such a high-resolution data set, the typical data sizes of the CT images are on the order of gigabytes to tens of gigabytes; thus an extremely large number of calculations are required. To resolve this large memory problem parallelization in OpenMP was used to optimally harness the shared memory infrastructure on cache coherent Non-Uniform Memory Access architecture machines such as the iVEC SGI Altix 3700Bx2 Supercomputer. We see adequate visualization of the results as an important element in this first pioneering study.

Reconstructing 3D x-ray CT images of polymer gel dosimeters using the zero-scan method

In this study x-ray CT has been used to produce a 3D image of an irradiated PAGAT gel sample, with noise-reduction achieved using the ‘zero-scan’ method. The gel was repeatedly CT scanned and a linear fit to the varying Hounsfield unit of each pixel in the 3D volume was evaluated across the repeated scans, allowing a zero-scan extrapolation of the image to be obtained. To minimise heating of the CT scanner’s x-ray tube, this study used a large slice thickness (1 cm), to provide image slices across the irradiated region of the gel, and a relatively small number of CT scans (63), to extrapolate the zero-scan image. The resulting set of transverse images shows reduced noise compared to images from the initial CT scan of the gel, without being degraded by the additional radiation dose delivered to the gel during the repeated scanning. The full, 3D image of the gel has a low spatial resolution in the longitudinal direction, due to the selected scan parameters. Nonetheless, important features of the dose distribution are apparent in the 3D x-ray CT scan of the gel. The results of this study demonstrate that the zero-scan extrapolation method can be applied to the reconstruction of multiple x-ray CT slices, to provide useful 2D and 3D images of irradiated dosimetry gels.

Unique X-linked familial FSGS with co-segregating heart block disorder is associated with a mutation in the NXF5 gene

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is the consequence of a disease process that attacks the kidney's filtering system, causing serious scarring. More than half of FSGS patients develop chronic kidney failure within 10 years, ultimately requiring dialysis or renal transplantation. There are currently several genes known to cause the hereditary forms of FSGS (ACTN4, TRPC6, CD2AP, INF2, MYO1E and NPHS2). This study involves a large, unique, multigenerational Australian pedigree in which FSGS co-segregates with progressive heart block with apparent X-linked recessive inheritance. Through a classical combined approach of linkage and haplotype analysis, we identified a 21.19 cM interval implicated on the X chromosome. We then used a whole exome sequencing approach to identify two mutated genes, NXF5 and ALG13, which are located within this linkage interval. The two mutations NXF5-R113W and ALG13-T141L segregated perfectly with the disease phenotype in the pedigree and were not found in a large healthy control cohort. Analysis using bioinformatics tools predicted the R113W mutation in the NXF5 gene to be deleterious and cellular studies support a role in the stability and localization of the protein suggesting a causative role of this mutation in these co-morbid disorders. Further studies are now required to determine the functional consequence of these novel mutations to development of FSGS and heart block in this pedigree and to determine whether these mutations have implications for more common forms of these diseases in the general population.