Towards manipulation of post-biosynthetic events in secondary metabolism of plant cell cultures

Plant cell cultures have been suggested as a feasible technology for the production of a myriad of plant-derived metabolites. However, commercial application of plant cell culture has met limited success with only a handful of metabolites produced at the pilot- and commercial-scales. To improve the production of secondary metabolites in plant cell cultures, efforts have been devoted predominantly to the optimization of biosynthetic pathways by both process and genetic engineering approaches. Given that secondary metabolism includes-the synthesis. metabolism and catabolism of endogenous compounds by the specialized proteins, this review intends to draw attention to the manipulation and optimization of post-biosynthetic events that follow the formation of core metabolite structures in biosynthetic pathways. These post-biosynthetic events-the chemical and enzymatic modifications, transport, storage/secretion and catabolism/degradation have been largely unexplored in the past. Potential areas are identified where further research is needed to answer fundamental questions that have implications for advanced bioprocess design. Anthocyanin production by plant cell cultures is used as a case study for this discussion, as it presents a good example of compounds for which there are extensive research publications but still no commercial bioprocess. It is perceived that research on post-biosynthetic processes may lead to future opportunities for significant advances in commercial plant cell cultures. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Modeling of Hillslope Runoff and Soil Erosion at Rainfall Events Using Cellular Automata Approach

National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China [40225004]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [40471048]

The paleoclimatic events and cause in the Okinawa Trough during 50 kaBP

Planktonic foraminiferal delta O-18 record for core DGKS9603 from the Okinawa Trough shows a series of climatic fluctuations and sudden cooling events in short time scale during 50 kaBP, which appear to correlate closely to the Younger Dryas and Heinrich events H1-5 recorded in Chinese loess, the South China Sea, the North Atlantic cores and the Greenland ice cores. Three polarity reversal events, correlating to Gothenburg, Mungo and Laschamp events, approximately correspond to Heinrich events H1, H3 and H5 respectively, which could be a cause of global climate changes. The delta O-18 curve of the Okinawa Trough is well associated with the grain size record of the Lijiayuan loess profile in northwestern China and is somewhat different from the climate fluctuations documented in the Greenland ice cores. These correlation results indicate that regional factors play an important role in controlling the climate changes in the East Asia, and the East Asian Monsoon could be the prominent regional controlling factor.

Two modes of dipole events in tropical Indian Ocean

By analyzing the distributions of subsurface temperature and the surface wind stress anomalies in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans during the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) events, two major modes of the IOD and their formation mechanisms are revealed. (1) The subsurface temperature anomaly (STA) in the tropical Indian Ocean during the IOD events can be described as a "<" -shaped and west-east-oriented dipole pattern; in the east side of the "<" pattern, a notable tongue-like STA extends westward along the equator in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean; while in the west side of the "<" pattern, the STA has opposite sign with two centers (the southern one is stronger than the northern one in intensity) being of rough symmetry about the equator in the tropical mid-western Indian Ocean. (2) The IOD events are composed of two modes, which have similar spatial pattern but different temporal variabilities due to the large scale air-sea interactions within two independent systems. The first mode of the IOD event originates from the air-sea interaction on a scale of the tropical Pacific-Indian Ocean and coexists with ENSO. The second mode originates from the air-sea interaction on a scale of the tropical Indian Ocean and is closely associated with changes in the position and intensity of the Mascarene high pressure. The strong IOD event occurs when the two modes are in phase, and the IOD event weakens or disappears when the two modes are out of phase. Besides, the IOD events are normally strong when either of the two modes is strong. (3) The IOD event is caused by the abnormal wind stress forcing over the tropical Indian Ocean, which results in vertical transports, leading to the upwelling and pileup of seawater. This is the main dynamic processes resulting in the STA. When the anomalous easterly exists over the equatorial Indian Ocean, the cold waters upwell in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean while the warm waters pileup in the tropical western Indian Ocean, hence the thermocline in the tropical Indian Ocean is shallowed in the east and deepened in the west. The off-equator component due to the Coriolis force in the equatorial area causes the upwelling of cold waters and the shallowing of the equatorial India Ocean thermocline. On the other hand, the anomalous anticyclonic circulations and their curl fields located on both sides of the equator, cause the pileup of warm waters in the central area of their curl fields and the deepening of the equatorial Indian Ocean thermocline off the equator. The above three factors lead to the occurrence of positive phase IOD events. When anomalous westerly dominates over the tropical Indian Ocean, the dynamic processes are reversed, and the negative-phase IOD event occurs.

Long-Wave Dynamics of Sea Level Variations during Indian Ocean Dipole Events

Long-wave dynamics of the interannual variations of the equatorial Indian Ocean circulation are studied using an ocean general circulation model forced by the assimilated surface winds and heat flux of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. The simulation has reproduced the sea level anomalies of the Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX)/Poseidon altimeter observations well. The equatorial Kelvin and Rossby waves decomposed from the model simulation show that western boundary reflections provide important negative feedbacks to the evolution of the upwelling currents off the Java coast during Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) events. Two downwelling Kelvin wave pulses are generated at the western boundary during IOD events: the first is reflected from the equatorial Rossby waves and the second from the off-equatorial Rossby waves in the southern Indian Ocean. The upwelling in the eastern basin during the 1997-98 IOD event is weakened by the first Kelvin wave pulse and terminated by the second. In comparison, the upwelling during the 1994 IOD event is terminated by the first Kelvin wave pulse because the southeasterly winds off the Java coast are weak at the end of 1994. The atmospheric intraseasonal forcing, which plays an important role in inducing Java upwelling during the early stage of an IOD event, is found to play a minor role in terminating the upwelling off the Java coast because the intraseasonal winds are either weak or absent during the IOD mature phase. The equatorial wave analyses suggest that the upwelling off the Java coast during IOD events is terminated primarily by western boundary reflections.

Dynamics of nonlinear error growth and season-dependent predictability of El Nino events in the Zebiak-Cane model

With the intermediate-complexity Zebiak-Cane model, we investigate the 'spring predictability barrier' (SPB) problem for El Nino events by tracing the evolution of conditional nonlinear optimal perturbation (CNOP), where CNOP is superimposed on the El Nino events and acts as the initial error with the biggest negative effect on the El Nino prediction. We show that the evolution of CNOP-type errors has obvious seasonal dependence and yields a significant SPB, with the most severe occurring in predictions made before the boreal spring in the growth phase of El Nino. The CNOP-type errors can be classified into two types: one possessing a sea-surface-temperature anomaly pattern with negative anomalies in the equatorial central-western Pacific, positive anomalies in the equatorial eastern Pacific, and a thermocline depth anomaly pattern with positive anomalies along the Equator, and another with patterns almost opposite to those of the former type. In predictions through the spring in the growth phase of El Nino, the initial error with the worst effect on the prediction tends to be the latter type of CNOP error, whereas in predictions through the spring in the decaying phase, the initial error with the biggest negative effect on the prediction is inclined to be the former type of CNOP error. Although the linear singular vector (LSV)-type errors also have patterns similar to the CNOP-type errors, they cover a more localized area than the CNOP-type errors and cause a much smaller prediction error, yielding a less significant SPB. Random errors in the initial conditions are also superimposed on El Nino events to investigate the SPB. We find that, whenever the predictions start, the random errors neither exhibit an obvious season-dependent evolution nor yield a large prediction error, and thus may not be responsible for the SPB phenomenon for El Nino events. These results suggest that the occurrence of the SPB is closely related to particular initial error patterns. The two kinds of CNOP-type error are most likely to cause a significant SPB. They have opposite signs and, consequently, opposite growth behaviours, a result which may demonstrate two dynamical mechanisms of error growth related to SPB: in one case, the errors grow in a manner similar to El Nino; in the other, the errors develop with a tendency opposite to El Nino. The two types of CNOP error may be most likely to provide the information regarding the 'sensitive area' of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) predictions. If these types of initial error exist in realistic ENSO predictions and if a target method or a data assimilation approach can filter them, the ENSO forecast skill may be improved. Copyright (C) 2009 Royal Meteorological Society

An analysis of the recent severe storm surge disaster events in China

The economic loss caused by the storm surge disasters is much higher than that caused by any other marine disaster in China, the loss from the severe storm surge disaster being the highest. Statistics show that there were 62 typhoon landings over the east-southeast coast of China since 1990, three of which, occurring in 1992, 1994 and 1997, respectively, caused the most severe damage. The direct economic losses due to these events are 9.3, 17.0 and 30 billion yuan (RMB, or about 1.7, 2.6 and 3.8 billion USD, respectively), which is much greater than the loss of 5.5 billion yuan (RMB) on an average every year during the 1989-1991 period. This paper makes a comparative analysis of the damage caused by the three events and presents an overview of progress of precautions against storm surge disaster in China. The suggested counter measures to mitigate the loss from the severe storm surge disasters in China is as follows: (1) Raise the whole society awareness of precaution against severe storm surge disaster; (2) Work out a new plan for building sea walls; (3) Improve and perfect the available warning and disaster relief command system; (4) Develop the insurance service in order to promptly mitigate the loss caused by severe storm surge disaster event.

Roles of Knowledge in Motor Learning

The goal of this thesis is to apply the computational approach to motor learning, i.e., describe the constraints that enable performance improvement with experience and also the constraints that must be satisfied by a motor learning system, describe what is being computed in order to achieve learning, and why it is being computed. The particular tasks used to assess motor learning are loaded and unloaded free arm movement, and the thesis includes work on rigid body load estimation, arm model estimation, optimal filtering for model parameter estimation, and trajectory learning from practice. Learning algorithms have been developed and implemented in the context of robot arm control. The thesis demonstrates some of the roles of knowledge in learning. Powerful generalizations can be made on the basis of knowledge of system structure, as is demonstrated in the load and arm model estimation algorithms. Improving the performance of parameter estimation algorithms used in learning involves knowledge of the measurement noise characteristics, as is shown in the derivation of optimal filters. Using trajectory errors to correct commands requires knowledge of how command errors are transformed into performance errors, i.e., an accurate model of the dynamics of the controlled system, as is demonstrated in the trajectory learning work. The performance demonstrated by the algorithms developed in this thesis should be compared with algorithms that use less knowledge, such as table based schemes to learn arm dynamics, previous single trajectory learning algorithms, and much of traditional adaptive control.

Motor Control and Learning by the State Space Model

A model is presented that deals with problems of motor control, motor learning, and sensorimotor integration. The equations of motion for a limb are parameterized and used in conjunction with a quantized, multi-dimensional memory organized by state variables. Descriptions of desired trajectories are translated into motor commands which will replicate the specified motions. The initial specification of a movement is free of information regarding the mechanics of the effector system. Learning occurs without the use of error correction when practice data are collected and analyzed.

McArdle disease: a unique study model in sports medicine

McArdle disease is arguably the paradigm of exercise intolerance in humans. This disorder is caused by inherited deficiency of myophosphorylase, the enzyme isoform that initiates glycogen breakdown in skeletal muscles. Because patients are unable to obtain energy from their muscle glycogen stores, this disease provides an interesting model of study for exercise physiologists, allowing insight to be gained into the understanding of glycogen-dependent muscle functions. Of special interest in the field of muscle physiology and sports medicine are also some specific (if not unique) characteristics of this disorder, such as the so-called 'second wind' phenomenon, the frequent exercise-induced rhabdomyolysis and myoglobinuria episodes suffered by patients (with muscle damage also occurring under basal conditions), or the early appearance of fatigue and contractures, among others. In this article we review the main pathophysiological features of this disorder leading to exercise intolerance as well as the currently available therapeutic possibilities.

Growth of Motor Coordination in Early Robot Learning

M. H. Lee and Q. Meng, Growth of Motor Coordination in Early Robot Learning, IJCAI-05, 2005.

Comparison of blinkers and explosive events: A case study

Bewsher, D., Innes, D.E., Parnell, C.E. and Brown, D.S., 2005, Comparison of blinkers and explosive events, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 432, 307. Sponsorship: PPARC

A Content-Neutral Approach for Sensory-Motor Learning in Developmental Robotics

M.H. Lee, Q. Meng and F. Chao, 'A Content-Neutral Approach for Sensory-Motor Learning in Developmental Robotics', EpiRob'06: Sixth International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics, Paris, 55-62, 2006.