It became necessary to implement a project for the use of vegetable waste generated in the process of handling plantain cultivation, harvest and postharvest, since in Mexico at harvest large quantities of vegetable waste is produced, since only the fruit is used wasting the Pseudostem with leaves and spine. Based on this information, you can take advantage of banana fiber as raw materials in the manufacture of biodegradable sheets and support options that are feasible and possible to make alternative. This is an inexpensive process, also friendly with the environment, so that thousands of banana plants that bear fruit after they become sterile and are discarded without realizing their Pseudostem.

在種子萌發的階段，光會造成幼苗的形態變化，稱為光形態發生(photomorphogenesis)。然而microRNA (miRNA) 如何影響光形態發生，一直未被詳細探討。藉由次世代定序 (Next Generation Sequencing)之結果分析，得知阿拉伯芥 (Arabidopsis thaliana) 幼苗中，具有受光調控的miRNA。利用北方墨點法 (northern blotting) 及即時聚合酶鏈鎖反應 (Real-Time PCR) ，我們驗證了miRNA和其降解目標之相關性。在篩選過後選得miR396s和miR858s，作為後續研究的目標。下一步便是了解他們的功能。目前已經證明miRNA及對應目標基因的突變株確實會影響花青素、葉綠素累積，下胚軸延長及子葉發育。考量到miRNA有功能性的替代物 (functional redundancy) ，我們於是進行標的序列模擬(target mimicry) ，以削減miRNA之功能；也在建立大量表現上述miRNA之轉殖株，了解其與光形態發生之關聯。最終目標為解開miR396與miR858對光形態發生的調控機制。

My purpose of the Research was build a small, compact device for the GoPro, which minimizes shocks that are typically caused by running and makes the video stable. The device must fit into a backpack and must be designed for the GoPro. This scenario raised two central questions for me: Which laws of physics are used for the stabilization of the camera? How can those laws of physics constructively be transformed into a working device? I have built four prototypes. To know which prototype was the best, I compared them and gained data into diagrams. The result with the last prototype was very impressive and encouraging, whether your are walking, running or skiing, the videos were no longer shaky. My final prototype consisted of a hollow tube which extended vertically. My conclusions: First the handheld camera mount mustn't be too light, as the inertia of the device is too low. Second it mustn't be too heavy, because you normally have to hold it over a certain time interval. Inertia as well as lever principal were essential to produce a smooth video. The most difficult part to build was the fully gimbaled suspension because it requires as little friction as possible and it must be precise and solid.

本研究主要探討塔粉綠尺蛾食草選擇與其葉內真菌之關係。觀察培養四種植物（烏臼、鵝掌柴、白匏子與島榕）葉內真菌，以真菌生長、菌絲與孢子形態辨識真菌種類。當我們以烏臼葉內間座殼菌屬（Diaporthe sp.）真菌與不同植物放在一起時，幼蟲有取食原為非食草的白匏子葉片，而島榕則有嘗試啃食之現象；此外，飼養過程中我們發現取食烏臼的塔粉綠尺蛾幼蟲糞便較其他種幼蟲易長出真菌，進行幼蟲糞便與消化道真菌培養後，皆有與葉內真菌相似的菌體形態。我們推測烏臼、葉內真菌與塔粉綠尺蛾間的交互作用關係之一可能為：烏臼透過葉內真菌誘使塔粉綠尺蛾雌蛾前往產卵，經幼蟲食用葉片後所排出之糞便以作為葉內真菌傳播的媒介。

When predicting a hurricane’s landfall location, small improvements in accuracy result in large savings of lives, property, and money. The project’s purpose was to apply a breakthrough method that can predict the geographic location of a hurricane’s landfall with high accuracy. Researchers have known for a long time that there are strong correlations between a hurricane’s landfall location and the geographic regions its track passes through. However, no methods have been developed to mathematically and explicitly describe these correlations. Consequently, the correlations can only serve to meteorologists as vague guidelines for their guestimates and are not usable in making practical forecasts. By studying the correlations and performing numerical optimization on historical hurricane data, this research discovered a set of geographic belt regions in the Gulf of Mexico that can be used as landfall location predictors. When a hurricane passes through any one of these belt lines, a prediction can be made by extending the hurricane’s moving direction vector towards land – the intersection point of this extension line with the coastline is the predicted landfall location. This prediction method is simple and straightforward. It only uses basic measurements from meteorological satellites: the hurricane’s real-time locations and moving directions. In conclusion, when compared to existing methods, the predictive belt method (PBM) created in this research provides a landfall location forecast with higher accuracy. Verification with historical hurricane data demonstrated that the PBM’s average error is less than 50% of the National Hurricane Center models’ error.

Lead is a toxic element which is used in the production of chemicals, dyes, accumulators and various industrial areas. It may cause complications even extended to death when it is taken consistently in high amounts. Lead poisoning is in the first place among the occupational diseases. It is gaining importance to develop new and sensitive methods for lead analysis. Because lead poisoning can progress without any symptoms and poisoning level (10µg/dL) is low. Disadvantages of the systems used for lead analysis are such as longer detection time, being expensive and difficult to implement. The aim of this project is to develop a new generation method in order to detect lead in blood, based on aptamer modified gold nanoparticles. We detected the lead in terms of color change obtained in gold nanoparticle solutions, with composite biochemosensor that is prepared with 20 & 80 nm sized gold nanoparticles and TBA(Thrombin Binding Aptamer). While immobilizing TBA to the gold nanoparticles, we benefitted from the magnificent surface affinity of the –SH (Thiol) groups that modified to the TBA. Gold nanoparticles that are used in development of our biotechnological method do not stimulate the immune system. The preparation of aptamers in completely sterile medium provides us to use our system in the lead detection of blood. Our method can also be used in the lead detection of mediums such as waste water, food and soil. We have developed a biochemosensor that can be used to detect the presence and absence of Pb2+ by taking into consideration the toxic effect in the human body. Also we detected the presence of lead colorimetrically, in low concentration levels and wide interval values of 4.4 – 11 µg/dL. The developed system is first that; it provides TBA to be used with its complimentary sequence detects the presence of lead colorimetrically and can be used in physiological media such as blood. Also our system can detect lead in amounts that are lower than the poisoning threshold.

This paper presents a semi-autonomous seeding robot which is based on both electrical and mechanical platforms that perform advance agriculture process. SeedBot composed of four components: drilling mechanism, body of robot, seed container and paving mechanism. Other than those components the sensor system and the control system are also discussed. The aim of this study is designing and building a low-cost robotic system to automate and optimize process during farming especially for personal usage. This study demonstrates that semi-autonomous farming has crucial advantages over conventional farming. In addition to that, SeedBot provides safer, requires less manpower and precise farming than usual methods that we have so far.

Retinoblastoma (RB) is a childhood retinal cancer caused by mutations in the RB1 gene. Molecular diagnosis is crucial for early detection and treatment. Current DNA diagnostic screening requires substantial amounts of tumour and blood samples. However current screening methods face the challenges of limited DNA templates from minute retinal tumours and too much blood samples drawn from young patients. In addition, the starting DNA template amount and quality are important to ensure confident detection of disease-causing mutations. As the majority of RB1 mutations are unique and distributed throughout the RB1 gene with no real hot spots, the entire gene needs to be thoroughly analysed. This investigation proposes to enrich DNA samples using a whole genome amplification (WGA) step prior to RB1 mutation screening by RB1 gene-specific PCR amplification as well as high resolution melt (HRM) analysis and sequencing. It also identifies RB1 mutations in two RB patients and explores whether WGA and saliva products can be a source of DNA templates for RB1 analysis. In addition, this study was conducted based on the hypotheses that RB1 mutations were the underlying cause of the disease in the two patients, and that the products from WGA could be used specifically for RB1 gene analysis to overcome the constraint of insufficient DNA samples. Two anonymised genomic DNA samples from two unrelated RB patients and five normal healthy DNA samples were used in this project. WGA kits were compared according to three criteria, namely amplification yield, product fragment size and whether DNA is amplifiable. Prior to and after amplification, the optical density of two normal samples was measured to determine the increase in DNA yield. The amplicons were subjected to gel electrophoresis to determine the product fragment size. Exons 6, 14 and 25 of the original and amplified samples undergone PCR, and were examined again using gel electrophoresis to ascertain that the amplicons were amplifiable. Mutation analysis using HRM was carried out with pre-existing primers for all 27 exons and the promoter of RB1. Samples from patients were analysed against 83 saliva DNAs extracted using Oragene•DNA (OG-500) Kit. REPLI-g was observed to produce higher yield and products of reliable fragment size. Single distinct bands were also seen for exons amplified using REPLI-g, indicating that REPLI-g is more accurate and suitable in the amplification of DNA. Abnormal melt profiles were obtained for exon 6 in RB477 and exon 14 in RB572 for HRM. These exons were sequenced to determine the exact mutation. Exon 6 was found to have a splice-site mutation g.607+1G>T, while a point mutation, g.1363C>T (p.Arg455X) was identified in exon 14. Both the uses of saliva as a non-invasive DNA source and the WGA approach for enriching DNA sample for application in RB1 gene analysis have never been reported for RB. Although HRM analysis has been used for other diseases, this is its first instance applied in work on RB1 gene. In short, this report offers novel and promising approaches which would contribute significantly to the molecular analysis of mutations in RB.

Parameters of traffic, road availability, and fare were integrated into a web-based application for determining the best public transport routes within Metro Manila in order to assist commuters in their travel planning, whether for business or for pleasure. A user-friendly interface was developed to obtain a user’s place of origin and destination, as well as preferences in travel time, mode of transportation, and cost of journey. By accessing the traffic roadway network of the metropolis, a real-time situation of road availability was obtained, and used in a modified Dijkstra’s shortest-path algorithm to produce a model of a real-time adaptive transport network of Metro Manila. From the model, an optimal route that considers the user’s preferences can be determined. This project will be immensely useful in helping both businessmen and tourists in planning their routes that will save on time and money.

The researchers aim to construct an emergency mobile phone charging station that runs on renewable energy and will serve as a cost-efficient alternative to more traditional power banks. Circuit components include a 20V / 6W solar panel supplemented by a hand-crank gear mechanism integrated with a 6V / 1A lead-acid battery, a usb output and an adjustable switch-mode power supply (SMPS) to convert excess voltage into current. Initial voltage and current outputs were measured under varying resistances. It was determined that the set-up satisfied the minimum voltage and current requirement for charging a mobile phone (5V / 1A). A subsequent phone charging test was executed using a Samsung Galaxy J2 (3.85V Li-ion battery 7.70W, Charge Voltage: 4.4V / 2000mAh) wherein it charged on an average of 0.277% per minute for the solar panel and an average of 0.263% per minute for the hand crank gear mechanism. A Mann-Whitney U statistical test was conducted to determine if the charging rate of the charging station had a significant difference from a commercially available power bank’s. The calculated UA: (4) from the test was below the lower limit and the UB: (217) was above the upper limit which indicated that there was a significant difference between the charging rates. While the efficiency was lower than the commercial power bank’s, it can still be used as an alternative charging method especially during emergencies and disasters.

前人研究發現聖嬰南方震盪(El Niño–Southern Oscillation, ENSO)和淘氣精靈(Elves)兩者間有顯著關係，顯示淘氣精靈的變化受太平洋上ENSO影響，因此我們想探討淘氣精靈與印度洋震盪(Indian Ocean Dipole, IOD)間是否也存在相似的關聯性。一般以DMI(Dipole Mode Index)代表IOD的發生情形，研究中我們挑出2005年6月2015年11月IOD正負事件時的海溫、雨量、閃電及淘氣精靈進行比較。研究結果顯示淘氣精靈在印度洋上也有震盪的現象，且其趨勢與海溫相同，再將其與雨量變化做比較後，我們推論IOD造成的海溫變化影響了大氣，進一步影響淘氣精靈的發生。

本文記載台灣產安蛛科(Anapidae)微安蛛屬(Enielkenie)之未知種(Enielkenie sp.)。目前全世界的微安蛛屬記錄僅1屬1種，模式標本為原產高雄扇平之蟎微安蛛(Enielkenie acaroides Ono, 2006)。我們在新北市八里區利用柏氏漏斗對落葉層進行調查，發現未知種微安蛛，對雄雌標本進行描述、測量及繪圖。本種體型近似蟎微安蛛，但主要的差別為：腹部背面的筋點數目明顯多於蟎微安蛛、雄蛛觸肢腹面有一個向上突起，外雌器開口形狀，故本種可能為一未被描述的新種。人工飼養的情況下會結平面圓網，並在中央有一垂直絲，和Theridiosomatidae的網相似。