2012年

轉譯在延長階段所做的調控

高中生物課本內對於轉譯機制所舉的例子,通常僅侷限於轉譯起始階段(initiation)所受的調控,例如色胺酸調控組。因此,我們想藉此研究更進一步探討:細胞在不同階段是否有調控轉譯的現象。我們利用冷光蛋白測定法(luciferase reporter assay)測出CPEB3的確對於轉譯有減緩的效果,並利用不同internal ribosome entry site(IRES)間接證明轉譯速率的變化主要是根據延長階段的不同而有所改變。另一方面,我們將多組CPEB3突變株進行交叉分析,找出cpeb3序列中兩百多個鹼基對的重要基因片段,並發現其為不連續的基因,且用Co-Immunoprecipitation(Co-IP)驗證我們的實驗結果。未來,我們將繼續探討在延長階段抑制的意義,以助於我們進一步了解細胞轉譯的過程。

Adapted prematurity in Cuscuta campestris

平原菟絲子(Cuscuta campestris)處在不穩定或養份不足的環境中,吸器(haustorium)的生成個數會明顯減少,並加速開花結果的速率。不同於其他植物的早熟,平原菟絲子早熟時會產生自我寄生(self - parasitism),且結空穗機率明顯較低,顯示其對於不穩定環境的耐受度提高,並提升子代存活機率,稱之為適應性早熟(adapted prematurity)。相對於一般寄生,自我寄生吸器生成時間較一般寄生長,吸器大小並無顯著差異,然而吸器數量較少,且較為深入宿主。起初推論自我寄生為演化中的缺陷,這樣造成其無節制的寄生,對生存有害。但是經過長期的觀察之後,發現其生長狀況並無受到影響,而是週遭環境不穩定,所促使暫時分解自體本身的養分,以度過考驗。

The discovery of America

1.- Purpose of the research This Game is a new education system, where we take as reference a historical event called "The Discovery of America." The objective is to implement a new way of teaching materials using the technology developed in recent decades, where the teacher uses a modern and educational support to keep the mind of the student in ongoing activity; this will allow greater retention which gives result better understanding and more knowledge. The system is designed to model how to teach with the versatility of being a teacher to provide knowledge through a book because it contains the text outlined and summarized the history and examination by the implementation of questions that offer 4 possible answers and answering incorrectly restart the game, it forces the player to pay attention and remember information. 2. Procedures It divided the two-step strategy: 1. Define the game. The player is asked to bring the features of the game. It must recognize three: a) The technical aspects, allowing the appropriation of technological language and sometimes the understanding of the technology used to play is essential for future acquisitions; b) the commercial tab: identify which company developed the game, age or classification suggested, price, where purchased, country of origin, etc.., a review of the business tab allows to point out habits, and c) a description of the game, review of the plot, characters, history, objectives, modality, gender (role, simulation, strategy, battle, etc..) duration, etc.. This category allows the recognition of recreational preferences of the subject. 2. Thinking the game. Before, during or after the game the subject must think what you do to win or how the game unfolds. Contrary to what seems, while playing one thinks and sometimes thinks that performing other tasks and this time it is the player or the viewer understand the way it works and identify the physical or mental is used to play, trying to understand what I do but most of all how I do it, it is metacognition. 3. Data This prototype is structured in RSS: stands for Ruby Scripting System: System with Ruby Scripting for games. Object-Oriented programming "OOP" is a model used by the most programming languages, that lets you use objects and their relationships to program what will be the final application. In order to expand its use were included languages spoken in America and expanded platform for different operating systems. 4. Conclusions With this fun game is a simple way to learn the story in time, the environment and the circumstances where the player is the student of our system that shapes the teacher, book review, making it a modern and practical way to teach with the advantage of keeping the mind active during the use of our game, this allows the continued interest in the student normally lost in conventional classes.

海鱺血清濃度對海鱺鰭細胞成長的影響

本文以動物細胞培養方法探討培養基中添加海鱺血清(CS)來培養海鱺鰭細胞株(CF-2)的可行性。發現CF-2單層細胞培養在L15-10/0 (L15 添加10% FBS)、L15-5/5 (L15添加5%FBS及5%CS)、L15-2.5/7.5、L15-0/0、L15-0/1.25、L15-0/2.5、L15-0/5、L15-0/10及L15-0/20等培養基6天後,其細胞數分別為最初的4.16、10.8、12、0.97、4.9、5.64、8.14、11.36及9.72倍。細胞接種於L15-0/0、L15-0/1、L15-0/2、L15-0/4、L15-0/8及L15-0/16等培養基24小時後,其附著率則分別為23.1%、96.9%、94.8%、93%、84.5%及39.5%。 CF-2繼代後直接培養在28℃,L15-0/2培養基中,細胞附著及成長良好,5-6天後再以1對2進行繼代。目前已在L15-0/2培養基中培養12代以上,命名為CF-2cs。在1%-16%海鱺血清濃度下,其增殖能力隨濃度增加而增加。培養在pH 7.6、pH 7.3、 pH7.0及pH 6. 7 的L15-0/2培養基中發現pH7.0為其生長最適酸鹼度。CF-2cs對嘉蠟魚虹彩病毒(RSIV),文蛤呼腸病毒(HCRV)及淋巴囊腫瘤病毒(LCDV)等三種魚類病毒具有感受性。以90%L15-0/2及10%DMSO超低溫冷凍保存CF-2cs,解凍後細胞附著及生長良好並在2-3天後長成單層。此外,L15-0/2也可直接用來培養RGB及RSS兩種源自於玳瑁石斑及銀紋笛鯛的初代細胞。這些結果顯示海鱺血清可完全取代胎牛血清來培養魚類細胞。

Generalized Quantum Tic-Tac-Toe

Early physicists such as Newton thought that all objects have definite positions. For example, they thought that an apple is either inside a fruit bowl, or outside of it. The advent of quantum physics in the early 20th century proved this viewpoint wrong. There is an uncertainty in the position of any object; we can find a set of possible locations where the object might be. This concept was termed superposition. Quantum tic-tac-toe (QT3) elegantly extends the popular game of tic-tac-toe by adding this quantum physics concept of superposition. Each turn, 1 piece is simultaneously played into 2 distinct squares of a 3-by-3 grid. Eventually, however, every piece will occupy exactly one square, like in tic-tac-toe. Yet, despite this intriguing addition, not much research has been done on the game. Hence in this paper we explore the game in terms of extension, analysis and solution. Firstly, we note that the quantum extension proposed by Alan Goff in QT3 is incomplete. In reality, there can be more than 2 possible locations for any object. Unfortunately, the QT3 game rules do not allow for this extension. Thus we non-trivially generalize the game (GQT3) by proposing a new set of rules. We show that the original QT3 is a subset of GQT3 and prove that our generalized game can always be successfully played from start to finish in a finite number of moves. Then, we begin our analysis of GQT3. Firstly, we investigate the game tree complexity, state space complexity and computational complexity of the game; indicators of how complicated the game is. Notably, we find here that QT3 has a total of about 18 trillion possible games, which is substantially higher than tic-tac-toe’s 400 thousand. Then we examine the Nash Equilibrium of the game; the result if two ‘Gods’ play the game against each other. We find that in this scenario, the first player will win by 0.5 points. To make the game fairer, we suggest minor variations on the scoring, which make the Nash Equilibrium a draw. Note that standard methods to analyze all of these would take at least a year, but we bring down the time to about a minute using symmetry considerations and other optimizations. Finally, we extend our programs into an artificial intelligence that is a perfect solution to the game. We then supplement this with a utility function to make the run-time performance pragmatic for more time-consuming versions of GQT3. Ultimately, GQT3 is a challenging and unique game with myriads of exploration possibilities; we have only scratched the surface here.

智慧型日光燈節能系統

本研究以增進日光燈管使用效率為目標,設計出一套整合型的系統以減少不必要的浪費。我們將感知用的硬體設備與自行開發的軟體程式作結合,使系統能夠在感知到日光燈管的各種狀態後,做出相對應的處置。其狀況包含:1.無電時系統會警告,以避免誤判的情形;2.有電時燈管正常運作;3.有電時燈管閃爍或不亮,此時系統會切斷日光燈管的電力,並記錄資訊。以上述系統為基礎,我們搭配紅外線模組來達到有人在才開燈,無人時自動斷電;亦加入偵測環境用的光敏電阻來達到光線暗時才開燈,光線亮時會自動斷電。依據測試,閃爍的燈管會比正常燈管多消耗30%的耗電量,壞掉不亮的燈管亦會消耗正常燈管70%的耗電量,對能源越來越少的今天,我們的系統提供了另一種節能的機制。

Free Dome

In the future, energy supply is the most serious problem to our society due to the shortage of fossil fuel. We should try to save energy as much as we can in different aspects in order to maintain the sustainable development of our society. According to the statistic report of electrical end uses 2008, showing that Space conditioning and Lighting shared 27% and 12% of the total electricity supply respectively. We design this “Free-Dome” to provide the individual users unique spaces for their work or entertainment where the lighting and temperature are easily and freely controllable. As a result, we may save lots of energy by reducing the lighting and space conditioning to the unnecessary area or public area.

A study to find out suitable colour to control pests of chilli plants using a colour trap

Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) is one of the most important condiment crops in Sri Lanka. The main constrain in chilli cultivation is the Leaf Curl Complex (LCC) which reduces the quality of the pods as well as the yield. Many researches have been proven that the problem can be controlled by Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices. Colour sticky trap is one of the mechanical methods in the IPM package which reduces the pest population successfully. Mainly three colours, namely blue, yellow and white have been identified as suitable colours for traps all over the world. This study was thus, conducted to find out the most effective colour for sticky traps to control chilli leaf curl complex in the Intermediate Zone of Sri Lanka. Traps were prepared from wooden plates of 30 x 25cm in size and the colours were applied in both sides of the plate. Both colourless and odorless vaseline was used as the sticky substance. These blue, yellow and white sticky wooden plates (traps) were fixed in 1m height from the ground level and they were used as the treatments. Six pots with 2 plants each of the variety ‘KA-2’ were used in a treatment and three replicates were sited for the experiment. All the agronomic practices were equally done for all the treatments. Number of trapped pests associated with the LCC was counted in 4, 6, 9 and 12 weeks after transplanting. The number of leaves affected by the pests in a canopy was counted in 7, 10 and 12 weeks after transplanting. The number of damaged green pods and the pod weight were taken at harvesting. The mean values of the number of pests trapped in white, yellow and blue colour traps were 162, 160 and 38 respectively. The percentages of damaged leaves in a canopy at 7, 10 and 12 weeks after transplanting in the blue trap were 89.07, 98.00 and 100.00 respectively. Those values in the white trap were 87.37, 98.90 and 93.29 and in the yellow trap were 69.03, 87.26 and 82.26. Percentages of damaged green pod weight in the blue, yellow and white treatments were 66.63, 47.06 and 45.65 respectively. These results suggest that yellow and white colours are more effective in sticky traps in pest controlling to control chilli leaf curl complex in the Intermediate Zone of Sri Lanka. Further studies are required to confirm the results.

Do SAT Problems Have Boiling Points?

The Boolean Satisfiability problem, called SAT for short, is the problem of determining if a set of constraints involving Boolean (True/False) variables can be simultaneously satisfied. SAT solvers have become an integral part in many computations that involve making choices subject to constraints, such as scheduling software, chip design, decision making for robots (and even Sudoku!). Given their practical applications, one question is when SAT problems become hard to solve. The problem difficulty depends on the constrainedness of the SAT instance, which is defined as the ratio of the number of constraints to the number of variables. Research in the early 90’s showed that SAT problems are easy to solve both when the constrainedness is low and when it is high, abruptly transitioning (“boiling over” ) from easy to hard in a very narrow region in the middle. My project is aimed at verifying this surprising finding. I wrote a basic SAT solver in Python and used it to solve a large number of randomly generated 3SAT problems with given level of constrainedness. My experimental results showed that the percentage of problems with satisfying assignment transitions sharply from 100% to 0% as constrainedness varies between 4 and 5. Right at this point, the time taken to solve the problems peaks sharply. Similar behavior also holds for 2SAT and 4SAT. Thus, SAT problems do seem to exhibit phase transition behavior; my experimental data supported my hypothesis.

Synthesis and Characterization of Niobium Nitride Nanowires

This project aims to explore the potential of inexpensive in-situ deposition of niobium nitride nanowires to improve electrical conductivity. Transition metal nitrides are well known for attributes such as superconductivity, high melting point, simple structure as well as excellent electrical and thermal conductivities. In particular, niobium nitride possesses exceptional hardness and high reflectivity, as well as being a stable field emitter, making it well suited to applications as a cold cathode material. Niobium nitrides are formed by the uptake of nitrogen by niobium. This is achieved by the exothermic formation of an interstitial solid solution of nitrogen atoms in the bcc lattice of the niobium. Existing research has established the possibility of preparing niobium nitride by heating niobium in nitrogen or ammonia over a range of temperatures, by heating niobium pentaoxide and carbon in the presence of nitrogen as well as by chemical vapor deposition of other niobium compounds, nitrogen or hydrogen. For the purpose of this study, a two-step process was used for synthesis. The benefits of a two-step process over direct ammonolysis are apparent, from the greater degree of freedom pertaining to parameter determination. Additionally, characterization of niobium pentaoxide nanowires synthesize under similar conditions is also made possible by terminating the reaction earlier. NbN nanowires were synthesized by annealing niobium pentaoxide nanowires at 850 oC for 2 hours. Subsequent characterization was done using Raman Spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The presence of NbN nanowires via the conversion of Nb2O5 was ascertained by the absence of sharp peaks at 1000 cm-1 for Raman Spectroscopy and XRD plots. Field emission (FE) properties and electrical properties of NbN nanowires were then measured. NbN nanowires were found to have a high turn-on voltage, stable and relatively good field emission characteristics, demonstrating its potential as a cold cathode material. No current saturation was observed for an applied electric field of 0 to 6.0 V/ μm (5). This suggests a low degree of contact resistance for nanowires produced by this method of annealing, since the passage of electrons is not obstructed. Hence there will only be a small voltage drop between the SiO2 substrate and NbN nanowires. Samples containing NbN nanowires were dislodged by ultrasound to form an aqueous suspension of nanowires. A drop of suspension was dripped onto gold-finger substrates, and current-voltage (I-V) measurements of resultant nanowire bridges were taken. NbN nanowire bridges display Ohmic properties, in comparison with Nb2O5 nanowires that are semiconducting. Nanowire bridges obtained by heat-drying were denser and had better electrical properties than those obtained by evaporation to dryness. NbN nanowire bridges display Ohmic properties, in comparison with Nb2O5 nanowires that are semiconducting. Further work would include varying the cooling processes to observe any changes or deformation. Additionally, niobium nitride nanowires can be hybridized with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). A more in-depth comparison between niobium oxide and niobium nitride nanowires is also proposed, along with exploration of the nitrification of other transition metals.