Pollen-free Bio engineered Plants for Allergic People

If you are allergic to airborne substances especially to pollen but love to grow plants in your house, this is good news for you!

In a collaborative project between the Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas (IBMCP) and BIOMIVA S.L. (Spain) modified genes were injected to pelargonium plants which are now one of the most popular garden and house plants around the world. One gene was bioengineered to selectively destroy pollen-producing anthers consequently producing pollen-free plants. Another gene, encoding an enzyme Isopentenyl phosphotransferase (ipt) was bioengineered to increase the amount of cytokinin, a plant hormone thus preventing leaf falling or aging. 

The modified genes were carried into the plant’s genome using bacteria carriers which are able to transfer DNA between itself and the plants’.  Individual plants were then grown from the cells.

The bioengineered plants were observed to have smaller leaves and flowers with more vibrant colors compare to their natural counterparts. They are also expected to be able to survive longer because of the extra cytokinin.

One of the researchers from IBMCP, Dr Luis Cañas explained, "The ipt enzyme catalyzes the rate-limiting step for cytokinin biosynthesis in plants and consequently extra ipt, provided transgenically, produces more cytokinin and prevents the plant cells from aging. In addition, the use of an anther-specific promoter from pea driving the expression of a bacterial gene (ribonuclease), prevents the development of male progenitor cells into anthers and pollen, resulting in pollen-free flowers." 

Harvesting Water from Air: A Possible Solution to Drought

Drought is a common phenomenon in several areas of world. This is bad for the farmers as well as for us in general because the production of food is adversely affected.  The ideal solution for drought since there’s no rain is to create a source of water. And we know that air holds water when it is humid. Therefore we can get water from air. However, harvesting water from thin air sounds like a crazy idea. But a young Melbourne-based inventor was able to make the crazy idea work. 

Edward Linacre invented an equipment that actually able to do it. He was able to show that his air drop irrigation concept can produce significant amount of water through his pilot setup at the back of their house. Moreover, he was able to prove that it can also work in large scale. His work made him the winner of the James Dyson Award 2011 and he received US$14,000 as a prize as well as sponsorship for his design school faculty.

His invention seems high-tech but actually he was just able to transform an ancient cooling technique into a new sub-surface irrigation system that can be used in farms. His design only uses the simple process of condensation to harvest water from the air. He was able to make air channels through an underground network of piping that rapidly lowers the air temperature near to the soil temperature. This process creates a system of 100-percent humidity, from which water can then be harvested. The harvested water is then collected in an underground tank which can already be pumped out via sub-surface drip irrigation hosing. 

So let's hear from Edward himself how he created his awesome air drop irrigation concept.

Red Blood Cell Sedimentation Rate: A Disease Diagnosis Technique

//So here is the promised scientific journal review I made. 

The Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate

Jonathan S. Olshaker, MD, and David A. Jerrard, MD

Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Surgery, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland

Reprint Address: Jonathan S. Olshaker, MD, Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Surgery

University of Maryland Medical Center, 419 W. Redwood Street, Suite 280, Baltimore, MD 212011

Introduction:

The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) has been used in the clinical lab from predicting severity of sickness to general sickness assessment. Specifically, it measures the body’s reaction to inflammation and infection.  The concept of the ESR originated from the Greeks, who first discovered the relation between the sedimentation of red blood cells and fibrinogen. In 1918, the German scholar Fahraeus discovered that erythrocytes sedimentation in pregnant women is more rapid compare to non-pregnant women. Since then, with minor modifications, the ESR has been used in the evaluation of a variety of diseases.  

However, we don’t encounter ESR in usual clinical tests because its use is based on medical myths. This article examines the use of ESR in the medical laboratory as a tool for predicting both disease likelihood and severity.  The ESR is a measure how fast is the red blood cell aggregation and the setting of a column of erythrocytes within one hour. The standard method of measuring the ESR is based on Westergren’s technique. The test includes anticoagulated blood being diluted with sodium citrate and being placed in an upright tube, known as a Westergren tube. Then the rate at which the red blood cells fall is measured and reported in mm/h.

On the contrary, there is another method that requires no dilution which is called the Wintrobe method. It is more sensitive compare to Westerner method at normal ranges of ESR but at higher ranges this methods may give erroneous results. The article gathered results from laboratory tests in order to find out the utility of ESR in disease diagnosis.

The results give the conclusion that ESR is not a myth in disease diagnosis. It is beneficial in certain diagnosis such as septic arthritis, osteomyelitis and many others. It is helpful in classifying patients into low or high risk groups. However, ESR does not give specific disease diagnosis because it only suggests various conditions. That’s why a diagnosis is still in need of investigation regardless of ESR.

Summary of the results:

Since the journal article is more of a descriptive journal article. There are no tables or figures included in the journal. However it gathered results of disease diagnostics in relation to the erythrocyte sedimentation rate.

Low ESR usually indicated abnormal plasma protein. Monitoring ESR can also be used in the assessment of the activities of collagen vascular disease. Patients with collagen vascular disease have higher ESR.  Pregnant women normally have high ESR. Patients with cancer usually have normal ESR however when ESR do elevate, it means that metastases are present. 
Specific uses of ESR in the emergency department include the diagnosis of temporal arteritis, septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, pelvic inflammatory disease and the evaluation of intravenous drug users.

Critique of the Result

The accuracy of the data depends on the results the researchers gathered from laboratories. It did not indicate what method was actually used in obtaining lab results. It did not also tell how many are the respondents so we cannot tell if the number of surveys can represent a significant sample of the population.

Recommendations

The results could be tabulated so that it is easier to comprehend the results and compare the diagnosis. The researchers could do their own experiments on ESR so as to prove the findings. Undergraduates can also do thesis by proving the findings too and improving the methodology of the work.

How to Write a Scientific Journal Review (with sample)

Reading and writing scientific journal review is pretty much indispensible in school especially in engineering not just because it’s a requirement but also because we have to know what’s happening in the field of research and discover some topics from which we can do a thesis. Scientific journals also give us an idea of the applications of what have we been studying in school. There are a lot of sources of scientific journals both in the library and in the internet. In my school, the magazines for scientific journals from my observation are hardly updated with new ones so I read journals online instead. But of course you have look into legit sources. I recommend that you make good use of your school’s online subscriptions to journal publications. As for me, I use sciencedirect.com and springerlink.com.

Basically here is the most common format you can use in writing a scientific journal review from online publications (*note: humanities journal review have different format).

Title

Author/s

Introduction

-Gives a brief summary of all the contents of the journal article. It gives the current understanding of the problem and how the problem was solved using specific methods, experimental design, instrumentation and procedures. It also gives the brief of results and interpretation of the results.

Summary of Results

-Tables and figures are included here as well as the explanations. These are purely from the results of the journal being reviewed.

Critique of Results

-This is the part where you can now express if you are satisfied with the results of the journal article and explain why or why not. You can refer to specific tables or figures for the results. You can also criticize the methods used in solving the problem and their accuracies.

Recommendation

-You can suggest ways in order to improve the work and make the results more accurate and more precise. Other than that, you can also recommend other problems related with the article that can be addressed with research or which can be the interest of a thesis.

References

-This is optional. If you have used information from other sources in your critique and recommendation then you have to site your references.

You can access a sample of scientific journal review here.

And I will also be posting my own journal review soon. :)

GENE EXPRESSION PROGRAMMING: in solving friction factor in turbulent flow

Genetics has always amazed me ever since we have it in my high school days. The gene expression process is simple in what I remember from my bio teacher's lectures. But in reality, this process is so complex because from the genetic code stored in the DNA, it will transform series of codes into gene product in the form of proteins. Then, these proteins will in turn form the phenotype or the evident characteristics of an organism. The ingenuity of gene expression in organisms has been imitated to create the so called "gene expression programming".  The mechanism of process is the same but instead of organisms, gene expression programming produces algorithms or models that can change and adapt to a certain environment. 

GEP has the same genotype-phenotype system just like in a living organism. It depends on genomes composed of numbers which represent strings of symbols and whose symbols further represent equations (which is analogous to phenotypes). The genome can be illustrated by a binary tree from which you can trace its nodes to evaluate the equation. This is a very powerful technique in programming because you are not mapping hard values but symbols instead.  

Well, I think you have to try to use it first to create a program in order to fully understand how it works. This has been a new knowleadge for me but GEP and their use actually dates back to the 1950s where they were first used to solve optimization problems (e.g. Box 1957^[1] and Friedman 1959^[2]). But it was in 1965 when this evolutionary technique started to gained popularity.  Nowadays, GEP has already a lot of applications especially in different engineering branches.  

In the field of chemical engineering, GEP has been used to model some highfalutin empirical equations related to fluid mechanics.  One example, in hydraulic design , GEP has been used as a technique to estimate the friction factor using the Colebrook–White equation for turbulent fluid-flow.This is very important for scientific intensive computations because numerical simulations of pipe flows require the computation of the friction coefficient for each point. And in simulations of long pipes, the friction coefficient has to be solved many times. GEP makes the calculation faster and more accurate. 

The Colebrook–White equation:

*This conclusion is based from a journal I have read in science direct. The paper basically examines the potential of genetic programming based technique in estimating flow friction factor in comparison with the most currently available explicit alternatives to the Colebrook–White equation.

Plastic Pipes: Pipe Innovation

Plastic piping has been an innovation in the piping industry used for many years now. Although not all plastic pipes are suitable replacement for more traditional piping materials such as concrete or metal, plastic piping has many unique properties making it a better option over other piping materials considering other factors such as the weight of the load transported and the corrosiveness of the fluid.  

There are many instances where a plastic pipe can be a better option over a metal pipe. In the economic aspect, plastic piping is cheaper because installation is easier and it is expected to last longer since it can withstand corrosion with its smooth surface area.  Costs for purchasing thermal insulators are also avoided because plastic piping greatly reduce heat transfer due to its much lower thermal conductivity. Because it is lightweight and flexible, small plastic pipes can easily be maneuvered around making it more popular among consumers who use it in residential plumbing.

Speaking of health security, all plastic pipes sold for plumbing purposes are nontoxic and have been approved for carrying potable water. CPVC and PVC pipes don’t rust like galvanized pipes so it eliminates any rusty or metallic taste in drinking water that other pipes can leave. Since they don’t corrode and are not subjected to scaling, material build up in the inner surface is avoided. This build up, common to piping with metal materials, blocks water flow, decreases water pressure, and may cause back up in drainage. Plastic pipes allow water to flow unhindered for a long period of time.

In terms of environmental friendliness, plastic piping is better because it is odorless, non-toxic, fully recyclable, and based on scientifically conducted Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs),has “greenness” the other piping materials do not have.

Here is a video of JM Eagle, the leading manufacturer of plastic and PVC pipes highlighting their innovations.

Here is another innovation showcase in thermal pipes by Acrolab

Pumps: Ancient and Modern Times

Pipes are fundamental equipment commonly used in industrial plants. They are the ones transporting fluids or mixture of substances which are either being in the treatment process or being moved for storage or disposal. But aside from pipes, there are a lot of necessary things still needed in order to actually transport fluids.  Fluids don’t usually flow by themselves unless they are flowing down from an elevated position. Elevated source of fluids is not common in a usual industrial plant so the fluid needs something to induce its flow.

That is why pumps are also needed. Pumps force the fluid to flow into a pipe usually from a lower to a higher position. There are various kinds of pumps available nowadays. One kind is preferred according to the design requirement of a certain process where it is required. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.  But there is a continuous innovation in those that are used in the industries today aiming to improve efficiency and save as much power as possible.

Even though chemical engineering is a relatively young discipline, some unit operations and processes have been in existence way before chemical engineering was first established. For example, transporting water has been a problem that needed addressing even before industries started. And water pumps in fact have moved water from a place to another place for centuries. They remain today as invaluable tools to provide water for irrigation, drinking and cleaning. Ancient pumps took advantage of natural forces like wind or water to provide a pumping mechanism, while today's pumps tend to use electricity. However, the mechanisms behind ancient pumps are still in used today- a reason why they are considered one of the greatest inventions of the ancient world. I listed here some of the interesting pumps with their current uses.

• Shaduf (Swipe Pump) -This was the first pump which was invented in 3000 B.C. in ancient Mesopotamia. The swipe, or shaduf, pump is usually positioned right next to a riverbank. It is made with a lever pivoted on two posts placed in the ground upright. On one end of the lever a pole is placed with a bucket attached. A stone or anything that is heavy enough is attached to the other end to act as a counterweight. Water is retrieved by pushing the pole down until the bucket is filled with water, then the counterweight would help raise the bucket back up. 

• Screw Pump- The screw pump was used widely by the Egyptians in the ancient world but the great mathematician Archimedes was credited with inventing what is known in history as the Archimedean screw around 250 B.C. This was perhaps Archimedes' best known invention and often listed among the great ancient inventions because it is still in use today. This pump was made using a metal corkscrew shaped pump that drew water upward as it was rotated.

• Bucket Chain  - The bucket chain pump was invented as early as 600 B.C. It is made up of a series of buckets that passed over a pulley wheel. Historians believe the bucket chain pump irrigated the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Historians state that the gardens were built for King Nebakanezer 's wife, Amytis, who missed her hometown when she moved to Babylon. Babylon was very flat and dry, with very little rain and therefore had very little greenery. Her hometown was very mountainous so Nebakanezer had the gardens built for her so it would resemble the place where she came from. The gardens were huge and contained many types of flowers, fruit, animals, and waterfalls, which were said to have been from places all over the world. The bucket chain has been used for centuries and perhaps the earliest known hand cranked device invented. 

An artist sketch of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon