Rice blast disease is caused by the ascomycete fungus Magnaporthe oryzae and is of economic importance worldwide, due to its wide geographical distribution and the severe yield losses it causes on cultivated rice. Understanding the population structure of M. oryzae is key to sustainable management of blast disease. In this study, a total of 290 M. oryzae isolates were collected from rice growing regions in Kenya including Central Kenya (Mwea irrigation scheme), Western Kenya (Ahero and Maugo irrigation schemes in Ahero and Homa-Bay respectively) and Coastal Kenya (Kwale). Initially, I undertook genotyping of a subset of Kenyan isolates by DNA sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS 1 and ITS 2) of the rRNA-encoding gene unit and by DNA fingerprinting using the Pot2 repetitive DNA element. Phylogenetic analyses based on ITS sequences clustered together isolates from Western and Coastal Kenya which were distinct from Central Kenya isolates. Cluster analysis based on 80% DNA fingerprint similarity, identified five clonal lineages designated KL1, KL2, KL3, KL4 and KL5 with most isolates belonging to lineages KL2, KL3, KL4. The clustering of isolates was region specific with Western and Coastal isolates closely related to each other and distinct from Central Kenya isolates. Distribution of mating type gene loci (MAT1.1 and MAT1.2) was determined using mating type gene specific primers. My results indicate that MAT1.1 is the predominant mating type and is distributed in all the rice growing regions of Kenya. MAT1.2 isolates were identified only in Coastal Kenya. I further undertook high throughput next-generation DNA sequencing of the genomes of 27 M. oryzae isolates from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Benin, Togo, Nigeria and Burkina Faso and compared them to other sequenced strains from China, India, USA, Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Japan, France and French Guiana. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) indicated that majority of East African isolates of M. oryzae clustered separately from West African isolates. African isolates clustered with isolates from India and China, indicating that rice blast in SSA may have originated from Asia. Pathotype analysis of Kenyan isolates was undertaken using a set of monogenic differential rice varieties, collectively harbouring 24 disease resistance genes. Rice blast resistance gene Pi-z5 conferred resistance to all the isolates tested. Other resistance genes that conferred resistance to majority of isolates tested include Pi-9, Pi-12(t), Pi-ta, Pi-ta2 and Pi-z. These resistance genes are suitable candidates for introgressing into commercially grown varieties in Kenya in combinations. I also investigated the population of M. oryzae isolates to identify cognate avirulence gene loci, including novel genes not yet reported. Finally, I evaluated rice varieties grown in Kenya for resistance to indigenous rice blast isolates under laboratory conditions. Rice variety Basmati 370 was susceptible to rice blast with varieties IR2793-80-1, BW 196, NERICA 1, NERICA 4, NERICA 10, and NERICA 11 showing some disease resistance. Varieties ITA 310 and Duorado Precoce were moderately tolerant to rice blast. This information is being used to develop a durable blast resistance strategy in sub-Saharan Africa.

Resumo: Esta dissertação analisou a viabilidade técnica de gaseificação de lama de alto de alto forno da ArcelorMittal Tubarão para produção de gás visando uma utilização interna. A gaseificação foi conduzida através de simulação em modelo de equilíbrio químico TCW - Termochemical Information and Equlibrium Calculation. Foram simuladas 3 misturas para gaseificação: a) 100% carvão metalúrgico de alto volátil (base das misturas), b) de lama de alto forno com 85% de carvão metalúrgico alto volátil e c) de lama de alto forno com 75% de carvão metalúrgico alto volátil. Os dois parâmetros principais que definiram a viabilidade técnica de gaseificação de lama de alto forno foram poder calorífico inferior - PCI e faixas de trabalho temperaturas no reator. O PCI do gás foi calculado a partir das frações molares de H2 e CO contidas no gás obtidos nas misturas simuladas / Abstract: This dissertation analyzed the technical viability of blast furnace slurry gasification with the objective of using the obtained gas at ArcelorMittal Tubarão. The process was simulated using an equilibrium program, the TCW - Termochemical Information and Equilibrium Calculation. Three mixtures were considered for gasification: a) 100% high volatile metallurgical coal (the base of the mixtures), b) 15% slurry and 85% coal, and c) 25% slurry and 25% coal. The two main parameters that defined the technical viability of the blast furnace slurry were the mixture Low Heat Value (LHV) and the temperature ranges for work in the gasification reactor. The LHV was calculated from the molar fractions of H2 and CO in the gas obtained in the simulation / Orientador: João Andrade de Carvalho Junior / Coorientador: Sergio Leite Lopes / Banca: Luiz Roberto Carrocci / Mestre

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An explosion is characterized as a sudden release of large energy over a very short duration. As the blast wave travels parallel to a surface, it creates a side-on pressure and when it hits a surface perpendicularly or at an angle, it creates a reflected pressure. Side-on pressure and reflected pressure are much higher than service loads for the structure. Thus, when a blast happens near a building that is not designed to withstand blast loads, it can cause catastrophic damage. The objective of this study is to present a formulation for the design optimization of framed steel structures subjected to blast loads. Also, a formulation is presented for the design optimization of structures that can withstand some possible damage due to blast loads. To this end, an optimization procedure that includes definitions of design variables, cost function, constraints, and structural analyses is discussed. The design variables for beams and columns are the discrete values of the W-shapes selected from American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) tables. The optimization problem is to minimize the total structural weight subjected to AISC strength requirements and blast design displacement constraints. Linear static, linear dynamic, and nonlinear dynamic analyses are incorporated in the optimization process and optimum designs are compared. Due to design variables and some constraints discontinuity, gradient-based optimization algorithms cannot be used to solve the optimization problem. Therefore, metaheuristic algorithms are used that require only simulation results to solve problems with discrete variables and non-differentiable functions. Since the number of simulations and robustness to obtain good designs are important for the class of problems discussed in this research, a new hybrid optimization algorithm based on Harmony Search (HS) and Colliding Bodies Optimization (CBO) is developed and examined. The algorithm is named Hybrid Harmony Search - Colliding Bodies Optimization (HHC). Also, a novel design domain reduction technique is incorporated in HHC. Some benchmark discrete variable structural design problems are used to evaluate HHC. In comparison with some popular metaheuristic optimization algorithms, HHC is shown to be robust, effective, and needs fewer structural analyses to obtain the best designs. Depending on the size of the structure to be designed, optimization of structures that require linear or nonlinear dynamic analyses using metaheuristic algorithms can be computationally expensive because these types of algorithms need large number of simulations to reach good designs. Equivalent Static Loads (ESL) approach, which has been used for optimization of structural systems subjected to dynamic loads using gradient-based algorithms, is examined for optimization of structures that have discrete design variables using metaheuristic algorithms. The proposed approach is named global optimization with equivalent static loads (GOESL). Solution of four numerical examples shows that GOESL can drastically reduce the number of dynamic analyses needed to reach the best design compared to an algorithm without the ESL approach. However, the ESL step alone cannot converge to the best design for the current formulation, even with many ESL cycles. Therefore, after a few ESL cycles, the procedure may switch to the original algorithm without the ESL cycles to improve designs further. HHC and GOESL are used to solve three-dimensional framed steel structures subjected to blast loads with linear and nonlinear dynamic analyses as separate solution cases. The source of the blast loads is a car carrying 250 lbs of Trinitrotoluene (TNT) with 50 ft standoff distance from the front face of a 4-bay x 4-bay x 3-story building. Optimum designs of the structure to withstand blast loads show that penalty on the optimum structural weight is substantial when linear dynamic analysis is used. With nonlinear dynamic analysis, the penalty on the structural weight is substantially reduced. When the stiffness of the walls is included in the analysis model, there is very little penalty on the optimum structural weight with linear or nonlinear dynamic analysis models. The best designs obtained with the linear and nonlinear dynamic analysis models are checked for some possible damages due to a blast. Two types of damage conditions are defined: (i) complete removal of some key members from the analysis model, and (ii) reduction of stiffness of some members. It is shown that the best designs using linear or nonlinear dynamic analyses can withstand all damage conditions. Thus, resilience of the designs to withstand blast loads is observed.

<p>Totally 84 differentially expressed mRNA clones from infective L3 larvae of the parasite <em>Haemonchus contortus</em>, a blood sucking nematode,<em> </em>were analyzed with single strand hybridization assay (SSH). Altogether 79 clones were sequenced, edited, and compared with proteins found via BLAST in GeneBank. The aim was to investigate gene expression and potential protein expression following storage at 5 °C for 32 weeks. mRNA was extracted from fresh and stored L3. The SSH derived products were cloned into <em>E. coli,</em> purified and sequenced with Big Dye Terminator v3.1, and then compared with uploaded sequences in GeneBank. BLAST showed 59 (70 %) reliable protein results, where 39 (66 %) were of nematode origin.. Three sequences (4 %) were recognized as <em>H. contortus</em>-related metabolic proteins. Further research is necessary to elucidate the role of these proteins in relation to storage<em>. </em>Many of the sequences (36 %) are also present in other nematodes, such as <em>Caenorhabditis briggsae </em>and <em>C. elegans,</em> where whole-genome projects have been conducted. Bigger and more accurate databases need to be developed. Maybe the most significant future project is to sequence the whole genome of <em>H. contortus</em>.</p>

Totally 84 differentially expressed mRNA clones from infective L3 larvae of the parasite Haemonchus contortus, a blood sucking nematode, were analyzed with single strand hybridization assay (SSH). Altogether 79 clones were sequenced, edited, and compared with proteins found via BLAST in GeneBank. The aim was to investigate gene expression and potential protein expression following storage at 5 °C for 32 weeks. mRNA was extracted from fresh and stored L3. The SSH derived products were cloned into E. coli, purified and sequenced with Big Dye Terminator v3.1, and then compared with uploaded sequences in GeneBank. BLAST showed 59 (70 %) reliable protein results, where 39 (66 %) were of nematode origin.. Three sequences (4 %) were recognized as H. contortus-related metabolic proteins. Further research is necessary to elucidate the role of these proteins in relation to storage. Many of the sequences (36 %) are also present in other nematodes, such as Caenorhabditis briggsae and C. elegans, where whole-genome projects have been conducted. Bigger and more accurate databases need to be developed. Maybe the most significant future project is to sequence the whole genome of H. contortus.

The blast furnace is still the dominant form of iron production, but over the years, direct reduction methods have increased due to a number of reasons. Overall, iron production methods have optimal requirements with respect to the feed materials especially iron ore. In this study, tests were carried out on Muko iron ore from Uganda to analyse its suitability to meet the feed requirements of today's dominant iron production methods. More specifically, the Tumbler, Abrasion, and Shatter Indices of the ore were determined. In addition, porosity, thermoanalysis, and reducibility tests were performed. Overall, the Muko ore was found to have good mechanical properties exemplified with tumble and shatter index data &gt;89.0 wt% and &lt;2.5 wt%, respectively. Furthermore, its reducibility at 0.87%/min is within the acceptable range as a natural material feed for blast furnace and direct reduction furnaces. Also, the energy requirement for heating the ore to 1100°C was found to be higher in the samples containing a wider size range of irregular grains and the largest contaminations. In summary, it is concluded that the Muko iron ore has good physical and metallurgical properties to serve as a natural material for the blast furnace and direct reduction furnaces. / <p>QC 20130531</p> / Sustainable Technology Development in the Lake Victoria Region

The problem of functional annotation of novel sequences has been a sigfinicant issue for many laboratories that decided to apply next generation sequencing techniques to less studied species. In particular experiments such as transcriptome analysis heavily suer from this problem due to the impossibility of ascribing their results in a relevant biological context. Several tools have been proposed to solve this problem through homology annotation transfer. The principle behind this strategy is that homologous genes share common functions in dierent organisms, and therefore annotations are transferable between these genes. Commonly, BLAST reports are used to identify a suitable homologousgene in a well annotated species and the annotation is then transferred fromthe homologue to the novel sequence. Not all homologues, however, possess valid functional annotations. The aim of this project was to devise an algorithm to process BLAST reports and provide a criterion to discriminate between homologues with a biologically informative and uninformative annotation, respectively. In addition, all data obtained from the BLAST report isto be stored in a relational database for ease of consultation and visualization. In order to test the solidity of the system, we utilized 750 novel sequences obtained through application of next generation sequencing techniques to Avena sativa samples. This species particularly suits our needs as it represents the typical target for homology annotation transfer: lack of a reference genome and diculty in attributing functional annotation. The system was able to perform all the required tasks. Comparisons between best hits asdetermined by BLAST and best hits as determined by the algorithm showed a significant increase in the biological significance of the results when thealgorithm sorting system was applied.

The main objective of this dissertation is to present the structural design, performance evaluation, and complexity reduction of iterative joint channel estimation and data detection receivers. One of the main technical challenges in advanced wireless communications stems from the characteristics of a wireless channel, e.g., time selectivity of a channel, mobility of users, and multipath propagation. Channel estimation is essential for achieving reliable information transmission for practical wireless communication applications. Numerous channel estimation structures have been developed for different underlying channels using pilot-symbol assisted modulation (PSAM) approaches. However, since pilot symbols carry no data information, the time and the power spent on pilot symbols degrades the efficiency and the throughput of the system. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize the pilot insertion ratio without degrading the error performance. This motivates our research on iterative joint channel estimation and data detection receivers with full- and reduced- or low-complexity. In this thesis, we first propose an iterative channel estimator (ICE), based on a maximum a posteriori (MAP) algorithm, for single-carrier systems with PSAM structures. In contrast to existing MAP channel estimators, the proposed channel estimator has a lower computational complexity, which increases linearly with the modulation alphabet size. The computational complexity is reduced by exploiting a survivor in an efficient manner, while achieving comparable error performance to a full complexity receiver. For orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, we also propose novel signal constellations to facilitate channel estimation without pilot symbol transmission, and analyze the bit error rate for the proposed constellations. We also develop a suitable joint channel estimation and data detector with full- and low-complexity for the proposed constellations. This low-complexity ICE achieves an error performance comparable to the ICE with full-complexity. Finally, for vertical Bell Laboratories layered space-time OFDM systems, we propose an ICE based on a PSAM structure for time-varying multipath fading channels. By exploiting the statistical properties of a wireless channel, we also develop a method to suppress intercarrier interference due to the channel time selectivity, and propose a low-complexity ICE that exploits a priori information in an efficient manner.

Thanks to the booming of China and eastern Europe demanding, the world steel annual production soaring from 0.75 billion tons in 1990 to 1.239 billion tons in 2006, the percentage of top 10 steel company is 28.43% of the world production and it is a history record. It looks like raw material industrial like steel makers are shinning. Nevertheless, due to merge of the steel industry and final product customer of local market were shifting to the China market, threaten are increasing. Therefore, to find out how China Steel gains more competition through her resource integration becomes main reason of this research. In Blast Furnace steel making, the co-relationship between upstream and downstream is highly cohesive, China Steel has started to set up her Process computer system since 1979. The main function of the Process computer is to receive production order from ERP system and download the receipt to the low level controller through its built in model; During production, the Process computer also track the material from semi-product to the final product, A Quality evaluation system in every Process computer system also helping the production supervisor to make sure the quality of the outlet. To leverage the thirty years Process computer know-how becomes main search of this essay. Through survey of Dragon steel¡BChung-Hung Info Steel and Inform-Champ corporation to study their current status of the system¡Borganization and requirement, list all the demanding and possible solution as an information base, then use RBV to analysis these demanding. This research will based on the process computer know-how center of the CSC Process control computer shop to establish a new process to contribute the following ¡§Rent¡¨ in CSC group: (1). To readjust the data flow of CSC Process control computer shop based on the competition acknowledge survey of all the team members in this shop. (2) To support Chung-Hung Steel for his revamping and new process control computer system. (3) To support Dragon steel to establish his own maintenance system and to handle the new project of the Dragon Steel to minimize the project organization manpower. (4) To establish a common platform of spare parts and an integrated purchasing system to minimize the stock of spare parts and to meet the economic scale on purchasing. (5) To establish a model research center in China steel as a CSC Group model ware. (6) To assist ICSC to set-up his total solution capability of process computer technology