The Wavestar Wave Energy Converter (WEC) is a multiple absorber concept, consisting of 20 hemisphere shaped floats attached to a single platform. The heart of the Wavestar WEC is the Power Take-Off (PTO) system, converting the wave induced motion of the floats into a steady power output to the grid. In the present work, a PTO based on a novel discrete displacement fluid power technology is expl...

A key virulence strategy of bacterial pathogens is the delivery of multiple pathogen effector proteins into host cells during infection. The Hrp outer protein Q (HopQ1) effector from Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato (Pto) strain DC3000 is conserved across multiple bacterial plant pathogens. Here, we investigated the virulence function and host targets of HopQ1 in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Tr...

Pto is a serine/threonine kinase that mediates resistance in tomato to strains of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato expressing the (a)virulence proteins AvrPto or AvrPtoB. DNA shuffling was used as a combinatorial in vitro genetic approach to dissect the functional regions of Pto. The Pto gene was shuffled with four of its paralogs from a resistant haplotype to create a library of recombinant pro...

Plant disease resistance loci have been used successfully in breeding programs to transfer traits from resistant germplasm to susceptible plant cultivars. The molecular cloning of plant disease resistance genes now permits the transfer of such traits across species boundaries by genetic transformation of recipient hosts. The tomato disease resistance gene Pto confers resistance to strains of th...

Resistance in tomato to the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pathovar tomato requires Pto and Prf. Mutations that eliminate Prf show a loss of both Pto resistance and sensitivity to the organophosphate insecticide fenthion, suggesting that Prf controls both phenotypes. Herein, we report that the overexpression of Prf leads to enhanced resistance to a number of normally virulent bacterial...

In tomato, resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) strains expressing the avirulence gene avrPto requires the presence of at least two host genes, designated Pto and Prf. Here we report that Prf encodes a protein with leucine-zipper, nucleotide-binding, and leucine-rich repeat motifs, as are found in a number of resistance gene products from other plants. prf mutant alleles (4) were...

A new topology optimization method called the Proportional Topology Optimization (PTO) is presented. As a non-sensitivity method, PTO is simple to understand, easy to implement, and is also efficient and accurate at the same time. It is implemented into two MATLAB programs to solve the stress constrained and minimum compliance problems. Descriptions of the algorithm and computer programs are pr...

The tomato Pti4 gene encodes a transcription factor that was identified on the basis of its specific interaction with the product of the Pto disease resistance gene in a yeast two-hybrid system. We show here that the Pti4 protein specifically binds the GCC-box cis element, which is present in the promoter region of many pathogenesis-related (PR) genes. Expression of the Pti4 gene in tomato leav...

A critical characteristic of most WECs (wave energy converters) is the large peak-to-average power ratio. This poses many challenges to the design of high-efficient PTO (power take-off) systems and, even more importantly, to integrate this form of renewable energy into power grids. The OWC (oscillating water column) WECs are devices whose PTO uses an air turbine as the primary energy converter....

In recent years, the PTO, especially the biotechnology examining corps, has made great advances in improving examination, which has resulted in better relations with inventors. Moreover, there are numerous procedural improvements that greatly facilitate the patent process. Indeed, at least this commentor recognizes that in developing these Guidelines, the PTO is further attempting to improve ex...