Alleviating traffic congestion is one of the main challenges for the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) in smart cities. Many congestion pricing systems have been proposed recently. However, most of them focus on punishing the vehicles that use certain roads during peak hours, neglecting the proven fact that rewards can encourage drivers to follow the rules. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a new congestion pricing system based on reward and punishment policies for the IoV in a smart city environment, where the vehicles are rewarded for voluntarily choosing to take an alternative path to alleviate traffic congestion. The proposed system is implemented using vehicular ad hoc networks, which eliminate the need for installing a costly electronic toll collection system. We propose a new virtual currency called T-Coin (traffic coin), that is used to reward the vehicles for their positive attitude. T-Coin is also used in the tender between vehicles to manage the road reservation process. The proposed system uses dynamic pricing to adapt to peak-hour traffic congestion. Using simulated traffic on a real map of Beijing city, we prove the usefulness of T-Coin as a traffic congestion pricing system.
Mungbean is an important pulse crop extensively cultivated in Southeast Asia for supply of easily digestible protein. Salinity severely limits the growth and productivity of mungbean, and weeding poses nutritional and disease constraints to mungbean cultivation. To pyramid both salt tolerance and protection against herbicide in mungbean, the AtNHX1 encoding tonoplast Na+/H+ antiporter from Arabidopsis, and bar gene associated with herbicide resistance were co-expressed through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Stress inducible expression of AtNHX1 significantly improved tolerance under salt stress to ionic, osmotic, and oxidative stresses in transgenic mungbean plants compared to the wild type (WT) plants, whereas constitutive expression of bar provided resistance to herbicide. Compared to WT, transgenic mungbean plants grew better with higher plant height, foliage, dry mass and seed yield under high salt stress (200 mM NaCl) in the greenhouse. The improved performance of transgenic plants under salt stress was associated with enhanced sequestration of Na+ in roots by vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter and limited transport of toxic Na+ to shoots, possibly by restricting Na+ influx into shoots. Transgenic plants showed better intracellular ion homeostasis, osmoregulation, reduced cell membrane damage, improved photosynthetic capacity, and transpiration rate as compared to WT when subjected to salt stress. Reduction in hydrogen peroxide and oxygen radical production indicated enhanced protection of transgenic plants to both salt- and methyl vialogen (MV)-induced oxidative stress. This study laid a firm foundation for improving mungbean yield in saline lands in Southeast Asia.
The seminal participation of WRKY transcription factors in plant development, metabolism and in the governance of defense mechanism implicated their gaining importance for genomic and functional studies. The recent release of draft genome sequences of two legume crops, Adzuki bean (Vigna angularis) and Mung bean (Vigna radiata) has paved the way for characterization of WRKY gene family in these crops. We found 84 WRKY genes in Adzuki bean (VaWRKY) and 85 WRKY genes in Mung bean (VrWRKY). Based on the phylogenetic analysis, VaWRKY genes were classified into three groups with 15 members in Group I, 56 members in Group II, and 13 members in Group III, which was comparable to VrWRKY distribution in Mung bean, 16, 56 and 13 members in Group I, II and III, respectively. The few tandem and segmental duplication events suggested that recent duplication plays no prominent role in the expansion VaWRKY and VrWRKY genes. The illustration of gene-structure and their encoded protein-domains further revealed the nature of WRKY proteins. Moreover, the identification of abiotic or biotic stress-responsive cis-regulatory elements in the promoter regions of some WRKY genes provides fundamental insights for their further implementation in stress-tolerance and genetic improvement of agronomic traits.
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