Endophytic Fungi of Bitter Melon \u3ci\u3e(Momordica Charantia)\u3c/i\u3e in Guangdong Province, China

Endophytic fungi can mutualistically interact with their host plants by deterring herbivores. Overall 1172 endophytic fungal isolates were recovered from roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruits of bitter melon, Momordica charantia, at five sites in Guangdong Province. These isolates were identified to 25 genera using morphological and molecular characteristics. The endophyte communities at the five sites were similar. Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus spp., Cladosporium spp., Colletotrichum spp., Nigrospora spp., Penicillium spp., Arthrinium spp., Chaetimium spp., Curvularia spp., Fusarium spp., Phoma spp., and Phomopsis spp. were isolated from at least three of the five sites. The coefficient of similarity for endophytes ranged from 60.6% to 83.3% between any two sites. There were significant differences in the species composition of endophytes recovered from different tissues of bitter melon. Fusarium spp. was the most frequent in root and stem samples, Colletotrichum spp. in leaf samples, A. alternata in flower samples, and Cladosporium spp. in fruit samples. The coefficients of similarity for endophytes were between 42.9% and 80.0% from any two tissues. We found that the composition of endophytes of bitter melon was relatively stable across sites, but differed greatly among tissues. We also found that there were fewer insects such as aphids (Homoptera: Aphididae), leafminers (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae), and cotton leafworms Spodoptera litura (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) collected from the leaves of bitter melon at the Huadu site compared to those collected at the Yunfu site. Whether this is related to the endophyte communities isolated from different sites requires further research

Hybrid mesons from anisotropic lattice QCD with the clover and improved gauge actions

We study hybrid mesons from the clover and improved gauge actions at $\beta=2.6$ on the anisotropic $12^3\times36$ lattice using our PC cluster. We estimate the mass of $1^{-+}$ light quark hybrid as well as the mass of the charmonium hybrid. The improvement of both quark and gluonic actions, first applied to the hybrid mesons, is shown to be more efficient in reducing the lattice spacing and finite volume errors.Comment: Lattice2002 (spectrum

Elevated expression of human bHLH factor ATOH7 accelerates cell cycle progression of progenitors and enhances production of avian retinal ganglion cells.

The production of vertebrate retinal projection neurons, retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), is regulated by cell-intrinsic determinants and cell-to-cell signaling events. The basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein Atoh7 is a key neurogenic transcription factor required for RGC development. Here, we investigate whether manipulating human ATOH7 expression among uncommitted progenitors can promote RGC fate specification and thus be used as a strategy to enhance RGC genesis. Using the chicken retina as a model, we show that cell autonomous expression of ATOH7 is sufficient to induce precocious RGC formation and expansion of the neurogenic territory. ATOH7 overexpression among neurogenic progenitors significantly enhances RGC production at the expense of reducing the progenitor pool. Furthermore, forced expression of ATOH7 leads to a minor increase of cone photoreceptors. We provide evidence that elevating ATOH7 levels accelerates cell cycle progression from S to M phase and promotes cell cycle exit. We also show that ATOH7-induced ectopic RGCs often exhibit aberrant axonal projection patterns and are correlated with increased cell death during the period of retinotectal connections. These results demonstrate the high potency of human ATOH7 in promoting early retinogenesis and specifying the RGC differentiation program, thus providing insight for manipulating RGC production from stem cell-derived retinal organoids

Stabilization of positive switched systems with time-varying delays under asynchronous switching

This paper investigates the state feedback stabilization problem for a class of positive switched systems with time-varying delays under asynchronous switching in the frameworks of continuous-time and discrete-time dynamics. The so-called asynchronous switching means that the switches between the candidate controllers and system modes are asynchronous. By constructing an appropriate co-positive type Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and further allowing the functional to increase during the running time of active subsystems, sufficient conditions are provided to guarantee the exponential stability of the resulting closed-loop systems, and the corresponding controller gain matrices and admissible switching signals are presented. Finally, two illustrative examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods

Exotic mesons from quantum chromodynamics with improved gluon and quark actions on the anisotropic lattice

Hybrid (exotic) mesons, which are important predictions of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), are states of quarks and anti-quarks bound by excited gluons. First principle lattice study of such states would help us understand the role of ``dynamical'' color in low energy QCD and provide valuable information for experimental search for these new particles. In this paper, we apply both improved gluon and quark actions to the hybrid mesons, which might be much more efficient than the previous works in reducing lattice spacing error and finite volume effect. Quenched simulations were done at $\beta=2.6$ and on a $\xi=3$ anisotropic $12^3\times36$ lattice using our PC cluster. We obtain $2013 \pm 26 \pm 71$ MeV for the mass of the $1^{-+}$ hybrid meson ${\bar q}qg$ in the light quark sector, and $4369 \pm 37 \pm 99$Mev in the charm quark sector; the mass splitting between the $1^{-+}$ hybrid meson ${\bar c}c g$ in the charm quark sector and the spin averaged S-wave charmonium mass is estimated to be $1302 \pm 37 \pm 99$ MeV. As a byproduct, we obtain $1438 \pm 32 \pm 57$ MeV for the mass of a P-wave $1^{++}$ ${\bar u}u$ or ${\bar d}d$ meson and $1499 \pm 28 \pm 65$ MeV for the mass of a P-wave $1^{++}$ ${\bar s}s$ meson, which are comparable to their experimental value 1426 MeV for the $f_1(1420)$ meson. The first error is statistical, and the second one is systematical. The mixing of the hybrid meson with a four quark state is also discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. Published versio

The effect of planet-planet scattering on the survival of exomoons

Compared to the giant planets in the solar system, exoplanets have many remarkable properties such as the prevalence of giant planets on eccentric orbits and the presence of hot Jupiters. Planet-planet scattering (PPS) between giant planets is a possible mechanism in interpreting above and other observed properties. If the observed giant planet architectures are indeed the outcomes of PPS, such drastic dynamical process must affect their primordial moon systems. In this Letter, we discuss the effect of the PPS on the survival of their regular moons. From the viewpoint of observations, some preliminary conclusions are drawn from the simulations. 1. PPS is a destructive process to the moon systems, single planets on eccentric orbits are not the ideal moon-search targets. 2. If hot Jupiters formed through PPS, their original moons have little chance to survive. 3. Planets in multiple systems with small eccentricities are more likely holding their primordial moons. 4. Compared to the lower-mass planets, the massive ones in multiple systems may not be the preferred moon-search targets if the system underwent a PPS history.Comment: published at ApJ

Low-lying states in 30^{30}Mg: a beyond relativistic mean-field investigation

The recently developed model of three-dimensional angular momentum projection plus generator coordinate method on top of triaxial relativistic mean-field states has been applied to study the low-lying states of $^{30}$Mg. The effects of triaxiality on the low-energy spectra and E0 and E2 transitions are examined.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, talk presented at the 17th nuclear physics conference "Marie and Pierre Curie" Kazimierz Dolny, 22-26th September 2010, Polan

A national government’s tourism innovation initiatives: A review of tourism development policies in Norway

Innovation in tourism has becoming increasingly important to create destination competitiveness. There is however poor understanding of the national government’s initiatives and role in tourism innovation. This study has reviewed tourism development policies in Norway using content analysis. The result indicates that the government recognises the importance of innovation in tourism and innovation is also encouraged. Nevertheless, through the three significant themes including network and collaboration, innovation in SMEs, and funding and support it has been revealed that government initiatives in developing an innovative tourism industry are not entirely new. In addition, the government may also be playing a too passive role as many of the innovation initiatives are emphasised as the responsibility of the private sector. Further studies which consider policies as well as perspectives of both Government officials and industry representatives or operators are needed in order to further understand government’s role in tourism innovation