Distribution of genetic diversity in wild European populations of prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola): implications for plant genetic resources management

Genetic variation in Lactuca serriola, the closest wild relative of cultivated lettuce, was studied across Europe from the Czech Republic to the United Kingdom, using three molecular marker systems, simple sequence repeat (SSR, microsatellites), AFLP and nucleotide-binding site (NBS) profiling. The ‘functional’ marker system NBS profiling, targeting disease resistance genes of the NBS/LRR family, did not show marked differences in genetic diversity parameters to the other systems. The autogamy of the species resulted in low observed heterozygosity and high population differentiation. Intra-population variation ranged from complete homogeneity to nearly complete heterogeneity. The highest genetic diversity was found in central Europe. The SSR results were compared to SSR variation screened earlier in the lettuce collection of the Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands (CGN). In the UK, practically only a single SSR genotype was found. This genotype together with a few other common SSR genotypes comprised a large part of the plants sampled on the continent. Among the ten most frequent SSR genotypes observed, eight were already present in the CGN collection. Overall, the CGN collection appears to already have a fair representation of genetic variation from NW Europe. The results are discussed in relation to sampling strategies for improving genebank collections of crop wild relatives

The Pawns of War: A Personal Account of the Attack on Verrères Ridge by The South Saskatchewan Regiment, 20 July 1944

A number of current books deal with Operations Goodwood and Atlantic, but scant attention has been paid to the 6th Canadian Infantry Brigade and its three regiments, the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada (CAM), the Fusiliers Mont-Royal (FMR) and the South Saskatchewan Regiment (SSR), and to the Essex Scottish Regiment which was attached to 6th Brigade during this operation. When our role has been discussed at all, historians have inferred that the SSR fled or withdrew in panic in this action. My role was as Commander “B” Company of the SSR, and later as Acting Commanding Officer (A/CO) of the SSR during this operation. I wish to record my memories of the battle supplemented by historical documentation which I hope will cause historians to review the 6th Brigade action of 20 July 1944

Understanding scaling through history-dependent processes with collapsing sample space

History-dependent processes are ubiquitous in natural and social systems. Many such stochastic processes, especially those that are associated with complex systems, become more constrained as they unfold, meaning that their sample-space, or their set of possible outcomes, reduces as they age. We demonstrate that these sample-space reducing (SSR) processes necessarily lead to Zipf's law in the rank distributions of their outcomes. We show that by adding noise to SSR processes the corresponding rank distributions remain exact power-laws, $p(x)\sim x^{-\lambda}$, where the exponent directly corresponds to the mixing ratio of the SSR process and noise. This allows us to give a precise meaning to the scaling exponent in terms of the degree to how much a given process reduces its sample-space as it unfolds. Noisy SSR processes further allow us to explain a wide range of scaling exponents in frequency distributions ranging from $\alpha = 2$ to $\infty$. We discuss several applications showing how SSR processes can be used to understand Zipf's law in word frequencies, and how they are related to diffusion processes in directed networks, or ageing processes such as in fragmentation processes. SSR processes provide a new alternative to understand the origin of scaling in complex systems without the recourse to multiplicative, preferential, or self-organised critical processes.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (published ahead of print April 13, 2015

Ferreting out the Fluffy Bunnies: Entanglement constrained by Generalized superselection rules

Entanglement is a resource central to quantum information (QI). In particular, entanglement shared between two distant parties allows them to do certain tasks that would otherwise be impossible. In this context, we study the effect on the available entanglement of physical restrictions on the local operations that can be performed by the two parties. We enforce these physical restrictions by generalized superselection rules (SSRs), which we define to be associated with a given group of physical transformations. Specifically the generalized SSR is that the local operations must be covariant with respect to that group. Then we operationally define the entanglement constrained by a SSR, and show that it may be far below that expected on the basis of a naive (or ``fluffy bunny'') calculation. We consider two examples. The first is a particle number SSR. Using this we show that for a two-mode BEC (with Alice owning mode $A$ and Bob mode $B$), the useful entanglement shared by Alice and Bob is identically zero. The second, a SSR associated with the symmetric group, is applicable to ensemble QI processing such as in liquid-NMR. We prove that even for an ensemble comprising many pairs of qubits, with each pair described by a pure Bell state, the entanglement per pair constrained by this SSR goes to zero for a large ensemble.Comment: 8 pages, proceedings paper for an invited talk at 16th International Conference on Laser Spectroscopy (2003

Intermode Dephasing in a Superconducting Stripline Resonator

We study superconducting stripline resonator (SSR) made of Niobium, which is integrated with a superconducting interference device (SQUID). The large nonlinear inductance of the SQUID gives rise to strong Kerr nonlinearity in the response of the SSR, which in turn results in strong coupling between different modes of the SSR. We experimentally demonstrate that such intermode coupling gives rise to dephasing of microwave photons. The dephasing rate depends periodically on the external magnetic flux applied to the SQUID, where the largest rate is obtained at half integer values (in units of the flux quantum). To account for our result we compare our findings with theory and find good agreement. Supplementary info at arXiv:0901.3133 .Comment: 5 pages and 5 figures, supplementary info at arXiv:0901.313

Gombarezisztencia gének térképezése szőlőben = Mapping resistance genes against fungi in grapevine

Lisztharmat (PM) és peronoszpóra (DM) rezisztencia génekkel kapcsolt markerek szelekcióra való alkalmasságát vizsgáltuk szőlő inter-és intraspecifikus térképezési populációiban. Az interspecifikus hibridek a Muscadina rotundifolia x Vitis vinfera BC4 Cardinal, Kismis moldavszkij és Kismis vatkana fajtákkal előállított BC5 nemzedékei voltak. A M. rotundifolia az ismert RUN1 (PM) és az RPV1 (DM) domináns rezisztencia géneket tartalmazza. A BC5 nemzedékekben 1 CAPS és 3 SSR markerrel hatékonyan szelektáltuk a rezisztens genotípusokat. A V. vinifera fajták általában fogékonyak a lisztharmatra, de a fogékonyságuk eltérő. A Dzsandzsal karát írták le először PM rezisztens fajtaként, később azonban többet is azonosítottak, köztük a Kismis vatkanát, rezisztencia génjüket azonban nem jellemezték. A Nimrang x Kismis vatkana hibrid család elemzése során bebizonyosodott, hogy a Kismis vatkana PM génje, amelyet REN1-nek neveztek el, nem azonos a RUN1-gyel. A 13-as kromoszómára térképeződött, míg a RUN1 a 12-re. A REN1 körül azonosított 3 SSR markerrel genotipizáltuk a Génuai zamatos x Kismis vatkana és BC4 x Kismis vatkana utódokat. Az utóbbi család egyedei közül RUN1/REN1 piramidált genotípusokat szelektáltunk. Az azonos fenotípust meghatározó piramidált géneket tartalmazó növények azonosítása csak DNS-szintű elemzéssel lehetséges. A MAS hatékonyságának növelésére multiplex PCR módszert dolgoztunk ki. A REN1-gyel kapcsolt marker SSR profil alapján a Dzsandzsal kara is REN1 gént hordoz. | For validating markers linked to powdery (PM) and downy (DM) mildew resistance genes, applying them in marker assisted selection (MAS) we analyzed mapping populations, deriving from interspecific crosses of Vitis vinifera with Muscadinia rotundifolia carrying the dominant RUN1 (PM) and RPV1 (DM) resistance genes. One CAPS and 3 SSR markers proved to be adequate for selecting RUN1/RPV1 genotypes in the (M. rotundifolia x V. vinifera) BC4 x Cardinal, BC4 x Kishmish moldavskij and BC4 x Kishmish vatkana families. Kishmish vatkana is a PM resistant V. vinifera cultivar such as Dzhandzhal kara. Involving V. vinifera resistance genes into breeding gives the chance to avoid interspecific crosses. Analysis of a Nimrang x Kishmis vatkana progeny proved that PM resistance gene of Kishmish vatkana, called REN1, is different from RUN1. REN1 mapped into linkage group/LG 13, while RUN1 is in LG12. Three SSR markers were identified around the REN1 locus and applied for MAS in Génuai zamatos x Kishmis vatkana and BC4 x Kishmish vatkana hybrids. In this latter cross we proved the presence of the pyramided PM resistance genes. Plants carrying both RUN1 and REN1 for the same phenotype can be identified only with DNA analysis. This is the first time when SSR markers linked to REN1 were used for MAS. We elaborated a multiplex PCR method suitable for agarose electrophoresis. SSR profiles in REN1 linked loci suggest that Kismish vatkana and Dzhandzhal kara possess the same REN1 PM resistance gene

The role of epistemic communities: local think tanks, international practitioners and security sector reform in Kosovo

Security sector reform (SSR) in Kosovo remains complex and challenging. The existing approach is heavily driven by international agencies. This article addresses the question: What role is played by local research in Kosovo’s SSR? This study focuses on the challenges that local research poses to internationally led SSR in Kosovo, and the contribution that local researchers make to the decision-making of international practitioners. In Kosovo, local research organizations produce research analysing and critiquing international SSR and offering alternative approaches. The study builds on existing studies of epistemic communities and research use in policy-making and new evidence based on the author’s interview survey of researchers and policy-makers in Kosovo. The article argues that focusing on the interaction between local researchers and international policy practitioners provides valuable insight into the construction of Kosovo’s SSR. The study deconstructs the structures, processes and agencies at the heart of the local/international relationship. It explains how local research on topics of security, justice and rule of law, and its interaction with international practitioners, challenges international SSR and contributes to international SSR decision-making

Pedigree reconstruction for cosexual species using simulated annealing: case study of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) : P-124

The approach of Fernandez and Toro (2006) to reconstruct pedigrees from molecular data of contemporaneous individuals using a simulated annealing algorithm was extended to hermaphroditic and monoecious species. New features also include the possibility of selfings, accounting for a predefined coancestry matrix between founders and specifying different number of individuals per generation. The new method was validated using 16 individuals from the last generation of the Yangambi breeding population of oil palm. Their pedigree was known for 5 generations and they were genotyped with 166 SSR. In the study, the number of used SSR varied from 6 to 166 and the percentage of unknown parentages from 20% to 100%. The Pearson correlation between the pedigree-based coancestries calculated on the true and on the reconstructed genealogies ranged from 0.74 to 0.99. The RMSE ranged from 0.02 to 0.12. When pedigree was assumed completely unknown, reliable reconstruction required at least 38 SSR. Using 100 SSR or more, the Pearson correlation was very high (0.98) and the RMSE very low (0.06). The new method was also applied to 104 individuals from the last generation of a key breeding population (Deli) originated from 4 oil palms. The individuals were genotyped with 160 SSR. Records of their pedigree only existed for the recent past. Results of pedigree reconstruction detected a family coming from old selfings looking as outliers, with pedigree-based coancestries much higher than molecular coancestries, indicating old selfings were erroneous. After correcting the recorded pedigree, pedigree-based coancestries calculated on the reconstructed genealogy and molecular coancestries were highly correlated (> 0.9) when using 80 markers or more. In conclusion, this method gave likely pedigrees with satisfactory reliability for cosexual species, using a realistic number of polymorphic markers. Also, it seems very helpful to correct historical pedigrees. The methodology has been implemented in the software MOL_COANC_v2. (Texte integral