Seed coat development in explosively dispersed seeds of Cardamine hirsuta

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Seeds are dispersed by explosive coiling of the fruit valves in Cardamine hirsuta. This rapid coiling launches the small seeds on ballistic trajectories to spread over a 2 m radius around the parent plant. The seed surface interacts with both the coiling fruit valve during launch and subsequently with the air during flight. We aim to identify features of the seed surface that may contribute to these interactions by characterizing seed coat differentiation. METHODS: Differentiation of the outermost seed coat layers from the outer integuments of the ovule involves dramatic cellular changes that we characterize in detail at the light and electron microscopical level including immunofluorescence and immunogold labelling. KEY RESULTS: We found that the two outer integument (oi) layers of the seed coat contributed differently to the topography of the seed surface in the explosively dispersed seeds of C. hirsuta vs. the related species Arabidopsis thaliana where seed dispersal is non-explosive. The surface of A. thaliana seeds is shaped by the columella and the anticlinal cell walls of the epidermal oi2 layer. In contrast, the surface of C. hirsuta seeds is shaped by a network of prominent ridges formed by the anticlinal walls of asymmetrically thickened cells of the sub-epidermal oi1 layer, especially at the seed margin. Both the oi2 and oi1 cell layers in C. hirsuta seeds are characterized by specialized, pectin-rich cell walls that are deposited asymmetrically in the cell. CONCLUSIONS: The two outermost seed coat layers in C. hirsuta have distinct properties: the sub-epidermal oi1 layer determines the topography of the seed surface, while the epidermal oi2 layer accumulates mucilage. These properties are influenced by polar deposition of distinct pectin polysaccharides in the cell wall. Although the ridged seed surface formed by oi1 cell walls is associated with ballistic dispersal in C. hirsuta, it is not restricted to explosively dispersed seeds in the Brassicaceae

FGB1 and WSC3 are in planta-induced beta-glucan-binding fungal lectins with different functions

In the root endophyte Serendipita indica, several lectin-like members of the expanded multigene family of WSC proteins are transcriptionally induced in planta and are potentially involved in beta-glucan remodeling at the fungal cell wall. Using biochemical and cytological approaches we show that one of these lectins, SiWSC3 with three WSC domains, is an integral fungal cell wall component that binds to long-chain beta 1-3-glucan but has no affinity for shorter beta 1-3- or beta 1-6-linked glucose oligomers. Comparative analysis with the previously identified beta-glucan-binding lectin SiFGB1 demonstrated that whereas SiWSC3 does not require beta 1-6-linked glucose for efficient binding to branched beta 1-3-glucan, SiFGB1 does. In contrast to SiFGB1, the multivalent SiWSC3 lectin can efficiently agglutinate fungal cells and is additionally induced during fungus-fungus confrontation, suggesting different functions for these two beta-glucan-binding lectins. Our results highlight the importance of the beta-glucan cell wall component in plant-fungus interactions and the potential of beta-glucan-binding lectins as specific detection tools for fungi in vivo

Solid-State Excitation Laser for Laser-Ultrasonics

The inspection speed of laser-ultrasonics compared with conventional ultrasonic testing is limited by the pulse repetition rate of the excitation laser. The maximum pulse repetition rate reported up to now for CO2-lasers, which are presently used for nearly all systems, is in the range of 400 Hz. In this paper a new approach based on a diode-pumped solid-state laser is discussed, which is currently being developed. This new excitation laser is designed for a repetition rate of 1 kHz and will operate at a mid-IR wavelength of 3.3 m. The higher repeti-tion rate enables a higher inspection speed, whereas the mid-IR wavelength anticipates a better coupling efficiency. The total power for pumping the laser crystals is transported via flexible optical fibres to the compact laser head, thus allowing operation on a robot arm. The laser head consists of a master oscillator feeding several lines of power amplifiers and in-cludes nonlinear optical wavelength conversion by an optical parametric process. It is char-acterized by a modular construction which provides optimal conditions for operation at high average power as well as for easy maintenance. These features will enable building reliable, long-lived, rugged, smart laser ultrasonic systems in futur

The role of controllability in optimizing quantum dynamics

This paper discusses the important role of controllability played on the complexity of optimizing quantum mechanical control systems. The study is based on a topology analysis of the corresponding quantum control landscape, which is referred to as the optimization objective as a functional of control fields. We find that the degree of controllability is closely relevant with the ruggedness of the landscape, which determines the search efficiency for global optima. This effect is demonstrated via the gate fidelity control landscape of a system whose controllability is restricted on a SU(2) dynamic symmetry group. We show that multiple local false traps (i.e., non-global suboptima) exist even if the target gate is realizable and that the number of these traps is increased by the loss of controllability, while the controllable systems are always devoid of false traps.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

The Alzheimer variant of Lewy body disease: A pathologically confirmed case-control study

The objective of the study was to identify clinical features that distinguish patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), who were classified as Alzheimer's disease ( AD) patients, from patients with AD. We examined a group of 27 patients from our memory clinic, originally diagnosed with AD, of whom 6 were postmortem found to have DLB. For the present study, we compared cognitive, noncognitive and neurological symptoms between the two groups. We found that there were no differences on ratings of dementia and scales for activities of daily living. Patients with DLB performed better on the MMSE and the memory subtest of the CAMCOG, but there was no difference in any other cognitive domain. Furthermore, genetic risk factors, including family history of dementia or allele frequency of the apolipoprotein epsilon 4, did not discriminate between the two groups, and there were no differences on CCT scans. Taken together, our findings suggest that Lewy body pathology may be present in patients who do not show the typical clinical features which distinguish DLB from AD. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel

3C 295, a cluster and its cooling flow at z=0.46

We present ROSAT HRI data of the distant and X-ray luminous (L_x(bol)=2.6^ {+0.4}_{-0.2} 10^{45}erg/sec) cluster of galaxies 3C 295. We fit both a one-dimensional and a two-dimensional isothermal beta-model to the data, the latter one taking into account the effects of the point spread function (PSF). For the error analysis of the parameters of the two-dimensional model we introduce a Monte-Carlo technique. Applying a substructure analysis, by subtracting a cluster model from the data, we find no evidence for a merger, but we see a decrement in emission South-East of the center of the cluster, which might be due to absorption. We confirm previous results by Henry & Henriksen(1986) that 3C 295 hosts a cooling flow. The equations for the simple and idealized cooling flow analysis presented here are solely based on the isothermal beta-model, which fits the data very well, including the center of the cluster. We determine a cooling flow radius of 60-120kpc and mass accretion rates of dot{M}=400-900 Msun/y, depending on the applied model and temperature profile. We also investigate the effects of the ROSAT PSF on our estimate of dot{M}, which tends to lead to a small overestimate of this quantity if not taken into account. This increase of dot{M} (10-25%) can be explained by a shallower gravitational potential inferred by the broader overall profile caused by the PSF, which diminishes the efficiency of mass accretion. We also determine the total mass of the cluster using the hydrostatic approach. At a radius of 2.1 Mpc, we estimate the total mass of the cluster (M{tot}) to be (9.2 +/- 2.7) 10^{14}Msun. For the gas to total mass ratio we get M{gas}/M{tot} =0.17-0.31, in very good agreement with the results for other clusters of galaxies, giving strong evidence for a low density universe.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Tunable Fano Resonances in Transport through Microwave Billiards

We present a tunable microwave scattering device that allows the controlled variation of Fano line shape parameters in transmission through quantum billiards. Transport in this device is nearly fully coherent. By comparison with quantum calculations, employing the modular recursive Green's-function method, the scattering wave function and the degree of residual decoherence can be determined. The parametric variation of Fano line shapes in terms of interacting resonances is analyzed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Characterizing Quantum Properties of a Measurement Apparatus: Insights from the Retrodictive Approach

Using the retrodictive approach of quantum physics, we show that the state retrodicted from the response of a measurement apparatus is a convenient tool to fully characterize its quantum properties. We translate in terms of this state some interesting aspects of the quantum behavior of a detector, such as the non-classicality or the non-gaussian character of its measurements. We also introduce estimators - the projectivity, the ideality, the fidelity or the detectivity of measurements perfomed by the apparatus - which directly follow from the retrodictive approach. Beyond their fundamental significance for describing general quantum measurements, these properties are crucial in several protocols, in particular in the conditional preparation of non-classical states of light or in measurement-driven quantum information processing

Real-space Manifestations of Bottlenecks in Turbulence Spectra

An energy-spectrum bottleneck, a bump in the turbulence spectrum between the inertial and dissipation ranges, is shown to occur in the non-turbulent, one-dimensional, hyperviscous Burgers equation and found to be the Fourier-space signature of oscillations in the real-space velocity, which are explained by boundary-layer-expansion techniques. Pseudospectral simulations are used to show that such oscillations occur in velocity correlation functions in one- and three-dimensional hyperviscous hydrodynamical equations that display genuine turbulence.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Novel decay dynamics revealed for virus-mediated drug activation in cytomegalovirus infection

Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a substantial cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised hosts and globally is one of the most important congenital infections. The nucleoside analogue ganciclovir (GCV), which requires initial phosphorylation by the viral UL97 kinase, is the mainstay for treatment. To date, CMV decay kinetics during GCV therapy have not been extensively investigated and its clinical implications not fully appreciated. We measured CMV DNA levels in the blood of 92 solid organ transplant recipients with CMV disease over the initial 21 days of ganciclovir therapy and identified four distinct decay patterns, including a new pattern exhibiting a transient viral rebound (Hump) following initial decline. Since current viral dynamics models were unable to account for this Hump profile, we developed a novel multi-level model, which includes the intracellular role of UL97 in the continued activation of ganciclovir, that successfully described all the decline patterns observed. Fitting the data allowed us to estimate ganciclovir effectiveness in vivo (mean 92%), infected cell half-life (mean 0.7 days), and other viral dynamics parameters that determine which of the four kinetic patterns will ensue. An important clinical implication of our results is that the virological efficacy of GCV operates over a broad dose range. The model also raises the possibility that GCV can drive replication to a new lower steady state but ultimately cannot fully eradicate it. This model is likely to be generalizable to other anti-CMV nucleoside analogs that require activation by viral enzymes such as UL97 or its homologues