285 research outputs found
Phytophthora boodjera sp. nov., a damping-off pathogen in production nurseries and from urban and natural landscapes, with an update on the status of P. alticola
A new homothallic Phytophthora species, isolated in Western Australia (WA), is described as Phytophthora boodjera sp. nov. It produces persistent, papillate sporangia, oogonia with thick-walled oospores, and paragynous antheridia. Although morphologically similar to P. arenaria, phylogenetic analyses of the ITS, cox1, HSP90, β-tubulin and enolase gene regions revealed P. boodjera as a new species. In addition, P. boodjera has a higher optimal temperature for growth and a faster growth rate. Phytophthora boodjera has only recently been found in Western Australia and has mostly been isolated from dead and dying Eucalyptus seedlings in nurseries and from urban tree plantings, and occasionally from disturbed natural ecosystems. It is found in association with declining and dying Agonis flexuosa, Banksia media, B. grandis, Corymbia calophylla, Eucalyptus spp,. and Xanthorrhoea preissii. The status of P. alticola was also reviewed. The loss of all isolates associated with the original description except one; discrepancies in both sequence data and morphology of the remaining isolate with that presented the original description, and inconclusive holotype material places the status of this species in doubt
Age-related susceptibility of Eucalyptus species to Phytophthora boodjera
Phytophthora boodjera is a newly described pathogen causing damping off and mortality of Eucalyptus seedlings in Western Australian nurseries. This study evaluated the age-related susceptibility of several taxa of mallee Eucalyptus to P. boodjera in sterilized washed river sand-infestation pot trials. Phytophthora cinnamomi and P. arenaria were included for comparison. Seedlings of Eucalyptus taxa were inoculated at 0, 2, 4, 12 and 88 weeks with individual Phytophthora isolates. Pre-emergent mortality in the presence of Phytophthora was almost 100%. Post-emergent mortality was 50-100%, depending on isolate, compared to 0% for the control. Mortality was also high for inoculated 1 month-old seedlings (46-68%) and root length of surviving seedlings was severely reduced. Death from root infection was not observed for seedlings inoculated at 12 and 88 weeks, but they developed root necrosis and reduced root dry weight compared to non-inoculated controls. Phytophthora boodjera is a pre- and post-emergent pathogen of mallee eucalypts. These eucalypts are susceptible to P. boodjera at all life stages tested, but the mortality rates declined with plant age. Similar results were obtained for P. cinnamomi and P. arenaria. The events leading to its recent appearance in the nurseries remain unknown and further investigations are underway to determine if this is an introduced or endemic pathogen. The approach used here to understand the impact of a Phytophthora species on multiple hosts at different seedling ages is novel and sets a benchmark for future work
First Prospective Cohort Study of Diabetic Retinopathy from Sub-Saharan Africa High Incidence and Progression of Retinopathy and Relationship to Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection
PurposeTo describe the prevalence, incidence, and progression of retinopathy and to report associations with demographic, clinical, and biochemical variables in people with diabetes in Southern Malawi.DesignProspective cohort study.ParticipantsSubjects were systematically sampled from 2 primary care diabetes clinics.MethodsWe performed the first prospective cohort study of diabetic retinopathy from Sub-Saharan Africa over 24 months. Visual acuity, glycemic control, blood pressure, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, hemoglobin, and lipids were assessed. Retinopathy was graded at an accredited reading center using modified Wisconsin grading of 4-field mydriatic photographs.Main Outcome MeasuresIncidence of sight-threatening retinopathy and progression of retinopathy by 2 steps on the Liverpool Diabetic Eye Study Scale.ResultsA total of 357 subjects were recruited to the 24-month cohort study. At baseline, 13.4% of subjects were HIV positive and 15.1% were anemic. The 2-year incidence of sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy (STDR) for subjects with level 10 (no retinopathy), level 20 (background), and level 30 (preproliferative) retinopathy at baseline was 2.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.1–5.3), 27.3% (95% CI, 16.4–38.2), and 25.0% (95% CI, 0–67.4), respectively. In a multivariate logistic analysis, 2-step progression of diabetic retinopathy was associated with glycosylated hemoglobin (odds ratio [OR], 1.27; 95% CI, 1.12–1.45), baseline grade of retinopathy (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.02–1.91), and HIV infection (OR, 0.16; 95% CI, 0.03–0.78). At 2 years, 17 subjects (5.8%) lost ≥15 letters.ConclusionsIncidence of STDR was approximately 3 times that reported in recent European studies. The negative association of HIV infection with retinopathy progression is a new finding
Comparative study of loop contributions in AdS and dS
The generic feature of non-conformal fields in Poincare patch of de Sitter
space is the presence of large IR loop corrections even for massive fields.
Moreover, in global de Sitter there are loop IR divergences for the massive
fields. Naive analytic continuation from de Sitter to Anti-de-Sitter might lead
one to conclude that something similar should happen in the latter space as
well. However, we show that there are no large IR effects in the one-loop
two-point functions in the Poincare patch of Anti-de-Sitter space even for the
zero mass minimally coupled scalar fields. As well there are neither large IR
effects nor IR divergences in global Anti-de-Sitter space even for the zero
mass.Comment: 12 pages. Minor changes, misprints are correcte
A Note on Domain Walls and the Parameter Space of N=1 Gauge Theories
We study the spectrum of BPS domain walls within the parameter space of N=1
U(N) gauge theories with adjoint matter and a cubic superpotential. Using a low
energy description obtained by compactifying the theory on R^3 x S^1, we
examine the wall spectrum by combining direct calculations at special points in
the parameter space with insight drawn from the leading order potential between
minimal walls, i.e those interpolating between adjacent vacua. We show that the
multiplicity of composite BPS walls -- as characterised by the CFIV index --
exhibits discontinuities on marginal stability curves within the parameter
space of the maximally confining branch. The structure of these marginal
stability curves for large N appears tied to certain singularities within the
matrix model description of the confining vacua.Comment: 33 pages, LaTeX, 6 eps figures; v2: references adde
Reheating the Universe After Multi-Field Inflation
We study in detail (p)reheating after multi-field inflation models with a
particular focus on N-flation. We consider a variety of different couplings
between the inflatons and the matter sector, including both quartic and
trilinear interactions with a light scalar field. We show that the presence of
multiple oscillating inflatons makes parametric resonance inefficient in the
case of the quartic interactions. Moreover, perturbative processes do not
permit a complete decay of the inflaton for this coupling. In order to recover
the hot big bang, we must instead consider trilinear couplings. In this case we
show that strong nonperturbative preheating is possible via multi-field
tachyonic resonance. In addition, late-time perturbative effects do permit a
complete decay of the condensate. We also study the production of gauge fields
for several prototype couplings, finding similar results to the trilinear
scalar coupling. During the course of our analysis we develop the mathematical
theory of the quasi-periodic Mathieu equation, the multi-field generalization
of the Floquet theory familiar from preheating after single field inflation. We
also elaborate on the theory of perturbative decays of a classical inflaton
condensate, which is applicable in single-field models also.Comment: 46+1 pages, 19 figure
The electron thermal propagator at p>>T: An entire function of p_{0}
The retarded electron propagator S_{R}(p_{0},p) at high momentum p>>T was
shown by Blaizot and Iancu to be an entire function of complex p_{0}. In this
paper a specific form for S_{R}(p_{0},p) is obtained and checked by showing
that its temporal Fourier transform S_{R}(t, p) has the correct behavior at
large t. Potential infrared and collinear divergences from the emission of soft
photons do not occur.Comment: 8 page
Preheating After Modular Inflation
We study (p)reheating in modular (closed string) inflationary scenarios, with
a special emphasis on Kahler moduli/Roulette models. It is usually assumed that
reheating in such models occurs through perturbative decays. However, we find
that there are very strong non-perturbative preheating decay channels related
to the particular shape of the inflaton potential (which is highly nonlinear
and has a very steep minimum). Preheating after modular inflation, proceeding
through a combination of tachyonic instability and broad-band parametric
resonance, is perhaps the most violent example of preheating after inflation
known in the literature. Further, we consider the subsequent transfer of energy
to the standard model sector in scenarios where the standard model particles
are confined to a D7-brane wrapping the inflationary blow-up cycle of the
compactification manifold or, more interestingly, a non-inflationary blow up
cycle. We explicitly identify the decay channels of the inflaton in these two
scenarios. We also consider the case where the inflationary cycle shrinks to
the string scale at the end of inflation; here a field theoretical treatment of
reheating is insufficient and one must turn instead to a stringy description.
We estimate the decay rate of the inflaton and the reheat temperature for
various scenarios.Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in JCA
The Atomic Physics Underlying the Spectroscopic Analysis of Massive Stars and Supernovae
We have developed a radiative transfer code, CMFGEN, which allows us to model
the spectra of massive stars and supernovae. Using CMFGEN we can derive
fundamental parameters such as effective temperatures and surface gravities,
derive abundances, and place constraints on stellar wind properties. The last
of these is important since all massive stars are losing mass via a stellar
wind that is driven from the star by radiation pressure, and this mass loss can
substantially influence the spectral appearance and evolution of the star.
Recently we have extended CMFGEN to allow us to undertake time-dependent
radiative transfer calculations of supernovae. Such calculations will be used
to place constraints on the supernova progenitor, to place constraints on the
supernova explosion and nucleosynthesis, and to derive distances using a
physical approach called the "Expanding Photosphere Method". We describe the
assumptions underlying the code and the atomic processes involved. A crucial
ingredient in the code is the atomic data. For the modeling we require accurate
transition wavelengths, oscillator strengths, photoionization cross-sections,
collision strengths, autoionization rates, and charge exchange rates for
virtually all species up to, and including, cobalt. Presently, the available
atomic data varies substantially in both quantity and quality.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space
Scienc
Finite Temperature Systems of Brane-Antibrane on a Torus
In order to study the thermodynamic properties of brane-antibrane systems in
the toroidal background, we compute the finite temperature effective potential
of tachyon T in this system on the basis of boundary string field theory. We
first consider the case that all the radii of the target space torus are about
the string scale. If the Dp-antiDp pair is extended in all the non-compact
directions, the sign of the coefficient of |T|^2 term of the potential changes
slightly below the Hagedorn temperature. This means that a phase transition
occurs near the Hagedorn temperature. On the other hand, if the Dp-antiDp pair
is not extended in all the non-compact directions, the coefficient is kept
negative, and thus a phase transition does not occur. Secondly, we consider the
case that some of the radii of the target space torus are much larger than the
string scale and investigate the behavior of the potential for each value of
the radii and the total energy. If the Dp-antiDp pair is extended in all the
non-compact directions, a phase transition occurs for large enough total
energy.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures, minor errors corrected, version to appear in
JHE
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