Physiological and molecular changes in Oryza meridionalis Ng., a heat-tolerant species of wild rice

Oryza meridionalis Ng. is a wild relative of Oryza sativa L. found throughout northern Australia where temperatures regularly exceed 35 °C in the monsoon growing season. Heat tolerance in O. meridionalis was established by comparing leaf elongation and photosynthetic rates at 45 °C with plants maintained at 27 °C. By comparison with O. sativa ssp. japonica cv. Amaroo, O. meridionalis was heat tolerant. Elongation rates of the third leaf of O. meridionalis declined by 47% over 24 h at 45 °C compared with a 91% decrease for O. sativa. Net photosynthesis was significantly higher in O. sativa at 27 °C whereas the two species had the same assimilation rates at 45 °C. The leaf proteome and expression levels of individual heat-responsive genes provided insight into the heat response of O. meridionalis. After 24 h of heat exposure, many enzymes involved in the Calvin Cycle were more abundant, while mRNA of their genes generally decreased. Ferredoxin-NADP(H) oxidoreductase, a key enzyme in photosynthetic electron transport had both reduced abundance and gene expression, suggesting light reactions were highly susceptible to heat stress. Rubisco activase was strongly up-regulated after 24 h of heat, with the large isoform having the largest relative increase in protein abundance and a significant increase in gene expression. The protective proteins Cpn60, Hsp90, and Hsp70 all increased in both protein abundance and gene expression. A thiamine biosynthesis protein (THI1), previously shown to act protectively against stress, increased in abundance during heat, even as thiamine levels fell in O. meridionalis

Pragmatic linguistic constraint models for large-vocabulary speech processing

Current systems for speech recognition suffer from uncertainty: rather than delivering a uniquely-identified word, each input segment is associated with a set of recognition candidates or word-hypotheses. Thus an input sequence of sounds or images leads to, not an unambiguous sequence of words, but a lattice of word-hypotheses. To choose the best candidate from each word-hypothesis set (i.e. to find the best route through the lattice) , linguistic context needs to be taken into account, at several levels: lexis and morphology, parts-of-speech, phrase structure, semantics and pragmatics. We believe that an intuitively simple, naive model will suffice at each level; the sophistication required for full Natural Language Understanding (NLU) (e.g. Alvey Natural Language Toolkit (ANLT)) is inappropriate for real-time language recognition. We describe here models of each linguistic level which are simple but robust and computationally straightforward (hence `pragmatic' in the everyday sense) and which have clear theoretical shortcomings in the eyes of linguistic purists but which nevertheless do the job

Ursinus College Bulletin, Winter 1981

Ursinus: Traditionally good sports • Athletics: Are they part of a liberal arts education? • Hall of Fame for Athletes • Ursinus women: They\u27re leading the field • Across the great divide: Comprehending the complexities of the NCAA • Homecoming I • Homecoming II • Businessmen\u27s special • The curtain goes up on the Ritter Center • Bearing good news • Beta signals • Can you manage? • Looking peaked • DuPont grant benefits Ursinus chemistry program • Speaking of... • News notes • Evening School • Marriages • Births • Deathshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/new_bulletin/1028/thumbnail.jp

An ELISA to Detect Serum Antibodies to the Salivary Gland Toxin of Ixodes holocyclus Neumann in Dogs and Rodents

The Ixodes holocyclus tick causes paralysis in up to 10,000 companion and domestic animals each year in Australia. Treatment requires the removal of the parasite and the administration of a commercial tick antiserum that is prepared from hyperimmune dogs. Each batch of this serum is initially tested for toxin-neutralising potency in a mouse bioassay that is expensive, time consuming, and subjective. With the aim of developing a rapid in vitro assay to replace the bioassay, we used a partially purified antigen prepared from I. holocyclus salivary glands to develop an ELISA to detect toxin-reactive antibodies in hyperimmune dog sera. The optimised ELISA reliably detected antibodies reactive to I. holocyclus salivary gland antigens. Parallel testing of sera with a negative control antigen prepared from the salivary glands of the nontoxic tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus provided further evidence that we were detecting toxin-specific antibodies in the assay. Using the ELISA, we could also detect antibodies induced in rats after experimental infestation with I. holocyclus. This assay shows promise as an alternative means of assessing the potency of batches of hyperimmune dog serum and to screen for toxin-reactive monoclonal antibodies produced from immunised rodents

Order reduction approaches for the algebraic Riccati equation and the LQR problem

We explore order reduction techniques for solving the algebraic Riccati equation (ARE), and investigating the numerical solution of the linear-quadratic regulator problem (LQR). A classical approach is to build a surrogate low dimensional model of the dynamical system, for instance by means of balanced truncation, and then solve the corresponding ARE. Alternatively, iterative methods can be used to directly solve the ARE and use its approximate solution to estimate quantities associated with the LQR. We propose a class of Petrov-Galerkin strategies that simultaneously reduce the dynamical system while approximately solving the ARE by projection. This methodology significantly generalizes a recently developed Galerkin method by using a pair of projection spaces, as it is often done in model order reduction of dynamical systems. Numerical experiments illustrate the advantages of the new class of methods over classical approaches when dealing with large matrices

Effects of a Novel Ground-Based Movement Training Program on Functional Movement, Flexibility, Strength and Endurance

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Rolling Out a State-of-the-Art Simulation Center: Early Experiences

The Simulation Center, opened in the Fall 2006, contains state-of-the-art simulation technology (e.g., high-fidelity adult and pediatric mannequins, task trainers, and real-time/recorded observation and scenario review via audio-visual equipment) that provides an interactive learning environment designed to replicate the clinical setting. It is available to the School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Education, the School of Nursing, and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Event facilitators (i.e., faculty or residents) were asked to assess their initial perception and utilization of the center. Presented at the 2008 Society on Simulation in Healthcare Conference

Effects of a 6-week Low-Carbohydrate High-Fat Diet on Lipid Profiles in Competitive Recreational Distance Runners

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