Homoeologous chromosomal location of the genes encoding thionins in wheat and rye

Thionins are high sulphur basic polypeptides present in the endosperm of Gramineae. In wheat there are three thionins encoded by genes located in the long arms of chromosomes 1A, 1B and 1D. Rye has one thionin encoded by a gene which has been assigned to chromosome 1R after analysis of the Imperial-Chinese Spring rye-wheat disomic addition lines. Commercial varieties and experimental stocks with a 1B/1R substitution carry the thionin from rye ( R) instead of the B thionin from wheat. The R thionin gene is not located in the large chromosomal segment representing most of the short arm of chromosome 1R

Automatic supervision of gestures to guide novice surgeons during training

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00464-013-3285-9Background Virtual surgery simulators enable surgeons to learn by themselves, shortening their learning curves. Virtual simulators offer an objective evaluation of the surgeon’s skills at the end of each training session. The considered evaluation parameters are based on the analysis of the surgeon’s gestures performed throughout the training session. Currently, this information is usually known by surgeons only at the end of the training session, but very limited during the training performance. In this paper, we present a novel method for automatic and interactive evaluation of the surgeon’s skills that is able to supervise inexperienced surgeons during their training session with surgical simulators. Methods The method is based on the assumption that the sequence of gestures carried out by an expert surgeon in the simulator can be translated into a sequence (a character string) that should be reproduced by a novice surgeon during a training session. In this work, a string-matching algorithm has been modified to calculate the alignment and distance between the sequences of both expert and novice during the training performance. Results The results have shown that it is possible to distinguish between different skill levels at all times during the surgical training session. Conclusions The main contribution of this paper is a method where the difference between an expert’s sequence of gestures and a novice’s ongoing sequence is used to guide inexperienced surgeons. This is possible by indicating to novices the gesture corrections to be applied during surgical training as continuous expert supervision would do.Monserrat, C.; Lucas, A.; Hernández Orallo, J.; Rupérez Moreno, MJ. (2014). Automatic supervision of gestures to guide novice surgeons during training. Surgical Endoscopy. 28(4):1360-1370. doi:10.1007/s00464-013-3285-9S13601370284Ericsson KA (ed) (2009) Development of professional expertise: toward measurement of expert performance and design of optimal learning environments. Cambridge University Press, New YorkMcGaghie WC (2008) Research opportunities in simulation-based medical education using deliberate practice. Acad Emerg Med 15:995–1001Ericsson KA (2008) Deliberate practice and acquisition of expert performance: a general overview. Acad Emerg Med 15:988–994Issenberg SB, McGaghie WC, Petrusa ER et al (2005) Features and uses of high-fidelity medical simulations that lead to effective learning: a BEME systematic review. Med Teach 27:10–28Porte MC, Xeoulis G, Reznick RK, Dubrowski A (2007) Verbal feedback from an expert is more effective than self-accessed feedback about motion efficiency in learning new surgical skills. Am J Surg 193:105–110. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2006.03.016Hall PAV, Dowling GR (1980) Approximate string matching. ACM computing surveys (CSUR) 18(2):381–402. doi: 10.1145/356827.356830Stylopoulos N, Cotin S, Maithel SK et al (2004) Computer-enhanced laparoscopic training system (CELTS): bridging the gap. Surg Endosc 18(5):782–789. doi: 10.3233/978-1-60750-938-7-336Solis J, Oshima N, Ishii H, Matsuoka N et al (2009) Quantitative assessment of the surgical training methods with the suture/ligature training system WKS-2RII. In: IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, 2009 (ICRA ‘09), Kobe, pp 4219–4224. doi: 10.1109/ROBOT.2009.5152314Lin Z et al (2010) Objective evaluation of laparoscopic surgical skills using Waseda bioinstrumentation system WB-3. In: IEEE international conference on robotics and biomimetics (ROBIO), Tianjin, pp 247–252. doi: 10.1109/ROBIO.2010.5723335Chmarra MK, Klein S, Winter JCF, Jansen FW, Dankelman J (2010) Objective classification of residents based on their psychomotor laparoscopic skills. Surg Endosc 24(5):1031–1039. doi: 10.1007/s00464-009-0721-yLin HC, Shafran I, Yuh D, Hager GD (2006) Towards automatic skill evaluation: detection and segmentation of robot-assisted surgical motions. Comput Aided Surg 11(5):220–230. doi: 10.3109/10929080600989189Rosen J, Brown JD, Chang L, Sinanan MN, Hannaford B (2006) Generalized approach for modeling minimally invasive surgery as a stochastic process using a discrete Markov model. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 53(3):399–413. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2005.869771Lahanas V, Loukas C, Nikiteas N, Dimitroulis D, Georgiou E (2011) Psychomotor skills assessment in laparoscopic surgery using augmented reality scenarios. In: 17th international conference on digital signal processing (DSP), Corfu. doi: 10.1109/ICDSP.2011.6004893Leong JJ et al (2006) HMM assessment of quality of movement trajectory in laparoscopic surgery. In: International conference on medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention (MICCAI’06), pp 752–759. doi: 10.3109/10929080701730979Megali G, Sinigaglia S, Tonet O, Dario P (2006) Modelling and evaluation of surgical performance using Hidden Markov models. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 53(10):1911–1919. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2006.881784Huang J, Payandeh S, Doris P, Hajshirmohammadi I (2005) Fuzzy classification: towards evaluating performance on a surgical simulator. Stud Health Technol Inform 111:194–200Hajshirmohammadi I, Payandeh S (2007) Fuzzy set theory for performance evaluation in a surgical simulator. Presence 16(6):603–622. doi: 10.1162/pres.16.6.603Ukkonen E (1985) Algorithms for approximate string matching. Inf Control 64(1–3):100–118. doi: 10.1016/S0019-9958(85)80046-2Navarro G (2001) A guided tour to approximate string matching. ACM Comput Surv 33(1):31–88. doi: 10.1145/375360.375365Damerau FJ (1964) A technique for computer detection and correction of spelling errors. Commun ACM 7(3):171–176. doi: 10.1145/363958.363994Bergroth L, Hakonen H, Raita T (2000) A survey of longest common subsequence algorithms. In: Proceedings of the seventh international symposium on string processing information retrieval (SPIRE’00), A Coruña, p 39. doi: 10.1109/SPIRE.2000.878178Zhang Z (2000) A flexible new technique for camera calibration. IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell 22(11):1330–1334. doi: 10.1109/34.888718Simbionix™, Lap Mentor™. simbionix.com. http://simbionix.com/simulators/lap-mentor/library-of-modules/basic-skills/ . Accessed 31 Jan 2013Wagner RA, Fischer MJ (1974) Algorithms for approximate string matching. J ACM 21(1):168–173. doi: 10.1016/S0019-9958(85)80046-2Hirschberg DS (1975) A linear space algorithm for computing maximal common subsequences. Commun ACM 18(6):341–343. doi: 10.1145/360825.36086

Nonlinear voltage control for three-phase dc-ac converters in hybrid systems: An application of the pi-pbc method

In this paper, a proportional-integral passivity-based controller (PI-PBC) is proposed to regulate the amplitude and frequency of the three-phase output voltage in a direct-current alternating-current (DC-AC) converter with an LC filter. This converter is used to supply energy to AC loads in hybrid renewable based systems. The proposed strategy uses the well-known proportional-integral (PI) actions and guarantees the stability of the system by means of the Lyapunov theory. The proposed controller continues to maintain the simplicity and robustness of the PI controls using the Hamiltonian representation of the system, thereby ensuring stability and producing improvements in the performance. The performance of the proposed controller was validated based on simulation and experimental results after considering parametric variations and comparing them with classical approaches.Fil: Serra, Federico Martin. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Agropecuarias. Laboratorio de Control Automático; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Martín Fernández, Lucas Luciano. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Agropecuarias. Laboratorio de Control Automático; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Montoya Giraldo, Oscar Danilo. Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar; Colombia. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas; ColombiaFil: Gil González, W. J.. Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar; ColombiaFil: Hernández, J. C.. Universidad de Jaén; Españ

Assessment of discretely measured indicators and maximum daily trunk shrinkage for detecting water stress in pomegranate trees

Measurements obtained by the continuous monitoring of trunk diameter fluctuations were comparedwith discrete measurements of midday stem water potential and midday leaf conductance (gl)in adult pomegranate trees (Punica granatum L. cv. Mollar de Elche). Control plants (T0) were irrigateddaily above their crop water requirements in order to attain non-limiting soil water conditions in 2009 and 2010, while T1 plants were subjected to water stress by depriving them of irrigation water for34 days in 2010, after which time irrigation was restored and plant recovery was studied for 7 days.T1 plants showed a substantial degree of water stress, which developed slowly. Maximum daily trunkshrinkage (MDS) was identified to be the most suitable plant-based indicator for irrigation scheduling inadult pomegranate trees, because its signal:noise ((T1/T0):coefficient of variation) ratio was higher thanthat for midday stem water potential((T1/T0):coefficient of variation) and gl((T0/T1):coefficient of variation). MDS increasedin response to water stress, but when the stemfell below ¿1.67 MPa, the MDS values decreased. Fornon-limiting water conditions, MDS could be predicted from mean daily air temperature (Tm) throughexponential equations fitted to pooled data across several seasons. First-order equations were alsoobtained by pooling data across several seasons to predict MDS from crop reference evapotranspira-tion (ETo), mean daily air vapour pressure deficit (VPDm), Tmand solar radiation (Rs), but these should beused only within a certain range of values (ETo, 2.1¿7.4 mm; VPDm, 0.64¿2.96 kPa; Tm, 12.1¿28.3¿C; Rs,119.4¿331.3 Wm¿2). Hence, automated MDS measurements have the potential to be used in irrigationscheduling of pomegranate, and these values can be normalized to non-limiting water conditions bylocally derived empirical relationships with meteorological variables.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (CICYT/FEDER) AGL2010-19201-C04-01AGRAgencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID

Assessment of discretely measured indicators and maximum daily trunk shrinkage for detecting water stress in pomegranate trees

8 páginas.-- 7 figuras.-- 3 tablas.-- 50 referenciasMeasurements obtained by the continuous monitoring of trunk diameter fluctuations were comparedwith discrete measurements of midday stem water potential and midday leaf conductance (gl)in adult pomegranate trees (Punica granatum L. cv. Mollar de Elche). Control plants (T0) were irrigateddaily above their crop water requirements in order to attain non-limiting soil water conditions in 2009 and 2010, while T1 plants were subjected to water stress by depriving them of irrigation water for34 days in 2010, after which time irrigation was restored and plant recovery was studied for 7 days.T1 plants showed a substantial degree of water stress, which developed slowly. Maximum daily trunkshrinkage (MDS) was identified to be the most suitable plant-based indicator for irrigation scheduling inadult pomegranate trees, because its signal:noise ((T1/T0):coefficient of variation) ratio was higher thanthat for midday stem water potential((T1/T0):coefficient of variation) and gl((T0/T1):coefficient of variation). MDS increasedin response to water stress, but when the stemfell below ¿1.67 MPa, the MDS values decreased. Fornon-limiting water conditions, MDS could be predicted from mean daily air temperature (Tm) throughexponential equations fitted to pooled data across several seasons. First-order equations were alsoobtained by pooling data across several seasons to predict MDS from crop reference evapotranspira-tion (ETo), mean daily air vapour pressure deficit (VPDm), Tmand solar radiation (Rs), but these should beused only within a certain range of values (ETo, 2.1¿7.4 mm; VPDm, 0.64¿2.96 kPa; Tm, 12.1¿28.3¿C; Rs,119.4¿331.3 Wm¿2). Hence, automated MDS measurements have the potential to be used in irrigationscheduling of pomegranate, and these values can be normalized to non-limiting water conditions bylocally derived empirical relationships with meteorological variables.This research was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) (CICYT/FEDER AGL2010-19201-C04-01AGR) and Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID) (A1/035430/11) grants to the authors

Ex-situ genetic conservation of Pinus nigra salzmannii endangered populations from the Spanish Central Range: abstract

Publishe

Cactaceae at Caryophyllales.org- A dynamic online species-level taxonomic backbone for the family

This data paper presents a largely phylogeny-based online taxonomic backbone for the Cactaceae compiled from literature and online sources using the tools of the EDIT Platform for Cybertaxonomy. The data will form a contribution of the Caryophyllales Network for the World Flora Online and serve as the base for further integration of research results from the systematic research community. The final aim is to treat all effectively published scientific names in the family. The checklist includes 150 accepted genera, 1851 accepted species, 91 hybrids, 746 infraspecific taxa (458 heterotypic, 288 with autonyms), 17,932 synonyms of accepted taxa, 16 definitely excluded names, 389 names of uncertain application, 672 unresolved names and 454 names belonging to (probably artificial) named hybrids, totalling 22,275 names. The process of compiling this database is described and further editorial rules for the compilation of the taxonomic backbone for the Caryophyllales Network are proposed. A checklist depicting the current state of the taxonomic backbone is provided as supplemental material. All results are also available online on the website of the Caryophyllales Network and will be constantly updated and expanded in the future. Citation: Korotkova N., Aquino D., Arias S., Eggli U., Franck A., Gómez-Hinostrosa C., Guerrero P. C., Hernández H. M., Kohlbecker A., Köhler M., Luther K., Majure L. C., Müller A., Metzing D., Nyffeler R., Sánchez D., Schlumpberger B. & Berendsohn W. G. 2021: Cactaceae at Caryophyllales.org- A dynamic online species-level taxonomic backbone for the family.-Willdenowia 51: 251-270. Version of record first published online on 31 August 2021 ahead of inclusion in August 2021 issue. Data published through: Http://caryophyllales.org/cactaceae/Checklis

UWISH2 -- The UKIRT Widefield Infrared Survey for H2

We present the goals and preliminary results of an unbiased, near-infrared, narrow-band imaging survey of the First Galactic Quadrant (10deg<l<65deg ; -1.3deg<b<+1.3deg). This area includes most of the Giant Molecular Clouds and massive star forming regions in the northern hemisphere. The survey is centred on the 1-0S(1) ro-vibrational line of H2, a proven tracer of hot, dense molecular gas in star-forming regions, around evolved stars, and in supernova remnants. The observations complement existing and upcoming photometric surveys (Spitzer-GLIMPSE, UKIDSS-GPS, JCMT-JPS, AKARI, Herschel Hi-GAL, etc.), though we probe a dynamically active component of star formation not covered by these broad-band surveys. Our narrow-band survey is currently more than 60% complete. The median seeing in our images is 0.73arcsec. The images have a 5sigma detection limit of point sources of K=18mag and the surface brightness limit is 10^-19Wm^-2arcsec^-2 when averaged over our typical seeing. Jets and outflows from both low and high mass Young Stellar Objects are revealed, as are new Planetary Nebulae and - via a comparison with earlier K-band observations acquired as part of the UKIDSS GPS - numerous variable stars. With their superior spatial resolution, the UWISH2 data also have the potential to reveal the true nature of many of the Extended Green Objects found in the GLIMPSE survey.Comment: 14pages, 8figures, 2tables, accepted for publication by MNRAS, a version with higher resolution figures can be found at http://astro.kent.ac.uk/~df

Ab-initio structural, elastic, and vibrational properties of carbon nanotubes

A study based on ab initio calculations is presented on the estructural, elastic, and vibrational properties of single-wall carbon nanotubes with different radii and chiralities. We use SIESTA, an implementation of pseudopotential-density-functional theory which allows calculations on systems with a large number of atoms per cell. Different quantities like bond distances, Young moduli, Poisson ratio and the frequencies of different phonon branches are monitored versus tube radius. The validity of expectations based on graphite is explored down to small radii, where some deviations appear related to the curvature effects. For the phonon spectra, the results are compared with the predictions of the simple zone-folding approximation. Except for the known defficiencies of this approximation in the low-frequency vibrational regions, it offers quite accurate results, even for relatively small radii.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B (11 Nov. 98

Extreme infrared variables from UKIDSS-I. A concentration in star-forming regions

We present initial results of the first panoramic search for high-amplitude near-infrared variability in theGalactic plane.We analyse the widely separated two-epoch K-band photometry in the fifth and seventh data releases of the UKIDSS Galactic plane survey.We find 45 stars with δK > 1 mag, including two previously known OH/IR stars and a Nova. Even though the midplane is not yet included in the data set, we find the majority (66 per cent) of our sample to be within known star-forming regions (SFRs), with two large concentrations in the Serpens OB2 association (11 stars) and the Cygnus-X complex (12 stars). Sources in SFRs show spectral energy distributions that support classification as young stellar objects (YSOs). This indicates that YSOs dominate the Galactic population of high-amplitude infrared variable stars at low luminosities and therefore likely dominate the total high-amplitude population. Spectroscopic follow up of the DR5 sample shows at least four stars with clear characteristics of eruptive premain- sequence variables, two of which are deeply embedded. Our results support the recent concept of eruptive variability comprising a continuum of outburst events with different timescales and luminosities, but triggered by a similar physical mechanism involving unsteady accretion. Also, we find what appears to be one of the most variable classical Be stars. © 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society