Analyses of Groundwater for Trace Levels of Pesticides

Agricultural production is a major source of revenue in Arkansas. In order to increase productivity, it has been necessary to rely increasingly on the use of pesticides and irrigation water. In the last 15 years several states have reported finding pesticides in groundwater as a result of normal agricultural practices. Since almost half of the population also relies on groundwater as their source of drinking water, it is necessary to conduct research as to ascertain the presence or absence of commonly used pesticides in groundwater. Multi residue analytical techniques were developed for the analysis of acifluorfen, alachlor, atrazine, cyanazine, diuron, fluometuron, linuron, metolachlor and propanil from groundwater, by either GLC or HPLC. Analytical sensitivities ranged from 1 to 5 ppb. Groundwater samples were collected from three areas of southeastern Arkansas that are under heavy agricultural production. Samples were collected directly from irrigation wells just prior to and during the peak of the irrigation season and will be compared to determine whether any temporal differences exist. To-date, over 500 samples have been analyzed. No positive finding for any pesticide has been shown

Biogenesis of the inner membrane complex is dependent on vesicular transport by the alveolate specific GTPase Rab11B

Apicomplexan parasites belong to a recently recognised group of protozoa referred to as Alveolata. These protists contain membranous sacs (alveoli) beneath the plasma membrane, termed the Inner Membrane Complex (IMC) in the case of Apicomplexa. During parasite replication the IMC is formed de novo within the mother cell in a process described as internal budding. We hypothesized that an alveolate specific factor is involved in the specific transport of vesicles from the Golgi to the IMC and identified the small GTPase Rab11B as an alveolate specific Rab-GTPase that localises to the growing end of the IMC during replication of Toxoplasma gondii. Conditional interference with Rab11B function leads to a profound defect in IMC biogenesis, indicating that Rab11B is required for the transport of Golgi derived vesicles to the nascent IMC of the daughter cell. Curiously, a block in IMC biogenesis did not affect formation of sub-pellicular microtubules, indicating that IMC biogenesis and formation of sub-pellicular microtubules is not mechanistically linked. We propose a model where Rab11B specifically transports vesicles derived from the Golgi to the immature IMC of the growing daughter parasites

Gravity Wave and Neutrino Bursts from Stellar Collapse: A Sensitive Test of Neutrino Masses

New methods are proposed with the goal to determine absolute neutrino masses from the simultaneous observation of the bursts of neutrinos and gravitational waves emitted during a stellar collapse. It is shown that the neutronization electron neutrino flash and the maximum amplitude of the gravitational wave signal are tightly synchronized with the bounce occuring at the end of the core collapse on a timescale better than 1 ms. The existing underground neutrino detectors (SuperKamiokande, SNO, ...) and the gravity wave antennas soon to operate (LIGO, Virgo, ...) are well matched in their performance for detecting galactic supernovae and for making use of the proposed approach. Several methods are described, which apply to the different scenarios depending on neutrino mixing. Given the present knowledge on neutrino oscillations, the methods proposed are sensitive to a mass range where neutrinos would essentially be mass-degenerate. The 95 % C.L. upper limit which can be achieved varies from 0.75 eV/c2 for large electron neutrino survival probabilities to 1.1 eV/c2 when in practice all electron neutrinos convert into muon or tau neutrinos. The sensitivity is nearly independent of the supernova distance.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

A comparison of methods for gravitational wave burst searches from LIGO and Virgo

The search procedure for burst gravitational waves has been studied using 24 hours of simulated data in a network of three interferometers (Hanford 4-km, Livingston 4-km and Virgo 3-km are the example interferometers). Several methods to detect burst events developed in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) and Virgo collaboration have been studied and compared. We have performed coincidence analysis of the triggers obtained in the different interferometers with and without simulated signals added to the data. The benefits of having multiple interferometers of similar sensitivity are demonstrated by comparing the detection performance of the joint coincidence analysis with LSC and Virgo only burst searches. Adding Virgo to the LIGO detector network can increase by 50% the detection efficiency for this search. Another advantage of a joint LIGO-Virgo network is the ability to reconstruct the source sky position. The reconstruction accuracy depends on the timing measurement accuracy of the events in each interferometer, and is displayed in this paper with a fixed source position example.Comment: LIGO-Virgo working group submitted to PR

A Hypothesis for the Evolution of Nuclear-Encoded, Plastid-Targeted Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Genes in “Chromalveolate” Members

Eukaryotes bearing red alga-derived plastids — photosynthetic alveolates (dinoflagellates plus the apicomplexan Toxoplasma gondii plus the chromerid Chromera velia), photosynthetic stramenopiles, haptophytes, and cryptophytes — possess unique plastid-targeted glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenases (henceforth designated as “GapC1”). Pioneering phylogenetic studies have indicated a single origin of the GapC1 enzymes in eukaryotic evolution, but there are two potential idiosyncrasies in the GapC1 phylogeny: Firstly, the GapC1 tree topology is apparently inconsistent with the organismal relationship among the “GapC1-containing” groups. Secondly, four stramenopile GapC1 homologues are consistently paraphyletic in previously published studies, although these organisms have been widely accepted as monophyletic. For a closer examination of the above issues, in this study GapC1 gene sampling was improved by determining/identifying nine stramenopile and two cryptophyte genes. Phylogenetic analyses of our GapC1 dataset, which is particularly rich in the stramenopile homologues, prompt us to propose a new scenario that assumes multiple, lateral GapC1 gene transfer events to explain the incongruity between the GapC1 phylogeny and the organismal relationships amongst the “GapC1-containing” groups. Under our new scenario, GapC1 genes uniquely found in photosynthetic alveolates, photosynthetic stramenopiles, haptophytes, and cryptopyhytes are not necessarily a character vertically inherited from a common ancestor

Sequence and Phylogenetic Analysis of SSU rRNA Gene of Five Microsporidia

The complete small subunit rRNA (SSU rRNA) gene sequences of five microsporidia including Nosemaheliothidis, and four novel microsporidia isolated from Pieris rapae, Phyllobrotica armta, Hemerophila atrilineata, and Bombyx mori, respectively, were obtained by PCR amplification, cloning, and sequencing. Two phylogenetic trees based on SSU rRNA sequences had been constructed by using Neighbor-Joining of Phylip software and UPGMA of MEGA4.0 software. The taxonomic status of four novel microsporidia was determined by analysis of phylogenetic relationship, length, G+C content, identity, and divergence of the SSU rRNA sequences. The results showed that the microsporidia isolated from Pieris rapae, Phyllobrotica armta, and Hemerophila atrilineata have close phylogenetic relationship with the Nosema, while another microsporidium isolated from Bombyx mori is closely related to the Endoreticulatus. So, we temporarily classify three novel species of microsporidia to genus Nosema, as Nosema sp. PR, Nosema sp. PA, Nosema sp. HA. Another is temporarily classified into genus Endoreticulatus, as Endoreticulatus sp. Zhenjiang. The result indicated as well that it is feasible and valuable to elucidate phylogenetic relationships and taxonomic status of microsporidian species by analyzing information from SSU rRNA sequences of microsporidia

Phylogenomic Analysis of Odyssella thessalonicensis Fortifies the Common Origin of Rickettsiales, Pelagibacter ubique and Reclimonas americana Mitochondrion

Background: The evolution of the Alphaproteobacteria and origin of the mitochondria are topics of considerable debate. Most studies have placed the mitochondria ancestor within the Rickettsiales order. Ten years ago, the bacterium Odyssella thessalonicensis was isolated from Acanthamoeba spp., and the 16S rDNA phylogeny placed it within the Rickettsiales. Recently, the whole genome of O. thessalonicensis has been sequenced, and 16S rDNA phylogeny and more robust and accurate phylogenomic analyses have been performed with 65 highly conserved proteins. Methodology/Principal Findings: The results suggested that the O. thessalonicensis emerged between the Rickettsiales and other Alphaproteobacteria. The mitochondrial proteins of the Reclinomonas americana have been used to locate the phylogenetic position of the mitochondrion ancestor within the Alphaproteobacteria tree. Using the K tree score method, nine mitochondrion-encoded proteins, whose phylogenies were congruent with the Alphaproteobacteria phylogenomic tree, have been selected and concatenated for Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood phylogenies. The Reclinomonas americana mitochondrion is a sister taxon to the free-living bacteria Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique, and together, they form a clade that is deeply rooted in the Rickettsiales clade. Conclusions/Significance: The Reclinomonas americana mitochondrion phylogenomic study confirmed that mitochondri

Gravitational Waves From Known Pulsars: Results From The Initial Detector Era

We present the results of searches for gravitational waves from a large selection of pulsars using data from the most recent science runs (S6, VSR2 and VSR4) of the initial generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) and Virgo. We do not see evidence for gravitational wave emission from any of the targeted sources but produce upper limits on the emission amplitude. We highlight the results from seven young pulsars with large spin-down luminosities. We reach within a factor of five of the canonical spin-down limit for all seven of these, whilst for the Crab and Vela pulsars we further surpass their spin-down limits. We present new or updated limits for 172 other pulsars (including both young and millisecond pulsars). Now that the detectors are undergoing major upgrades, and, for completeness, we bring together all of the most up-to-date results from all pulsars searched for during the operations of the first-generation LIGO, Virgo and GEO600 detectors. This gives a total of 195 pulsars including the most recent results described in this paper.United States National Science FoundationScience and Technology Facilities Council of the United KingdomMax-Planck-SocietyState of Niedersachsen/GermanyAustralian Research CouncilInternational Science Linkages program of the Commonwealth of AustraliaCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of ItalySpanish Ministerio de Economia y CompetitividadConselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes BalearsNetherlands Organisation for Scientific ResearchPolish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationFOCUS Programme of Foundation for Polish ScienceRoyal SocietyScottish Funding CouncilScottish Universities Physics AllianceNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationOTKA of HungaryLyon Institute of Origins (LIO)National Research Foundation of KoreaIndustry CanadaProvince of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationNational Science and Engineering Research Council CanadaCarnegie TrustLeverhulme TrustDavid and Lucile Packard FoundationResearch CorporationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationAstronom

A First Search for coincident Gravitational Waves and High Energy Neutrinos using LIGO, Virgo and ANTARES data from 2007

We present the results of the first search for gravitational wave bursts associated with high energy neutrinos. Together, these messengers could reveal new, hidden sources that are not observed by conventional photon astronomy, particularly at high energy. Our search uses neutrinos detected by the underwater neutrino telescope ANTARES in its 5 line configuration during the period January - September 2007, which coincided with the fifth and first science runs of LIGO and Virgo, respectively. The LIGO-Virgo data were analysed for candidate gravitational-wave signals coincident in time and direction with the neutrino events. No significant coincident events were observed. We place limits on the density of joint high energy neutrino - gravitational wave emission events in the local universe, and compare them with densities of merger and core-collapse events.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, science summary page at http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S5LV_ANTARES/index.php. Public access area to figures, tables at https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=p120000

18S rDNA Phylogeny of Lamproderma and Allied Genera (Stemonitales, Myxomycetes, Amoebozoa)

The phylogenetic position of the slime-mould genus Lamproderma (Myxomycetes, Amoebozoa) challenges traditional taxonomy: although it displays the typical characters of the order Stemonitales, it appears to be sister to Physarales. This study provides a small subunit (18S or SSU) ribosomal RNA gene-based phylogeny of Lamproderma and its allies, with new sequences from 49 specimens in 12 genera. We found that the order Stemonitales and Lamproderma were both ancestral to Physarales and that Lamproderma constitutes several clades intermingled with species of Diacheopsis, Colloderma and Elaeomyxa. We suggest that these genera may have evolved from Lamproderma by multiple losses of fruiting body stalks and that many taxonomic revisions are needed. We found such high genetic diversity within three Lamproderma species that they probably consist of clusters of sibling species. We discuss the contrasts between genetic and morphological divergence and implications for the morphospecies concept, highlighting the phylogenetically most reliable morphological characters and pointing to others that have been overestimated. In addition, we showed that the first part (∼600 bases) of the SSU rDNA gene is a valuable tool for phylogeny in Myxomycetes, since it displayed sufficient variability to distinguish closely related taxa and never failed to cluster together specimens considered of the same species