Research Notes : Studies in polyploidy in soybeans: A simple and effective colchicine technique of chromosome doubling for soybean (Glycine max (L .) Merr.) and its wild relatives.

Tang and Loo (1940) first reported the induction of tetraploid soybeans by soaking day-old seedlings in 0.05 to 0.1% colchicine solution for 24 or 48 h. Oinuma (1952) obtained tetraploids by soaking dry soybean seeds in 0.1% colchicine solution for 24, 48 and 72 h. His results showed that the survival of resulting plants was poor

A Novel Solution to the Gravitino Problem

In a general phenomenological model with local supersymmetry, the amount of massive gravitinos produced in early universe tends to violate the known dark matter density bound by many orders of magnitude. This problem is absent in the recently proposed non-linear supergravity model in the brane world scenario in Type IIB string theory, where we (i.e., the standard model of strong and electroweak interactions) live in a stack of $\overline{\rm D3}$-branes (i.e., anti-D3-branes) that span the 3 large spatial dimensions. These $\overline{\rm D3}$-branes break supersymmetry. As an open string mode in there, the Goldstino to be eaten by the gravitino is present only inside the $\overline{\rm D3}$-branes. So, although a gravitino can be massive (e.g., $\overline{m}_{3/2} \ge 100$ GeV) inside the $\overline{\rm D3}$-branes, it is (almost) massless outside the $\overline{\rm D3}$-branes. It follows that the massive gravitinos produced inside the $\overline{\rm D3}$-branes will be pushed out of the $\overline{\rm D3}$-branes, analogous to the Meissner effect for the massive photons in super-conductors. As a result, the massive gravitinos will be depleted so the gravitino problem is absent.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, 2 table

Baryon Number Violating Rate as A Function of the Proton-Proton Collision Energy

The baryon-number violation (BV) happens in the standard electroweak model. According to the Bloch-wave picture, the BV event rate shall be significantly enhanced when the proton-proton collision center of mass (COM) energy goes beyond the sphaleron barrier height $E_{\rm sph}\simeq 9.0\,{\rm TeV}$. Here we compare the BV event rates at different COM energies, using the Bloch-wave band structure and the CT18 parton distribution function data, with the phase space suppression factor included. As an example, the BV cross-section at 25 TeV is 4 orders of magnitude bigger than its cross-section at 13 TeV.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, and 4 table

The Missed Patient With Diabetes: How access to health care affects the detection of diabetes

OBJECTIVE—This study examined the association between access to health care and three classifications of diabetes status: diagnosed, undiagnosed, and no diabetes

The Hubble Constant in the Axi-Higgs Universe

The $\Lambda$CDM model provides an excellent fit to the CMB data. However, a statistically significant tension emerges when its determination of the Hubble constant $H_0$ is compared to the local distance-redshift measurements. The axi-Higgs model, which couples an ultralight axion to the Higgs field, offers a specific variation of the $\Lambda$CDM model. It relaxes the $H_0$ tension as well as explains the $^7$Li puzzle in Big-Bang nucleosynthesis, the clustering $S_8$ tension with the weak-lensing data, and the observed isotropic cosmic birefringence in CMB. In this paper, we demonstrate how the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions can be relaxed simultaneously, by correlating the axion impacts on the early and late universe. In a benchmark scenario ($m=2 \times 10^{-30}$ eV) selected for experimental tests soon, the analysis combining the CMB+BAO+WL+SN data yields $H_0 = 69.9 \pm 1.5$ km/s/Mpc and $S_8 = 0.8045 \pm 0.0096$. Combining this (excluding the SN (supernovae) part) with the local distance-redshift measurements yields $H_0 = 72.42 \pm 0.76$ km/s/Mpc, while $S_8$ is slightly more suppressed.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, final version published on PRR Lette

Endothelial cell-specific deletion of a microRNA accelerates atherosclerosis

Background and aims: Chronic vascular endothelial inflammation predisposes to atherosclerosis; however, the cell-autonomous roles for endothelial-expressing microRNAs (miRNAs) are poorly understood in this process. MiR-181b is expressed in several cellular constituents relevant to lesion formation. The aim of this study is to examine the role of genetic deficiency of the miR-181b locus in endothelial cells during atherogenesis. Methods and Results: Using a proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9)-induced atherosclerosis mouse model, we demonstrated that endothelial cell (EC)-specific deletion of miR-181a2b2 significantly promoted atherosclerotic lesion formation, cell adhesion molecule expression, and the influx of lesional macrophages in the vessel wall. Yet, endothelium deletion of miR-181a2b2 did not affect body weight, lipid metabolism, anti-inflammatory Ly6Clow or the pro-inflammatory Ly6Cinterm and Ly6Chigh fractions in circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory mediators in both bone marrow (BM) and PBMCs. Mechanistically, bulk RNA-seq and gene set enrichment analysis of ECs enriched from the aortic arch intima, as well as single cell RNA-seq from atherosclerotic lesions, revealed that endothelial miR-181a2b2 serves as a critical regulatory hub in controlling endothelial inflammation, cell adhesion, cell cycle, and immune response during atherosclerosis. Conclusions: Our study establishes that deficiency of a miRNA specifically in the vascular endothelium is sufficient to profoundly impact atherogenesis. Endothelial miR-181a2b2 deficiency regulates multiple key pathways related to endothelial inflammation, cell adhesion, cell cycle, and immune response involved in the development of atherosclerosis