1,721 research outputs found
Loss of the <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> P4-ATPases ALA6 and ALA7 impairs pollen fitness and alters the pollen tube plasma membrane
Members of the P4 subfamily of P-type ATPases are thought to create and maintain lipid asymmetry in biological membranes by flipping specific lipids between membrane leaflets. In Arabidopsis, 7 of the 12 Aminophospholipid ATPase (ALA) family members are expressed in pollen. Here we show that double knockout of ALA6 and ALA7 (ala6/7) results in siliques with a ~2-fold reduction in seed set with a high frequency of empty seed positions near the bottom. Seed set was reduced to near zero when plants were grown under a hot/cold temperature stress. Reciprocal crosses indicate that the ala6/7 reproductive deficiencies are due to a defect related to pollen transmission. In-vitro growth assays provide evidence that that ala6/7 pollen tubes are short and slow, with ~2-fold reductions in both maximal growth rate and overall length relative to wild-type. Outcrosses show that when ala6/7 pollen are in competition with wild-type pollen, they have a near 0% success rate in fertilizing ovules near the bottom of the pistil, consistent with ala6/7 pollen having short and slow growth defects. The ala6/7 phenotypes were rescued by the expression of either an ALA6-YFP or GFP-ALA6 fusion protein, which showed localization to both the plasma membrane and highly-mobile endomembrane structures. A mass spectrometry analysis of mature pollen grains revealed significant differences between ala6/7 and wild-type, both in the relative abundance of lipid classes and in the average number of double bonds present in acyl side chains. A change in the properties of the ala6/7 plasma membrane was also indicated by a ~10-fold reduction of labeling by lipophilic FM-dyes relative to wild-type. Together, these results indicate that ALA6 and ALA7 provide redundant activities that function to directly or indirectly change the distribution and abundance lipids in pollen, and support a model in which ALA6 and ALA7 are critical for pollen fitness under normal and temperature-stress conditions
Quantifying the uncertainties of transpiration calculations with the Penman-Monteith equation under different climate and optimum water supply conditions
The uncertainties of transpiration calculations with the Penman-Monteith equation were quantified under different climate conditions of Brazil, Germany and Israel using maize as a common crop type. All experiments were carried out under non-limiting growing conditions. Canopy resistance was determined by scaling to canopy level specific relations between in situ measurements of incident radiation and stomatal conductance using a light penetration model. The model was tested against heat-pulse measured sap flow in plant stems. The root mean square error (RMSE) of daily calculated transpiration minus measured sap flow was 0.4 mm/day. It was dominated by its variance component (variance = 0.2 {min/day}(2); bias = 0.0 mm/day). Calculated transpiration closely matched the measured trends at the three locations. No significant differences were found between seasons and locations. Uncertainties of canopy conductance parameterizations led to errors of up to 2.1 mm/day. The model responded most sensitively to a 30% change of net radiation (absolute bias error = 1.6 mm/day), followed by corresponding alterations of canopy resistances (0.8 mm/day), vapour pressure deficits (0.5 mm/clay) and aerodynamic resistances (0.34 mm/day). Measured and calculated 30-min or hourly averaged transpiration rates are highly correlated (r(2) = 0.95; n = 10634), and the slope of the regression line is close to unity. The overall RMSE of calculated transpiration minus measured sap flow was 0.08 mm/h and was dominated by its variance component (0.005 {mm/h}(2)). Measured sap flow consistently lagged behind calculated transpiration, because plant hydraulic capacitance delays the change of leaf water potential that drives water uptake. Calculated transpiration significantly overestimated sap flow during morning hours (mean = 0.068 mm/h, n = 321) and underestimated it during afternoon hours (mean = -0.065 mm/h; n = 316). The Penman-Monteith approach as implemented in the present study is sufficiently sensitive to detect small differences between transpiration and water uptake and provides a robust tool to manage plant water supply under unstressed conditions. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
The Aversion to Tampering with Nature (ATN) Scale: Individual Differences in (Dis)comfort with Altering the Natural World
People differ in their comfort with tampering with the natural world. Although some see altering nature as a sign of human progress, others see it as dangerous or hubristic. Across four studies, we investigate discomfort with tampering with the natural world. To do so, we develop the Aversion to Tampering with Nature (ATN) Scale, a short scale that is the first to directly measure this discomfort. We identify six activities that people believe tamper with nature (geoengineering, genetically modified organisms, pesticides, cloning, gene therapy, and nanoparticles) and show that ATN scores are associated with opposition to these activities. Furthermore, the ATN Scale predicts actual behavior: donations to an antiâ tampering cause. We demonstrate that ATN is related to previously identified constructs including trust in technology, naturalness bias, purity values, disgust sensitivity, aversion to playing God, and environmental beliefs and values. By illuminating who is concerned about tampering with nature and what predicts these beliefs, the ATN Scale provides opportunities to better understand public opposition to technological innovations, consumer preferences for â naturalâ products, and strategies for science communication.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154364/1/risa13414_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154364/2/risa13414.pd
Laser cooling of a diatomic molecule
It has been roughly three decades since laser cooling techniques produced
ultracold atoms, leading to rapid advances in a vast array of fields.
Unfortunately laser cooling has not yet been extended to molecules because of
their complex internal structure. However, this complexity makes molecules
potentially useful for many applications. For example, heteronuclear molecules
possess permanent electric dipole moments which lead to long-range, tunable,
anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions. The combination of the dipole-dipole
interaction and the precise control over molecular degrees of freedom possible
at ultracold temperatures make ultracold molecules attractive candidates for
use in quantum simulation of condensed matter systems and quantum computation.
Also ultracold molecules may provide unique opportunities for studying chemical
dynamics and for tests of fundamental symmetries. Here we experimentally
demonstrate laser cooling of the molecule strontium monofluoride (SrF). Using
an optical cycling scheme requiring only three lasers, we have observed both
Sisyphus and Doppler cooling forces which have substantially reduced the
transverse temperature of a SrF molecular beam. Currently the only technique
for producing ultracold molecules is by binding together ultracold alkali atoms
through Feshbach resonance or photoassociation. By contrast, different proposed
applications for ultracold molecules require a variety of molecular
energy-level structures. Our method provides a new route to ultracold
temperatures for molecules. In particular it bridges the gap between ultracold
temperatures and the ~1 K temperatures attainable with directly cooled
molecules (e.g. cryogenic buffer gas cooling or decelerated supersonic beams).
Ultimately our technique should enable the production of large samples of
molecules at ultracold temperatures for species that are chemically distinct
from bialkalis.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
Systematic variation of the stellar Initial Mass Function with velocity dispersion in early-type galaxies
An essential component of galaxy formation theory is the stellar initial mass
function (IMF), that describes the parent distribution of stellar mass in star
forming regions. We present observational evidence in a sample of early-type
galaxies (ETGs) of a tight correlation between central velocity dispersion and
the strength of several absorption features sensitive to the presence of
low-mass stars. Our sample comprises ~40,000 ETGs from the SPIDER survey
(z<0.1). The data, extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, are combined,
rejecting both noisy data, and spectra with contamination from telluric lines,
resulting in a set of 18 stacked spectra at high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N>
400 per A). A combined analysis of IMF-sensitive line strengths and spectral
fitting is performed with the latest state-of the art population synthesis
models (an extended version of the MILES models). A significant trend is found
between IMF slope and velocity dispersion, towards an excess of low-mass stars
in the most massive galaxies. Although we emphasize that accurate values of the
IMF slope will require a detailed analysis of chemical composition (such as
[a/Fe] or even individual element abundance ratios), the observed trends
suggest that low-mass ETGs are better fit by a Kroupa-like IMF, whereas massive
galaxies require bottom-heavy IMFs, exceeding the Salpeter slope at velocity
dispersions above 200km/s.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
Herschel/PACS far-infrared photometry of two z>4 quasars
We present Herschel far-infrared (FIR) observations of two sub-mm bright
quasars at high redshift: SDSS J1148+5251 (z=6.42) and BR 1202-0725 (z=4.69)
obtained with the PACS instrument. Both objects are detected in the PACS
photometric bands. The Herschel measurements provide additional data points
that constrain the FIR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of both sources,
and they emphasise a broad range of dust temperatures in these objects. For
lambda_rest ~< 20mu, the two SEDs are very similar to the average SEDs of
quasars at low redshift. In the FIR, however, both quasars show excess emission
compared to low-z QSO templates, most likely from cold dust powered by vigorous
star formation in the QSO host galaxies. For SDSS J1148+5251 we detect another
object at 160mu with a distance of ~10 arcseconds from the QSO. Although no
physical connection between the quasar and this object can be shown with the
available data, it could potentially confuse low-resolution measurements, thus
resulting in an overestimate of the FIR luminosity of the z=6.42 quasar.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the A&A special issue
on Hersche
Reverberation Mapping of the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 7469
A large reverberation mapping study of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469 has
yielded emission-line lags for Hbeta 4861 and He II 4686 and a central black
hole mass measurement of about 10 million solar masses, consistent with
previous measurements. A very low level of variability during the monitoring
campaign precluded meeting our original goal of recovering velocity-delay maps
from the data, but with the new Hbeta measurement, NGC 7469 is no longer an
outlier in the relationship between the size of the Hbeta-emitting broad-line
region and the AGN luminosity. It was necessary to detrend the continuum and
Hbeta and He II 4686 line light curves and those from archival UV data for
different time-series analysis methods to yield consistent results.Comment: 9 Pages, 7 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in The
Astrophysical Journa
The Fading Optical Counterpart of GRB~970228, Six Months and One Year Later
We report on observations of the fading optical counterpart of the gamma-ray
burst GRB 970228, made with the Hubble Space Telescope STIS CCD approximately
six months after outburst and with the HST/NICMOS and Keck/NIRC approximately
one year after outburst. The unresolved counterpart is detected by STIS at
V=28.0 +/- 0.25, consistent with a continued power-law decline with exponent
-1.14 +/- 0.05. The counterpart is located within, but near the edge of, a
faint extended source with diameter ~0."8 and integrated magnitude V=25.8 +/-
0.25. A reanalysis of HST and NTT observations performed shortly after the
burst shows no evidence of proper motion of the point source or fading of the
extended emission. Only the extended source is visible in the NICMOS images
with a magnitude of H=23.3 +/- 0.1. The Keck observations find K = 22.8 +/-
0.3. Several distinct and independent means of deriving the foreground
extinction in the direction of GRB 970228 all agree with A_V = 0.75 +/- 0.2.
After adjusting for Galactic extinction, we find that the size of the observed
extended emission is consistent with that of galaxies of comparable magnitude
found in the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) and other deep HST images. Only 2% of the
sky is covered by galaxies of similar or greater surface brightness; therefore
the extended source is almost certainly the host galaxy. Additionally, we find
that the extinction-corrected V - H and V - K colors of the host are as blue as
any galaxy of comparable or brighter magnitude in the HDF. Taken in concert
with recent observations of GRB 970508, GRB 971214, and GRB 980703 our work
suggests that all four GRBs with spectroscopic identification or deep
multicolor broad-band imaging of the host lie in rapidly star-forming galaxies.Comment: 24 pages, Latex, 4 PostScript figures, to appear in the May 10 issue
of The Astrophysical Journal (Note: displayed abstract is abridged
The Monitor project: JW 380 -- a 0.26, 0.15 Msol pre main sequence eclipsing binary in the Orion Nebula Cluster
We report the discovery of a low-mass (0.26 +/- 0.02, 0.15 +/- 0.01 Msol)
pre-main-sequence eclipsing binary with a 5.3 day orbital period. JW 380 was
detected as part of a high-cadence time-resolved photometric survey (the
Monitor project) using the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope and Wide Field Camera
for a survey of a single field in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) region in V
and i bands. The star is assigned a 99 per cent membership probability from
proper motion measurements, and radial velocity observations indicate a
systemic velocity within 1 sigma of that of the ONC. Modelling of the combined
light and radial velocity curves of the system gave stellar radii of 1.19 +0.04
-0.18 Rsol and 0.90 +0.17 -0.03 Rsol for the primary and secondary, with a
significant third light contribution which is also visible as a third peak in
the cross-correlation functions used to derive radial velocities. The masses
and radii appear to be consistent with stellar models for 2-3 Myr age from
several authors, within the present observational errors. These observations
probe an important region of mass-radius parameter space, where there are
currently only a handful of known pre-main-sequence eclipsing binary systems
with precise measurements available in the literature.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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