Early-Season Phenology and Temporal Dynamics of the Common Asparagus Beetle, \u3ci\u3eCrioceris Asparagi\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), in Southern Minnesota

During the years 1991-1994, studies were conducted to determine the early-season phenology and temporal dynamics of Crioceris asparagi (L.) (Co- leoptera: Chrysomelidae) in southern Minnesota asparagus. To document the early-season phenology, asparagus plots were sampled for egg, larval, and adult stages of C. asparagi during the months of May and June. Temporal dynamics of C. asparagi were determined by measuring the diurnal activity of adults and sampling asparagus plots at specific times (7 am, 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm and 5 pm) throughout May and June. We first detected C. asparagi adults in early May and they remained active throughout the sampling period. Eggs and larvae were also found; larval infestations on spears, however, were consistently lower than those for eggs. The temporal dynamics of C. asparagi adults showed that a higher percentage of asparagus plants were observed to be infested with beetles during the afternoon hours of 1 and 5 pm. The information provided in this paper illustrates the importance of determining the optimum time of day for sampling and will assist in properly targeting sampling efforts in future asparagus research and integrated pest management (IPM) programs

Cloning of mid-G_1 serum response genes and identification of a subset regulated by conditional myc expression

The emergence of cells from a quiescent G_0 arrested state into the cell cycle is a multistep process that begins with the immediate early response to mitogens and extends into a specialized G_1 phase. Many immediate early serum response genes including c-fos, c-myc, and c-jun are transcriptional regulators. To understand their roles in regulating cell cycle entry and progression, the identities of their regulatory targets must be determined. In this work we have cloned cDNA copies of messenger RNAs that are either up- or down-regulated at a mid-G_1 point in the serum response (midserum-response [mid-SR]). The mid-SR panel is expected to include both direct and indirect targets of immediate early regulators. This expectation was confirmed by the identification of several transcriptional targets of conditional c-myc activity. In terms of cellular function, the mid-SR class is also expected to include execution genes needed for progression through G_1 and into S-phase. DNA sequence data showed that the mid-SR panel included several genes already known to be involved in cell cycle progression or growth transformation, suggesting that previously unknown cDNAs in the same group are good candidates for other G_1 execution functions. In functional assays of G_0-->S-phase progression, c-myc expression can bypass the requirement for serum mitogens and drive a large fraction of G_0 arrested cells through G_1 into S-phase. However, beyond this general similarity, little is known about the relation of a serum-driven progression to a myc-driven progression. Using the mid-SR collection as molecular reporters, we found that the myc driven G_1 differs qualitatively from the serum driven case. Instead of simply activating a subset of serum response genes, as might be expected, myc regulated some genes inversely relative to serum stimulation. This suggests that a myc driven progression from G_0 may have novel properties with implications for its action in oncogenesis

Losartan Treatment Attenuates Tumor-induced Myocardial Dysfunction

Fatigue and muscle wasting are common symptoms experienced by cancer patients. Data from animal models demonstrate that angiotensin is involved in tumor-induced muscle wasting, and that tumor growth can independently affect myocardial function, which could contribute to fatigue in cancer patients. In clinical studies, inhibitors of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) can prevent the development of chemotherapy-induced cardiovascular dysfunction, suggesting a mechanistic role for the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS). In the present study, we investigated whether an angiotensin (AT) 1-receptor antagonist could prevent the development of tumor-associated myocardial dysfunction. Methods and results: Colon26 adenocarcinoma (c26) cells were implanted into female CD2F1 mice at 8 weeks of age. Simultaneously, mice were administered Losartan (10 mg/kg) daily via their drinking water. In vivo echocardiography, blood pressure, in vitro cardiomyocyte function, cell proliferation assays, and measures of systemic inflammation and myocardial protein degradation were performed 19 days following tumor cell injection. Losartan treatment prevented tumor-induced loss of muscle mass and in vitro c26 cell proliferation, decreased tumor weight, and attenuated myocardial expression of interleukin-6. Furthermore, Losartan treatment mitigated tumor-associated alterations in calcium signaling in cardiomyocytes, which was associated with improved myocyte contraction velocity, systolic function, and blood pressures in the hearts of tumor-bearing mice. Conclusions: These data suggest that Losartan may mitigate tumor-induced myocardial dysfunction and inflammation

Two-electron atoms, ions and molecules

The quantum mechanics of two-electron systems is reviewed, starting with the ground state of the helium atom and helium-like ions, with central charge $Z\ge 2$. For Z=1, demonstrating the stability of the negative hydrogen ion, H$^-$, cannot be achieved using a mere product of individual electron wave functions, and requires instead an explicit account for the anticorrelation among the two electrons. The wave function proposed by Chandrasekhar is revisited, where the permutation symmetry is first broken and then restored by a counter-term. More delicate problems can be studied using the same strategy: the stability of hydrogen-like ions $(M^+,m^-,m^-)$ for any value of the proton-to-electron mass ratio $M/m$; the energy of the lowest spin-triplet state of helium and helium-like ions; the stability of the doubly-excited hydrogen ion with unnatural parity. The positronium molecule $(e^+,e^+,e^-,e^-)$, which has been predicted years ago and discovered recently, can also be shown to be stable against spontaneous dissociation, though the calculation is a little more involved. Emphasis is put on symmetry breaking which can either spoil or improve the stability of systems.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure

Evolution of trace gases and particles emitted by a chaparral fire in California

Biomass burning (BB) is a major global source of trace gases and particles. Accurately representing the production and evolution of these emissions is an important goal for atmospheric chemical transport models. We measured a suite of gases and aerosols emitted from an 81 hectare prescribed fire in chaparral fuels on the central coast of California, US on 17 November 2009. We also measured physical and chemical changes that occurred in the isolated downwind plume in the first ~4 h after emission. The measurements were carried out onboard a Twin Otter aircraft outfitted with an airborne Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (AFTIR), aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS), single particle soot photometer (SP2), nephelometer, LiCor CO_2 analyzer, a chemiluminescence ozone instrument, and a wing-mounted meteorological probe. Our measurements included: CO_2; CO; NO_x; NH_3; non-methane organic compounds; organic aerosol (OA); inorganic aerosol (nitrate, ammonium, sulfate, and chloride); aerosol light scattering; refractory black carbon (rBC); and ambient temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, and three-dimensional wind velocity. The molar ratio of excess O_3 to excess CO in the plume (ΔO_3/ΔCO) increased from −5.13 (±1.13) × 10^(−3) to 10.2 (±2.16) × 10^(−2) in ~4.5 h following smoke emission. Excess acetic and formic acid (normalized to excess CO) increased by factors of 1.73 ± 0.43 and 7.34 ± 3.03 (respectively) over the same time since emission. Based on the rapid decay of C_2H_4 we infer an in-plume average OH concentration of 5.27 (±0.97) × 10^6 molec cm^(−3), consistent with previous studies showing elevated OH concentrations in biomass burning plumes. Ammonium, nitrate, and sulfate all increased over the course of 4 h. The observed ammonium increase was a factor of 3.90 ± 2.93 in about 4 h, but accounted for just ~36% of the gaseous ammonia lost on a molar basis. Some of the gas phase NH_3 loss may have been due to condensation on, or formation of, particles below the AMS detection range. NO_x was converted to PAN and particle nitrate with PAN production being about two times greater than production of observable nitrate in the first ~4 h following emission. The excess aerosol light scattering in the plume (normalized to excess CO_2) increased by a factor of 2.50 ± 0.74 over 4 h. The increase in light scattering was similar to that observed in an earlier study of a biomass burning plume in Mexico where significant secondary formation of OA closely tracked the increase in scattering. In the California plume, however, ΔOA/ΔCO_2 decreased sharply for the first hour and then increased slowly with a net decrease of ~20% over 4 h. The fraction of thickly coated rBC particles increased up to ~85% over the 4 h aging period. Decreasing OA accompanied by increased scattering/particle coating in initial aging may be due to a combination of particle coagulation and evaporation processes. Recondensation of species initially evaporated from the particles may have contributed to the subsequent slow rise in OA. We compare our results to observations from other plume aging studies and suggest that differences in environmental factors such as smoke concentration, oxidant concentration, actinic flux, and RH contribute significantly to the variation in plume evolution observations

Comparison of 2 high-throughput spectral techniques to predict differences in diet composition of grazing sheep and cattle

Diet composition can be estimated in free-ranging animals by the use of n-alkane and long-chain fatty alcohol concentrations in feces. However, this technique involves relatively laborious and costly analytical techniques. Two spectroscopy techniques were investigated as a way of determining whether dietary differences are likely, thus indicating whether the more expensive and labor-intensive techniques for more detailed analysis are justified. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and front-face fluorescence emission spectroscopy (lambda(excitation) = 380 nm, lambda(emission) = 600 to 760 nm) were used to analyze fecal samples collected from 2 different breeds of cattle and sheep (4 groups in total, n = 6 per group) grazing moorland plants in 2 grazing sessions. These fecal samples were also analyzed for alkane and alcohol concentrations. Fourier-transform infrared spectra, particularly in the alkane regions, demonstrated clear separation between animal species. Fluorescence emission spectra showed similar separation; fluorophores were most likely chlorophylls and their derivatives. Multivariate analysis of all 3 data sets showed similar variation within and between groups of cattle and sheep, indicating differences in diet selection particularly between species, but also between breed and grazing session. Both spectroscopy methods showed utility in suggesting differences in diet composition that would be worth investigating using more detailed chemical analyses. Of the 2 techniques, the FTIR spectroscopy gave the better comparative results, being able to detect differences in sampling months that were detected with alkanes and alcohols that the fluorescence emission spectroscopy did not detect

Globally sparse PLS regression

Volume 56 ; Print ISBN : 978-1-4614-8282-6Partial least squares (PLS) regression combines dimensionality reduction and prediction using a latent variable model. It provides better predictive ability than principle component analysis by taking into account both the independent and re- sponse variables in the dimension reduction procedure. However, PLS suffers from over-fitting problems for few samples but many variables. We formulate a new criterion for sparse PLS by adding a structured sparsity constraint to the global SIMPLS optimization. The constraint is a sparsity-inducing norm, which is useful for selecting the important variables shared among all the components. The optimization is solved by an augmented Lagrangian method to obtain the PLS components and to perform variable selection simultaneously. We propose a novel greedy algorithm to overcome the computation difficulties. Experiments demonstrate that our approach to PLS regression attains better performance with fewer selected predictor

A Deep XMM-Newton Survey of M33: Point Source Catalog, Source Detection and Characterization of Overlapping Fields

We have obtained a deep 8-field XMM-Newton mosaic of M33 covering the galaxy out to the D$_{25}$ isophote and beyond to a limiting 0.2--4.5 keV unabsorbed flux of 5$\times$10$^{-16}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ (L${>}$4$\times$10$^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$ at the distance of M33). These data allow complete coverage of the galaxy with high sensitivity to soft sources such as diffuse hot gas and supernova remnants. Here we describe the methods we used to identify and characterize 1296 point sources in the 8 fields. We compare our resulting source catalog to the literature, note variable sources, construct hardness ratios, classify soft sources, analyze the source density profile, and measure the X-ray luminosity function. As a result of the large effective area of XMM-Newton below 1 keV, the survey contains many new soft X-ray sources. The radial source density profile and X-ray luminosity function for the sources suggests that only $\sim$15% of the 391 bright sources with L${>}$3.6$\times$10$^{35}$ erg s$^{-1}$ are likely to be associated with M33, and more than a third of these are known supernova remnants. The log(N)--log(S) distribution, when corrected for background contamination, is a relatively flat power-law with a differential index of 1.5, which suggests many of the other M33 sources may be high-mass X-ray binaries. Finally, we note the discovery of an interesting new transient X-ray source, which we are unable to classify.Comment: 26 pages, 6 tables, 13 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Screening of antioxidant properties of the apple juice using the front-face synchronous fluorescence and chemometrics

Fluorescence spectroscopy is gaining increasing attention in food analysis due to its higher sensitivity and selectivity as compared to other spectroscopic techniques. Synchronous scanning fluorescence technique is particularly useful in studies of multi-fluorophoric food samples, providing a further improvement of selectivity by reduction in the spectral overlapping and suppressing light-scattering interferences. Presently, we study the feasibility of the prediction of the total phenolics, flavonoids, and antioxidant capacity using front-face synchronous fluorescence spectra of apple juices. Commercial apple juices from different product ranges were studied. Principal component analysis (PCA) applied to the unfolded synchronous fluorescence spectra was used to compare the fluorescence of the entire sample set. The regression analysis was performed using partial least squares (PLS1 and PLS2) methods on the unfolded total synchronous and on the single-offset synchronous fluorescence spectra. The best calibration models for all of the studied parameters were obtained using the PLS1 method for the single-offset synchronous spectra. The models for the prediction of the total flavonoid content had the best performance; the optimal model was obtained for the analysis of the synchronous fluorescence spectra at Delta lambda = 110 nm (R (2) = 0.870, residual predictive deviation (RPD) = 2.7). The optimal calibration models for the prediction of the total phenolic content (Delta lambda = 80 nm, R (2) = 0.766, RPD = 2.0) and the total antioxidant capacity (Delta lambda = 70 nm, R (2) = 0.787, RPD = 2.1) had only an approximate predictive ability. These results demonstrate that synchronous fluorescence could be a useful tool in fast semi-quantitative screening for the antioxidant properties of the apple juices.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS): The Environments of High-z SDSS Quasi-Stellar-Objects

This paper presents a study of the environments of SDSS Quasi-Stellar-Objects (QSOs) in the Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS). We concentrate on the high-redshift QSOs as these have not been studied in large numbers with data of this depth before. We use the IRAC 3.6-4.5{\mu}m colour of objects and ancillary r-band data to filter out as much foreground contamination as possible. This technique allows us to find a significant (> 4-{\sigma}) over-density of galaxies around QSOs in a redshift bin centred on z ~ 2.0 and a (> 2-{\sigma}) over-density of galaxies around QSOs in a redshift bin centred on z ~ 3.3. We compare our findings to the predictions of a semi-analytic galaxy formation model, based on the {\Lambda}CDM millennium simulation, and find for both redshift bins that the model predictions match well the source-density we have measured from the SERVS data.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, Accepted by Ap