2,151 research outputs found
Enhanced iron and zinc accumulation in genetically engineered wheat plants using sickle alfalfa (Medicago falcata L.) ferritin gene
Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional disorder, affecting over 30% of the world’s human population. The primary method used to alleviate this problem is nutrient biofortification of crops so as to improve the iron content and its availability in food sources. The over-expression of ferritin is an effective method to increase iron concentration in transgenic crops. For the research reported herein, sickle alfalfa (Medicago falcata L.) ferritin was transformed into wheat driven by the seed-storage protein glutelin GluB-1 gene promoter. The integration of ferritin into the wheat was assessed by PCR, RT-PCR and Western blotting. The concentration of certain minerals in the transgenic wheat grain was determined by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry, the results showed that grain Fe and Zn concentration of transgenic wheat increased by 73% and 44% compared to nontransformed wheat, respectively. However, grain Cu and Cd concentration of transgenic wheat grain decreased significantly in comparison with non-transformed wheat. The results suggest that the over-expression of sickle alfalfa ferritin, controlled by the seed-storage protein glutelin GluB-1 gene promoter, increases the grain Fe and Zn concentration, but also affects the homeostasis of other minerals in transgenic wheat grain
Weak Gravity Conjecture for Noncommutative Field Theory
We investigate the weak gravity bounds on the U(1) gauge theory and scalar
field theories in various dimensional noncommutative space. Many results are
obtained, such as the upper bound on the noncommutative scale for
four dimensional noncommutative U(1) gauge theory. We also discuss the weak
gravity bounds on their commutative counterparts. For example, our result on 4
dimensional noncommutative U(1) gauge theory reduces in certain limit to its
commutative counterpart suggested by Arkani-Hamed et.al at least at tree-level.Comment: 9 page
Existence and uniqueness of solutions for systems of fractional differential equations with Riemann–Stieltjes integral boundary condition
In this article, we first establish an existence and uniqueness result for a class of systems of nonlinear operator equations under more general conditions by means of the cone theory and monotone iterative technique. Furthermore, the iterative sequence of the solution and the error estimation of the system are given. Then we use this new result to study the existence and uniqueness of the solution for boundary value problems of systems of fractional differential equations with a Riemann–Stieltjes integral boundary condition in real Banach spaces. The results obtained in this paper are more general than many previous results and complement them
A Graph Theoretic Approach for Object Shape Representation in Compositional Hierarchies Using a Hybrid Generative-Descriptive Model
A graph theoretic approach is proposed for object shape representation in a
hierarchical compositional architecture called Compositional Hierarchy of Parts
(CHOP). In the proposed approach, vocabulary learning is performed using a
hybrid generative-descriptive model. First, statistical relationships between
parts are learned using a Minimum Conditional Entropy Clustering algorithm.
Then, selection of descriptive parts is defined as a frequent subgraph
discovery problem, and solved using a Minimum Description Length (MDL)
principle. Finally, part compositions are constructed by compressing the
internal data representation with discovered substructures. Shape
representation and computational complexity properties of the proposed approach
and algorithms are examined using six benchmark two-dimensional shape image
datasets. Experiments show that CHOP can employ part shareability and indexing
mechanisms for fast inference of part compositions using learned shape
vocabularies. Additionally, CHOP provides better shape retrieval performance
than the state-of-the-art shape retrieval methods.Comment: Paper : 17 pages. 13th European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV
2014), Zurich, Switzerland, September 6-12, 2014, Proceedings, Part III, pp
566-581. Supplementary material can be downloaded from
http://link.springer.com/content/esm/chp:10.1007/978-3-319-10578-9_37/file/MediaObjects/978-3-319-10578-9_37_MOESM1_ESM.pd
Scale dependence of in N-flation
Adopting the horizon-crossing approximation, we derive the spectral index of
in general N-flation model. Axion N-flation model is taken as a
typical model for generating a large which characterizes the size of
local form bispectrum. We find that its tilt is negligibly small
when all inflatons have the same potential, but a negative detectable
can be achieved in the axion N-flation with different decay
constants for different inflatons. The measurement of can be used
to support or falsify the axion N-flation in the near future.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures; a subsection with detectable scale dependence of
f_NL added; more discussions added and version accepted for publication in
JCA
Simulation of Flow of Mixtures Through Anisotropic Porous Media using a Lattice Boltzmann Model
We propose a description for transient penetration simulations of miscible
and immiscible fluid mixtures into anisotropic porous media, using the lattice
Boltzmann (LB) method. Our model incorporates hydrodynamic flow, diffusion,
surface tension, and the possibility for global and local viscosity variations
to consider various types of hardening fluids. The miscible mixture consists of
two fluids, one governed by the hydrodynamic equations and one by diffusion
equations. We validate our model on standard problems like Poiseuille flow, the
collision of a drop with an impermeable, hydrophobic interface and the
deformation of the fluid due to surface tension forces. To demonstrate the
applicability to complex geometries, we simulate the invasion process of
mixtures into wood spruce samples.Comment: Submitted to EPJ
Cosmological Constraints on the Sign-Changeable Interactions
Recently, Cai and Su [Phys. Rev. D {\bf 81}, 103514 (2010)] found that the
sign of interaction in the dark sector changed in the approximate redshift
range of 0.45\,\lsim\, z\,\lsim\, 0.9, by using a model-independent method to
deal with the observational data. In fact, this result raises a remarkable
problem, since most of the familiar interactions cannot change their signs in
the whole cosmic history. Motivated by the work of Cai and Su, we have proposed
a new type of interaction in a previous work [H. Wei, Nucl. Phys. B {\bf 845},
381 (2011)]. The key ingredient is the deceleration parameter in the
interaction , and hence the interaction can change its sign when our
universe changes from deceleration () to acceleration (). In the
present work, we consider the cosmological constraints on this new type of
sign-changeable interactions, by using the latest observational data. We find
that the cosmological constraints on the model parameters are fairly tight. In
particular, the key parameter can be constrained to a narrow range.Comment: 15 pages, 1 table, 8 figures, revtex4; v2: published versio
Dynamic Critical Behavior of the Chayes-Machta Algorithm for the Random-Cluster Model. I. Two Dimensions
We study, via Monte Carlo simulation, the dynamic critical behavior of the
Chayes-Machta dynamics for the Fortuin-Kasteleyn random-cluster model, which
generalizes the Swendsen-Wang dynamics for the q-state Potts ferromagnet to
non-integer q \ge 1. We consider spatial dimension d=2 and 1.25 \le q \le 4 in
steps of 0.25, on lattices up to 1024^2, and obtain estimates for the dynamic
critical exponent z_{CM}. We present evidence that when 1 \le q \lesssim 1.95
the Ossola-Sokal conjecture z_{CM} \ge \beta/\nu is violated, though we also
present plausible fits compatible with this conjecture. We show that the
Li-Sokal bound z_{CM} \ge \alpha/\nu is close to being sharp over the entire
range 1 \le q \le 4, but is probably non-sharp by a power. As a byproduct of
our work, we also obtain evidence concerning the corrections to scaling in
static observables.Comment: LaTeX2e, 75 pages including 26 Postscript figure
Linear stability analysis of retrieval state in associative memory neural networks of spiking neurons
We study associative memory neural networks of the Hodgkin-Huxley type of
spiking neurons in which multiple periodic spatio-temporal patterns of spike
timing are memorized as limit-cycle-type attractors. In encoding the
spatio-temporal patterns, we assume the spike-timing-dependent synaptic
plasticity with the asymmetric time window. Analysis for periodic solution of
retrieval state reveals that if the area of the negative part of the time
window is equivalent to the positive part, then crosstalk among encoded
patterns vanishes. Phase transition due to the loss of the stability of
periodic solution is observed when we assume fast alpha-function for direct
interaction among neurons. In order to evaluate the critical point of this
phase transition, we employ Floquet theory in which the stability problem of
the infinite number of spiking neurons interacting with alpha-function is
reduced into the eigenvalue problem with the finite size of matrix. Numerical
integration of the single-body dynamics yields the explicit value of the
matrix, which enables us to determine the critical point of the phase
transition with a high degree of precision.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
The accelerated scaling attractor solution of the interacting agegraphic dark energy in Brans-Dicke theory
We investigate the interacting agegraphic dark energy in Brans-Dicke theory
and introduce a new series general forms of dark sector coupling. As examples,
we select three cases involving a linear interaction form (Model I) and two
nonlinear interaction form (Model II and Model III). Our conclusions show that
the accelerated scaling attractor solutions do exist in these models. We also
find that these interacting agegraphic dark energy modes are consistent with
the observational data. The difference in these models is that nonlinear
interaction forms give more approached evolution to the standard CDM
model than the linear one. Our work implies that the nonlinear interaction
forms should be payed more attention.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, accepted in Eur. Phys. J.
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