Objective assessment of 3-D medical image registration results using statistical confidence intervals

Author name used in this publication: Dagan FengRefereed conference paper2000-2001 > Academic research: refereed > Refereed conference paperVersion of RecordPublishe

Mycorrhizal symbiosis enhances Phalaenopsis orchid’s growth and resistance to Erwinia chrysanthemi

Phalaenopsis is the most important potted orchid genus in the world. However, the low seedling survival rate, long vegetative growth period and disease outbreak are problems in production. Orchid micorrhizal fungi (OMF) are their obligate partners in orchid physiology. Orchids use their symbionts to gain access to organic and mineral nutrients by increasing nutrient absorption and translocation to plants under natural conditions. The benefit of orchid mycorrhizal symbiosis using Phalaenopsis as model plants was conducted. We inoculated in vitro grown plantlets of Doritaenopsis Taisuco Wonder ‘King Car Butterfly KC1111’ and Phalaenopsis Tai Lin Redangel ‘V31‘ with two OMF isolates, Ceratobasidium sp. AG-A (R02) and Rizoctonia solani AG-6 (R04). The effects of OMFs on orchid plant growth and Erwinia soft rot progression were examined after two months of ex vitro growth. The results showed that the presence of OMFs in Phalaenopsis roots significantly increased the growth and soft rot resistance of plants. Selectivity of cultivar type to different OMF was also observed. The relevance of this findings and future work are discussed.Key words: Phalaenopsis, orchid micorrhizal fungi, orchid, cultivar type

Skin-derived dendritic cells acquire and degrade the scrapie agent following in vitro exposure

The accumulation of the scrapie agent in lymphoid tissues following inoculation via the skin is critical for efficient neuroinvasion, but how the agent is initially transported from the skin to the draining lymph node is not known. Langerhans cells (LCs) are specialized antigen-presenting cells that continually sample their microenvironment within the epidermis and transport captured antigens to draining lymph nodes. We considered LCs probable candidates to acquire and transport the scrapie agent after inoculation via the skin. XS106 cells are dendritic cells (DCs) isolated from mouse epidermis with characteristics of mature LC cells. To investigate the potential interaction of LCs with the scrapie agent XS106 cells were exposed to the scrapie agent in vitro. We show that XS106 cells rapidly acquire the scrapie agent following in vitro exposure. In addition, XS106 cells partially degrade the scrapie agent following extended cultivation. These data suggest that LCs might acquire and degrade the scrapie agent after inoculation via the skin, but data from additional experiments demonstrate that this ability could be lost in the presence of lipopolysaccharide or other immunostimulatory molecules. Our studies also imply that LCs would not undergo maturation following uptake of the scrapie agent in the skin, as the expression of surface antigens associated with LC maturation were unaltered following exposure. In conclusion, although LCs or DCs have the potential to acquire the scrapie agent within the epidermis our data suggest it is unlikely that they become activated and stimulated to transport the agent to the draining lymph node

EGFR Mutant Structural Database: computationally predicted 3D structures and the corresponding binding free energies with gefitinib and erlotinib

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On a Subposet of the Tamari Lattice

We explore some of the properties of a subposet of the Tamari lattice introduced by Pallo, which we call the comb poset. We show that three binary functions that are not well-behaved in the Tamari lattice are remarkably well-behaved within an interval of the comb poset: rotation distance, meets and joins, and the common parse words function for a pair of trees. We relate this poset to a partial order on the symmetric group studied by Edelman.Comment: 21 page

Traffic agents for improving QoS in mixed infrastructure and ad hoc modes wireless LAN

As an important complement to infrastructured wireless networks, mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) are more flexible in providing wireless access services, but more difficult in meeting different quality of service (QoS) requirements for mobile customers. Both infrastructure and ad hoc network structures are supported in wireless local area networks (WLAN), which can offer high data-rate wireless multimedia services to the mobile stations (MSs) in a limited geographical area. For those out-of-coverage MSs, how to effectively connect them to the access point (AP) and provide QoS support is a challenging issue. By mixing the infrastructure and the ad hoc modes in WLAN, we propose in this paper a new coverage improvement scheme that can identify suitable idle MSs in good service zones as traffic agents (TAs) to relay traffic from those out-of-coverage MSs to the AP. The service coverage area of WLAN is then expanded. The QoS requirements (e.g., bandwidth) of those MSs are considered in the selection process of corresponding TAs. Mathematical analysis, verified by computer simulations, shows that the proposed TA scheme can effectively reduce blocking probability when traffic load is light

ERα inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition by suppressing Bmi1 in breast cancer

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ERα inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition by suppressing Bmi1 in breast cancer

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Comparisons of host mitochondrial, nuclear and endosymbiont bacterial genes reveal cryptic fig wasp species and the effects of Wolbachia on host mtDNA evolution and diversity

Background Figs and fig-pollinating wasp species usually display a highly specific one-to-one association. However, more and more studies have revealed that the "one-to-one" rule has been broken. Co-pollinators have been reported, but we do not yet know how they evolve. They may evolve from insect speciation induced or facilitated by Wolbachia which can manipulate host reproduction and induce reproductive isolation. In addition, Wolbachia can affect host mitochondrial DNA evolution, because of the linkage between Wolbachia and associated mitochondrial haplotypes, and thus confound host phylogeny based on mtDNA. Previous research has shown that fig wasps have the highest incidence of Wolbachia infection in all insect taxa, and Wolbachia may have great influence on fig wasp biology. Therefore, we look forward to understanding the influence of Wolbachia on mitochondrial DNA evolution and speciation in fig wasps. Results We surveyed 76 pollinator wasp specimens from nine Ficus microcarpa trees each growing at a different location in Hainan and Fujian Provinces, China. We found that all wasps were morphologically identified as Eupristina verticillata, but diverged into three clades with 4.22-5.28% mtDNA divergence and 2.29-20.72% nuclear gene divergence. We also found very strong concordance between E. verticillata clades and Wolbachia infection status, and the predicted effects of Wolbachia on both mtDNA diversity and evolution by decreasing mitochondrial haplotypes. Conclusions Our study reveals that the pollinating wasp E. verticillata on F. microcarpa has diverged into three cryptic species, and Wolbachia may have a role in this divergence. The results also indicate that Wolbachia strains infecting E. verticillata have likely resulted in selective sweeps on host mitochondrial DNA

The landslide story

The catastrophic Wenchuan earthquake induced an unprecedented number of geohazards. The risk of heightened landslide frequency after a quake, with potential secondary effects such as river damming and subsequent floods, needs more focused attention