A Diallel Analysis of a Maize Donor Population Response to In Vivo Maternal Haploid Induction I: Inducibility

The maize in vivo maternal doubled haploid (DH) system is an important tool used by maize breeders and geneticists around the world. The ability to rapidly produce DH lines of maize for breeding allows breeders to quickly respond to new selection criteria based on the ever changing biotic and abiotic stresses that maize is subjected to across its growing area. There are two important steps in the generation of DH lines using the in vivo maternal DH system: 1) the production and identification of haploid progeny, and 2) the doubling of genomes to create fertile, diploid inbred lines that can be used for topcross and per se evaluation. For this study, the focus is the first step, the production and identification of haploid progeny. A diallel mating between six inbred lines of maize, three highly inducible lines (CR1HT, PA91HT1, WF9) and three lines with low inducibility (NK778, A427, A637) was produced to study the genetic makeup of inducibility in temperate maize germplasm. A maximum estimated rate of inducibility was found in A427/A637 at 14.6%. Significant general combining ability (GCA) specific combining ability (SCA), reciprocal (REC), environmental (ENV), as well as GCA by ENV and SCA by ENV interactions were found. Misclassification rates ranged from 0-45.2% in the 30 hybrids considered. This study supports the use of germplasm with improved inducibility for breeding to improve rates of inducibility in germplasm which has low induction rates

Some thoughts about nonequilibrium temperature

The main objective of this paper is to show that, within the present framework of the kinetic theoretical approach to irreversible thermodynamics, there is no evidence that provides a basis to modify the ordinary Fourier equation relating the heat flux in a non-equilibrium steady state to the gradient of the local equilibrium temperature. This fact is supported, among other arguments, through the kinetic foundations of generalized hydrodynamics. Some attempts have been recently proposed asserting that, in the presence of non-linearities of the state variables, such a temperature should be replaced by the non-equilibrium temperature as defined in Extended Irreversible Thermodynamics. In the approximations used for such a temperature there is so far no evidence that sustains this proposal.Comment: 13 pages, TeX, no figures, to appear in Mol. Phy

Distinct Biphasic mRNA Changes in Response to Asian Soybean Rust Infection

Asian soybean rust (ASR), caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi, is now established in all major soybean-producing countries. Currently, there is little information about the molecular basis of ASR–soybean interactions, which will be needed to assist future efforts to develop effective resistance. Toward this end, abundance changes of soybean mRNAs were measured over a 7-day ASR infection time course in mock-inoculated and infected leaves of a soybean accession (PI230970) carrying the Rpp2 resistance gene and a susceptible genotype (Embrapa-48). The expression profiles of differentially expressed genes (ASR-infected compared with the mock-inoculated control) revealed a biphasic response to ASR in each genotype. Within the first 12 h after inoculation (hai), which corresponds to fungal germination and penetration of the epidermal cells, differential gene expression changes were evident in both genotypes. mRNA expression of these genes mostly returned to levels found in mock-inoculated plants by 24 hai. In the susceptible genotype, gene expression remained unaffected by rust infection until 96 hai, a time period when rapid fungal growth began. In contrast, gene expression in the resistant genotype diverged from the mock-inoculated control earlier, at 72 h, demonstrating that Rpp2-mediated defenses were initiated prior to this time. These data suggest that ASR initially induces a non-specific response that is transient or is suppressed when early steps in colonization are completed in both soybean genotypes. The race-specific resistance phenotype of Rpp2 is manifested in massive gene expression changes after the initial response prior to the onset of rapid fungal growth that occurs in the susceptible genotype

Violations of local equilibrium and linear response in classical lattice theories

We study the dynamics of $\phi^4$ theory and the FPU $\beta$ model under thermal gradients, from first principles. We analyze quantitatively how local equilibrium and linear response are violated, paying special care to how we find observables that unambiguously display these violations. Relations between these quantities to equations of state are also examined. Further, we discuss how we can approach similar dynamical problems in continuum quantum field theory. We analyze how close we are to obtaining the continuum results.Comment: 7pp, 4figs, talk given by KA at "Thermal field theory and applications" workshop 200

Transcriptome analyses and virus induced gene silencing identify genes in the Rpp4 -mediated Asian soybean rust resistance pathway

Rpp4 (Resistance to Phakopsora pachyrhizi 4) confers resistance to Phakopsora pachyrhizi Sydow, the causal agent of Asian soybean rust (ASR). By combining expression profiling and virus induced gene silencing (VIGS), we are developing a genetic framework for Rpp4-mediated resistance. We measured gene expression in mock-inoculated and P. pachyrhizi-infected leaves of resistant soybean accession PI459025B (Rpp4) and the susceptible cultivar (Williams 82) across a 12-day time course. Unexpectedly, two biphasic responses were identified. In the incompatible reaction, genes induced at 12 h after infection (hai) were not differentially expressed at 24 hai, but were induced at 72 hai. In contrast, genes repressed at 12 hai were not differentially expressed from 24 to 144 hai, but were repressed 216 hai and later. To differentiate between basal and resistance-gene (R-gene) mediated defence responses, we compared gene expression in Rpp4-silenced and empty vector-treated PI459025B plants 14 days after infection (dai) with P. pachyrhizi. This identified genes, including transcription factors, whose differential expression is dependent upon Rpp4. To identify differentially expressed genes conserved across multiple P. pachyrhizi resistance pathways, Rpp4 expression datasets were compared with microarray data previously generated for Rpp2 and Rpp3-mediated defence responses. Fourteen transcription factors common to all resistant and susceptible responses were identified, as well as fourteen transcription factors unique to R-gene-mediated resistance responses. These genes are targets for future P. pachyrhizi resistance research

Technology and restructuring the social field of dairy farming : hybrid capitals, ‘stockmanship’ and automatic milking systems

This paper draws on research exploring robotic and information technologies in livestock agriculture. Using Automatic Milking Systems (AMS) as an example we use the work of Bourdieu to illustrate how technology can be seen as restructuring the practices of dairy farming, the nature of what it is to be a dairy farmer, and the wider field of dairy farming. Approaching technology in this way and by drawing particularly upon the ‘thinking tools’ (Grenfell, 2008) of Pierre Bourdieu, namely field, capital and habitus, the paper critically examines the relevance of Bourdieu’s thought to the study of technology. In the heterogeneous agricultural context of dairy farming, we expand on Bourdieu’s types of capital to define what we have called ‘hybrid’ capital involving human-cow-technology collectives. The concept of hybrid capital expresses how the use of a new technology can shift power relations within the dairy field, affecting human-animal relations and changing the habitus of the stock person. Hybrid capital is produced through a co-investment of stock keepers, cows and technologies, and can become economically and culturally valuable within a rapidly restructuring dairying field when invested in making dairy farming more efficient and changing farmers’ social status and work-life balance. The paper shows how AMS and this emergent hybrid capital is associated with new but contested definitions of what counts as ‘good’ dairy farming practice, and with the emergence of new modes of dairy farmer habitus, within a wider dairy farming field whose contours are being redrawn through the implementation of new robotic and information technologies

Reduction in daily milk yield associated with sub-clinical bovine herpes virus 1 infection

The aim of this observational cohort study was to investigate the potential economic effect of sub-clinical Bovine Herpes Virus 1 (BoHV-1) infection in a commercial UK dairy herd in terms of milk yield depression. Infection status of cows (infected or not infected) was assigned from serology on a single occasion. A multi-level linear model was used to evaluate the effect of infection status on milk production, using milk records that were routinely collected over two years. BoHV-1 seropositive cows produced 2.6 kg/day less milk over the study period compared with cows that were seronegative. This result highlights the importance of appropriate management of risks associated with BoHV-1 as part of proactive herd health and production management

Biomarkers of Dairy Fatty Acids and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in the Multi‐Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Background: Evidence regarding the role of dairy fat intake in cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been mixed and inconclusive. Most earlier studies have used self‐reported measures of dietary intake and focused on relatively racially homogeneous populations. Circulating biomarkers of dairy fat in a multiethnic cohort provide objective measures of dairy fat intake and facilitate conclusions relevant to populations with different diets and susceptibility to CVD. Methods and Results: In a multiethnic cohort of 2837 US adults aged 45 to 84 years at baseline (2000–2002), phospholipid fatty acids including 15:0, 14:0, and trans‐16:1n7 were measured using standardized methods, and the incidence of CVD prospectively adjudicated. Self‐reported whole‐fat dairy and butter intakes had strongest associations with 15:0, rather than 14:0 or trans‐16:1n7. In multivariate models including demographics and lifestyle and dietary habits, each SD‐unit of 15:0 was associated with 19% lower CVD risk (hazard ratio [95% CI] 0.81 [0.68 to 0.98]) and 26% lower coronary heart disease (CHD) risk (0.74 [0.60 to 0.92]). Associations were strengthened after mutual adjustment for 14:0 and trans‐16:1n‐7 and were similar after adjustment for potential mediators. Plasma phospholipid 14:0 and trans‐16:1n‐7 were not significantly associated with incident CVD or CHD. All findings were similar in white, black, Hispanic, and Chinese American participants. Conclusion: Plasma phospholipid 15:0, a biomarker of dairy fat, was inversely associated with incident CVD and CHD, while no association was found with phospholipid 14:0 and trans‐16:1n‐7. These findings support the need for further investigation of CVD effects of dairy fat, dairy‐specific fatty acids, and dairy products in general

Time, space and touch at work: Body work and labour process (re)organisation

With ‘efficiency savings’ the watchword for health and social care services, reorganisation and labour rationalisation are the order of the day. This article examines the difficulties involved in (re)organising work which takes bodies as its object, or material of production. It shows that working on bodies (‘body work’) systematically delimits possibilities for labour process rationalisation which, in turn, constrains reorganisation of the health and social care sector. It does this in three main ways. First: rigidity in the ratio of workers to bodies-worked-upon limits the potential to increase capital-labour ratios or cut labour. Secondly: the requirement for co-presence and temporal unpredictability in demand for body work diminish the spatial and temporal malleability of the labour process. Thirdly: the nature of bodies as a material of production – complex, unitary and responsive – makes it difficult to standardise, reorganise or rationalise work. A wide-ranging analysis of body work in health and social care, as well as other sectors, fleshes out these three constraints and shows that attempts to overcome them and reorganise the sector in pursuit of cost savings or ‘efficiency’, generate problems for workers and the patients, whose bodies they work upon

Heterocyclic scaffolds as promising anticancer agents against tumours of the central nervous system: Exploring the scope of indole and carbazole derivatives

Tumours of the central nervous system are intrinsically more dangerous than tumours at other sites, and in particular, brain tumours are responsible for 3% of cancer deaths in the UK. Despite this, research into new therapies only receives 1% of national cancer research spend. The most common chemotherapies are temozolomide, procarbazine, carmustine, lomustine and vincristine, but because of the rapid development of chemoresistance, these drugs alone simply aren’t sufficient for long-term treatment. Such poor prognosis of brain tumour patients prompted us to research new treatments for malignant glioma, and in doing so, it became apparent that aromatic heterocycles play an important part, especially the indole, carbazole and indolocarbazole scaffolds. This review highlights compounds in development for the treatment of tumours of the central nervous system which are structurally based on the indole, carbazole and indolocarbazole scaffolds, under the expectation that it will highlight new avenues for research for the development of new compounds to treat these devastating neoplasms