Deviation from the Cosmological Constant or Systematic Errors?

Motivated by the fact that both SNe Ia and GRBs seem to prefer a dark energy EOS greater than -1 at redshifts $z \gtrsim 0.5$, we perform a careful investigation on this situation. We find that the deviation of dark energy from the cosmological constant at redshifts $z \gtrsim 0.5$ is large enough that we should pay close attention to it with future observational data. Such a deviation may arise from some biasing systematic errors in the handling of SNe Ia and/or GRBs or more interestingly from the nature of the dark energy itself.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, added reference

N N bar,Delta bar N, Delta N bar excitation for the pion propagator in nuclear matter

The particle-hole and Delta -hole excitations are well-known elementary excitation modes for the pion propagator in nuclear matter. But, the excitation also involves antiparticles, namely, nucleon-antinucleon, anti-Delta-nucleon and Delta-antinucleon excitations. These are important for high-energy momentum as well, and have not been studied before, to our knowledge. In this paper, we give both the formulas and the numerical calculations for the real and the imaginary parts of these excitations.Comment: Latex, 3 eps file

On Transient Response of Piezoelectric Transducers

In this paper, we report a new model in analysis of spherical thin-shell piezoelectric transducers for transient response, based on Fourier transform and the principle of linear superposition. We show that a circuit-network, a combination of a series of parallel-connected equivalent-circuits, can be used in description of a spherical thin-shell piezoelectric transducer. When excited by a signal with multiple frequency components, each circuit would have a distinctive radiation resistance and a radiation mass, arising from an individual frequency component. Each frequency component would act independently on the electric/mechanic-terminals. A cumulative signal-output from the mechanic/electric-terminals is measured as the overall acoustic/electric output. As a prototype example in testing the new model, we have designed two spherical shin-shell transducers, applied a gated sine electric-signal as the initial excitation, and recorded the experimental information. The transient response and the output signals are calculated based on the new model. The results of calculation are in good agreement with that of experimental observation

Genome-wide identification of Cymbidium sinense WRKY gene family and the importance of its Group III members in response to abiotic stress

Transcription factors (TFs) of the WRKY family play pivotal roles in defense responses and secondary metabolism of plants. Although WRKY TFs are well documented in numerous plant species, no study has performed a genome-wide investigation of the WRKY gene family in Cymbidium sinense. In the present work, we found 64 C. sinense WRKY (CsWRKY) TFs, and they were further divided into eight subgroups. Chromosomal distribution of CsWRKYs revealed that the majority of these genes were localized on 16 chromosomes, especially on Chromosome 2. Syntenic analysis implied that 13 (20.31%) genes were derived from segmental duplication events, and 17 orthologous gene pairs were identified between Arabidopsis thaliana WRKY (AtWRKY) and CsWRKY genes. Moreover, 55 of the 64 CsWRKYs were detectable in different plant tissues in response to exposure to plant hormones. Among them, Group III members were strongly induced in response to various hormone treatments, indicating their potential essential roles in hormone signaling. We subsequently analyzed the function of CsWRKY18 in Group III. The CsWRKY18 was localized in the nucleus. The constitutive expression of CsWRKY18 in Arabidopsis led to enhanced sensitivity to ABA-mediated seed germination and root growth and elevated plant tolerance to abiotic stress within the ABA-dependent pathway. Overall, our study represented the first genome-wide characterization and functional analysis of WRKY TFs in C. sinense, which could provide useful clues about the evolution and functional description of CsWRKY genes

Molecular phylogeny and morphology reveal two new entomopathogenic species of Ophiocordyceps (Ophiocordycipitaceae, Hypocreales) parasitic on termites from China

Two new termite-pathogenic species, Ophiocordyceps globiperitheciata and O. longistipes, are described from Yunnan Province, China. Six-locus (ITS, nrSSU, nrLSU, tef-1α, rpb1 and rpb2) phylogenetic analyses in combination with morphological observations were employed to characterize these two species. Phylogenetically, O. globiperitheciata is most closely related to Hirsutella cryptosclerotium and O. communis, whereas O. longistipes shares a sister relationship with O. fusiformis. However, O. globiperitheciata differs from H. cryptosclerotium by parasitizing Blattodea and producing clavate, unbifurcated stromata. Ophiocordyceps globiperitheciata is distinguished from O. communis by multiple stromata, shorter asci and ascospores. Ophiocordyceps longistipes differs from O. fusiformis in producing larger stromata, perithecia, asci and ascospores, as well as smaller citriform or oval conidia. Morphological descriptions of the two new species and a dichotomous key to the 19 termite-pathogenic Ophiocordyceps species are presented

A gene expression profile-based approach to screen the occurrence and predisposed host characteristics of drug-induced liver injury: a case study of Psoralea corylifolia Linn

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is one of the most common causes of a drug being withdrawn, and identifying the culprit drugs and the host factors at risk of causing DILI has become a current challenge. Recent studies have found that immune status plays a considerable role in the development of DILI. In this study, DILI-related differentially expressed genes mediated by immunoinflammatory cytokines were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to predict the occurrence of DILI (named the DILI predictive gene set, DILI_PGS), and the predictability of the DILI_PGS was verified using the Connectivity Map (CMap) and LiverTox platforms. The results obtained DILI_PGS from the GEO database could predict 81.25% of liver injury drugs. In addition, the Coexpedia platform was used to predict the DILI_PGS-related characteristics of common host diseases and found that the DILI_PGS mainly involved immune-related diseases and tumor-related diseases. Then, animal models of immune stress (IS) and immunosuppressive (IP) were selected to simulate the immune status of the above diseases. Meanwhile, psoralen, a main component derived from Psoralea corylifolia Linn. with definite hepatotoxicity, was selected as an experimental drug with highly similar molecular fingerprints to three idiosyncratic hepatotoxic drugs (nefazodone, trovafloxacin, and nimesulide) from the same DILI_PGS dataset. The animal experiment results found a single administration of psoralen could significantly induce liver injury in IS mice, while there was no obvious liver function change in IP mice by repeatedly administering the same dose of psoralen, and the potential mechanism of psoralen-induced liver injury in IS mice may be related to regulating the expression of the TNF-related pathway. In conclusion, this study constructed the DILI_PGS with high accuracy to predict the occurrence of DILI and preliminarily identified the characteristics of host factors inducing DILI

MiR-221/222 promote epithelial-mesenchymal transition by targeting Notch3 in breast cancer cell lines

Basal-like breast cancer (BLBC) is an aggressive subtype with a strong tendency to metastasize. Due to the lack of effective chemotherapy, BLBC has a poor prognosis compared with luminal subtype breast cancer. MicroRNA-221 and -222 (miR-221/222) are overexpressed in BLBC and associate with metastasis as well as poor prognosis; however, the mechanisms by which miR-221/222 function as oncomiRs remain unknown. Here, we report that miR-221/222 expression is inversely correlated with Notch3 expression in breast cancer cell lines. Notch3 is known to be overexpressed in luminal breast cancer cells and inhibits epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). We demonstrate that miR-221/222 target Notch3 by binding to its 3' untranslated region and suppressing protein translation. Ectopic expression of miR-221/222 significantly promotes EMT, whereas overexpression of Notch3 intracellular domain attenuates the oncogenic function of miR-221/222, suggesting that miR-221/222 exerts its oncogenic role by negatively regulating Notch3. Taken together, our results elucidated that miR-221/222 promote EMT via targeting Notch3 in breast cancer cell lines suggesting that miR-221/222 can serve as a potential therapeutic target in BLBC