Intra-plant Inflorescence and Seed Heterogeneity of Deverra triradiata (Apiaceae)

© 2020, The National Academy of Sciences, India. Deverra triradiata is an aromatic perennial shrub distributed in coastal arid regions. In the present study, we tested the effect of umbel order on seed weight, germination, and germination requirements for temperature and light. Germination rate was strongly affected by umbel order and photoperiod but not by thermoperiod. Seed mass also declined substantially with umbel order. Results suggest that resource allocation within the inflorescence enables plants to produce seeds with a range of germination characteristics

Dimorphic fruit colour is associated with differences in germination of calligonum comosum

© 2019, Canadian Science Publishing. Calligonum comosum L’Hér is a perennial evergreen shrub that produces dimorphic fruits of distinctly yellow or red colour. The species is found on sand dunes of the Middle East, is valued as a highly palatable livestock feed that survives extreme drought, and is suitable for desert restoration of non-saline sandy soils. The association of fruit colour with germination was assessed in laboratory conditions under two temperature (15/20 and 20/30 °C) and two light (0 and 12 h per day) treatments. Additionally, the association of fruit colour with emergence and seedling growth up to 90 days from sowing was assessed in shade house conditions. Germination percentage in the laboratory was the only variable that exhibited significant variation by seed colour. Germination was highest for red seeds grown in the dark at the higher temperature but the influence of seed colour on germination was not repeated in the shade house study. The dimorphic fruit colour of C. comosum is thus associated with differing germination rates, but further study is needed to determine whether morphs employ differing recruitment strategies

Dissimilarity of the gut-lung axis and dysbiosis of the lower airways in ventilated preterm infants.

BACKGROUND: Chronic lung disease of prematurity (CLD), also called bronchopulmonary dysplasia, is a major consequence of preterm birth but the role of the microbiome in its development remains unclear. We, therefore, assessed the progression of the bacterial community in ventilated preterm infants over time in the upper and lower airways, and assessed the gut-lung axis by comparing the upper and lower airways bacterial communities with the stool findings. Finally, we assessed if the bacterial communities were associated with lung inflammation to suggest dysbiosis. METHODS: We serially sampled multiple anatomical sites including the upper airway (nasopharyngeal aspirates, NPA), lower airways (tracheal aspirate fluid, TAF, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, BAL) and the gut (stool) of ventilated preterm-born infants. Bacterial DNA load was measured in all samples and sequenced using the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene RESULTS: From 1102 (539 NPA, 276 TAF, 89 BAL, 198 stool) samples from 55 preterm infants, 352 (32%) amplified suitably for 16 s RNA gene sequencing. Bacterial load was low at birth, quickly increased with time but was associated with predominant operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in all sample types. There was dissimilarity in bacterial communities between the upper and lower airways and the gut with a separate dysbiotic inflammatory process occurring in the lower airways of infants. Individual OTUs were associated with increased inflammatory markers. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these findings suggest that targeted treatment of the predominant organisms, including those not routinely treated such as Ureaplasma spp., may decrease the development of CLD in preterm-born infants

Physikit: Data Engagement Through Physical Ambient Visualizations in the Home

Internet of things (IoT) devices and sensor kits have the potential to democratize the access, use, and appropriation of data. Despite the increased availability of low cost sensors, most of the produced data is "black box" in nature: users often do not know how to access or interpret data. We propose a "human-data design" approach in which end-users are given tools to create, share, and use data through tangible and physical visualizations. This paper introduces Physikit, a system designed to allow users to explore and engage with environmental data through physical ambient visualizations. We report on the design and implementation of Physikit, and present a two-week field study which showed that participants got an increased sense of the meaning of data, embellished and appropriated the basic visualizations to make them blend into their homes, and used the visualizations as a probe for community engagement and social behavior

Toward 6G Vehicle-to-Everything Sidelink: Nonorthogonal Multiple Access in the Autonomous Mode

The cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) sidelink technology, specified in the long-term evolution (LTE) and further improved in the 5G new radio (NR) standards to facilitate direct data exchange between vehicles, will play a crucial role in revolutionizing transportation systems. However, the demand for very high reliability and ultralow latency services especially challenges the sidelink resource allocation mechanism when performed by distributed vehicles, in the so-called autonomous mode. One of the major causes of ­performance degradation is the resource allocation mechanism, which was designed for orthogonal multiple access (OMA) and can generate interference and collisions under high load conditions. In this context, here we argue in favor of the use of non-OMA (NOMA) as a game changer for the sidelink in the upcoming 6G V2X, and the purpose of this article is to provide a reference for further intriguing studies in the field. Additionally, the gain achievable over conventional allocation schemes by enabling NOMA through the use of successive interference cancelation (SIC) at the receiver is measured through realistic simulations conducted when considering the latest C-V2X specifications

The dissolution and microbial degradation of mobile aromatic hydrocarbons from a Pintsch gas tar DNAPL source zone

Source zones containing tar, a dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL), can contaminate groundwater for centuries. A common occurrence of tar is at former Pintsch gas factories. Little is known about the composition and fate of contaminants dissolving from Pintsch gas tar DNAPL. In this study, we determined the composition and water-soluble characteristics of mobile aromatic hydrocarbons and their biodegradation metabolites in the DNAPL contaminated groundwater at a former Pintsch gas tar plant. We assessed the factors that determine the fate of observed groundwater contaminants. Measured values of density (1.03–1.06 kg/m3) and viscosity (18.6–39.4 cP) were found to be relatively low compared to common coal tars. Analysis showed that unlike common coal tars phenanthrene is the primary component rather than naphthalene. Moreover, it was found that Pintsch gas tar contains a relatively high amount of light molecular aromatic hydrocarbon compounds, such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX). Less commonly reported components, such as styrene, ethyltoluenes, di-ethylbenzene, 1,2,4,5-tetramethylbenzene, were also detected in water extracts from Pintsch gas tar. Moreover, 46 relatively hydrophilic metabolites were found within the tar samples. Metabolites present within the tar suggest biodegradation of mobile aromatic Pintsch gas tar compounds occurred near the DNAPL. Based on eleven detected suspect metabolites, a novel anaerobic biodegradation pathway is proposed for indene. Overall, our findings indicate that Pintsch gas tar has higher invasive and higher flux properties than most coal tars due to its relatively low density, low viscosity and, high content of water-soluble compounds. The partitioning of contaminants from multi-component DNAPL into the aqueous phase and re-dissolution of their slightly less hydrophobic metabolites back from the aqueous phase into the DNAPL is feasible and demonstrates the complexity of assessing degradation processes within a source zone

The Communist Party and the New Party

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Contemporary British History, vol. 23(4), 2009, pp.477-491 copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13619460903198101The New Party was never at the centre of the concerns of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). However, the CPGB had to take a line on the new organisation when it was formed, and tried to use it to smear Labour and Independent Labour Party politicians as enemies of the working class. As the 1931 political crisis unfolded, the New Party became increasingly an irrelevance at the side of the much more tangible threat of the National government, although communists did campaign against Mosley in late 1931. Ultimately, the New Party was significant for the communists because it seemed to offer some vindication of the 'class against class' line; because it suggested that the CPGB was not always wrong in its analysis; because it led to increased attention to the party's youth movement; and because it led to the leading left-wing polemicist of the 1930s, John Strachey, working with the CPGB for almost a decade

Local carboplatin delivery and tissue distribution in livers after radiofrequency ablation

Abstract: This study investigated the local drug pharmacokinetics of intralesional drug delivery after radiofrequency ablation of the liver. We hypothesized that the tissue architecture damaged by the ablation process facilitates the drug penetration in the liver and potentially enlarges the therapeutic margin in the local treatment of cancer. The delivery rate and tissue distribution of carboplatin, an anticancer agent, released from poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) implants into rat livers after radiofrequency ablation were quantified by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Results showed that carboplatin clearance through blood perfusion was significantly slower in the ablated livers, leading to a more extensive tissue retention and distribution of the drug

Hyper-arid tall shrub species have differing long-term responses to browsing management

© 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Hyper-arid rangeland vegetation is typically dominated by large woody species which are often overlooked in herbivory studies. Long-term responses of tall shrub populations to herbivory change are poorly understood in the Arabian Peninsula. Population and size of 1559 individuals from four shrub species were assessed over an 11-year period under two herbivory regimes, one in which domestic livestock (camels) were replaced by semi-wild ungulates (Oryx and gazelles) before, and the other during, the study period. Each shrub species exhibited a different response to the change in herbivory. Populations of Calotropis procera decreased dramatically. Populations of both Calligonum polygonoides and Lycium shawii increased through sexual reproduction, but the spatial distribution of recruits indicated different modes of seed dispersal. Average lifespans were estimated at 22 and 20years respectively. The persistence strategy of Leptadenia pyrotechnica was similar to tree species of this habitat in that vegetative regrowth was prioritized over recruitment, and average lifespan was estimated at 95years. Shrub responses to changes in ungulate management are therefore species-specific. The response of individual plant size was faster than the response of population size, which was limited by slow sexual recruitment (L. pyrotechnica) or localized seed dispersal (C. polygonoides)