1,264 research outputs found
Postgerminative growth and lipid catabolism in oilseeds lacking the glyoxylate cycle
The glyoxylate cycle is regarded as essential for postgerminative growth and seedling establishment in oilseed plants. We have identified two allelic Arabidopsis mutants, icl-1 and icl-2, which lack the glyoxylate cycle because of the absence of the key enzyme isocitrate lyase. These mutants demonstrate that the glyoxylate cycle is not essential for germination. Furthermore, photosynthesis can compensate for the absence of the glyoxylate cycle during postgerminative growth, and only when light intensity or day length is decreased does seedling establishment become compromised. The provision of exogenous sugars can overcome this growth deficiency. The icl mutants also demonstrate that the glyoxylate cycle is important for seedling survival and recovery after prolonged dark conditions that approximate growth in nature. Surprisingly, despite their inability to catalyze the net conversion of acetate to carbohydrate, mutant seedlings are able to break down storage lipids. Results suggest that lipids can be used as a source of carbon for respiration in germinating oilseeds and that products of fatty acid catabolism can pass from the peroxisome to the mitochondrion independently of the glyoxylate cycle. However, an additional anaplerotic source of carbon is required for lipid breakdown and seedling establishment. This source can be provided by the glyoxylate cycle or, in its absence, by exogenous sucrose or photosynthesis
Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine-related disease in HIV-infected children: a systematic review
Objective: To describe the characteristics and risk of bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine related disease in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected infants.Methods: Systematic literature review of articles published from 1950 to April 2009 in the English language. We identified all microbiologically confirmed cases of disseminated BCG disease in vertically HIV-infected children reported in the literature.Results: Sixteen observational studies and 11 case reports/series were included. Observational studies suffered from high rates of loss to follow-up and death. Loco-regional BCG disease was reported in both HIV-infected and non-infected children. Disseminated BCG disease was reported only in children with immunodeficiency and only in studies employing sophisticated laboratory techniques. Sixty-nine cases of disseminated BCG were identified in the literature: 47 cases were reported in six observational studies, the majority (41/47) from the Western Cape of South Africa. A Brazilian cohort study reported no cases of disseminated BCG amongst 66 HIV-infected children observed over a 7-year period. A recent South African surveillance study reported 32 cases of disseminated BCG over a 3-year period, estimating the risk of disseminated BCG to be 992 per 100 000 vaccinations in HIV-infected children. Few cases of severe disseminated TB were reported in the cohort studies among HIV-infected children vaccinated with BCG.Conclusion: Data on the risk of BCG vaccination in HIV-infected children are limited. Targeted surveillance for BCG complications employing sophisticated diagnostic techniques is required to inform vaccination policy.<br /
On the Neutrality of Flowshop Scheduling Fitness Landscapes
Solving efficiently complex problems using metaheuristics, and in particular
local searches, requires incorporating knowledge about the problem to solve. In
this paper, the permutation flowshop problem is studied. It is well known that
in such problems, several solutions may have the same fitness value. As this
neutrality property is an important one, it should be taken into account during
the design of optimization methods. Then in the context of the permutation
flowshop, a deep landscape analysis focused on the neutrality property is
driven and propositions on the way to use this neutrality to guide efficiently
the search are given.Comment: Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN Conference (LION 5), Rome :
Italy (2011
Phonons and specific heat of linear dense phases of atoms physisorbed in the grooves of carbon nanotube bundles
The vibrational properties (phonons) of a one-dimensional periodic phase of
atoms physisorbed in the external groove of the carbon nanotube bundle are
studied. Analytical expressions for the phonon dispersion relations are
derived. The derived expressions are applied to Xe, Kr and Ar adsorbates. The
specific heat pertaining to dense phases of these adsorbates is calculated.Comment: 4 PS figure
High prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections among HIV-1 negative men who have sex with men in coastal Kenya
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Simulating the Cranfield geological carbon sequestration project with high-resolution static models and an accurate equation of state
Bureau of Economic Geolog
Grassmann Variables and the Jaynes-Cummings Model
This paper shows that phase space methods using a positive P type
distribution function involving both c-number variables (for the cavity mode)
and Grassmann variables (for the two level atom) can be used to treat the
Jaynes-Cummings model. Although it is a Grassmann function, the distribution
function is equivalent to six c-number functions of the two bosonic variables.
Experimental quantities are given as bosonic phase space integrals involving
the six functions. A Fokker-Planck equation involving both left and right
Grassmann differentiation can be obtained for the distribution function, and is
equivalent to six coupled equations for the six c-number functions.
The approach used involves choosing the canonical form of the (non-unique)
positive P distribution function, where the correspondence rules for bosonic
operators are non-standard and hence the Fokker-Planck equation is also
unusual. Initial conditions, such as for initially uncorrelated states, are
used to determine the initial distribution function. Transformations to new
bosonic variables rotating at the cavity frequency enables the six coupled
equations for the new c-number functions (also equivalent to the canonical
Grassmann distribution function) to be solved analytically, based on an ansatz
from a 1980 paper by Stenholm. It is then shown that the distribution function
is the same as that determined from the well-known solution based on coupled
equations for state vector amplitudes of atomic and n-photon product states.
The treatment of the simple two fermion mode Jaynes-Cummings model is a
useful test case for the future development of phase space Grassmann
distribution functional methods for multi-mode fermionic applications in
quantum-atom optics.Comment: 57 pages, 0 figures. Version
Stellar populations of classical and pseudo-bulges for a sample of isolated spiral galaxies
In this paper we present the stellar population synthesis results for a
sample of 75 bulges in isolated spiral Sb-Sc galaxies, using the spectroscopic
data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the STARLIGHT code. We find that
both pseudo-bulges and classical bulges in our sample are predominantly
composed of old stellar populations, with mean mass-weighted stellar age around
10 Gyr. While the stellar population of pseudo-bulges is, in general, younger
than that of classical bulges, the difference is not significant, which
indicates that it is hard to distinguish pseudo-bulges from classical bulges,
at least for these isolated galaxies, only based on their stellar populations.
Pseudo-bulges have star formation activities with relatively longer timescale
than classical bulges, indicating that secular evolution is more important in
this kind of systems. Our results also show that pseudo-bulges have a lower
stellar velocity dispersion than their classical counterparts, which suggests
that classical bulges are more dispersion-supported than pseudo-bulges.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space
Scienc
Morphologies of AGN host galaxies using HST/ACS in the CDFS-GOODS field
Using HST/ACS images in four bands F435W, F606W, F775W and F850LP, we
identify optical counterparts to the X-ray sources in the Chandra Deep Field
South in the GOODS South field. A detailed study has been made of these sources
to study their morphological types. We use methods like decomposition of galaxy
luminosity profiles, color maps and visual inspection of 192 galaxies which are
identified as possible optical counterparts of Chandra X-ray sources in the
CDFS-GOODS field. We find that most moderate luminosity AGN hosts are bulge
dominated in the redshift range (z \approx 0.4-1.3), but not
merging/interacting galaxies. This implies probable fueling of the moderate
luminosity AGN by mechanisms other than those merger driven.Comment: pdflatex, accepted in ApSS. revisions in tex
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