IFNAR1-Signalling Obstructs ICOS-mediated Humoral Immunity during Non-lethal Blood-Stage Plasmodium Infection

Funding: This work was funded by a Career Development Fellowship (1028634) and a project grant (GRNT1028641) awarded to AHa by the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC). IS was supported by The University of Queensland Centennial and IPRS Scholarships. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Wheat-barley hybridization – the last forty years

Abstract Several useful alien gene transfers have been reported from related species into wheat (Triticum aestivum), but very few publications have dealt with the development of wheat/barley (Hordeum vulgare) introgression lines. An overview is given here of wheat 9 barley hybridization over the last forty years, including the development of wheat 9 barley hybrids, and of addition and translocation lines with various barley cultivars. A short summary is also given of the wheat 9 barley hybrids produced with other Hordeum species. The meiotic pairing behaviour of wheat 9 barley hybrids is presented, with special regard to the detection of wheat– barley homoeologous pairing using the molecular cytogenetic technique GISH. The effect of in vitro multiplication on the genome composition of intergeneric hybrids is discussed, and the production and characterization of the latest wheat/barley translocation lines are presented. An overview of the agronomical traits (b-glucan content, earliness, salt tolerance, sprouting resistance, etc.) of the newly developed introgression lines is given. The exploitation and possible use of wheat/barley introgression lines for the most up-to-date molecular genetic studies (transcriptome analysis, sequencing of flow-sorted chromosomes) are also discussed

Counterexample-Driven Synthesis for Probabilistic Program Sketches

Probabilistic programs are key to deal with uncertainty in e.g. controller synthesis. They are typically small but intricate. Their development is complex and error prone requiring quantitative reasoning over a myriad of alternative designs. To mitigate this complexity, we adopt counterexample-guided inductive synthesis (CEGIS) to automatically synthesise finite-state probabilistic programs. Our approach leverages efficient model checking, modern SMT solving, and counterexample generation at program level. Experiments on practically relevant case studies show that design spaces with millions of candidate designs can be fully explored using a few thousand verification queries.Comment: Extended versio

Potential new genes for resistance to Mycosphaerella graminicola identified in Triticum aestivum x Lophopyrum elongatum disomic substitution lines.

Lophopyrum species carry many desirable agronomic traits, including disease resistance, which can be transferred towheat by interspecific hybridization. To identify potentially new genes for disease and insect resistance carried by individual Lophopyrum chromosomes, 19 of 21 possible wheat cultivar Chinese Spring 9 Lophopyrum elongatum disomic substitution lines were tested for resistance to barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV), cereal yellow dwarf virus (CYDV), the Hessian fly Mayetiola destructor, and the fungal pathogens Blumeria graminis and Mycosphaerella graminicola (asexual stage: Septoria tritici). Low resistance to BYDV occurred in some of the disomic substitution lines, but viral titers were significantly higher than those of two Lophopyrum species tested. This suggested that genes on more than one Lophopyrum chromosome are required for complete resistance to this virus. A potentially new gene for resistance to CYDV was detected on wheatgrass chromosome 3E. All of the substitution lines were susceptible to Mayetiola destructor and one strain of B. graminis. Disomic substitution lines containing wheatgrass chromosomes 1E and 6E were significantly more resistant to M. graminicola compared to Chinese Spring. Although neither chromosome by itself conferred resistance as high as that in the wheatgrass parent, they do appear to contain potentially new genes for resistance against this pathogen that could be useful for future plant-improvement programs

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Continuation for thin film hydrodynamics and related scalar problems

This chapter illustrates how to apply continuation techniques in the analysis of a particular class of nonlinear kinetic equations that describe the time evolution through transport equations for a single scalar field like a densities or interface profiles of various types. We first systematically introduce these equations as gradient dynamics combining mass-conserving and nonmass-conserving fluxes followed by a discussion of nonvariational amendmends and a brief introduction to their analysis by numerical continuation. The approach is first applied to a number of common examples of variational equations, namely, Allen-Cahn- and Cahn-Hilliard-type equations including certain thin-film equations for partially wetting liquids on homogeneous and heterogeneous substrates as well as Swift-Hohenberg and Phase-Field-Crystal equations. Second we consider nonvariational examples as the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, convective Allen-Cahn and Cahn-Hilliard equations and thin-film equations describing stationary sliding drops and a transversal front instability in a dip-coating. Through the different examples we illustrate how to employ the numerical tools provided by the packages auto07p and pde2path to determine steady, stationary and time-periodic solutions in one and two dimensions and the resulting bifurcation diagrams. The incorporation of boundary conditions and integral side conditions is also discussed as well as problem-specific implementation issues

Assessing cardiovascular risk in chronic kidney disease patients prior to kidney transplantation: clinical usefulness of a standardised cardiovascular assessment protocol.

BACKGROUND: Despite pre-kidney-transplant cardiovascular (CV) assessment being routine care to minimise perioperative risk, the utility of such assessment is not well established. The study reviewed the evaluation and outcome of a standardised CV assessment protocol. METHODS: Data were analysed for 231 patients (age 53.4 ± 12.9 years, diabetes 34.6%) referred for kidney transplantation between 1/2/2012-31/12/2014. One hundred forty-three patients were high-risk (age > 60 years, diabetes, CV disease, heart failure, peripheral vascular disease) and offered dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE); 88 patients were low-risk and offered ECG and echocardiography with/without exercise treadmill test. RESULTS: At the end of follow-up (579 ± 289 days), 35 patients underwent kidney transplantation and 50 were active on the waitlist. There were 24 events (CV or death), none were perioperative. One hundred fifteen patients had DSE with proportionally more events in DSE-positive compared to DSE-negative patients (6/34 vs. 7/81, p = 0.164). In 42 patients who underwent coronary angiography due to a positive DSE or ischaemic heart disease symptoms, 13 (31%) had events, 6 were suspended, 11 removed from waitlist, 3 wait-listed, 1 transplanted and 17 still undergoing assessment. Patients with significant coronary artery disease requiring intervention had poorer event-free survival compared to those without intervention (56% vs. 83% at 2 years, p = 0.044). However, the association became non-significant after correction for CV risk factors (HR = 3.17, 95% CI 0.51-19.59, p = 0.215). CONCLUSIONS: The stratified CV risk assessment protocol using DSE in all high-risk patients was effective in identifying patients with coronary artery disease. The coronary angiograms identified the event-prone patients effectively but coronary interventions were not associated with improved survival

Lichen rehydration in heavy metal polluted environments: Pb modulates the oxidative response of both Ramalina farinacea thalli and its isolated microalgae

Lichens are adapted to desiccation/rehydration and accumulate heavy metals, which induce ROS especially from the photobiont photosynthetic pigments. Although their mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance are still to be unravelled, they seem related to symbionts' reciprocal upregulation of antioxidant systems. With the aim to study the effect of Pb on oxidative status during rehydration, the kinetics of intracellular ROS, lipid peroxidation and chlorophyll autofluorescence of whole Ramalina farinacea thalli and its isolated microalgae (Trebouxia TR1 and T. TR9) was recorded. A genetic characterization of the microalgae present in the thalli used was also carried out in order to assess possible correlations among the relative abundance of each phycobiont, their individual physiological responses and that of the entire thallus. Unexpectedly, Pb decreased ROS and lipid peroxidation in thalli and its phycobionts, associated with a lower chlorophyll autofluorescence. Each phycobiont showed a particular pattern, but the oxidative response of the thallus paralleled the TR1's, agreeing with the genetic identification of this strain as the predominant phycobiont. We conclude that: (1) the lichen oxidative behaviour seems to be modulated by the predominant phycobiont and (2) Pb evokes in R. farinacea and its phycobionts strong mechanisms to neutralize its own oxidant effects along with those of rehydration