Mechanism and function of drosophila capa GPCR: a desiccation stress-responsive receptor with functional homology to human neuromedinU receptor

The capa peptide receptor, capaR (CG14575), is a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) for the D. melanogaster capa neuropeptides, Drm-capa-1 and -2 (capa-1 and -2). To date, the capa peptide family constitutes the only known nitridergic peptides in insects, so the mechanisms and physiological function of ligand-receptor signalling of this peptide family are of interest. Capa peptide induces calcium signaling via capaR with EC50 values for capa-1 = 3.06 nM and capa-2 = 4.32 nM. capaR undergoes rapid desensitization, with internalization via a b-arrestin-2 mediated mechanism but is rapidly re-sensitized in the absence of capa-1. Drosophila capa peptides have a C-terminal -FPRXamide motif and insect-PRXamide peptides are evolutionarily related to vertebrate peptide neuromedinU (NMU). Potential agonist effects of human NMU-25 and the insect -PRLamides [Drosophila pyrokinins Drm-PK-1 (capa-3), Drm-PK-2 and hugin-gamma [hugg]] against capaR were investigated. NMU-25, but not hugg nor Drm-PK-2, increases intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) levels via capaR. In vivo, NMU-25 increases [Ca2+]i and fluid transport by the Drosophila Malpighian (renal) tubule. Ectopic expression of human NMU receptor 2 in tubules of transgenic flies results in increased [Ca2+]i and fluid transport. Finally, anti-porcine NMU-8 staining of larval CNS shows that the most highly immunoreactive cells are capa-producing neurons. These structural and functional data suggest that vertebrate NMU is a putative functional homolog of Drm-capa-1 and -2. capaR is almost exclusively expressed in tubule principal cells; cell-specific targeted capaR RNAi significantly reduces capa-1 stimulated [Ca2+]i and fluid transport. Adult capaR RNAi transgenic flies also display resistance to desiccation. Thus, capaR acts in the key fluid-transporting tissue to regulate responses to desiccation stress in the fly

In-situ monitoring of cross-linking reactions using E-glass fibres and evanescent wave spectroscopy

AbstractE-glass fibres are used in products such as printed circuit boards, wind turbine blades, pipes, marine vehicles and pressure vessels. With reference to the production of fibre reinforced composites, the reinforcement (E-glass) is impregnated with a resin system, consolidated and generally processed by the application of heat. This results in the resin system being converted from a liquid or semi-solid to a highly cross-linked and infusible solid. There is significant interest in monitoring the progression of these cross-linking or chemical reactions and a number of optical and electrical, ultrasonic-based techniques have been developed and demonstrated. The current paper reports on the use of the reinforcing E-glass fibres to track the cross-linking of commercially available epoxy/amine resin systems. The mode of interrogation was based on using the E-glass fibres as evanescent wave sensors thus enabling Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to be conducted. This enabled the cross-linking reactions at the glass/resin interface to be monitored. Conventional transmission Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy experiments were also conducted. The cross-linking kinetic data from the two methods were modelled and compared. A good correlation was obtained between the experimental and predicted data using a single rate constant

The elusive role of soil quality in nutrient cycling: a review

peer-reviewedCycling of nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, is one of the ecosystem services we expect agricultural soils to deliver. Nutrient cycling incorporates the reuse of agricultural, industrial and municipal organic residues that, misleadingly, are often referred to as ‘wastes’. The present review disentangles the processes underlying the cycling of nutrients to better understand which soil properties determine the performance of that function. Four processes are identified (i) the capacity to receive nutrients, (ii) the capacity to make and keep nutrients available to crops, (iii) the capacity to support the uptake of nutrients by crops and (iv) the capacity to support their successful removal in harvested crop. Soil properties matter but it is imperative that, as constituents of ‘soil quality’, they should be evaluated in the context of management options and climate and not as ends in their own right. The effect of a soil property may vary depending on the prevailing climatic and hydrologic conditions and on other soil properties. We recognize that individual soil properties may be enhancing one of the processes underlying the cycling of nutrients but simultaneously weakening others. Competing demands on soil properties are even more obvious when considering other soil functions such as primary production, purification and flow regulation of water, climate modification and habitat provision, as shown by examples. Consequently, evaluations of soil properties and management actions need to be site-specific, taking account of local aspects of their suitability and potential challenges.Horizon 202

Excavator Wheel Drive Reconstruction.

Import 05/08/2014V této práci je popsán pomocný pohon kolesa rypadla a možnost jeho rozběhu softstartérem a frekvenčním měničem. V první části je probrán asynchronní motor s kotvou nakrátko, jeho popis a princip funkce. Další části se věnují softstartéru a frekvenčnímu měniči, jejich popisu, funkcím a možnostem řízení. Dále je zde provedeno měření jejich vlivu na síť. Poslední část je věnována návrhu rekonstrukce pohonu pro napájení s frekvenčním měničem.This thesis describes the auxiliary drive wheel excavators and the possibility of starting the softstarter and frequency converter. In the first part of the document the asynchronous motor with squirrel cage is discussed, its description and function. Other parts of the document are devoted to the soft starter and frequency converter, their description, function and management options. Furthermore, there is performed measurement of their effect on the network. The last section is devoted to the design of the reconstruction drive with the frequency converter.410 - Katedra elektroenergetikyvýborn

Low Complexity Regularization of Linear Inverse Problems

Inverse problems and regularization theory is a central theme in contemporary signal processing, where the goal is to reconstruct an unknown signal from partial indirect, and possibly noisy, measurements of it. A now standard method for recovering the unknown signal is to solve a convex optimization problem that enforces some prior knowledge about its structure. This has proved efficient in many problems routinely encountered in imaging sciences, statistics and machine learning. This chapter delivers a review of recent advances in the field where the regularization prior promotes solutions conforming to some notion of simplicity/low-complexity. These priors encompass as popular examples sparsity and group sparsity (to capture the compressibility of natural signals and images), total variation and analysis sparsity (to promote piecewise regularity), and low-rank (as natural extension of sparsity to matrix-valued data). Our aim is to provide a unified treatment of all these regularizations under a single umbrella, namely the theory of partial smoothness. This framework is very general and accommodates all low-complexity regularizers just mentioned, as well as many others. Partial smoothness turns out to be the canonical way to encode low-dimensional models that can be linear spaces or more general smooth manifolds. This review is intended to serve as a one stop shop toward the understanding of the theoretical properties of the so-regularized solutions. It covers a large spectrum including: (i) recovery guarantees and stability to noise, both in terms of $\ell^2$-stability and model (manifold) identification; (ii) sensitivity analysis to perturbations of the parameters involved (in particular the observations), with applications to unbiased risk estimation ; (iii) convergence properties of the forward-backward proximal splitting scheme, that is particularly well suited to solve the corresponding large-scale regularized optimization problem

Molecular and Historical Aspects of Corn Belt Dent Diversity

Tens-of-thousands of open-pollinated cultivars of corn (Zea mays L.) are being maintained in germplasm banks. Knowledge of the amount and distribution of genetic variation within and among accessions can aid end users in choosing among them. We estimated molecular genetic variation and looked for influences of pedigree, adaptation, and migration in the genetic makeup of conserved Corn-Belt Dent-related germplasm. Plants sampled from 57 accessions representing Corn-Belt Dents, Northern Flints, Southern Dents, plus 12 public inbreds, were genotyped at 20 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci. For 47 of the accessions, between 5 and 23 plants per accession were genotyped (mean = 9.3). Mean number of alleles per locus was 6.5 overall, 3.17 within accessions, and 3.20 within pooled inbreds. Mean gene diversity was 0.53 within accessions and 0.61 within pooled inbreds. Open-pollinated accessions showed a tendency toward inbreeding (FIS = 0.09), and 85% of genetic variation was shared among them. A Fitch-Margoliash tree strongly supported the distinctiveness of flint from dent germplasm but did not otherwise reveal evidence of genetic structure. Mantel tests revealed significant correlations between genetic distance and geographical (r = 0.54, P= 0.04) or maturity zone (r = 0.33, P = 0.03) distance only if flint germplasm was included in the analyses. A significant correlation (r = 0.76, P \u3c 0.01) was found between days to pollen shed and maturity zone of accession origin. Pedigree, rather than migration or selection, has most influenced the genetic structure of the extant representatives of the open-pollinated cultivars at these SSR loci