Androgen-induced rhox homeobox genes modulate the expression of AR-regulated genes

Rhox5, the founding member of the reproductive homeobox on the X chromosome (Rhox) gene cluster, encodes a homeodomain-containing transcription factor that is selectively expressed in Sertoli cells, where it promotes the survival of male germ cells. To identify Rhox5-regulated genes, we generated 15P-1 Sertoli cell clones expressing physiological levels of Rhox5 from a stably transfected expression vector. Microarray analysis identified many genes altered in expression in response to Rhox5, including those encoding proteins controlling cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, metabolism, and cell-cell interactions. Fifteen of these Rhox5-regulated genes were chosen for further analysis. Analysis of Rhox5-null male mice indicated that at least 9 of these are Rhox5-regulated in the testes in vivo. Many of them have distinct postnatal expression patterns and are regulated by Rhox5 at different postnatal time points. Most of them are expressed in Sertoli cells, indicating that they are candidates to be directly regulated by Rhox5. Transfection analysis with expression vectors encoding different mouse and human Rhox family members revealed that the regulatory response of a subset of these Rhox5-regulated genes is both conserved and redundant. Given that Rhox5 depends on AR for expression in Sertoli cells, we examined whether some Rhox5-regulated genes are also regulated by androgen receptor (AR). We provide several lines of evidence that this is the case, leading us to propose that RHOX5 serves as a key intermediate transcription factor that directs some of the actions of AR in the testes

Gravitational lensing as a contaminant of the gravity wave signal in CMB

Gravity waves (GW) in the early universe generate B-type polarization in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which can be used as a direct way to measure the energy scale of inflation. Gravitational lensing contaminates the GW signal by converting the dominant E polarization into B polarization. By reconstructing the lensing potential from CMB itself one can decontaminate the B mode induced by lensing. We present results of numerical simulations of B mode delensing using quadratic and iterative maximum-likelihood lensing reconstruction methods as a function of detector noise and beam. In our simulations we find the quadratic method can reduce the lensing B noise power by up to a factor of 7, close to the no noise limit. In contrast, the iterative method shows significant improvements even at the lowest noise levels we tested. We demonstrate explicitly that with this method at least a factor of 40 noise power reduction in lensing induced B power is possible, suggesting that T/S=10^-6 may be achievable in the absence of sky cuts, foregrounds, and instrumental systematics. While we do not find any fundamental lower limit due to lensing, we find that for high-sensitivity detectors residual lensing noise dominates over the detector noise.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR

Chinese adzuki bean germplasm: 1. Evaluation of agronomic traits

A core collection of adzuki beans, representing the germplasm of Chinese land races, was screened at Warwick Australia in a replicated yield trial sown mid-summer. Grain yield, yield components, phenologic traits, vegetative characteristics, and morphologic descriptors were recorded for all accessions plus Japanese-derived check varieties. Accessions from southern China were later flowering, had smaller seed, and grew taller than those from central China. Grain yield was greatest for accessions from central China, whereas both north Chinese and Japanese check accessions were generally low yielding. The evaluation of diversity displayed trends associated with latitude of germplasm origin, which were positive or negative according to the trait. Similarly, the germplasm diversity in duration of crop growth phases and in rate of yield expression was also associated with latitude of landrace origin. Localised variations from these trends were found for seed size and for number of pods per plant. Various trends with latitude of origin were found for natural incidence of powdery mildew, for growth habit, plant height, vining and leaf colour. However, traits not associated with latitude of germplasm origin included primary and secondary seed colour, mature pod colour, and degree of branching. The evaluation suggests that selections from this greater range of genetic diversity may allow higher yielding varieties than the current Japanese-derived standards to be developed for Australia

Surface Properties of SiCp/Al Composite by Powder-Mixed EDM

AbstractThis paper uses a kind of moderate volume fraction (40%) of SiC particle reinforced Al matrix composites (SiCp/Al) to research how the surface properties are affected in conventional EDM (EDM) and powder-mixed EDM (PMEDM). By means of environment scanning electron microscope (ESEM) and HIT friction and wear tester, surface micro-topography, elements and wear resistance were analyzed. Experiments and researches indicate that compared with EDM, the surface properties machined by using PMEDM are improved greatly. The PMEDM surface roughness decreases about 31.5%; corrosion resistance is better too; and wear resistance is twice of EDM. Powder-mixed EDM has promising applications in metal matrix composites machining field

In-plane dipole coupling anisotropy of a square ferromagnetic Heisenberg monolayer

In this study we calculate the dipole-coupling-induced quartic in-plane anisotropy of a square ferromagnetic Heisenberg monolayer. This anisotropy increases with an increasing temperature, reaching its maximum value close to the Curie temperature of the system. At T=0 the system is isotropic, besides a small remaining anisotropy due to the zero-point motion of quantum mechanical spins. The reason for the dipole-coupling-induced anisotropy is the disturbance of the square spin lattice due to thermal fluctuations ('order-by-disorder' effect). For usual ferromagnets its strength is small as compared to other anisotropic contributions, and decreases by application of an external magnetic field. The results are obtained from a Heisenberg Hamiltonian by application of a mean field approach for a spin cluster, as well as from a many-body Green's function theory within the Tyablikov-decoupling (RPA).Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in RP

Inhibition of OATP1B1 by tyrosine kinase inhibitors: In vitro-in vivo correlations

Background:Several tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) can decrease docetaxel clearance in patients by an unknown mechanism. We hypothesised that these interactions are mediated by the hepatic uptake transporter OATP1B1.Methods:The influence of 16 approved TKIs on transport was studied in vitro using HEK293 cells expressing OATP1B1 or its mouse equivalent Oatp1b2. Pharmacokinetic studies were performed with Oatp1b2-knockout and OATP1B1-transgenic mice.Results:All docetaxel-interacting TKIs, including sorafenib, were identified as potent inhibitors of OATP1B1 in vitro. Although Oatp1b2 deficiency in vivo was associated with increased docetaxel exposure, single- or multiple-dose sorafenib did not influence docetaxel pharmacokinetics.Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of identifying proper preclinical models for verifying and predicting TKI-chemotherapy interactions involving transporters

Towards a formal description of the collapse approach to the inflationary origin of the seeds of cosmic structure

Inflation plays a central role in our current understanding of the universe. According to the standard viewpoint, the homogeneous and isotropic mode of the inflaton field drove an early phase of nearly exponential expansion of the universe, while the quantum fluctuations (uncertainties) of the other modes gave rise to the seeds of cosmic structure. However, if we accept that the accelerated expansion led the universe into an essentially homogeneous and isotropic space-time, with the state of all the matter fields in their vacuum (except for the zero mode of the inflaton field), we can not escape the conclusion that the state of the universe as a whole would remain always homogeneous and isotropic. It was recently proposed in [A. Perez, H. Sahlmann and D. Sudarsky, "On the quantum origin of the seeds of cosmic structure," Class. Quant. Grav. 23, 2317-2354 (2006)] that a collapse (representing physics beyond the established paradigm, and presumably associated with a quantum-gravity effect a la Penrose) of the state function of the inflaton field might be the missing element, and thus would be responsible for the emergence of the primordial inhomogeneities. Here we will discuss a formalism that relies strongly on quantum field theory on curved space-times, and within which we can implement a detailed description of such a process. The picture that emerges clarifies many aspects of the problem, and is conceptually quite transparent. Nonetheless, we will find that the results lead us to argue that the resulting picture is not fully compatible with a purely geometric description of space-time.Comment: 53 pages, no figures. Revision to match the published versio

Observation of nano-indent induced strain fields and dislocation generation in silicon wafers using micro-raman spectroscopy and white beam x-ray topography

In the semiconductor manufacturing industry, wafer handling introduces micro-cracks at the wafer edge. During heat treatment these can produce larger, long-range cracks in the wafer which can cause wafer breakage during manufacture. Two complimentary techniques, micro-Raman spectroscopy (μRS) and White Beam Synchrotron X-ray Topography (WBSXRT) were employed to study both the micro-cracks and the associated strain fields produced by nano-indentations in Si wafers, which were used as a means of introducing controlled strain in the wafers. It is shown that both the spatial lateral and depth distribution of these long range strain fields are relatively isotropic in nature. The Raman spectra suggest the presence of a region under tensile strain beneath the indents, which can indicate a crack beneath the indent and the data strongly suggests that there exists a minimum critical applied load below which cracking will not initiate

Transient elastohydrodynamic lubrication analysis of a novel metal-on-metal hip prosthesis with a non-spherical femoral bearing surface

Effective lubrication performance of metal-on-metal hip implants only requires optimum conformity within the main loaded area, while it is advantageous to increase the clearance in the equatorial region. Such a varying clearance can be achieved by using non-spherical bearing surfaces for either acetabular or femoral components. An elastohydrodynamic lubrication model of a novel metal-on-metal hip prosthesis using a non-spherical femoral bearing surface against a spherical cup was solved under loading and motion conditions specified by ISO standard. A full numerical methodology of considering the geometric variation in the rotating non-spherical head in elastohydrodynamic lubrication solution was presented, which is applicable to all non-spherical head designs. The lubrication performance of a hip prosthesis using a specific non-spherical femoral head, Alpharabola, was analysed and compared with those of spherical bearing surfaces and a non-spherical Alpharabola cup investigated in previous studies. The sensitivity of the lubrication performance to the anteversion angle of the Alpharabola head was also investigated. Results showed that the non-spherical head introduced a large squeeze-film action and also led to a large variation in clearance within the loaded area. With the same equatorial clearance, the lubrication performance of the metal-on-metal hip prosthesis using an Alpharabola head was better than that of the conventional spherical bearings but worse than that of the metal-on-metal hip prosthesis using an Alpharabola cup. The reduction in the lubrication performance caused by the initial anteversion angle of the non-spherical head was small, compared with the improvement resulted from the non-spherical geometry

Tight-binding g-Factor Calculations of CdSe Nanostructures

The Lande g-factors for CdSe quantum dots and rods are investigated within the framework of the semiempirical tight-binding method. We describe methods for treating both the n-doped and neutral nanostructures, and then apply these to a selection of nanocrystals of variable size and shape, focusing on approximately spherical dots and rods of differing aspect ratio. For the negatively charged n-doped systems, we observe that the g-factors for near-spherical CdSe dots are approximately independent of size, but show strong shape dependence as one axis of the quantum dot is extended to form rod-like structures. In particular, there is a discontinuity in the magnitude of g-factor and a transition from anisotropic to isotropic g-factor tensor at aspect ratio ~1.3. For the neutral systems, we analyze the electron g-factor of both the conduction and valence band electrons. We find that the behavior of the electron g-factor in the neutral nanocrystals is generally similar to that in the n-doped case, showing the same strong shape dependence and discontinuity in magnitude and anisotropy. In smaller systems the g-factor value is dependent on the details of the surface model. Comparison with recent measurements of g-factors for CdSe nanocrystals suggests that the shape dependent transition may be responsible for the observations of anomalous numbers of g-factors at certain nanocrystal sizes.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures. Fixed typos to match published versio