A Human Embryo of Carnegie Stage 13

A human embryo obtained from a salpinx resected for the treatment of an ectopic gestation was serially sectioned and observed. Four chambers of the heart were well delineated, though not completely separated. The dorsal pancreas was observed while the ventral pancreas was not yet formed. It was hard to clearly demarcate the cecal area because of no obvious dilatation. The septum transversum was nearly completely occupied by the hepatic parenchyme. The gall bladder-cyctic duct primordium was also observed. The intestine distal to the duodenum was attached to the posterior body wall by a prominent dorsal mesentery. The respiratory tree showed primary bronchi, and no mesenchymal differentiation around the tree was achieved yet. The mesonephric system showed variable developmental features depending on their location in the body. The mesonephric duct was already connected to the cloaca, and some localized dilatation of the duct surrounded by mesenchymal condensation, which would become the metanephric blastema, foretold the formation of the ureteric bud. The otocyst had been completely separated from the skin ectoderm and the endolymphatic duct had begun to form. Eye primordium observed was the optic cup. The well established lense placode impended to invaginate. Although this embryo showed a few characteristics of stage 14, it may be reasonable to regard this embryo as an older member of stage 13, considering the overall developmental status

Household Debt and Consumer Spending in Korea: Evidence from Household Data

Household debt in Korea raises concerns about the resilience of the economy due to its size and quality. Against this backdrop, we investigate if household leverage matters for private consumption in adverse economic environments even without severe financial disruptions. We find that the balance sheet positions in terms of the leverage ratio may weaken consumption growth. We also find that the depressive effect of debt on consumption may differ across types of consumer spending and household characteristics. In particular, the effects of indebtedness have been much stronger in relation to durable goods expenditures than in other areas. In addition, debtors in highincome (wealth) groups have also shown downward adjustments in consumption even more so than low-income (wealth) groups. These findings imply that debtors’ precautionary behavior may serve as an important channel from leverage to consumer spending

Optimal Voltage Control Using an Equivalent Model of a Low-Voltage Network Accommodating Inverter-Interfaced Distributed Generators

The penetration of inverter-based distributed generators (DGs), which can control their reactive power outputs, has increased for low-voltage (LV) systems. The power outputs of DGs affect the voltage and power flow of both LV and medium-voltage (MV) systems that are connected to the LV system. Therefore, the effects of DGs should be considered in the volt/var optimization (VVO) problem of LV and MV systems. However, it is inefficient to utilize a detailed LV system model in the VVO problem because the size of the VVO problem is increased owing to the detailed LV system models. Therefore, in order to formulate and solve the VVO problem in an efficient way, in this paper, a new equivalent model for an LV system including inverter-based DGs is proposed. The proposed model is developed based on an analytical approach rather than a heuristic-fitting one, and it therefore enables the VVO problem to be solved using a deterministic algorithm (e.g., interior point method). In addition, a method to utilize the proposed model for the VVO problem is presented. In the case study, the results verify that the computational burden to solve the VVO problem is significantly reduced without loss of accuracy by the proposed model.11Ysciescopu

A Human Embryo of Carnegie Stage 12

A human embryo obtained from a salpinx removed for the treatment of tubal gestation was serially sectioned and observed. On gross examination, the embryo showed three prominent pharyngeal arches, but not the cervical sinus. The upper arm bud had just begun to appear with a slight elevation in the skin ectoderm. Both the anterior and posterior neuropores had already been closed. The heart was at the cardiac loop stage. The respiratory diverticulum, the dorsal pancreas and the beginning of the omental bursa had appeared. In the pharyngeal region, the adenohypophyseal pocket and the thyroid anlage were observed. The optic evagination showed no regional differentiation yet. From the above findings, we concluded that this embryo belonged to Carnegie stage 12

Overexpression of Arabidopsis thaliana brassinosteroid-related acyltransferase 1 gene induces brassinosteroid-deficient phenotypes in creeping bentgrass

Brassinosteroids (BRs) are naturally occurring steroidal hormones that play diverse roles in various processes during plant growth and development. Thus, genetic manipulation of endogenous BR levels might offer a way of improving the agronomic traits of crops, including plant architecture and stress tolerance. In this study, we produced transgenic creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) overexpressing a BR-inactivating enzyme, Arabidopsis thaliana BR-related acyltransferase 1 (AtBAT1), which is known to catalyze the conversion of BR intermediates to inactive acylated conjugates. After putative transgenic plants were selected using herbicide resistance assay, genomic integration of the AtBAT1 gene was confirmed by genomic PCR and Southern blot analysis, and transgene expression was validated by northern blot analysis. The transgenic creeping bentgrass plants exhibited BR-deficient phenotypes, including reduced plant height with shortened internodes (i.e., semi-dwarf), reduced leaf growth rates with short, wide, and thick architecture, high chlorophyll contents, decreased numbers of vascular bundles, and large lamina joint bending angles (i.e., erect leaves). Subsequent analyses showed that the transgenic plants had significantly reduced amounts of endogenous BR intermediates, including typhasterol, 6-deoxocastasterone, and castasterone. Moreover, the AtBAT1 transgenic plants displayed drought tolerance as well as delayed senescence. Therefore, the results of the present study demonstrate that overexpression of an Arabidopsis BR-inactivating enzyme can reduce the endogenous levels of BRs in creeping bentgrass resulting in BR-deficient phenotypes, indicating that the AtBAT1 gene from a dicot plant is also functional in the monocot crop.111Ysciescopu

The Globular Cluster System of M60 (NGC 4649). I. CFHT MOS Spectroscopy and Database

We present the measurement of radial velocities for globular clusters in M60, giant elliptical galaxy in the Virgo cluster. Target globular cluster candidates were selected using the Washington photometry based on the deep 16\arcmin \times 16\arcmin images taken at the KPNO 4m and using the $VI$ photometry derived from the HST/WFPC2 archive images. The spectra of the target objects were obtained using the Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS) at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). We have measured the radial velocity for 111 objects in the field of M60: 93 globular clusters (72 blue globular clusters with $1.0\le(C-T_1)<1.7$ and 21 red globular clusters with $1.7\le(C-T_1)<2.4$), 11 foreground stars, 6 small galaxies, and the nucleus of M60. The measured velocities of the 93 globular clusters range from $\sim 500$ km s$^{-1}$ to $\sim 1600$ km s$^{-1}$, with a mean value of $1070_{-25}^{+27}$ km s$^{-1}$, which is in good agreement with the velocity of the nucleus of M60 ($v_{\rm gal}=1056$ km s$^{-1}$). Combining our results with data in the literature, we present a master catalog of radial velocities for 121 globular clusters in M60. The velocity dispersion of the globular clusters in the master catalog is found to be $234_{-14}^{+13}$ km s$^{-1}$ for the entire sample, $223_{-16}^{+13}$ km s$^{-1}$ for 83 blue globular clusters, and $258_{-31}^{+21}$ km s$^{-1}$ for 38 red globular clusters.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures. To appear in Ap

Calpain-mediated proteolysis of polycystin-1 C-terminus induces JAK2 and ERK signal alterations

AbstractAutosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), a hereditary renal disease caused by mutations in PKD1 (85%) or PKD2 (15%), is characterized by the development of gradually enlarging multiple renal cysts and progressive renal failure. Polycystin-1 (PC1), PKD1 gene product, is an integral membrane glycoprotein which regulates a number of different biological processes including cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell polarity, and tubulogenesis. PC1 is a target of various proteolytic cleavages and proteosomal degradations, but its role in intracellular signaling pathways remains poorly understood. Herein, we demonstrated that PC1 is a novel substrate for μ- and m-calpains, which are calcium-dependent cysteine proteases. Overexpression of PC1 altered both Janus-activated kinase 2 (JAK2) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signals, which were independently regulated by calpain-mediated PC1 degradation. They suggest that the PC1 function on JAK2 and ERK signaling pathways might be regulated by calpains in response to the changes in intracellular calcium concentration

The Globular Cluster System of M60 (NGC 4649). II. Kinematics of the Globular Cluster System

We present a kinematic analysis of the globular cluster (GC) system in the giant elliptical galaxy (gE) M60 in the Virgo cluster. Using the photometric and spectroscopic database of 121 GCs (83 blue GCs and 38 red GCs), we have investigated the kinematics of the GC system. We have found that the M60 GC system shows a significant overall rotation. The rotation amplitude of the blue GCs is slightly smaller than or similar to that of the red GCs, and their angles of rotation axes are similar. The velocity dispersions about the mean velocity and about the best fit rotation curve for the red GCs are marginally larger than those for the blue GCs. Comparison of observed stellar and GC velocity dispersion profiles with those calculated from the stellar mass profile shows that the mass-to-light ratio should be increased as the galactocentric distance increases, indicating the existence of an extended dark matter halo. The entire sample of GCs in M60 is found to have a tangentially biased velocity ellipsoid unlike the GC systems in other gEs. Two subsamples appear to have different velocity ellipsoids. The blue GC system has a modest tangentially biased velocity ellipsoid, while the red GC system has a modest radially biased or an isotropic velocity ellipsoid. From the comparison of the kinematic properties of the M60 GC system to those of other gEs (M87, M49, NGC 1399, NGC 5128, and NGC 4636), it is found that the velocity dispersion of the blue GC system is similar to or larger than that of the red GC system except for M60, and the rotation of the GC system is not negligible. The entire sample of each GC system shows an isotropic velocity ellipsoid except for M60, while the subsamples show diverse velocity ellipsoids. We discuss the implication of these results for the formation models of the GC system in gEs.Comment: 48 pages, 16 figures. To appear in Ap