Edge atoms effects on the perpendicular anisotropy of ultrathin magnetic layers

The present work reports experimental and theoretical results for electrodeposited Co/Au(111) ultrathin layers with very specific magnetic behavior. We show that the observed two peaks in the out-of-plane magnetization versus deposition time variation could be explained by the remarkably high perpendicular anisotropy of the perimeter atoms of low- dimensional islands formed during the layer-by-layer growth, as compared to that of the surface atoms. Our results indicate that it is possible to sustain high anisotropy in very small grains without coming across the superparamagnetic limit, opening excellent opportunities for materials engineering

chloroExtractor: extraction and assembly of the chloroplast genome from whole genome shotgun data

The chloroExtractor is a perl based program which provides a pipeline for DNA extraction of chloroplast DNA from whole genome plant data.The authors MJA and SP contributed equally to this work. MJA was supported by a grant of the German Excellence Initiative to the Graduate School of Life Sciences, University of Würzburg

Seeing plants as never before

Authors of the article assert that imaging has long supported our ability to understand the inner life of plants, their development, and response to a dynamic environment. The purpose of this review was to provide the scientific community with an overview of current imaging methods, which rely variously on either nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry (MS) or infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and to present some examples of their application in order to illustrate their utility

Learning Visual Context by Comparison

Finding diseases from an X-ray image is an important yet highly challenging task. Current methods for solving this task exploit various characteristics of the chest X-ray image, but one of the most important characteristics is still missing: the necessity of comparison between related regions in an image. In this paper, we present Attend-and-Compare Module (ACM) for capturing the difference between an object of interest and its corresponding context. We show that explicit difference modeling can be very helpful in tasks that require direct comparison between locations from afar. This module can be plugged into existing deep learning models. For evaluation, we apply our module to three chest X-ray recognition tasks and COCO object detection & segmentation tasks and observe consistent improvements across tasks. The code is available at https://github.com/mk-minchul/attend-and-compare.Comment: ECCV 2020 spotlight pape

SWEET11b transports both sugar and cytokinin in developing barley grains

Even though Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporters (SWEETs) have been found in every sequenced plant genome, a comprehensive understanding of their functionality is lacking. In this study, we focused on the SWEET family of barley (Hordeum vulgare). A radiotracer assay revealed that expressing HvSWEET11b in African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) oocytes facilitated the bidirectional transfer of not only just sucrose and glucose, but also cytokinin. Barley plants harboring a loss-of-function mutation of HvSWEET11b could not set viable grains, while the distribution of sucrose and cytokinin was altered in developing grains of plants in which the gene was knocked down. Sucrose allocation within transgenic grains was disrupted, which is consistent with the changes to the cytokinin gradient across grains, as visualized by magnetic resonance imaging and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy microimaging. Decreasing HvSWEET11b expression in developing grains reduced overall grain size, sink strength, the number of endopolyploid endosperm cells, and the contents of starch and protein. The control exerted by HvSWEET11b over sugars and cytokinins likely predetermines their synergy, resulting in adjustments to the grain's biochemistry and transcriptome

Vinculaciones humanas e institucionales a través del uso de la energía solar: la Comisaría del Menor y las mini cocinas solares

Este trabajo trata acerca de una experiencia de transferencia de tecnología solar, especialmente apropiada para las actuales circunstancias que viven la región y el país. La misma se inició con la Comisaría del Menor, ubicada a cien metros de la Universidad Nacional de Salta (UNSa). Su finalidad es usar mini cocinas solares como alternativa del empleo de leña o gas para la cocción de alimentos y acercar un nivel científico sencillo a adolescentes con problemas socio-económicos para estimular una veta quizás postergada, pero también como vía de vinculación con menores detenidos en la Comisaría. Actualmente, después de casi tres décadas de existencia de la UNSa, vemos que la universidad está rodeada de asentamientos y barrios pobres, así como la mencionada cárcel de menores, pudiendo ejercer su influencia e impacto social, cultural, socioeconómico y académico más allá de la asistencia de los alumnos a sus aulas o el empleo de sus instalaciones deportivas, sino a través de la concurrencia de sus docentes a los lugares donde son necesitados, a fin de acercar propuestas concretas para la solución de problemas. En este trabajo se muestran estas acciones solidarias.This work describes an experience of solar technology transfer, especially appropriate for current circumstances experienced in the region and the country. It began with the Minority Commissary located a hundred meters in front of UNSa. It is aimed at the use of small solar cookers as an alternative to firewood or bottled gas to cook food; to take basic science to adolescents with socio-economical problems to stimulate a - maybe- hidden vein, but also as a training means for detained minors. After almost three decades of existence, UNSa is enclosed of "asentamientos" and poor districts, as well as the above-mentioned Minors jail. Its influence and social impact are felt not only by cultural, socio-economical and academic attendance of the students in their classrooms or the use of their sport installations, but through the concurrence of their teachers and trained personnel to the places where they are needed, in order to evolve concrete proposals for the solution of problems. In this paper, these solidarity actions are illustrated.Asociación Argentina de Energías Renovables y Medio Ambiente (ASADES

Analysis of benzo[a]pyrene metabolites formed by rat hepatic microsomes using high pressure liquid chromatography: optimization of the method

A simple and sensitive method was developed to separate the carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), and six of its oxidation metabolites generated by rat hepatic microsomes enriched with cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A1, by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). The HPLC method, using an acetonitrile/water gradient as mobile phase and UV detection, provided appropriate separation and detection of both mono- and di-hydroxylated metabolites of BaP as well as BaP diones formed by rat hepatic microsomes and the parental BaP. In this enzymatic system, 3-hydroxy BaP, 9-hydroxy BaP, BaP-4,5-dihydrodiol, BaP-7,8-dihydrodiol, BaP-9,10-dihydrodiol and BaP-dione were generated. Among them the mono-hydroxylated BaP metabolite, 3-hydroxy BaP followed by di-hydroxylated BaP products, BaP-7,8-dihydrodiol and BaP-9,10-dihydrodiol, predominated, while BaP-dione was a minor metabolite. This HPLC method will be useful for further defining the roles of the CYP1A1 enzyme with both in vitro and in vivo models in understanding its real role in activation and detoxification of BaP

Vinculaciones humanas e institucionales a través del uso de la energía solar: la Comisaría del Menor y las mini cocinas solares

Este trabajo trata acerca de una experiencia de transferencia de tecnología solar, especialmente apropiada para las actuales circunstancias que viven la región y el país. La misma se inició con la Comisaría del Menor, ubicada a cien metros de la Universidad Nacional de Salta (UNSa). Su finalidad es usar mini cocinas solares como alternativa del empleo de leña o gas para la cocción de alimentos y acercar un nivel científico sencillo a adolescentes con problemas socio-económicos para estimular una veta quizás postergada, pero también como vía de vinculación con menores detenidos en la Comisaría. Actualmente, después de casi tres décadas de existencia de la UNSa, vemos que la universidad está rodeada de asentamientos y barrios pobres, así como la mencionada cárcel de menores, pudiendo ejercer su influencia e impacto social, cultural, socioeconómico y académico más allá de la asistencia de los alumnos a sus aulas o el empleo de sus instalaciones deportivas, sino a través de la concurrencia de sus docentes a los lugares donde son necesitados, a fin de acercar propuestas concretas para la solución de problemas. En este trabajo se muestran estas acciones solidarias.This work describes an experience of solar technology transfer, especially appropriate for current circumstances experienced in the region and the country. It began with the Minority Commissary located a hundred meters in front of UNSa. It is aimed at the use of small solar cookers as an alternative to firewood or bottled gas to cook food; to take basic science to adolescents with socio-economical problems to stimulate a - maybe- hidden vein, but also as a training means for detained minors. After almost three decades of existence, UNSa is enclosed of "asentamientos" and poor districts, as well as the above-mentioned Minors jail. Its influence and social impact are felt not only by cultural, socio-economical and academic attendance of the students in their classrooms or the use of their sport installations, but through the concurrence of their teachers and trained personnel to the places where they are needed, in order to evolve concrete proposals for the solution of problems. In this paper, these solidarity actions are illustrated.Asociación Argentina de Energías Renovables y Medio Ambiente (ASADES

Vinculaciones humanas e institucionales a través del uso de la energía solar: la Comisaría del Menor y las mini cocinas solares

Este trabajo trata acerca de una experiencia de transferencia de tecnología solar, especialmente apropiada para las actuales circunstancias que viven la región y el país. La misma se inició con la Comisaría del Menor, ubicada a cien metros de la Universidad Nacional de Salta (UNSa). Su finalidad es usar mini cocinas solares como alternativa del empleo de leña o gas para la cocción de alimentos y acercar un nivel científico sencillo a adolescentes con problemas socio-económicos para estimular una veta quizás postergada, pero también como vía de vinculación con menores detenidos en la Comisaría. Actualmente, después de casi tres décadas de existencia de la UNSa, vemos que la universidad está rodeada de asentamientos y barrios pobres, así como la mencionada cárcel de menores, pudiendo ejercer su influencia e impacto social, cultural, socioeconómico y académico más allá de la asistencia de los alumnos a sus aulas o el empleo de sus instalaciones deportivas, sino a través de la concurrencia de sus docentes a los lugares donde son necesitados, a fin de acercar propuestas concretas para la solución de problemas. En este trabajo se muestran estas acciones solidarias.This work describes an experience of solar technology transfer, especially appropriate for current circumstances experienced in the region and the country. It began with the Minority Commissary located a hundred meters in front of UNSa. It is aimed at the use of small solar cookers as an alternative to firewood or bottled gas to cook food; to take basic science to adolescents with socio-economical problems to stimulate a - maybe- hidden vein, but also as a training means for detained minors. After almost three decades of existence, UNSa is enclosed of "asentamientos" and poor districts, as well as the above-mentioned Minors jail. Its influence and social impact are felt not only by cultural, socio-economical and academic attendance of the students in their classrooms or the use of their sport installations, but through the concurrence of their teachers and trained personnel to the places where they are needed, in order to evolve concrete proposals for the solution of problems. In this paper, these solidarity actions are illustrated.Asociación Argentina de Energías Renovables y Medio Ambiente (ASADES

Brain activity underlying negative self- and other-perception in adolescents: The role of attachment-derived self-representations

One of teenagers' key developmental tasks is to engage in new and meaningful relationships with peers and adults outside the family context. Attachment-derived expectations about the self and others in terms of internal attachment working models have the potential to shape such social reorientation processes critically and thereby influence adolescents' social-emotional development and social integration. Because the neural underpinnings of this developmental task remain largely unknown, we sought to investigate them by functional magnetic resonance imaging. We asked n = 44 adolescents (ages 12.01-18.84 years) to evaluate positive and negative adjectives regarding either themselves or a close other during an adapted version of the well-established self-other trait-evaluation task. As measures of attachment, we obtained scores reflecting participants' positive versus negative attachment-derived self- and other-models by means of the Relationship Questionnaire. We controlled for possible confounding factors by also obtaining scores reflecting internalizing/externalizing problems, schizotypy, and borderline symptomatology. Our results revealed that participants with a more negative attachment-derived self-model showed increased brain activity during positive and negative adjective evaluation regarding the self, but decreased brain activity during negative adjective evaluation regarding a close other, in bilateral amygdala/parahippocampus, bilateral anterior temporal pole/anterior superior temporal gyrus, and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These findings suggest that a low positivity of the self-concept characteristic for the attachment anxiety dimension may influence neural information processing, but in opposite directions when it comes to self- versus (close) other-representations. We discuss our results in the framework of attachment theory and regarding their implications especially for adolescent social-emotional development and social integration