A chloroplast phylogeny of Arisaema (Araceae) illustrates Tertiary floristic links between Asia, North America, and East Africa

The evolution of Arisaema is reconstructed, based on combined sequences (2048 aligned bases) from the chloroplast trnL intron, trnL-trnF spacer, and rpl20-rps12 spacer obtained for species from all 11 sections, including sectional type species and geographically disjunct East African and North American/Mexican species. Analyses were rooted with a representative sample of the closest outgroups, Pinellia and Typhonium, to rigorously test the monophyly of Arisaema. Sections in Arisaema are mostly based on leaf, stem, and inflorescence characters and, with one exception, are not rejected by the molecular data; however, statistical support for sectional relationships in the genus remains poor. Section Tortuosa, which includes eastern North American A. dracontium and Mexican A. macrospathum, is demonstrably polyphyletic. The third New World species, A. triphyllum, also occurs in eastern North America and groups with a different Asian clade than do A. dracontium/A. macrospathum. The genus thus appears to have entered North America twice. Fossil infructescences similar to those of A. triphyllum are known from approximately 18 million-year-old deposits inWashington State and can serve to calibrate a molecular clock. Constraining the age of A. triphyllum to 18 million years (my) and applying either a semiparametric or an ultrametric clock model to the combined data yields an age of approximately 31–49 my for the divergence of A. dracontium/A. macrospathum from their Asian relatives and of 19–32 my for the divergence between African A. schimperianum and a Tibetan/Nepalese relative. The genus thus provides an example of the Oligocene/Miocene floristic links between East Africa, Arabia, the Himalayan region, China, and North America. The phylogeny also suggests secondary loss of the environmental sex determination strategy that characterizes all arisaemas except for two subspecies of A. flavum, which have consistently bisexual spathes. These subspecies are tetraploid and capable of selfing, while a third subspecies of A. flavum is diploid and retains the sex-changing strategy. In the molecular trees, the sex-changing subspecies is sister to the two non-sex-changing ones, and the entire species is not basal in the genus

Riccati Solutions of Discrete Painlev\'e Equations with Weyl Group Symmetry of Type E8(1)E_8^{(1)}

We present a special solutions of the discrete Painlev\'e equations associated with $A_0^{(1)}$, $A_0^{(1)*}$ and $A_0^{(1)**}$-surface. These solutions can be expressed by solutions of linear difference equations. Here the $A_0^{(1)}$-surface discrete Painlev\'e equation is the most generic difference equation, as all discrete Painlev\'e equations can be obtained by its degeneration limit. These special solutions exist when the parameters of the discrete Painlev\'e equation satisfy a particular constraint. We consider that these special functions belong to the hypergeometric family although they seems to go beyond the known discrete and $q$-discrete hypergeometric functions. We also discuss the degeneration scheme of these solutions.Comment: 22 page

Anomalies and Hawking radiation from the Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole with a global monopole

We extend the work by S. Iso, H. Umetsu and F. Wilczek [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (2006) 151302] to derive the Hawking flux via gauge and gravitational anomalies of a most general two-dimensional non-extremal black hole space-time with the determinant of its diagonal metric differing from the unity ($\sqrt{-g} \neq 1$) and use it to investigate Hawking radiation from the Reissner-Nordstrom black hole with a global monopole by requiring the cancellation of anomalies at the horizon. It is shown that the compensating energy momentum and gauge fluxes required to cancel gravitational and gauge anomalies at the horizon are precisely equivalent to the $(1+1)$-dimensional thermal fluxes associated with Hawking radiation emanating from the horizon at the Hawking temperature. These fluxes are universally determined by the value of anomalies at the horizon.Comment: 18 pages, 0 figure. 1 footnote and 4 new reference adde

Introduction and utility of resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta for cases with a potential high risk of postpartum hemorrhage: A single tertiary care center experience of two cases

Postpartum hemorrhage is an important obstetric complication and the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide. Occasionally, we encounter unexpected massive postpartum hemorrhage diagnosed for the first time after delivery. Therefore, it is essential to pay attention to patients with a high risk of postpartum hemorrhage. The authors report two cases of patients at high risk of postpartum hemorrhage that were successfully managed by resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta before cesarean section. Case 1: A 32-year-old woman with a history of cesarean section and who conceived using assisted reproductive technology was diagnosed with partial placenta previa at 25 weeks of gestation. Because of tocolysis failure, emergent cesarean section with resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta was performed at 36 weeks of gestation. Natural placental resorption was observed. She was discharged at 5 days after delivery without significant hemorrhage. Case 2: A 41-year-old woman with suspected placenta accreta spectrum due to a cesarean scar pregnancy was referred to our hospital at 33 weeks of gestation. A planned cesarean section with resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta was conducted at 37 weeks of gestation. There was no visual evidence of abnormal placental invasion of the myometrium, and natural placental resorption was observed. She was discharged at 5 days after delivery without significant hemorrhage

Identification of mouse Jun dimerization protein 2 as a novel repressor of ATF-211The nucleotide sequence reported herein has been deposited in the DDBJ, EMBL and GenBank databanks under the accession number AB034697.

AbstractA mouse cDNA that encodes a DNA-binding protein was identified by yeast two-hybrid screening, using activating transcription factor-2 (ATF-2) as the bait. The protein contained a bZIP (basic amino acid-leucine zipper region) domain and its amino acid sequence was almost identical to that of rat Jun dimerization protein 2 (JDP2). Mouse JDP2 interacted with ATF-2 both in vitro and in vivo via its bZIP domain. It was encoded by a single gene and various transcripts were expressed in all tested tissues of adult mice, as well as in embryos, albeit at different levels in various tissues. Furthermore, mouse JDP2 bound to the cAMP-response element (CRE) as a homodimer or as a heterodimer with ATF-2, and repressed CRE-dependent transcription that was mediated by ATF-2. JDP2 was identified as a novel repressor protein that affects ATF-2-mediated transcription

Covariant anomaly and Hawking radiation from the modified black hole in the rainbow gravity theory

Recently, Banerjee and Kulkarni (R. Banerjee, S. Kulkarni, arXiv:0707.2449 [hep-th]) suggested that it is conceptually clean and economical to use only the covariant anomaly to derive Hawking radiation from a black hole. Based upon this simplified formalism, we apply the covariant anomaly cancellation method to investigate Hawking radiation from a modified Schwarzschild black hole in the theory of rainbow gravity. Hawking temperature of the gravity's rainbow black hole is derived from the energy-momentum flux by requiring it to cancel the covariant gravitational anomaly at the horizon. We stress that this temperature is exactly the same as that calculated by the method of cancelling the consistent anomaly.Comment: 5 page