Expression Analysis of Rice Defense-Related Genes in Turfgrass in Response to \u3ci\u3eMagnaporthe grisea\u3c/i\u3e

Magnaporthe grisea (anamorph = Pyricularia grisea) causes blast on rice (Oryza sativa) and gray leaf spot on turfgrass. Gray leaf spot is a serious disease on St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum), perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne), and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea). Virulence assays performed in this study revealed that M. grisea collected from rice could also cause disease on St. Augustinegrass and tall fescue. One rice isolate, Che86061, caused similar disease reactions on susceptible cultivars of rice and St. Augustinegrass and an incompatible interaction on resistant cultivars of both species. To explore whether similar defense-related genes are expressed in rice and St. Augustinegrass, a rice cDNA library was screened using pooled cDNAs derived from M. grisea infected St. Augustinegrass. Thirty rice EST (expressed sequence tag) clones showing differential expression in St. Augustinegrass following M. grisea inoculation were identified and classified into six putative functional groups. Northern blot analyses of seven EST clones that collectively represented each putative functional group confirmed that the expression of five out of seven EST clones was similar in both rice and St. Augustinegrass. This study represents one of the first attempts to use a broad-scale genomic approach and resources of a model monocot system to study defense gene expression in St. Augustinegrass following M. grisea infection

Supplier selection using a hybrid model for 3C industry

Supplier selection is a good strategy for firms that can reduce operating costs and improve competitiveness for computer, communication and consumer electronics (3C) industry. The major aim of this research is to build a systematic approach for establishing a supplier selection model, and then prioritize improvement criteria in order to best supply chain management. The study proposed a hybrid approach by using the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) method to deal with the interrelationship among criteria, and the analytic network process (ANP) method is employed to recognize the criteria of supplier selection and evaluate with respect to environmental competency for the case of Taiwan's 3C industry. The study shows that the proposed model could be an effective and efficient decision-making tool that can be easily extended to other contexts. Especially, it has provided decision-makers and researchers with better understanding of the differences in supplier selection activity needs and specific management interventions by examining these criteria

Cytosolic delivery of nanolabels prevents their asymmetric inheritance and enables extended quantitative in vivo cell imaging

Long-term in vivo imaging of cells is crucial for the understanding of cellular fate in biological processes in cancer research, immunology, or in cell-based therapies such as beta cell transplantation, in type I diabetes or stem cell therapy. Traditionally, cell labeling with the desired contrast agent occurs ex vivo via spontaneous endocytosis, which is a variable and slow process that requires optimization for each particular label-cell type combination. Following endocytic uptake, the contrast agents mostly remain entrapped in the endolysosomal compartment, which leads to signal instability, cytotoxicity, and asymmetric inheritance of the labels upon cell division. Here, we demonstrate that these disadvantages can be circumvented by delivering contrast agents directly into the cytoplasm via vapor nanobubble photoporation. Compared to classic endocytic uptake, photoporation resulted in :50 and 3 times higher loading of fluorescent dextrans and quantum dots, respectively, with improved signal stability and reduced cytotoxicity: Most: interestingly, cytosolic delivery by iihotoporation prevented asymmetric inheritance of labels by daughter cells over subsequent cell' generations. Instead, unequal inheritance of endocytosed labels resulted in a dramatic increase in polydispersity of the amount of labels per cell with each cell division, hindering accurate quantification of cell numbers in vivo over time. The combined benefits of cell labeling by photoporation resulted in a marked improvement in long-term cell visibility in vivo where an insulin producing cell line (INS-1E cell line) labeled with fluorescent dextrans could be tracked for up to two months in Swiss nude mice compared to 2-Weeks for cells labeled by endocytosis

Lifshitz critical point in the cuprate superconductor YBa2Cu3Oy from high-field Hall effect measurements

The Hall coefficient R_H of the cuprate superconductor YBa2Cu3Oy was measured in magnetic fields up to 60 T for a hole concentration p from 0.078 to 0.152, in the underdoped regime. In fields large enough to suppress superconductivity, R_H(T) is seen to go from positive at high temperature to negative at low temperature, for p > 0.08. This change of sign is attributed to the emergence of an electron pocket in the Fermi surface at low temperature. At p < 0.08, the normal-state R_H(T) remains positive at all temperatures, increasing monotonically as T \to 0. We attribute the change of behaviour across p = 0.08 to a Lifshitz transition, namely a change in Fermi-surface topology occurring at a critical concentration p_L = 0.08, where the electron pocket vanishes. The loss of the high-mobility electron pocket across p_L coincides with a ten-fold drop in the conductivity at low temperature, revealed in measurements of the electrical resistivity $\rho$ at high fields, showing that the so-called metal-insulator crossover of cuprates is in fact driven by a Lifshitz transition. It also coincides with a jump in the in-plane anisotropy of $\rho$, showing that without its electron pocket the Fermi surface must have strong two-fold in-plane anisotropy. These findings are consistent with a Fermi-surface reconstruction caused by a unidirectional spin-density wave or stripe order.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, see associated Viewpoint: M. Vojta, Physics 4, 12 (2011

Chronic activation of PPARα with fenofibrate reduces autophagic proteins in the liver of mice independent of FGF21

Autophagy is a catabolic mechanism to degrade cellular components to maintain cellular energy levels during starvation, a condition where PPARα may be activated. Here we report a reduced autophagic capacity in the liver following chronic activation of PPARα with fenofibrate (FB) in mice. Chronic administration of the PPARα agonist FB substantially reduced the levels of multiple autophagy proteins in the liver (Atg3, Agt4B, Atg5, Atg7 and beclin 1) which were associated with a decrease in the light chain LC3II/LC3I ratio and the accumulation of p62. This was concomitant with an increase in the expression of lipogenic proteins mSREBP1c, ACC, FAS and SCD1. These effects of FB were completely abolished in PPARα-/- mice but remained intact in mice with global deletion of FGF21, a key downstream mediator for PPARα-induced effects. Further studies showed that decreased the content of autophagy proteins by FB was associated with a significant reduction in the level of FoxO1, a transcriptional regulator of autophagic proteins, which occurred independently of both mTOR and Akt. These findings suggest that chronic stimulation of PPARα may suppress the autophagy capacity in the liver as a result of reduced content of a number of autophagy-associated proteins independent of FGF21

Decrease in inner retinal thickness at para- and perifoveal areas before vascular retinopathy in patients with metabolic risk factors

AbstractBackgroundHypertension, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemia are major risk factors for vascular retinopathy. The relationship between retinal thickness at the macular area and metabolic risk factors, as well as visual impairment, in elderly patients before developing vascular occlusion needs to be investigated.MethodsIn this prospective, case-control study, patients >60 years old, without objective visual threatened ocular diseases or systemic abnormalities, except for hypertension, dyslipidemia or/and hyperglycemia, were included for measurement of retinal thickness at the macular area by optical coherence tomography (OCT).ResultsFifty-four patients were analyzed; 11 patients had no metabolic risk factors, 16 had one, 17 had two, and 10 had three. There was no significant difference in age, and full and outer retinal thickness, but there was a significantly lower inner retinal thickness at the parafoveal (p = 0.0013) and perifoveal (p = 0.018) areas in patients with at least one metabolic risk factor. The superior (p = 0.040) and inferior (p = 0.046) inner retina at the perifovea and superior (p = 0.013) inner retinal thickness at the parafovea were sensitive to metabolic abnormalities. Only patients with three factors had significantly reduced best corrected visual acuity (BCVA).ConclusionElderly patients with metabolic risk factors had decreased inner retinal thickness at the para- and perifoveal areas before retinal vascular diseases. Accelerated inner retinal degeneration occurred prior to visual impairment

Fixing the Reference Frame for PPMXL Proper Motions Using Extragalactic Sources

We quantify and correct systematic errors in PPMXL proper motions using extragalactic sources from the first two LAMOST data releases and the Veron-Cetty & Veron Catalog of Quasars. Although the majority of the sources are from the Veron catalog, LAMOST makes important contributions in regions that are not well-sampled by previous catalogs, particularly at low Galactic latitudes and in the south Galactic cap. We show that quasars in PPMXL have measureable and significant proper motions, which reflect the systematic zero-point offsets present in the catalog. We confirm the global proper motion shifts seen by Wu, Ma, & Zhou (2011), and additionally find smaller-scale fluctuations of the QSO-derived corrections to an absolute frame. We average the proper motions of 158,106 extragalactic objects in bins of 3x3 degrees and present a table of proper motion corrections.Comment: Accepted for publication in RAA; 12 pages, 6 figures (Fig. 1 at reduced resolution); full table of corrections available in online journal, with arxiv ancillary files (as ASCII table), or by reques

Lead-free piezoceramics - Where to move on?

Lead-free piezoceramics aiming at replacing the market-dominant lead-based ones have been extensively searched for more than a decade worldwide. Some noteworthy outcomes such as the advent of commercial products for certain applications have been reported, but the goal, i.e., the invention of a lead-free piezocermic, the performance of which is equivalent or even superior to that of PZT-based piezoceramics, does not seem to be fulfilled yet. Nevertheless, the academic effort already seems to be culminated, waiting for a guideline to a future research direction. We believe that a driving force for a restoration of this research field needs to be found elsewhere, for example, intimate collaborations with related industries. For this to be effectively realized, it would be helpful for academic side to understand the interests and demands of the industry side as well as to provide the industry with new scientific insights that would eventually lead to new applications. Therefore, this review covers some of the issues that are to be studied further and deeper, so-to-speak, lessons from the history of piezoceramics, and some technical issues that could be useful in better understanding the industry demands. As well, the efforts made in the industry side will be briefly introduced for the academic people to catch up with the recent trends and to be guided for setting up their future research direction effectively.ope

Mechanical Control of Spin States in Spin-1 Molecules and the Underscreened Kondo Effect

The ability to make electrical contact to single molecules creates opportunities to examine fundamental processes governing electron flow on the smallest possible length scales. We report experiments in which we controllably stretch individual cobalt complexes having spin S = 1, while simultaneously measuring current flow through the molecule. The molecule's spin states and magnetic anisotropy were manipulated in the absence of a magnetic field by modification of the molecular symmetry. This control enabled quantitative studies of the underscreened Kondo effect, in which conduction electrons only partially compensate the molecular spin. Our findings demonstrate a mechanism of spin control in single-molecule devices and establish that they can serve as model systems for making precision tests of correlated-electron theories.Comment: main text: 5 pages, 4 figures; supporting information attached; to appear in Science