A Review of Biotechnological Artemisinin Production in Plants

Malaria is still an eminent threat to major parts of the world population mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers around the world continuously seek novel solutions to either eliminate or treat the disease. Artemisinin, isolated from the Chinese medicinal herb Artemisia annua, is the active ingredient in artemisinin-based combination therapies used to treat the disease. However, naturally artemisinin is produced in small quantities, which leads to a shortage of global supply. Due to its complex structure, it is difficult chemically synthesize. Thus to date, A. annua remains as the main commercial source of artemisinin. Current advances in genetic and metabolic engineering drives to more diverse approaches and developments on improving in planta production of artemisinin, both in A. annua and in other plants. In this review, we describe efforts in bioengineering to obtain a higher production of artemisinin in A. annua and stable heterologous in planta systems. The current progress and advancements provides hope for significantly improved production in plants

Trace ideals for Fourier integral operators with non-smooth symbols II

We consider Fourier integral operators with symbols in modulation spaces and non-smooth phase functions whose second orders of derivatives belong to certain types of modulation space. We establish continuity and Schatten-von Neumann properties of such operators when acting on modulation spaces.Comment: 25 page

Multiplication and Composition in Weighted Modulation Spaces

We study the existence of the product of two weighted modulation spaces. For this purpose we discuss two different strategies. The more simple one allows transparent proofs in various situations. However, our second method allows a closer look onto associated norm inequalities under restrictions in the Fourier image. This will give us the opportunity to treat the boundedness of composition operators.Comment: 49 page

Phonon-induced quadrupolar ordering of the magnetic superconductor TmNi2_2B2_2C

We present synchrotron x-ray diffraction studies revealing that the lattice of thulium borocarbide is distorted below T_Q = 13.5 K at zero field. T_Q increases and the amplitude of the displacements is drastically enhanced, by a factor of 10 at 60 kOe, when a magnetic field is applied along [100]. The distortion occurs at the same wave vector as the antiferromagnetic ordering induced by the a-axis field. A model is presented that accounts for the properties of the quadrupolar phase and explains the peculiar behavior of the antiferromagnetic ordering previously observed in this compound.Comment: submitted to PR

Distinct nature of static and dynamic magnetic stripes in cuprate superconductors

We present detailed neutron scattering studies of the static and dynamic stripes in an optimally doped high-temperature superconductor, La$_2$CuO$_{4+y}$. We find that the dynamic stripes do not disperse towards the static stripes in the limit of vanishing energy transfer. We conclude that the dynamic stripes observed in neutron scattering experiments are not the Goldstone modes associated with the broken symmetry of the simultaneously observed static stripes, but rather that the signals originate from different domains in the sample. These domains may be related by structural twinning, or may be entirely different phases, where the static stripes in one phase are pinned versions of the dynamic stripes in the other. Our results explain earlier observations of unusual dispersions in underdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_{4}$ ($x=0.07$) and La$_{2-x}$Ba$_x$CuO$_{4}$ ($x=0.095$). Our findings are relevant for all compounds exhibiting magnetic stripes, and may thus be a vital part in unveiling the nature of high temperature superconductivity

Sub-millimeter galaxies as progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies

Three billion years after the big bang (at redshift z=2), half of the most massive galaxies were already old, quiescent systems with little to no residual star formation and extremely compact with stellar mass densities at least an order of magnitude larger than in low redshift ellipticals, their descendants. Little is known about how they formed, but their evolved, dense stellar populations suggest formation within intense, compact starbursts 1-2 Gyr earlier (at 3<z<6). Simulations show that gas-rich major mergers can give rise to such starbursts which produce dense remnants. Sub-millimeter selected galaxies (SMGs) are prime examples of intense, gas-rich, starbursts. With a new, representative spectroscopic sample of compact quiescent galaxies at z=2 and a statistically well-understood sample of SMGs, we show that z=3-6 SMGs are consistent with being the progenitors of z=2 quiescent galaxies, matching their formation redshifts and their distributions of sizes, stellar masses and internal velocities. Assuming an evolutionary connection, their space densities also match if the mean duty cycle of SMG starbursts is 42 (+40/-29) Myr (consistent with independent estimates), which indicates that the bulk of stars in these massive galaxies were formed in a major, early surge of star-formation. These results suggests a coherent picture of the formation history of the most massive galaxies in the universe, from their initial burst of violent star-formation through their appearance as high stellar-density galaxy cores and to their ultimate fate as giant ellipticals.Comment: ApJ (in press

Adiabaticity Conditions for Volatility Smile in Black-Scholes Pricing Model

Our derivation of the distribution function for future returns is based on the risk neutral approach which gives a functional dependence for the European call (put) option price, C(K), given the strike price, K, and the distribution function of the returns. We derive this distribution function using for C(K) a Black-Scholes (BS) expression with volatility in the form of a volatility smile. We show that this approach based on a volatility smile leads to relative minima for the distribution function ("bad" probabilities) never observed in real data and, in the worst cases, negative probabilities. We show that these undesirable effects can be eliminated by requiring "adiabatic" conditions on the volatility smile

Anomalous magnetic structure and spin dynamics in magnetoelectric LiFePO4

We report significant details of the magnetic structure and spin dynamics of LiFePO4 obtained by single-crystal neutron scattering. Our results confirm a previously reported collinear rotation of the spins away from the principal b axis, and they determine that the rotation is toward the a axis. In addition, we find a significant spin-canting component along c. The possible causes of these components are discussed, and their significance for the magnetoelectric effect is analyzed. Inelastic neutron scattering along the three principal directions reveals a highly anisotropic hard plane consistent with earlier susceptibility measurements. Using a spin Hamiltonian, we show that the spin dimensionality is intermediate between XY- and Ising-like, with an easy b axis and a hard c axis. It is shown that both next-nearest neighbor exchange couplings in the bc plane are in competition with the strongest nearest neighbor coupling. ©2015 American Physical Society8

Results of NOPHO ALL2008 treatment for patients aged 1-45 years with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) do worse than children. From 7/2008 to 12/2014, Nordic and Baltic centers treated 1509 consecutive patients aged 1-45 years with Philadelphia chromosome-negative ALL according to the NOPHO ALL2008 without cranial irradiation. Overall, 1022 patients were of age 1-9 years (A), 266 were 10-17 years (B) and 221 were 18-45 years (C). Sixteen patients (three adults) died during induction. All others achieved remission after induction or 1-3 intensive blocks. Subsequently, 45 patients (12 adults) died, 122 patients relapsed (32 adults) with a median time to relapse of 1.6 years and 13 (no adult) developed a second malignancy. Median follow-up time was 4.6 years. Among the three age groups, older patients more often had higher risk ALL due to T-ALL (32%/25%/9%, PPeer reviewe