Detection of Pollen Flow in the Seedling Seed Orchard of Acacia Mangium Using Dna Marker

Pollen pattern dispersal in seedling seed orchard (SSO) is an essential part of a tree-improvement program. Two SSOs of Acacia mangium in South Kalimantan and South Sumatra that represent similar resources in different environments were used in this study. Genotypes of all trees and seeds from a subset of 10 mother trees in each orchard were determined for 12 microsatellite loci, and parentage analysis was carried out. The results shows that the pollen dispersal pattern in both SSOs decrease with distance from mother tree. Patterns of pollen dispersal, dispersal distance and cumulative frequency of pollen dispersal distance were similar in both SSOs. Random pollen dispersal were found in both SSOs. About 80% of all crosses were found within a 40-m distance range with the most frequent pollination distance between mother tree and male male parents was 0-10 m. No self-pollinated seed was detected. Application of all these aspects found in this study such as random pollen dispersal and the effective pollen dispersal distance can be useful for establishing seedling seed orchard, clonal seed orchard and in other tree improvement activities of A. mangium

Parity-broken ground state for the spin-1 pyrochlore antiferromagnet

The ground-state properties of the spin-1 pyrochlore antiferromagnet are studied by applying the VBS-like tetrahedron-unit decomposition to the original spin system. The symmetrization required on every vertex is taken into account by introducing a ferromagnetic coupling. The pairwise effective Hamiltonian between the adjacent tetrahedrons is obtained by considering the next nearest neighbor and the third neighbor exchange interactions. We find that the transverse component of the spin chirality exhibits a long-range order, breaking the parity symmetry of the tetrahedral group, while the chirality itself is not broken.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, REVTeX(ver.3.1

Charge ordering in the spinels AlV2_2O4_4 and LiV2_2O4_4

We develop a microscopic theory for the charge ordering (CO) transitions in the spinels AlV$_2$O$_4$ and LiV$_2$O$_4$ (under pressure). The high degeneracy of CO states is lifted by a coupling to the rhombohedral lattice deformations which favors transition to a CO state with inequivalent V(1) and V(2) sites forming Kagom\'e and trigonal planes respectively. We construct an extended Hubbard type model including a deformation potential which is treated in unrestricted Hartree Fock approximation and describes correctly the observed first-order CO transition. We also discuss the influence of associated orbital order. Furthermore we suggest that due to different band fillings AlV$_2$O$_4$ should remain metallic while LiV$_2$O$_4$ under pressure should become a semiconductor when charge disproportionation sets in

Geometrical frustration induced (semi-)metal to insulator transition

We study the low-energy properties of the geometrically frustrated Hubbard model on a three-dimensional pyrochlore lattice and a two-dimensional checkerboard lattice on the basis of the renormalization group method and mean field analysis. It is found that in the half-filling case, a (semi-)metal to insulator transition (MIT) occurs. Also, in the insulating phase, which has a spin gap, the spin rotational symmetry is not broken, while charge ordering exists. The results are applied to the description of the MIT observed in the pyrochlore system ${\rm Tl_2Ru_2O_7}$.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Critical Dynamics of Singlet Excitations in a Frustrated Spin System

We construct and analyze a two-dimensional frustrated quantum spin model with plaquette order, in which the low-energy dynamics is controlled by spin singlets. At a critical value of frustration the singlet spectrum becomes gapless, indicating a quantum transition to a phase with dimer order. This T=0 transition belongs to the 3D Ising universality class, while at finite temperature a 2D Ising critical line separates the plaquette and dimerized phases. The magnetic susceptibility has an activated form throughout the phase diagram, whereas the specific heat exhibits a rich structure and a power law dependence on temperature at the quantum critical point. We argue that the novel quantum critical behavior associated with singlet criticality discussed in this work can be relevant to a wide class of quantum spin systems, such as antiferromagnets on Kagome and pyrochlore lattices, where the low-energy excitations are known to be spin singlets, as well as to the CAVO lattice and several recently discovered strongly frustrated square-lattice antiferromagnets.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, additional discussion and figure added, to appear in Phys. Rev.

32-core inline multicore fiber amplifier for dense space division multiplexed transmission system

We present a high-core-count SDM amplifier, i.e. 32-core multicore-fiber amplifier, in a cladding-pumped configuration. An average gain of 17dB and NF of 7dB is obtained for -5dBm input signal power in the wavelength range 1544nm-1564nm

Interleukin-1 regulates multiple atherogenic mechanisms in response to fat feeding

Background: Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory process that develops in individuals with known risk factors that include hypertension and hyperlipidaemia, influenced by diet. However, the interplay between diet, inflammatory mechanisms and vascular risk factors requires further research. We hypothesised that interleukin-1 (IL-1) signaling in the vessel wall would raise arterial blood pressure and promote atheroma. Methodology/Principal Findings: Apoe(-/-) and Apoe(-/-)/IL-1R1(-/-) mice were fed high fat diets for 8 weeks, and their blood pressure and atherosclerosis development measured. Apoe(-/-)/IL-R1(-/-) mice had a reduced blood pressure and significantly less atheroma than Apoe(-/-) mice. Selective loss of IL-1 signaling in the vessel wall by bone marrow transplantation also reduced plaque burden (p<0.05). This was associated with an IL-1 mediated loss of endothelium-dependent relaxation and an increase in vessel wall Nox 4. Inhibition of IL-1 restored endothelium-dependent vasodilatation and reduced levels of arterial oxidative stress. Conclusions/Significance: The IL-1 cytokine system links atherogenic environmental stimuli with arterial inflammation, oxidative stress, increased blood pressure and atherosclerosis. This is the first demonstration that inhibition of a single cytokine can block the rise in blood pressure in response to an environmental stimulus. IL-1 inhibition may have profound beneficial effects on atherogenesis in man