Production of triploid Sandersonia aurantiaca plants

Triploid plants of Sandersonia aurantiaca were produced by crossing diploid and tetraploid forms of S. aurantiaca. Enlarged ovules were transferred to in vitro culture 14–30 days after pollination. The triploid nature of the embryo derived plants was determined by flow cytometry and chromosome counts both of which showed that the triploid plants had features that were midway between those of the two parents. The mean nuclear DNA contents of 2C nuclei from diploid, triploid and tetraploid forms of S. aurantiaca were 6.86pg, 10.04pg and 13.55pg, respectively. The nuclear DNA content of 1C nuclei of sperm cells from pollen grains was 2.94pg. Mitotic chromosome counts from the three plants gave 2n = 24, 36 and 48 chromosomes for the diploid, triploid and tetraploid forms, respectively. Meiotic chromosome counts for the diploid and tetraploid plants were n = 12 and n = 24, respectively. The triploid showed mainly bivalents, but lagging chromosomes led to micronuclei and infertility in gametes. The morphological features of the various plants corroborated other evidence indicating that the triploid plants were the result of a cross between diploid and tetraploid plants

Feature Neighbourhood Mutual Information for multi-modal image registration: An application to eye fundus imaging

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Multi-modal image registration is becoming an increasingly powerful tool for medical diagnosis and treatment. The combination of different image modalities facilitates much greater understanding of the underlying condition, resulting in improved patient care. Mutual Information is a popular image similarity measure for performing multi-modal image registration. However, it is recognised that there are limitations with the technique that can compromise the accuracy of the registration, such as the lack of spatial information that is accounted for by the similarity measure. In this paper, we present a two-stage non-rigid registration process using a novel similarity measure, Feature Neighbourhood Mutual Information. The similarity measure efficiently incorporates both spatial and structural image properties that are not traditionally considered by MI. By incorporating such features, we find that this method is capable of achieving much greater registration accuracy when compared to existing methods, whilst also achieving efficient computational runtime. To demonstrate our method, we use a challenging medical image data set consisting of paired retinal fundus photographs and confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope images. Accurate registration of these image pairs facilitates improved clinical diagnosis, and can be used for the early detection and prevention of glaucoma disease

Is tagging with visual implant elastomer a reliable technique for marking earthworms?

Visual implant elastomer (VIE) has recently been employed to investigate different aspects of earthworm ecology. However, a number of fundamental questions relating to the detection and positioning of the tag, its persistence and potential effects on earthworms remain unknown. Seven earthworm species belonging to three ecological groupings, with different pigmentation and burrowing behaviour, were tagged using different coloured VIE. External inspection after two days, one week and 1, 10 and 27 months were followed by preservation, dissection and internal inspection. Tags could be seen in living specimens to 27 months, and dissection revealed that in most cases they were lodged in the coelomic cavity, held in place by septa. However, over longer time periods (more than two years), the chlorogogenous tissue tended to bind to the tags and made external observation increasingly difficult. Migration of the VIE material towards the posterior of the earthworm and potential loss of the tag were only observed on rare occasions, and a recovery rate in excess of 98% was recorded. By introducing a reasonable amount of VIE into segments, just after the clitellum, this technique can become a valuable tool in earthworm ecology and life history studies, particularly in short-medium term laboratory and field experiments

Performance of smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) with frequency conversion on the Beamlet Laser for the National Ignition Facility

Simulations and ongoing measurements indicate that SSD results in small degradation to the near field beam quality. The measured effect of SSD bandwidth on conversion to the third harmonic and smoothing of the target illumination will also be described

Nematic Films and Radially Anisotropic Delaunay Surfaces

We develop a theory of axisymmetric surfaces minimizing a combination of surface tension and nematic elastic energies which may be suitable for describing simple film and bubble shapes. As a function of the elastic constant and the applied tension on the bubbles, we find the analogues of the unduloid, sphere, and nodoid in addition to other new surfaces.Comment: 15 pages, 18 figure

Unitary chiral dynamics in J/Psi to VPP decays and the role of scalar mesons

We make a theoretical study of the J/Psi decays into \omega\pi\pi, \phi\pi\pi, \omega K \bar{K} and \phi K\bar{K} using the techniques of the chiral unitary approach stressing the important role of the scalar resonances dynamically generated through the final state interaction of the two pseudoscalar mesons. We also discuss the importance of new mechanisms with intermediate exchange of vector and axial-vector mesons and the role played by the OZI rule in the J/\Psi\phi\pi\pi vertex, quantifying its effects. The results nicely reproduce the experimental data for the invariant mass distributions in all the channels considered.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figure

Diversity and impact of rare variants in genes encoding the platelet G protein-coupled receptors

Platelet responses to activating agonists are influenced by common population variants within or near G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) genes that affect receptor activity. However, the impact of rare GPCR gene variants is unknown. We describe the rare single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in the coding and splice regions of 18 GPCR genes in 7,595 exomes from the 1,000-genomes and Exome Sequencing Project databases and in 31 cases with inherited platelet function disorders (IPFDs). In the population databases, the GPCR gene target regions contained 740 SNVs (318 synonymous, 410 missense, 7 stop gain and 6 splice region) of which 70 % had global minor allele frequency (MAF) < 0.05 %. Functional annotation using six computational algorithms, experimental evidence and structural data identified 156/740 (21 %) SNVs as potentially damaging to GPCR function, most commonly in regions encoding the transmembrane and C-terminal intracellular receptor domains. In 31 index cases with IPFDs (Gi-pathway defect n=15; secretion defect n=11; thromboxane pathway defect n=3 and complex defect n=2) there were 256 SNVs in the target regions of 15 stimulatory platelet GPCRs (34 unique; 12 with MAF< 1 % and 22 with MAF≥ 1 %). These included rare variants predicting R122H, P258T and V207A substitutions in the P2Y12 receptor that were annotated as potentially damaging, but only partially explained the platelet function defects in each case. Our data highlight that potentially damaging variants in platelet GPCR genes have low individual frequencies, but are collectively abundant in the population. Potentially damaging variants are also present in pedigrees with IPFDs and may contribute to complex laboratory phenotypes

Simulations of neutron background in a time projection chamber relevant to dark matter searches

Presented here are results of simulations of neutron background performed for a time projection chamber acting as a particle dark matter detector in an underground laboratory. The investigated background includes neutrons from rock and detector components, generated via spontaneous fission and (alpha, n) reactions, as well as those due to cosmic-ray muons. Neutrons were propagated to the sensitive volume of the detector and the nuclear recoil spectra were calculated. Methods of neutron background suppression were also examined and limitations to the sensitivity of a gaseous dark matter detector are discussed. Results indicate that neutrons should not limit sensitivity to WIMP-nucleon interactions down to a level of (1 - 3) x 10^{-8} pb in a 10 kg detector.Comment: 27 pages (total, including 3 tables and 11 figures). Accepted for publication in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research - Section

Parallel finite element density functional computations exploiting grid refinement and subspace recycling

In this communication computational methods that facilitate finite element analysis of density functional computations are developed. They are: (i) h¿adaptive grid refinement techniques that reduce the total number of degrees of freedom in the real space grid while improving on the approximate resolution of the wanted solution; and (ii) subspace recycling of the approximate solution in self-consistent cycles with the aim of improving the performance of the generalized eigenproblem solver. These techniques are shown to give a convincing speed-up in the computation process by alleviating the overhead normally associated with computing systems with many degrees-of-freedom.The anonymous referees whose comments improved the presentation of this work are gratefully acknowledged. The work was supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education N N519402837 and by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation TIN2009-07519 and TIN2012-32846. The resources provided by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center are also acknowledged.Young, TD.; Romero Alcalde, E.; Román Moltó, JE. (2013). Parallel finite element density functional computations exploiting grid refinement and subspace recycling. Computer Physics Communications. 184(1):66-72. doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2012.08.011S6672184

Neutron background in large-scale xenon detectors for dark matter searches

Simulations of the neutron background for future large-scale particle dark matter detectors are presented. Neutrons were generated in rock and detector elements via spontaneous fission and (alpha,n) reactions, and by cosmic-ray muons. The simulation techniques and results are discussed in the context of the expected sensitivity of a generic liquid xenon dark matter detector. Methods of neutron background suppression are investigated. A sensitivity of $10^{-9}-10^{-10}$ pb to WIMP-nucleon interactions can be achieved by a tonne-scale detector.Comment: 35 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic