Isolation and Characterisation of Genes Encoding Malate Synthesis and Transport Determinants in the Aluminum-Tolerant Australian Weeping-Grass (\u3cem\u3eMicrolaena Stipoides\u3c/em\u3e)

Acid soils cover some 40% of the Earth’s arable land where they represent a major limitation to plant production. Plant growth on acid soils is primarily limited due to aluminium (Al) solubilized by acidity into toxic Al3+ cations which will inhibit root growth resulting in poor uptake of water and nutrients. Many important pasture species lack sufficient Al tolerance within their germplasm to allow effective breeding for this character

A prospective study of monitoring practices for metabolic disease in antipsychotic-treated community psychiatric patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients with severe mental illness are at increased risk for metabolic and cardiovascular disease. A number of recent guidelines and consensus statements recommend stringent monitoring of metabolic function in individuals receiving antipsychotic drugs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a prospective cohort study of 106 community-treated psychiatric patients from across the diagnostic spectrum from the Northeast of England to investigate changes in metabolic status and monitoring practices for metabolic and cardiovascular disease. We undertook detailed anthropometric and metabolic assessment at baseline and follow-up, and examined clinical notes and hospital laboratory records to ascertain monitoring practices.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A high prevalence of undiagnosed and untreated metabolic disease was present at baseline assessment. Mean follow-up time was 599.3 (SD ± 235.4) days. Body mass index (p < 0.005) and waist circumference (p < 0.05) had significantly increased at follow-up, as had the number of individuals who were either overweight or obese. Fifty-three per cent of individuals had hypertriglyceridemia, and 31% had hypercholesterolemia, but only 7% were receiving lipid-lowering therapy. Monitoring practices were poor. Recording of measures of adiposity occurred in 0% of individuals, and > 50% of subjects had neither blood glucose nor lipids monitored during the follow-up period.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This cohort has a high prevalence of metabolic disease and heightened cardiovascular risk. Despite the publication of a number of recommendations regarding physical health screening in this population, monitoring rates are poor, and physical health worsened during the follow-up period.</p

Learning L2 collocations incidentally from reading

Previous studies have shown that intentional learning through explicit instruction is effective for the acquisition of collocations in a second language (L2) (e.g. Peters, 2014, 2015), but relatively little is known about the effectiveness of incidental approaches for the acquisition of L2 collocations. The present study examined the incidental acquisition of collocational knowledge when learners encounter adjective-pseudoword collocations while reading. Forty-one L2 learners read a story containing six target collocations in a classroom setting. One week after the reading they were interviewed about their knowledge of the form, meaning and collocation of the target items (at recall and recognition levels). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups, i.e. the 4-repetition group and the 8-repetition group. Results showed that collocational knowledge can be learnt incidentally from reading; that it is learnt at a similar rate to other lexical components such as form and meaning of individual words; and that the frequency manipulation in this study did not seem to have a significant effect on the acquisition of any of the aspects examined

Isolation and Characterisation of Genes Encoding Ice Recrystallisation Inhibition Proteins (IRIPs) in the Cryophilic Antarctic Hair-Grass (\u3ci\u3eDeschampsia Antarctica\u3c/i\u3e) and the Temperate Perennial Ryegrass (\u3ci\u3eLolium Perenne\u3c/i\u3e)

Antarctic hairgrass (D. antarctica Desv.), the only grass species indigenous to Antarctica, has a well developed tolerance of freezing, strongly induced by cold-acclimation. In response to low temperatures D. antarctica exhibits recrystallisation inhibition (RI) activity, localised to the apoplasm, that prevents further growth of ice crystals following freezing

Measurement of the t-channel single top quark production cross section

The D0 collaboration reports direct evidence for electroweak production of single top quarks through the t-channel exchange of a virtual W boson. This is the first analysis to isolate an individual single top quark production channel. We select events containing an isolated electron or muon, missing transverse energy, and two, three or four jets from 2.3 fb^-1 of ppbar collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. One or two of the jets are identified as containing a b hadron. We combine three multivariate techniques optimized for the t-channel process to measure the t- and s-channel cross sections simultaneously. We measure cross sections of 3.14 +0.94 -0.80 pb for the t-channel and 1.05 +-0.81 pb for the s-channel. The measured t-channel result is found to have a significance of 4.8 standard deviations and is consistent with the standard model prediction.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Evidence for an anomalous like-sign dimuon charge asymmetry

We measure the charge asymmetry A of like-sign dimuon events in 6.1 fb(-1) of p (p) over bar collisions recorded with the D0 detector at a center-of-mass energy root s = 1.96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. From A, we extract the like-sign dimuon charge asymmetry in semileptonic b-hadron decays: A(sl)(b) = -0.00957 +/- 0.00251 (stat) +/- 0.00146 (syst). This result differs by 3.2 standard deviations from the standard model prediction A(sl)(b)(SM) = (-2.3(0.6)(+0.5)) x 10(-4) and provides first evidence of anomalous CP violation in the mixing of neutral B mesons

Characterizing Heterogeneity in Neuroimaging, Cognition, Clinical Symptoms, and Genetics Among Patients With Late-Life Depression

Importance: Late-life depression (LLD) is characterized by considerable heterogeneity in clinical manifestation. Unraveling such heterogeneity might aid in elucidating etiological mechanisms and support precision and individualized medicine. Objective: To cross-sectionally and longitudinally delineate disease-related heterogeneity in LLD associated with neuroanatomy, cognitive functioning, clinical symptoms, and genetic profiles. Design, Setting, and Participants: The Imaging-Based Coordinate System for Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases (iSTAGING) study is an international multicenter consortium investigating brain aging in pooled and harmonized data from 13 studies with more than 35 000 participants, including a subset of individuals with major depressive disorder. Multimodal data from a multicenter sample (N = 996), including neuroimaging, neurocognitive assessments, and genetics, were analyzed in this study. A semisupervised clustering method (heterogeneity through discriminative analysis) was applied to regional gray matter (GM) brain volumes to derive dimensional representations. Data were collected from July 2017 to July 2020 and analyzed from July 2020 to December 2021. Main Outcomes and Measures: Two dimensions were identified to delineate LLD-associated heterogeneity in voxelwise GM maps, white matter (WM) fractional anisotropy, neurocognitive functioning, clinical phenotype, and genetics. Results: A total of 501 participants with LLD (mean [SD] age, 67.39 [5.56] years; 332 women) and 495 healthy control individuals (mean [SD] age, 66.53 [5.16] years; 333 women) were included. Patients in dimension 1 demonstrated relatively preserved brain anatomy without WM disruptions relative to healthy control individuals. In contrast, patients in dimension 2 showed widespread brain atrophy and WM integrity disruptions, along with cognitive impairment and higher depression severity. Moreover, 1 de novo independent genetic variant (rs13120336; chromosome: 4, 186387714; minor allele, G) was significantly associated with dimension 1 (odds ratio, 2.35; SE, 0.15; P = 3.14 ×10⁸) but not with dimension 2. The 2 dimensions demonstrated significant single-nucleotide variant–based heritability of 18% to 27% within the general population (N = 12 518 in UK Biobank). In a subset of individuals having longitudinal measurements, those in dimension 2 experienced a more rapid longitudinal change in GM and brain age (Cohen ƒ² = 0.03; P = .02) and were more likely to progress to Alzheimer disease (Cohen ƒ² = 0.03; P = .03) compared with those in dimension 1 (N = 1431 participants and 7224 scans from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative [ADNI], Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging [BLSA], and Biomarkers for Older Controls at Risk for Dementia [BIOCARD] data sets). Conclusions and Relevance: This study characterized heterogeneity in LLD into 2 dimensions with distinct neuroanatomical, cognitive, clinical, and genetic profiles. This dimensional approach provides a potential mechanism for investigating the heterogeneity of LLD and the relevance of the latent dimensions to possible disease mechanisms, clinical outcomes, and responses to interventions