Pyramiding of Meloidogyne hapla resistance genes in potato does not result in an increase of resistance

High levels of resistance against Meloidogyne hapla have been identified in wild species of tuber-bearing potatoes, but only QTL with partial effects have been identified so far in back crosses with cultivated potato. This study was designed to test if pyramiding of two previously identified resistance genes, R Mh-tar and R Mh-chc A, will result in improved or even an absolute level of resistance. R Mh-tar and R Mh-chc A introgressed from the wild tuber-bearing potato species Solanum tarijense and Solanum chacoense were combined in a segregating diploid Solanum tuberosum population. With the aid of AFLP markers, descendants from this segregating population were classified into four groups, carrying no R gene, with only R Mh-tar , with only R Mh-chc A and a group with the pyramided R Mh-tar and R Mh-chc A. Upon inoculation with M. hapla isolate Bovensmilde, the group containing only R Mh-chc A showed a decline of 88% in average number of developed egg masses compared to the group without R Mh-chc A and R Mh-tar . The group of genotypes containing only R Mh-tar , but not R Mh-chc A, showed a decline of 55% in the number of developed egg masses compared to the group without R Mh-chc A and R Mh-tar . Unfortunately, the latter effect of R Mh-tar was not significant. The effect of both loci, R Mh-tar and R Mh-chc A combined, did not further reduce the number of egg masses compared to the level of R Mh-chc A alon

Wireless network coding for multi-hop relay channels

Future wireless communication systems are required to meet growing demands for high spectral e�ciency, low energy consumption and high mobility. The advent of wireless network coding (WNC) has o�ered a new opportunity to improve network throughput and transmission reliability by exploiting interference in intermediate relays. Combined with network coding and self-information cancelation, WNC for two-way relay channels (TWRCs) has come to the forefront. This dissertation focuses on exploiting WNC in multi-hop two-way relay channels (MH-TRCs). Particularly, a multi-hop wireless network coding (MH-WNC) scheme is designed for the generalized L-node K-message MH-TRC. Theoretical studies on the network throughput and performance bounds achieved by the MH-WNC scheme with di�erent relaying strategies (i.e., amplify-and-forward (AF) and compute-and-forward (CPF)) are carried out. Furthermore, by introducing di�erent numbers of transmission time intervals into the MH-WNC, a multiple-time-interval (Multi-TI) MH-WNC is proposed to determine an optimal MH-WNC which can achieve the best outage performance for all-scale MH-TRCs. Finally, this study extends the research on WNC one step forward from two-user networks to multi-user networks. An extended CPF joint with a dominated solution for maximizing the overall computation rate is proposed for the multi-way relay channel (mRC) in the last chapter. The contributions of this dissertation are multifold. First, the proposed MHWNC scheme with fixed two transmission time intervals can achieve a significantly improved network throughput compared to the non-network coding (Non-NC) scheme in the generalized L-node K-message MH-TRC. Theoretical results are derived for both multi-hop analog network coding (MH-ANC) and multi-hop compute-and-forward (MH-CPF). Moreover, both theoretical and numerical results demonstrate that the two MH-WNC schemes can be applied to different scale MH-TRCs to achieve a better outage performance compared to the conventional Non-NC scheme (i.e., MH-ANC for the non-regenerative MH-TRC with a small number of nodes, and MH-CPF for the regenerative MH-TRC with a large number of nodes.). Furthermore, a Multi-TI MH-WNC scheme is generalized with a special binary-tree model and characteristic matrix. The determined optimal MH-WNC scheme is able to provide the best outage performance and outperform the Non-NC scheme in all scale MH-TRCs. Last but not least, this dissertation provides a preliminary investigation of WNC in mRCs. The proposed dominated solution for maximizing the overall computation rate can ensure that all the nodes in the mRC successfully recover their required messages. Moreover, the extended CPF strategy is proven superior to Non-NC in the mRC with a small number of users

Molecular genetic analysis for malignant hyperthermia : a thesis presented to Massey University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Biochemistry

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a rare pharmacogenetic disorder in humans caused by inhalational general anaesthetics and depolarising muscle relaxants. An MH reaction shows abnormal calcium homeostasis in skeletal muscle leading to a hypermetabolic state and increased muscle contracture. A mutation within the calcium release channel ryanodine receptor of skeletal muscle (RYR1) is one of the causes of MH leading to the abnormally high release of calcium ions into the cytosol during MH reactions. The MH reaction can also be triggered by excess exercise, heat and stress. A New Zealand male, identified as M818, showed a fulminant MH reaction which resulted in death. The reaction was caused by exercise, and he did not have a family history of MH. As this individual did not have any of the mutations within RYR1 found to date in New Zealand families, the entire RYR1 cDNA was screened for a novel mutation that may result in susceptibility to exercise-induced MH. This patient may have had a novel RYRl mutation because exercise-induced MH is quite rare. Screening of this gene, however did not identify any mutations within RYR1 suggesting that the M818 patient may have a mutation in another gene because MH is a heterogeneous disorder with 40-50% of families showing linkage to alternative loci. Heterogeneity of MH can result in discordance between genotype and phenotype. Some MH susceptible patients do not have a RYR1 mutation that is found in other individuals with the same kindred. One or more other genes could be associated with MH for these individuals although alternative loci have not been studied in New Zealand families. A genome-wide scan was performed to search for other candidate loci using a large MH kindred known as the CH family within which discordance has been observed. Non-parametric linkage analysis across all chromosomes identified five weak linkages from one branch, and two strong linkages from another branch of the CH family. Secondary linkage analysis was performed on one candidate locus identified in the genome-wide scan, and a weak linkage and recombination was observed within the shorter region. No candidate genes with obvious relevance to calcium homeostasis or signalling were identified within this region. The existence of alternative causative loci in this family cannot be ruled out however, because the loci identified from the genome-wide scan are very large and contain many genes of unknown function

Diagnostics of the molecular component of PDRs with mechanical heating. II: line intensities and ratios

CO observations in active galactic nuclei and star-bursts reveal high kinetic temperatures. Those environments are thought to be very turbulent due to dynamic phenomena such as outflows and high supernova rates. We investigate the effect of mechanical heating (MH) on atomic fine-structure and molecular lines, and their ratios. We use those ratios as a diagnostic to constrain the amount of MH in an object and also study its significance on estimating the H2 mass. Equilibrium PDRs models were used to compute the thermal and chemical balance for the clouds. The equilibria were solved for numerically using the optimized version of the Leiden PDR-XDR code. Large velocity gradient calculations were done as post-processing on the output of the PDR models using RADEX. High-J CO line ratios are very sensitive to MH. Emission becomes at least one order of magnitude brighter in clouds with n~10^5~cm^-3 and a star formation rate of 1 Solar Mass per year (corresponding to a MH rate of 2 * 10^-19 erg cm^-3 s^-1). Emission of low-J CO lines is not as sensitive to MH, but they do become brighter in response to MH. Generally, for all of the lines we considered, MH increases excitation temperatures and decreases the optical depth at the line centre. Hence line ratios are also affected, strongly in some cases. Ratios involving HCN are a good diagnostic for MH, such as HCN(1-0)/CO(1-0) and HCN(1-0)/HCO^+(1-0). Both ratios increase by a factor 3 or more for a MH equivalent to > 5 percent of the surface heating, as opposed to pure PDRs. The first major conclusion is that low-J to high-J intensity ratios will yield a good estimate of the MH rate (as opposed to only low-J ratios). The second one is that the MH rate should be taken into account when determining A_V or equivalently N_H, and consequently the cloud mass. Ignoring MH will also lead to large errors in density and radiation field estimates.Comment: 38 pages, to appear in A&

Metropolis-Hastings within Partially Collapsed Gibbs Samplers

The Partially Collapsed Gibbs (PCG) sampler offers a new strategy for improving the convergence of a Gibbs sampler. PCG achieves faster convergence by reducing the conditioning in some of the draws of its parent Gibbs sampler. Although this can significantly improve convergence, care must be taken to ensure that the stationary distribution is preserved. The conditional distributions sampled in a PCG sampler may be incompatible and permuting their order may upset the stationary distribution of the chain. Extra care must be taken when Metropolis-Hastings (MH) updates are used in some or all of the updates. Reducing the conditioning in an MH within Gibbs sampler can change the stationary distribution, even when the PCG sampler would work perfectly if MH were not used. In fact, a number of samplers of this sort that have been advocated in the literature do not actually have the target stationary distributions. In this article, we illustrate the challenges that may arise when using MH within a PCG sampler and develop a general strategy for using such updates while maintaining the desired stationary distribution. Theoretical arguments provide guidance when choosing between different MH within PCG sampling schemes. Finally we illustrate the MH within PCG sampler and its computational advantage using several examples from our applied work

Dependence of Galaxy Quenching on Halo Mass and Distance from its Centre

We study the dependence of star-formation quenching on galaxy mass and environment, in the SDSS (z~0.1) and the AEGIS (z~1). It is crucial that we define quenching by low star-formation rate rather than by red colour, given that one third of the red galaxies are star forming. We address stellar mass M*, halo mass Mh, density over the nearest N neighbours deltaN, and distance to the halo centre D. The fraction of quenched galaxies appears more strongly correlated with Mh at fixed M* than with M* at fixed Mh, while for satellites quenching also depends on D. We present the M*-Mh relation for centrals at z~1. At z~1, the dependence of quenching on M* at fixed Mh is somewhat more pronounced than at z~0, but the quenched fraction is low (10%) and the haloes are less massive. For satellites, M*-dependent quenching is noticeable at high D, suggesting a quenching dependence on sub-halo mass for recently captured satellites. At small D, where satellites likely fell in more than a few Gyr ago, quenching strongly depends on Mh, and not on M*. The Mh-dependence of quenching is consistent with theoretical wisdom where virial shock heating in massive haloes shuts down accretion and triggers ram-pressure stripping, causing quenching. The interpretation of deltaN is complicated by the fact that it depends on the number of observed group members compared to N, motivating the use of D as a better measure of local environment.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, accepted by MNRA

Dynamical Evolution of Elliptical Galaxies with Central Singularities

We study the effect of a massive central singularity on the structure of a triaxial galaxy using N-body simulations. Starting from a single initial model, we grow black holes with various final masses Mh and at various rates, ranging from impulsive to adiabatic. In all cases, the galaxy achieves a final shape that is nearly spherical at the center and close to axisymmetric throughout. However, the rate of change of the galaxy's shape depends strongly on the ratio Mh/Mg of black hole mass to galaxy mass. When Mh/Mg < 0.3%, the galaxy evolves in shape on a timescale that exceeds 100 orbital periods, or roughly a galaxy lifetime. When Mh/Mg > 2%, the galaxy becomes axisymmetric in little more than a crossing time. We propose that the rapid evolution toward axisymmetric shapes that occurs when Mh/Mg > 2% provides a negative feedback mechanism which limits the mass of central black holes by cutting off their supply of fuel.Comment: 27 Latex pages, 9 Postscript figures, uses aastex.sty. Accepted for Publication in The Astrophysical Journal, Nov. 26, 199