Metabolism of [8-14C] trans-zeatin by intact and decapitated tap roots of Pinus pinea

Intact and root tip-decapitated seedlings of Pinus pinea were treated with [8-14C]zeatin. In intact plants, most of the applied radioactivity remained in the roots. Root tip removal resulted in greater transport of radioactivity to the shoot. The relative distribution of radioactivity along the tap root was non-linear. High amounts of radioactivity associated with zeatin-like compounds were recovered in the elongation zone of intact tap roots. HPLC separation of extracts from the different sections from intact roots showed that the applied zeatin was rapidly metabolized. Very little radioactivity was detected in the upper sections of the root where lateral root formation and lateral root elongation occurred. This radioactivity was not associated with the retention times of authentic cytokinin standards. In the tap root elongation zone, peaks of radioactivity which co-chromatographed with authentic zeatin and iso-pentenyladenine were detected. The uneven distribution of applied cytokinins in the tap root, and particularly the higher levels recovered from the root elongation zone, could explain why lateral roots do not develop in this region

Nernst Effect as a Signature of Quantum Fluctuations in Quasi-1D Superconductors

We study a model for the transverse thermoelectric response due to quantum superconducting fluctuations in a two-leg Josephson ladder, subject to a perpendicular magnetic field B and a transverse temperature gradient. The off-diagonal Peltier coefficient (\alpha_{xy}) and the Nernst effect are evaluated as functions of B and the temperature T. The Nernst effect is found to exhibit a prominent peak close to the superconductor-insulator transition (SIT), which becomes progressively enhanced at low T. In addition, we derive a relation to diamagnetic response: \alpha_{xy}= -M/T_0, where M is the equilibrium magnetization and T_0 a plasma energy in the superconducting legs.Comment: An extended (and hopefully more comprehensible) version of an earlier postin

AN ISOPERIMETRIC INEQUALITY FOR CONJUGATION-INVARIANT SETS IN THE SYMMETRIC GROUP

Research supported in part by a Feinberg Visiting Fellowship from the Weizmann Institute of Science

Pythagoras' Theorem on a 2D-Lattice from a "Natural" Dirac Operator and Connes' Distance Formula

One of the key ingredients of A. Connes' noncommutative geometry is a generalized Dirac operator which induces a metric(Connes' distance) on the state space. We generalize such a Dirac operator devised by A. Dimakis et al, whose Connes' distance recovers the linear distance on a 1D lattice, into 2D lattice. This Dirac operator being "naturally" defined has the so-called "local eigenvalue property" and induces Euclidean distance on this 2D lattice. This kind of Dirac operator can be generalized into any higher dimensional lattices.Comment: Latex 11pages, no figure

Alternating Superconductor--Insulator Transport Characteristics in a Quantum Vortex Chain

Experimental studies of magnetoresistance in thin superconducting strips subject to a perpendicular magnetic field B exhibit a multitude of transitions, from superconductor to insulator and vice versa alternately. Motivated by this observation, we study a theoretical model for the transport properties of a ladder--like superconducting device close to a superconductor--insulator transition. In this regime, strong quantum fluctuations dominate the dynamics of the vortex chain forming along the device. Utilizing a mapping of the vortex system at low energies to one-dimensional (1D) Fermions at a chemical potential dictated by B, we find that a quantum phase transition of the Ising type occurs at critical values of the vortex filling, from a superconducting phase near integer filling to an insulator near 1/2-filling. The current--voltage (I-V) characteristics of the weakly disordered device in the presence of a d.c. current bias I is evaluated, and investigated as a function of B, I, the temperature T and the disorder strength. In the Ohmic regime (I/e << T), the resulting magnetoresistance R(B) exhibits oscillations similar to the experimental observation. More generally, we find that the I-V characteristics of the system manifests a dramatically distinct behavior in the superconducting and insulating regimes.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1010.066

Dirac Operators and the Calculation of the Connes Metric on arbitrary (Infinite) Graphs

As an outgrowth of our investigation of non-regular spaces within the context of quantum gravity and non-commutative geometry, we develop a graph Hilbert space framework on arbitrary (infinite) graphs and use it to study spectral properties of graph-Laplacians and graph-Dirac-operators. We define a spectral triplet sharing most of the properties of what Connes calls a spectral triple. With the help of this scheme we derive an explicit expression for the Connes-distance function on general directed or undirected graphs. We derive a series of apriori estimates and calculate it for a variety of examples of graphs. As a possibly interesting aside, we show that the natural setting of approaching such problems may be the framework of (non-)linear programming or optimization. We compare our results (arrived at within our particular framework) with the results of other authors and show that the seeming differences depend on the use of different graph-geometries and/or Dirac operators.Comment: 27 pages, Latex, comlementary to an earlier paper, general treatment of directed and undirected graphs, in section 4 a series of general results and estimates concerning the Connes Distance on graphs together with examples and numerical estimate

A genetic contribution from the Far East into Ashkenazi Jews via the ancient Silk Road

Contemporary Jews retain a genetic imprint from their Near Eastern ancestry, but obtained substantial genetic components from their neighboring populations during their history. Whether they received any genetic contribution from the Far East remains unknown, but frequent communication with the Chinese has been observed since the Silk Road period. To address this issue, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation from 55,595 Eurasians are analyzed. The existence of some eastern Eurasian haplotypes in eastern Ashkenazi Jews supports an East Asian genetic contribution, likely from Chinese. Further evidence indicates that this connection can be attributed to a gene flow event that occurred less than 1.4 kilo-years ago (kya), which falls within the time frame of the Silk Road scenario and fits well with historical records and archaeological discoveries. This observed genetic contribution from Chinese to Ashkenazi Jews demonstrates that the historical exchange between Ashkenazim and the Far East was not confined to the cultural sphere but also extended to an exchange of genes

Ashkenazi Jewish Centenarians Do Not Demonstrate Enrichment in Mitochondrial Haplogroup J

BACKGROUND: Association of mitochondrial haplogroup J with longevity has been reported in several population subgroups. While studies from northern Italy and Finland, have described a higher frequency of haplogroup J among centenarians in comparison to non-centenarian, several other studies could not replicate these results and suggested various explanations for the discrepancy. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We have evaluated haplogroup frequencies among Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians using two different sets of matched controls. No difference was observed in the haplogroup J frequencies between the centenarians or either matched control group, despite adequate statistical power to detect such a difference. Furthermore, the lack of association was robust to population substructure in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. Given this discrepancy with the previous reported associations in the northern Italian and the Finnish populations, we conducted re-analysis of these previously published data, which supported one of several possible explanations: i) inadequate matching of cases and controls; ii) inadequate adjustment for multiple comparison testing; iii) cryptic population stratification. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: There does not exist a universal association of mitochondrial haplogroup J with longevity across all population groups. Reported associations in specialized populations may reflect genetic or other interactions specific to those populations or else cryptic confounding influences, such as inadequate matching attributable to population substructure, which are of general relevance to all studies of the possible association of mitochondrial DNA haplogroups with common complex phenotypes

Genome-wide data from medieval German Jews show that the Ashkenazi founder event pre-dated the 14th century

We report genome-wide data for 33 Ashkenazi Jews (AJ), dated to the 14th century, following a salvageexcavation at the medieval Jewish cemetery of Erfurt, Germany. The Erfurt individuals are geneticallysimilar to modern AJ and have substantial Southern European ancestry, but they show more variabilityin Eastern European-related ancestry than modern AJ. A third of the Erfurt individuals carried the samenearly-AJ-specific mitochondrial haplogroup and eight carried pathogenic variants known to affect AJtoday. These observations, together with high levels of runs of homozygosity, suggest that the Erfurtcommunity had already experienced the major reduction in size that affected modern AJ. However, theErfurt bottleneck was more severe, implying substructure in medieval AJ. Together, our results suggestthat the AJ founder event and the acquisition of the main sources of ancestry pre-dated the 14th centuryand highlight late medieval genetic heterogeneity no longer present in modern AJ