Soybean seed components as affected by nodal position, environmental conditions, and irrigation

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (May 26, 2006)Includes bibliographical references.Thesis (M.S.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2005.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Agronomy.Soybeans (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) are a major source of vegetable protein and edible oil. The nutritional quality of these seed components depends upon the relative abundance of specific proteins and fatty acids. Additionally, secondary metabolites such as isoflavones, which are present in soybeans, have been shown to impact human health. Genetics, environmental conditions, and agronomic practices have a bearing on accumulation of each of these seed components. Work presented here reveals that the constituents of the protein and oil components vary with the nodal position of seed development. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis provided evidence that proteins rich in the sulfur amino acids accumulate preferentially in seed from the basal nodes while proteins poor in these amino acids are found in the apical nodes. Fatty acid content determined by gas chromatography showed a nodal dependent difference in accumulation of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids but no difference in that of the saturated fatty acids. A long-term crop rotation study revealed that environmental factors and putative changes in soil ecology could affect seed protein and oil content. Protein content notably increased with a concomitant decrease in oil over the 11-year span of the study. Using one- and two- dimensional gel electrophoresis and gas chromatography, we determined that the protein and fatty acid profiles respectively, of soybeans cultivated in an early planting system were comparable to that of a traditionally cultivated crop. Although irrigation did not improve the protein and oil accumulation, it did elicit a dramatic increase in the isoflavone content of the seed. Continued research devoted to the elucidation of soybean genetics, physiology, and biochemistry is crucial for breeding and development of this vital food crop

Operational value creation in private equity: exploratory research gauging the divergence in perceived prioritization of private equity´s operational improvement measures in normal and recessionary economic conditions

Empirical research wasconducted detailing, ranking, and evaluatingoperational improvement measuresin Private Equity. Forty-two operational PE experts were surveyed, gaugingthe relative prioritization attributed to these measures in normal and recessionary conditions. Ranking these found a strong focus toward cash preserving strategies in economic down turns. Scatter plot analyses crossing evaluation metrics of Potential Money Multiple Uplift, Complexity, Delivery Risk, Senior Time Commitment found no clear conclusion on PE tendencies toward quick wins or larger plays. Additionally, an operational PE to traditional PE historical performance comparison was conducted finding quite consistent outperformance by operational PE funds from 2000 –2017

Functional characterization of the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase CYP71AU87 indicates a role in marrubiin biosynthesis in the medicinal plant Marrubium vulgare.

BackgroundHorehound (Marrubium vulgare) is a medicinal plant whose signature bioactive compounds, marrubiin and related furanoid diterpenoid lactones, have potential applications for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and type II diabetes. Lack of scalable plant cultivation and the complex metabolite profile of M. vulgare limit access to marrubiin via extraction from plant biomass. Knowledge of the marrubiin-biosynthetic enzymes can enable the development of metabolic engineering platforms for marrubiin production. We previously identified two diterpene synthases, MvCPS1 and MvELS, that act sequentially to form 9,13-epoxy-labd-14-ene. Conversion of 9,13-epoxy-labd-14-ene by cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (P450) enzymes can be hypothesized to facilitate key functional modification reactions in the formation of marrubiin and related compounds.ResultsMining a M. vulgare leaf transcriptome database identified 95 full-length P450 candidates. Cloning and functional analysis of select P450 candidates showing high transcript abundance revealed a member of the CYP71 family, CYP71AU87, that catalyzed the hydroxylation of 9,13-epoxy-labd-14-ene to yield two isomeric products, 9,13-epoxy labd-14-ene-18-ol and 9,13-epoxy labd-14-ene-19-ol, as verified by GC-MS and NMR analysis. Additional transient Nicotiana benthamiana co-expression assays of CYP71AU87 with different diterpene synthase pairs suggested that CYP71AU87 is specific to the sequential MvCPS1 and MvELS product 9,13-epoxy-labd-14-ene. Although the P450 products were not detectable in planta, high levels of CYP71AU87 gene expression in marrubiin-accumulating tissues supported a role in the formation of marrubiin and related diterpenoids in M. vulgare.ConclusionsIn a sequential reaction with the diterpene synthase pair MvCPS1 and MvELS, CYP71AU87 forms the isomeric products 9,13-epoxy labd-14-ene-18/19-ol as probable intermediates in marrubiin biosynthesis. Although its metabolic relevance in planta will necessitate further genetic studies, identification of the CYP71AU87 catalytic activity expands our knowledge of the functional landscape of plant P450 enzymes involved in specialized diterpenoid metabolism and can provide a resource for the formulation of marrubiin and related bioactive natural products

A new class of entanglement measures

We introduce new entanglement measures on the set of density operators on tensor product Hilbert spaces. These measures are based on the greatest cross norm on the tensor product of the sets of trace class operators on Hilbert space. We show that they satisfy the basic requirements on entanglement measures discussed in the literature, including convexity, invariance under local unitary operations and non-increase under local quantum operations and classical communication.Comment: Revised version accepted by J Math Phys, 12 pages, LaTeX, contains Sections 1-5 & 7 of the previous version. The previous Section 6 is now in quant-ph/0105104 and the previous Section 8 is superseded by quant-ph/010501

Parametrization and distillability of three-qubit entanglement

There is an ongoing effort to quantify entanglement of quantum pure states for systems with more than two subsystems. We consider three approaches to this problem for three-qubit states: choosing a basis which puts the state into a standard form, enumerating ``local invariants,'' and using operational quantities such as the number of maximally entangled states which can be distilled. In this paper we evaluate a particular standard form, the {\it Schmidt form}, which is a generalization of the Schmidt decomposition for bipartite pure states. We show how the coefficients in this case can be parametrized in terms of five physically meaningful local invariants; we use this form to prove the efficacy of a particular distillation technique for GHZ triplets; and we relate the yield of GHZs to classes of states with unusual entanglement properties, showing that these states represent extremes of distillability as functions of two local invariants.Comment: 17 pages RevTeX 3.0 including 2 figures (encapsulated Postscript) Final version, to appear in Physics Letters

Enhancement of W+/- H-/+ Production at Hadron Colliders in the Two Higgs Doublet Model

We discuss the associated W+/- H-/+ production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The dependence of the hadronic cross section on the Higgs sector parameters is investigated in detail in the framework of the general Two Higgs Doublet Model (THDM). We study the possible enhancement of the THDM prediction for the cross section compared to the prediction of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We find regions in the THDM parameter space where the THDM prediction can exceed the one of the MSSM by two orders of magnitude. These regions of large cross section are in agreement with theoretical bounds on the model, derived from the requirement of vacuum stability and perturbative unitarity, and are not excluded by experimental constraints.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure

Quantifying nonorthogonality

An exploratory approach to the possibility of analyzing nonorthogonality as a quantifiable property is presented. Three different measures for the nonorthogonality of pure states are introduced, and one of these measures is extended to single-particle density matrices using methods that are similar to recently introduced techniques for quantifying entanglement. Several interesting special cases are considered. It is pointed out that a measure of nonorthogonality can meaningfully be associated with a single mixed quantum state. It is then shown how nonorthogonality can be unlocked with classical information; this analysis reveals interesting inequalities and points to a number of connections between nonorthogonality and entanglement.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Participation Requests:A democratic innovation to unlock the door of public services?

Democracies are under pressure and public administrations must evolve to accommodate new forms of public participation. Participation processes may reproduce or disrupt existing power inequalities. Through a multi-method empirical study of "Participation Requests," a new legislative policy tool to open up public services in Scotland, this article addresses an empirical gap on governance-driven democratic innovations (DIs). We use Young's distinction of external and internal inclusion and find Participation Requests replicate the pitfalls of traditional forms of associative democracy. We contend that DIs should be co-produced between institutions and communities to bring a participatory and deliberative corrective to temper bureaucratic logics