Alien Registration- Pelletier, Marie T. (Brunswick, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/31612/thumbnail.jp

B529: Blossom and Twig Blight of Low-bush Blueberries (Botrytis cinerea)

This bulletin presents the results of research on three aspects of the disease blossom and twig blight, (1) seasonal development, (2) the effect of environmental factors, and (3) chemical control. The work was supported financially by Maine Blueberry Tax funds.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_bulletin/1084/thumbnail.jp

A closed form for the electrostatic interaction between two rod-like charged objects

We have calculated the electrostatic interaction between two rod-like charged objects with arbitrary orientations in three dimensions. we obtained a closed form formula expressing the interaction energy in terms of the separation distance between the centers of the two rod-like objects, $r$, their lengths (denoted by $2l_1$ and $2l_2$), and their relative orientations (indicated by $\theta$ and $\phi$). When the objects have the same length ($2l_1=2l_2=l$), for particular values of separations, i.e for $r\leq0.8 l$, two types of minimum are appeared in the interaction energy with respect to $\theta$. By employing the closed form formula and introducing a scaled temperature $t$, we have also studied the thermodynamic properties of a one dimensional system of rod-like charged objects. For different separation distances, the dependence of the specific heat of the system to the scaled temperature has been studied. It is found that for $r<0.8 l$, the specific heat has a maximum.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, Accepted by J. Phys.: Condens. Matte

Atomic layer deposition of ZnS nanotubes

We report on growth of high-aspect-ratio ($\gtrsim300$) zinc sulfide nanotubes with variable, precisely tunable, wall thicknesses and tube diameters into highly ordered pores of anodic alumina templates by atomic layer deposition (ALD) at temperatures as low as 75 $^{\circ}$C. Various characterization techniques are employed to gain information on the composition, morphology, and crystal structure of the synthesized samples. Besides practical applications, the ALD-grown tubes could be envisaged as model systems for the study of a certain class of size-dependent quantum and classical phenomena.Comment: 1 LaTeX source file, 8 eps figures, and the manuscript in PDF forma

Estimating the functional form for the density dependence from life history data

Two contrasting approaches to the analysis of population dynamics are currently popular: demographic approaches where the associations between demographic rates and statistics summarizing the population dynamics are identified; and time series approaches where the associations between population dynamics, population density, and environmental covariates are investigated. In this paper, we develop an approach to combine these methods and apply it to detailed data from Soay sheep (Ovis aries). We examine how density dependence and climate contribute to fluctuations in population size via age- and sex-specific demographic rates, and how fluctuations in demographic structure influence population dynamics. Density dependence contributes most, followed by climatic variation, age structure fluctuations and interactions between density and climate. We then simplify the density-dependent, stochastic, age-structured demographic model and derive a new phenomenological time series which captures the dynamics better than previously selected functions. The simple method we develop has potential to provide substantial insight into the relative contributions of population and individual-level processes to the dynamics of populations in stochastic environments

Follicle Stimulating Hormone, Luteinizing Hormone and Testicular Leydig Cell Responses to Estradiol Immunization in Ile-de-France Rams

Active immunization of Ile-de-France rams against estradiol (E2) resulted in the production of E2-neutralizing antibodies and an elevation in the plasma concentrations of FSH, LH, and testosterone. The presence of E2 antibodies did not affect the testosterone metabolic clearance rate, indicating that the immunization-mediated 10-fold increase in plasma testosterone was the result of a 10-fold increase in testicular testosterone production. Testis weights, as well as nuclear and cytoplasmic volumes of individual peritubular and perivascular Leydig cells, were greater in E2-immunized rams than in albuminimmunized controls. Leydig cell numbers were not affected by treatment. The E2 antibodies were capable not only of neutralizing the inhibitory effects of endogenous E2 on gonadotropin levels in intact rams, but were able to block the effects of exogenously administered E2 on their FSH and Lii secretory response to castration. It is concluded that circulating E2 in the ram is involved in pituitary-testicular endocrine homeostasis and that E2 immunoneutralization can be employed to enhance testosterone secretion in this species

Mechanistic features of CAG•CTG repeat contractions in cultured cells revealed by a novel genetic assay

Trinucleotide repeats (TNRs) undergo high frequency mutagenesis to cause at least 15 neurodegenerative diseases. To understand better the molecular mechanisms of TNR instability in cultured cells, a new genetic assay was created using a shuttle vector. The shuttle vector contains a promoter-TNR-reporter gene construct whose expression is dependent on TNR length. The vector harbors the SV40 ori and large T antigen gene, allowing portability between primate cell lines. The shuttle vector is propagated in cultured cells, then recovered and analyzed in yeast using selection for reporter gene expression. We show that (CAG•CTG)(25−33) contracts at frequencies as high as 1% in 293T and 293 human cells and in COS-1 monkey cells, provided that the plasmid undergoes replication. Hairpin-forming capacity of the repeat sequence stimulated contractions. Evidence for a threshold was observed between 25 and 33 repeats in COS-1 cells, where contraction frequencies increased sharply (up 720%) over a narrow range of repeat lengths. Expression of the mismatch repair protein Mlh1 does not correlate with repeat instability, suggesting contractions are independent of mismatch repair in our system. Together, these findings recapitulate certain features of human genetics and therefore establish a novel cell culture system to help provide new mechanistic insights into CAG•CTG repeat instability