Cadmium and arsenic-induced-stress differentially modulates Arabidopsis root architecture, peroxisome distribution, enzymatic activities and their nitric oxide content

In plant cells, cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As) exert toxicity mainly by inducing oxidative stress through an imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS), and their detoxification. Nitric oxide (NO) is a RNS acting as signalling molecule coordinating plant development and stress responses, but also as oxidative stress inducer, depending on its cellular concentration. Peroxisomes are versatile organelles involved in plant metabolism and signalling, with a role in cellular redox balance thanks to their antioxidant enzymes, and their RNS (mainly NO) and ROS. This study analysed Cd or As effects on peroxisomes, and NO production and distribution in the root system, including primary root (PR) and lateral roots (LRs). Arabidopsis thaliana wild-type and transgenic plants enabling peroxisomes to be visualized in vivo, through the expression of the 35S-cyan fluorescent protein fused to the peroxisomal targeting signal1 (PTS1) were used. Peroxisomal enzymatic activities including the antioxidant catalase, the H2O2-generating glycolate oxidase, and the hydroxypyruvate reductase, and root system morphology were also evaluated under Cd/As exposure. Results showed that Cd and As differently modulate these activities, however, catalase activity was inhibited by both. Moreover, Arabidopsis root system was altered, with the pollutants differently affecting PR growth, but similarly enhancing LR formation. Only in the PR apex, and not in LR one, Cd more than As caused significant changes in peroxisome distribution, size, and in peroxisomal NO content. By contrast, neither pollutant caused significant changes in peroxisomes size and peroxisomal NO content in the LR apex

Through the lens of sequence submodularity

Several real-world problems in engineering and applied science require the selection of sequences that maximize a given reward function. Optimizing over sequences as opposed to sets requires exploring an exponentially larger search space and can become prohibitive in most cases of practical interest. However, if the objective function is submodular (intuitively, it exhibits a diminishing return property), the optimization problem becomes more manageable. Recently, there has been increasing interest in sequence submodularity in connection with applications such as recommender systems and online ad allocation. However, mostly ad hoc models and solutions have emerged within these applicative contexts. In consequence, the field appears fragmented and lacks coherence. In this paper, we offer a unified view of sequence submodularity and provide a generalized greedy algorithm that enjoys strong theoretical guarantees. We show how our approach naturally captures several application domains, and our algorithm encompasses existing methods, improving over them

A unifying look at sequence submodularity

Several real-world problems in engineering and applied science require the selection of sequences that maximize a given reward function. Optimizing over sequences as opposed to sets requires exploring an exponentially larger search space and can become prohibitive in most cases of practical interest. However, if the objective function is submodular (intuitively, it exhibits a diminishing return property), the optimization problem becomes more manageable. Recently, there has been increasing interest in sequence submodularity in connection with applications such as recommender systems and online ad allocation. However, mostly ad hoc models and solutions have emerged within these applicative contexts. In consequence, the field appears fragmented and lacks coherence. In this paper, we offer a unified view of sequence submodularity and provide a generalized greedy algorithm that enjoys strong theoretical guarantees. We show how our approach naturally captures several application domains, and our algorithm encompasses existing methods, improving over them. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Urgent Need for Reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Industrial Processes: Are We Past the Tipping Point for Global Warming?

In a previous Guest Editorial (Piacentini and Mujumdar, 2007) and an article (Piacentini and Mujumdar, 2009), we analyzed the relation between climate change and industrial processes, mainly related to drying.Fil: Piacentini, Ruben Dario Narciso. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Rosario. Instituto de Física de Rosario (i); Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; ArgentinaFil: Mujumdar, A. S. . Minerals, Metals & Materials Technology Centre ; Singapur. Institute of Chemical Technology; Indi

Positive Operator-Valued Measure reconstruction of a beam-splitter tree based photon-number-resolving detector

Here we present a reconstruction of the Positive Operator-Value Measurement of a photon-number-resolving detector comprised of three 50:50 beamsplitters in a tree configuration, terminated with four single-photon avalanche detectors. The four detectors' outputs are processed by an electronic board that discriminates detected photon number states from 0 to 4 and implements a "smart counting" routine to compensate for dead time issues at high count rates

Quantum state reconstruction using binary data from on/off photodetection

The knowledge of the density matrix of a quantum state plays a fundamental role in several fields ranging from quantum information processing to experiments on foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum optics. Recently, a method has been suggested and implemented in order to obtain the reconstruction of the diagonal elements of the density matrix exploiting the information achievable with realistic on/off detectors, e.g. silicon avalanche photo-diodes, only able to discriminate the presence or the absence of light. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the theoretical and experimental developments of the on/off method, including its extension to the reconstruction of the whole density matrix.Comment: revised version, 11 pages, 6 figures, to appear as a review paper on Adv. Science Let

Glutamate induces autophagy via the two-pore channels in neural cells

NAADP (nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate) has been proposed as a second messenger for glutamate in neuronal and glial cells via the activation of the lysosomal Ca2+ channels TPC1 and TPC2. However, the activities of glutamate that are mediated by NAADP remain unclear. In this study, we evaluated the effect of glutamate on autophagy in astrocytes at physiological, non-toxic concentration. We found that glutamate induces autophagy at similar extent as NAADP. By contrast, the NAADP antagonist NED-19 or SiRNA-mediated inhibition of TPC1/2 decreases autophagy induced by glutamate, confirming a role for NAADP in this pathway. The involvement of TPC1/2 in glutamate-induced autophagy was also confirmed in SHSY5Y neuroblastoma cells. Finally, we show that glutamate leads to a NAADP-dependent activation of AMPK, which is required for autophagy induction, while mTOR activity is not affected by this treatment. Taken together, our results indicate that glutamate stimulates autophagy via NAADP/TPC/AMPK axis, providing new insights of how Ca2+ signalling glutamate-mediated can control the cell metabolism in the central nervous system

Detailed study of the microwave emission of the supernova remnant 3C 396

We have observed the supernova remnant 3C~396 in the microwave region using the Parkes 64-m telescope. Observations have been made at 8.4 GHz, 13.5 GHz, and 18.6 GHz and in polarisation at 21.5 GHz. We have used data from several other observatories, including previously unpublished observations performed by the Green Bank Telescope at 31.2 GHz, to investigate the nature of the microwave emission of 3C 396. Results show a spectral energy distribution dominated by a single component power law emission with $\alpha=(-0.364 \pm 0.017)$. Data do not favour the presence of anomalous microwave emission coming from the source. Polarised emission at 21.5 GHz is consistent with synchrotron-dominated emission. We present microwave maps and correlate them with infrared (IR) maps in order to characterise the interplay between thermal dust and microwave emission. IR vs. microwave TT plots reveal poor correlation between mid-infrared and microwave emission from the core of the source. On the other hand, a correlation is detected in the tail emission of the outer shell of 3C 396, which could be ascribed to Galactic contamination.Comment: published in MNRA

Human pharmacogenomic variation of antihypertensive drugs: from population genetics to personalized medicine.

AIM: To investigate the human pharmacogenetic variation related to antihypertensive drugs, providing a survey of functional interpopulation differences in hypertension pharmacogenes. MATERIALS & METHODS: The study was divided into two stages. In the first stage, we analyzed 1249 variants located in 57 hypertension pharmacogenes. This first-stage analysis confirmed that geographic origin strongly affects hypertension pharmacogenomic variation and that 31 pharmacogenes are geographically differentiated. In the second stage, we focused our attention on the ethnic-differentiated pharmacogenes, investigating 55,521 genetic variants. In silico analyses were performed to predict the effect of genetic variation. RESULTS: Our analyses indicated functional interpopulation differences, suggesting insight into the mechanisms of antihypertensive drug response. Moreover, our data suggested that rare variants mainly determine the functionality of genes related to antihypertensive drugs. CONCLUSION: Our study provided important knowledge about the genetics of the antihypertensive drug response, suggesting that next-generation sequencing technologies may develop reliable pharmacogenetic tests for antihypertensive drugs

Constrained MaxLik reconstruction of multimode photon distributions

We address the reconstruction of the full photon distribution of multimode fields generated by seeded parametric down-conversion (PDC). Our scheme is based on on/off avalanche photodetection assisted by maximum-likelihood (MaxLik) estimation and does not involve photon counting. We present a novel constrained MaxLik method that incorporates the request of finite energy to improve the rate of convergence and, in turn, the overall accuracy of the reconstruction