Blockade of adenosine A2A receptors prevents protein phosphorylation in the striatum induced by cortical stimulation

©2006 Society for NeurosciencePrevious studies have shown that cortical stimulation selectively activates extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) phosphorylation and immediate early gene expression in striatal GABAergic enkephalinergic neurons. In the present study, we demonstrate that blockade of adenosine A2A receptors with caffeine or a selective A2A receptor antagonist counteracts the striatal activation of cAMP– protein kinase A cascade (phosphorylation of the Ser845 residue of the glutamate receptor 1 subunit of the AMPA receptor) and mitogenactivated protein kinase (ERK1/2 phosphorylation) induced by the in vivo stimulation of corticostriatal afferents. The results indicate that A2A receptors strongly modulate the efficacy of glutamatergic synapses on striatal enkephalinergic neurons.This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Department of Health and Human Services

Differences in the fly-load of Haematobia irritans (Diptera: Muscidae) on cattle is modified by endophyte infection of pastures

Background: The horn fly, Haematobia irritans, is an obligate bloodsucking ectoparasite of pastured cattle and is a major pest of livestock production in North and South America and Europe. In this study, we investigated the potential to use cattle pastures, infected with non-toxic, "friendly" fungal-endophyte-infected (E+) tall fescue, Festuca arundinacea Schreb., as a strategy for reducing horn fly loads in cattle, and to evaluate the possible bioinsecticide effect on horn fly larvae. Results: When cattle grazed in E+ tall fescue, a decrease in fly-load was observed, compared with other pastures (endophyte-free (E-) pastures). The infestation of horn fly load decreased according to an increase in the percentage of endophyte present in the different pastures (0 to 100%). Moreover, two groups of animals with significant differences in the fly-load (high and low fly-load) in the same herd were observed (P < 0.05). Additionally, it was possible to determine a bioinsecticide effect of cattle dung, upon horn fly larvae (80%), from animals fed E+ tall fescue. Conclusions: These results constitute the first report on the potential for exploiting pasture management for controlling 1) horn fly-loads on cattle and 2) the normal development of horn fly larvae. In conclusion, this information provides preliminary understanding of the role of cattle pasture diet management for controlling horn fliesas part of an integrated pest management strategy for this major pest of farmed livestock

On the order of BEC transition in weakly interacting gases predicted by mean-field theory

Predictions from Hartree-Fock (HF), Popov (P), Yukalov-Yukalova (YY) and $t$-matrix approximations regarding the thermodynamics from the normal to the BEC phase in weakly interacting Bose gases are considered. By analyzing the dependence of the chemical potential $\mu$ on temperature $T$ and particle density $\rho$ we show that none of them predicts a second-order phase transition as required by symmetry-breaking general considerations. In this work we find that the isothermal compressibility $\kappa_{T}$ predicted by these theories does not diverge at criticality as expected in a true second-order phase transition. Moreover the isotherms $\mu=\mu(\rho,T)$ typically exhibit a non-singled valued behavior in the vicinity of the BEC transition, a feature forbidden by general thermodynamic principles. This behavior can be avoided if a first order phase transition is appealed. The facts described above show that although these mean field approximations give correct results near zero temperature they are endowed with thermodynamic anomalies in the vicinity of the BEC transition. We address the implications of these results in the interpretation of current experiments with ultracold trapped alkali gases.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Characterizing and modeling preferential flow using magnetic resonance imaging and multifractal theory.

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Combining reference trials, farm surveys and mathematical models to assess carbon footprint and mitigation measures in tropical agriculture

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) and Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the CGIAR Fund donors for funding this research. For a list of CGIAR Fund donors please see: http://www.cgiar.org/whowe-are/cgiar-fund/fund-donors-2/. The senior author also acknowledges the support from the National Secretariat of Science and Technology of Panama (SENACYT, Professional Excellence subprogram) and the Agricultural Research Institute of Panama (IDIAP).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Choreo: network-aware task placement for cloud applications

Cloud computing infrastructures are increasingly being used by network-intensive applications that transfer significant amounts of data between the nodes on which they run. This paper shows that tenants can do a better job placing applications by understanding the underlying cloud network as well as the demands of the applications. To do so, tenants must be able to quickly and accurately measure the cloud network and profile their applications, and then use a network-aware placement method to place applications. This paper describes Choreo, a system that solves these problems. Our experiments measure Amazon's EC2 and Rackspace networks and use three weeks of network data from applications running on the HP Cloud network. We find that Choreo reduces application completion time by an average of 8%-14% (max improvement: 61%) when applications are placed all at once, and 22%-43% (max improvement: 79%) when they arrive in real-time, compared to alternative placement schemes.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 0645960)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 1065219)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 1040072