A Highly Sensitive Plant Hybrid Protein Assay System Based on the \u3cem\u3eSpm\u3c/em\u3e Promoter and TnpA Protein for Detection and Analysis of Transcription Activation Domains

TnpA is a multifunctional DNA binding protein encoded by the maize Suppressor-mutator (Spm) transposable element. TnpA is required for transposition and is a repressor of the unmethylated Spm promoter. While analyzing protein domains using a yeast GAL4-based hybrid system in transiently transformed tobacco cells, we found that TnpA represses the \u3e10-fold transcriptional activation observed when the GAL4 DNA-binding domain is used alone. By contrast, compared to the backgroundless TnpA DNA-binding domain alone, 33- to 45-fold activation of the Spm promoter was observed when the VP16 activation domain was fused to it. TnpA-binding sites, but no TATA box, were required for transcription activation. Among the TnpA deletion derivatives tested, those retaining the coding sequences for the DNA-binding and protein dimerization domains gave the highest level of transcription activation when fused with the VP16 activation domain. The TnpA gene and TnpA-binding sites in the short Spm promoter therefore provide a novel, highly sensitive single-hybrid system for identifying and studying plant transcription activation domains in plant cells

Concerted Formation of Macromolecular \u3cem\u3eSuppressor-mutator\u3c/em\u3e Transposition Complexes

Transposition of the maize Suppressor-mutator (Spm) transposon requires two element-encoded proteins, TnpA and TnpD. Although there are multiple TnpA binding sites near each element end, binding of TnpA to DNA is not cooperative, and the binding affinity is not markedly affected by the number of binding sites per DNA fragment. However, intermolecular complexes form cooperatively between DNA fragments with three or more TnpA binding sites. TnpD, itself not a sequence-specific DNA-binding protein, binds to TnpA and stabilizes the TnpA-DNA complex. The high redundancy of TnpA binding sites at both element ends and the protein-protein interactions between DNA-bound TnpA complexes and between these and TnpD imply a concerted transition of the element from a linear to a protein crosslinked transposition complex within a very narrow protein concentration range

Primary Amoebic (Naegleria fowleri) Meningoencephalitis Presenting as Status Epilepticus

Primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) is a rare entity. Usual presenting features are fever, headache and seizures with meningeal signs and this disease carries high mortality rate. We present a case report of PAM presenting as status epilepticus

Complementary systems for Off-Topic spoken response detection

Increased demand to learn English for business and education has led to growing interest in automatic spoken language assessment and teaching systems. With this shift to automated approaches it is important that systems reliably assess all aspects of a candidate's responses. This paper examines one form of spoken language assessment; whether the response from the candidate is relevant to the prompt provided. This will be referred to as off-topic spoken response detection. Two forms of previously proposed approaches are examined in this work: the hierarchical attention-based topic model (HATM); and the similarity grid model (SGM). The work focuses on the scenario when the prompt, and associated responses, have not been seen in the training data, enabling the system to be applied to new test scripts without the need to collect data or retrain the model. To improve the performance of the systems for unseen prompts, data augmentation based on easy data augmentation (EDA) and translation based approaches are applied. Additionally for the HATM, a form of prompt dropout is described. The systems were evaluated on both seen and unseen prompts from Linguaskill Business and General English tests. For unseen data the performance of the HATM was improved using data augmentation, in contrast to the SGM where no gains were obtained. The two approaches were found to be complementary to one another, yielding a combined F(0.5) score of 0.814 for off-topic response detection where the prompts have not been seen in training.ALT

Universal adversarial attacks on spoken language assessment systems

There is an increasing demand for automated spoken language assessment (SLA) systems, partly driven by the performance improvements that have come from deep learning based approaches. One aspect of deep learning systems is that they do not require expert derived features, operating directly on the original signal such as a speech recognition (ASR) transcript. This, however, increases their potential susceptibility to adversarial attacks as a form of candidate malpractice. In this paper the sensitivity of SLA systems to a universal black-box attack on the ASR text output is explored. The aim is to obtain a single, universal phrase to maximally increase any candidate's score. Four approaches to detect such adversarial attacks are also described. All the systems, and associated detection approaches, are evaluated on a free (spontaneous) speaking section from a Business English test. It is shown that on deep learning based SLA systems the average candidate score can be increased by almost one grade level using a single six word phrase appended to the end of the response hypothesis. Although these large gains can be obtained, they can be easily detected based on detection shifts from the scores of a “traditional” Gaussian Process based grader

The efficiency and efficacy of tranexamic acid in prevention of blood loss during or after caesarean delivery: a comparative study

Background: The practice of caesarean section is increasing day by day. Delivery by caesarean section can cause more complications than normal vaginal delivery and one of the most common complications is primary or secondary postpartum hemorrhage. The aim of present study was to study the efficacy and safety of tranexamic acid in reducing blood loss during and after caesarean section.Methods: This study was conducted at Deccan College of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad. It was a prospective randomized double blind placebo controlled study. This study includes 60 pregnant women divided in to two groups. Just before the induction of anesthesia 1 gm of tranexamic acid in 20 ml of normal saline was given over 10 minutes in test group and 20 ml of normal saline was infused in control group.Results: The demographic characters of patients in two groups were comparable. There was no statistically significant difference in the heart rates, respiratory rates and blood pressures in the two groups. There was statistically significant difference in the quantity of the blood loss from during the operation and 2 hours postpartum (p=0.003). Total mean blood loss in control group was 718.80±233.1 ml and in study group was 554.28±207.8 ml. The drop in hemoglobin after caesarean section in study group was not significant where as in control group was significant. There was no significant difference in the prothrombin time and partial thromboplastin time in the groups, pre and post operatively. In this study the use of tranexamic acid reduced the dose of other uterotonics like syntocin in study group.Conclusions: Tranexamic acid significantly reduced the amount of blood loss during the caesarean section and also reduced the use of other uterotonics. Thus, tranexamic acid can be used safely and effectively in subjects undergoing caesarean section

Nuclear deformation and neutrinoless double-β\beta decay of 94,96^{94,96}Zr, 98,100^{98,100}Mo, 104^{104}Ru, 110^{110}Pd, 128,130^{128,130}Te and 150^{150}Nd nuclei in mass mechanism

The $(\beta ^{-}\beta ^{-})_{0\nu}$ decay of $^{94,96}$Zr, $^{98,100}$Mo, $^{104}$Ru, $^{110}$Pd, $^{128,130}$Te and $^{150}$Nd isotopes for the $0^{+}\to 0^{+}$ transition is studied in the Projected Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov framework. In our earlier work, the reliability of HFB intrinsic wave functions participating in the $\beta ^{-}\beta ^{-}$ decay of the above mentioned nuclei has been established by obtaining an overall agreement between the theoretically calculated spectroscopic properties, namely yrast spectra, reduced $B(E2$:$0^{+}\to 2^{+})$ transition probabilities, quadrupole moments $Q(2^{+})$, gyromagnetic factors $g(2^{+})$ as well as half-lives $T_{1/2}^{2\nu}$ for the $0^{+}\to 0^{+}$ transition and the available experimental data. In the present work, we study the $(\beta ^{-}\beta ^{-})_{0\nu}$ decay for the $0^{+}\to 0^{+}$ transition in the mass mechanism and extract limits on effective mass of light as well as heavy neutrinos from the observed half-lives $T_{1/2}^{0\nu}(0^{+}\to 0^{+})$ using nuclear transition matrix elements calculated with the same set of wave functions. Further, the effect of deformation on the nuclear transition matrix elements required to study the $(\beta ^{-}\beta ^{-})_{0\nu}$ decay in the mass mechanism is investigated. It is noticed that the deformation effect on nuclear transition matrix elements is of approximately same magnitude in $(\beta ^{-}\beta ^{-})_{2\nu}$ and $(\beta ^{-}\beta ^{-})_{0\nu}$ decay.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur

Laboratory Studies of Heterogeneous Processes Relevant to Mars

Heterogeneous (gas-surface) processes may play an important role in both the atmospheric and surface chemistry of Mars. Atmospheric species may be affected by the chemistry and physical properties of the planetary surface and the surface material may be affected by the components and properties of the atmosphere. In this thesis, several laboratory studies are described which experimentally investigate two types of atmosphere-surface systems likely to exist on Mars. First, experiments were performed to better understand the spatial and temporal variability of atmospheric methane (CH4) on Mars. Reported CH4 plumes in the atmosphere of Mars are difficult to explain using known chemical or physical processes. The observations imply a strong, present-day source and also a rapid yet unknown CH4 sink. We have investigated the potential role of mineral dust in CH4 variability. First, using a Knudsen cell capable of simulating Martian temperature and pressure conditions, we have studied the adsorption of CH4 to a Martian mineral analog as a function of temperature. An uptake coefficient was determined and then applied to the Martian surface-atmosphere system. Our results suggest that adsorption to soil grains could possibly affect the CH4 mixing ratio on a seasonal time scale especially at mid-latitude regions. Additionally, chemical oxidation of CH4 by oxidants thought to exist in the Martian regolith was studied. The Viking mission in the 1970’s found Martian soil was able to oxidize complex organic compounds to CO2. The identity of the oxidant is unknown, but has been proposed to be either hydrogen peroxide or perchlorate salts. We used a gas chromatograph to determine if simulated Mars soil containing these oxidants was able to oxidize CH4 to CO2. However, no CH4 was oxidized within the detection limit of the instrument and only an upper limit reaction coefficient could be reported. Even these upper limit values suggest CH4 could not be removed from the Martian atmosphere rapidly enough to cause variability. We have also studied the interactions of another important trace gas on Mars, water vapor, with perchlorate, a highly deliquescent salt recently discovered in polar soil. A Raman microscope equipped with an environmental cell was used to study phase transitions of the salts. The relative humidity (RH) at which deliquescence (absorption of water vapor by the solid to become an aqueous solution) and efflorescence (crystallization of the aqueous solution) occur were determined as a function of temperature, hydration state and associated cation. We show that the deliquescence RH for perchlorate salts can be low (~40% RH for anhydrous sodium perchlorate, for example). Thermodynamics can predict deliquescence; however, the kinetic inhibition of crystallization causes efflorescence to occur at much lower RH values than deliquescence which allows supersaturated salt solutions to exist in a metastable state. Based on the diurnal RH and temperature cycles on Mars, aqueous solutions could be stable or metastable for several hours a day at the Phoenix landing site. The astrobiological implications of potential liquid H2O on Mars are significant