A large bioassay identifies Stb resistance genes that provide broad resistance against Septoria tritici blotch Disease in the UK

Septoria tritici blotch (STB) is one of the most damaging fungal diseases of wheat in Europe, largely due to the paucity of effective resistance genes against it in breeding materials. Currently dominant protection methods against this disease, e.g. fungicides and the disease resistance genes already deployed, are losing their effectiveness. Therefore, it is vital that other available disease resistance sources are identified, understood and deployed in a manner that maximises their effectiveness and durability. In this study, we assessed wheat genotypes containing nineteen known major STB resistance genes (Stb1 through to Stb19) or combinations thereof against a broad panel of 93 UK Zymoseptoria tritici isolates. Five infection symptom components (days post infection to the development of first symptoms and pycnidia, percentage coverage of the infected leaf area with chlorosis/necrosis and pycnidia and spore counts from spore wash) were measured and average disease levels calculated for each genotype. The different Stb genes were found to vary greatly in the levels of protection they provided, with no Z. tritici isolate found to be virulent against all tested resistance genes. Disease resistance controlled by different Stb genes was associated with different levels of chlorosis, with high levels of early chlorosis in some genotypes correlated with high resistance to fungal pycnidia development. Stb10, Stb11, Stb12, Stb16q, Stb17, and Stb19 were identified as contributing broad spectrum disease resistance, and synthetic hexaploid wheat lines were identified as particularly promising sources of broadly effective STB resistances. Wheat genotypes carrying multiple Stb genes were found to provide higher levels of resistance than expected given their historical levels of use. The knowledge obtained here will aid UK breeders in prioritising Stb genes for future breeding programmes. In addition, this study identified the most interesting Stb genes for cloning and detailed functional analysis

Matching Conditions in Atomistic-Continuum Modeling of Materials

A new class of matching condition between the atomistic and continuum regions is presented for the multi-scale modeling of crystals. They ensure the accurate passage of large scale information between the atomistic and continuum regions and at the same time minimize the reflection of phonons at the interface. These matching conditions can be made adaptive if we choose appropriate weight functions. Applications to dislocation dynamics and friction between two-dimensional atomically flat crystal surfaces are described.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Effect of stress-triaxiality on void growth in dynamic fracture of metals: a molecular dynamics study

The effect of stress-triaxiality on growth of a void in a three dimensional single-crystal face-centered-cubic (FCC) lattice has been studied. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using an embedded-atom (EAM) potential for copper have been performed at room temperature and using strain controlling with high strain rates ranging from 10^7/sec to 10^10/sec. Strain-rates of these magnitudes can be studied experimentally, e.g. using shock waves induced by laser ablation. Void growth has been simulated in three different conditions, namely uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial expansion. The response of the system in the three cases have been compared in terms of the void growth rate, the detailed void shape evolution, and the stress-strain behavior including the development of plastic strain. Also macroscopic observables as plastic work and porosity have been computed from the atomistic level. The stress thresholds for void growth are found to be comparable with spall strength values determined by dynamic fracture experiments. The conventional macroscopic assumption that the mean plastic strain results from the growth of the void is validated. The evolution of the system in the uniaxial case is found to exhibit four different regimes: elastic expansion; plastic yielding, when the mean stress is nearly constant, but the stress-triaxiality increases rapidly together with exponential growth of the void; saturation of the stress-triaxiality; and finally the failure.Comment: 35 figures, which are small (and blurry) due to the space limitations; submitted (with original figures) to Physical Review B. Final versio

Fiber-coupled Antennas for Ultrafast Coherent Terahertz Spectroscopy in Low Temperatures and High Magnetic Fields

For the purposes of measuring the high-frequency complex conductivity of correlated-electron materials at low temperatures and high magnetic fields, a method is introduced for performing coherent time-domain terahertz spectroscopy directly in the cryogenic bore of existing dc and pulsed magnets. Miniature fiber-coupled THz emitters and receivers are constructed and are demonstrated to work down to 1.5 Kelvin and up to 17 Tesla, for eventual use in higher-field magnets. Maintaining the sub-micron alignment between fiber and antenna during thermal cycling, obtaining ultrafast (${<200}$~fs) optical gating pulses at the end of long optical fibers, and designing highly efficient devices that work well with low-power optical gating pulses constitute the major technical challenges of this project. Data on a YBCO superconducting thin film and a high mobility 2D electron gas is shown.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

Cytocompatibility, degradation, mechanical property retention and ion release profiles for phosphate glass fibre reinforced composite rods

Fibre reinforced composites have recently received much attention as potential bone fracture fixation applications. Bioresorbable composites based on poly lactic acid (PLA) and phosphate based glass fibre were investigated according to ion release, degradation, biocompatibility and mechanical retention profiles. The phosphate based glass fibres used in this study had the composition of 40P2O5-24MgO-16CaO-16Na2O- 4Fe2O3 in mol% (P40). The degradation and ion release profiles for the composites showed similar trends with the amount of sodium and orthophosphate ions released being greater than the other cations and anions investigated. This was attributed to low Dietzal's field strength for the Na+ in comparison with Mg2 + and Ca2 + and breakdown of longer chain polyphosphates into orthophosphate ions. P40 composites exhibited good biocompatibility to human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which was suggested to be due to the low degradation rate of P40 fibres. After 63 days immersion in PBS at 37 C, the P40 composite rods lost ∼ 1.1% of mass. The wet flexural, shear and compressive strengths for P40 UD rods were ∼ 70%, ∼ 80% and ∼ 50% of their initial dry values after 3 days of degradation, whereas the flexural modulus, shear and compressive strengths were ∼ 70%, ∼ 80%, and ∼ 65% respectively. Subsequently, the mechanical properties remained stable for the duration of the study at 63 days. The initial decrease in mechanical properties was attributed to a combination of the plasticisation effect of water and degradation of the fibre-matrix interface, with the subsequent linear behaviour being attributed to the chemical durability of P40 fibres. P40 composite rods showed low degradation and ion release rates, good biocompatibility and maintained mechanical properties similar to cortical bone for the duration of the study. Therefore, P40 composite rods have huge potential as resorbable intramedullary nails or rods. © 2013 Elsevier B.V

Chemotherapy versus supportive care in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: improved survival without detriment to quality of life

BACKGROUND: In 1995 a meta-analysis of randomised trials investigating the value of adding chemotherapy to primary treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) suggested a small survival benefit for cisplatin-based chemotherapy in each of the primary treatment settings. However, the metaanalysis included many small trials and trials with differing eligibility criteria and chemotherapy regimens. METHODS: The aim of the Big Lung Trial was to confirm the survival benefits seen in the meta-analysis and to assess quality of life and cost in the supportive care setting. A total of 725 patients were randomised to receive supportive care alone (n = 361) or supportive care plus cisplatin-based chemotherapy (n = 364). RESULTS: 65% of patients allocated chemotherapy (C) received all three cycles of treatment and a further 27% received one or two cycles. 74% of patients allocated no chemotherapy (NoC) received thoracic radiotherapy compared with 47% of the C group. Patients allocated C had a significantly better survival than those allocated NoC: HR 0.77 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.89, p = 0.0006), median survival 8.0 months for the C group v 5.7 months for the NoC group, a difference of 9 weeks. There were 19 (5%) treatment related deaths in the C group. There was no evidence that any subgroup benefited more or less fromchemotherapy. No significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of the pre-defined primary and secondary quality of life end points, although large negative effects of chemotherapy were ruled out. The regimens used proved to be cost effective, the extra cost of chemotherapy being offset by longer survival. CONCLUSIONS: The survival benefit seen in this trial was entirely consistent with the NSCLC meta-analysis and subsequent similarly designed large trials. The information on quality of life and cost should enablepatients and their clinicians to make more informed treatment choices

Dynamic of a non homogeneously coarse grained system

To study materials phenomena simultaneously at various length scales, descriptions in which matter can be coarse grained to arbitrary levels, are necessary. Attempts to do this in the static regime (i.e. zero temperature) have already been developed. In this letter, we present an approach that leads to a dynamics for such coarse-grained models. This allows us to obtain temperature-dependent and transport properties. Renormalization group theory is used to create new local potentials model between nodes, within the approximation of local thermodynamical equilibrium. Assuming that these potentials give an averaged description of node dynamics, we calculate thermal and mechanical properties. If this method can be sufficiently generalized it may form the basis of a Molecular Dynamics method with time and spatial coarse-graining.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Cisplatin-induced emesis: systematic review and meta-analysis of the ferret model and the effects of 5-HT3 receptor antagonists

PURPOSE: The ferret cisplatin emesis model has been used for ~30 years and enabled identification of clinically used anti-emetics. We provide an objective assessment of this model including efficacy of 5-HT(3) receptor antagonists to assess its translational validity. METHODS: A systematic review identified available evidence and was used to perform meta-analyses. RESULTS: Of 182 potentially relevant publications, 115 reported cisplatin-induced emesis in ferrets and 68 were included in the analysis. The majority (n = 53) used a 10 mg kg(−1) dose to induce acute emesis, which peaked after 2 h. More recent studies (n = 11) also used 5 mg kg(−1), which induced a biphasic response peaking at 12 h and 48 h. Overall, 5-HT(3) receptor antagonists reduced cisplatin (5 mg kg(−1)) emesis by 68% (45–91%) during the acute phase (day 1) and by 67% (48–86%) and 53% (38–68%, all P < 0.001), during the delayed phase (days 2, 3). In an analysis focused on the acute phase, the efficacy of ondansetron was dependent on the dosage and observation period but not on the dose of cisplatin. CONCLUSION: Our analysis enabled novel findings to be extracted from the literature including factors which may impact on the applicability of preclinical results to humans. It reveals that the efficacy of ondansetron is similar against low and high doses of cisplatin. Additionally, we showed that 5-HT(3) receptor antagonists have a similar efficacy during acute and delayed emesis, which provides a novel insight into the pharmacology of delayed emesis in the ferret

Feeling the Heat: Investigating the dual assault of Zymoseptoria tritici and Heat Stress on Wheat (Triticum aestivum)

As a result of climate change, field conditions are increasingly challenging for crops. Research has shown how elevated temperatures affect crop performance, yet the impact of temperature on host-pathogen relationships remains unknown. Understanding the effects of combined abiotic and biotic stresses on crop plants and the plant-microbial interaction is crucial in developing strategies to improve crop stress tolerance and manage diseases effectively. Lipids sense, signal, and mitigate temperature elevation effects, and lipid remodelling plays a key role in the plant and fungal response to heat stress. Our study uses a systems approach to examine the Z. tritici wheat model system, combining transcriptomics, lipidomics, and phenotyping to decipher the impact of high-temperature stress on the plant-pathogen interaction. Microscopy in vivo and RNA-Seq analyses confirmed that Z. tritici responds to high-temperature treatments with morphological and transcriptomic changes. Temperature-related configuration of the transcriptome was associated with the accessory chromosomes and expression of ‘accessory’ pan-genome-derived genes. Metabolism-related gene expression predominated, indicated by GO enrichment and analysis of KOG classes, and large-scale lipid remodelling was likely given the proportion of lipid transport and metabolism-related expression changes in response to temperature. Changes in lipid content and composition were then validated by LC-MS analysis. Heat-responsive fungal genes and pathways, including scramblase family genes, are being tested by reverse genetics to ascertain their importance for fungal adaption to elevated temperatures. Elevated temperature schemes were applied to wheat to study the impact of combined stress on the plant-pathogen interaction, based on long-term climate data from Rothamsted Research, using transcriptomic, lipidomic and phenotypic analyses. Comparing non-infected and infected wheat plants under typical and elevated temperatures. Our initial analysis of the transcriptomic data indicates a delay in the development of Z. tritici, followed by its adaptation to the warmer environment. Once the infection was established, the fungus exhibited resilience to the impact of higher external temperatures. Our results indicate that temperature elevations associated with climate change directly impact plant-pathogen interactions. Furthermore, the study demonstrates a need for further detailed understanding to sustain crop resilience

High precision spectra at large redshift for dynamical DE cosmologies

The next generation mass probes will investigate DE nature by measuring non-linear power spectra at various z, and comparing them with high precision simulations. Producing a complete set of them, taking into account baryon physics and for any DE state equation w(z), would really be numerically expensive. Regularities reducing such duty are essential. This paper presents further n-body tests of a relation we found, linking models with DE state parameter w(z) to const.-w models, and also tests the relation in hydro simulations.Comment: PASCOS 2010, the 16th International Symposium on Particles, Strings and Cosmology, Valencia (Spain), July 19th - 23rd, 201