Arabidopsis Response Regulators ARR3 and ARR4 Play Cytokinin-Independent Roles in the Control of Circadian Period

Light and temperature are potent environmental signals used to synchronize the circadian oscillator with external time and photoperiod. Phytochrome and cryptochrome photoreceptors integrate light quantity and quality to modulate the pace and phase of the clock. PHYTOCHROME B (phyB) controls period length in red light as well as the phase of the clock in white light. phyB interacts with ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATOR4 (ARR4) in a light-dependent manner. Accordingly, we tested ARR4 and other members of the type-A ARR family for roles in clock function and show that ARR4 and its closest relative, ARR3, act redundantly in the Arabidopsis thaliana circadian system. Loss of ARR3 and ARR4 lengthens the period of the clock even in the absence of light, demonstrating that they do so independently of active phyB. In addition, in white light, arr3,4 mutants show a leading phase similar to phyB mutants, suggesting that circadian light input is modulated by the interaction of phyB with ARR4. Although type-A ARRs are involved in cytokinin signaling, the circadian defects appear to be independent of cytokinin, as exogenous cytokinin affects the phase but not the period of the clock. Therefore, ARR3 and ARR4 are critical for proper circadian period and define an additional level of regulation of the circadian clock in Arabidopsis

Avoiding spurious feedback loops in the reconstruction of gene regulatory networks with dynamic bayesian networks

Feedback loops and recurrent structures are essential to the regulation and stable control of complex biological systems. The application of dynamic as opposed to static Bayesian networks is promising in that, in principle, these feedback loops can be learned. However, we show that the widely applied BGe score is susceptible to learning spurious feedback loops, which are a consequence of non-linear regulation and autocorrelation in the data. We propose a non-linear generalisation of the BGe model, based on a mixture model, and demonstrate that this approach successfully represses spurious feedback loops

Optimization of an Exploratory Oncology Panel for Immunoprofiling Tissues in the Tumor Microenvironment using CO-Detection by indEXing (CODEX) Methodology

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/sumexp21/1205/thumbnail.jp

A massive multiphase plume of gas in Abell 2390's brightest cluster galaxy

We present new ALMA CO(2-1) observations tracing $2.2 \times 10^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$ of molecular gas in Abell 2390's brightest cluster galaxy, where half the gas is located in a one-sided plume extending 15 kpc out from the galaxy centre. This molecular gas has a smooth and positive velocity gradient, and is receding 250 km/s faster at its farthest point than at the galaxy centre. To constrain the plume's origin, we analyse our new observations alongside existing X-ray, optical and radio data. We consider the possibility that the plume is jet-driven with lifting aided by jet inflated X-ray bubbles. Alternatively, it may have formed following a gravitational disturbance. In this case, the plume may either be a trail of gas stripped from the main galaxy by ram pressure, or more recently cooled and infalling gas. The galaxy's star formation and gas cooling rate suggest the lifespan of its molecular gas may be low compared with the plume's age -- which would favour a recently cooled plume. Molecular gas in close proximity to the active galactic nucleus is also indicated by 250 km/s wide CO(2-1) absorption against the radio core, as well as previously detected CO(1-0) and HI absorption. This absorption is optically thick and has a line of sight velocity towards the galaxy centre of 200 km/s. We discuss simple models to explain its origin.Comment: Submitted to MNRA

Cerebral perfusion in sepsis-associated delirium

INTRODUCTION: The pathophysiology of sepsis-associated delirium is not completely understood and the data on cerebral perfusion in sepsis are conflicting. We tested the hypothesis that cerebral perfusion and selected serum markers of inflammation and delirium differ in septic patients with and without sepsis-associated delirium. METHODS: We investigated 23 adult patients with sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock with an extracranial focus of infection and no history of intracranial pathology. Patients were investigated after stabilisation within 48 hours after admission to the intensive care unit. Sepsis-associated delirium was diagnosed using the confusion assessment method for the intensive care unit. Mean arterial pressure (MAP), blood flow velocity (FV) in the middle cerebral artery using transcranial Doppler, and cerebral tissue oxygenation using near-infrared spectroscopy were monitored for 1 hour. An index of cerebrovascular autoregulation was calculated from MAP and FV data. C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), S-100beta, and cortisol were measured during each data acquisition. RESULTS: Data from 16 patients, of whom 12 had sepsis-associated delirium, were analysed. There were no significant correlations or associations between MAP, cerebral blood FV, or tissue oxygenation and sepsis-associated delirium. However, we found a significant association between sepsis-associated delirium and disturbed autoregulation (P = 0.015). IL-6 did not differ between patients with and without sepsis-associated delirium, but we found a significant association between elevated CRP (P = 0.008), S-100beta (P = 0.029), and cortisol (P = 0.011) and sepsis-associated delirium. Elevated CRP was significantly correlated with disturbed autoregulation (Spearman rho = 0.62, P = 0.010). CONCLUSION: In this small group of patients, cerebral perfusion assessed with transcranial Doppler and near-infrared spectroscopy did not differ between patients with and without sepsis-associated delirium. However, the state of autoregulation differed between the two groups. This may be due to inflammation impeding cerebrovascular endothelial function. Further investigations defining the role of S-100beta and cortisol in the diagnosis of sepsis-associated delirium are warranted. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00410111

Combined CO & Dust Scaling Relations of Depletion Time and Molecular Gas Fractions with Cosmic Time, Specific Star Formation Rate and Stellar Mass

We combine molecular gas masses inferred from CO emission in 500 star forming galaxies (SFGs) between z=0 and 3, from the IRAM-COLDGASS, PHIBSS1/2 and other surveys, with gas masses derived from Herschel far-IR dust measurements in 512 galaxy stacks over the same stellar mass/redshift range. We constrain the scaling relations of molecular gas depletion time scale (tdepl) and gas to stellar mass ratio (Mmolgas/M*) of SFGs near the star formation main-sequence with redshift, specific star formation rate (sSFR) and stellar mass (M*). The CO- and dust-based scaling relations agree remarkably well. This suggests that the CO-H2 mass conversion factor varies little within 0.6dex of the main sequence (sSFR(ms,z,M*)), and less than 0.3dex throughout this redshift range. This study builds on and strengthens the results of earlier work. We find that tdepl scales as (1+z)^-0.3 *(sSFR/sSFR(ms,z,M*))^-0.5, with little dependence on M*. The resulting steep redshift dependence of Mmolgas/M* ~(1+z)^3 mirrors that of the sSFR and probably reflects the gas supply rate. The decreasing gas fractions at high M* are driven by the flattening of the SFR-M* relation. Throughout the redshift range probed a larger sSFR at constant M* is due to a combination of an increasing gas fraction and a decreasing depletion time scale. As a result galaxy integrated samples of the Mmolgas-SFR rate relation exhibit a super-linear slope, which increases with the range of sSFR. With these new relations it is now possible to determine Mmolgas with an accuracy of 0.1dex in relative terms, and 0.2dex including systematic uncertainties.Comment: ApJ accepte

Quantification de l'architecture osseuse par microtomographie 3D utilisant le rayonnement synchrotron

Nous présentons un système de microtomographie 3D par rayonnement synchrotron développé à l'ESRF de Grenoble, en vue de l'analyse de la structure trabéculaire osseuse. Ce système permet d'acquérir de façon non destructive des images 3D d'échantillons osseux , ayant des voxels isotrope de 6.65 μm. Afin de caractériser la structure 3D de l'os, des paramètres quantitatifs sont extraits de ces images. Les paramètres morphologiques et topologiques utilisés en histomorphométrie, sont calculés sur les différentes coupes du volume. La variabilité des paramètres dans l'échantillon et la nécessité d'une analyse réellement tridimensionnelle sont soulignés. L'influence de la résolution spatiale sur l'exactitude des paramètres calculés est également examinée

Improved limit of detection of a high-resolution fs-LIMS instrument through mass-selective beam blanking

Laser Ablation Ionisation Mass Spectrometry (LIMS) is an important quantitative method for chemical analysis of solids. Current limits of detections (LoDs) of LIMS instruments are in the ppm to sub-ppm range (atomic fractions), while other commonly used techniques for solid sample analysis reach LoDs at ppb levels or even below. This study presents the implementation of mass-selective beam blanking in the Laser Mass Spectrometer – Gran Turismo (LMS-GT) to improve the instruments’ detection limit. LMS-GT is a high-performance time-of-flight LIMS instrument coupled to a femtosecond laser ablation ion source reaching micrometre spatial resolutions and mass resolutions 12′000. A fast high voltage switch was developed in-house to induce potential changes at an Einzel lens at the intermediate time focus of the ion trajectory, leading to short deflections of the ion beam and hindering selected species from reaching the detector. The intensities of single mass lines are reduced with 100% efficiency to below the noise floor when blanked. The detector gain can safely be increased while blanking the most intense mass lines simultaneously, thus improving the detection limit. The LoD of LMS-GT prior to the installation of the mass-selective blanking device was at ppm level (at. frac.) with few sub-ppm detections, the installation pushed it to the lower ppb range, without compromising the initial performance. This emphasises that fs-LIMS can be a powerful quantitative technique for the chemical analysis of solids, with the potential to reach the levels of mass spectrometric analysis achievable with Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) and Laser Ablation–Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)

Внебрачный секс и его психопрофилактика

Описана предложенная автором поэтапная система психопрофилактики супружеской дезадаптации, ведущей к внебрачному сексу.The original staged system of psychoprevention of spouse deadaptation causing extramarital sex is described