Interspecific somatic hybrids between Solanum bulbocastanum and S. tuberosum and their haploidization for potato breeding.

Protoplast fusion between incongruent Solanum bulbocastanum and S. tuberosum haploids was accomplished to produce hybrids combining elite traits from both parents. We identified 11 somatic hybrids out of 42 regenerants analyzed through ISSR markers. Some hybrids had loss or gain of fragments compared to the parents, likely due to rearrangements and deletions of chromosome segments after fusion, and/or to somaclonal variation during hybrid regeneration. Increased heterotic vigor for some traits as well as high diversity was observed as the effect of both ploidy and fusion combination. Microsporogenesis analysis indicated the occurrence of multivalent configurations and several meiotic abnormalities, such as chromosomes bridges and various spindle orientations. Since all hybrids were sterile, in vitro anther culture was employed for haploidization as a possible strategy to overcome barriers to hybridizations. Haploids were obtained from all the tetraploid S. bulbocastanum (+) S. tuberosum somatic hybrids tested, although with differences in both the number of embryos per 100 anthers cultured and the number of differentiated green plantlets. This is the first report on the successful production of haploid plants from S. bulbocastanum (+) S. tuberosum hybrids

Few-Shot Single-View 3-D Object Reconstruction with Compositional Priors

The impressive performance of deep convolutional neural networks in single-view 3D reconstruction suggests that these models perform non-trivial reasoning about the 3D structure of the output space. However, recent work has challenged this belief, showing that complex encoder-decoder architectures perform similarly to nearest-neighbor baselines or simple linear decoder models that exploit large amounts of per category data in standard benchmarks. On the other hand settings where 3D shape must be inferred for new categories with few examples are more natural and require models that generalize about shapes. In this work we demonstrate experimentally that naive baselines do not apply when the goal is to learn to reconstruct novel objects using very few examples, and that in a \emph{few-shot} learning setting, the network must learn concepts that can be applied to new categories, avoiding rote memorization. To address deficiencies in existing approaches to this problem, we propose three approaches that efficiently integrate a class prior into a 3D reconstruction model, allowing to account for intra-class variability and imposing an implicit compositional structure that the model should learn. Experiments on the popular ShapeNet database demonstrate that our method significantly outperform existing baselines on this task in the few-shot setting

Second-order closures for compressible turbulence

This viewgraph presentation discusses project description, turbulence models, and computational engine and results for second-order closures for compressible turbulence

Single-row vs. double-row arthroscopic rotator cuff repair: clinical and 3 Tesla MR arthrography results.

Background Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair has become popular in the last few years because it avoids large skin incisions and deltoid detachment and dysfunction. Earlier arthroscopic single-row (SR) repair methods achieved only partial restoration of the original footprint of the tendons of the rotator cuff, while double-row (DR) repair methods presented many biomechanical advantages and higher rates of tendon-to-bone healing. However, DR repair failed to demonstrate better clinical results than SR repair in clinical trials. MR imaging at 3 Tesla, especially with intra-articular contrast medium (MRA), showed a better diagnostic performance than 1.5 Tesla in the musculoskeletal setting. The objective of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the clinical and 3 Tesla MRA results in two groups of patients operated on for a medium-sized full-thickness rotator cuff tear with two different techniques. Methods The first group consisted of 20 patients operated on with the SR technique; the second group consisted of 20 patients operated on with the DR technique. All patients were evaluated at a minimum of 3 years after surgery. The primary end point was the re-tear rate at 3 Tesla MRA. The secondary end points were the Constant-Murley Scale (CMS), the Simple Shoulder Test (SST) scores, surgical time and implant expense. Results The mean follow-up was 40 months in the SR group and 38.9 months in the DR group. The mean postoperative CMS was 70 in the SR group and 68 in the DR group. The mean SST score was 9.4 in the SR group and 10.1 in the DR group. The re-tear rate was 60% in the SR group and 25% in the DR group. Leakage of the contrast medium was observed in all patients. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on 3 Tesla MRA in the evaluation of two different techniques of rotator cuff repair. DR repair resulted in a statistically significant lower re-tear rate, with longer surgical time and higher implant expense, despite no difference in clinical outcomes. We think that leakage of the contrast medium is due to an incomplete tendon-to-bone sealing, which is not a re-tear. This phenomenon could have important medicolegal implications. Level of evidence III. Treatment study: Case–control study

Carving from Ray-Tracing Constraints: IRT-Carving

We present a new algorithm for improving an available (conservative) estimate of the shape of an object using constraints from ray-tracing. In particular, we exploit incoherences between the lit portions of the object - detected on a set of acquired images - and the shadows that the current estimate casts on itself. Whenever a contradiction is found the current estimate is modified in order to remove the inconsistency. Sufficient conditions for the correctness of the algorithm and a discussion of their validity are provided. Finally, we describe a simple implementation of the method and present some preliminary experimental results from computer simulations

Cell cultures harbouring constructs of different pig promoter polymorphisms show different transcriptional efficiency in gene reporter systems

AbstractProduction traits variability among and within breeds, differences among developmental stages or the response to different environments are in part due to genetic factors that affect gene expression. Within the context of an Italian FIRB project, whose objective is to identify genes and molecular mechanisms affecting meat quality and production traits in pig, we studied the promoter regions of candidate genes selected on the basis of their physiological role in animal tissue development or composition. Genomic DNA was isolated from liver or muscle tissue of individuals belonging to Large White and Casertana breed. PCR primers were designed to amplify 5' upstream region of SCD (Stearoyl-CoA Desaturase), LDLR (Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor), LEP (Leptin), MSTN (Myostatin), ACTA1 (Alpha-actin) and HFABP (Heart Fatty Acid Binding Protein) genes using sequences available at NCBI. A total of 19 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) not previously described were characterised. Some haplotypes, harbou..

Does Heterogeneity Exist in Treatment Associations With Renin–Angiotensin–System Inhibitors or Beta-blockers According to Phenotype Clusters in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction?

BACKGROUND: We explored the association between use of renin–angiotensin system inhibitors and beta-blockers, with mortality/morbidity in 5 previously identified clusters of patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). METHODS AND RESULTS: We analyzed 20,980 patients with HFpEF from the Swedish HF registry, phenotyped into young–low comorbidity burden (12%), atrial fibrillation–hypertensive (32%), older–atrial fibrillation (24%), obese–diabetic (15%), and a cardiorenal cluster (17%). In Cox proportional hazard models with inverse probability weighting, there was no heterogeneity in the association between renin–angiotensin system inhibitor use and cluster membership for any of the outcomes: cardiovascular (CV) mortality, all-cause mortality, HF hospitalisation, CV hospitalisation, or non-CV hospitalisation. In contrast, we found a statistical interaction between beta-blocker use and cluster membership for all-cause mortality (P = .03) and non-CV hospitalisation (P = .001). In the young–low comorbidity burden and atrial fibrillation–hypertensive cluster, beta-blocker use was associated with statistically significant lower all-cause mortality and non-CV hospitalisation and in the obese–diabetic cluster beta-blocker use was only associated with a statistically significant lower non-CV hospitalisation. The interaction between beta-blocker use and cluster membership for all-cause mortality could potentially be driven by patients with improved EF. However, patient numbers were diminished when excluding those with improved EF and the direction of the associations remained similar. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with HFpEF, the association with all-cause mortality and non-CV hospitalisation was heterogeneous across clusters for beta-blockers. It remains to be elucidated how heterogeneity in HFpEF could influence personalized medicine and future clinical trial design