Building a Small and Informative Phylogenetic Supertree

We combine two fundamental, previously studied optimization problems related to the construction of phylogenetic trees called maximum rooted triplets consistency (MAXRTC) and minimally resolved supertree (MINRS) into a new problem, which we call q-maximum rooted triplets consistency (q-MAXRTC). The input to our new problem is a set R of resolved triplets (rooted, binary phylogenetic trees with three leaves each) and the objective is to find a phylogenetic tree with exactly q internal nodes that contains the largest possible number of triplets from R. We first prove that q-MAXRTC is NP-hard even to approximate within a constant ratio for every fixed q >= 2, and then develop various polynomial-time approximation algorithms for different values of q. Next, we show experimentally that representing a phylogenetic tree by one having much fewer nodes typically does not destroy too much triplet branching information. As an extreme example, we show that allowing only nine internal nodes is still sufficient to capture on average 80% of the rooted triplets from some recently published trees, each having between 760 and 3081 internal nodes. Finally, to demonstrate the algorithmic advantage of using trees with few internal nodes, we propose a new algorithm for computing the rooted triplet distance between two phylogenetic trees over a leaf label set of size n that runs in O(q n) time, where q is the number of internal nodes in the smaller tree, and is therefore faster than the currently best algorithms for the problem (with O(n log n) time complexity [SODA 2013, ESA 2017]) whenever q = o(log n)

Phytochemical, physicochemical, TLC, minerals analysis and in-vitro antioxidant activity of ethanolic extract of leaves of Heldigardia populifolia

The aim of present study was to investigate the preliminary phytochemical, physicochemical, TLC, minerals analysis and In-vitro antioxidant activity of leaves of ethanolic extract of Heldigardia populifolia. The preliminary phytochemical screening of ethanolic extract showed the presence of triterpenoids, flavonoids, glycosides, sterols, steroids, phenols, carbohydrates and saponins. The composition of minerals found in the leaf powder was within the permissible limits. TLC analysis of ethanol extract showed the five spots which indicate the presence of five phytoconstituents. The extractive value of ethanol was high than acetone. Ash values were within the limits. The in-vitro antioxidant activity of ethanolic extract increased with increasing the concentration. The ethanolic extract in all the concentration showed the significant antioxidant activity

The ESO UVES Advanced Data Products Quasar Sample - VI. Sub-Damped Lyman-α\alpha Metallicity Measurements and the Circum-Galactic Medium

The Circum-Galactic Medium (CGM) can be probed through the analysis of absorbing systems in the line-of-sight to bright background quasars. We present measurements of the metallicity of a new sample of 15 sub-damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorbers (sub-DLAs, defined as absorbers with 19.0 < log N(H I) < 20.3) with redshift 0.584 < $\rm z_{abs}$ < 3.104 from the ESO Ultra-Violet Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) Advanced Data Products Quasar Sample (EUADP). We combine these results with other measurements from the literature to produce a compilation of metallicity measurements for 92 sub-DLAs as well as a sample of 362 DLAs. We apply a multi-element analysis to quantify the amount of dust in these two classes of systems. We find that either the element depletion patterns in these systems differ from the Galactic depletion patterns or they have a different nucleosynthetic history than our own Galaxy. We propose a new method to derive the velocity width of absorption profiles, using the modeled Voigt profile features. The correlation between the velocity width delta_V90 of the absorption profile and the metallicity is found to be tighter for DLAs than for sub-DLAs. We report hints of a bimodal distribution in the [Fe/H] metallicity of low redshift (z < 1.25) sub-DLAs, which is unseen at higher redshifts. This feature can be interpreted as a signature from the metal-poor, accreting gas and the metal-rich, outflowing gas, both being traced by sub-DLAs at low redshifts.Comment: 64 pages, 31 figures, 27 tables. Submitted to MNRA

New species of the Genus Harpadon (Aulopiformes, Synodontidae) from the north-eastern Arabian Sea, India

A new species of Harpadon Lesueur, 1825 captured from the continental slope area 19° 53’ N - 69° 23’E (north-eastern Arabian Sea) is described. The species Harpadon nudus sp. nov. was identified possessing a prominent trilobed caudal fin and a wide mouth with strong fang like barbed teeth and has been distinguished from its congeners by the following combination of characters: slender, completely scaleless body with very short pectoral (8.6 - 13.8% SL) and pelvic (16.4 - 21.6% SL) fins, large eyes (9.1 - 15.1% HL) with narrow inter-orbital width (15% of HL) and single pair of nares, situated close to the tip of the narrow snout. Morphologically it differs from the partially scaled species such as Harpadon nehereus in having very short pectoral fins not reaching up to its dorsal fin, single pair of nares and a pointed snout in dorsal view. It can be distinguished from Harpadon microchir by its greater head length of 22 - 26% SL; absence of scales at the base of the adipose fin and on the lateral line as well as the dorsal fin count of 12 rays. It is differentiated from Harpadon mortenseni by its lower lateral line pores count (40 - 43), higher number of branchiostegals (17 to 20), absence of scales on the lateral line or caudal peduncle and absence of vomerine teeth. It is distinct from Harpadon translucens which has a translucent body, partially covered with scales in the caudal region and protruding bristle like teeth on the jaw symphysis. It is distinguished from Harpadon squamosus which has scales on its head, trunk and caudal region with a relatively deeper body (5.8 in SL), by its slender and elongate body (8 - 10 in SL), short pelvic fins (16.4 - 21.6% SL) not extending to the anal vent and a narrow snout. It is also distinguished from Harpadon erythraeus which has a dark body entirely covered with scales and black fins, short head and rounded snout. H. nudus sp. nov. stand apart from H. nehereus (Kimura 2 Parameter distance 20%), the only species reported from the Arabian Sea and H. microchir (K2P 19%) by forming a distinct clade with 100% bootstrap support

Testing the solar LMA region with KamLAND data

We investigate the potential of 3 kiloTon-years(kTy) of KamLAND data to further constrain the $\Delta m^2$ and $\tan^2\theta$ values compared to those presently allowed by existing KamLAND and global solar data. We study the extent, dependence and characteristics of this sensitivity in and around the two parts of the LMA region that are currently allowed. Our analysis with 3 kTy simulated spectra shows that KamLAND spectrum data by itself can constrain $\Delta m^2$ with high precision. Combining the spectrum with global solar data further tightens the constraints on allowed values of $\tan^2\theta$ and $\Delta m^2$. We also study the effects of future neutral current data with a total error of 7% from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. We find that these future measurements offer the potential of considerable precision in determining the oscillation parameters (specially the mass parameter).Comment: 16 pages, to appear in J Phys.

MSW mediated neutrino decay and the solar neutrino problem

We investigate the solar neutrino problem assuming simultaneous presence of MSW transitions in the sun and neutrino decay on the way from sun to earth. We do a global $\chi^2$-analysis of the data on total rates in Cl, Ga and Superkamiokande (SK) experiments and the SK day-night spectrum data and determine the changes in the allowed region in the \dm - \tan^2\theta plane in presence of decay. We also discuss the implications for unstable neutrinos in the SNO experiment.Comment: Final version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Neutrinos from Stellar Collapse: Effects of flavour mixing

We study the effect of non-vanishing masses and mixings among neutrino flavours on the detection of neutrinos from stellar collapse by a water Cerenkov detector. We consider a realistic framework in which there are three neutrino flavours whose mass squared differences and mixings are constrained by the present understanding of solar and atmospheric neutrinos. We also include the effects of high dense matter within the supernova core. We find that the number of events due to the dominant process involving electron-antineutrinos may change dramatically for some allowed mixing parameters. Furthermore, contributions from charged-current scattering off oxygen atoms in the detector can be considerably enhanced due to flavour mixing; such events have a distinct experimental signature since they are backward-peaked. Hence, mixing has a non-trivial effect on the signature of neutrinos (and antineutrinos) from stellar collapse.Comment: 22 pages Latex file, with 6 postscript figures, minor changes made in tex

Triphala inhibits both in vitro and in vivo xenograft growth of pancreatic tumor cells by inducing apoptosis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Triphala is commonly used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat variety of diseases; however its mechanism of action remains unexplored. This study elucidates the molecular mechanism of Triphala against human pancreatic cancer in the cellular and in vivo model.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Growth-inhibitory effects of Triphala were evaluated in Capan-2, BxPC-3 and HPDE-6 cells by Sulphoradamine-B assay. Apoptosis was determined by cell death assay and western blotting. Triphala was administered orally to nude mice implanted with Capan-2 xenograft. Tumors were analyzed by immunohistochemistry and western blotting.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Exposure of Capan-2 cells to the aqueous extract of Triphala for 24 h resulted in the significant decrease in the survival of cells in a dose-dependent manner with an IC50 of about 50 μg/ml. Triphala-mediated reduced cell survival correlated with induction of apoptosis, which was associated with reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Triphala-induced apoptosis was linked with phosphorylation of p53 at Ser-15 and ERK at Thr-202/Tyr-204 in Capan-2 cells. Above mentioned effects were significantly blocked when the cells were pretreated with an antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC), suggesting the involvement of ROS generation. Pretreatment of cells with pifithrin-α or U0126, specific inhibitors of p53 or MEK-1/2, significantly attenuated Triphala-induced apoptosis. Moreover, NAC or U0126 pretreatment significantly attenuated Triphala-induced p53 transcriptional activity. Similarly, Triphala induced apoptosis in another pancreatic cancer cell line BxPC-3 by activating ERK. On the other hand, Triphala failed to induce apoptosis or activate ERK or p53 in normal human pancreatic ductal epithelial (HPDE-6) cells. Further, oral administration of 50 mg/kg or 100 mg/kg Triphala in PBS, 5 days/week significantly suppressed the growth of Capan-2 pancreatic tumor-xenograft. Reduced tumor-growth in Triphala fed mice was due to increased apoptosis in the tumors cells, which was associated with increased activation of p53 and ERK.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our preclinical studies demonstrate that Triphala is effective in inhibiting the growth of human pancreatic cancer cells in both cellular and in vivo model. Our data also suggests that the growth inhibitory effects of Triphala is mediated by the activation of ERK and p53 and shows potential for the treatment and/or prevention of human pancreatic cancer.</p

Optimized Two-Baseline Beta-Beam Experiment

We propose a realistic Beta-Beam experiment with four source ions and two baselines for the best possible sensitivity to theta_{13}, CP violation and mass hierarchy. Neutrinos from 18Ne and 6He with Lorentz boost gamma=350 are detected in a 500 kton water Cerenkov detector at a distance L=650 km (first oscillation peak) from the source. Neutrinos from 8B and 8Li are detected in a 50 kton magnetized iron detector at a distance L=7000 km (magic baseline) from the source. Since the decay ring requires a tilt angle of 34.5 degrees to send the beam to the magic baseline, the far end of the ring has a maximum depth of d=2132 m for magnetic field strength of 8.3 T, if one demands that the fraction of ions that decay along the straight sections of the racetrack geometry decay ring (called livetime) is 0.3. We alleviate this problem by proposing to trade reduction of the livetime of the decay ring with the increase in the boost factor of the ions, such that the number of events at the detector remains almost the same. This allows to substantially reduce the maximum depth of the decay ring at the far end, without significantly compromising the sensitivity of the experiment to the oscillation parameters. We take 8B and 8Li with gamma=390 and 656 respectively, as these are the largest possible boost factors possible with the envisaged upgrades of the SPS at CERN. This allows us to reduce d of the decay ring by a factor of 1.7 for 8.3 T magnetic field. Increase of magnetic field to 15 T would further reduce d to 738 m only. We study the sensitivity reach of this two baseline two storage ring Beta-Beam experiment, and compare it with the corresponding reach of the other proposed facilities.Comment: 17 pages, 3 eps figures. Minor changes, matches version accepted in JHE