Inoculum Size Effect in Dimorphic Fungi: Extracellular Control of Yeast-Mycelium Dimorphism in \u3ci\u3eCeratocystis ulmi\u3c/i\u3e

We studied the inoculum size effect in Ceratocystis ulmi, the dimorphic fungus that causes Dutch elm disease. In a defined glucose-proline-salts medium, cells develop as budding yeasts when inoculated at \u3e106 spores per ml and as mycelia when inoculated at type, age of the spores, temperature, pH, oxygen availability, trace metals, sulfur source, phosphorous source, or the concentration of glucose or proline. Similarly, it was not influenced by added adenosine, reducing agents, methyl donors, amino sugars, fatty acids, or carbon dioxide. Instead, growing cells excreted an unknown quorum-sensing factor that caused a morphological shift from mycelia to budding yeasts. This yeast-promoting effect is abolished if it is extracted with an organic solvent such as ethyl acetate. The quorum-sensing activity acquired by the organic solvent could be added back to fresh medium in a dosedependent fashion. The quorum-sensing activity in C. ulmi spent medium was specific for C. ulmi and had no effect on the dimorphic fungus Candida albicans or the photomorphogenic fungus Penicillium isariaeforme. In addition, farnesol, the quorum-sensing molecule produced by C. albicans, did not inhibit mycelial development of C. ulmi when present at concentrations of up to 100 μM. We conclude that the inoculum size effect is a manifestation of a quorum-sensing system that is mediated by an excreted extracellular molecule, and we suggest that quorum sensing is a general phenomenon in dimorphic fungi

Klein-Gordon Solutions on Non-Globally Hyperbolic Standard Static Spacetimes

We construct a class of solutions to the Cauchy problem of the Klein-Gordon equation on any standard static spacetime. Specifically, we have constructed solutions to the Cauchy problem based on any self-adjoint extension (satisfying a technical condition: "acceptability") of (some variant of) the Laplace-Beltrami operator defined on test functions in an $L^2$-space of the static hypersurface. The proof of the existence of this construction completes and extends work originally done by Wald. Further results include the uniqueness of these solutions, their support properties, the construction of the space of solutions and the energy and symplectic form on this space, an analysis of certain symmetries on the space of solutions and of various examples of this method, including the construction of a non-bounded below acceptable self-adjoint extension generating the dynamics

Exact Occupation Time Distribution in a Non-Markovian Sequence and Its Relation to Spin Glass Models

We compute exactly the distribution of the occupation time in a discrete {\em non-Markovian} toy sequence which appears in various physical contexts such as the diffusion processes and Ising spin glass chains. The non-Markovian property makes the results nontrivial even for this toy sequence. The distribution is shown to have non-Gaussian tails characterized by a nontrivial large deviation function which is computed explicitly. An exact mapping of this sequence to an Ising spin glass chain via a gauge transformation raises an interesting new question for a generic finite sized spin glass model: at a given temperature, what is the distribution (over disorder) of the thermally averaged number of spins that are aligned to their local fields? We show that this distribution remains nontrivial even at infinite temperature and can be computed explicitly in few cases such as in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model with Gaussian disorder.Comment: 10 pages Revtex (two-column), 1 eps figure (included

Multiwavelength Monitoring of the BL Lacertae Object PKS 2155-304 in May 1994. I. The Ground-Based Campaign

Optical, near-infrared, and radio observations of the BL Lac object PKS2155-304 were obtained simultaneously with a continuous UV/EUV/X-ray monitoring campaign in 1994 May. Further optical observations were gathered throughout most of 1994. The radio, millimeter, and near-infrared data show no strong correlations with the higher energies. The optical light curves exhibit flickering of 0.2-0.3 mag on timescales of 1-2 days, superimposed on longer timescale variations. Rapid variations of ~0.01 mag/min, which, if real, are the fastest seen to date for any BL Lac object. Small (0.2-0.3 mag) increases in the V and R bands occur simultaneously with a flare seen at higher energies. All optical wavebands (UBVRI) track each other well over the period of observation with no detectable delay. For most of the period the average colors remain relatively constant, although there is a tendency for the colors (in particular B-V) to vary more when the source fades. In polarized light, PKS 2155-304 showed strong color dependence and the highest optical polarization (U = 14.3%) ever observed for this source. The polarization variations trace the flares seen in the ultraviolet flux.Comment: 45 pages, latex file with encapsulated postscript, accepted to the Astrophysical Journa

Floral gene resources from basal angiosperms for comparative genomics research

BACKGROUND: The Floral Genome Project was initiated to bridge the genomic gap between the most broadly studied plant model systems. Arabidopsis and rice, although now completely sequenced and under intensive comparative genomic investigation, are separated by at least 125 million years of evolutionary time, and cannot in isolation provide a comprehensive perspective on structural and functional aspects of flowering plant genome dynamics. Here we discuss new genomic resources available to the scientific community, comprising cDNA libraries and Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) sequences for a suite of phylogenetically basal angiosperms specifically selected to bridge the evolutionary gaps between model plants and provide insights into gene content and genome structure in the earliest flowering plants. RESULTS: Random sequencing of cDNAs from representatives of phylogenetically important eudicot, non-grass monocot, and gymnosperm lineages has so far (as of 12/1/04) generated 70,514 ESTs and 48,170 assembled unigenes. Efficient sorting of EST sequences into putative gene families based on whole Arabidopsis/rice proteome comparison has permitted ready identification of cDNA clones for finished sequencing. Preliminarily, (i) proportions of functional categories among sequenced floral genes seem representative of the entire Arabidopsis transcriptome, (ii) many known floral gene homologues have been captured, and (iii) phylogenetic analyses of ESTs are providing new insights into the process of gene family evolution in relation to the origin and diversification of the angiosperms. CONCLUSION: Initial comparisons illustrate the utility of the EST data sets toward discovery of the basic floral transcriptome. These first findings also afford the opportunity to address a number of conspicuous evolutionary genomic questions, including reproductive organ transcriptome overlap between angiosperms and gymnosperms, genome-wide duplication history, lineage-specific gene duplication and functional divergence, and analyses of adaptive molecular evolution. Since not all genes in the floral transcriptome will be associated with flowering, these EST resources will also be of interest to plant scientists working on other functions, such as photosynthesis, signal transduction, and metabolic pathways

The Gabor wave front set in spaces of ultradifferentiable functions

[EN] We consider the spaces of ultradifferentiable functions S as introduced by Bjorck (and its dual S) and we use time-frequency analysis to define a suitable wave front set in this setting and obtain several applications: global regularity properties of pseudodifferential operators of infinite order and the micro-pseudolocal behaviour of partial differential operators with polynomial coefficients and of localization operators with symbols of exponential growth. Moreover, we prove that the new wave front set, defined in terms of the Gabor transform, can be described using only Gabor frames. Finally, some examples show the convenience of the use of weight functions to describe more precisely the global regularity of (ultra)distributions.The authors were partially supported by the INdAM-Gnampa Project 2016 "Nuove prospettive nell'analisi microlocale e tempo-frequenza", by FAR2013, FAR2014 (University of Ferrara) and by the project "Ricerca Locale - Analisi di Gabor, operatori pseudodifferenziali ed equazioni differenziali" (University of Torino). The research of the second author was partially supported by the project MTM2016-76647-P.Boiti, C.; Jornet Casanova, D.; Oliaro, A. (2019). The Gabor wave front set in spaces of ultradifferentiable functions. Monatshefte für Mathematik. 188(2):199-246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00605-018-1242-3S1992461882Albanese, A., Jornet, D., Oliaro, A.: Quasianalytic wave front sets for solutions of linear partial differential operators. Integr. Equ. Oper. 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RACSAM 111(3), 891–919 (2017)Boiti, C., Jornet, D., Juan-Huguet, J.: Wave front sets with respect to the iterates of an operator with constant coefficients. Abstr. Appl. Anal. 2014, 1–17 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/438716Boiti, C., Jornet, D., Oliaro, A.: Regularity of partial differential operators in ultradifferentiable spaces and Wigner type transforms. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 446, 920–944 (2017)Bonet, J., Meise, R., Melikhov, S.N.: A comparison of two different ways to define classes of ultradifferentiable functions. Bull. Belg. Math. Soc. Simon Stevin 14(3), 425–444 (2007)Borwein, J.M., Lewis, A.S.: Convex Analysis and Nonlinear Optimization. Theory and Examples, CMS Books in Mathematics/Ouvrages de Mathématiques de la SMC. Springer, New York (2006)Braun, R.W., Meise, R., Taylor, B.A.: Ultradifferentiable functions and Fourier analysis. Result. Math. 17, 206–237 (1990)Cappiello, M., Schulz, R.: Microlocal analysis of quasianalytic Gelfand–Shilov type ultradistributions. Complex Var. Elliptic Equ. 61(4), 538–561 (2016)Carypis, E., Wahlberg, P.: Propagation of exponential phase space singularities for Schrödinger equations with quadratic Hamiltonians. J. Fourier Anal. Appl. 23(3), 530–571 (2017)Christensen, O.: An Introduction to Frames and Riesz Bases. Applied and Numerical Harmonic Analysis. Springer, Berlin (2016)Fernández, C., Galbis, A., Jornet, D.: Pseudodifferential operators on non-quasianalytic classes of Beurling type. Studia Math. 167(2), 99–131 (2005)Fernández, C., Galbis, A., Jornet, D.: Pseudodifferential operators of Beurling type and the wave front set. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 340(2), 1153–1170 (2008)Fieker, C.: $$P$$ P -Konvexität und $$\omega$$ ω -Hypoelliptizität für partielle Differentialoperatoren mit konstanten Koeffizienten. Diplomarbeit, Mathematischen Institut der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf (1993)Gröchenig, K.: Foundations of Time-Frequency Analysis. Birkhäuser, Boston (2001)Gröchenig, K., Zimmermann, G.: Spaces of test functions via the STFT. J. Funct. Spaces Appl. 2(1), 25–53 (2004)Heil, C.: A Basis Theory Primer. Applied and Numerical Harmonic Analysis. Springer, New York (2011)Hörmander, L.: Fourier integral operators. Acta Math. 127(1), 79–183 (1971)Hörmander, L.: Quadratic hyperbolic operators. In: Cattabriga, L., Rodino, L. (eds.) Microlocal Analysis and Applications. Lecture Notes in Mathematics, pp. 118–160. Springer, Berlin (1991)Hörmander, L.: The Analysis of Linear Partial Differential Operators, vol. I. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1983)Hörmander, L.: The Analysis of Linear Partial Differential Operators, vol. II. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1983)Hörmander, L.: The Analysis of Linear Partial Differential Operators, vol. III. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1985)Janssen, A.J.E.M.: Duality and biorthogonality for Weyl–Heisenberg frames. J. Fourier Anal. 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Association of PGC-1alpha polymorphisms with age of onset and risk of Parkinson's disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ co-activator (PGC)-1α is a transcriptional co-activator of antioxidant genes and a master regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis. Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction and recent work suggests a role for PGC-1α. We hypothesized that the rs8192678 <it>PGC-1α </it>single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) may influence risk or age of onset of PD. The A10398G mitochondrial SNP has been inversely associated with risk of PD in some studies. In the current study we analyzed whether rs8192678 or other <it>PGC-1α </it>SNPs affect PD risk or age of onset, singularly or in association with the A10398G SNP.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Genomic DNA samples from 378 PD patients and 173 age-matched controls were analyzed by multiplexed probe sequencing, followed by statistical analyses of the association of each SNP, alone or in combination, with risk or age of onset of PD. Adjustments were made for age of onset being less than the age of sampling, and for the observed dependence between these two ages. The PD samples were obtained as two separate cohorts, therefore statistical methods accounted for different sampling methods between the two cohorts, and data were analyzed using Cox regression adjusted for sampling in the risk set definition and in the model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The rs8192678 PGC-1α SNP was not associated with the risk of PD. However, an association of the <it>PGC-1α </it>rs8192678 GG variant with longevity was seen in control subjects (p = 0.019). Exploratory studies indicated that the CC variant of rs6821591 was associated with risk of early onset PD (p = 0.029), with PD age of onset (p = 0.047), and with longevity (p = 0.022). The rs2970848 GG allele was associated with risk of late onset PD (p = 0.027).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data reveal possible associations of the <it>PGC-1α </it>SNPs rs6821591 and rs2970848 with risk or age of onset of PD, and of the <it>PGC-1α </it>rs8192678 GG and the rs6821591 CC variants with longevity. If replicated in other datasets, these findings may have important implications regarding the role of <it>PGC-1α </it>in PD and longevity.</p

S100A1: A Multifaceted Therapeutic Target in Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, showing a dramatically growing prevalence. It is still associated with a poor clinical prognosis, indicating insufficient long-term treatment success of currently available therapeutic strategies. Investigations of the pathomechanisms underlying cardiovascular disorders uncovered the Ca2+ binding protein S100A1 as a critical regulator of both cardiac performance and vascular biology. In cardiomyocytes, S100A1 was found to interact with both the sarcoplasmic reticulum ATPase (SERCA2a) and the ryanodine receptor 2 (RyR2), resulting in substantially improved Ca2+ handling and contractile performance. Additionally, S100A1 has been described to target the cardiac sarcomere and mitochondria, leading to reduced pre-contractile passive tension as well as enhanced oxidative energy generation. In endothelial cells, molecular analyses revealed a stimulatory effect of S100A1 on endothelial NO production by increasing endothelial nitric oxide synthase activity. Emphasizing the pathophysiological relevance of S100A1, myocardial infarction in S100A1 knockout mice resulted in accelerated transition towards heart failure and excessive mortality in comparison with wild-type controls. Mice lacking S100A1 furthermore displayed significantly elevated blood pressure values with abrogated responsiveness to bradykinin. On the other hand, numerous studies in small and large animal heart failure models showed that S100A1 overexpression results in reversed maladaptive myocardial remodeling, long-term rescue of contractile performance, and superior survival in response to myocardial infarction, indicating the potential of S100A1-based therapeutic interventions. In summary, elaborate basic and translational research established S100A1 as a multifaceted therapeutic target in cardiovascular disease, providing a promising novel therapeutic strategy to future cardiologists

Carnivore conservation needs evidence-based livestock protection

Carnivore predation on livestock often leads people to retaliate. Persecution by humans has contributed strongly to global endangerment of carnivores. Preventing livestock losses would help to achieve three goals common to many human societies: preserve nature, protect animal welfare, and safeguard human livelihoods. Between 2016 and 2018, four independent reviews evaluated &gt;40 years of research on lethal and nonlethal interventions for reducing predation on livestock. From 114 studies, we find a striking conclusion: scarce quantitative comparisons of interventions and scarce comparisons against experimental controls preclude strong inference about the effectiveness of methods. For wise investment of public resources in protecting livestock and carnivores, evidence of effectiveness should be a prerequisite to policy making or large-scale funding of any method or, at a minimum, should be measured during implementation. An appropriate evidence base is needed, and we recommend a coalition of scientists and managers be formed to establish and encourage use of consistent standards in future experimental evaluations

Carnivore conservation needs evidence-based livestock protection

Carnivore predation on livestock often leads people to retaliate. Persecution by humans has contributed strongly to global endangerment of carnivores. Preventing livestock losses would help to achieve three goals common to many human societies: preserve nature, protect animal welfare, and safeguard human livelihoods. Between 2016 and 2018, four independent reviews evaluated >40 years of research on lethal and nonlethal interventions for reducing predation on livestock. From 114 studies, we find a striking conclusion: scarce quantitative comparisons of interventions and scarce comparisons against experimental controls preclude strong inference about the effectiveness of methods. For wise investment of public resources in protecting livestock and carnivores, evidence of effectiveness should be a prerequisite to policy making or large-scale funding of any method or, at a minimum, should be measured during implementation. An appropriate evidence base is needed, and we recommend a coalition of scientists and managers be formed to establish and encourage use of consistent standards in future experimental evaluations