UNCERTAINTY AND THE MANAGEMENT OF SALINITY WITH IRRIGATION WATER

The impact of uncertain salt balances in irrigate fields is assessed with a hydroeconomic model that incorporates the effects of salinity. Uncertainty in two parameters that jointly determine root zone salinity is investigated and the conclusions prove to depend upon the way in which these parameters enter the mass-balance equation for soil salinity. It is shown that water has a risk reducing marginal effect on output when growers are risk averse and, under certain conditions, when they are risk neutral. The effects of prices, water quality, and crop salt sensitivity on the conclusions are analyzed and an empirical example is employed to illustrate the magnitude of the impacts.Crop Production/Industries,

Brownian dynamics for the vowel sounds of human language

We present a model for the evolution of vowel sounds in human languages, in which words behave as Brownian particles diffusing in acoustic space, interacting via the vowel sounds they contain. Interaction forces, derived from a simple model of the language learning process, are attractive at short range and repulsive at long range. This generates sets of acoustic clusters, each representing a distinct sound, which form patterns with similar statistical properties to real vowel systems. Our formulation may be generalised to account for spontaneous self actuating shifts in system structure which are observed in real languages, and to combine in one model two previously distinct theories of vowel system structure: dispersion theory, which assumes that vowel systems maximize contrasts between sounds, and quantal theory, according to which non linear relationships between articulatory and acoustic parameters are the source of patterns in sound inventories. By formulating the dynamics of vowel sounds using inter-particle forces, we also provide a simple unifi ed description of the linguistic notion of push and pull dynamics in vowel systems.The authors are grateful to the Royal Society for an APEX award (2018-2020), funded by the Leverhulme trust

Inhibitor of apoptosis proteins and their relatives: IAPs and other BIRPs

Apoptosis is a physiological cell death process important for development, homeostasis and the immune defence of multicellular animals. The key effectors of apoptosis are caspases, cysteine proteases that cleave after aspartate residues. The inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) family of proteins prevent cell death by binding to and inhibiting active caspases and are negatively regulated by IAP-binding proteins, such as the mammalian protein DIABLO/Smac. IAPs are characterized by the presence of one to three domains known as baculoviral IAP repeat (BIR) domains and many also have a RING-finger domain at their carboxyl terminus. More recently, a second group of BIR-domain-containing proteins (BIRPs) have been identified that includes the mammalian proteins Bruce and Survivin as well as BIR-containing proteins in yeasts and Caenorhabditis elegans. These Survivin-like BIRPs regulate cytokinesis and mitotic spindle formation. In this review, we describe the IAPs and other BIRPs, their evolutionary relationships and their subcellular and tissue localizations

Lamin B1 controls oxidative stress responses via Oct-1

Interaction of lamins with chromatin and transcription factors regulate transcription. Oct-1 has previously been shown to colocalize partly with B-type lamins and is essential for transcriptional regulation of oxidative stress response genes. Using sequential extraction, co-immunoprecipitation (IP), fluorescence loss in photobleaching, and fluorescence resonance energy transfer, we confirm Oct-1–lamin B1 association at the nuclear periphery and show that this association is lost in Lmnb1Δ/Δ cells. We show that several Oct-1–dependent genes, including a subset involved in oxidative stress response, are dysregulated in Lmnb1Δ/Δ cells. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay and chromatin IP reveal that Oct-1 binds to the putative octamer-binding sequences of the dysregulated genes and that this activity is increased in cells lacking functional lamin B1. Like Oct1−/− cells, Lmnb1Δ/Δ cells have elevated levels of reactive oxygen species and are more susceptible to oxidative stress. Sequestration of Oct-1 at the nuclear periphery by lamin B1 may be a mechanism by which the nuclear envelope can regulate gene expression and contribute to the cellular response to stress, development, and aging

'For a better Spain and a fairer Europe': A re-examination of the Spanish Blue Division in its Social, Cultural and Policital context 1941-2005

With the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany on 21 June 1941, an immense ideological war began that ultimately affected the lives of millions of Europeans and shaped the global political landscape following the conclusion of the Russo-German War in May 1945. But in this brutal war of extermination, Germany did not fight alone. Various countries within the sphere of German political influence helped sustain and assist in the war effort by sending forces to fight in the East. Spain, whose political allegiances varied throughout the Second World War, also contributed an entire ‘volunteer’ division to fight on the Eastern Front. These Spaniards fought in the División Española de Voluntarios (D.E.V.) or as they are more popularly known, the Division Azul, or Blue Division because of their Falange shirts. The DEV essentially was ‘volunteer’ in name only as it would not have been able to maintain itself on the Eastern Front without the indirect help of the Franco government or, more specifically, the Spanish Army Ministry. Although the German Army was theoretically responsible for the Blue Division, the division was continually, albeit indirectly, financed by the Franco regime as a political too in order to remaining Hitler’s grace following the latter’s support of the Nationalist cause in the Spanish Civil War. As this thesis discusses, the Spanish Army created an elaborate system to transport troops and supplies to and from the Russian Front. This system was essential in allowing Spaniards to remain in Russia as a physical symbol of Franco foreign politics, as long as the regime deemed it necessary to do so. While discussing the origins of the Division Azul, including its recruitment and training, the experiences and pit-falls of serving on the Eastern Front, this thesis attempts to transcend the battlefield and discuss the relationship of the volunteers to their native Spain upon the division’s repatriation in the autumn of 1943 up to the present day by reexamining the Blue Division in its social, cultural, and political context

Defects in lamin B1 expression or processing affect interphase chromosome position and gene expression

Radial organization of nuclei with peripheral gene-poor chromosomes and central gene-rich chromosomes is common and could depend on the nuclear boundary as a scaffold or position marker. To test this, we studied the role of the ubiquitous nuclear envelope (NE) component lamin B1 in NE stability, chromosome territory position, and gene expression. The stability of the lamin B1 lamina is dependent on lamin endoproteolysis (by Rce1) but not carboxymethylation (by Icmt), whereas lamin C lamina stability is not affected by the loss of full-length lamin B1 or its processing. Comparison of wild-type murine fibroblasts with fibroblasts lacking full-length lamin B1, or defective in CAAX processing, identified genes that depend on a stable processed lamin B1 lamina for normal expression. We also demonstrate that the position of mouse chromosome 18 but not 19 is dependent on such a stable nuclear lamina. The results implicate processed lamin B1 in the control of gene expression as well as chromosome position

The Cellular Location of Self-antigen Determines the Positive and Negative Selection of Autoreactive B Cells

Systemic autoimmune disease is frequently characterized by the production of autoantibodies against widely expressed intracellular self-antigens, whereas B cell tolerance to ubiquitous and highly expressed extracellular antigens is strictly enforced. To test for differences in the B cell response to intracellular and extracellular self-antigens, we sequestered a tolerogenic cell surface antigen intracellularly by addition of a two amino acid endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention signal. In contrast to cell surface antigen, which causes the deletion of autoreactive B cells, the intracellularly sequestered self-antigen failed to induce B cell tolerance and was instead autoimmunogenic. The intracellular antigen positively selected antigen-binding B cells to differentiate into B1 cells and induced large numbers of IgM autoantibody-secreting plasma cells in a T-independent manner. By analyzing the impact of differences in subcellular distribution independently from other variables, such as B cell receptor affinity, antigen type, or tissue distribution, we have established that intracellular localization of autoantigen predisposes for autoantibody production. These findings help explain why intracellular antigens are targeted in systemic autoimmune diseases