Growth, ion content and photosynthetic responses of two Elytrigia Desv. species seedlings to salinity stress

Salinity is among the major abiotic stresses limiting crop production in the world. Elytrigia species, the wild relatives of wheat, are extensively used as genetic resources in wheat breeding to improve its salt tolerance. The objective of this study was to examine the responses to different NaCl treatments (0, 65, 100, 135 and 170 mM) of two Elytrigia species (Elytrigia intermedia (Host.) Nevski. and Elytrigia trichophora (Link.) Nevski.) in terms of their growth, ion content and photosynthetic productivity during the seedling stages. For E. intermedia, salt treatment led to decreases in root and shoot biomass, chlorophyll content, photosynthetic rate (A) and stomatal conductance (gs), and a concurrent increase in intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci). Larger reductions in the parameters occurred in E. trichophora. Our results indicated that the two species differ in their sensitivity to salinity, with E. intermedia being classified as the more salt tolerant, and E. trichophora as sensitive. The two species also differed noticeably in leaf tissue concentrations of Na+ and K+ at various NaCl treatments, although, they both showed a trend for Na+ content to increase and K+ accumulation to significantly decrease in the higher salinity treatments.Key words: Elytrigia, ion contents, photosynthesis, salinity

Growth and physiological response of tall oat grass to salinity stress

In order to evaluate the responses of tall oat grass plants to increasing salinity, we measured plant growth, ion contents, photosynthetic gas exchange, lipid peroxidation, and proline accumulation in four salt concentrations. Two tall oatgrass genotypes, ZXY03P-367 and ZXY03P-443, were grown for 14 days in greenhouse conditions and after 14 days treated with four NaCl treatments (0, 65, 100, and 135 mM ) for 21 days. Most parameters for the two genotypes were significantly different when they were subjected to 100 and 135 mM NaCl. Salt treatment led to decreases in root and shoot biomass, photosynthetic rate (A) and stomatal conductance (gs), and K+ content, and a concurrent increase in Na+ content. Larger reductions in the parameters occurred in ZXY03P-443. A significant accumulation of lipid peroxidation and proline in leaves was found during the period of intensive leaf growth. These organic compounds likely played a role in leaf osmotic adjustment and in the protection of membrane stability at severe salinity levels. Our results indicated that the two tall oatgrass genotypes differ in their sensitivity to salinity, with ZXY03P-336 classified as relatively salt tolerant and ZXY03P-443 as  sensitive.Key words: Growth, physiological responses, salinity stress, tall oatgras

The black hole fundamental plane from a uniform sample of radio and X-ray emitting broad line AGNs

We derived the black hole fundamental plane relationship among the 1.4GHz radio luminosity (L_r), 0.1-2.4keV X-ray luminosity (L_X), and black hole mass (M) from a uniform broad line SDSS AGN sample including both radio loud and radio quiet X-ray emitting sources. We found in our sample that the fundamental plane relation has a very weak dependence on the black hole mass, and a tight correlation also exists between the Eddington luminosity scaled X-ray and radio luminosities for the radio quiet subsample. Additionally, we noticed that the radio quiet and radio loud AGNs have different power-law slopes in the radio--X-ray non-linear relationship. The radio loud sample displays a slope of 1.39, which seems consistent with the jet dominated X-ray model. However, it may also be partly due to the relativistic beaming effect. For radio quiet sample the slope of the radio--X-ray relationship is about 0.85, which is possibly consistent with the theoretical prediction from the accretion flow dominated X-ray model. We briefly discuss the reason why our derived relationship is different from some previous works and expect the future spectral studies in radio and X-ray bands on individual sources in our sample to confirm our result.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, ApJ accepte

Path integral solution for an angle-dependent anharmonic oscillator

We have given a straightforward method to solve the problem of noncentral anharmonic oscillator in three dimensions. The relative propagator is presented by means of path integrals in spherical coordinates. By making an adequate change of time we were able to separate the angular motion from the radial one. The relative propagator is then exactly calculated. The energy spectrum and the corresponding wave functions are obtained.Comment: Corrected typos and mistakes, To appear in Communications in Theoretical Physic

A Systematic Analysis of Fe II Emission in Quasars: Evidence for Inflow to the Central Black Hole

Broad Fe II emission is a prominent feature of the optical and ultraviolet spectra of quasars. We report on a systematical investigation of optical Fe II emission in a large sample of 4037 z < 0.8 quasars selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We have developed and tested a detailed line-fitting technique, taking into account the complex continuum and narrow and broad emission-line spectrum. Our primary goal is to quantify the velocity broadening and velocity shift of the Fe II spectrum in order to constrain the location of the Fe II-emitting region and its relation to the broad-line region. We find that the majority of quasars show Fe II emission that is redshifted, typically by ~ 400 km/s but up to 2000 km/s, with respect to the systemic velocity of the narrow-line region or of the conventional broad-line region as traced by the Hbeta line. Moreover, the line width of Fe II is significantly narrower than that of the broad component of Hbeta. We show that the magnitude of the Fe II redshift correlates inversely with the Eddington ratio, and that there is a tendency for sources with redshifted Fe II emission to show red asymmetry in the Hbeta line. These characteristics strongly suggest that Fe II originates from a location different from, and most likely exterior to, the region that produces most of Hbeta. The Fe II-emitting zone traces a portion of the broad-line region of intermediate velocities whose dynamics may be dominated by infall.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Revisiting vertical structure of neutrino-dominated accretion disks: Bernoulli parameter, neutrino trapping and other distributions

We revisit the vertical structure of neutrino dominated accretion flows (NDAFs) in spherical coordinates with a new boundary condition based on the mechanical equilibrium. The solutions show that NDAF is significantly thick. The Bernoulli parameter and neutrino trapping are determined by the mass accretion rate and the viscosity parameter. According to the distribution of the Bernoulli parameter, the possible outflow may appear in the outer region of the disk. The neutrino trapping can essentially affect the neutrino radiation luminosity. The vertical structure of NDAF is like a "sandwich", and the multilayer accretion may account for the flares in gamma-ray bursts.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Transcriptional regulation of the urokinase receptor (u-PAR) - A central molecule of invasion and metastasis

The phenomenon of tumor-associated proteolysis has been acknowledged as a decisive step in the progression of cancer. This short review focuses on the urokinase receptor (u-PAR), a central molecule involved in tumor-associated invasion and metastasis, and summarizes the transcriptional regulation of u-PAR. The urokinase receptor (u-PAR) is a heavily glycosylated cell surface protein and binds the serine protease urokinase specifically and with high affinity. It consists of three similar cysteine-rich repeats and is anchored to the cell membrane via a GPI-anchor. The u-PAR gene comprises 7 exons and is located on chromosome 19q13. Transcriptional activation of the u-PAR promoter region can be induced by binding of transcription factors (Sp1, AP-1, AP-2, NF-kappaB). One current study gives an example for transcriptional downregulation of u-PAR through a PEA3/ets transcriptional silencing element. Knowledge of the molecular regulation of this molecule in tumor cells could be very important for diagnosis and therapy in the near future

Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis, People’s Republic of China, 2007–2009

Early detection, effective treatment, and infection control measures are needed to reduce transmission

Dynamic Disorder in Quasi-Equilibrium Enzymatic Systems

Conformations and catalytic rates of enzymes fluctuate over a wide range of timescales. Despite these fluctuations, there exist some limiting cases in which the enzymatic catalytic rate follows the macroscopic rate equation such as the Michaelis-Menten law. In this paper we investigate the applicability of macroscopic rate laws for fluctuating enzyme systems in which catalytic transitions are slower than ligand binding-dissociation reactions. In this quasi-equilibrium limit, for an arbitrary reaction scheme we show that the catalytic rate has the same dependence on ligand concentrations as obtained from mass-action kinetics even in the presence of slow conformational fluctuations. These results indicate that the timescale of conformational dynamics – no matter how slow – will not affect the enzymatic rate in quasi-equilibrium limit. Our numerical results for two enzyme-catalyzed reaction schemes involving multiple substrates and inhibitors further support our general theory