1,392 research outputs found
Local cues and asymmetric cell divisions underpin body plan transitions in the moss Physcomitrella patens
Background:
Land plants evolved from aquatic algae more than 450 million years ago. Algal sisters of land plants grow through the activity of apical initial cells that cleave either in one plane to generate filaments or in two planes to generate mats. Acquisition of the capacity for cell cleavage in three planes facilitated the formation of upright bushy body plans and enabled the invasion of land. Evolutionary transitions between filamentous, planar, and bushy growth are mimicked within moss life cycles.
Results:
We have developed lineage analysis techniques to assess how transitions between growth forms occur in the moss Physcomitrella patens. We show that initial cells giving rise either to new filaments or bushy shoots are frequently juxtaposed on a single parent filament, suggesting a role for short-range cues in specifying differences in cell fate. Shoot initials cleave four times to establish a tetrahedral shape and subsequently cleave in three planes, generating bushy growth. Asymmetric and self-replacing divisions from the tetrahedral initial generate leaf initials that divide asymmetrically to self-replace and to produce daughter cells with restricted fate. The cessation of division in the leaf is distributed unevenly and contributes to final leaf shape.
Conclusions:
In contrast to flowering plants, changes in body plan in P. patens are regulated by cues acting at the level of single cells and are mediated through asymmetric divisions. Genetic mechanisms regulating shoot and leaf development in P. patens are therefore likely to differ substantially from mechanisms operating in plants with more recent evolutionary origins
A UIMA wrapper for the NCBO annotator
Summary: The Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) framework and web services are emerging as useful tools for integrating biomedical text mining tools. This note describes our work, which wraps the National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO) Annotator—an ontology-based annotation service—to make it available as a component in UIMA workflows
Rare coding SNP in DZIP1 gene associated with late-onset sporadic Parkinson's disease
We present the first application of the hypothesis-rich mathematical theory
to genome-wide association data. The Hamza et al. late-onset sporadic
Parkinson's disease genome-wide association study dataset was analyzed. We
found a rare, coding, non-synonymous SNP variant in the gene DZIP1 that confers
increased susceptibility to Parkinson's disease. The association of DZIP1 with
Parkinson's disease is consistent with a Parkinson's disease stem-cell ageing
theory.Comment: 14 page
Evolution of the energy spacing in odd-mass K, Cl and P isotopes for
The energy of the first excited state in the neutron-rich N=28 nucleus 45Cl
has been established via in-beam gamma-ray spectroscopy following proton
removal. This energy value completes the systematics of the
E(1/2^+_1)-E(3/2^+_1) level spacing in odd-mass K, Cl and P isotopes for
N=20-28. The results are discussed in the framework of shell-model calculations
in the sd-fp model space. The contribution of the central, spin-orbit and
tensor components is discussed from a calculation based on a proton single-hole
spectrum from G-matrix and pi + rho meson exchange potentials. A composite
model for the proton 0d_{3/2}-1s_{1/2} single-particle energy shift is
presented.Comment: Phys. Rev. C, in pres
Adaptive auditory risk assessment in the dogbane tiger moth when pursued by bats
Moths and butterflies flying in search of mates risk detection by numerous aerial predators; under the cover of night, the greatest threat will often be from insectivorous bats. During such encounters, the toxic dogbane tiger moth, Cycnia tenera uses the received intensity, duration and emission pattern of the bat's echolocation calls to determine when, and how many, defensive ultrasonic clicks to produce in return. These clicks, which constitute an acoustic startle response, act as warning signals against bats in flight. Using an integrated test of stimulus generalization and dishabituation, here we show that C. tenera is able to discriminate between the echolocation calls characteristic of a bat that has only just detected it versus those of a bat actively in pursuit of it. We also show that C. tenera habituates more profoundly to the former stimulus train (‘early attack’) than to the latter (‘late attack’), even though it was initially equally responsive to both stimuli. Matched sensory and behavioural data indicate that reduced responsiveness reflects habituation and is not merely attributable to sensory adaptation or motor fatigue. In search of mates in the face of bats, C. tenera's ability to discriminate between attacking bats representing different levels of risk, and to habituate less so to those most dangerous, should function as an adaptive cost–benefit trade-off mechanism in nature
Population of bound excited states in intermediate-energy fragmentation reactions
Fragmentation reactions with intermediate-energy heavy-ion beams exhibit a
wide range of reaction mechanisms, ranging from direct reactions to statistical
processes. We examine this transition by measuring the relative population of
excited states in several sd-shell nuclei produced by fragmentation with the
number of removed nucleons ranging from two to sixteen. The two-nucleon removal
is consistent with a non-dissipative process whereas the removal of more than
five nucleons appears to be mainly statistical.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
Two-neutron knockout from neutron-deficient Ar, S, and Si
Two-neutron knockout reactions from nuclei in the proximity of the proton
dripline have been studied using intermediate-energy beams of neutron-deficient
Ar, S, and Si. The inclusive cross sections, and also the
partial cross sections for the population of individual bound final states of
the Ar, S and Si knockout residues, have been determined
using the combination of particle and -ray spectroscopy. Similar to the
two-proton knockout mechanism on the neutron-rich side of the nuclear chart,
these two-neutron removal reactions from already neutron-deficient nuclei are
also shown to be consistent with a direct reaction mechanism.Comment: Phys. Rev. C, rapid communication, in pres
Technical Design Report for the PANDA Solenoid and Dipole Spectrometer Magnets
This document is the Technical Design Report covering the two large
spectrometer magnets of the PANDA detector set-up. It shows the conceptual
design of the magnets and their anticipated performance. It precedes the tender
and procurement of the magnets and, hence, is subject to possible modifications
arising during this process.Comment: 10 pages, 14MB, accepted by FAIR STI in May 2009, editors: Inti
Lehmann (chair), Andrea Bersani, Yuri Lobanov, Jost Luehning, Jerzy Smyrski,
Technical Coordiantor: Lars Schmitt, Bernd Lewandowski (deputy),
Spokespersons: Ulrich Wiedner, Paola Gianotti (deputy
Classes of Multiple Decision Functions Strongly Controlling FWER and FDR
This paper provides two general classes of multiple decision functions where
each member of the first class strongly controls the family-wise error rate
(FWER), while each member of the second class strongly controls the false
discovery rate (FDR). These classes offer the possibility that an optimal
multiple decision function with respect to a pre-specified criterion, such as
the missed discovery rate (MDR), could be found within these classes. Such
multiple decision functions can be utilized in multiple testing, specifically,
but not limited to, the analysis of high-dimensional microarray data sets.Comment: 19 page
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Ulcerative colitis-risk loci on chromosomes 1p36 and 12q15 found by genome-wide association study.
Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the colon that presents as diarrhea and gastrointestinal bleeding. We performed a genome-wide association study using DNA samples from 1,052 individuals with ulcerative colitis and preexisting data from 2,571 controls, all of European ancestry. In an analysis that controlled for gender and population structure, ulcerative colitis loci attaining genome-wide significance and subsequent replication in two independent populations were identified on chromosomes 1p36 (rs6426833, combined P = 5.1 x 10(-13), combined odds ratio OR = 0.73) and 12q15 (rs1558744, combined P = 2.5 x 10(-12), combined OR = 1.35). In addition, combined genome-wide significant evidence for association was found in a region spanning BTNL2 to HLA-DQB1 on chromosome 6p21 (rs2395185, combined P = 1.0 x 10(-16), combined OR = 0.66) and at the IL23R locus on chromosome 1p31 (rs11209026, combined P = 1.3 x 10(-8), combined OR = 0.56; rs10889677, combined P = 1.3 x 10(-8), combined OR = 1.29)
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