Genetic mapping of natural variation in potassium concentrations in shoots of Arabidopsis thaliana

Naturally-occurring variation in K+ concentrations between plant genotypes is potentially exploitable in a number of ways, including altering the relationship between K+ accumulation and growth, enhancing salinity resistance, or improving forage quality. However, achieving these requires greater insight into the genetic basis of the variation in tissue K+ concentrations. To this end, K+ concentrations were measured in the shoots of 70 Arabidopsis thaliana accessions and a Cape Verdi Island/Landsberg erecta recombinant inbred line (RIL) population. The shoot K+ concentrations expressed on the basis of fresh matter (KFM) or dry matter (KDM) were both broadly and normally distributed as was the shoot dry matter content per unit fresh weight (DMC). Using the data from the RILs, four quantitative trait loci (QTL) were identified for KFM and three for KDM. These were located on chromosomes 2, 3, 4, and 5. Two of the QTLs for KFM overlapped with those for KDM. None of these QTLs overlapped with those for fresh weight or dry weight, but the QTL for KDM located on chromosome 3 overlapped with one for DMC. In silico analysis was used to identify known or putative K+ and cation transporter genes whose loci overlapped with the QTLs. In most cases, multiple genes were identified and the possible role of their gene products in determining shoot K+ concentrations is discussed.Hisatomi Harada and Roger A. Leig

Is there a black hole minimum mass?

Applying the first and generalised second laws of thermodynamics for a realistic process of near critical black hole formation, we derive an entropy bound, which is identical to Bekenstein's one for radiation. Relying upon this bound, we derive an absolute minimum mass $\sim0.04 \sqrt{g_{*}}m_{\rm Pl}$, where $g_{*}$ and $m_{\rm Pl}$ is the effective degrees of freedom for the initial temparature and the Planck mass, respectively. Since this minimum mass coincides with the lower bound on masses of which black holes can be regarded as classical against the Hawking evaporation, the thermodynamical argument will not prohibit the formation of the smallest classical black hole. For more general situations, we derive a minimum mass, which may depend on the initial value for entropy per particle. For primordial black holes, however, we show that this minimum mass can not be much greater than the Planck mass at any formation epoch of the Universe, as long as $g_{*}$ is within a reasonable range. We also derive a size-independent upper bound on the entropy density of a stiff fluid in terms of the energy density.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in Physical Review D, minor correctio

Macroscopic Expression Connecting the Rate of Energy Dissipation and Violation of the Fluctuation-Response Relation

A direct connection between the magnitude of the violation of the fluctuation-response relation (FRR) and the rate of energy dissipation is presented in terms of field variables of nonequilibrium systems. Here, we consider the density field of a colloidal suspension either in a relaxation process or in a nonequilibrium steady state driven by an external field. Using a path-integral representation of the temporal evolution of the density field, we find an equality that relates the magnitude of the violation of the FRR for scalar and vector potentials of the velocity field to the rate of energy dissipation for the entire system. Our result demonstrates that the violation of the FRR for field variables captures the entropic component of the dissipated free energy.Comment: 4 pages, a major reviso

RPA for Light-Front Hamiltonian Field Theory

A self-consistent random phase approximation (RPA) is proposed as an effective Hamiltonian method in Light-Front Field Theory (LFFT). We apply the general idea to the light-front massive Schwinger model to obtain a new bound state equation and solve it numerically.Comment: A major revision in presentation, while the results essentially unchanged. 2 figs. replaced, 1 fig. added, some parts of Sec. V moved to Sec. IV, some wording changed, typos correcte

Rab8a and Rab8b are essential for several apical transport pathways but insufficient for ciliogenesis

The small GTP-binding protein Rab8 is known to play an essential role in intracellular transport and cilia formation. We have previously demonstrated that Rab8a is required for localising apical markers in various organisms. Rab8a has a closely related isoform, Rab8b. To determine whether Rab8b can compensate for Rab8a, we generated Rab8b-knockout mice. Although the Rab8b-knockout mice did not display an overt phenotype, Rab8a and Rab8b double-knockout mice exhibited mislocalisation of apical markers and died earlier than Rab8a-knockout mice. The apical markers accumulated in three intracellular patterns in the double-knockout mice. However, the localisation of basolateral and/or dendritic markers of the double-knockout mice seemed normal. The morphology and the length of various primary and/or motile cilia, and the frequency of ciliated cells appeared to be identical in control and double-knockout mice. However, an additional knockdown of Rab10 in double-knockout cells greatly reduced the percentage of ciliated cells. Our results highlight the compensatory effect of Rab8a and Rab8b in apical transport, and the complexity of the apical transport process. In addition, neither Rab8a nor Rab8b are required for basolateral and/or dendritic transport. However, simultaneous loss of Rab8a and Rab8b has little effect on ciliogenesis, whereas additional loss of Rab10 greatly affects ciliogenesis

Extended observables in theories with constraints

In a classical Hamiltonian theory with second class constraints the phase space functions on the constraint surface are observables. We give general formulas for extended observables, which are expressions representing the observables in the enveloping unconstrained phase space. These expressions satisfy in the unconstrained phase space a Poisson algebra of the same form as the Dirac bracket algebra of the observables on the constraint surface. The general formulas involve new differential operators that differentiate the Dirac bracket. Similar extended observables are also constructed for theories with first class constraints which, however, are gauge dependent. For such theories one may also construct gauge invariant extensions with similar properties. Whenever extended observables exist the theory is expected to allow for a covariant quantization. A mapping procedure is proposed for covariant quantization of theories with second class constraints.Comment: 26 pages, Latexfile,Minor misprints on page 4 are correcte

Fate of Vector Dominance in the Effective Field Theory

We reveal the full phase structure of the effective field theory for QCD, based on the hidden local symmetry (HLS) through the one-loop renormalization group equation including quadratic divergences. We then show that vector dominance (VD) is not a sacred discipline of the effective field theory but rather an accidental phenomenon peculiar to three-flavored QCD. In particular, the chiral symmetry restoration in HLS model takes place in a wide phase boundary surface, on which the VD is realized nowhere. This suggests that VD may not be valid for chiral symmetry restoration in hot and/or dense QCD.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. One reference added. Minor modification to shorten the manuscript. This is the version to appear in Physical Review Letter

Wilsonian Matching of Effective Field Theory with Underlying QCD

We propose a novel way of matching effective field theory with the underlying QCD in the sense of a Wilsonian renormalization group equation (RGE). We derive Wilsonian matching conditions between current correlators obtained by the operator product expansion in QCD and those by the hidden local symmetry (HLS) model. This determines without much ambiguity the bare parameters of the HLS at the cutoff scale in terms of the QCD parameters. Physical quantities for the pi and rho system are calculated by the Wilsonian RGE's from the bare parameters in remarkable agreement with the experiment.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, Minor corrections. This is the version to appear in Physical Review

Vector Manifestation and Fate of Vector Mesons in Dense Matter

We describe in-medium properties of hadrons in dense matter near chiral restoration using a Wilsonian matching to QCD of an effective field theory with hidden local symmetry at the chiral cutoff $\Lambda$. We find that chiral symmetry is restored in vector manifestation \`a la Harada and Yamawaki at a critical matter density $n_c$. We express the critical density in terms of QCD correlators in dense matter at the matching scale. In a manner completely analogous to what happens at the critical $N_f^c$ and at the critical temperature $T^c$, the vector meson mass is found to vanish (in the chiral limit) at chiral restoration. This result provides a support for Brown-Rho scaling predicted a decade ago.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure

Coarse-grained loop algorithms for Monte Carlo simulation of quantum spin systems

Recently, Syljuasen and Sandvik proposed a new framework for constructing algorithms of quantum Monte Carlo simulation. While it includes new classes of powerful algorithms, it is not straightforward to find an efficient algorithm for a given model. Based on their framework, we propose an algorithm that is a natural extension of the conventional loop algorithm with the split-spin representation. A complete table of the vertex density and the worm-scattering probability is presented for the general XXZ model of an arbitrary S with a uniform magnetic field.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, insert a word "squared" in the first line of the caption of Fig.7 and correct the label of vertical axis of Fig.