The relation between isotopic composition of argon and carbon in natural gases

The methods and results of determination of the argon and carbon isotope compositions of hydrocarbon gases of Mezozoic complexes of Western Siberia are presented. Based on the Ar-36, Ar-40, C-12, C-13 content of the various deposits and on the presumed mechanisms of entry of these isotopes into the deposits, it is concluded that formation of natural gas in some deposits included vertical migration from a lower complex

Effects of Succinate on the Growth Rates of Potato, Rauwolfia, and Ginseng in vitro

Effects of succinate on in vitro potato reproduction, callus cultures of Rauwolfia serpentina, and Panax ginseng roots was studied. The optimum succinate concentration giving the maximum the growth rate of potato shoots and callus mass, was found to be 10-5 M. Succinate treatment increased the absolute yield of the alkaloid ajmaline in Rauwolfia callus culture, in spite of a decrease in its specific content

Effects of succinate on the growth rates of potato, Rauwolfia, and ginseng in vitro

Effects of succinate on in vitro potato reproduction, callus cultures of Rauwolfia serpentina, and Panax ginseng roots were studied. The optimum succinate concentration giving the maximum the growth rate of potato shoots and callus mass, was found to be 10-5 M. Succinate treatment increased the absolute yield of the alkaloid ajmaline in Rauwolfia callus culture, in spite of a decrease in its specific content

Detailing patient specific modelling to aid clinical decision-making

The anatomy of the craniofacial skeleton has been described through the aid of dissection identifying hard and soft tissue structures. Although the macro and microscopic investigation of internal facial tissues have provided invaluable information on constitution of the tissues it is important to inspect and model facial tissues in the living individual. Detailing the form and function of facial tissues will be invaluable in clinical diagnoses and planned corrective surgical interventions such as management of facial palsies and craniofacial disharmony/anomalies. Recent advances in lower-cost, non-invasive imaging and computing power (surface scanning, Cone Beam Computerized Tomography (CBCT) and Magnetic Resonance (MRI)) has enabled the ability to capture and process surface and internal structures to a high resolution. The three-dimensional surface facial capture has enabled characterization of facial features all of which will influence subtleties in facial movement and surgical planning. This chapter will describe the factors that influence facial morphology in terms of gender and age differences, facial movement—surface and underlying structures, modeling based on average structures, orientation of facial muscle fibers, biomechanics of movement—proof of principle and surgical intervention

Autopiquer - a robust and reliable peak detection algorithm for mass spectrometry

We present a simple algorithm for robust and unsupervised peak detection by determining a noise threshold in isotopically resolved mass spectrometry data. Solving this problem will greatly reduce the subjective and time consuming manual picking of mass spectral peaks and so will prove beneficial in many research applications. The Autopiquer approach uses autocorrelation to test for the presence of (isotopic) structure in overlapping windows across the spectrum. Within each window, a noise threshold is optimized to remove the most unstructured data whilst keeping as much of the (isotopic) structure as possible. This algorithm has been successfully demonstrated for both peak detection and spectral compression on data from many different classes of mass spectrometer and for different sample types and this approach should also be extendible to other types of data that contain regularly spaced discrete peaks

Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic rays and Gamma Astronomy

The paper is a script of a lecture given at the ISAPP-Baikal summer school in 2018. The lecture gives an overview of the Tunka Advanced Instrument for cosmic rays and Gamma Astronomy (TAIGA) facility including historical introduction, description of existing and future setups, and outreach and open data activities.Comment: Lectures given at the ISAPP-Baikal Summer School 2018: Exploring the Universe through multiple messengers, 12-21 July 2018, Bol'shie Koty, Russi

Reciprocal responses in the interaction between Arabidopsis and the cell-content feeding chelicerate herbivore spider mite

Most molecular-genetic studies of plant defense responses to arthropod herbivores have focused on insects. However, plant-feeding mites are also pests of diverse plants, and mites induce different patterns of damage to plant tissues than do well-studied insects (e.g. lepidopteran larvae or aphids). The two-spotted spidermite (Tetranychus urticae) is among the most significant mite pests in agriculture, feeding on a staggering number of plant hosts. To understand the interactions between spider mite and a plant at the molecular level, we examined reciprocal genome-wide responses of mites and its host Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Despite differences in feeding guilds, we found that transcriptional responses of Arabidopsis to mite herbivory resembled those observed for lepidopteran herbivores. Mutant analysis of induced plant defense pathways showed functionally that only a subset of induced programs, including jasmonic acid signaling and biosynthesis of indole glucosinolates, are central to Arabidopsis's defense to mite herbivory. On the herbivore side, indole glucosinolates dramatically increased mite mortality and development times. We identified an indole glucosinolate dose-dependent increase in the number of differentially expressedmite genes belonging to pathways associated with detoxification of xenobiotics. This demonstrates that spider mite is sensitive to Arabidopsis defenses that have also been associated with the deterrence of insect herbivores that are very distantly related to chelicerates. Our findings provide molecular insights into the nature of, and response to, herbivory for a representative of a major class of arthropod herbivores

Reactive direction control for a mobile robot: A locust-like control of escape direction emerges when a bilateral pair of model locust visual neurons are integrated

Locusts possess a bilateral pair of uniquely identifiable visual neurons that respond vigorously to the image of an approaching object. These neurons are called the lobula giant movement detectors (LGMDs). The locust LGMDs have been extensively studied and this has lead to the development of an LGMD model for use as an artificial collision detector in robotic applications. To date, robots have been equipped with only a single, central artificial LGMD sensor, and this triggers a non-directional stop or rotation when a potentially colliding object is detected. Clearly, for a robot to behave autonomously, it must react differently to stimuli approaching from different directions. In this study, we implement a bilateral pair of LGMD models in Khepera robots equipped with normal and panoramic cameras. We integrate the responses of these LGMD models using methodologies inspired by research on escape direction control in cockroaches. Using ‘randomised winner-take-all’ or ‘steering wheel’ algorithms for LGMD model integration, the khepera robots could escape an approaching threat in real time and with a similar distribution of escape directions as real locusts. We also found that by optimising these algorithms, we could use them to integrate the left and right DCMD responses of real jumping locusts offline and reproduce the actual escape directions that the locusts took in a particular trial. Our results significantly advance the development of an artificial collision detection and evasion system based on the locust LGMD by allowing it reactive control over robot behaviour. The success of this approach may also indicate some important areas to be pursued in future biological research