Asymptotically linear fractional Schrodinger equations

By exploiting a variational technique based upon projecting over the Pohozaev manifold, we prove existence of positive solutions for a class of nonlinear fractional Schrodinger equations having a nonhomogenous nonautonomous asymptotically linear nonlinearity.Comment: 24 page

On fractional p-Laplacian problems with weight

We investigate the existence of nonnegative solutions for a nonlinear problem involving the fractional p-Laplacian operator. The problem is set on a unbounded domain, and compactness issues have to be handled.Comment: 10 page

Sexual violence in college students in Chile

Young women's experiences of sexual victimization can have far-reaching consequences, including unwanted pregnancy and increased risk of psychological, sexual, and reproductive health difficulties; these experiences can also limit young women's ability to achieve their educational potential. To date, no quantitative studies have examined sexual violence among college students in Chile. To address this gap, an anonymous survey was administered to students enrolled in General Education courses at a major public university in Santiago (n=455 female students). Rape, attempted rape, and other types of sexual victimization were reported by 9.4%, 6.2%, and 15.6% of respondents, respectively, as the most severe event experienced since age 14; 17.2% reported some form of sexual victimization in the past 12 months alone. Estimates based on ordered logit models show that low parental education, childhood sexual abuse, and witnessing inter-parental violence are associated with increased odds of sexual victimization since age 14; attendance to religious services and living with the parents while attending college have protective effects. The findings indicate a need to further investigate the prevalence of and risk factors for sexual violence in Chilean college students, and to begin to develop and evaluate theory-based programs to prevent and respond to this public health concern

Physical dating violence among college students in Chile

Dating violence is a serious public health concern both per se and because victimization in the young adult years can be a precursor to more severe incidents of domestic violence later, in the context of cohabitation or marriage. To date, no quantitative studies have examined dating violence among college students in Chile. To address this gap, a survey on this topic was administered to students at a major public university. The present analyses focused on the female sample (n=441). Generalized ordered logit models were used to assess factors associated with physical victimization since age 14, considering three categories: no victimization, victimization with no injury, and victimization with injury. Approximately 21% of subjects reported one or more incidents of physical dating violence not involving injury since age 14, and another 5.0% reported at least one incident resulting in injury during this time period. The corresponding figures for the past 12 months were 12.9% and 2.4%, respectively. Childhood sexual abuse and witnessing domestic violence as a child were associated with substantially elevated odds of physical victimization later in life. Low parental education was also associated with higher vulnerability, in part because of its linkage with childhood experiences with aggression. Protective factors included maternal employment and religious service participation at age 14, residence in the parental home during the college years, and never having had sexual intercourse. The findings suggest that it would be desirable to develop public health initiatives to prevent and respond to this form of violence among Chilean college students

Henri Temianka Correspondence; (lehrer)

https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/temianka_correspondence/2302/thumbnail.jp

Phenomic and Genetic Controls of the Drought Stress Response in Sorghum

Drought, one of the most common abiotic stressors, is a result of the precipitation and temperature fluctuations influenced by climate change. As consistent weather patterns are crucial for the maintenance of crop yield, drought threatens food security through its impact on plant growth and development. It is essential to ensure the quality, availability, and affordability of grain-based products in the face of climate change due to expectations of population growth. Therefore, shedding light on the mechanisms associated with drought tolerance is integral to maintaining agricultural production under water-limited conditions. My dissertation work aimed to uncover the morphological, physiological, and genetic controls of drought resistance in Sorghum, a C4 grain crop grown for food, feed, and biofuel. In Chapter 3, two Sorghum bicolor accessions that differ in their pre-flowering responses to drought were evaluated following long-term drought exposure across juvenile and adult vegetative stages. Findings from this work emphasized accession-specific responses to drought, indicating that morphological/histological and physiological strategies both play roles in promoting hydraulic safety in response to drought, and these mechanisms may be mutually exclusive. Chapter 4 expanded upon the findings of Chapter 3 by uncovering the evolutionary origins of the morphological and physiological responses associated with drought exposure. Using quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping in a Sorghum recombinant inbred line (RIL) population, eight QTL unique for drought exposure were detected. S. bicolor alleles controlled reductions in height and enhanced aboveground biomass, emphasizing the impact of grain Sorghum varieties (i.e. TX7000) on drought-responsive phenotypes. These biological impacts may be influenced by the candidate genes with these QTL, specifically those involved in reproductive processes. These gene products facilitate grain production and may promote early flowering, a common drought escape mechanism that influences the transition into reproduction before stress becomes too severe. Physiologically, S. bicolor alleles increased leaf temperature while Sorghum propinquum alleles increased relative water content; these species-specific strategies reflect their variable belowground growth and impact of domestication on drought-responsive phenotypes. The QTL detected for relative water content and leaf temperature contained genes involved in auxin and abscisic acid (ABA) synthesis and signaling. In addition to playing roles in root development and water uptake, phytohormones can also affect aboveground responses, such as growth and stomatal closure. Therefore, our findings highlight the contribution of plant hormones to root-to-shoot communication and water uptake and loss through both above- and belowground strategies. The relationship between above- and belowground responses and hormone signaling was explored further in Chapter 5. Using the same Sorghum RIL population, five QTL for belowground responses to drought exposure were identified. Three of these QTL co-localized on chromosome four and with a root biomass QTL detected in this same population evaluated under salinity stress, suggesting shared genetic control of belowground traits under osmotic stress. Further, these traits were all controlled by S. bicolor alleles. This control demonstrated that root system architecture is reorganized under osmotic stress by the domesticated parent to favor vertical growth while also increasing root biomass, suggesting a main goal of enhanced water uptake in the osmotic stress response. Candidate genes within these QTL were associated with root development and hormone synthesis/recognition, contributing additional support to the allelic effects described in this work, as well as to the role of water acquisition described in Chapter 4. Genes within the two remaining QTL detected in the drought population were also involved in plant hormone responses, specifically abscisic acid (ABA). Genes encoding pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR)-containing proteins and Late Embryogenesis Abundant- like (LEA) proteins were identified in these regions. PPR’s have established roles in ABA signaling in Arabidopsis and were also shown to be up-regulated in response to heat and drought stress in Sorghum. Further, LEA proteins are induced upon ABA and osmotic stress exposure, and function as molecular chaperones. Altogether, these findings further highlight the contribution of phytohormones in drought resistance, particularly through intricate signal cascades that influence plant functioning under drought, at the morphological, physiological, and molecular levels

Can we have allergen-free foods?

Biotechnology can be used to reduce allergenicity. Much attention has been focused on the possibility that modification of foods through recombinant DNA technology could unintentionally introduce new allergens but developers and regulators take steps to assess allergenicity of novel proteins. However it is also possible to reduce allergenicity of foods by determining which proteins are responsible for the allergic reaction and then to alter them so that they no longer trigger an immune response in sensitive individuals. While it may not be possible to alter all of the allergenic proteins in some foods, there is potential to open up a whole new range of foods for those who cannot consume them now

Orientational order on curved surfaces - the high temperature region

We study orientational order, subject to thermal fluctuations, on a fixed curved surface. We derive, in particular, the average density of zeros of Gaussian distributed vector fields on a closed Riemannian manifold. Results are compared with the density of disclination charges obtained from a Coulomb gas model. Our model describes the disordered state of two dimensional objects with orientational degrees of freedom, such as vector ordering in Langmuir monolayers and lipid bilayers above the hexatic to fluid transition.Comment: final version, 13 Pages, 2 figures, uses iopart.cl