Floral syndrome and breeding system of Senna (Cassia) corymbosa

Senna (Cassia) corymbosa is an ornamental plant with asymmetric flower in which petals and stamens are also involved in floral asymmetry. The pollen number of abaxial lateral stamen (AL), abaxial median stamen (AM) and middle stamen (MI) are descended in sequence. In field, the insects of visiting flowers are available and pollinators are essential to the pollination success of S. corymbosa. Bombidae was presumably the effective pollinators by buzzing pollination and wasp may be the potential pollinators. Pollen number and germination rate per type of stamen experiments supported the hypothesis of “division-of-labour” among stamens by Darwin. Both AL, AM and MI may afford food to visiting insects, while long stamens (including AL and AM) function as the “pollinating” stamens and the brownish yellow is presumably the effective color attractants to pollinators.Key words: Senna, pollen, pollination, breeding system

Rock-salt SnS and SnSe: Native Topological Crystalline Insulators

Unlike time-reversal topological insulators, surface metallic states with Dirac cone dispersion in the recently discovered topological crystalline insulators (TCIs) are protected by crystal symmetry. To date, TCI behaviors have been observed in SnTe and the related alloys Pb$_{1-x}$Sn$_{x}$Se/Te, which incorporate heavy elements with large spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Here, by combining first-principles and {\it ab initio} tight-binding calculations, we report the formation of a TCI in the relatively lighter rock-salt SnS and SnSe. This TCI is characterized by an even number of Dirac cones at the high-symmetry (001), (110) and (111) surfaces, which are protected by the reflection symmetry with respect to the ($\bar{1}$10) mirror plane. We find that both SnS and SnSe have an intrinsically inverted band structure and the SOC is necessary only to open the bulk band gap. The bulk band gap evolution upon volume expansion reveals a topological transition from an ambient pressure TCI to a topologically trivial insulator. Our results indicate that the SOC alone is not sufficient to drive the topological transition.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Both ion channels and calcium signals regulate proliferation in human adult mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow

BACKGROUND: It has been recognized that human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are present within the bone marrow cavity and serve as a reservoir for the ...postprintThe 9th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR 2011), Toronto, Canada, 15-18 June 2011. In Thursday Poster Abstracts of ISSCR, 2011, p. 156, poster board no. 301

Endotoxin increases adrenomedullin expression in heart, lung and mesenteric artery

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Interaction of wave with a body floating on a wide polynya

A method based on wide spacing approximation is proposed for the interaction of water wave with a body floating on a polynya. The ice sheet is modelled as an elastic plate and fluid flow is described by the velocity potential theory. The solution procedure is constructed based on the assumption that when the distance between two disturbances to the free surface is sufficiently large, the interactions between them involve only the travelling waves caused by the disturbances and the effect of the evanescent waves is ignored. The solution for the problem can then be obtained from those for a floating body without an ice sheet and for an ice sheet/free surface without a floating body. Both latter solutions have already been found previously and therefore there will be no additional effort in solution once the wide spacing approximation formulation is derived. Extensive numerical results are provided to show that the method is very accurate compared with the exact solution. The obtained formulations are then used to provide some insightful explanations for the physics of flow behaviour, as well as the mechanism for the highly oscillatory features of the hydrodynamic force and body motion. Some explicit equations are derived to show zero reflection by the polynya and peaks and troughs of the force and excited body motion. It is revealed that some of the peaks of the body motion are due to resonance while others are due to the wave characters in the polynya

Ageing and adrenomedullin in the male reproductive system of the rat

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Increased adrenomedullin expression in the heart, the lung and the mesenteric artery by endotoxin

published_or_final_versio

Flexural-gravity wave interaction with multiple vertical cylinders of arbitrary cross section frozen in an ice sheet

The interaction problem of flexural-gravity wave with multiple vertical cylinders frozen in an ice sheet on the surface of water with finite water depth is considered. The linearized velocity potential theory is adopted for fluid flow, and the thin elastic plate model is applied for ice sheet deflection. Each cylinder is bottom-mounted, and the shape of its cross section can be arbitrary while remaining constant in the vertical direction. The velocity potential is expanded into an eigenfunction series in the vertical direction, which satisfies the boundary condition on the ice sheet automatically. The horizontal modes, which satisfy the Helmholtz equations, are then transformed into a series of boundary integral equations along the ice sheet edges or the intersection of the ice sheet with the cylinders. The problem is then solved numerically by imposing the ice sheet edge condition together with the impermeable condition on the cylinders. The solution is exact in the sense that the error is only due to numerical discretization and truncation. Computations are first carried out for single and multiple vertical circular cylinders, and good agreements are obtained with the semi-analytical solution. To resolve the difficulty of excessive computation at a large number of cylinders, the effect of the evanescent wave of a cylinder on those at large distance is ignored. This allows for the case of a large number of cylinders in different arrangements to be simulated. Extensive results are provided. Their physics and practical relevance are discussed

Ageing and adrenomedullin in the female reproductive system of the rat

published_or_final_versio

Wave diffraction by a circular crack in an ice sheet floating on water of finite depth

The problem of wave diffraction by a circular crack in an ice sheet floating on water of finite depth is considered. The fluid flow is described by the linear velocity potential theory, while the infinitely extended ice sheet is modeled as a thin elastic plate with uniform properties. At the crack, zero bending moment and shear force conditions are enforced. The solution starts from the Green function for ice sheet without the crack. This is then used to obtain an integral equation, in which the jumps of the displacement and slope across the crack are the unknowns. For a circular crack, the unknowns are expanded into the Fourier series in the circumferential direction. Through imposing the boundary conditions at the crack, a matrix equation is obtained for the unknowns, which is then truncated and solved. Convergence study is undertaken with respect to the truncation, and it has been found that the series converges fast. A far field identity is used to verify the solution procedure and is found to be satisfied very accurately. Extensive results are provided, and their physical implications are discussed. These include the jumps of the displacement and slope across the crack, resonant motion, far field diffracted wave amplitude, and the deflection of the ice sheet