Cold-induced male meiotic restitution in Arabidopsis thaliana is not mediated by GA-DELLA signaling

Short periods of cold stress induce male meiotic restitution and diploid pollen formation in Arabidopsis thaliana by specifically interfering with male meiotic cytokinesis. Similar alterations in male meiotic cell division and gametophytic ploidy stability occur when gibberellic acid (GA) signaling is perturbed in developing anthers. In this study, we found that exogenous application of GA primarily induces second division restitution (SDR)-type pollen in Arabidopsis, similar to what cold does. Driven by the close similarity in cellular defects, we tested the hypothesis that cold-induced meiotic restitution is mediated by GA-DELLA signaling. Using a combination of chemical, genetic and cytological approaches, however, we found that both exogenously and endogenously altered GA signaling do not affect the cold sensitivity of male meiotic cytokinesis. Moreover, in vivo localization study using a GFP-tagged version of RGA protein revealed that cold does not affect the expression pattern and abundance of DELLA in Arabidopsis anthers at tetrad stage. Expression study found that transcript of RGA appears enhanced in cold-stressed young flower buds. Since our previous work demonstrated that loss of function of DELLA causes irregular male meiotic cytokinesis, we here conclude that cold-induced meiotic restitution is not mediated by DELLA-dependent GA signaling

Value of Smart Home Devices and Cost of Implementation

A home to many is a comfortable and safe place to enjoy their leisure, a getaway from the world around them, and something they truly appreciate acquiring. A smart home can contribute to the comfort, efficiency, and value of a home to certain individuals. Upgrading a home from a traditional aspect to a smart home can be done as an easy do-it-yourself project on a weekend or several, depending on the number of upgrades desired. Major brands have and continue to release new products for smart homes that are simple and easy to use. The estimate sheet provided gives homeowners a rough cost to transform a typical 2,400 square foot home in Alameda, CA to a smart one. This paper provides survey responses of individuals that own smart home devices and how these devices add value to their life. Additionally, the participants that use smart home products would recommend them to their friends and family. The survey also suggests that most people that do not already own smart home products would want to add them in the future. Smart homes provide a more comfortable, efficient, and valuable home

Spectral Properties of Galaxies in Void Regions

We present a study of spectral properties of galaxies in underdense large-scale structures, voids. Our void galaxy sample (75,939 galaxies) is selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7) with $\rm z < 0.107$. We find that there are no significant differences in the luminosities, stellar masses, stellar populations, and specific star formation rates between void galaxies of specific spectral types and their wall counterparts. However, the fraction of star-forming galaxies in voids is significantly higher ($\ge 9\%$) than that in walls. Void galaxies, when considering all spectral types, are slightly fainter, less massive, have younger stellar populations and of higher specific star formation rates than wall galaxies. These minor differences are totally caused by the higher fraction of star-forming galaxies in voids. We confirm that AGNs exist in voids, already found by \cite{co08}, with similar abundance as in walls. Type I AGNs contribute $\sim$ 1\%-2\% of void galaxies, similar to their fraction in walls. The intrinsic [O III] luminosities , spanning over 10^6\ L_{\sun} \sim 10^9\ L_{\sun}, and Eddington ratios are similar comparing our void AGNs versus wall AGNs. Small scale statistics show that all spectral types of void galaxies are less clustered than their counterparts in walls. Major merger may not be the dominant trigger of black hole accretion in the luminosity range we probe. Our study implies that the growth of black holes relies weakly on large scale structures.Comment: 14 pages,16 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Bˉ→D(∗)ℓXˉ\bar B \to D^{(*)} \ell \bar{X} decays in effective field theory with massive right-handed neutrinos

We calculate the complete differential decay distribution for the $B$ meson decay, $\bar B \to D^{(*)} \ell \bar{X}$, to a massive right-handed (RH) neutrino in the low-energy effective field theory (LEFT) framework. We find that a massive RH neutrino does not introduce any new angular structures compared to the massless case, but can cause significant distortions in angular observables. We study the phenomenology of low-energy four-fermion operators permitted by the standard model effective field theory (SMEFT) extended with RH neutrinos (SMNEFT). We show that to explain the positive value of the difference in forward-backward asymmetries, $\Delta A_{\text{FB}}\equiv A_{\text{FB}}^\mu-A_{\text{FB}}^e$, tentatively inferred from Belle data, the RH neutrino must be massive. We also make predictions for $q^2$ dependent angular observables to motivate future measurements.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 3 table

How to measure the reactor neutrino flux below the inverse beta decay threshold with CEν\nuNS

Most antineutrinos produced in a nuclear reactor have energies below the inverse beta decay threshold, and have not yet been detected. We show that a coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering experiment with an ultra-low energy threshold like NUCLEUS can measure the flux of reactor neutrinos below 1.8 MeV. Using a regularized unfolding procedure, we find that a meaningful upper bound can be placed on the low energy flux, but the existence of the neutron capture component cannot be established.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. Version to appear in PR