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ARR et al. 1-3 were pioneers in the study which led to the discovery of a definite localization of the chromatin in relation to the nuclear membrane when they found that in the somatic cells of the cat the sex chromatiu is located at the nuclear membrane. BURGOS* demonstrated the accumulation of Feulgen reactive material on the inner aspect of the nuclear membrane in unfertilized eggs of Arbacia punetulata, and GA'x "5 studied the relations between chromatin and nuclear membrane outpocketings. However, the re]ation between chromatin network and the membrane in the interphase nucleus remains practically unexplored. In this paper we study a certain relation often observed between chromatin and nuclear membrane in the interphase nucleus of meristematic cells.

[EN]: A rib meristem is characterized by a complexus of longitudinal rows or ribs of cells which divide at right angles to the growth axis. This growth pattern is clearly represented in the cortex of the root. The longitudinal walls of the rib are primary longitudinal walls, the transverse walls being formed, basically, by middle lamella. At each division cycle, 2 daughter cells are formed, and the celt plate forms the new middle lamella between them. The fine structure of the cell plate formation has been studied by several authors TM. Moreover, FREY-WYSsLING et al. 2 showed that the middle Iamella formed by the coalescence of small Golgi vesicles, grew thicker through the supply of new Golgi vesicles. The aim of this paper is to study the development of the middle lamelta in relation to the cell division cycles., [ES]: La lámina media que separa transversalmente a las células del meristemo radical en columna se desarrolla, en virtud del aporte de pequeñas vesículas del aparato de Golgi, incrementando su espesor desde 0,1–0,2 hasta 0,4–0,5 µ. Las características morfológicas de estas paredes transversales permiten distinguir fácilmente las células hermanas y hasta las 4 células que se originan de 1 célula madre en 2 ciclos de división.

This paper describes the changes undergone by the layer dividing the vegetative from the generative cell. The abundant contents of the space inside the membrane, consisting of opaque bodies, vary considerably as the pollen grain matures, and decrease in volumepari passu with the formation of the dense bodies in the plasm of the vegetative cells. The dense bodies constitute a layer of droplets surrounding the enveloping membrane of the generative cell within the cytoplasm of the vegetative cell. Connexions have been observed between the dense bodies and the partition layer which seem to indicate that the latter is apparently responsible for their organization, and is the area in which the synthesis of their contents takes place as well. The deposition of the dense bodies on the plasmalemma of the pollen grain points to their participation in the formation of one or other of the layers in which the grain is enveloped.

This paper reports the results of a study of the first beginnings of sporopollenin granules in the cells of the tapetum. The endoplasmic reticulum was observed to be the system responsible for their production, first by the formation of electron-dense bodies (pro-Ubisch bodies). These constitute the nuclei of the sporopollenin granules upon which laminae with the characteristics observed in the exine of pollen-grains are deposited in formation of the young Ubisch bodies. The latter ultimately assume a spherical shape (adult Ubisch bodies), whereupon they seem to be carried by channels across the cytoplasm of the tapetum into the locule of the pollen-sac. The origin, development and possible function of sporopollenin granules are discussed in the light of the theories and observations of other authors and of the writers themselves.

This paper deals with the fine structure of the fibrillar centres of the nucleolus inAllium cepa cells in ultrathin, sections of in vivo fixed roots. The ultrastructural observations have allowed us to consider each nucleolar fibrillar centre as an active zone in the nucleolar chromatin loop, and to propose a possible model for the organization of the different components of the nucleolus within it.

Lactulose is a disaccharide with important implications in medicine, nutrition and dairy technology. It has to be determined usually as a minor component in complex matrices containing many other sugars. This paper describes the different chromatographic techniques (planar, liquid and gas chromatography) which have been proposed for the separation and quantification of lactulose in mixtures with other carbohydrates; the advantages of each technique are compared and some features where more research is necessary are outlined.

This study is an analysis of six years of Spanish bibliography retrieved from INSPEC and COMPENDEX. The quantitative evolution of the scientific activity by years and Institutions, the recent tendencies to publish in foreign journals, as well as to have the papers signed by more authors are followed. The most frequently used journals are ranked according to their impact factor and subject. Some hypothesis are formulated and tested, trying to find a relationship between the growth of the Spanish scientific activity and its quality.

[DE]: Die phenolische Zusammensetzung der in Holzfässern gelagerten Destillate wurde studiert, um daraus verschiedene Standards zu erarbeiten, so daß daraus die Unverfälschtheit und Qualität abgeleitet werden kann., [EN]: Phenolic composition of distillates aged in wood has been widely studied, thus giving rise to different standards that establish their genuineness and quality. The present paper sets out the results for classification of Spanish brandies and cognacs according to quality by applying analysis of variance and principal component analysis to the results of simple chemical (pH, phenol content) and physical (colour) determinations and/or the relationships between them. Chemical changes that occur during the aging process are related to these parameters.

This paper describes the characterization and chromosomal distribution of new long repetitive sequences present in all species of the genus Zea. These sequences constitute a family of moderately repetitive elements ranging approximately from 1350 to 1700 copies per haploid genome in modern maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) and teosinte (Zea diploperennis), respectively. The elements are long, probably larger than 9 kb, and they show a highly conserved internal organization among Zea subspecies and species. The elements are present in all maize chromosomes in an interspersed pattern of distribution, are absent from centromeric and pericentric heterochromatin, and with some clustering in the distal regions of chromosome arms.

The present paper describes the development of a method for the differentiation of hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives by HPLC with photodiode-array detection. Furthermore spectral data of the compounds under investigation are given. Whereas p-coumaric acid derivatives are distinguishable from caffeic and ferulic acid derivatives by the positions of their spectrum maxima and their convexity interval value, it is not possible to distinguish between caffeic and ferulic acid derivatives because of overlapping spectrum maxima and convexity interval values.

[EN]A method for electrical indication of the ability of concrete to resist chloride ion penetration was first developed in the USA in the late 1970's. The test method (AASHTO T 277) related chloride ion diffusion to the measurement of electrical charge passed through a test specimen in a relatively short period of time. In this paper, chloride concentration profiles obtained from specimens used in the initial development of the method are used to compute apparent chloride diffusion coefficients, Dapp, by application of ionic migration principles. These coefficients are compared to Dapp calculated from fitting data obtained from 90-day ponding tests carried out on companion specimens not subjected to application of electrical currents. It is shown that there is a strong linear relationship for conventional concretes between coefficients calculated from chloride concentration gradients produced either by long-term ponding or by accelerated ingress of chloride into the test specimens. Also included in the comparative study are effective diffusion coefficients, Deff, based on the measurement of specimen resistance and calculated using Einstein's equation. Results indicate that values calculated by any of the techniques yield lower values for diffusion coefficients than those obtained from longer-term ponding. It is shown, however, that rankings of concretes on the basis of diffusion coefficient are similar for both calculated and measured values. Large errors occur in calculated coefficients in cases where anomalies exist in measured chloride gradients. These errors are related to the dependence of calculated diffusion coefficients on chloride concentration ratios. For specialty polymer concretes, mechanisms of penetration of chloride into concrete may be different in the presence of an applied electrical field. These differences may be the result of the short test time in the AASHTO T 277 procedure as well as of the relatively high voltage used. These effects prevent, [FR] Une méthode d'essai de la résistance du béton à la pénétration des chlorures a été mise au point aux États-Unis à la fin des années 1970. La méthode (AASHTO T 277) relie la diffusion des chlorures à la quantité de charge électrique qui passe à travers l'échantillon pendant une assez courte durée. Dans ce travail, on utilise les profils de concentration de chlorures obtenus pour calculer le coefficient de diffusion, Dapp, en utilisant les principes de migration ionique. Ces Dapp sont, à leur tour, comparés avec les résultats de Dapp obtenus à partir d'un essai de diffusion naturelle pendant 90 jours. On montre qu'il existe, pour les bétons conventionnels, une très bonne corrélation de tous les coefficients de diffusion calculés à partir des profils de concentration produits ou par essais de diffusion naturelle à long terme ou par entrée accélérée des chlorures dans les éprouvettes. On inclut aussi dans la comparaison les coefficients de diffusion effective, Deff, basés sur la mesure de la résistance électrique et calculés selon l'équation d'Einstein. Les résultats montrent que les coefficients de diffusion ainsi calculés ont des valeurs inférieures à celles obtenues par diffusion naturelle. La classification relative de la résistance des bétons aux chlorures est pourtant la même. Des erreurs importantes se produisent quand les profils présentent des anomalies. Elles proviennent de l'influence des taux de concentration en chlorures sur les coefficients de diffusion. Pour les bétons aux polymères, les mécanismes de pénétration des chlorures peuvent être différents si un courant électrique est appliqué. Toutes ces différences peuvent être imputées à la courte durée des essais AASHTO T 277 et au voltage assez élevé qui est utilisé. Ces circonstances empêchent le béton d'atteindre la même concentration superficielle Cs que dans le cas de la diffusion naturelle. On trouve des valeurs anormalement hautes quand le béton est trop résistif ou qu'il a reçu un traitement de

The separation and identification of the components in milk fat, which are mainly triglycerides, is a challenge due to its complex composition. A reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with gradient elution and light-scattering detection is described in this paper for the triglyceride analysis in ewes’ milk fat. Triglyceride identification was carried out by combining HPLC, gas-liquid chromatography (GLC), and the calculated equivalent carbon numbers of several triglyceride standards. Quantitation of partially resolved peaks in the HPLC chromatogram was accomplished by applying a peak deconvolution program. Forty-four fatty acids were identified by GLC analysis, but only 19 were used for the following prediction of triglyceride molecular species; 181 triglycerides were identified, some of which were grouped at the same peak and needed application of the deconvolution program. Consequently, coefficients of variation were close to or lower than 5%. Moreover, the triglyceride composition of ewe, cow, and goat milk fat were compared by using these methods. These results show that ewe milk fat is richer in short- and medium-chain triglycerides, and cow milk fat is richer in long-chain and unsaturated triglycerides.

Concentrates and purées are intermediate products in the manufacture of commercial fruit juices. In this paper, the phenolic content [total polyphenols (TP), ortho-diphenols (ORT) and catechins (CAT)] in a large number of concentrates and purées from apple and peach fruits has been determined. The relationships TP/ORT, TP/CAT and ORT/CAT have also been calculated. TP content was found to be significantly higher in the concentrates than in the respective purées whereas CAT content was significantly higher in the purée. ORT was found to be higher in purées than in apple concentrates, but the opposite was observed for peaches. The relationships TP/ORT, TP/CAT and ORT/CAT were higher for the concentrates than for the respective purées. In addition, values for ORT/CAT were higher for the peach products than for the respective apple products. The results show that these phenolic compound measurements enable differentiation between concentrates and purées, as well as between the fruit juices produced from them. The main advantage of measurements of total phenolic compounds is that they are easy to perform in a conventional laboratory, which makes them suitable for routine analysis.

A method based on genetic algorithms for obtaining coordinated motion plans of manipulator robots is presented. A decoupled planning approach has been used; that is, the problem has been decomposed into two subproblems: path planning and trajectory planning. This paper focuses on the second problem. The generated plans minimize the total motion time of the robots along their paths. The optimization problem is solved by evolutionary algorithms using a variable-length individuals codification and specific genetic operators.

A method based on genetic algorithms for obtaining coordinated motion plans of manipulator robots is presented. A decoupled planning approach has been used; that is, the problem has been decomposed into two subproblems: path planning and trajectory planning. This paper focuses on the second problem. The generated plans minimize the total motion time of the robots along their paths. The optimization problem is solved by evolutionary algorithms using a variable-length individuals codification and specific genetic operators.

A method based on genetic algorithms for obtaining coordinated motion plans of manipulator robots is presented. A decoupled planning approach has been used; that is, the problem has been decomposed into two subproblems: path planning and trajectory planning. This paper focuses on the second problem. The generated plans minimize the total motion time of the robots along their paths. The optimization problem is solved by evolutionary algorithms using a variable-length individuals codification and specific genetic operators.

A method based on genetic algorithms for obtaining coordinated motion plans of manipulator robots is presented. A decoupled planning approach has been used; that is, the problem has been decomposed into two subproblems: path planning and trajectory planning. This paper focuses on the second problem. The generated plans minimize the total motion time of the robots along their paths. The optimization problem is solved by evolutionary algorithms using a variable-length individuals codification and specific genetic operators.

A method based on genetic algorithms for obtaining coordinated motion plans of manipulator robots is presented. A decoupled planning approach has been used; that is, the problem has been decomposed into two subproblems: path planning and trajectory planning. This paper focuses on the second problem. The generated plans minimize the total motion time of the robots along their paths. The optimization problem is solved by evolutionary algorithms using a variable-length individuals codification and specific genetic operators.

This paper examines the evolution of the free fatty acid concentration in Manchego cheese during ripening (up to 150 days) and in two different cheesemaking seasons (autumn and winter). Factorial analysis of the principal components showed that short-chain fatty acids were the variables that best correlated (81% of the total variance explained) with the samples when distributed according to ripening time. These fatty acids likewise differentiated autumn and winter samples.

Single-epoch point positioning with the global positioning system (GPS) is as accurate in low orbit as it is on the ground: typically a three-dimensional rms accuracy of 20 to 30 m as the selective availability turns to zero. This is achieved at any observation epoch without orbit dynamic information. With sophisticated models and filtering techniques onboard the spacecraft, the orbit accuracy of a Low Earth Orbiter (LEO) can be improved to a few meters using the civilian broadcast GPS signals. To achieve this accuracy autonomously in real time, an efficient onboard computing processor is required to carry out the sophisticated orbit integration and filtering process. In this paper, a new orbit integrator is presented that computes the nominal orbit states (the position and velocity) and the state transition equations with numerical methods of integral equation, instead of differential equation usually used for orbit computation. The algorithm is simple, and can be easily embedded in an onboard processor. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed method of the integral equation provides precise orbit predictions over several orbits. The sequential filter based on the above integrator allows the use of simple orbit state equations to efficiently correct dynamical model errors with precise GPS measurements or improve the orbits using GPS navigaion solutions from the 3D rms accuracy of 26 m to 3.7 m within a few hours of tracking.

An important aspect of homology modeling and protein design algorithms is the correct positioning of protein side chains on a fixed backbone. Homology modeling methods are necessary to complement large scale structural genomics projects. Recently it has been shown that in automatic protein design it is of the uttermost importance to find the global solution to the side chain positioning problem [1]. If a suboptimal solution is found the difference in free energy between different sequences will be smaller than the error of the side chain positioning. Several different algorithms have been developed to solve this problem. The most successful methods use a discrete representation of the conformational space. Today, the best methods to solve this problem, are based on the dead end elimination theorem. Here we introduce an alternative method. The problem is formulated as a linear integer program. This programming problem can then be solved by efficient polynomial time methods, using linear programming relaxation. If the solution to the relaxed problem is integral it corresponds to the global minimum energy conformation (GMEC). In our experimental results, the solution to the relaxed problem has always been integral., QC 20220823Part of proceedings: ISBN 3540425160

Recent studies in the literature have applied phylogenetic methods based on genetic distances to set priorities for conservation of domestic animal breeds. While these methods may be appropriate for between-species conservation, they are clearly inappropriate for within-species breed conservation, because they ignore within-breed variation. In this paper we show the basic tools to analyse genetic diversity in subdivided populations within species, and illustrate the errors incurred by applying methods based exclusively on genetic distances. We also show that maximisation of genetic diversity (minimisation of coancestry or kinship) is equivalent to maximisation of effective population size, as in undivided populations, and derive a generalisation of previous equations for the prediction of effective size. Finally, we discuss the strategies for conservation in the light of the theory.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are key components of soil microbiota and obviously interact with other microorganisms in the rhizosphere, i.e. the zone of influence of plant roots on microbial populations and other soil constituents. Mycorrhiza formation changes several aspects of plant physiology and some nutritional and physical properties of the rhizospheric soil. These effects modify the colonization patterns of the root or mycorrhizas (mycorrhizosphere) by soil microorganisms. The rhizosphere of mycorrhizal plants, in practice a mycorrhizosphere, harbors a great array of microbial activities responsible for several key ecosystem processes. This paper summarizes the main conceptual principles and accepted statements on the microbial interactions between mycorrhizal fungi and other members of rhizosphere microbiota and discusses current developments and future trends concerning the following topics: (i) effect of soil microorganisms on mycorrhiza formation; (ii) mycorrhizosphere establishment; (iii) interactions involved in nutrient cycling and plant growth; (iv) interactions involved in the biological control of plant pathogens; and (v) interactions to improve soil quality. The main conclusion is that microbial interactions in the rhizosphere of mycorrhizal plants improve plant fitness and soil quality, critical issues for a sustainable agricultural development and ecosystem functioning.

The proceedings contain 27 papers. The special focus in this conference is on Software components, Mobile computing, Aspect and object-oriented programming, Distributed and web applications, Software measurements, Formal verification, Analysis and testing and Model integrations and extensions. The topics include: An ontology for software component matching; a description language for composable components; a logical basis for the specification of reconfigurable component-based systems; an overall system design approach doing object-oriented modeling to code-generation for embedded electronic systems; composing specifications of event based applications; a Spatio-Temporal logic for the specification and refinement of mobile systems; spatial security policies for mobile agents in a sentient computing environment; towards UML-based formal specifications of component-based real-time software; modelling recursive calls with UML state diagrams; model-based development of web applications using graphical reaction rules; modular analysis of dataflow process networks; foundations of a weak measurement-theoretic approach to software measurement; an information-based view of representational coupling in object-oriented systems; a temporal approach to specification and verification of pointer data-structures; a program logic for handling java card’s transaction mechanism; automatic model driven animation of SCR specifications; probe mechanism for object-oriented software testing; integration of formal datatypes within state diagrams; towards a natural interoperability between XML and ER diagrams; detecting implied scenarios analyzing non-local branching choices and capturing overlapping, triggered, and preemptive collaborations using MSCs.

This paper describes a Genetic Algorithms approach to a manpower-scheduling problem arising at a major UK hospital. Although Genetic Algorithms have been successfully used for similar problems in the past, they always had to overcome the limitations of the classical Genetic Algorithms paradigm in handling the conflict between objectives and constraints. The approach taken here is to use an indirect coding based on permutations of the nurses, and a heuristic decoder that builds schedules from these permutations. Computational experiments based on 52 weeks of live data are used to evaluate three different decoders with varying levels of intelligence, and four well-known crossover operators. Results are further enhanced by introducing a hybrid crossover operator and by making use of simple bounds to reduce the size of the solution space. The results reveal that the proposed algorithm is able to find high quality solutions and is both faster and more flexible than a recently published Tabu Search approach.

This paper presents the hypothesis that linguistic capacity evolved through the action of natural selection as an instrument which increased the efficiency of the cultural transmission system of early hominids. We suggest that during the early stages of hominization, hominid social learning, based on indirect social learning mechanisms and true imitation, came to constitute cumulative cultural transmission based on true imitation and the approval or disapproval of the learned behaviour of offspring. A key factor for this transformation was the development of a conceptual capacity for categorizing learned behaviour in value terms - positive or negative, good or bad. We believe that some hominids developed this capacity for categorizing behaviour, and such an ability allowed them to approve or disapprove of their offsprings- learned behaviour. With such an ability, hominids were favoured, as they could transmit to their offspring all their behavioural experience about what can and cannot be done. This capacity triggered a cultural transmission system similar to the human one, though pre-linguistic. We suggest that the adaptive advantage provided by this new system of social learning generated a selection pressure in favour of the development of a linguistic capacity allowing children to better understand the new kind of evaluative information received from parents. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Phenolic antioxidants seem to be partly responsible for the protective effects against cardiovascular diseases attributed to moderate wine consumption. Grape skins greatly contribute to the phenolic composition of red wine. In this paper, the in vitro antioxidant activity of red grape (Vitis vinifera) skins is determined. We show that the radical scavenging activity (C 50 values) against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH·) of grape skin extracts is relatively high (3.2–11.1 mg dried skin/mg DPPH·) in relation to other foodstuffs and, as expected, is influenced by grape variety, stage of grape ripening and vintage. The antioxidant potential of grape skins seems to be transferred into wine since grape varieties with skins exhibiting high antioxidant potential also resulted in wines with high antioxidant activity. Statistically significant correlations were found between antioxidant activity and phenolic content (total polyphenols, proanthocyanins, catechins and anthocyanins) for both grape skins and wines.

International Chicken Genome Sequencing Consortium. The Original Article was published on 09 December 2004. Nature432, 695–716 (2004). In Table 5 of this Article, the last four values listed in the ‘Copy number’ column were incorrect. These should be: LTR elements, 30,000; DNA transposons, 20,000; simple repeats, 140,000; and satellites, 4,000. These errors do not affect any of the conclusions in our paper. Additional information. The online version of the original article can be found at 10.1038/nature03154

International Chicken Genome Sequencing Consortium. The Original Article was published on 09 December 2004. Nature432, 695–716 (2004). In Table 5 of this Article, the last four values listed in the ‘Copy number’ column were incorrect. These should be: LTR elements, 30,000; DNA transposons, 20,000; simple repeats, 140,000; and satellites, 4,000. These errors do not affect any of the conclusions in our paper. Additional information. The online version of the original article can be found at 10.1038/nature03154

International Chicken Genome Sequencing Consortium. The Original Article was published on 09 December 2004. Nature432, 695–716 (2004). In Table 5 of this Article, the last four values listed in the ‘Copy number’ column were incorrect. These should be: LTR elements, 30,000; DNA transposons, 20,000; simple repeats, 140,000; and satellites, 4,000. These errors do not affect any of the conclusions in our paper. Additional information. The online version of the original article can be found at 10.1038/nature03154

The study of blood chemistry provides important information about many aspects of the biology and physiology of animals. It is known that many factors can influence the results of such analyses. A proper knowledge of these effects is necessary to correctly interpret the results. In this paper, we analyzed the daily variations of blood biochemical parameters of 32 captive red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa) of both sexes to test the effect of the daily cycle on these parameters. We found daily variation in glucose, cholesterol, uric acid, triglycerides, and calcium, but not in total protein and creatinine. A sex effect was only significant in uric acid. The most reliable data were those obtained from blood samples collected in midday hours. Hence, this time is suggested for blood-sampling in future studies.

This paper describes a simple gas chromatographic method for the analysis of (higher) oligosaccharides without needing a high-temperature procedure. The newly developed method used an ordinary capillary column and a temperature program with 360°C as the maximum temperature. Sample preparation consisted of the oxymation and silyation of the sugars. Oligosaccharides with degrees of polymerisation of up to 7 could be determined with good repeatability (variation coefficient < 7.5%), reproducibility (variation coefficient < 11.8%) and accuracy (mean recovery 103.9%).Analysis of oligosaccharide-enriched food products demonstrated that this cheap and easy procedure could be a valuable and reliable tool for the quantitative determination of oligosaccharides in foodstuffs.

Rice paddies constitute a very special agrobiosystem, which for some circumstances, could be considered as a human driven wetland. The complexity of such dynamic systems is a key element for conducting ecological risk assessments, in addition, the proximity of rice paddies to areas of high ecological value must be considered. This paper presents a new conceptual model for conducting ecological risk assessments of pesticides and other agrochemicals in rice, based on a combination of three main elements, the source of the stressor, the exposed environmental compartments and the relevance of the ecological receptors. A tiered testing strategy, starting with the standard requirements for pesticides and moving to specific higher tier studies with three levels of risk refinement is also presented. © Springer-Verlag 2005.

Different studies have evidenced the relationship between host abundance and health status of wildlife populations. Diseases that benefit from wildlife overabundance can affect not only the fitness and trophy quality of game species, but also public health, livestock health, and the conservation of endangered species. This paper reviews a number of European examples to highlight the relationship between overabundance and disease in game species, and discusses the possibilities of limiting the associated risks. Management tools to estimate overabundance are needed for legislative purposes and for the monitoring of wildlife populations, but artificial feeding interferes in the objective measurement of overabundance. Therefore, we propose a multidisciplinary approach to diagnose if a given wildlife population is overabundant. This includes not only signs such as adverse effects on the soil, vegetation or fauna (first group), poor body condition scores, low trophy scores or low reproductive performance (second group), or increased parasite burdens (third group), but also the measurement of infectious disease prevalences (the fourth group of overabundance signs). This combined assessment of overabundance ideally requires the cooperation of wildlife managers, botanists, and veterinarians. Once a given wildlife population is defined as overabundant, it is difficult to establish palliative management actions. These can consist in banning certain management tools (e.g. feeding) or increasing the hunting harvest, but both of them are difficult to implement in practice. A close monitoring of both wildlife densities and wildlife diseases, the establishment of reference values for all signs of overabundance, and the mapping of the disease and density hotspots will be needed to design adequate risk-control measures for each particular situation.

We investigate efficient frequency-doubling of low energy femtosecond pulses in bulk and waveguide nonlinear crystals, thereby demonstrating how to achieve a compact and portable ultrafast blue light Source. Using a femtosecond Cr:LiSAF laser (fundamental wavelength 860 nm) we examine the relative merits of the process of second harmonic generation (SHG) using bulk potassium niobate, bulk aperiodically-poled KTP, periodically-poled and aperiodically-poled KTP waveguide crystals. While SHG conversion efficiencies LIP to 37% were achieved using the waveguides, non-traditional strong focusing in the bulk samples yielded efficiencies of 30%. We have developed several theoretical models to accurately describe the temporal and spectral properties of the generated blue light, as well as the observed saturation behavior of the conversion process in the waveguide structures., Part of proceedings ISBN 1-4020-4164-0QCR 20190211

The relationship between disease susceptibility and genetic variation is complex, and many different types of data are relevant. We describe a web resource and database that provides and integrates as much information as possible on disease/gene relationships at the molecular level. The resource http://www.SNPs3D.org has three primary modules. One module identifies which genes are candidates for involvement in a specified disease. A second module provides information about the relationships between sets of candidate genes. The third module analyzes the likely impact of non-synonymous SNPs on protein function. Disease/candidate gene relationships and gene-gene relationships are derived from the literature using simple but effective text profiling. SNP/protein function relationships are derived by two methods, one using principles of protein structure and stability, the other based on sequence conservation. Entries for each gene include a number of links to other data, such as expression profiles, pathway context, mouse knockout information and papers. Gene-gene interactions are presented in an interactive graphical interface, providing rapid access to the underlying information, as well as convenient navigation through the network. Use of the resource is illustrated with aspects of the inflammatory response and hypertension. The combination of SNP impact analysis, a knowledge based network of gene relationships and candidate genes, and access to a wide range of data and literature allow a user to quickly assimilate available information, and so develop models of gene-pathway-disease interaction.

Rising obesity and declining physical activity levels are of great concern because of the associated health risks. Many children are left unsupervised after the school day ends, but little is known about the association between unsupervised time and physical activity levels. This paper seeks to determine whether adolescent girls who are without adult supervision after school are more or less active than their peers who have a caregiver at home. A random sample of girls from 36 middle schools at 6 field sites across the U.S. was selected during the fall of the 2002–2003 school year to participate in the baseline measurement activities of the Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls (TAAG). Information was collected using six-day objectively measured physical activity, self-reported physical activity using a three-day recall, and socioeconomic and psychosocial measures. Complete information was available for 1422 out of a total of 1596 respondents. Categorical variables were analyzed using chi square and continuous variables were analyzed by t-tests. The four categories of time alone were compared using a mixed linear model controlling for clustering effects by study center. Girls who spent more time after school (≥2 hours per day, ≥2 days per week) without adult supervision were more active than those with adult supervision (p = 0.01). Girls alone for ≥2 hours after school, ≥2 days a week, on average accrue 7.55 minutes more moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day than do girls who are supervised (95% confidence interval ([C.I]). These results adjusted for ethnicity, parent's education, participation in the free/reduced lunch program, neighborhood resources, or available transportation. Unsupervised girls (n = 279) did less homework (53.1% vs. 63.3%), spent less time riding in a car or bus (48.0% vs. 56.6%), talked on the phone more (35.5% vs. 21.1%), and watched more television (59.9% vs. 52.6%) than supervised girls (n = 569). However, unsupervised girl

Accurate selection of splice sites during the splicing of precursors to messenger RNA requires both relatively well-characterized signals at the splice sites and auxiliary signals in the adjacent exons and introns. We previously described a feature generation algorithm (FGA) that is capable of achieving high classification accuracy on human 3' splice sites. In this paper, we extend the splice-site prediction to 5' splice sites and explore the generated features for biologically meaningful splicing signals. We present examples from the observed features that correspond to known signals, both core signals (including the branch site and pyrimidine tract) and auxiliary signals (including GGG triplets and exon splicing enhancers). We present evidence that features identified by FGA include splicing signals not found by other methods. Our generated features capture known biological signals in the expected sequence interval flanking splice sites. The method can be easily applied to other species and to similar classification problems, such as tissue-specific regulatory elements, polyadenylation sites, promoters, etc.

The recent availability of new, less expensive high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies has yielded a dramatic increase in the volume of sequence data that must be analyzed. These data are being generated for several purposes, including genotyping, genome resequencing, metagenomics, and de novo genome assembly projects. Sequence alignment programs such as MUMmer have proven essential for analysis of these data, but researchers will need ever faster, high-throughput alignment tools running on inexpensive hardware to keep up with new sequence technologies. This paper describes MUMmerGPU, an open-source high-throughput parallel pairwise local sequence alignment program that runs on commodity Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) in common workstations. MUMmerGPU uses the new Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) from nVidia to align multiple query sequences against a single reference sequence stored as a suffix tree. By processing the queries in parallel on the highly parallel graphics card, MUMmerGPU achieves more than a 10-fold speedup over a serial CPU version of the sequence alignment kernel, and outperforms the exact alignment component of MUMmer on a high end CPU by 3.5-fold in total application time when aligning reads from recent sequencing projects using Solexa/Illumina, 454, and Sanger sequencing technologies. MUMmerGPU is a low cost, ultra-fast sequence alignment program designed to handle the increasing volume of data produced by new, high-throughput sequencing technologies. MUMmerGPU demonstrates that even memory-intensive applications can run significantly faster on the relatively low-cost GPU than on the CPU.

Background: Malnutrition is a major public health and development concern in the developing world and in poor communities within these regions. Understanding the nature and determinants of socioeconomic inequality in malnutrition is essential in contemplating the health of populations in developing countries and in targeting resources appropriately to raise the health of the poor and most vulnerable groups. Methods: This paper uses a concentration index to summarize inequality in children's height-for-age z-scores in Ghana across the entire socioeconomic distribution and decomposes this inequality into different contributing factors. Data is used from the Ghana 2003 Demographic and Health Survey. Results: The results show that malnutrition is related to poverty, maternal education, health care and family planning and regional characteristics. Socioeconomic inequality in malnutrition is mainly associated with poverty, health care use and region al disparities. Although average malnutrition is higher using the new growth standards recently released by the World Health Organization,socioeconomic inequality and the associated factors are robust to the change of reference population. Conclusion: Child malnutrition in Ghana is a multisectoral problem. The factors associated with average malnutrition rates are not necessarily the same as those associated with socioeconomic inequality in malnutrition.

This is a sequel of our paper hep-th/0606125 in which we have studied the {cal N}=1 SU(N) SYM theory obtained as a marginal deformation of the {cal N}=4 theory, with a complex deformation parameter eta and in the planar limit. There we have addressed the issue of conformal invariance imposing the theory to be finite and we have found that finiteness requires reality of the deformation parameter eta. In this paper we relax the finiteness request and look for a theory that in the planar limit has vanishing beta functions. We perform explicit calculations up to five loop order: we find that the conditions of beta function vanishing can be achieved with a complex deformation parameter, but the theory is not finite and the result depends on the arbitrary choice of the subtraction procedure. Therefore, while the finiteness condition leads to a scheme independent result, so that the conformal invariant theory with a real deformation is physically well defined, the condition of vanishing beta function leads to a result which is scheme dependent and therefore of unclear significance. In order to show that these findings are not an artefact of dimensional regularization, we confirm our results within the differential renormalization approach.

QC 20190201

Theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that avian females are able to manipulate the offspring sex ratio at birth. Although mating with an attractive male may induce females to skew the sex ratio toward males, the balance between the benefits of producing attractive sons and the costs of competing with other females for mates could vary with female age, a possibility that had not been previously explored. In this paper we increment experimentally the attractiveness of males of the polygynous spotless starling (Sturnus unicolor) by adding green plants to their nests, a trait involved in courtship, and look for female age-differential effects on offspring primary sex ratio. Young and middle aged females produced more sons in experimental than in control nests, as expected, but old females showed the opposite tendency. To explain this novel result, we speculate that older females are limited to produce the most costly sex because the physiological drawbacks imposed by ageing reduce their ability to compete with younger ones for the non-shareable resources offered by males. We discuss that this evolutionary scenario may be widespread in avian polygynous systems.

The paper considers the basic physical hypotheses used in constructing models for activated alloy formation by cold intensive plastic deformation. The basis for the model is a messenger mechanism of evolution for the stress pattern in plastic deformation of a polycrystalline material. Allowance is made for the vacancy fluxes as additional accommodation mode for the strain, which provides preservation of the continuity, and which enables one to describe the alloy composition redistribution on strain. Experimental data are compared with conclusions from models for activated alloy formation: a model operated on a ballistic mechanism for atomic migration and an alternative new model considered in the paper. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.

This paper is devoted to using perturbation and variational techniques to derive some sufficient conditions for the existence of multiple positive solutions in the sense of distributions to a singular second-order dynamic equation with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions, which includes those problems related to the negative exponent Emden-Fowler equation

Blood biochemical parameters may provide useful information about the physical condition of the individual, making them a useful tool in ecological studies. However, to avoid biases, factors affecting circulating levels of plasma metabolites must be investigated. In this paper, we analyse the effect of daytime sampling hour on seven plasma metabolites in adult red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa) with free access to food during the breeding season. We found that sampling hour affected circulating levels of glucose and triglycerides but not those of cholesterol, total protein, uric acid, urea or albumin. A sex effect was found only for glucose, uric acid, urea and triglycerides. Repeated sampling affected all the parameters studied. These results suggest that the effect of sex, sampling hour and repeated sampling should be carefully controlled for (methodologically or by statistical procedures) to avoid undesirable sources of error at least in some blood parameters.

A new method to screen and to identify genetically modified organisms (GMO) is presented in this paper. It is based on the detection of multiple genetic elements common to GMO by their amplification via PCR followed by direct hybridisation of the amplicons on microarray. The pattern of the elements is then compared to a database of the composition of EU-approved GMO and an identification of the GMO is then proposed. The limit of detection of the method was ≤0.1% GMO content (w/w) expressed as the amount of target DNA present in the template for single unprocessed material. The DNA targets were detected both in reference materials and in mixtures with the same detection limit. The specificity for the detection of the different elements was found to be very good with no cross-reaction even in samples with two GMO present at different concentrations. The paper presents examples of GMO identification and discusses the potential and limitation of such approaches and how they can facilitate the work of private and enforcement detection laboratories.

Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is a precise method to measure changes in gene transcript level. Accurate quantification requires careful RNA quality assessment, determination of primer efficiency, and selection of an appropriate reference gene. While many experimental procedures for these purposes have been described for mammalian samples, the direct application of these methods to plant samples often introduces unexpected experimental errors due to the complex and variable nature of the ribosomal RNA species present in typical plant extracts. In this paper, we report a simple procedure for the purification and quantification of complementary DNA (cDNA) after reverse transcriptase reactions by microcapillary electrophoresis. The use of purified cDNA allows template concentrations to be more accurately standardized for SYBR Green PCR reactions and increases amplification efficiencies so that these closely resemble those determined by the standard curve method. These advantages facilitate a more precise evaluation of the transcript levels of candidate reference genes under various experimental conditions without bias from differences in reverse transcriptase efficiency, template loading, or the presence of PCR inhibitors following reverse transcription. Using samples from Arabidopsis thaliana and Picea abies (Norway spruce), we demonstrate the value of this approach for selecting reference genes.

The aim of the paper is to critically review contributions on the role of innovation upon industrial dynamics and the evolution of sectors. Two theoretical and interpretative divides stream along the literature;on the one hand, there is the well known divide «technology push vs. demand pull». The technology push literature assumes that, being the set of possible human needs limitless, users cannot provide information for firms, which ultimately make their decision based upon technological opportunities and bottlenecks. Conversely, demand pull theories suggest that there is tendency of new technology to lag behind the revelation of human needs. On the other hand, both technology push and demand pull contributions are not monolithic, neither homogenous since a second divide intersects both streams of literature. Indeed there exists a flow of literature both coherent with mainstream economics and focused on the monetary incentives of firms to innovate. On the technology side, this is translated into the analysis of the impact of markets and institutions upon the rewards of innovation. On the demand side, this framework results in the analysis of the market size as the main pull mechanism. A second approach departs from mainstream economics, sacrifices the analytical tractability of the issues, and highlights the role of the knowledge embedded in the innovation processes. The focus is thus on the learning process within and between firms as necessary conditions to innovation. The demand side here is conceived as a flow of information from users and consumers to producers. The organization of the paper will mimic the historical structure of the literature. Specifically, it shows how these approaches emerged, the critiques they are confronted with and, eventually, their refinement. Finally, the paper discusses the recent attempts to overcome both divides in order to have an increasingly coherent theory of innovation and evolution of industries.

This paper reports on the results of ab initio spin-polarized GW calculations of quasiparticle properties, such as the spectral weight, the lifetime, the velocity, and the mean free path, for the FeCo ferromagnetic alloy and its components. The contribution of the localized d states to the above characteristics has been analyzed. The spin asymmetry of the properties of quasiparticle excitations, which is responsible for the spin filter effect observed in experiments, has been investigated. The contributions to the mean free path from the electron scattering processes, which are disregarded within the framework of the GW approximation, have been estimated from a comparison with experimental data.