Showing 211 - 220 of 2039 Items

Higher rank lamplighter groups are graph automatic

Date: 2018-02-15

Creator: Sophie Bérubé

Tara Palnitkar

Jennifer Taback

Access: Open access

We show that the higher rank lamplighter groups, or Diestel–Leader groups Γd(q) for d≥3, are graph automatic. This introduces a new family of graph automatic groups which are not automatic.


Requirement for pectin methyl esterase and preference for fragmented over native pectins for wall-associated kinase-activated, EDS1/PAD4-dependent stress response in arabidopsis

Date: 2014-07-04

Creator: Bruce D. Kohorn

Susan L. Kohorn

Nicholas J. Saba

Victoriano Meco Martinez

Access: Open access

Background: The wall-associated kinases (WAKs) serve as pectin receptors. Results: A pectin methyl esterase and two transcription factor mutants suppress a dominant WAK allele. Conclusion: De-esterification of pectin is required for WAK activation though EDS1 and PAD4. Significance: The results provide a mechanism for the state of pectins to activate two different pathways. © 2014 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.


Level-rank duality of D-branes on the SU(N) group manifold

Date: 2006-04-17

Creator: Stephen G. Naculich

Howard J. Schnitzer

Access: Open access

The consequences of level-rank duality for untwisted D-branes on an SU(N) group manifold are explored. Relations are found between the charges of D-branes (which are classified by twisted K-theory) belonging to su (N)K and su (K)N theories, in the case of odd N + K. An isomorphism between the charge algebras is also demonstrated in this case. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


More pendants for Polya: Two loops in the SU(2) sector

Date: 2005-07-01

Creator: Marta Gómez-Reino

Stephen G. Naculich

Howard J. Schnitzer

Access: Open access

We extend the methods of Spradlin and Volovich to compute the partition function for a conformally-invariant gauge theory on ℝ × S 3 in which the dilatation operator is represented by a spin-chain hamiltonian acting on pairs of states, not necessarily nearest neighbors. A specific application of this is the two-loop dilatation operator of the planar SU(2) subsector of the N ≤ 4 SU(N) super Yang-Mills theory in the large-N limit. We compute the partition function and Hagedorn temperature for this sector to second order in the gauge coupling. The Hagedorn temperature is to be interpreted as giving the exponentially-rising portion of the density of states of the SU(2) sector, which may be a signal of stringy behavior in the dual theory. © SISSA 2005.


Metric properties of diestel-leader groups

Date: 2013-06-01

Creator: Melanie Stein

Jennifer Taback

Access: Open access



Economic-based projections of future land use in the conterminous United States under alternative policy scenarios

Date: 2012-04-01

Creator: V. C. Radeloff

E. Nelson

A. J. Plantinga

D. J. Lewis

D., Helmers

J. J. Lawler

J. C. Withey

F. Beaudry

S. Martinuzzi

Access: Open access

Land-use change significantly contributes to biodiversity loss, invasive species spread, changes in biogeochemical cycles, and the loss of ecosystem services. Planning for a sustainable future requires a thorough understanding of expected land use at the fine spatial scales relevant for modeling many ecological processes and at dimensions appropriate for regional or national-level policy making. Our goal was to construct and parameterize an econometric model of land-use change to project future land use to the year 2051 at a fine spatial scale across the conterminous United States under several alternative land-use policy scenarios. We parameterized the econometric model of land-use change with the National Resource Inventory (NRI) 1992 and 1997 land-use data for 844 000 sample points. Land-use transitions were estimated for five land-use classes (cropland, pasture, range, forest, and urban). We predicted land-use change under four scenarios: business-as-usual, afforestation, removal of agricultural subsidies, and increased urban rents. Our results for the business-as-usual scenario showed widespread changes in land use, affecting 36% of the land area of the conterminous United States, with large increases in urban land (79%) and forest (7%), and declines in cropland (\-16%) and pasture (\-13%). Areas with particularly high rates of land-use change included the larger Chicago area, parts of the Pacific Northwest, and the Central Valley of California. However, while land-use change was substantial, differences in results among the four scenarios were relatively minor. The only scenario that was markedly different was the afforestation scenario, which resulted in an increase of forest area that was twice as high as the business-as-usual scenario. Land-use policies can affect trends, but only so much. The basic economic and demographic factors shaping land-use changes in the United States are powerful, and even fairly dramatic policy changes, showed only moderate deviations from the business-as-usual scenario. Given the magnitude of predicted land-use change, any attempts to identify a sustainable future or to predict the effects of climate change will have to take likely land-use changes into account. Econometric models that can simulate land-use change for broad areas with fine resolution are necessary to predict trends in ecosystem service provision and biodiversity persistence. © 2012 by the Ecological Society of America.


The efficiency of voluntary incentive policies for preventing biodiversity loss

Date: 2011-01-01

Creator: David J. Lewis

Andrew J. Plantinga

Erik Nelson

Stephen Polasky

Access: Open access

Habitat loss is a primary cause of loss of biodiversity but conserving habitat for species presents challenges. Land parcels differ in their ability to produce returns for landowners and landowners may have private information about the value of the land to them. Land parcels also differ in the type and quality of habitat and the spatial pattern of land use across multiple landowners is important for determining the conservation value of parcels. This paper analyzes the relative efficiency of simple voluntary incentive-based policies in achieving biodiversity conservation objectives. This topic is important not just for biodiversity conservation but for any effort to provide a public good requiring coordination across multiple decision-makers who have some degree of private information. We develop a method that integrates spatially explicit data, an econometric model of private land-use decisions, landscape simulations, a biological model of biodiversity as a function of landscape pattern, and an algorithm that estimates the set of efficient solutions. These methods allow us to simulate landowner responses to policies, measure the consequences of these decisions for biodiversity conservation, and compare these outcomes to efficient outcomes to show the relative efficiency of various policy approaches. We find substantial differences in biodiversity conservation scores generated by simple voluntary incentive-based policies and efficient solutions. The performance of incentive-based policies is particularly poor at low levels of the conservation budget where spatial fragmentation of conserved parcels is a large concern. Performance can be improved by encouraging agglomeration of conserved habitat and by incorporating basic biological information, such as that on rare habitats, into the selection criteria. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.


Two modes of transvection at the eyes absent gene of Drosophila demonstrate plasticity in transcriptional regulatory interactions in cis and in trans

Date: 2019-01-01

Creator: Katherine Tian

Rachel E. Henderson

Reyna Parker

Alexia Brown

Justine E., Johnson

Jack R. Bateman

Access: Open access

For many genes, proper gene expression requires coordinated and dynamic interactions between multiple regulatory elements, each of which can either promote or silence transcription. In Drosophila, the complexity of the regulatory landscape is further complicated by the tight physical pairing of homologous chromosomes, which can permit regulatory elements to interact in trans, a phenomenon known as transvection. To better understand how gene expression can be programmed through cis- and trans-regulatory interactions, we analyzed transvection effects for a collection of alleles of the eyes absent (eya) gene. We find that trans-activation of a promoter by the eya eye-specific enhancers is broadly supported in many allelic backgrounds, and that the availability of an enhancer to act in trans can be predicted based on the molecular lesion of an eya allele. Furthermore, by manipulating promoter availability in cis and in trans, we demonstrate that the eye-specific enhancers of eya show plasticity in their promoter preference between two different transcriptional start sites, which depends on promoter competition between the two potential targets. Finally, we show that certain alleles of eya demonstrate pairing-sensitive silencing resulting from trans-interactions between Polycomb Response Elements (PREs), and genetic and genomic data support a general role for PcG proteins in mediating transcriptional silencing at eya. Overall, our data highlight how eya gene regulation relies upon a complex but plastic interplay between multiple enhancers, promoters, and PREs.


Rapid mechanisms for generating genome diversity: Whole ploidy shifts, aneuploidy, and loss of heterozygosity

Date: 2014-01-01

Creator: Richard J. Bennett

Anja Forche

Judith Berman

Access: Open access

Human fungal pathogens can exist in a variety of ploidy states, including euploid and aneuploid forms. Ploidy change has a major impact on phenotypic properties, including the regulation of interactions with the human host. In addition, the rapid emergence of drug-resistant isolates is often associated with the formation of specific supernumerary chromosomes. Pathogens such as Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans appear particularly well adapted for propagation in multiple ploidy states with novel pathways driving ploidy variation. In both species, heterozygous cells also readily undergo loss of heterozygosity (LOH), leading to additional phenotypic changes such as altered drug resistance. Here, we examine the sexual and parasexual cycles that drive ploidy variation in human fungal pathogens and discuss ploidy and LOH events with respect to their far-reaching roles in fungal adaptation and pathogenesis.


Mass Spectrometry Quantification, Localization, and Discovery of Feeding-Related Neuropeptides in Cancer borealis

Date: 2021-02-17

Creator: Kellen Delaney

Mengzhou Hu

Tessa Hellenbrand

Patsy S. Dickinson

Michael P., Nusbaum

Lingjun Li

Access: Open access

The crab Cancer borealis nervous system is an important model for understanding neural circuit dynamics and modulation, but the identity of neuromodulatory substances and their influence on circuit dynamics in this system remains incomplete, particularly with respect to behavioral state-dependent modulation. Therefore, we used a multifaceted mass spectrometry (MS) method to identify neuropeptides that differentiate the unfed and fed states. Duplex stable isotope labeling revealed that the abundance of 80 of 278 identified neuropeptides was distinct in ganglia and/or neurohemal tissue from fed vs unfed animals. MS imaging revealed that an additional 7 and 11 neuropeptides exhibited altered spatial distributions in the brain and the neuroendocrine pericardial organs (POs), respectively, during these two feeding states. Furthermore, de novo sequencing yielded 69 newly identified putative neuropeptides that may influence feeding state-related neuromodulation. Two of these latter neuropeptides were determined to be upregulated in PO tissue from fed crabs, and one of these two peptides influenced heartbeat in ex vivo preparations. Overall, the results presented here identify a cohort of neuropeptides that are poised to influence feeding-related behaviors, providing valuable opportunities for future functional studies.