6,154 research outputs found
gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor stimulation. II. Specificity of progabide (SL 76002) and SL 75102 for the GABA receptor
No full textProgabide and its immediate metabolite SL 75102 displace [3H]gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), [3H]muscimol and [3H]isoguvacine from their binding sites to membranes prepared from rat brain or human cerebellum and increase (SL 75102) [3H]flunitrazepam binding to rat cerebral cortex membranes. In contrast, these compounds have very weak or no effects on alpha or beta noradrenergic, histamine, muscarinic cholinergic or glycine receptors or on the [3H]imipramine or [3H]kainate binding sites. Neither progabide nor SL 75102 inhibit GABA synthesis, metabolism or uptake. Also, the uptake of norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine into synaptosomes of cerebral regions is not affected by progabide. [3H]GABA release from substantia nigra slices is decreased by SL 75102 and progabide, in agreement with the hypothesis of a GABAergic autoreceptor controlling GABA release from its nerve terminals. These data suggest a specific agonist action of progabide and SL 75102 on GABA receptors
Bleek and Lloyd in Second Life
No full textThis report describes the process of setting up a 3D representation of the Digital Bleek and Lloyd collection (lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za) in Second Life (SL). The building, scripting and evaluation of the SL exhibit are discussed. The report concludes that SL is a good platform for this kind of cultural representation. At a university level it could be used to showcase and share researchers’ work
Harmonic analysis of SL(2) over a locally compact field
No full textAbstractWe carry over the pioneer work of Kunze and Stein concerning representation theory and harmonic analysis on SL(2, R) to the group G = SL(2, K), K a locally compact totally disconnected nondiscrete field. The main result is that convolution by an Lp(G) function, 1 ⩽ p < 2, is a bounded operator on L2(G). To accomplish this result we develop the appropriate estimates (which depend upon the work of Sally et al.) that enable us to apply the Kunze and Stein interpolation theory to the Fourier-Laplace transform for the group G. Best possible estimates are obtained
Pseudonus squamiceps Lloyd 1907
No full textPseudonus squamiceps Lloyd, 1907 Figs. 1–5 Diplacanthopoma squamiceps Lloyd, 1907: 10 (type locality off southeast coast of Arabia, 13 °09’N, 46 ° 45 ’E). Diplacanthopoma squamiceps: Lloyd 1908: pl. 42; Lloyd 1909: 165; Menon & Yazdani 1968: 148. Cataetyx platycephalus Smith & Radcliffe, 1913: 109, pl. 16, fig. 1; de Beaufort & Chapman 1951: 440, fig. 80. Material examined (14 specimens, 76–116 mm SL): USNM 74150 (holotype of P. platycephalus), 114 mm SL, female, Molucca Passage, Philippines, 0° 37 ’N, 127 ° 15 ’E, R/V Albatross, st. 3876, beam trawl, 763 m, 27 Nov. 1909. USNM 398909 (paratype of P. platycephalus), 76 mm SL, off northern Mindanao, Philippines, 8 ° 34 ’ 48 ’’N, 124 ° 1 ’ 24 ’’E, R/V Albatross, st. 5515, beam trawl, 1281 m, 8 Aug. 1909. USNM 227191, 108 mm SL, male, Gulf of Aden, 13 ° 5 ’ 36 ’’N, 46 ° 24 ’ 42 ’’E, R/V John Murray, st. 34, Agassiz trawl, 1022 m, 19 Oct. 1933. BMHN 1939.5. 24.1501, 116 mm SL, male, Gulf of Aden, 14 ° 36 ’ 6 ’N, 51 °0’ 18 ’’E to 14 ° 38 ’ 42 ’’N, 50 ° 57 ’ 42 ’’E, R/V John Murray, st. 184, Agassiz trawl, 1270 m, 4 May 1934. USNM 226488, 96 mm SL (male) and 92 mm SL (female), off Manila Bay and Lubang Id., Philippines, R/V Coriolis, Nov. 1980. MNHN 1984 -0652, 96–99 mm SL, 2 females, off Luzon Id., Tayabas Bay, 14 ° 1 ’N, 120 ° 18 ’E, R/V Coriolis, Musorstom 2 survey, st. 49 cp 4, beam trawl, 183–190 m, 26 Nov. 1980. ASIZ P 63829, 107 mm SL, female, off southwestern Taiwan, 22 ° 32 ’ 45 ’’N, 120 ° 5 ’ 48 ’’E, otter trawl, 810 m, 29 Aug. 2002. ASIZ P 64137, 106 mm SL, male, off southwestern Taiwan, 22 °N, 120 ° 48 ’E, CD 203, otter trawl, 864 m, 29 May 2003. NMV A 29719 -018, 100 mm SL, male, and 76 mm SL, female, off Northwestern Australia, Leveque L 27 transect, 14 ° 36 ’ 53 ’’S, 121 ° 19 ’ 39 ’’E to 14 ° 36 ’ 15 ’’S, 121 ° 20 ’ 41 ’’E, R/V Southern Surveyor, beam trawl, 698–705 m, 3 Jul. 2007. NMV A- 29651 -009, 77 mm SL, male, off Northwestern Australia, Barrow L 1 transect, 20 ° 59 ’ 25 ’’S, 114 ° 7 ’ 54 ’’E to 20 ° 59 ’ 8 ’’S, 114 ° 8 ’ 24 ’’E, R/V Southern Surveyor, beam trawl, 700 m, 9 Jun. 2007. NMV A 29679 -004, 84 mm SL, female, off Northwestern Australia, Mermaid L 24 transect, 16 ° 44 ’ 17 ’’S, 119 ° 15 ’ 2 ’’E to 16 ° 43 ’ 48 ’’S, 119 ° 15 ’ 29 ’’E, R/V Southern Surveyor, beam trawl, 693–698 m, 17 Jun. 2007. CSIRO H 6593 -02, 93 mm SL, female, northwest of Cape Leveque, Western Australia, 14 ° 36 ’S, 121 ° 20 ’E, R/V Southern Surveyor, field no. SS0507/ 147, beam trawl, 705 m, 2 Jul. 2007. Remarks to material. Additionally three specimens are known from the literature: the two syntypes of P. squamiceps were not available for examination outside ZSI and one of the three specimens caught by the John Murray expedition in the Gulf of Aden seems to be lost. Diagnosis and relationship. Pseudonus squamiceps differs from the only other known species of the genus, P. acutus, by having fewer dorsal fin rays (95–102 vs 101–119), anal fin rays (64–71 vs 74–85) and vertebrae (55–59 vs 61–63); pelvic fins with one ray in each in 14 of the 15 P. squamiceps specimens examined (one specimen with pelvic fin rays absent) vs pelvic fins absent in all six P. acutus specimens examined. Description. The major meristic and morphometric characters are mentioned in Table 2. Slender body with tapering tail (Fig. 2). Body and gill cover with small, overlapping scales. Indistinct lateral line. Vertical fins joined; origin of dorsal fin above tip of pectorals; origin of anal fin about midpoint of fish; pectoral fins placed below midpoint of body reaching halfway to anus; pelvic fins placed below posterior fourth of gill cover (pelvic fins absent in USNM 226488, SL 96 mm). Anterior nostril with a low rim close to upper lip, posterior a mere hole in front of eye. Opercle with strong straight or slightly downward-bent spine. Cleithrum with distinct, sharp spine just above pectoral peduncle. Anterior gill arch with two small, spiny knobs on upper branch and lower branch with three long rakers (one specimen with two) and 8–10 small, spiny knobs. Length of gill filaments equal to or larger than long rakers. Two small pseudobranchial filaments. Head pores (Figs. 3–4): One pore in front of each eye, one pore between eyes and three pores behind each eye all of which are large and prominent. Six suborbital pores, five pores in mandibular row and three preopercular pores. Dentition: All teeth are small, pointed and close-set. The boomerang-formed vomer and palatines with 2–4 rows, dentaries with 4–6 irregular rows and premaxillaries with 5–7 irregular rows. Sagittal otolith (Figs. 5 A–B): Otolith pointed anteriorly and more blunt posteriorly. Dorsal and ventral rim subeven. Sulcus undivided and placed closest to anterior and ventral rim, its length one third of otolith length. Otolith twice as long as high and about five times as long as thick. Axial skeleton (from radiographs): Number of precaudal vertebrae 15–16. Anterior neural spine about one third the length of second spine. All neural and haemal spines with pointed tips. Neural spines 2–10 depressed. Neural spines 4–11 with enlarged bases. Parapophyses on vertebrae 7–9 to 15–16. Pleural and epipleural ribs very thin and therefore difficult to count with any certainty. Coloration. Specimens preserved for three years are light brown with blue eyes and greenish lens, brownish branchial cavities and light blue abdomen. Distribution. Known from three separated areas (Fig. 1): Gulf of Aden (5 specimens), Philippines and south of Taiwan (8 specimens) and off Northwest Australia (5 specimens). All were caught in bottom trawls at depths between 416 and 1270 m.Published as part of Nielsen, Jørgen G., 2011, Revision of the bathyal fish genus Pseudonus (Teleostei, Bythitidae); P. s q u a m i c e p s a senior synonym of P. platycephalus, new to Australian waters, pp. 59-66 in Zootaxa 2867 on pages 61-64, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20157
Confidential Direct Communications: A Quantum Approach Using Continuous Variables
No full textWe consider the problem of privacy in direct communications, showing how quantum mechanics can be useful to guarantee a certain level of confidentiality. In particular, we review a continuous variable approach recently proposed by us [Pirandola et al., Europhys. Lett., vol. 84, pp. 20013-1-20013-6, 2008]. Here, we analyze the degree of privacy of this technique against a broader class of attacks, which includes non-Gaussian eavesdropping
CR1 Knops blood group alleles are not associated with severe malaria in the Gambia
No full textThe Knops blood group antigen erythrocyte polymorphisms have been associated with reduced falciparum malaria-based in vitro rosette formation (putative malaria virulence factor). Having previously identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human complement receptor 1 (CR1/CD35) gene underlying the Knops antithetical antigens Sl1/Sl2 and McC(a)/McC(b), we have now performed genotype comparisons to test associations between these two molecular variants and severe malaria in West African children living in the Gambia. While SNPs associated with Sl:2 and McC(b+) were equally distributed among malaria-infected children with severe malaria and control children not infected with malaria parasites, high allele frequencies for Sl 2 (0.800, 1,365/1,706) and McC(b) (0.385, 658/1706) were observed. Further, when compared to the Sl 1/McC(a) allele observed in all populations, the African Sl 2/McC(b) allele appears to have evolved as a result of positive selection (modified Nei-Gojobori test Ka-Ks/s.e.=1.77, P-valu
CWRML: representing crop wild relative conservation and use data in XML
No full textBackground
Crop wild relatives are wild species that are closely related to crops. They are valuable as potential gene donors for crop improvement and may help to ensure food security for the future. However, they are becoming increasingly threatened in the wild and are inadequately conserved, both in situ and ex situ. Information about the conservation status and utilisation potential of crop wild relatives is diverse and dispersed, and no single agreed standard exists for representing such information; yet, this information is vital to ensure these species are effectively conserved and utilised. The European Community-funded project, European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment and Conservation Forum, determined the minimum information requirements for the conservation and utilisation of crop wild relatives and created the Crop Wild Relative Information System, incorporating an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema to aid data sharing and exchange.
Results
Crop Wild Relative Markup Language (CWRML) was developed to represent the data necessary for crop wild relative conservation and ensure that they can be effectively utilised for crop improvement. The schema partitions data into taxon-, site-, and population-specific elements, to allow for integration with other more general conservation biology schemata which may emerge as accepted standards in the future. These elements are composed of sub-elements, which are structured in order to facilitate the use of the schema in a variety of crop wild relative conservation and use contexts. Pre-existing standards for data representation in conservation biology were reviewed and incorporated into the schema as restrictions on element data contents, where appropriate.
Conclusion
CWRML provides a flexible data communication format for representing in situ and ex situ conservation status of individual taxa as well as their utilisation potential. The development of the schema highlights a number of instances where additional standards-development may be valuable, particularly with regard to the representation of population-specific data and utilisation potential. As crop wild relatives are intrinsically no different to other wild plant species there is potential for the inclusion of CWRML data elements in the emerging standards for representation of biodiversity data
Quantum and its irreducible representations
No full textWe define for real a unital -algebra
quantizing the universal enveloping
-algebra of . The -algebra
is realized as a -subalgebra of the
Drinfeld double of and its dual Hopf -algebra
, generated by the equatorial Podle\'s sphere coideal
-subalgebra of and
its associated orthogonal coideal -subalgebra . We then classify all the irreducible
-representations of .Comment: 22 pages; author accepted manuscrip
On the sheaf-theoretic SL(2, C) Casson–Lin invariant
No full textWe prove that the (τ-weighted, sheaf-theoretic) SL(2, C) Casson–Lin invariant introduced by Manolescu and the first author is generically independent of the parameter τ and additive under connected sums of knots in integral homology 3-spheres. This addresses two questions asked by Manolescu and the first author. Our arguments involve a mix of topology and algebraic geometry, and rely crucially on the fact that the SL(2, C) Casson–Lin invariant admits an alternative interpretation via the theory of Behrend functions.</p
Candidatus Rhetoricae (or Novus Candidatus).
No full textThis little book is a find whatever it finally turns out to be! For now it seems to be a Jesuit collegium text in rhetoric following the Progymnasmata of Aphthonius. If one works from the back of the book, there is an apparently independent 48-page work, Angelus Pacis by Nicolas Caussini (Latinized name), S.J. The rest of the book seems to be a commentary on or presentation of Aphthonius' Progymnasmata in 3 parts covering 435 pages, followed by a T of C and an AI, which is often one page off. Pars II is titled Rhetoricae Praecepta, Pars III De Panegyrico seu Laudatione. Pars I seems to be Apparatus ad Fabulam et Narrationem. Fable is handled on 15-31. After the famous Greek definition of Theion done into Latin ( sermo falsus veritatem effingens ), the author distinguishes rational (human) and moral (animal) fables, with mixed fables including both. He holds (19) that the sense of the fable generally needs to be expressed; otherwise people often miss the point of a fable. His Latin for promythium is praefabulatio, for epimythium affabulatio. Apologus and parabola are identical for him with fabula. After describing the qualities and uses of fables, the author presents some nine fables that exemplify various levels of style, twice telling the same stories on two levels (WL and FC). The last example is of the florid style: The Silkworm and the Spider takes four pages to tell! I found this book sitting in a box of disparate, unmarked, old books. It pays to look!This is a hardbound book (hard cover)Language note: Bilingual: Greek/LatinElzevers
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