Inheritance of growth habit detected by genetic linkage analysis using microsatellites in the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

The genetic linkage map for the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a valuable tool for breeding programs. Breeders provide new cultivars that meet the requirements of farmers and consumers, such as seed color, seed size, maturity, and growth habit. A genetic study was conducted to examine the genetics behind certain qualitative traits. Growth habit is usually described as a recessive trait inherited by a single gene, and there is no consensus about the position of the locus. The aim of this study was to develop a new genetic linkage map using genic and genomic microsatellite markers and three morphological traits: growth habit, flower color, and pod tip shape. A mapping population consisting of 380 recombinant F10 lines was generated from IAC-UNA x CAL143. A total of 871 microsatellites were screened for polymorphisms among the parents, and a linkage map was obtained with 198 mapped microsatellites. The total map length was 1865.9 cM, and the average distance between markers was 9.4 cM. Flower color and pod tip shape were mapped and segregated at Mendelian ratios, as expected. The segregation ratio and linkage data analyses indicated that the determinacy growth habit was inherited as two independent and dominant genes, and a genetic model is proposed for this trait.

Expectations, Learning and Monetary Policy: An Overview of Recent Research

Expectations about the future are central for determination of current macroeconomic outcomes and the formulation of monetary policy. Recent literature has explored ways for supplementing the benchmark of rational expectations with explicit models of expectations formation that rely on econometric learning. Some apparently natural policy rules turn out to imply expectational instability of private agents’ learning. We use the standard New Keynesian model to illustrate this problem and survey the key results about interest-rate rules that deliver both uniqueness and stability of equilibrium under econometric learning. We then consider some practical concerns such as measurement errors in private expectations, observability of variables and learning of structural parameters required for policy. We also discuss some recent applications including policy design under perpetual learning, estimated models with learning, recurrent hyperinflations, and macroeconomic policy to combat liquidity traps and deflation.

Adaptive learning in models with lagged variables

In this work I study the stability of the dynamics generated by adaptivelearning processes in intertemporal economies with lagged variables. Iprove that determinacy of the steady state is a necessary condition for the convergence of the learning dynamics and I show that the reciprocal is not true characterizing the economies where convergence holds. In the case of existence of cycles I show that there is not, in general, a relationship between determinacy and convergence of the learning process to the cycle. I also analyze the expectational stability of these equilibria.

Stable sunspot equilibria in a cash-in-advance economy

We analyze a monetary model with flexible labor supply, cash-inadvance constraints and seigniorage-financed government deficits. If the intertemporal elasticity of substitution of labor is greater than one, there are two steady states, one determinate and the other indeterminate. If the elasticity is less than one, there is a unique steady state, which can be indeterminate. Only in the latter case do there exist sunspot equilibria that are stable under adaptive learning. A sufficient reduction in government purchases can in many cases eliminate the sunspot equilibria while raising consumption/labor taxes even enough to balance the budget may fail to achieve determinacy.

On-the-Fly Maintenance of Series-Parallel Relationships in Fork-Join Multithreaded Programs

A key capability of data-race detectors is to determine whether one thread executes logically in parallel with another or whether the threads must operate in series. This paper provides two algorithms, one serial and one parallel, to maintain series-parallel (SP) relationships "on the fly" for fork-join multithreaded programs. The serial SP-order algorithm runs in O(1) amortized time per operation. In contrast, the previously best algorithm requires a time per operation that is proportional to Tarjan’s functional inverse of Ackermann’s function. SP-order employs an order-maintenance data structure that allows us to implement a more efficient "English-Hebrew" labeling scheme than was used in earlier race detectors, which immediately yields an improved determinacy-race detector. In particular, any fork-join program running in T₁ time on a single processor can be checked on the fly for determinacy races in O(T₁) time. Corresponding improved bounds can also be obtained for more sophisticated data-race detectors, for example, those that use locks. By combining SP-order with Feng and Leiserson’s serial SP-bags algorithm, we obtain a parallel SP-maintenance algorithm, called SP-hybrid. Suppose that a fork-join program has n threads, T₁ work, and a critical-path length of T[subscript ∞]. When executed on P processors, we prove that SP-hybrid runs in O((T₁/P + PT[subscript ∞]) lg n) expected time. To understand this bound, consider that the original program obtains linear speed-up over a 1-processor execution when P = O(T₁/T[subscript ∞]). In contrast, SP-hybrid obtains linear speed-up when P = O(√T₁/T[subscript ∞]), but the work is increased by a factor of O(lg n).

Análisis constitucional. Una introducción : cómo hacer cosas con la Constitución

La Corte Constitucional colombiana, a través de la interpretación del texto de la carta política, ha hecho invaluables aportes al desarrollo del derecho en nuestro país. Sin embargo, este proceso de definir las palabras de la Constitución requiere la utilización de preferencias valorativas y esto, como es natural, implica un grave riesgo para la seguridad jurídica: ¿hasta dónde puede llegar el intérprete, ¿cuáles son los límites que debe respetar?. Este riesgo incrementa si tenemos en cuenta que buena parte de la doctrina constitucional colombiana contemporánea, llamada por algunos neoconstitucionalismo, ha creado una nueva jerga erudita impenetrable llena de metáforas sofisticadas, razonamientos abstrusos, argumentos con una gran carga emotiva y citas herméticas que, en cierta medida, le han permitido encubrir sus ideas y valoraciones y, de este modo, evitar que sean sensatamente escudriñadas. En un sistema como el colombiano, erigido sobre el principio de frenos y contrapesos entre los distintos poderes del Estado, si el poder político se ejerce a través de la justicia constitucional, en un lenguaje incomprensible y presentado como un argumento de última instancia, todo el equilibrio se viene abajo y, muy pronto, el derecho se convierte en el principal instrumento del despotismo., de Daniel Mendonca, es un libro perfectamente honesto que presenta sus ideas con absoluta claridad y ayuda a trazar los límites entre la discrecionalidad y la arbitrariedad de la interpretación constitucional.

Do real balance effects invalidate the Taylor principle in closed and open economies?

This paper examines the determinacy implications of forecast-based monetary policy rules that set the interest rate in response to expected future inflation in a Neo-Wicksellian model that incorporates real balance effects. We show that the presence of such effects in closed economies restricts the ability of the Taylor principle to prevent indeterminacy of the rational expectations equilibrium. The problem is exacerbated in open economies, particularly if the policy rule reacts to consumer-price, rather than domestic-price, inflation. However, determinacy can be restored in both closed and open economies with the addition of monetary policy inertia.

M-deformations of A-simple germs from R(n) to R(n+1)

All A-simple corank-1 germs from R(n) to R(n+1), where n not equal 4, have an M-deformation, that is a deformation in which the maximal numbers of isolated stable singular points are simultaneously present in the image.

Bi-Lipschitz G-triviality and Newton polyhedra, G = R, C, K, R-V, C-V, K-V

In this work we provide estimates for the bi-Lipschitz G-triviality, G = C or K, for a family of map germs satisfying a Lojasiewicz condition. We work with two cases: the class of weighted homogeneous map germs and the class of non-degenerate map germs with respect to some Newton polyhedron. We also consider the bi-Lipschitz triviality for families of map germs defined on an analytic variety V. We give estimates for the bi-Lipschitz G(V)-triviality where G = R,C or K in the weighted homogeneous case. Here we assume that the map germ and the analytic variety are both weighted homogeneous with respect to the same weights. The method applied in this paper is based in the construction of controlled vector fields in the presence of a suitable Lojasiewicz condition. In the last section of this work we compare our results with other results related to this work showing tables with all estimates that we know, including ours.

microRNA156-targeted SPL/ SBP box transcription factors regulate tomato ovary and fruit development

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Double point curves for corank 2 map germs from C-2 to C-3

We characterize finite determinacy of map germs f : (C-2, 0) -> (C-3, 0) in terms of the Milnor number mu(D(f)) of the double point curve D(f) in (C-2, 0) and we provide an explicit description of the double point scheme in terms of elementary symmetric functions. Also we prove that the Whitney equisingularity of 1-parameter families of map germs f(t) : (C-2, 0) -> (C-3, 0) is equivalent to the constancy of both mu(D(f(t))) and mu(f(t)(C-2)boolean AND H) with respect to t, where H subset of C-3 is a generic plane. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Projections of hypersurfaces in 'R POT.4' with boundary to planes

We study orthogonal projections of generic embedded hypersurfaces in 'R POT.4' with boundary to 2-spaces. Therefore, we classify simple map germs from 'R POT.3' to the plane of codimension less than or equal to 4 with the source containing a distinguished plane which is preserved by coordinate changes. We also go into some detail on their geometrical properties in order to recognize the cases of codimension less than or equal to 1.

Language, Thought, Relativism, Nationalism: An Interdisciplinary Study

Ms. Neumer and her team began their project with a critical analysis of the various theories of the relationship between language and thought. Their aim was to develop a theoretical position concerning the issue of universalism versus relativism. This issue is closely bound up with one of the main questions of the history of East and Central Europe, namely, the question of the nation, and the possibility of mutual understanding between national cultures. The team attempted to avoid falling into an all-too-common trap, that of allowing a political perspective to obscure the central theoretical issues. In a project whose outcome totalled over 1000 pages of manuscript in German, English and Hungarian, they touched on cognitive psychological, linguistic, semiotic, socio-semiotic, and other such themes. Their experience has convinced them of the fruitful heuristic possibilities of the interaction of scientific and philosophical approaches in this area of research. A preliminary analysis of the history of philosophy and inquiries into conceptual fields revealed that, in order to reach strong relativist conclusions concerning the unity of thought and language, it is required to take as a point of departure the widest possible sense of these concepts. But in fact, such an option ends up refuting itself: pursuing the premises to their final conclusion one arrives at the restriction of relativism. The team outlined a theory of the understanding of the Other which, borrowing from analytical as well as continental-hermeneutic trends, does not underestimate, on the one hand, the difficulties of understanding between various forms of life, cultures, and languages, but, on the other hand, can provide an alternative solution to the theory of incommensurabiltiy. Within the boundary of this problematic the team studied the problems of translatability, the acquisition of the mother and foreign languages, and natural or cultural determinacy of kind terms. The team regards its most original contribution to be the association of the problem of relativism-universalism and the language-thought relation with contemporary investigations into the question of orality, literacy, and secondary orality. Their conclusion was that, although certain connections can be revealed both between forms of communication and the thesis of the unity of language and thought, and between periods in the history of communication and the predominance of relativistic or universalistic tendencies, forms of communication do not unequivocally determine the answers to these questions.

Plant architecture

Plant architecture is species specific, indicating that it is under strict genetic control. Although it is also influenced by environmental conditions such as light, temperature, humidity and nutrient status, here we wish to focus only on the endogenous regulatory principles that control plant architecture. We summarise recent progress in the understanding of the basic patterning mechanisms involved in the regulation of leaf arrangement, the genetic regulation of meristem determinacy, i.e. the decision to stop or continue growth, and the control of branching during vegetative and generative development. Finally, we discuss the basis of leaf architecture and the role of cell division and cell growth in morphogenesis.

Integrated program debugging, verification, and optimization using abstract interpretation (and the Ciao system preprocessor)

The technique of Abstract Interpretation has allowed the development of very sophisticated global program analyses which are at the same time provably correct and practical. We present in a tutorial fashion a novel program development framework which uses abstract interpretation as a fundamental tool. The framework uses modular, incremental abstract interpretation to obtain information about the program. This information is used to validate programs, to detect bugs with respect to partial specifications written using assertions (in the program itself and/or in system libraries), to generate and simplify run-time tests, and to perform high-level program transformations such as multiple abstract specialization, parallelization, and resource usage control, all in a provably correct way. In the case of validation and debugging, the assertions can refer to a variety of program points such as procedure entry, procedure exit, points within procedures, or global computations. The system can reason with much richer information than, for example, traditional types. This includes data structure shape (including pointer sharing), bounds on data structure sizes, and other operational variable instantiation properties, as well as procedure-level properties such as determinacy, termination, nonfailure, and bounds on resource consumption (time or space cost). CiaoPP, the preprocessor of the Ciao multi-paradigm programming system, which implements the described functionality, will be used to illustrate the fundamental ideas.