Over the past decades, the in vitro use of pluripotent cell lines gained a crucial role in toxicology, preclinical drug testing and developmental biology. NTERA2 clone D1 cells were identified as pluripotent cells with high potential for neural differentiation. Although they are commonly used cellular sources in neuropharmacology and neurodevelopmental studies, their endodermal and mesodermal differentiation potential awaits further characterization. Here, we devised improved protocols for hepatogenic and osteogenic differentiation of NTERA2 clone D1 cells. Our in vitro differentiation assays showed significant up-regulation of multiple hepatogenic markers. We also observed robust mineralization and osteogenic marker expression of NTERA2 clone D1 cells upon in vitro osteogenic induction. These results suggest that NTERA2 clone D1 cells may be utilized as an in vitro model system to study various aspects of liver biology and osteogenesis. In addition, tri-lineage differentiation of NTERA2 clone D1 cells may serve as a simple experimental control system when validating pluripotency of other cell types.
To increase the computing speed of neural networks by means of parallel performance, a new mode of neural network, named Tri-state Cascading Pulse Coupled Neural Network (TCPCNN), is presented in this paper, which takes the ideas of three-state and pipelining used in circuit designing into neural network, and creates new neuron with three states: sub-firing, firing and inhibition. The proposed model can transmit signals in parallel way, as it is inspired not only in the direction of auto-wave propagation but also in its transverse direction in neural network. In this paper, TCPCNN is applied to find the shortest path, and the experimental results indicate that the algorithm has lower computational complexity, higher accuracy, and secured full-scale searching. Furthermore, it has little dependence on initial conditions and parameters. The algorithm is tested by some experiments, and its results are compared with some other classical algorithms --- Dijkstra algorithm, Bellman-Ford algorithm and a new algorithm using pulse coupled neural networks.
Interactions involving host plants (cowpea, groundnut, cotton, sunflower, greengram, blackgram) an insect herbivore, black legume aphid Aphis craccivora Koch (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and a predator, the zigzag beetle Cheilomenes sexmaculata (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were investigated during 2014-2015. The preference of the aphid A. craccivora for host plants measured in terms of growth and multiplication was cowpea > groundnut > greengram > blackgram > sunflower > cotton (most preferred to least preferred). Cowpea was the most preferred host plant for growth and multiplication of A. craccivora. Aphid's oviposition period was longest, fecundity greatest; adult longevity longest (188.40 ± 28.87 h; 52.00 ± 10.92; 231.60 ± 40.41 h), and nymphal mortality was lowest (0%) when reared on cowpea followed by groundnut, greengram and blackgram. Aphids had highest nymphal mortality (100%), with very few or no live adults produced, when reared on sunflower and cotton, the least preferred host of A. craccivora in this study. At the third trophic level, both the larvae and the adults of the coccinellid, Cheilomenes sexmaculata, consumed more of the aphids reared on groundnut than of those reared on blackgram, greengram, cowpea, sunflower and cotton. The biochemical constituents (phenols) present in cotton and sunflower, which contributed to the aphid's nymphal mortality, also affected the feeding behaviour of the coccinellid., Snehasish Routray, Karnam V. Hari Prasad., and Obsahuje bibliografii
One new and three previously described species of Trianchoratus Price et Berry, 1966 were collected from the gills of Channa lucius (Cuvier) and Channa striata (Bloch) from the Bukit Merah Reservoir, Perak and Endau-Rompin, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia. They are Trianchoratus longianchoratus sp. n., T. malayensis Lim, 1986 and T. pahangensis Lim, 1986 from C. lucius, and T. ophicephali Lim, 1986 from C. striata. The new species differs from the Trianchoratus species hitherto described from channids and anabantoids in having two ventral anchors with a long curved inner root and one dorsal anchor with a curved inner root and lacking an outer root. A table summarizing the known species of heteronchocleidins (Trianchoratus, Eutrianchoratus and Heteronchocleidus) and Sundanonchus reported from fish hosts of different families (Channidae, Helostomatidae, Anabantidae and Osphronemidae) is provided.
We show that each element in the semigroup $S_n$ of all $n \times n$ non-singular upper (or lower) triangular stochastic matrices is generated by the infinitesimal elements of $S_n$, which form a cone consisting of all $n \times n$ upper (or lower) triangular intensity matrices.
Our previous research was devoted to the problem of determining the primitive periods of the sequences (Gn mod p t )∞ n=1 where (Gn)∞ n=1 is a Tribonacci sequence defined by an arbitrary triple of integers. The solution to this problem was found for the case of powers of an arbitrary prime p ≠ 2, 11. In this paper, which could be seen as a completion of our preceding investigation, we find solution for the case of singular primes p = 2, 11.
Our research was inspired by the relations between the primitive periods of sequences obtained by reducing Tribonacci sequence by a given prime modulus p and by its powers p t , which were deduced by M. E. Waddill. In this paper we derive similar results for the case of a Tribonacci sequence that starts with an arbitrary triple of integers.