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An explanation of relations between the large scale structure of the universe and the tiny scale structure of the particle physics, e.g. the observed mysterious relation between the dark energy density and the dark matter of the universe and the neutrino mass and the SUSY breaking mass scale of the particle physics may be given by the nonlinear supersymmetric general relativity NLSUSY GR. NLSUSY GR shows that considering the physics beforeof the big bang BB of the universe may be significant and may give new insight to unsolved problems of the low energy particle physics, cosmology and their relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  Symbiotic dinoflagellates of the species Amphidinium are expected to be pharmaceutically useful microalgae because they produce antitumor macrolides. A microalgae production system with a large number of cells at a high density has been developed for the efficient production of macrolide compounds. In the present study, the effects of culture conditions on the cellular growth rate of dinoflagellates were investigated to determine the optimum culture conditions for obtaining high yields of microalgae. Amphidinium species was cultured under conditions with six temperature levels (21–35°C), six levels of photosynthetic photon flux density (15–70 μmol photons m−2 s−1), three levels of CO2 concentration (0.02–0.1%), and three levels of O2 concentration (0.2–21%). The number of cells cultured in a certain volume of solution was monitored microscopically and the cellular growth rate was expressed as the specific growth rate. The maximum specific growth rate was 0.022 h−1 at a temperature of 26°C and O2 concentration of 5%, and the specific growth rate was saturated at a CO2 concentration of 0.05%, a photosynthetic photon flux density of 35 μmol photons m−2 s−1 and a photoperiod of 12 h day−1 upon increasing each environmental parameter. The results demonstrate that Amphidinium species can multiply efficiently under conditions of relatively low light intensity and low O2 concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A gene for a putative two-component histidine kinase, which is homologous to os-1 from Neurospora crassa, was cloned and sequenced from the plant-pathogenic fungus Cochliobolus heterostrophus. The predicted protein possessed the conserved histidine kinase domain, the response regulator domain, and six tandem repeats of 92-amino-acids at the N-terminal end that are found in histidine kinases from other filamentous fungi. Introduction of the histidine kinase gene complemented the deficiency of the C. heterostrophus dic1 mutant, suggesting that the Dic1 gene product is a histidine kinase. Dic1 mutants are resistant to dicarboximide and phenylpyrrole fungicides, and they are sensitive to osmotic stress. We previously classified dic1 alleles into three types, based on their phenotypes. To explain the phenotypic differences among the dic1 mutant alleles, we cloned and sequenced the mutant dic1 genes and compared their sequences with that of the wild-type strain. Null mutants for Dic1, and mutants with a deletion or point mutation in the N-terminal repeat region, were highly sensitive to osmotic stress and highly resistant to both fungicides. A single amino acid change within the kinase domain or the regulator domain altered the sensitivity to osmotic stress and conferred moderate resistance to the fungicides. These results suggest that this predicted protein, especially its repeat region, has an important function in osmotic adaptation and fungicide resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]