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Phase-I analysis of historical data from a statistical process is a strategic problem in Statistical Process Monitoring and control. Before the establishment of process stability, it is challenging to model historical data. Consequently, a distribution-free approach is a natural choice in Phase-I monitoring. Existing distribution-free Phase-I control charts are suitable for detecting instability in location and scale parameters only and are often insensitive in complex processes involving skewness or shape parameters. A new Phase-I control chart is proposed to identify more general shifts, including location, scale and skewness. The proposed Phase-I scheme is efficient in such a situation. The proposed Phase-I scheme uses subsamples, and the plotting statistic is based on the omnibus multi-sample linear rank statistic corresponding to the location, scale and skewness shifts. The new scheme can identify subsamples that are not in control, and it can also indicate one or more process parameters where a deviation has occurred. The encouraging performance of the proposed scheme is established with a large-scale numerical study based on Monte-Carlo in detecting shifts of various nature in a comprehensive class of situations. An illustration based on monitoring the waiting time data from a customer service centre is given. Some concluding remarks and some future research problems are also offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of papers are published in the area of superconducting materials science. However, novel text and data mining (TDM) processes are still needed to efficiently access and exploit this accumulated knowledge, paving the way towards data-driven materials design. Herein, we present SuperMat (Superconductor Materials), an annotated corpus of linked data derived from scientific publications on superconductors, which comprises 142 articles, 16052 entities, and 1398 links that are characterised into six categories: the names, classes, and properties of materials; links to their respective superconducting critical temperature (Tc); and parametric conditions such as applied pressure or measurement methods. The construction of SuperMat resulted from a fruitful collaboration between computer scientists and material scientists, and its high quality is ensured through validation by domain experts. The quality of the annotation guidelines was ensured by satisfactory Inter Annotator Agreement (IAA) between the annotators and the domain experts. SuperMat includes the dataset, annotation guidelines, and annotation support tools that use automatic suggestions to help minimise human errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of NH4Cl concentration (0.1-1600 mM), temperature (5.0-35.0°C), pH (3.0-11.0), conidial density (2.5 × 105-1.0 × 107 conidia/ml), and conidial maturation (0-21 days) on the conidial germination of the early phase (EP) ammonia fungus Amblyosporium botrytis were investigated. The optimum NH4Cl concentration for conidial germination was 300 mM. No germination was observed above 1000 mM NH4Cl, while low NH4Cl concentration (0.1-30 mM) retarded the conidial germination. The conidia did not germinate in distilled water. The effective pH ranges for the conidial germination were from 5.0 to 9.0 with optimum at 8.0. Germination was possible from 5.0°C to 35°C with the optimum at 15°C. These results demonstrate that ammonium-nitrogen concentration and pH are principal factors in the conidial germination of A. botrytis. It is expected that the obtained physiological characteristics of A. botrytis are suitable to colonize in nitrogen-enriched soil as the EP ammonia fungus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four early-phase (EP) and one late-phase (LP) ammonia fungi were co-cultured with three non-ammonia fungi on urea, ammonium, nitrite and nitrate agar media at different pH values (5.5, 7.0 and 9.0). The early stage EP species Amblyosporium botrytis and Ascobolus denudatus showed deadlock competition with the non-ammonia fungi Aspergillus niger and Penicillium citrinum on urea agar medium, and neutral intermingling or weak competing deadlock on ammonium, nitrite and nitrate agar media in all pH conditions. The late stage EP species, Coprinopsis phlyctidospora and Lyophyllum tylicolor, showed antagonistic deadlock and invaded the region containing mycelia of the non-ammonia fungi, P. citrinum and Trichoderma viride, on urea, nitrite and nitrate agar media in all pH conditions. The LP species, Hebeloma vinosophyllum, showed competing deadlock with Asp. niger and P. citrinum on urea medium and weak competition on nitrite and nitrate agar media at pH 9.0. These findings suggest that the successive occurrence of ammonia fungi is partly due to changes in the interactions between ammonia fungi and non-ammonia fungi based on changes in inorganic nitrogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pten (phosphatase with tensin homology), a dual-specificity phosphatase, is a negative regulator of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathway. Pten regulates a vast array of biological functions including growth, metabolism, and longevity. Although the PI3K/Akt pathway is a key determinant of the insulin-dependent increase in glucose uptake into muscle and adipose cells, the contribution of this pathway in muscle to whole-body glucose homeostasis is unclear. Here we show that muscle-specific deletion of Pten protected mice from insulin resistance and diabetes caused by high-fat feeding. Deletion of muscle Pten resulted in enhanced insulin-stimulated 2-deoxyglucose uptake and Akt phosphorylation in soleus but, sur- prisingly, not in extensor digitorum longus muscle compared to littermate controls upon high-fat feeding, and these mice were spared from developing hyperinsulinemia and islet hyperplasia. Muscle Pten may be a potential target for treatment or prevention of insulin resistance and diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Thecotheus is reported in Australia for the first time. A new species, Thecotheus urinamans is described and illustrated and included in a key to all known species of the genus. Critical macro- and micromorphological comparisons are presented to distinguish the new species from several closely related species, particularly the widespread fungus Thecotheus crustaceus. Thecotheus urinamans was growing on rotting, moist, plant litter from an experimental plot treated with urea (ammonia) in the indigenous jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest of Western Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics which include the influence of fungi to other organisms such as entophytic fungi, Ophiocordyceps sinensis or Chinese caterpillar fungus, and fungal and plant cell structures.

PTEN (phosphatase with tensin homology) is a potent negative regulator of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling, an evolutionarily conserved pathway that signals downstream of growth factors, including insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1. In lower organisms, this pathway participates in fuel metabolism and body size regulation and insulin-like proteins are produced primarily by neuronal structures, whereas in mammals, the major source of insulin is the pancreatic β cells. Recently, rodent insulin transcription was also shown in the brain, particularly the hypothalamus. The specific regulatory elements of the PI3K pathway in these insulin-expressing tissues that contribute to growth and metabolism in higher organisms are unknown. Here, we report PTEN as a critical determinant of body size and glucose metabolism when targeting is driven by the rat insulin promoter in mice. The partial deletion of PTEN in the hypothalamus resulted in significant whole-body growth restriction and increased insulin sensitivity. Efficient PTEN deletion in β cells led to increased islet mass without compromise of β-cell function. Parallel enhancement in PI3K signaling was found in PTEN-deficient hypothalamus and β cells. Together, we have shown that PTEN in insulin-transcribing cells may play an integrative role in regulating growth and metabolism in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]