Publications by authors named "Ballif J"

HAPs, similar to Heme Activator Proteins (HAP) or nuclear factor-Y (NF-Y) in yeast and animals, play versatile roles in plant growth, development, and responses to environmental cues. HAP3b in Arabidopsis is a member in the HAP3 gene family and is involved in regulating flowering time through the long-day photoperiod pathway (Cai et al., 2007, Plant Physiol 145: 98-105).

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Flowering at the appropriate time of year is essential for successful reproduction in plants. We found that HAP3b in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), a putative CCAAT-binding transcription factor gene, is involved in controlling flowering time. Overexpression of HAP3b promotes early flowering while hap3b, a null mutant of HAP3b, is delayed in flowering under a long-day photoperiod.

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This study investigates the precision and intraindividual variability of a clinical optical pachometer based on low-coherence reflectometry, which was used to measure the central thickness of a human cornea in vivo. The instrument, attached to a slit lamp, is a single mode fiber optic based Michelson interferometer with a high repetition rate as previously described. The same operator performed ten sets of measurements on the same subject, each consisting of 20 consecutive scans, on each day for three consecutive days.

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An optical low-coherence reflectometer is used for rapid noncontact measurements of the human corneal thickness in vivo. Thickness measurements on ten volunteers show a standard deviation of 3.4 μm.

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An optical low-coherence reflectometer is presented that uses a fiber Michelson interferometer with a rotating cube to generate rapid depth scans at a high repetition rate. A folded optical path geometry allows the reference arm to scale up the scan range, scan speed, and scan repetitiveness. Thickness measurements with a repetitiveness of 384 Hz and a longitudinal scanning speed of 21 m/s in air over a range of ~3 mm are demonstrated.

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General recall on Osgood's semantic differential. Motive and way of integrating it in research on the effects of psychotherapies. Report of some preliminary results from a transversal study of normal, neurotic and schizophrenic subjects and from a longitudinal study of normal and neurotic subjects.

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With the aim of methodically examining the evaluation of short-term psychotherapies, the authors study the conditions of setting up and applying Osgood's semantic differential. For an ad hoc selection of the inducive words, an in-depth study of the parametrization of bipolar scales based on new premises is undertaken, after which the semantic space is reconstructed. These stages are carried out, on the one hand, on a sample of patients under treatment at a psychiatric policlinic, and on the other hand, on a sample drawn from the general population.

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