A New 76Ge Double Beta Decay Experiment at LNGS

This Letter of Intent has been submitted to the Scientific Committee of the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in March 2004. It describes a novel facility at the LNGS to study the double beta decay of 76Ge using an (optionally active) cryogenic fluid shield. The setup will allow to scrutinize with high significance on a short time scale the current evidence for neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge using the existing 76Ge diodes from the previous Heidelberg-Moscow and IGEX experiments. An increase in the lifetime limit can be achieved by adding more enriched detectors, remaining thereby background-free up to a few 100 kg-years of exposure.Comment: 67 pages, 19 eps figures, 17 tables, gzipped tar fil

A New Saurolophine Dinosaur from the Latest Cretaceous of Far Eastern Russia

Background: Four main dinosaur sites have been investigated in latest Cretaceous deposits from the Amur/Heilongjiang Region: Jiayin and Wulaga in China (Yuliangze Formation), Blagoveschensk and Kundur in Russia (Udurchukan Formation). More than 90% of the bones discovered in these localities belong to hollow-crested lambeosaurine saurolophids, but flat-headed saurolophines are also represented: Kerberosaurus manakini at Blagoveschensk and Wulagasaurus dongi at Wulaga. Methodology/Principal Findings: Herein we describe a new saurolophine dinosaur, Kundurosaurus nagornyi gen. et sp. nov. from the Udurchukan Formation (Maastrichtian) of Kundur, represented by disarticulated cranial and postcranial material. This new taxon is diagnosed by four autapomorphies. Conclusions/Significance: A phylogenetic analysis of saurolophines indicates that Kundurosaurus nagornyi is nested within a rather robust clade including Edmontosaurus spp. Saurolophus spp. and Prosaurolophus maximus, possibly as a sister-taxon for Kerberosaurus manakini also from the Udurchukan Formation of Far Eastern Russia. The high diversity and mosaic distribution of Maastrichtian hadrosaurid faunas in the Amur-Heilongjiang region are the result of a complex palaeogeographical history and imply that many independent hadrosaurid lineages dispersed without any problem between western America and eastern Asia at the end of the Cretaceous. © 2012 Godefroit et al.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Domestic sample of universal pulse-press moulding machine

The information about creation of the first domestic sample of pulse-press moulding machine is presented in the articl

Pathogen-Specific De Novo Antimicrobials Engineered Through Membrane Porin Biomimicry

Precision antimicrobials that can kill pathogens without damaging host commensals hold potential to cure disease without antibiotic-associated dysbiosis. Here we report the de novo design of host defense peptides that have been rationally engineered to precisely target specific pathogens by mimicking key molecular features of the target microbe’s unique channel-forming membrane proteins, or porins. This biomimetic strategy exploits physical and structural motifs of the pathogen envelope, rather than targeting resistance-susceptible protein biochemical pathways, to construct fast-acting precision bacteriolytics. Utilizing this approach, we design an antitubercular sequence that undergoes instructed, tryptophan-zippered assembly within the mycolic-acid rich outer membrane of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) to specifically kill the pathogen without collateral toxicity towards lung commensals or host tissue. These mycomembrane-templated mechanisms are rapid and synergistically enhance the potency of antibiotics that otherwise poorly diffuse across the rigid Mtb envelope, particularly those that exploit porins for antimycobacterial activity. This new porin-mimetic paradigm may serve as a conceptual basis for the directed design of new narrow-spectrum antimicrobial scaffolds.</p