Tracking Radiometer Calibration Stability Using Three-Point Onboard Calibration

Absolute calibration of radiometers is implemented onboard using one hot and one cold external calibration targets. However, two-point calibration methods are unable to differentiate calibration drifts and associated errors from fluctuations in receiver gain and offset. This paper investigates the use of onboard three-point calibration algorithm for microwave radiometers to track calibration drifts and characterize associated errors in Earth and Space measurements of the radiometer

A comparison of biosurfactant production between clinical and environmental exophiala isolates

Black Yeast in the genus Exophiala are able to grow in hydrocarbon-contaminated environments and are pathogenic in immunosuppressed hosts. The biosurfactant produced by Exophiala species May be associated with strain pathogenicity by changing the hydrophobicity. The aim of this study was to prove the hypothesis that biosurfactant production in Exophilia strains isolated from clinical samples is lower than the strains isolates from toxic (dishwasher and railway sleepers) environments. A total of 122 Exophiala isolates 108 environmental (isolated from 82 dishwashers and 36 railway sleepers) and 14 clinical isolates confirmed by molecular tests were included in the study. Biosurfactant activity was tested by the drop collapse method, in which the surface of a microtiter plate well was evaluated for the presence of a biosurfactant, and by the oil spreading technique on crude oil. An open source analyses program, ImageJ ® , was used for crude oil spreading technique data. A clear surface zone that differs more than two standard deviations from the mean size was accepted as a positive result. Among the 122 Exophiala species, 11 (9.0%) and 10 (8.2%) strains showed biosurfactant activity by the drop collapse test and oil spreading method, respectively. An acceptable relation was found between the drop collapse test and oil spreading method (Cohen κ coefficient= 0.30). Despite the presence of isolates showing biosurfactant activity, no statistically significant difference was detected between Exophiala strains (p= 0.72). The biosurfactant levels of environmental isolates were higher than the isolates obtained from the patients (p= 0.03). The highest biosurfactant level was observed in one Exophiala phaeomuriformis strain isolated from a dishwasher. There was no difference between the biosurfactant levels of the dishwasher and railway sleeper isolates (p= 0.66). Biosurfactant production May be a more important determinant of virulence in Exophiala species than expected. In this study, biosurfactant activity was higher in environmental isolates compared to the clinical isolates. Consensus of multiple biosurfactant screening protocols May clarify why environmental Exophiala species are less virulent. Further studies should evaluate biosurfactant activity in additional clinical Exophiala isolates. The biosurfactant activity of more Exophiala isolates obtained from patients should be investigated with further planned studies. © 2018 Ankara Microbiology Society. All rights reserved

Heating of magnetic fluid systems driven by circularly polarized magnetic field

Cataloged from PDF version of article.A theory is presented to calculate the heat dissipation of a magnetic suspension, a ferrofluid, driven by7 circularly polarized magnetic field. Theory is tested by in vitro experiments and it is shown that, regardless of the character of the relaxation process, linearly and circularly polarized magnetic field excitations, having the same root-mean-square magnitude, are equivalent in terms of heating efficiency. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Inequality and Procedural Justice in Social Dilemmas

This study investigates the influence of resource inequality and the fairness of the allocation procedure of unequal resources on cooperative behavior in social dilemmas. We propose a simple formal behavioral model that incorporates conflicting selfish and social motivations. This model allows us to predict how inequality influences cooperative behavior. Allocation of resources is manipulated by three treatments that vary in terms of procedural justice: allocating resources randomly, based on merit, and based on ascription. As predicted, procedural justice influences cooperation significantly. Moreover, gender is found to be an important factor interacting with the association between procedural justice and cooperative behavior.

Integrating biological pathways and genomic profiles with ChiBE 2

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Background: Dynamic visual exploration of detailed pathway information can help researchers digest and interpret complex mechanisms and genomic datasets. Results: ChiBE is a free, open-source software tool for visualizing, querying, and analyzing human biological pathways in BioPAX format. The recently released version 2 can search for neighborhoods, paths between molecules, and common regulators/targets of molecules, on large integrated cellular networks in the Pathway Commons database as well as in local BioPAX models. Resulting networks can be automatically laid out for visualization using a graphically rich, process-centric notation. Profiling data from the cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics and expression data from the Gene Expression Omnibus can be overlaid on these networks. Conclusions: ChiBE's new capabilities are organized around a genomics-oriented workflow and offer a unique comprehensive pathway analysis solution for genomics researchers

H3K4 demethylation by Jarid1a and Jarid1b contributes to retinoblastoma-mediated gene silencing during cellular senescence

Cellular senescence is a tumor-suppressive program that involves chromatin reorganization and specific changes in gene expression that trigger an irreversible cell-cycle arrest. Here we combine quantitative mass spectrometry, ChIP deep-sequencing, and functional studies to determine the role of histone modifications on chromatin structure and gene-expression alterations associated with senescence in primary human cells. We uncover distinct senescence-associated changes in histone-modification patterns consistent with a repressive chromatin environment and link the establishment of one of these patterns-loss of H3K4 methylation-to the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor and the H3K4 demethylases Jarid1a and Jarid1b. Our results show that Jarid1a/b-mediated H3K4 demethylation contributes to silencing of retinoblastoma target genes in senescent cells, suggesting a mechanism by which retinoblastoma triggers gene silencing. Therefore, we link the Jarid1a and Jarid1b demethylases to a tumor-suppressor network controlling cellular senescence

The cBio cancer Genomics portal: An open platform for exploring multidimensional cancer genomics data

Cataloged from PDF version of article.The cBio Cancer Genomics Portal (http://cbioportal.org) is an open-access resource for interactive exploration of multidimensional cancer genomics data sets, currently providing access to data from more than 5,000 tumor samples from 20 cancer studies. The cBio Cancer Genomics Portal significantly lowers the barriers between complex genomic data and cancer researchers who want rapid, intuitive, and high-quality access to molecular profiles and clinical attributes from large-scale cancer genomics projects and empowers researchers to translate these rich data sets into biologic insights and clinical applications. © 2012 American Association for Cancer Research

<i>Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense</i> transmitted by a single tsetse fly bite in vervet monkeys as a model of human African trypanosomiasis

Sleeping sickness is caused by a species of trypanosome blood parasite that is transmitted by tsetse flies. To understand better how infection with this parasite leads to disease, we provide here the most detailed description yet of the course of infection and disease onset in vervet monkeys. One infected tsetse fly was allowed to feed on each host individual, and in all cases infections were successful. The characteristics of infection and disease were similar in all hosts, but the rate of progression varied considerably. Parasites were first detected in the blood 4-10 days after infection, showing that migration of parasites from the site of fly bite was very rapid. Anaemia was a key feature of disease, with a reduction in the numbers and average size of red blood cells and associated decline in numbers of platelets and white blood cells. One to six weeks after infection, parasites were observed in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), indicating that they had moved from the blood into the brain; this was associated with a white cell infiltration. This study shows that fly-transmitted infection in vervets accurately mimics human disease and provides a robust model to understand better how sleeping sickness develops

Trypanosoma brucei gambiense group 1 is distinguished by a unique amino acid substitution in the HpHb receptor implicated in human serum resistance

Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense (Tbr) and T. b. gambiense (Tbg), causative agents of Human African Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) in Africa, have evolved alternative mechanisms of resisting the activity of trypanosome lytic factors (TLFs), components of innate immunity in human serum that protect against infection by other African trypanosomes. In Tbr, lytic activity is suppressed by the Tbr-specific serum-resistance associated (SRA) protein. The mechanism in Tbg is less well understood but has been hypothesized to involve altered activity and expression of haptoglobin haemoglobin receptor (HpHbR). HpHbR has been shown to facilitate internalization of TLF-1 in T.b. brucei (Tbb), a member of the T. brucei species complex that is susceptible to human serum. By evaluating the genetic variability of HpHbR in a comprehensive geographical and taxonomic context, we show that a single substitution that replaces leucine with serine at position 210 is conserved in the most widespread form of Tbg (Tbg group 1) and not found in related taxa, which are either human serum susceptible (Tbb) or known to resist lysis via an alternative mechanism (Tbr and Tbg group 2). We hypothesize that this single substitution contributes to reduced uptake of TLF and thus may play a key role in conferring serum resistance to Tbg group 1. In contrast, similarity in HpHbR sequence among isolates of Tbg group 2 and Tbb/Tbr provides further evidence that human serum resistance in Tbg group 2 is likely independent of HpHbR functio

“Pop-on and pop-off” surface chemistry of alanine on Ni{111} under elevated hydrogen pressures

The co-adsorption of hydrogen with a simple chiral modifier, alanine, on Ni{111} was studied using Density Functional Theory in combination with ambient-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectros opy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy at temperatures of 300 K and above, which are representative of chiral hydrogenation reactions. Depending on the hydrogen pressure, the surface enables protons to ''pop on and off'' the modifier molecules, thus significantly altering the adsorption geometry and chemical nature of alanine from anionic tridentate in ultra-high vacuum to predominantly zwitterionic bidentate at hydrogen pressures above 0.1 Torr. This hydrogen-stabilised modifier geometry allows alternative mechanisms for proton transfer and the creation of enatioselective reaction environments