A possible role of ground-based microorganisms on cloud formation in the atmosphere

The formation of clouds is an important process for the atmosphere, the hydrological cycle, and climate, but some aspects of it are not completely understood. In this work, we show that microorganisms might affect cloud formation without leaving the Earth's surface by releasing biological surfactants (or biosurfactants) in the environment, that make their way into atmospheric aerosols and could significantly enhance their activation into cloud droplets. <br><br> In the first part of this work, the cloud-nucleating efficiency of standard biosurfactants was characterized and found to be better than that of any aerosol material studied so far, including inorganic salts. These results identify molecular structures that give organic compounds exceptional cloud-nucleating properties. In the second part, atmospheric aerosols were sampled at different locations: a temperate coastal site, a marine site, a temperate forest, and a tropical forest. Their surface tension was measured and found to be below 30 mN/m, the lowest reported for aerosols, to our knowledge. This very low surface tension was attributed to the presence of biosurfactants, the only natural substances able to reach to such low values. <br><br> The presence of strong microbial surfactants in aerosols would be consistent with the organic fractions of exceptional cloud-nucleating efficiency recently found in aerosols, and with the correlations between algae bloom and cloud cover reported in the Southern Ocean. The results of this work also suggest that biosurfactants might be common in aerosols and thus of global relevance. If this is confirmed, a new role for microorganisms on the atmosphere and climate could be identified

Networking research in front ending and intelligent terminals : Experimental network front end software functional description

"CCTC-WAD document no. 7515.""Prepared for the Command and Control Technical Center, WWMCCS ADP Directorate, Defense Communications Agency, Washington, D. C.

Wakefield Generation in Hydrogen and Lithium Plasmas at FACET-II: Diagnostics and First Beam-Plasma Interaction Results

Plasma Wakefield Acceleration (PWFA) provides ultrahigh acceleration gradients of 10s of GeV/m, providing a novel path towards efficient, compact, TeV-scale linear colliders and high brightness free electron lasers. Critical to the success of these applications is demonstrating simultaneously high gradient acceleration, high energy transfer efficiency, and preservation of emittance, charge, and energy spread. Experiments at the FACET-II National User Facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory aim to achieve all of these milestones in a single stage plasma wakefield accelerator, providing a 10 GeV energy gain in a <1 m plasma with high energy transfer efficiency. Such a demonstration depends critically on diagnostics able to measure emittance with mm-mrad accuracy, energy spectra to determine both %-level energy spread and broadband energy gain and loss, incoming longitudinal phase space, and matching dynamics. This paper discusses the experimental setup at FACET-II, including the incoming beam parameters from the FACET-II linac, plasma sources, and diagnostics developed to meet this challenge. Initial progress on the generation of beam ionized wakes in meter-scale hydrogen gas is discussed, as well as commissioning of the plasma sources and diagnostics

GeneTools – application for functional annotation and statistical hypothesis testing

BACKGROUND: Modern biology has shifted from "one gene" approaches to methods for genomic-scale analysis like microarray technology, which allow simultaneous measurement of thousands of genes. This has created a need for tools facilitating interpretation of biological data in "batch" mode. However, such tools often leave the investigator with large volumes of apparently unorganized information. To meet this interpretation challenge, gene-set, or cluster testing has become a popular analytical tool. Many gene-set testing methods and software packages are now available, most of which use a variety of statistical tests to assess the genes in a set for biological information. However, the field is still evolving, and there is a great need for "integrated" solutions. RESULTS: GeneTools is a web-service providing access to a database that brings together information from a broad range of resources. The annotation data are updated weekly, guaranteeing that users get data most recently available. Data submitted by the user are stored in the database, where it can easily be updated, shared between users and exported in various formats. GeneTools provides three different tools: i) NMC Annotation Tool, which offers annotations from several databases like UniGene, Entrez Gene, SwissProt and GeneOntology, in both single- and batch search mode. ii) GO Annotator Tool, where users can add new gene ontology (GO) annotations to genes of interest. These user defined GO annotations can be used in further analysis or exported for public distribution. iii) eGOn, a tool for visualization and statistical hypothesis testing of GO category representation. As the first GO tool, eGOn supports hypothesis testing for three different situations (master-target situation, mutually exclusive target-target situation and intersecting target-target situation). An important additional function is an evidence-code filter that allows users, to select the GO annotations for the analysis. CONCLUSION: GeneTools is the first "all in one" annotation tool, providing users with a rapid extraction of highly relevant gene annotation data for e.g. thousands of genes or clones at once. It allows a user to define and archive new GO annotations and it supports hypothesis testing related to GO category representations. GeneTools is freely available through www.genetools.n

Molecular mechanics of mineralized collagen fibrils in bone

Bone is a natural composite of collagen protein and the mineral hydroxyapatite. The structure of bone is known to be important to its load-bearing characteristics, but relatively little is known about this structure or the mechanism that govern deformation at the molecular scale. Here we perform full-atomistic calculations of the three-dimensional molecular structure of a mineralized collagen protein matrix to try to better understand its mechanical characteristics under tensile loading at various mineral densities. We find that as the mineral density increases, the tensile modulus of the network increases monotonically and well beyond that of pure collagen fibrils. Our results suggest that the mineral crystals within this network bears up to four times the stress of the collagen fibrils, whereas the collagen is predominantly responsible for the material’s deformation response. These findings reveal the mechanism by which bone is able to achieve superior energy dissipation and fracture resistance characteristics beyond its individual constituents.United States. Office of Naval Research (N000141010562)United States. Army Research Office (W991NF-09-1-0541)United States. Army Research Office (W911NF-10-1-0127)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CMMI-0642545

Cell‐ and Gene‐Based Therapeutic Strategies for Periodontal Regenerative Medicine

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142086/1/jper1223.pd

Current strategies for treatment of intervertebral disc degeneration: substitution and regeneration possibilities

Background: Intervertebral disc degeneration has an annual worldwide socioeconomic impact masked as low back pain of over 70 billion euros. This disease has a high prevalence over the working age class, which raises the socioeconomic impact over the years. Acute physical trauma or prolonged intervertebral disc mistreatment triggers a biochemical negative tendency of catabolic-anabolic balance that progress to a chronic degeneration disease. Current biomedical treatments are not only ineffective in the long-run, but can also cause degeneration to spread to adjacent intervertebral discs. Regenerative strategies are desperately needed in the clinics, such as: minimal invasive nucleus pulposus or annulus fibrosus treatments, total disc replacement, and cartilaginous endplates decalcification. Main Body: Herein, it is reviewed the state-of-the-art of intervertebral disc regeneration strategies from the perspective of cells, scaffolds, or constructs, including both popular and unique tissue engineering approaches. The premises for cell type and origin selection or even absence of cells is being explored. Choice of several raw materials and scaffold fabrication methods are evaluated. Extensive studies have been developed for fully regeneration of the annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus, together or separately, with a long set of different rationales already reported. Recent works show promising biomaterials and processing methods applied to intervertebral disc substitutive or regenerative strategies. Facing the abundance of studies presented in the literature aiming intervertebral disc regeneration it is interesting to observe how cartilaginous endplates have been extensively neglected, being this a major source of nutrients and water supply for the whole disc. Conclusion: Severalinnovative avenues for tackling intervertebral disc degeneration are being reported â from acellular to cellular approaches, but the cartilaginous endplates regeneration strategies remain unaddressed. Interestingly, patient-specific approaches show great promise in respecting patient anatomy and thus allow quicker translation to the clinics in the near future.The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the project EPIDisc (UTAP-EXPL/BBBECT/0050/2014), funded in the Framework of the “International Collaboratory for Emerging Technologies, CoLab”, UT Austin|Portugal Program. The FCT distinctions attributed to J. Miguel Oliveira (IF/00423/2012 and IF/01285/ 2015) and J. Silva-Correia (IF/00115/2015) under the Investigator FCT program are also greatly acknowledged.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio