The Western Sand Cherry

This Bulletin is intended to be a preliminary report and announcement of progress and not a complete monograph. The story of the work at this Station is told mainly by the twenty cuts illustrating these pages. But as the Western Sand Cherry is a new fruit just passing from its native prairie home over the fence· into the cultivated garden, it will be of interest to give some of the main facts in the history of its development. No claim is made as to completeness. An effort, however, has been made to give the salient points

Re-evaluating experimental validation in the Big Data Era : a conceptual argument

Non peer reviewe

Spatially and polarization resolved plasmon mediated transmission through continuous metal films

The experimental demonstration and characterization is made of the plasmon-mediated resonant transmission through an embedded undulated continuous thin metal film under normal incidence. 1D undulations are shown to enable a spatially resolved polarisation filtering whereas 2D undulations lead to spatially resolved, polarization independent transmission. Whereas the needed submicron microstructure lends itself in principle to CD-like low-cost mass replication by means of injection moulding and embossing, the present paper demonstrates the expected transmission effects on experimental models based on metal-coated photoresist gratings. The spectral and angular dependence in the neighbourhood of resonance are investigated and the question of the excess losses exhibited by surface plasmons is discusse

An Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy study on the γ-irradiation sterilization of the pharmaceutical excipient l-histidine: Regeneration of the radicals in solution

The effects of γ-radiation sterilization on the parenteral excipient L-histidine were analysed by means of EPR spectroscopy. The irradiation process was found to induce the formation of a deamination radical which was persistent in the solid state. The nature and reactivity of the radicals following dissolution in water was evaluated using spin-trapping EPR experiments. The deamination radical was found to regenerate in solution in the presence of trace metals, potentially leading to radical induced degradation reactions occurring up to an hour after the dissolution process. Understanding this process is significant for the improved design of parental pharmaceutical formulations in which unwanted radical reactions after γ radiation sterilization could lead to degradation of active ingredients

Deciphering signatures of mutational processes operative in human cancer.

The genome of a cancer cell carries somatic mutations that are the cumulative consequences of the DNA damage and repair processes operative during the cellular lineage between the fertilized egg and the cancer cell. Remarkably, these mutational processes are poorly characterized. Global sequencing initiatives are yielding catalogs of somatic mutations from thousands of cancers, thus providing the unique opportunity to decipher the signatures of mutational processes operative in human cancer. However, until now there have been no theoretical models describing the signatures of mutational processes operative in cancer genomes and no systematic computational approaches are available to decipher these mutational signatures. Here, by modeling mutational processes as a blind source separation problem, we introduce a computational framework that effectively addresses these questions. Our approach provides a basis for characterizing mutational signatures from cancer-derived somatic mutational catalogs, paving the way to insights into the pathogenetic mechanism underlying all cancers

Fluorescence-detected magnetic field effects on radical pair reactions from femtolitre volumes

We show that the effects of applied magnetic fields on radical pair reactions can be sensitively measured from sample volumes as low as ~100 femtolitres using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy. Development of a fluorescence-based microscope method is likely to be a key step in further miniaturisation that will allow detection of magnetic field effects on single molecules

Surface plasmon-polariton mediated emission from phosphorescent dendrimer light-emitting diodes

Copyright © 2006 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters 88 (2006) and may be found at http://link.aip.org/link/?APPLAB/88/161105/1We present experimental results showing electroluminescence from a dendrimer based organic light-emitting diode (OLED) mediated via surface plasmon polariton (SPP) modes. A combination of angle dependent electroluminescence, photoluminescence, and reflectance measurements is used to identify emission originating from the guided modes of the device. It is found that the SPP modes, which are usually nonradiative, are coupled to light by a wavelength scale periodic microstructure. It is demonstrated that the necessary microstructure can be readily fabricated by solvent-assisted micromoulding. Our results indicate that such an approach may offer a means to increase the efficiency of dendrimer based OLEDs

Diagnostic value of H3F3A mutations in giant cell tumour of bone compared to osteoclast-rich mimics

Driver mutations in the two histone 3.3 (H3.3) genes, H3F3A and H3F3B, were recently identified by whole genome sequencing in 95% of chondroblastoma (CB) and by targeted gene sequencing in 92% of giant cell tumour of bone (GCT). Given the high prevalence of these driver mutations, it may be possible to utilise these alterations as diagnostic adjuncts in clinical practice. Here, we explored the spectrum of H3.3 mutations in a wide range and large number of bone tumours (n 5 412) to determine if these alterations could be used to distinguish GCT from other osteoclast-rich tumours such as aneurysmal bone cyst, nonossifying fibroma, giant cell granuloma, and osteoclast-rich malignant bone tumours and others. In addition, we explored the driver landscape of GCT through whole genome, exome and targeted sequencing (14 gene panel). We found that H3.3 mutations, namely mutations of glycine 34 in H3F3A, occur in 96% of GCT. We did not find additional driver mutations in GCT, including mutations in IDH1, IDH2, USP6, TP53. The genomes of GCT exhibited few somatic mutations, akin to the picture seen in CB. Overall our observations suggest that the presence of H3F3A p.Gly34 mutations does not entirely exclude malignancy in osteoclast-rich tumours. However, H3F3A p.Gly34 mutations appear to be an almost essential feature of GCT that will aid pathological evaluation of bone tumours, especially when confronted with small needle core biopsies. In the absence of H3F3A p.Gly34 mutations, a diagnosis of GCT should be made with caution

Bioassay-guided isolation and identification of antimicrobial compounds from thyme essential oil by means of overpressured layer chromatography, bioautography and GC-MS

A simple method is described for efficient isolation of compounds having an antibacterial effect. Two thyme (Thymus vulgaris) essential oils, obtained from the market, were chosen as prospective materials likely to feature several bioactive components when examined by thin layer chromatography coupled with direct bioautography as a screening method. The newly developed infusion overpressured layer chromatographic separation method coupled with direct bioautography assured that only the active components were isolated by means of overrun overpressured layer chromatography with online detection and fractionation. Each of the 5 collected fractions represented one of the five antimicrobial essential oil components designated at the screening. The purity and the activity of the fractions were confirmed with chromatography coupled various detection methods (UV, vanillin-sulphuric acid reagent, direct bioautography). The antibacterial components were identified with GC-MS as thymol, carvacrol, linalool, diethylphthalate, and alpha-terpineol. The oil component diethyl-phthalate is an artificial compound, used as plasticizer or detergent bases in the industry. Our results support that exploiting its flexibility and the possible hyphenations, overpressured layer chromatography is especially attractive for isolation of antimicrobial components from various matrixes