EPRI's Industrial Energy Management Program

The loss of American industry jobs to foreign competition is made worse by national concerns over fuels combustion and other industrial activity effects on our environment. Energy efficiency programs and new electrical processes can play a major role in restoring the environment and in creating a stronger industrial sector in the national economy. Since 1984 the Electric Power Research Institute has been establishing industry specific Centers and Offices nationwide to assist electric utilities and their customers in managing for a better use of energy. Hundreds of joint industry/utility projects are funded at a level in excess of $10 million annually. By providing technical guidance and sponsoring research and development projects, these Centers and Offices are a key element in EPRI's role of improving the value of electricity to consumers. The specific contributions of this program and how industry and utilities can jointly benefit from its activities are discussed

Monoclonal antibodies identify novel neural antigens.

Monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) were raised against synaptic plasma membranes from rat cerebellum. The hybridomas were screened with a solid-phase immunoassay, the positive lines were characterized by their immunoperoxidase staining pattern on cerebellum, and the specific polypeptide antigens were identified on protein blots. Among the Mabs described are some that stain only neurons or only glia and others that react with specific parts of cells, such as axons, dendrites, and synapses. Many Mabs reveal novel relationships between antigens and the cells in which they occur. For example, a Mab designated 7D5 reacts with a family of greater than 30 proteins but stains only glial cells. Several Mabs stain punctate sites of synaptic size and distribution in the cerebellar cortex but each reacts with a different subset of polypeptides. One of the most restricted cytological staining patterns is given by 12D5, which stains punctate sites in the granular layer of the cerebellar cortex and reacts with a single polypeptide band of apparent Mr 270,000. These results illustrate the feasibility of raising Mabs that can be used to follow the expression of specific gene products during brain development