IRD dropout study

This final report describes work performed by SRS Technologies for the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center under Contract NAS8-39077, entitled 'Integrated Receiver-Decoder Dropout Study'. The purpose of the study was to determine causes of signal fading effects on ultra-high-frequency (UHF) range safety transmissions to the Space Shuttle during flyout. Of particular interest were deep fades observed at the External Tank (ET) Integrated Receiver-Decoder (IRD) during the flyout interval between solid rocket booster separation and ET separation. Analytical and simulation methods were employed in this study to assess observations captured in flight telemetry data records. Conclusions based on the study are presented in this report, and recommendations are given for future experimental validation of the results

Niemann-Pick Type C Disease Reveals a Link between Lysosomal Cholesterol and PtdIns(4,5)P2 That Regulates Neuronal Excitability.

There is increasing evidence that the lysosome is involved in the pathogenesis of a variety of neurodegenerative disorders. Thus, mechanisms that link lysosome dysfunction to the disruption of neuronal homeostasis offer opportunities to understand the molecular underpinnings of neurodegeneration and potentially identify specific therapeutic targets. Here, using a monogenic neurodegenerative disorder, NPC1 disease, we demonstrate that reduced cholesterol efflux from lysosomes aberrantly modifies neuronal firing patterns. The molecular mechanism linking alterations in lysosomal cholesterol egress to intrinsic tuning of neuronal excitability is a transcriptionally mediated upregulation of the ABCA1 transporter, whose PtdIns(4,5)P2-floppase activity decreases plasma membrane PtdIns(4,5)P2. The consequence of reduced PtdIns(4,5)P2 is a parallel decrease in a key regulator of neuronal excitability, the voltage-gated KCNQ2/3 potassium channel, which leads to hyperexcitability in NPC1 disease neurons. Thus, cholesterol efflux from lysosomes regulates PtdIns(4,5)P2 to shape the electrical and functional identity of the plasma membrane of neurons in health and disease

Identification of a surrogate to validate irradiation processing of selected spices

Onion powder and talc were inoculated with one of three groups of Salmonella enterica or a putative surrogate, Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354, and the radiation sensitivity of S. enterica was compared to E. faecium. For both inoculated onion powder and inoculated talc, D10-values were greater for E. faecium than any of the three groups of S. enterica. The survival of E. faecium in irradiated talc was used to estimate the potential survival of S. enterica in irradiated spices. Onion powder, dried oregano, whole cumin seeds or peppercorns were mixed with talc inoculated with either S. enterica (previously associated with a foodborne disease outbreak) or E. faecium and irradiated. The D10-values were calculated for each bacterial group and compared between E. faecium and S. enterica within each spice. For each spice, the D10-value for E. faecium was either not statistically different from (P \u3c 0.05) S. entericaor greater than that of S. enterica (onion powder). Quadratic and linear models were developed to allow the estimation of potential surviving populations, and potential decimal reductions of S. enterica, based on surviving populations and decimal reductions determined with E. faecium. The use of E. faecium and these mathematical models would allow a processor to validate an irradiation process by estimating the reduction in S. enterica, based on the population reductions of E. faecium

Maximally symmetric stabilizer MUBs in even prime-power dimensions

One way to construct a maximal set of mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) in a prime-power dimensional Hilbert space is by means of finite phase-space methods. MUBs obtained in this way are covariant with respect to some subgroup of the group of all affine symplectic phase-space transformations. However, this construction is not canonical: as a consequence, many different choices of covariance sugroups are possible. In particular, when the Hilbert space is $2^n$ dimensional, it is known that covariance with respect to the full group of affine symplectic phase-space transformations can never be achieved. Here we show that in this case there exist two essentially different choices of maximal subgroups admitting covariant MUBs. For both of them, we explicitly construct a family of $2^n$ covariant MUBs. We thus prove that, contrary to the odd dimensional case, maximally covariant MUBs are very far from being unique.Comment: 22 page

Beef Cattle Salmonellosis: A Study of Oral Salmonella typhimurium and Topical Salmonella newport Inoculations

Cattle are frequently infected with salmonellae by fecaloral transmission or by being fed contaminated animal protein byproducts (40% are reported contaminated in the U.S.). Bothcould propagate salmonellosis in feedlots. Research indicates that stress can induce shedding of salmonellae by asymptomatic carriers. Stress factors associated withsalmonellosis include: transportation, starvation, changes in ration, overcrowding, age, pregnancy, parturition, exertion, anesthesia, surgery, intercurrentdisease, and oral treatment withantibioticsand anthelmintics. In this study, we have attempted to correlate dosage of S. typhimurium inoculumwithdisease, persistence of infection, and environmental contamination. The persistence and spread of S. newport placed on the skin of cattle was also studied

Beef Cattle Salmonellosis: A Study of Oral Salmonella typhimurium and Topical Salmonella newport Inoculations

Cattle are frequently infected with salmonellae by fecaloral transmission or by being fed contaminated animal protein byproducts (40% are reported contaminated in the U.S.). Bothcould propagate salmonellosis in feedlots. Research indicates that stress can induce shedding of salmonellae by asymptomatic carriers. Stress factors associated withsalmonellosis include: transportation, starvation, changes in ration, overcrowding, age, pregnancy, parturition, exertion, anesthesia, surgery, intercurrentdisease, and oral treatment withantibioticsand anthelmintics. In this study, we have attempted to correlate dosage of S. typhimurium inoculumwithdisease, persistence of infection, and environmental contamination. The persistence and spread of S. newport placed on the skin of cattle was also studied

Anti-motility and reductions in the concentrations of gut electrolytes: Mechanisms for the anti-spasmodic use of the seeds of avocado (Persea americana Mill) in folk medicine

The seeds of avocado (Persea americana Mill) are used in traditional medicine to treat, allay or prevent some spasm-related disorders, for instance, diarrhoea. The chloroform and methanol fractions of the chloroform-methanol extract of the seeds of P. americana were investigated for their qualitative and quantitative phytochemical constituents as well as effects on gastro-intestinal motility (transit) and castor oil-induced intestinal fluid sodium ion (Na+) and potassium ion (K+) concentrations in Wistar rats. The qualitative and quantitative phytochemical studies of the chloroform and methanol fractions showed the presence and amounts of alkaloids (2.92 ± 0.14 g/100 g and 2.81 ± 0.08 g/100 g respectively), flavonoids (3.43 ± 0.19 g/100 g and 3.11 ± 0.16 g/100 g, respectively), tannins (2.64 ± 0.13 g/100 g and 2.85 ± 0.14 g/100 g, respectively), steroids (1.51 ± 0.07 g/100 g and 1.27 ± 0.04 g/100 g, respectively), saponins (2.35 ± 0.08 % and 2.47 ± 0.09%, respectively), terpenoids, proteins and carbohydrates in both fractions. Fats and oil were present only in the chloroform fraction. At the two doses (100 and 200 mg/kg body weight), the chloroform and methanol fractions produced significant (p<0.05) and dose-related decreases in the gastro-intestinal motility and concentration of the intestinal fluid potassium ions but only the chloroform fraction at the dose of 200 mg/kg body weight significantly (p<0.05) decreased the concentration of the intestinal fluid sodium ions. Results of the fractions were comparable with those of the standard anti-diarrhoeal drug, hyoscine butylbromide (3 mg/kg body weight). The results indicate that the chloroform-methanol extract of the seeds of P. americana contains compounds with anti-spasmodic effect.Keywords: Persea americana, spasm-related, castor oil, gastro-intestinal motility and electrolytesAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(37), pp. 5610-561

Functional rescue of dystrophin deficiency in mice caused by frameshift mutations using Campylobacter jejuni Cas9

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal, X-linked muscle wasting disease caused by mutations in the DMD gene. In 51% of DMD cases, a reading frame is disrupted because of deletion of several exons. Here, we show that CjCas9 derived from Campylobacter jejuni can be used as a gene editing tool to correct an out-of-frame Dmd exon in Dmd knockout mice. Herein, we used Cas9 derived from S. pyogenes to generate Dmd knockout (KO) mice with a frameshift mutation in Dmd gene. Then, we expressed CjCas9, its single-guide RNA, and the eGFP gene in the tibialis anterior muscle of the Dmd KO mice using an all-in-one adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector. CjCas9 cleaved the target site in the Dmd gene efficiently in vivo and induced small insertions or deletions at the target site. This treatment resulted in conversion of the disrupted Dmd reading frame from out-of-frame to in-frame, leading to the expression of dystrophin in the sarcolemma. Importantly, muscle strength was enhanced in the CjCas9-treated muscles, without off-target mutations, indicating high efficiency and specificity of CjCas9. This work suggests that in vivo DMD frame correction, mediated by CjCas9 has great potential for the treatment of DMD and other neuromuscular diseases