Radiation transport and short pulse interaction in laser irradiated targets

Imperial Users onl

Identification of Carbohydrate Metabolism Genes in the Metagenome of a Marine Biofilm Community Shown to Be Dominated by Gammaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes

Polysaccharides are an important source of organic carbon in the marine environment and degradation of the insoluble and globally abundant cellulose is a major component of the marine carbon cycle. Although a number of species of cultured bacteria are known to degrade crystalline cellulose, little is known of the polysaccharide hydrolases expressed by cellulose-degrading microbial communities, particularly in the marine environment. Next generation 454 Pyrosequencing was applied to analyze the microbial community that colonizes and degrades insoluble polysaccharides in situ in the Irish Sea. The bioinformatics tool MG-RAST was used to examine the randomly sampled data for taxonomic markers and functional genes, and showed that the community was dominated by members of the Gammaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Furthermore, the identification of 211 gene sequences matched to a custom-made database comprising the members of nine glycoside hydrolase families revealed an extensive repertoire of functional genes predicted to be involved in cellulose utilization. This demonstrates that the use of an in situ cellulose baiting method yielded a marine microbial metagenome considerably enriched in functional genes involved in polysaccharide degradation. The research reported here is the first designed to specifically address the bacterial communities that colonize and degrade cellulose in the marine environment and to evaluate the glycoside hydrolase (cellulase and chitinase) gene repertoire of that community, in the absence of the biases associated with PCR-based molecular techniques

Notes on Iowa Diatoms XII: Common Diatoms of Big Spirit Lake

A natural history of the diatoms of Spirit Lake was in preparation by the senior author prior to his death in 1973. This report is derived from his notes plus some additional observations, and is published in his behalf. A table lists 139 common taxa distributed among 34 genera and notes whether these taxa occur also in Lake West Okoboji and Clear Lake

INFO 2009 Coursework 2 - Go Green - Group 7 - Green ICT

A Website on GREEN ICT by the Go Green Group as a part of the resource set made for the Info2009 2011-12 coursewor

Recovery capital pathways : modelling the components of recovery wellbeing.

In recent years, there has been recognition that recovery is a journey that involves the growth of recovery capital. Thus, recovery capital has become a commonly used term in addiction treatment and research yet its operationalization and measurement has been limited. Due to these limitations, there is little understanding of long-term recovery pathways and their clinical application. We used the data of 546 participants from eight different recovery residences spread across Florida, USA. We calculated internal consistency for recovery capital and wellbeing, then assessed their factor structure via confirmatory factor analysis. The relationships between time, recovery barriers and strengths, wellbeing and recovery capital, as well as the moderating effect of gender, were estimated using structural equations modelling. The proposed model obtained an acceptable fit (χ(2) (141, N=546)=533.642, p<0.001; CMIN/DF=3.785; CFI=0.915; TLI=0.896; RMSEA=0.071). Findings indicate a pathway to recovery capital that involves greater time in residence ('retention'), linked to an increase in meaningful activities and a reduction in barriers to recovery and unmet needs that, in turn, promote recovery capital and positive wellbeing. Gender differences were observed. We tested the pathways to recovery for residents in the recovery housing population. Our results have implications not only for retention as a predictor of sustained recovery and wellbeing but also for the importance of meaningful activities in promoting recovery capital and wellbeing. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Binding interactions of the mRNA regulator CELF1

CELF1 is an RNA binding protein with regulatory roles in translation, alternative splicing and mRNA degradation. This protein is of particular interest as its upregulation is believed to be involved in the pathogenesis of type 1 myotonic dystrophy. CELF1 functions by binding to a specific sequence in the 3’ untranslated region of its target mRNAs. This sequence has been termed the “EDEN” motif, but the exact requirements for binding of CELF1 were not well defined. In this study we therefore aimed to determine the sequence requirements for an RNA substrate to form a high affinity interaction with CELF1, and characterise the structure of the resulting complex. The CELF1 protein is composed of three structured RNA recognition motifs separated by flexible linkers. Our strategy was to investigate the RNA binding properties of each domain in isolation, and then the requirements for tandem binding of the domains in order to build up the complete “EDEN” motif capable of forming a high affinity complex with the wild type protein. This has been accomplished using NMR spectroscopy to map the chemical shift perturbations in each domain on binding to a range of RNA substrates. ITC was also used to investigate the binding affinities of each domain, and the enhancement of affinity when domains bind in tandem. By these methods we have refined the sequence requirements for simultaneous binding of all domains of CELF1, and designed RNA substrates which will bind with higher affinity than any previously reported. We have also shown the potential involvement of RNA secondary structure in forming the CELF1 binding site, and identified two possible examples of this in natural mRNA targets. CELF1 binding triggers deadenylation of its target mRNAs and this is suspected to be via a mechanism involving recruitment of poly (A) ribonuclease. These two proteins have been shown to interact, but no structural information was available to show which domains were interacting, or whether CELF1 was capable of forming a ternary complex with both RNA and poly(A) ribonuclease. Since the ribonuclease exists as a 146 kDa dimer, the complex of it with CELF1 was an ambitious target for NMR. In this study we demonstrate that high resolution NMR data can be acquired on this key regulatory complex. Using this we go on to confirm the interaction between these two proteins, and that the domains involved in binding suggest a ternary complex is possible

Depression Moderates the Relationship between Trait Anxiety, Worry and Attentional Control in Melanoma Survivors

Cancer survivors commonly contend with concurrent cognitive difficulties such as problems with attention and concentration, and psychological distress, including anxiety and depression. However, the associations between attentional and emotional difficulties within the specific context of melanoma survivors remain relatively unexplored. Premised on attentional control theory, the current study employed a cross-sectional design to explore the interplay among trait anxiety (dispositional) and situational anxiety (cancer-related worry), depression and attentional control (ability to inhibit distractors and flexibly shift within and between tasks) in a sample of 187 melanoma survivors aged 18 to 58 years (Mage = 36.83 years, SDage = 5.44 years; 93% female). Data were analyzed using a moderated multiple regression, with anxiety, cancer worry and depression as predictors, and attentional control as the criterion variable. After statistically controlling for the variance of chemotherapy, we found that individuals with higher trait anxiety and higher cancer-related worry reported greater attentional control at low levels of depression, yet poorer attentional control at high depression, relative to individuals with low anxiety. Our findings suggest that anxiety and depression are differentially related to attentional control in melanoma survivors. The results provide a marker for clinicians addressing anxiety and depression in this population. Implications for primary healthcare are discussed.</p

An Industrial Digitalization Platform for Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance of Pumping Equipment

This paper is concerned with the implementation and field-testing of an edge device for real-time condition monitoring and fault detection for large-scale rotating equipment in the UK water industry. The edge device implements a local digital twin, processing information from low-cost transducers mounted on the equipment in real-time. Condition monitoring is achieved with sliding-mode observers employed as soft sensors to estimate critical internal pump parameters to help detect equipment wear before damage occurs. The paper describes the implementation of the edge system on a prototype microcontroller-based embedded platform, which supports the Modbus protocol; IP/GSM communication gateways provide remote connectivity to the network core, allowing further detailed analytics for predictive maintenance to take place. The paper first describes validation testing of the edge device using Hardware-In-The-Loop techniques, followed by trials on large-scale pumping equipment in the field. The paper concludes that the proposed system potentially delivers a flexible and low-cost industrial digitalization platform for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance applications in the water industry

Binding interactions of the mRNA regulator CELF1

CELF1 is an RNA binding protein with regulatory roles in translation, alternative splicing and mRNA degradation. This protein is of particular interest as its upregulation is believed to be involved in the pathogenesis of type 1 myotonic dystrophy. CELF1 functions by binding to a specific sequence in the 3’ untranslated region of its target mRNAs. This sequence has been termed the “EDEN” motif, but the exact requirements for binding of CELF1 were not well defined. In this study we therefore aimed to determine the sequence requirements for an RNA substrate to form a high affinity interaction with CELF1, and characterise the structure of the resulting complex. The CELF1 protein is composed of three structured RNA recognition motifs separated by flexible linkers. Our strategy was to investigate the RNA binding properties of each domain in isolation, and then the requirements for tandem binding of the domains in order to build up the complete “EDEN” motif capable of forming a high affinity complex with the wild type protein. This has been accomplished using NMR spectroscopy to map the chemical shift perturbations in each domain on binding to a range of RNA substrates. ITC was also used to investigate the binding affinities of each domain, and the enhancement of affinity when domains bind in tandem. By these methods we have refined the sequence requirements for simultaneous binding of all domains of CELF1, and designed RNA substrates which will bind with higher affinity than any previously reported. We have also shown the potential involvement of RNA secondary structure in forming the CELF1 binding site, and identified two possible examples of this in natural mRNA targets. CELF1 binding triggers deadenylation of its target mRNAs and this is suspected to be via a mechanism involving recruitment of poly (A) ribonuclease. These two proteins have been shown to interact, but no structural information was available to show which domains were interacting, or whether CELF1 was capable of forming a ternary complex with both RNA and poly(A) ribonuclease. Since the ribonuclease exists as a 146 kDa dimer, the complex of it with CELF1 was an ambitious target for NMR. In this study we demonstrate that high resolution NMR data can be acquired on this key regulatory complex. Using this we go on to confirm the interaction between these two proteins, and that the domains involved in binding suggest a ternary complex is possible