Inductive liquid level detection system Patent

Inductive liquid level detection syste

Photoreceptor Outer Segment-like Structures in Long-Term 3D Retinas from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells.

The retinal degenerative diseases, which together constitute a leading cause of hereditary blindness worldwide, are largely untreatable. Development of reliable methods to culture complex retinal tissues from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) could offer a means to study human retinal development, provide a platform to investigate the mechanisms of retinal degeneration and screen for neuroprotective compounds, and provide the basis for cell-based therapeutic strategies. In this study, we describe an in vitro method by which hPSCs can be differentiated into 3D retinas with at least some important features reminiscent of a mature retina, including exuberant outgrowth of outer segment-like structures and synaptic ribbons, photoreceptor neurotransmitter expression, and membrane conductances and synaptic vesicle release properties consistent with possible photoreceptor synaptic function. The advanced outer segment-like structures reported here support the notion that 3D retina cups could serve as a model for studying mature photoreceptor development and allow for more robust modeling of retinal degenerative disease in vitro

Mountain gorillas maintain strong affiliative biases for maternal siblings despite high male reproductive skew and extensive exposure to paternal kin

Evolutionary theories predict that sibling relationships will reflect a complex balance of cooperative and competitive dynamics. In most mammals, dispersal and death patterns mean that sibling relationships occur in a relatively narrow window during development and/or only with same-sex individuals. Besides humans, one notable exception is mountain gorillas, in which non-sex-biased dispersal, relatively stable group composition, and the long reproductive tenures of alpha males mean that animals routinely reside with both maternally and paternally related siblings, of the same and opposite sex, throughout their lives. Using nearly 40,000 hr of behavioral data collected over 14 years on 699 sibling and 1235 non-sibling pairs of wild mountain gorillas, we demonstrate that individuals have strong affiliative preferences for full and maternal siblings over paternal siblings or unrelated animals, consistent with an inability to discriminate paternal kin. Intriguingly, however, aggression data imply the opposite. Aggression rates were statistically indistinguishable among all types of dyads except one: in mixed-sex dyads, non-siblings engaged in substantially more aggression than siblings of any type. This pattern suggests mountain gorillas may be capable of distinguishing paternal kin but nonetheless choose not to affiliate with them over non-kin. We observe a preference for maternal kin in a species with a high reproductive skew (i.e. high relatedness certainty), even though low reproductive skew (i.e. low relatedness certainty) is believed to underlie such biases in other non-human primates. Our results call into question reasons for strong maternal kin biases when paternal kin are identifiable, familiar, and similarly likely to be long-term groupmates, and they may also suggest behavioral mismatches at play during a transitional period in mountain gorilla society

Nanoparticle tethered antioxidant response element as a biosensor for oxygen induced toxicity in retinal endothelial cells

Purpose: A novel system, based on biosensor DNA tethered to a nanoparticle, was developed for the treatment of retinopathy of prematurity. Methods: The construction of a five-layered nanoparticle was visualized with gel electrophoresis. Transcriptionally active PCR products (TAP) containing the biosensor sequence, were bioconjugated to the surface of magnetic nanoparticles yielding biosensor tethered magnetic nanoparticles (MNP). The biosensor was based on an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) reporter gene driven by an enhanced antioxidant response element ( ARE). Image analysis and flow cytometry were used to characterize MNP delivery and biosensor activity. Results: The MNP penetrated dividing and migrating cells more often than quiescent endothelial cells in a wound-healing in vitro assay. Prussian blue staining demonstrated that more cells have nanoparticle cores than are transfected. When compared to naked TAP alone, MNP transfected more cells in a dose dependent manner. Both the biosensor alone and MNP induce gene expression in the presence of hyperoxia, greater than 1.5 fold over normoxic controls. These data also show that the MNP had a signal to noise ratio of 0.5 greater than the plasmid form of the biosensor as demonstrated by flow cytometry. Conclusions: This approach has the potential to allow the endothelial cells of the retinal vasculature to prevent or treat themselves after hyperoxic insult, rather than systemic treatment to protect or treat only the retina

Construction, gene delivery, and expression of DNA tethered nanoparticles

PURPOSE: Layered nanoparticles have the potential to deliver any number of substances to cells both in vitro and in vivo. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a relatively simple alternative to custom synthesized nanoparticles for use in multiple biological systems, with special focus on the eye. METHODS: The biotin-labeled transcriptionally active PCR products (TAP) were conjugated to gold, semiconductor nanocrystals, and magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) coated with streptavidin. The process of nanoparticle construction was monitored with gel electrophoresis. Fluorescence microscopy followed by image analysis was used to examine gene expression levels from DNA alone and tethered MNP in human hepatoma derived Huh-7 cells. Adult retinal endothelial cells from both dog (ADREC) and human (HREC) sources were transfected with nanoparticles and reporter gene expression evaluated with confocal and fluorescent microscopy. Transmission electron microscopy was used to quantify the concentration of nanoparticles in a stock solution. Nanoparticles were evaluated for transfection efficiency, determined by fluorescence microscopy cell counts. Cells treated with MNP were evaluated for increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) and necrosis with flow cytometry. RESULTS: Both 5' and 3' biotin-labeled TAP bound equally to MNP and there were no differences in functionality between the two tethering orientations. Free DNA was easily removed by the use of magnetic columns. These particles were also able to deliver genes to a human hepatoma cell line, Huh-7, but transfection efficiency was greater than TAP. The semiconductor nanocrystals and MNP had the highest transfection efficiencies. The MNP did not induce ROS formation or necrosis after 48 h of incubation. CONCLUSIONS: Once transfected, the MNP had reporter gene expression levels equivalent to TAP. The nanoparticles, however, had better transfection efficiencies than TAP. The magnetic nanoparticles were the most easily purified of all the nanoparticles tested. This strategy for bioconjugating TAP to nanoparticles is valuable because nanoparticle composition can be changed and the system optimized quickly. Since endothelial cells take up MNP, this strategy could be used to target neovascularization as occurs in proliferative retinopathies. Multiple cell types were used to test this technology and in each the nanoparticles were capable of transfection. In adult endothelial cells the MNP appeared innocuous, even at the highest doses tested with respect to ROS and necrosis. This technology has the potential to be used as more than just a vector for gene transfer, because each layer has the potential to perform its own unique function and then degrade to expose the next functional layer

Motives for choosing university and specialty applicants Ukraine (for example, students NTU "KPI")

Стаття присвячена аналізу портрета абітурієнта НТУ "ХПІ", де, крім визначення мотивів професійного вибору, самооцінки особистих здібностей, розглядаються і основні цілі навчання в НТУ "ХПІ". У статті підкреслюється, що проблема професійного самовизначення стояла перед молоддю завжди, а сьогодні вона особливо актуальна, тому що сучасні умови ринку праці ведуть до того, що більшість випускників не мають ясної життєвої перспективи. Аналізуються мотиви отримання абітурієнтами вищої освіти, мотивація вступу до НТУ "ХПІ", мотиви вибору спеціальності, період формування професійного інтересу. Проаналізовано мотиви професійного вибору абітурієнтів; період формування інтересу молодих людей до обраної спеціальності (процес самовизначення, коли здійснено вибір спеціальності, ВНЗ); специфіку вибору ВНЗ (яким за рахунком був ХПІ, хто допоміг визначитися з вибором); уявлення про процес навчання в університеті; відповідність уявлень про навчання в університеті реаліям університетського життя.This article analyzes portrait applicant NTU "KPI", where in addition to determining the reasons professional choice, self-personal skills, and discusses the main goals of training at NTU "KPI". The article highlights the problem of professional self -determination was always the youth, and today it is particularly urgent because the current labor market conditions lead to the fact that most graduates do not have a clear life perspective. Analyzed the motives of applicants receiving higher education, motivation admission to NTU "KPI" motives choice of specialty, during the formation of professional interest. Analyzed the motives of professional selection of applicants; during the formation of young people's interest to the chosen profession (the process of self-selection made when specialty Universities); the specific choice of university (how the account was HPI, who helped to choose); understanding of the learning process at the university; line ideas about university studies realities of university life

Lattice QCD Constraints on the Fourth Mellin Moment of the Pion Light Cone Distribution Amplitude using the HOPE method

The light-cone distribution amplitude (LCDA) of the pion contains information about the parton momentum carried by the quarks and is an important theoretical input for various predictions of exclusive processes at high energy, including the pion electromagnetic form factor. Progress towards constraining the fourth Mellin moment of the LCDA using the heavy-quark operator product expansion (HOPE) method is presented.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, proceedings to talk presented at the 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, July 31st - August 4th 2023, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois, USA. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2211.1700

Radar climatology of the COPS region

A climatology of convection initiation (CI) and convective enhancements (CE) has been developed using radar reflectivity data in southwestern Germany and eastern France over the period of May�August of 2000�2006 and 2008. The study region included the Vosges Mountains of France, the Rhine Valley which straddles France and Germany, the Black ForestMountains and the SwabianMountains of Germany. Convection occurred frequently during the summer months throughout the study region. The CI density (number of initiations per square km) illustrates preferential formation in the mountain regions while the CE events spanned both mountains and valleys nearly equally. There is a strongmid-day peak of the CI events suggesting that diurnal heating is critical for CI in the region. The very strong thunderstorms (>46 dBZ) first occurred in the mountains and �2 h later in the Rhine Valley. During the summer of 2007, the Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS) field campaign was conducted with the objective of obtaining improved understanding of convective processes and short-term quantitative precipitation forecasting in low-mountain regions. Comparisons were made between the radar climatology results and the COPS summer. The COPS summer exhibited preferential CI density in the mountainous regions but not as pronounced as the climatology. The COPS summer had a similar diurnal peak of CI events as climatology but the ratio of daytime to nighttime CI (1.7), or amplitude of the diurnal cycle, was less than that of climatology (3.0). While both the 8-year climatology and COPS summer were dominated by daytime, locally-forced CI occurrences, the broad distribution of daytime CI events and increase in nighttime events observed during COPS indicate a more active synoptic pattern in 2007