Roundtable discussion: Southern Nevada’s future in renewable and sustainable energy

This inaugural event is dedicated to showcasing the renewable/sustainable energy projects of UNLV faculty, staff, students, and collaborators, as well as other external projects underway statewide and nationally. The development and utilization of new technologies to protect the environment, achieve energy independence, and strengthen the economy will be explored. Speakers and poster-session presenters will provide further insight to many ongoing projects and innovative research ideas. Organized by UNLV’s Office of Strategic Energy Programs, the event offers participants the opportunity to learn about energy projects and will encourage networking and collaboration. This symposium is intended for researchers, educators, students, policy makers, public and private-sector energy and environmental professionals, and citizens

Novel Roles for Arginine Modifying Enzymes in Immune Regulation

Arginine modifying enzymes are important transcriptional regulators involved in many cellular processes. Cytokine expression by immune cells is a highly regulated process, since cytokine imbalance is associated with severe pathological consequences including autoimmunity, autoinflammation and asthma. Th2 mediated IL-4 expression is a tightly regulated process. The NFAT interacting protein NIP45 is an essential regulator of IL-4 expression by Th2 cells. Furthermore, NIP45-mediated IL-4 expression is enhanced by arginine methylation of NIP45. Here, I demonstrate that arginine deimination of NIP45 by PAD4 negatively regulates IL-4 expression. PAD4 can deiminate NIP45 both in vitro and in vivo. Overexpression of PAD4 can suppress NIP45-mediated IL-4 expression. Interestingly, the suppressive activity of PAD4 is independent of its catalytic activity. Furthermore, Th2 cells from PAD4-deficient mice that I generated for this thesis display elevated IL-4 secretion. Taken together, I have established that PAD4 is a negative regulator of IL-4 expression. Although PAD4 can deiminate NIP45, the catalytic activity of PAD4 is not required for suppression of NIP45-mediated IL-4 secretion. CARM1 coactivates NFkB-mediated transcription of several proinflammatory genes including IL-6, TNFa, and IP-10 in MEFs. In contrast, I demonstrate that CARM1 is a negative regulator of NFkB-mediated proinflammatory cytokine secretion in macrophages. CARM1-deficient BMDMs secrete significantly more IL-6 and TNFa upon LPS stimulation than CARM1-sufficient BMDMs, without exhibiting a difference in IL-10 secretion. In addition, CARM1 is reported to coactivate glucocorticoid-receptor mediated transcription. Here, I show that glucocorticoid mediated trans-repression of NFkB in BMDMs is not regulated by CARM1. In conclusion, the results from this thesis reveal novel roles for arginine modifying enzymes in cytokine expression by Th2 cells and macrophages. PAD4 is a negative regulator of NIP45-mediated IL-4 secretion in Th2 cells. In addition, the generation of the PAD4 conditional knockout strain will allow a more detailed analysis of PAD4 in immune regulation. Furthermore, CARM1 is a negative regulator of NFkB-mediated proinflammatory cytokine secretion in macrophages, revealing cell-type specific differences for CARM1 function in macrophages and MEFs

Explore the Six Fundamentals UNLV Accelerated: High-Energy X-Ray Applications (HEXA)

UNLV and HEXA for a Brighter Southern Nevada Future History of HEXA’s Public-­‐Private Partnership Discovery Through Research and Innova4ve Technologies The Innova4ve Process Southern Nevada Research and Economic Development Applica4ons HEXA Program Benefit

Evaluation of Fluorapatite as a Waste-Form Material

Fluorapatite, fluorinated calcium phosphate, has been identified as a potential matrix for the entombment of the zirconium fluoride fission product waste stream from the proposed FLEX process. If the efficacy of fluorapatite based waste-storage can be demonstrated, then new and potentially more-efficient options for handling and separating high-level wastes, based on fluoride-salt extraction, will become feasible. This proposal is for renewal of the UNLV portion of a dual-path research project to develop a process to fabricate a synthetic fluorapatite waste form for the ZrF4, FP waste stream, characterize the waste form, examine its performance under environmental conditions, and correlate the behavior of the waste form with natural analogs. At UNLV, characterization of the material will be accomplished by probing molecular-scale electronic and geometric structure of the materials in order to relate them to macroscopic properties, with the goal of developing techniques to evaluate and predict the performances of different waste-form materials. Time and funding permitting, other waste forms for the zirconium fluoride, fission product salt waste stream will be examined and benchmarked against the fluorapatite matrix baseline. The work in the third year of the project will continue to progress along two parallel paths: Fabrication and Natural-Analog Characterization. The Fabrication path, led by the KRI team, will evaluate various techniques for the fabrication of synthetic fluorapatite, will synthesize fluorapatite, and will begin the examination of waste loading and fabrication process factors on the synthetic fluorapatite. The Characterization path, led by the UNLV team, has been performing baseline spectroscopic studies of natural and pristine (no artificially added impurities) apatite materials and is beginning to apply the same techniques to more-complex fluorapatite-based waste forms made by the KRI Fabrication team. The ultimate goal is to use these techniques to achieve a molecular-level understanding of natural fluorapatite and other fluorine-bearing phases as natural analogs for waste-form materials. These techniques will also be used to examine changes in surface chemistry caused by environmental degradation

Evaluation of Fluorapatite as a Waste-Form Material: Fourth Quarter Report, June 1 - September 30, 2004

Fluorapatite, fluorinated calcium phosphate, has been identified as a potential matrix for the entombment of the zirconium fluoride fission product waste stream from the proposed FLEX process. If the efficacy of fluorapatite-based waste-storage can be demonstrated, then new and potentially more-efficient options for handling and separating high-level wastes, based on fluoride-salt extraction, will become feasible. This proposal will develop a dual-path research project to develop a process to fabricate a synthetic fluorapatite waste form for the ZrF4, FP waste stream, characterize the waste form, examine its performance under environmental conditions, and correlate the behavior of the waste form with natural analogs. Characterization of the material will be accomplished through probing the molecular-scale electronic and geometric structure of the materials in order to relate them to macroscopic properties, with the goal of developing techniques to evaluate and predict the performance of different waste-form materials. Time and funding permitting, other waste forms for the zirconium fluoride, fission product salt waste stream will be examined and benchmarked against the fluorapatite matrix baseline. Highlights of Accomplishments: 1. Fluorapatite containing Sr and Zn surrogates (replacing the Ca) have been synthesized, annealed and analyzed using various techniques such as SEM, IR, XPS, Raman, DSC, TGA, EDS, XRD and XANES. 2. Non-annealed samples of the same surrogate samples have been analyzed with the same techniques. 3. The phosphate in fluorapatite and hydroxyapatite is not replaced by the nitrate ions of the surrogates during synthesis

Evaluation of Fluorapatite as a Waste-Form Material: First Quarter Report (2004-05), October 1 - December 31, 2004

Fluorapatite, fluorinated calcium phosphate, has been identified as a potential matrix for the entombment of the zirconium fluoride fission product waste stream from the proposed FLEX process. If the efficacy of fluorapatite-based waste-storage can be demonstrated, then new and potentially more-efficient options for handling and separating high-level wastes, based on fluoride-salt extraction, will become feasible. This proposal will develop a dual-path research project to develop a process to fabricate a synthetic fluorapatite waste form for the ZrF4, FP waste stream, characterize the waste form, examine its performance under environmental conditions, and correlate the behavior of the waste form with natural analogs. Characterization of the material will be accomplished through probing the molecular-scale electronic and geometric structure of the materials in order to relate them to macroscopic properties, with the goal of developing techniques to evaluate and predict the performance of different waste-form materials. Time and funding permitting, other waste forms for the zirconium fluoride, fission product salt waste stream will be examined and benchmarked against the fluorapatite matrix baseline. Highlights of Accomplishments: 1) Multiple samples of hydroxyapatite prepared some with surrogates (varying Ca/Zn weight ratios) and some pure samples which have then been analyzed with IR, TGA/DSC and XRD techniques. 2) Fluorapatite samples synthesized using the reflux method and analyzed with SEM, XPS, XRD and single point IR. 3) Experiments conducted with natural fluorapatite and hydroxyl apatite using the precipitation method to determine if procedure to synthesize fluorapatite differs based on samples used. XRD was used to analyze the synthesized samples. 4) Synthesized yttrium and cesium containing FAP samples using the same method that was used for Strontium (explained in last report) and obtained XRD, SEM and DSC data for samples

Photoelectron Spectroscopy and the Dipole Approximation

Over the past three decades, the dipole approximation has facilitated a basic understanding of the photoionization process in atoms and molecules. Advances in gas-phase photoemission experiments using synchrotron radiation have recently highlighted nondipole effects at relatively low photon energies while probing the limits of the dipole approximation. Breakdowns in this approximation are manifested primarily as deviations from dipolar angular distributions of photoelectrons. Detailed new results demonstrate nondipolar angular-distribution effects are easily observable in atomic gases at energies well below 1 keV, and, in molecules, a previously unexpected phenomenon greatly enhances the breakdown of the dipole approximation just above the core-level ionization threshold

Evaluation of Fluorapatite as a Waste-Form Material: First Quarter Report, January 1 - March 31, 2005

Fluorapatite, fluorinated calcium phosphate, has been identified as a potential matrix for the entombment of the zirconium fluoride fission product waste stream from the proposed FLEX process. If the efficacy of fluorapatite-based waste-storage can be demonstrated, then new and potentially more-efficient options for handling and separating high-level wastes, based on fluoride-salt extraction, will become feasible. This proposal will develop a dual-path research project to develop a process to fabricate a synthetic fluorapatite waste form for the ZrF4, FP waste stream, characterize the waste form, examine its performance under environmental conditions, and correlate the behavior of the waste form with natural analogs. Characterization of the material will be accomplished through probing the molecular-scale electronic and geometric structure of the materials in order to relate them to macroscopic properties, with the goal of developing techniques to evaluate and predict the performance of different waste-form materials. Time and funding permitting, other waste forms for the zirconium fluoride, fission product salt waste stream will be examined and benchmarked against the fluorapatite matrix baseline. Highlights of Accomplishments: 1) Obtained SEM/EDS, FTIR and XRD for Zn-containing samples prepared using 75, 50 and 25% Ca/Zn molar ratios and the sintered sample of Ca/Zn molar ratio 75%. Additionally, XPS data were obtained for these samples together with a fluorapatite and a 100% Zn sample. 2) Prepared 4 different amounts of Zr-containing apatites using precipitation method and sintered these 4 samples at 1200 degrees of centigrade for one hour. SEM, XRD, FTIR and high temperature TGA/DSC data were obtained for these samples. A detailed analysis is in progress. 3) Determined the dependability of the Ca/P and (Ca +Sr)/P ratios in FAP based on the amount of Sr surrogate used in synthesis. 4) Preparation of Cu and Ni containing fluorapatite samples and powder diffraction spectra were obtained for the Cu-FAP sample

The Cell-Intrinsic Circadian Clock Is Dispensable for Lymphocyte Differentiation and Function

SummaryCircadian rhythms regulate many aspects of physiology, ranging from sleep-wake cycles and metabolic parameters to susceptibility to infection. The molecular clock, with transcription factor BMAL1 at its core, controls both central and cell-intrinsic circadian rhythms. Using a circadian reporter, we observed dynamic regulation of clock activity in lymphocytes. However, its disruption upon conditional Bmal1 ablation did not alter T- or B-cell differentiation or function. Although the magnitude of interleukin 2 (IL-2) production was affected by the time of bacterial infection, it was independent of cell-intrinsic expression of BMAL1. The circadian gating of the IL-2 response was preserved in Bmal1-deficient T cells, despite a slight reduction in cytokine production in a competitive setting. Our results suggest that, contrary to the prevailing view, the adaptive immune response is not affected by the cell-intrinsic clock but is likely influenced by cell-extrinsic circadian cues operating across multiple cell types