Purification and quantification of recombinant Epstein-Barr viral glycoproteins gp350/220 from Chinese hamster ovary cells

Truncated Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) membrane antigen gp350/220 (EBV-MA) lacking the membrane anchor was expressed and secreted into the medium of recombinant Chinese hamster ovary cells that had been cultured in Plasmapur hollow-fibre modules using defined serum-free medium. The EBV-MA in the medium was concentrated by 70% (w/v) ammonium sulphate precipitation and subsequently purified by immunoaffinity chromatography using an anti-EBV-MA (EBV.0T6) monoclonal antibody (mAb) column. Adsorbed antigen was eluted with 3 M MgCl2 in phosphate-buffered saline, concentrated by Mono Q anion-exchange chromatography and analysed by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, silver staining and Western blotting using EBV-positive serum and anti-EBV-MA specific mAbs. Monospecific polyclonal rabbit antibodies against the purified EBV-MA were raised and purified by protein G affinity chromatography. For the measurement of EBV-MA antigen levels a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using rabbit polyclonal antibodies and a horseradish peroxidase-conjugated anti-MA mAb was developed having a detection level of 10 ng/ml

Moregrasp: Restoration of Upper Limb Function in Individuals with High Spinal Cord Injury by Multimodal Neuroprostheses for Interaction in Daily Activities

The aim of the MoreGrasp project is to develop a noninvasive, multimodal user interface including a brain-computer interface (BCI) for intuitive control of a grasp neuroprosthesis to support individuals with high spinal cord injury (SCI) in everyday activities. We describe the current state of the project, including the EEG system, preliminary results of natural movements decoding in people with SCI, the new electrode concept for the grasp neuroprosthesis, the shared control architecture behind the system and the implementation of a user-centered design

Nanoscale Imaging of High‐Field Magnetic Hysteresis in Meteoritic Metal Using X‐Ray Holography

Stable paleomagnetic information in meteoritic metal is carried by the “cloudy zone”: ~1–10 μm‐wide regions containing islands of ferromagnetic tetrataenite embedded in a paramagnetic antitaenite matrix. Due to their small size and high coercivity (theoretically up to ~2.2 T), the tetrataenite islands carry very stable magnetic remanence. However, these characteristics also make it difficult to image their magnetic state with the necessary spatial resolution and applied magnetic field. Here, we describe the first application of X‐ray holography to image the magnetic structure of the cloudy zone of the Tazewell IIICD meteorite with spatial resolution down to ~40 nm and in applied magnetic fields up to ±1.1 T, sufficient to extract high‐field hysteresis data from individual islands. Images were acquired as a function of magnetic field applied both parallel and perpendicular to the surface of a ~100 nm‐thick slice of the cloudy zone. Broad distributions of coercivity are observed, including values that likely exceed the maximum applied field. Horizontal offsets in the hysteresis loops indicate an interaction field distribution with half width of ~100 mT between the islands in their room temperature single‐domain state, providing a good match to first‐order reversal curve diagrams. The results suggest that future models of remanence acquisition in the cloudy zone should take account of strong interactions in order to extract quantitative estimates of the paleofield.EC/FP7/320750/EU/Nanopaleomagnetism: a multiscale approach to paleomagnetic analysis of geological materials/NanoPaleoMagEC/FP7/312284/EU/Coordinated Access to Lightsources to Promote Standards and Optimization/CALIPS

Transient magnetic gratings on the nanometer scale

Laser-driven non-local electron dynamics in ultrathin magnetic samples on a sub-10 nm length scale is a key process in ultrafast magnetism. However, the experimental access has been challenging due to the nanoscopic and femtosecond nature of such transport processes. Here, we present a scattering-based experiment relying on a laser-induced electro- and magneto-optical grating in a Co/Pd ferromagnetic multilayer as a new technique to investigate non-local magnetization dynamics on nanometer length and femtosecond timescales. We induce a spatially modulated excitation pattern using tailored Al near-field masks with varying periodicities on a nanometer length scale and measure the first four diffraction orders in an x-ray scattering experiment with magnetic circular dichroism contrast at the free-electron laser facility FERMI, Trieste. The design of the periodic excitation mask leads to a strongly enhanced and characteristic transient scattering response allowing for sub-wavelength in-plane sensitivity for magnetic structures. In conjunction with scattering simulations, the experiment allows us to infer that a potential ultrafast lateral expansion of the initially excited regions of the magnetic film mediated by hot-electron transport and spin transport remains confined to below three nanometers

Breaking Traditions:An Isotopic Study on the Changing Funerary Practices in the Dutch Iron Age (800-12 bc)

Urnfields in the Dutch river area were replaced by cemeteries with a mixture of cremation and inhumation graves around the sixth century bc. This study provides the first biogeochemical evidence that the Iron Age communities were heterogeneous in terms of geological origins. The high percentage of non-locally born individuals (~48%) supports the hypothesis that the change in burial practice was the result of the influx of foreign people, who were being allowed to keep their own burial customs, whereas some of the local inhabitants adapted the burial rites of foreign cultures, leading to a heterogeneous burial rite for some centuries

A review of the opportunities and challenges for using remote sensing for management of surface-canopy forming kelps

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Cavanaugh, K. C., Bell, T., Costa, M., Eddy, N. E., Gendall, L., Gleason, M. G., Hessing-Lewis, M., Martone, R., McPherson, M., Pontier, O., Reshitnyk, L., Beas-Luna, R., Carr, M., Caselle, J. E., Cavanaugh, K. C., Miller, R. F., Hamilton, S., Heady, W. N., Hirsh, H. K., Hohman R., Lee L. C., Lorda J., Ray J., Reed D. C., Saccomanno V. R., Schroeder, S. B. A review of the opportunities and challenges for using remote sensing for management of surface-canopy forming kelps. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, (2021): 753531, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.753531.Surface-canopy forming kelps provide the foundation for ecosystems that are ecologically, culturally, and economically important. However, these kelp forests are naturally dynamic systems that are also threatened by a range of global and local pressures. As a result, there is a need for tools that enable managers to reliably track changes in their distribution, abundance, and health in a timely manner. Remote sensing data availability has increased dramatically in recent years and this data represents a valuable tool for monitoring surface-canopy forming kelps. However, the choice of remote sensing data and analytic approach must be properly matched to management objectives and tailored to the physical and biological characteristics of the region of interest. This review identifies remote sensing datasets and analyses best suited to address different management needs and environmental settings using case studies from the west coast of North America. We highlight the importance of integrating different datasets and approaches to facilitate comparisons across regions and promote coordination of management strategies.Funding was provided by the Nature Conservancy (Grant No. 02042019-5719), the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant No. OCE 1831937), and the U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E (Grant No. DE-AR0000922)

Search for composite and exotic fermions at LEP 2

A search for unstable heavy fermions with the DELPHI detector at LEP is reported. Sequential and non-canonical leptons, as well as excited leptons and quarks, are considered. The data analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 48 pb^{-1} at an e^+e^- centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV and about 20 pb^{-1} equally shared between the centre-of-mass energies of 172 GeV and 161 GeV. The search for pair-produced new leptons establishes 95% confidence level mass limits in the region between 70 GeV/c^2 and 90 GeV/c^2, depending on the channel. The search for singly produced excited leptons and quarks establishes upper limits on the ratio of the coupling of the excited fermio

Search for charginos in e+e- interactions at sqrt(s) = 189 GeV

An update of the searches for charginos and gravitinos is presented, based on a data sample corresponding to the 158 pb^{-1} recorded by the DELPHI detector in 1998, at a centre-of-mass energy of 189 GeV. No evidence for a signal was found. The lower mass limits are 4-5 GeV/c^2 higher than those obtained at a centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV. The (\mu,M_2) MSSM domain excluded by combining the chargino searches with neutralino searches at the Z resonance implies a limit on the mass of the lightest neutralino which, for a heavy sneutrino, is constrained to be above 31.0 GeV/c^2 for tan(beta) \geq 1.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure

Search for lightest neutralino and stau pair production in light gravitino scenarios with stau NLSP

Promptly decaying lightest neutralinos and long-lived staus are searched for in the context of light gravitino scenarios. It is assumed that the stau is the next to lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) and that the lightest neutralino is the next to NLSP (NNLSP). Data collected with the Delphi detector at centre-of-mass energies from 161 to 183 \GeV are analysed. No evidence of the production of these particles is found. Hence, lower mass limits for both kinds of particles are set at 95% C.L.. The mass of gaugino-like neutralinos is found to be greater than 71.5 GeV/c^2. In the search for long-lived stau, masses less than 70.0 to 77.5 \GeVcc are excluded for gravitino masses from 10 to 150 \eVcc . Combining this search with the searches for stable heavy leptons and Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model staus a lower limit of 68.5 \GeVcc may be set for the stau mas

Hadronization properties of b quarks compared to light quarks in e+e- -> q qbar from 183 to 200 GeV

The DELPHI detector at LEP has collected 54 pb^{-1} of data at a centre-of-mass energy around 183 GeV during 1997, 158 pb^{-1} around 189 GeV during 1998, and 187 pb^{-1} between 192 and 200 GeV during 1999. These data were used to measure the average charged particle multiplicity in e+e- -> b bbar events, _{bb}, and the difference delta_{bl} between _{bb} and the multiplicity, _{ll}, in generic light quark (u,d,s) events: delta_{bl}(183 GeV) = 4.55 +/- 1.31 (stat) +/- 0.73 (syst) delta_{bl}(189 GeV) = 4.43 +/- 0.85 (stat) +/- 0.61 (syst) delta_{bl}(200 GeV) = 3.39 +/- 0.89 (stat) +/- 1.01 (syst). This result is consistent with QCD predictions, while it is inconsistent with calculations assuming that the multiplicity accompanying the decay of a heavy quark is independent of the mass of the quark itself.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure