Tungsten cladding of reactor fuels

Tungsten cladding of reactor fuel

Stable reference genes for the measurement of transcript abundance during larval caste development in the honeybee

Many genes are differentially regulated by caste development in the honeybee. Identifying and understanding these differences is key to discovering the mechanisms underlying this process. To identify these gene expression differences requires robust methods to measure transcript abundance. RT-qPCR is currently the gold standard to measure gene expression, but requires stable reference genes to compare gene expression changes. Such reference genes have not been established for honeybee caste development. Here, we identify and test potential reference genes that have stable expression throughout larval development between the two female castes. In this study, 15 candidate reference genes were examined to identify the most stable reference genes. Three algorithms (GeNorm, Bestkeeper and NormFinder) were used to rank the candidate reference genes based on their stability between the castes throughout larval development. Of these genes Ndufa8 (the orthologue of a component of complex one of the mitochondrial electron transport chain) and Pros54 (orthologous to a component of the 26S proteasome) were identified as being the most stable. When these two genes were used to normalise expression of two target genes (previously found to be differentially expressed between queen and worker larvae by microarray analysis) they were able to more accurately detect differential expression than two previously used reference genes (awd and RpL12). The identification of these novel reference genes will be of benefit to future studies of caste development in the honeybee

Protein Function Assignment through Mining Cross-Species Protein-Protein Interactions

Background: As we move into the post genome-sequencing era, an immediate challenge is how to make best use of the large amount of high-throughput experimental data to assign functions to currently uncharacterized proteins. We here describe CSIDOP, a new method for protein function assignment based on shared interacting domain patterns extracted from cross-species protein-protein interaction data. Methodology/Principal Findings: The proposed method is assessed both biologically and statistically over the genome of H. sapiens. The CSIDOP method is capable of making protein function prediction with accuracy of 95.42 % using 2,972 gene ontology (GO) functional categories. In addition, we are able to assign novel functional annotations for 181 previously uncharacterized proteins in H. sapiens. Furthermore, we demonstrate that for proteins that are characterized by GO, the CSIDOP may predict extra functions. This is attractive as a protein normally executes a variety of functions in different processes and its current GO annotation may be incomplete. Conclusions/Significance: It can be shown through experimental results that the CSIDOP method is reliable and practical in use. The method will continue to improve as more high quality interaction data becomes available and is readily scalable t

Activation of the Innate Immune Response against DENV in Normal Non-Transformed Human Fibroblasts

In this work, we demonstrate that that both human whole skin and freshly isolated skin fibroblasts are productively infected with Dengue virus (DENV). In addition, primary skin fibroblast cultures were established and subsequently infected with DENV-2; we showed in these cells the presence of the viral antigen NS3, and we found productive viral infection by a conventional plaque assay. Of note, the infectivity rate was almost the same in all the primary cultures analyzed from different donors. The skin fibroblasts infected with DENV-2 underwent signaling through both TLR3 and RIG-1, but not Mda5, triggering up-regulation of IFNβ, TNFα, defensin 5 (HB5) and β defensin 2 (HβD2). In addition, DENV infected fibroblasts showed increased nuclear translocation of interferon (IFN) regulatory factor 3 (IRF3), but not interferon regulatory factor 7 IRF7, when compared with mock-infected fibroblasts. Our data suggest that fibroblasts might even participate producing mediators involved in innate immunity that activate and contribute to the orchestration of the local innate responses. This work is the first evaluating primary skin fibroblast cultures obtained from different humans, assessing both their susceptibility to DENV infection as well as their ability to produce molecules crucial for innate immunity

Adult-Age Inflammatory Pain Experience Enhances Long-Term Pain Vigilance in Rats

Background: Previous animal studies have illustrated a modulatory effect of neonatal pain experience on subsequent painrelated behaviors. However, the relationship between chronic pain status in adulthood and future pain perception remains unclear. Methodology/Principal Findings: In the current study, we investigated the effects of inflammatory pain experience on subsequent formalin-evoked pain behaviors and fear conditioning induced by noxious stimulation in adult rats. Our results demonstrated an increase of the second but not the first phase of formalin-induced pain behaviors in animals with a history of inflammatory pain that have recovered. Similarly, rats with persistent pain experience displayed facilitated acquisition and prolonged retention of pain-related conditioning. These effects of prior pain experience on subsequent behavior were prevented by repeated morphine administration at an early stage of inflammatory pain. Conclusions/Significance: These results suggest that chronic pain diseases, if not properly and promptly treated, may have a long-lasting impact on processing and perception of environmental threats. This may increase the susceptibility of patients to subsequent pain-related disorders, even when chronic pain develops in adulthood. These data highlight th

Engineering the fatty acid synthesis pathway in Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 improves omega-3 fatty acid production

Background: The microbial production of fatty acids has received great attention in the last few years as feedstock for the production of renewable energy. The main advantage of using cyanobacteria over other organisms is their ability to capture energy from sunlight and to transform CO2 into products of interest by photosynthesis, such as fatty acids. Fatty acid synthesis is a ubiquitous and well-characterized pathway in most bacteria. However, the activity of the enzymes involved in this pathway in cyanobacteria remains poorly explored. Results: To characterize the function of some enzymes involved in the saturated fatty acid synthesis in cyanobacteria, we genetically engineered Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 by overexpressing or deleting genes encoding enzymes of the fatty acid synthase system and tested the lipid profile of the mutants. These modifications were in turn used to improve alpha-linolenic acid production in this cyanobacterium. The mutant resulting from fabF overexpression and fadD deletion, combined with the overexpression of desA and desB desaturase genes from Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002, produced the highest levels of this omega-3 fatty acid. Conclusions: The fatty acid composition of S. elongatus PCC 7942 can be significantly modified by genetically engineering the expression of genes coding for the enzymes involved in the first reactions of fatty acid synthesis pathway. Variations in fatty acid composition of S. elongatus PCC 7942 mutants did not follow the pattern observed in Escherichia coli derivatives. Some of these modifications can be used to improve omega-3 fatty acid production. This work provides new insights into the saturated fatty acid synthesis pathway and new strategies that might be used to manipulate the fatty acid content of cyanobacteria.Work in the FDLC laboratory was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (MINECO) Grant BFU2014-55534-C2-1-P. MSM. was recipientof a Ph.D. fellowship (BES-2012-057387) from MINECO

Shattered pellet injection experiments at JET in support of the ITER disruption mitigation system design

A series of experiments have been executed at JET to assess the efficacy of the newly installed shattered pellet injection (SPI) system in mitigating the effects of disruptions. Issues, important for the ITER disruption mitigation system, such as thermal load mitigation, avoidance of runaway electron (RE) formation, radiation asymmetries during thermal quench mitigation, electromagnetic load control and RE energy dissipation have been addressed over a large parameter range. The efficiency of the mitigation has been examined for the various SPI injection strategies. The paper summarises the results from these JET SPI experiments and discusses their implications for the ITER disruption mitigation scheme

The role of ETG modes in JET-ILW pedestals with varying levels of power and fuelling

We present the results of GENE gyrokinetic calculations based on a series of JET-ITER-like-wall (ILW) type I ELMy H-mode discharges operating with similar experimental inputs but at different levels of power and gas fuelling. We show that turbulence due to electron-temperature-gradient (ETGs) modes produces a significant amount of heat flux in four JET-ILW discharges, and, when combined with neoclassical simulations, is able to reproduce the experimental heat flux for the two low gas pulses. The simulations plausibly reproduce the high-gas heat fluxes as well, although power balance analysis is complicated by short ELM cycles. By independently varying the normalised temperature gradients (omega(T)(e)) and normalised density gradients (omega(ne )) around their experimental values, we demonstrate that it is the ratio of these two quantities eta(e) = omega(Te)/omega(ne) that determines the location of the peak in the ETG growth rate and heat flux spectra. The heat flux increases rapidly as eta(e) increases above the experimental point, suggesting that ETGs limit the temperature gradient in these pulses. When quantities are normalised using the minor radius, only increases in omega(Te) produce appreciable increases in the ETG growth rates, as well as the largest increases in turbulent heat flux which follow scalings similar to that of critical balance theory. However, when the heat flux is normalised to the electron gyro-Bohm heat flux using the temperature gradient scale length L-Te, it follows a linear trend in correspondence with previous work by different authors

New H-mode regimes with small ELMs and high thermal confinement in the Joint European Torus

New H-mode regimes with high confinement, low core impurity accumulation, and small edge-localized mode perturbations have been obtained in magnetically confined plasmas at the Joint European Torus tokamak. Such regimes are achieved by means of optimized particle fueling conditions at high input power, current, and magnetic field, which lead to a self-organized state with a strong increase in rotation and ion temperature and a decrease in the edge density. An interplay between core and edge plasma regions leads to reduced turbulence levels and outward impurity convection. These results pave the way to an attractive alternative to the standard plasmas considered for fusion energy generation in a tokamak with a metallic wall environment such as the ones expected in ITER.& nbsp;Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing