Movement of Chlorinated Solvents and Other Volatile Organics Through Plants Monitored by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectrometry

Plants have a large capacity to transfer water from soil to the atmosphere. Soluble contaminants may be carried with that water, with a relative extent of transfer that depends on their octanol-water or organic matter-water partition coefficient. We measured the transfer rate for several solvents that vary in volatility and solubility, including trichloro ethylene, trichloroethane, chloroform, dichloromethane, diethyl ether, and methyl-t-butyl ether. We tested them alone and in several combinations. An extractive Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectrometer (Gasmet, produced by Temet Instruments) was used to measure concentrations in the gas phase above plants which had their root system immersed in water containing the contaminant. Deuterated water was used to trace transpiration rate. Hybrid poplars (Populus deltoides x nigra) and saltcedar (Tamarix parviflora) gave similar results, indicating relatively free movement of the indicated solvents, alone or in combinations. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) also permitted transfer of those compounds that were tested

Safety and immunogenicity of a bivalent cytomegalovirus DNA vaccine in healthy adult subjects.

BACKGROUND: VCL-CB01, a candidate cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA vaccine that contains plasmids encoding CMV phosphoprotein 65 (pp65) and glycoprotein B (gB) to induce cellular and humoral immune responses and that is formulated with poloxamer CRL1005 and benzalkonium chloride to enhance immune responses, was evaluated in a phase 1 clinical trial. METHODS: VCL-CB01 was evaluated in 44 healthy adult subjects (22 CMV seronegative and 22 CMV seropositive) 18-43 years old. Thirty-two subjects received 1- or 5-mg doses of vaccine on a 0-, 2-, and 8-week schedule, and 12 subjects received 5-mg doses of vaccine on a 0-, 3-, 7-, and 28-day schedule. RESULTS: Overall, the vaccine was well tolerated, with no serious adverse events. Local reactions included mild to moderate injection site pain and tenderness, induration, and erythema. Systemic reactions included mild to moderate malaise and myalgia. All reactions resolved without sequelae. Through week 16 of the study, immunogenicity, as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay and/or ex vivo interferon (IFN)-gamma enzyme-linked immunospot assay, was documented in 45.5% of CMV-seronegative subjects and in 25.0% of CMV-seropositive subjects who received the full vaccine series, and 68.1% of CMV-seronegative subjects had memory IFN-gamma T cell responses at week 32. CONCLUSION: The safety and immunogenicity data from this trial support further evaluation of VCL-CB01

Lessons From the First Comprehensive Molecular Characterization of Cell Cycle Control in Rodent Insulinoma Cell Lines

OBJECTIVE—Rodent insulinoma cell lines may serve as a model for designing continuously replicating human β-cell lines and provide clues as to the central cell cycle regulatory molecules in the β-cell

Properties of Electrodeposited CuSCN 2D Layers and Nanowires Influenced by Their Mixed Domain Structure

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CSP ASSEMBLY RELIABILITY: COMMERCIAL AND HARSH ENVIRONMENTS

ABSTRACT The JPL-led CSP Consortium of enterprises representing government agencies and private companies has joined together to pool in-kind resources for developing the quality and reliability of chip scale packages (CSPs) for a variety of projects. Last year (1), team members reported their experience on technology implementation challenges, including design and build of both standard and microvia boards, assembly of two types of test vehicles, and preliminary aging and thermal cycling test results on trial test vehicles. Since then, more than 150 test vehicles, single-and double-sided, have been assembled and are presently being subjected to various environmental tests. This paper presents the experience of three consortium team companies on characterizing reliability behavior under four different thermal cycling environments. Lessons learned on assembly are given in a paper included in this proceedings

New approaches for genotyping paraffin wax embedded breast tissue from patients with cancer: the Iowa women’s health study

Background: The use of paraffin wax embedded tissue samples as a source of DNA for genotype analysis has been limited because of difficulties in DNA extraction and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis. Aims: To test the feasibility of applying the combination of a commonly used DNA isolation procedure, PureGene, and a high throughput SNP analysis method, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-INVADER assay, to genotype several types of paraffin wax embedded breast tissues. Methods: Twenty formalin fixed, paraffin wax blocks were obtained from five participants in the Iowa women’s health study. Each participant provided several types of tissue including normal lymph node, normal nipple/areola tissue, inflammatory/fibrotic breast tissue, or normal breast tissue, and tumour tissue. Results: Good quality DNA (260/280 ratio >1.6) was obtained from all tissues. Normal lymph nodes yielded the largest amount of DNA (97.1 μg). DNA obtained from the samples was tested for a germline C1183T polymorphism in the MnSOD gene by three methods—PCR-RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism), INVADER assay, and PCR-INVADER assay. Of the 20 samples, PCR-RFLP genotyped 16, the PCR-INVADER assay 18, and the INVADER assay two. This methodology was then used to analyse five additional genotypes and confirmed the general applicability of the method. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the feasibility of (1) using several paraffin wax embedded breast tissues as a source of DNA for germline genetic analysis, with lymph nodes providing the highest yield, and (2) using the combination of a common extraction method with a high throughput SNP analysis method, the PCR–INVADER assay