Transgenic Mice as Immunogenicity Model

The development of antibodies after administration of pharmaceutical proteins is not only of academic interest. Antibodies can be responsible for local and systemic allergic reactions, injection site lipoatrophy and have effect on the dose requirements.Tolerant transgenic mice are used to evaluate the potential immunogenicity of pharmaceutical proteins, e.g.. human insulin. human tissue plasminogen activator and human growth hormone. The results indicate that transgenic mice should be useful as an in vivo model to map immunogenic epitopes. Transgenic mice with tissue specific expression of human insulin that are tolerant to human insulin (in contrast to their nontransgenic littermates that produce antibodies)are able to respond with antibody formation against human insulin With substitution of single amino acids, if the substitutions results in immunogenic epitopes.Finally potential future immunogenicity models are discussed

Skjoldryggen terminal moraine on the mid-Norwegian shelf

Terminal moraines are relatively large ridges of diamictic glacial debris produced at the outermost margins of past glaciers and ice sheets. Their identification on land is important in mapping the maximum extent of Quaternary ice sheets (Svendsen et al. 2004). In marine environments where fast-flowing ice streams reach the shelf edge during full-glacial intervals, moraine ridges are not usually present and the seafloor is characterised by parallel-to-flow streamlined sediments (Ottesen & Dowdeswell 2009). Submarine terminal moraine ridges, by contrast, appear more typical of slower-flowing ice margins (Dahlgren et al. 2002; Dowdeswell & Elverhøi 2002).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the Geological Society of London via https://doi.org/10.1144/M46.6

3D seismic imagery of mega-scale glacial lineations and flow-switching by ice streams on the Norwegian continental shelf

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the Geological Society of London via https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1144/M46.96Streamlined glacial landforms, produced by deformation of soft sediments at glacier beds (Dowdeswell et al. 2004; Ó Cofaigh et al. 2005; King et al. 2009), provide clear evidence of the direction of ice-flow at the time of their formation (e.g. Ottesen et al., 2005; Livingstone et al. 2012). Where sets of streamlined landforms are present at or close to the seafloor, swath-bathymetric imagery enables the reconstruction of multiple phases of ice-flow (e.g. Greenwood et al. 2012). In many cases, however, key morphological evidence is buried on palaeo-shelves within the Quaternary glacial sedimentary record (Fig. 1c-d), and can only be analysed by tracing these buried horizons in 3D-seismic datasets (Dowdeswell et al. 2007)

Boundedness properties of fermionic operators

The fermionic second quantization operator $d\Gamma(B)$ is shown to be bounded by a power $N^{s/2}$ of the number operator $N$ given that the operator $B$ belongs to the $r$-th von Neumann-Schatten class, $s=2(r-1)/r$. Conversely, number operator estimates for $d\Gamma(B)$ imply von Neumann-Schatten conditions on $B$. Quadratic creation and annihilation operators are treated as well.Comment: 15 page

Landforms characteristic of inter-ice stream settings on the Norwegian and Svalbard continental margins

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the Geological Society of London via https://doi.org/10.1144/M46.16

Applications of Canonical Transformations

Canonical transformations are defined and discussed along with the exponential, the coherent and the ultracoherent vectors. It is shown that the single-mode and the $n$-mode squeezing operators are elements of the group of canonical transformations. An application of canonical transformations is made, in the context of open quantum systems, by studying the effect of squeezing of the bath on the decoherence properties of the system. Two cases are analyzed. In the first case the bath consists of a massless bosonic field with the bath reference states being the squeezed vacuum states and squeezed thermal states while in the second case a system consisting of a harmonic oscillator interacting with a bath of harmonic oscillators is analyzed with the bath being initially in a squeezed thermal state.Comment: 14 page

Fan-like sediments on outer Haltenbanken, mid-Norwegian shelf

Subaqueous fans formed in marine and lacustrine settings have been reported from Quaternary and more ancient glacier-influenced environments (e.g. Powell 1990; Dowdeswell et al. 2015). Their presence is often taken to imply a palaeo-glacial environment abundant in sediment-rich meltwater, whose load was sourced from glacial erosion and transported in subglacial channels to the ice margin. The sedimentology of these fans sometimes exhibits bedforms indicative of high-energy water-flow, suggesting that rapid drain

Relationship between spermatozoa motility parameters, sperm/egg ratio, and fertilization and hatching rates in pufferfish (Takifugu niphobles)

[EN] The use of high quality gametes from both males and females during in vitro fertilization (IVF) trials is an essential step in order to achieve high fertilization and hatching rates. Although aquaculture hatcheries have focused more on egg rather than spermatozoa quality, some studies have demonstrated that sperm quantity and quality have a great influence both on fertilization/hatching success and the subsequent development of the embryo and larvae. In this study we have demonstrated that sperm/egg ratio and sperm quality are factors strongly related to each other in the pufferfish (Takifugu niphobles). Our results suggest that both factors should be taken into account as unique interrelated elements, making possible to obtain high fertilization rates using a successful combination of small amount of high quality sperm or high amount of low quality sperm. In addition, coefficients of correlation and determination among all the sperm motion parameters provided by a CASA system and fertilization/hatching rates were estimated for the first time in a marine species. Positive significant correlations were found in some parameters such as total and progressive motility (0.68 and 0.7 respectively). However, curvilinear velocity (VCL), straight line velocity (VSL) and average velocity (VAP) showed the highest coefficients of correlation (0.82, 0.8, and 0.81, respectively). In this respect, spermatozoa velocity appears to be a key factor in the fertilization process, especially when the number of spermatozoa per egg is limited in the aqueous environment. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO; AGL2010-16009). Victor Gallego has a predoctoral grant (MINECO; BES-2009-020310) and has been granted a fellowship (EEBB-I-12-05858) of the MINECO's Spanish Personnel Research Training Programme to carry out this research in the Misaki Marine Biological Station (Miura, Japan). We would like to thank to Dr. Kurokawa for the help and knowledge supplied during this study.Gallego Albiach, V.; Pérez Igualada, LM.; Asturiano Nemesio, JF.; Yoshida, M. (2013). Relationship between spermatozoa motility parameters, sperm/egg ratio, and fertilization and hatching rates in pufferfish (Takifugu niphobles). Aquaculture. 416:238-243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2013.08.035S23824341

Effect of virtual reality training on laparoscopic surgery: randomised controlled trial

Objective To assess the effect of virtual reality training on an actual laparoscopic operation