The Universal Cloud and Aerosol Sounding System (UCASS): a low-cost miniature optical particle counter for use in dropsonde or balloon-borne sounding systems

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. An earlier version of this work was published in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions: https://dx.doi.org/10.5194/amt-2019-70.A low-cost miniaturized particle counter has been developed by The University of Hertfordshire (UH) for the measurement of aerosol and droplet concentrations and size distributions. The Universal Cloud and Aerosol Sounding System (UCASS) is an optical particle counter (OPC), which uses wide-angle elastic light scattering for the high-precision sizing of fluid-borne particulates. The UCASS has up to 16 configurable size bins, capable of sizing particles in the range 0.4–40 µm in diameter. Unlike traditional particle counters, the UCASS is an open-geometry system that relies on an external air flow. Therefore, the instrument is suited for use as part of a dropsonde, balloon-borne sounding system, as part of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or on any measurement platform with a known air flow. Data can be logged autonomously using an on-board SD card, or the device can be interfaced with commercially available meteorological sondes to transmit data in real time. The device has been deployed on various research platforms to take measurements of both droplets and dry aerosol particles. Comparative results with co-located instrumentation in both laboratory and field settings show good agreement for the sizing and counting ability of the UCASS.Peer reviewe

Developing microfluidic platforms for rapid identification of new targets for neurodegenerative disorders

Peer reviewe

A New Postnatal Home Care Worker: Challenges for Training, Implementation and Policy

The rise in paid care workers has not, until very recently, included carers specifically trained to provide domiciliary postnatal care. In 2002 a new occupation of domiciliary postnatal carers was introduced in the catchment area of a large metropolitan hospital in Adelaide, South Australia. The carers work with professional midwives to provide home-based postnatal support to women discharged early from hospital following childbirth

49th. Annual Food Science and Technology Conference: Book of Abstracts

The Institute of Food Science and Technology of Ireland, Technological University Dublin and the Environmental Sustainability Health Institute (ESHI) will host the 49th Annual Food Science & Technology Conference virtually on Tuesday 15th December 2020. This years conference will focus on the topic of food sustainability and has six themes. • Alternative food sources and processing • Targeted nutrition • Bioeconomy • Food Security • Improving Sustainability of Food Systems • Improving the Healthiness of Food Systems 70 submissions were received and the Scientific Committee selected 16 of them for Oral presentations. Following the long lasting tradition of this conference, the committee considered providing opportunities to researchers initiating their career. You will find in this book of abstracts all the presentations of the conference, demonstrating the diversity of Irish Food Science and Technology Research

Towards a data sharing Code of Conduct for international genomic research

Data sharing is increasingly regarded as an ethical and scientific imperative that advances knowledge and thereby respects the contributions of the participants. Because of this and the ever-increasing amount of data access requests currently filed around the world, three groups have decided to develop data sharing principles specific to the context of collaborative international genomics research. These groups are: the international Public Population Project in Genomics (P3G), an international consortium of projects partaking in large-scale genetic epidemiological studies and biobanks; the European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology (ENGAGE), a research project aiming to translate data from large-scale epidemiological research initiatives into relevant clinical information; and the Centre for Health, Law and Emerging Technologies (HeLEX). We propose seven different principles and a preliminary international data sharing Code of Conduct for ongoing discussion

The Kaposi Sarcoma Herpesvirus latency-associated nuclear antigen DNA binding domain dorsal positive electrostatic patch facilitates DNA replication and episome persistence

© 2015 ASBMB. Currently published by Elsevier Inc; originally published by American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) has a causative role in several human malignancies. KSHV latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) mediates persistence of viral episomes in latently infected cells. LANA mediates KSHV DNA replication and segregates episomes to progeny nuclei. The structure of the LANA DNA binding domain was recently solved, revealing a positive electrostatic patch opposite the DNA binding surface, which is the site of BET protein binding. Here we investigate the functional role of the positive patch in LANA-mediated episome persistence. As expected, LANA mutants with alanine or glutamate substitutions in the central, peripheral, or lateral portions of the positive patch maintained the ability to bind DNA by EMSA. However, all of the substitution mutants were deficient for LANA DNA replication and episome maintenance. Mutation of the peripheral region generated the largest deficiencies. Despite these deficiencies, all positive patch mutants concentrated to dots along mitotic chromosomes in cells containing episomes, similar to LANA. The central and peripheral mutants, but not the lateral mutants, were reduced for BET protein interaction as assessed by co-immunoprecipitation. However, defects in BET protein binding were independent of episome maintenance function. Overall, the reductions in episome maintenance closely correlated with DNA replication deficiencies, suggesting that the replication defects account for the reduced episome persistence. Therefore, the electrostatic patch exerts a key role in LANA-mediated DNA replication and episome persistence and may act through a host cell partner(s) other than a BET protein or by inducing specific structures or complexes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Novel Mechanism of Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated Mediated Regulation of Chromatin Remodeling in Hypoxic Conditions

From Frontiers via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: collection 2021, received 2021-06-03, accepted 2021-08-31, epub 2021-09-21Publication status: PublishedThe effects of genotoxic stress can be mediated by activation of the Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM) kinase, under both DNA damage-dependent (including ionizing radiation), and independent (including hypoxic stress) conditions. ATM activation is complex, and primarily mediated by the lysine acetyltransferase Tip60. Epigenetic changes can regulate this Tip60-dependent activation of ATM, requiring the interaction of Tip60 with tri-methylated histone 3 lysine 9 (H3K9me3). Under hypoxic stress, the role of Tip60 in DNA damage-independent ATM activation is unknown. However, epigenetic changes dependent on the methyltransferase Suv39H1, which generates H3K9me3, have been implicated. Our results demonstrate severe hypoxic stress (0.1% oxygen) caused ATM auto-phosphorylation and activation (pS1981), H3K9me3, and elevated both Suv39H1 and Tip60 protein levels in FTC133 and HCT116 cell lines. Exploring the mechanism of ATM activation under these hypoxic conditions, siRNA-mediated Suv39H1 depletion prevented H3K9me3 induction, and Tip60 inhibition (by TH1834) blocked ATM auto-phosphorylation. While MDM2 (Mouse double minute 2) can target Suv39H1 for degradation, it can be blocked by sirtuin-1 (Sirt1). Under severe hypoxia MDM2 protein levels were unchanged, and Sirt1 levels depleted. SiRNA-mediated depletion of MDM2 revealed MDM2 dependent regulation of Suv39H1 protein stability under these conditions. We describe a novel molecular circuit regulating the heterochromatic state (H3K9me3 positive) under severe hypoxic conditions, showing that severe hypoxia-induced ATM activation maintains H3K9me3 levels by downregulating MDM2 and preventing MDM2-mediated degradation of Suv39H1. This novel mechanism is a potential anti-cancer therapeutic opportunity, which if exploited could target the hypoxic tumor cells known to drive both tumor progression and treatment resistance