Bacteriological agents which play a role in the development of infertility

This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of the bacterial agents Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (N. gonorrhoeae), Mycoplasma hominis (M. hominis) and Ureaplasma urealyticum (U. urealyticum) and the conditions which may play a role in the development of female infertility, in the county of Iaşi in North-Eastern Romania. Cervical and blood samples were collected from 176 infertile women and 45 pregnant women in the third trimester. Classical methods and real time PCR were applied to each cervical sample to detect the presence of these sexually transmitted microorganisms; the ELISA method was applied to blood samples to detect C. trachomatis antibodies (IgA, IgM and IgG). The proportion of C. trachomatis IgG was significantly higher in the infertile group (23.8%) than in the pregnant group (4.4%), p < 0.05. For C. trachomatis antigen (Ag) and N. gonorrhoeae Ag no differences were observed between the two groups. The prevalence of mycoplasma genital infections was higher in the pregnant group (U. urealyticum — 53.3% and M. hominis — 20%) than in the infertile group (U. urealyticum — 39.7% and M. hominis — 7.3%). Higher rate of co-infection with C. trachomatis and mycoplasma were observed among the infertile women (25.7%) than among the pregnant women (7.7%). This combination could be involved in the appearance of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and its sequela, including infertility. C. trachomatis IgG determination still remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of PID and should be used as a screening test for the prediction of tubal damage in infertile women. In view of the large number of cases involving the co-existence of genital infections with C. trachomatis, M. hominis and U. urealyticum, it is clearly necessary to perform screening for all three microorganisms among all women of reproductive age but especially those who are infertile

Maintenance of the human memory T cell repertoire by subset and tissue site

Abstract Background Immune-mediated protection is mediated by T cells expressing pathogen-specific T cell antigen receptors (TCR) that are maintained at diverse sites of infection as tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM) or that disseminate as circulating effector-memory (TEM), central memory (TCM), or terminal effector (TEMRA) subsets in blood and tissues. The relationship between circulating and tissue resident T cell subsets in humans remains elusive, and is important for promoting site-specific protective immunity. Methods We analyzed the TCR repertoire of the major memory CD4+ and CD8+T cell subsets (TEM, TCM, TEMRA, and TRM) isolated from blood and/or lymphoid organs (spleen, lymph nodes, bone marrow) and lungs of nine organ donors, and blood of three living individuals spanning five decades of life. High-throughput sequencing of the variable (V) portion of individual TCR genes for each subset, tissue, and individual were analyzed for clonal diversity, expansion and overlap between lineage, T cell subsets, and anatomic sites. TCR repertoires were further analyzed for TRBV gene usage and CDR3 edit distance. Results Across blood, lymphoid organs, and lungs, human memory, and effector CD8+T cells exhibit greater clonal expansion and distinct TRBV usage compared to CD4+T cell subsets. Extensive sharing of clones between tissues was observed for CD8+T cells; large clones specific to TEMRA cells were present in all sites, while TEM cells contained clones shared between sites and with TRM. For CD4+T cells, TEM clones exhibited the most sharing between sites, followed by TRM, while TCM clones were diverse with minimal sharing between sites and subsets. Within sites, TRM clones exhibited tissue-specific expansions, and maintained clonal diversity with age, compared to age-associated clonal expansions in circulating memory subsets. Edit distance analysis revealed tissue-specific biases in clonal similarity. Conclusions Our results show that the human memory T cell repertoire comprises clones which persist across sites and subsets, along with clones that are more restricted to certain subsets and/or tissue sites. We also provide evidence that the tissue plays a key role in maintaining memory T cells over age, bolstering the rationale for site-specific targeting of memory reservoirs in vaccines and immunotherapies

From macroalgae to liquid fuel via waste-water remediation, hydrothermal upgrading, carbon dioxide hydrogenation and hydrotreating

This article showcases a proof-of-concept in the production of high quality renewable biofuel from algae. Here, we introduce a path combining a number of approaches that, when integrated as a whole, create a process that takes algae grown in waste-water through to a liquid fuel containing fractions ready for blending with regular gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. With the overarching goal of reducing the nitrogen content invariably associated with whole algal biomass, we apply a number of approaches including (i) nutrient starvation to reduce the internal nitrogen of the freshwater alga Oedogonium (ii) continuous co-solvent (10 wt% n-heptane) hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) to produce a non-polar biocrude containing <1 wt% N; (iii) blending the biocrude with green feed produced from the hydrogenation of CO₂ to obtain <0.5 wt% N; (iv) hydrogenation and hydro-isomerization of the blend in two stages over nanodisperse silica-supported Ni₂P (achieving 630 ppm N) and acidic zeolite-supported Pt catalysts respectively to produce a synthetic paraffinic mixture (SPM) containing 277 ppm N and 0.12% O. With the incorporation of renewable H₂ (which can be from gasification of polar organics produced in the solvent HTL, or other renewable sources) and captured CO₂ the process demonstrates a new and technically cohesive approach to the production of renewable, high-quality biofuels for demanding transport applications

Overview of JET results

High density and high confinement operation in ELMy H-mode is confirmed at or above the normalized parameters foreseen for the ITER operating point (H98(y,2) 3c 1, n/nGW 3c 1, \u3b2N > 1.8 at q95 3c 3). The scaling of the ELMy H-mode with \u3b2N could be more favourable than that predicted by the IPB98(y,2) scaling. In ELMy H-mode, ion cyclotron current drive (ICCD) control of large sawteeth stabilized by fast particle has been demonstrated and the underlying neo-classical tearing modes (NTMs) and sawtooth physics is being refined. At high-density, Type I ELMy H-modes show trends that would lead to marginally acceptable ELMs on ITER. Type II ELM regime has been produced, though under very restrictive conditions. Type III ELMy operation with radiation fractions up to 95% has been demonstrated by seeding of N2 in H-modes and could extrapolate to Q = 10 ITER operation, albeit at high current (17 MA). The mitigation of Type I ELMs, nevertheless, remains a challenge. Considerable progress has been obtained in internal transport barrier (ITB) plasmas, with operation at central densities close to the Greenwald density or/and low toroidal rotation or/and high triangularity. Demonstrations of full current drive and successful simultaneous real time control of safety factor and temperature profiles have been achieved in ITB plasmas. Physics of resistive wall modes (RWMs) has been compared with theory, showing favourable scaling for ITER. High \u3b2N 3c 2.8 operation of hybrid modes (also called improved H-modes) has been obtained with dominant neutral beam heating. Hybrid modes with dominant ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) have also been achieved. Trace tritium experiments yielded valuable information on particle transport in H-mode, ITB and hybrid regimes. In Type I ELMy plasmas, successful tests of the conjugate-T ICRH scheme have been achieved as well as lower hybrid coupling at ITER-relevant 10\u201311 cm distances. Reduced D and T fuel retention has been observed, which could relate to operation with vertical targets in the divertor and/or lower (ITER-like) vessel temperature. It is confirmed that erosion occurs predominantly on the main chamber surfaces, with possible benefits for T retention in ITER, although consequences for the metallic first wall lifetime need to be assessed. Disruption and ELM studies indicate that transient power deposition could be less constraining than expected for the ITER divertor, but more challenging for the metallic first wall. Alpha particle tomography and direct observation of alpha particle slowing down have been made possible by \u3b3 -spectroscopy. Measurements of Alfve \u301n cascades have been improved by a new interferometric technique. Promising tests of ITER relevant neutron counting detectors have been conducted