Steel septum magnets for the LHC beam injection and extraction

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be a superconducting accelerator and collider to be installed in the existing underground LEP ring tunnel at CERN. It will provide proton-proton collisions with a centre of mass energy of 14 TeV. The proton beams coming from the SPS will be injected into the LHC at 450 GeV by vertically deflecting kicker magnets and horizontally deflecting steel septum magnets (MSI). The proton beams will be dumped from the LHC with the help of two extraction systems comprising horizontally deflecting kicker magnets and vertically deflecting steel septum magnets (MSD). The MSI and MSD septa are laminated iron-dominated magnets using an all welded construction. The yokes are constructed from two different half cores, called coil core and septum core. The septum cores comprise circular holes for the circulating beams. This avoids the need for careful alignment of the usually wedge-shaped septum blades used in classical Lambertson magnets. The MSI and MSD septum magnets were designed and built in a collaboration between IHEP (Protvino) and CERN (Geneva). This paper presents the magnet design, the experience gathered during the preseries construction, and gives the results of detailed magnetic measurements of the MSIB and MSDC preseries magnets

Errors in CGAP xProfiler and cDNA DGED: the importance of library parsing and gene selection algorithms

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Cancer Genome Anatomy Project (CGAP) xProfiler and cDNA Digital Gene Expression Displayer (DGED) have been made available to the scientific community over a decade ago and since then were used widely to find genes which are differentially expressed between cancer and normal tissues. The tissue types are usually chosen according to the ontology hierarchy developed by NCBI. The xProfiler uses an internally available flat file database to determine the presence or absence of genes in the chosen libraries, while cDNA DGED uses the publicly available UniGene Expression and Gene relational databases to count the sequences found for each gene in the presented libraries.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We discovered that the CGAP approach often includes libraries from dependent or irrelevant tissues (one third of libraries were incorrect on average, with some tissue searches no correct libraries being selected at all). We also discovered that the CGAP approach reported genes from outside the selected libraries and may omit genes found within the libraries. Other errors include the incorrect estimation of the significance values and inaccurate settings for the library size cut-off values. We advocated a revised approach to finding libraries associated with tissues. In doing so, libraries from dependent or irrelevant tissues do not get included in the final library pool. We also revised the method for determining the presence or absence of a gene by searching the UniGene relational database, revised calculation of statistical significance and sorted the library cut-off filter.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results justify re-evaluation of all previously reported results where NCBI CGAP expression data and tools were used.</p

Fragmentation radioinduite de l'ADN et réparation étudiée par immunomarquage anti poly(ADP-ribose)polymérase (PARP) dans les cellules de hamster chinois (CHO)

Le poly(ADP-ribose)polymérase est une enzyme nucléaire ubiquitaire capable de se fixer sur les cassures de l'ADN. Sur une lignée sauvage de cellules d'ovaire de hamster chinois (CHO-K1) cultivée sur lame et irradiée aux rayons γ à haut débit de dose (HD) 12,8 Gy/min ou à moyen débit de dose (MD) 5 Gy/min, nous avons réalisé un immunomarquage anti-polymères d'ADP-ribose immédiatement après l'irradiation γ ou après trois heures d'incubation à 37 °C. La quantification et la localisation des lésions radioinduites ont été réalisées par microscopie confocale. Les résultats montrent une relation dose-effet et un effet de débit de dose, ainsi qu'une disparition du signal après 3 heures à 37 °C. La présence de la PARP semble donc bien refléter la fragmentation radioinduite de l'ADN

High genetic variability of vagrant polar bears illustrates importance of population connectivity in fragmented sea ice habitats

Projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and sea ice forecasts suggest that Arctic sea ice will decline markedly in coming decades. Expected effects on the entire ecosystem include a contraction of suitable polar bear habitat into one or few refugia. Such large-scale habitat decline and fragmentation could lead to reduced genetic diversity. Here we compare genetic variability of four vagrant polar bears that reached Iceland with that in recognized subpopulations from across the range, examining 23 autosomal microsatellites, mitochondrial control region sequences and Y-chromosomal markers. The vagrants' genotypes grouped with different genetic clusters and showed similar genetic variability at autosomal microsatellites (expected heterozygosity, allelic richness, and individual heterozygosity) as individuals in recognized subpopulations. Each vagrant carried a different mitochondrial haplotype. A likely route for polar bears to reach Iceland is via Fram Strait, a major gateway for the physical exportation of sea ice from the Arctic basin. Vagrant polar bears on Iceland likely originated from more than one recognized subpopulation, and may have been caught in sea ice export during long-distance movements to the East Greenland area. Although their potentially diverse geographic origins might suggest that these vagrants encompass much higher genetic variability than vagrants or dispersers in other regions, the four Icelandic vagrants encompassed similar genetic variability as any four randomly picked individuals from a single subpopulation or from the entire sample. We suggest that this is a consequence of the low overall genetic variability and weak range-wide genetic structuring of polar bears - few dispersers can represent a large portion of the species' gene pool. As predicted by theory and our demographic simulations, continued gene flow will be necessary to counteract loss of genetic variability in increasingly fragmented Arctic habitats. Similar considerations will be important in the management of other taxa that utilize sea ice habitats

Serotonin targets inhibitory synapses to induce modulation of network functions

The cellular effects of serotonin (5-HT), a neuromodulator with widespread influences in the central nervous system, have been investigated. Despite detailed knowledge about the molecular biology of cellular signalling, it is not possible to anticipate the responses of neuronal networks to a global action of 5-HT. Heterogeneous expression of various subtypes of serotonin receptors (5-HTR) in a variety of neurons differently equipped with cell-specific transmitter receptors and ion channel assemblies can provoke diverse cellular reactions resulting in various forms of network adjustment and, hence, motor behaviour