Intravaginal cytomegalovirus (CMV) challenge elicits maternal viremia and results in congenital transmission in a guinea pig model

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The objective of this study was to compare intravaginal (ivg) and subcutaneous (sc) administration of the guinea pig cytomegalovirus (GPCMV) in pregnant and non-pregnant guinea pigs. These studies tested the hypotheses that ivg infection would elicit immune responses, produce maternal viremia, and lead to vertical transmission, with an efficiency similar to the traditionally employed sc route.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Four groups of age- and size-matched guinea pigs were studied. Two groups were pregnant, and two groups were not pregnant. Animals received 5x10⁵plaque-forming units (PFU) of a GPCMV reconstituted from an infectious bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) construct containing the full-length GPCMV genome. Seroconversion was compared by IgG ELISA, and viremia (DNAemia) was monitored by PCR. In both pregnant and non-pregnant animals, sc inoculation resulted in significantly higher serum ELISA titers than ivg inoculation at 8 and 12 weeks post-infection. Patterns of viremia (DNAemia) were similar in animals inoculated by either sc or ivg route. However, in pregnant guinea pigs, animals inoculated by both routes experienced an earlier onset of DNAemia than did non-pregnant animals. Neither the percentage of dead pups nor the percentage of GPCMV positive placentas differed by inoculation route.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In the guinea pig model of congenital CMV infection, the ivg route is as efficient at causing congenital infection as the conventional but non-physiologic sc route. This finding could facilitate future experimental evaluation of vaccines and antiviral interventions in this highly relevant animal model.</p

Role of Laboratory Education in Power Engineering: Is the Virtual Laboratory Feasible? Part I

IEEE PES sponsors a panel session in the summer power meeting in Seattle on laboratory education in power engineering. Six short papers and one full paper summarize the opinions of the panelist. This paper contains the summary of four of the presentations. The objective of the panel is to discuss the role of laboratory education in power engineering at both the graduate and undergraduate level. The question is what type of laboratory course is needed? Power electronics, electric machines, system simulation, etc? the second objective is to assess the status and value of computer based virtual laboratories. This includes the presentation of experience with virtual laboratories and a list of available tools. The teaching of power system operation can be improved using a simulation laboratory. The available simulation tools and the assessment of their values will be an important topic of the panel. The last presentation gives opposing views, arguing for the traditional laboratory us

Dental evidence for ontogenetic differences between modern humans and Neanderthals

Humans have an unusual life history, with an early weaning age, long childhood, late first reproduction, short interbirth intervals, and long lifespan. In contrast, great apes wean later, reproduce earlier, and have longer intervals between births. Despite 80 y of speculation, the origins of these developmental patterns in Homo sapiens remain unknown. Because they record daily growth during formation, teeth provide important insights, revealing that australopithecines and early Homo had more rapid ontogenies than recent humans. Dental development in later Homo species has been intensely debated, most notably the issue of whether Neanderthals and H. sapiens differ. Here we apply synchrotron virtual histology to a geographically and temporally diverse sample of Middle Paleolithic juveniles, including Neanderthals, to assess tooth formation and calculate age at death from dental microstructure. We find that most Neanderthal tooth crowns grew more rapidly than modern human teeth, resulting in significantly faster dental maturation. In contrast, Middle Paleolithic H. sapiens juveniles show greater similarity to recent humans. These findings are consistent with recent cranial and molecular evidence for subtle developmental differences between Neanderthals and H. sapiens. When compared with earlier hominin taxa, both Neanderthals and H. sapiens have extended the duration of dental development. This period of dental immaturity is particularly prolonged in modern humans.Human Evolutionary Biolog

Charge-sensitive vibrational modes in the (EDT-TTF-OX)2AsF6 chiral molecular conductors

Infrared and Raman spectra of three chiral molecular conductors (EDT-TTF-OX)2AsF6, comprising of two salts based on enantiopure EDT-TTF-OX donor molecules and one based on their racemic mixture, have been measured as a function of temperature. In the frequency range of the C=C stretching vibrations of EDT-TTF-OX, charge-sensitive modes are identified based on theoretical calculations for neutral and oxidized EDT-TTF-OX using density functional theory (DFT) methods. The positions of C=C stretching modes in both Raman and infrared spectra of the (EDT-TTF-OX)2AsF6 materials are analyzed assuming a linear relationship between the frequency and charge of the molecule. The charge density on the EDTTTF-OX donor molecule is estimated to be +0.5 in all investigated materials and does not change with temperature. Therefore we suggest, that M-I transition observed in (EDT-TTF-OX)2AsF6 chiral molecular conductors at low temperature is not related to the charge ordering mechanism

Phonon and plasmon excitation in inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy of graphite

The inelastic electron tunneling spectrum (IETS)of highly oriented pyrolitic graphite (HOPG) has been measured with scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) at 6K. The observed spectral features are in very good agreement with the vibrational density of states (vDOS) of graphite calculated from first principles. We discuss the enhancement of certain phonon modes by phonon-assisted tunneling in STS based on the restrictions imposed by the electronic structure of graphite. We also demonstrate for the first time the local excitation of surface-plasmons in IETS which are detected at an energy of 40 meV.Comment: PRB rapid communication, submitte

Stability of the nonlinear dynamics of an optically injected VCSEL

Automated protocols have been developed to characterize time series data in terms of stability. These techniques are applied to the output power time series of an optically injected vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) subject to varying injection strength and optical frequency detuning between master and slave lasers. Dynamic maps, generated from high resolution, computer controlled experiments, identify regions of dynamic instability in the parameter space. © 2012 Optical Society of America

Deterministic polarization chaos from a laser diode

Fifty years after the invention of the laser diode and fourty years after the report of the butterfly effect - i.e. the unpredictability of deterministic chaos, it is said that a laser diode behaves like a damped nonlinear oscillator. Hence no chaos can be generated unless with additional forcing or parameter modulation. Here we report the first counter-example of a free-running laser diode generating chaos. The underlying physics is a nonlinear coupling between two elliptically polarized modes in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. We identify chaos in experimental time-series and show theoretically the bifurcations leading to single- and double-scroll attractors with characteristics similar to Lorenz chaos. The reported polarization chaos resembles at first sight a noise-driven mode hopping but shows opposite statistical properties. Our findings open up new research areas that combine the high speed performances of microcavity lasers with controllable and integrated sources of optical chaos.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Systems Analysis for a Venus Aerocapture Mission

Previous high level analysis has indicated that significant mass savings may be possible for planetary science missions if aerocapture is employed to place a spacecraft in orbit. In 2001 the In-Space Propulsion program identified aerocapture as one of the top three propulsion technologies for planetary exploration but that higher fidelity analysis was required to verify the favorable results and to determine if any supporting technology gaps exist that would enable or enhance aerocapture missions. A series of three studies has been conducted to assess, from an overall system point of view, the merit of using aerocapture at Titan, Neptune and Venus. These were chosen as representative of a moon with an atmosphere, an outer giant gas planet and an inner planet. The Venus mission, based on desirable science from plans for Solar System Exploration and Principal Investigator proposals, to place a spacecraft in a 300km polar orbit was examined and the details of the study are presented in this paper

The politicisation of evaluation: constructing and contesting EU policy performance

Although systematic policy evaluation has been conducted for decades and has been growing strongly within the European Union (EU) institutions and in the member states, it remains largely underexplored in political science literatures. Extant work in political science and public policy typically focuses on elements such as agenda setting, policy shaping, decision making, or implementation rather than evaluation. Although individual pieces of research on evaluation in the EU have started to emerge, most often regarding policy “effectiveness” (one criterion among many in evaluation), a more structured approach is currently missing. This special issue aims to address this gap in political science by focusing on four key focal points: evaluation institutions (including rules and cultures), evaluation actors and interests (including competencies, power, roles and tasks), evaluation design (including research methods and theories, and their impact on policy design and legislation), and finally, evaluation purpose and use (including the relationships between discourse and scientific evidence, political attitudes and strategic use). The special issue considers how each of these elements contributes to an evolving governance system in the EU, where evaluation is playing an increasingly important role in decision making

Hartley transform and the use of the Whitened Hartley spectrum as a tool for phase spectral processing

The Hartley transform is a mathematical transformation which is closely related to the better known Fourier transform. The properties that differentiate the Hartley Transform from its Fourier counterpart are that the forward and the inverse transforms are identical and also that the Hartley transform of a real signal is a real function of frequency. The Whitened Hartley spectrum, which stems from the Hartley transform, is a bounded function that encapsulates the phase content of a signal. The Whitened Hartley spectrum, unlike the Fourier phase spectrum, is a function that does not suffer from discontinuities or wrapping ambiguities. An overview on how the Whitened Hartley spectrum encapsulates the phase content of a signal more efficiently compared with its Fourier counterpart as well as the reason that phase unwrapping is not necessary for the Whitened Hartley spectrum, are provided in this study. Moreover, in this study, the product–convolution relationship, the time-shift property and the power spectral density function of the Hartley transform are presented. Finally, a short-time analysis of the Whitened Hartley spectrum as well as the considerations related to the estimation of the phase spectral content of a signal via the Hartley transform, are elaborated