A Brief Analysis of the 1977 Geneva protocols

In analyzing the two 1977 Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions for the protection of war victims one should never forget that they are not the product of a sudden inspiration. The first cornerstone for Protocol 1, on international armed conflicts, was laid in the early Fifties. The Draft Rules for the Limitation of the Dangers incurred by the Civilian Population in Time of War, drawn up by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and submitted to the Nineteenth International Red Cross Conference (New Delhi, 1957), were an unsuccessful attempt to improve the protection of the civilian population against the effect of hostilities: the predecessor of Part IV of Protocol I. The legal staff of the ICRC built largely on this text - and on the experience of its rejection - while drafting the new text which eventually became Protocol I

Transcriptomic analysis of Ascaris suum larvae during their hepatopulmonary migration

Common roundworms are important intestinal nematodes of man (Ascaris lumbricoides) and pig (Ascaris suum). During the first stages of the infection, the larvae of these parasites undergo a hepatopulmonary migration. This migration is likely to require tightly regulated transcriptional changes in the parasite. We explored this aspect in Ascaris suum by characterizing the transcription profiles of infective L3s from eggs, liver- and lung-L3s and intestinal L4s by next generation sequencing approach. When the most abundant transcripts per life stage were investigated, results showed that in the egg-L3s, transcripts associated with the regulation of translation and transcription, mainly ribosomal proteins, were most abundant. From the liver-L3s onwards, high transcription levels were seen for cuticle collagens, indicating the growth of the larvae during their migration. Interestingly, the type of highly expressed cuticle collagens in the intestinal L4s differed with those present in the liver- and lung-L3s. Apart from collagens, potentially important molecules for host-parasite interaction like C-type lectin-4 and Mucin-5 were in the top 5 of most abundant transcripts in the lung-L3. Unfortunately, a great number of transcripts that are specific for certain larval stages did not show any homology to other proteins within the NCBI database, suggesting that many biologically interesting molecules from this parasite are still to be investigated

Calibrating beam fluxes of a low-energy neutral atom beam facility.

Scientific detection and imaging instruments for low-energetic neutral atoms (ENA) onboard spacecraft require thorough pre-flight laboratory calibration against a well-characterized neutral atom beam source. To achieve this requirement, a dedicated test facility is available at the University of Bern, which is equipped with a powerful plasma ion source and an ion beam neutralization stage. Using surface neutralization, low-energy neutral atom beams of any desired gas species can be produced in the energy range from 3 keV down as low as 10 eV. As the efficiency of the neutralization stage is species and energy dependent, the neutralizer itself needs to be calibrated against an independent reference. We report on the calibration and characterization of this neutral atom beam source using our recently developed Absolute Beam Monitor (ABM) as a primary calibration standard. The ABM measures the absolute ENA flux independent of neutral species in the energy range from 10 eV to 3 keV. We obtain calibration factors of a few 100 cm-2 s-1 pA-1, depending on species at beam energies above about 100 eV, and a power-law decrease for energies below 100 eV. Furthermore, the energy loss of neutralized ions in the surface neutralizer is estimated from time-of-flight measurements using the ABM. The relative energy loss increases with ENA energy from low levels near zero up to 20%-35% at 3 keV, depending on atomic species. Having calibrated our neutral beam source allows for accurate calibration of ENA space instruments

Absolute beam monitor: A novel laboratory device for neutral beam calibration.

Instruments recording Energetic Neutral Atoms (ENAs) for space applications require thorough laboratory calibration in a dedicated test facility providing a neutral atom beam. Accurate knowledge of the neutral beam intensity and energy is central for the laboratory calibration procedure. However, until recently, the quantification of the neutral atom beam intensity in the low-energy range below a few 100 eV was based on relative measurements with standard detectors of approximately known detection efficiencies for neutral atoms. We report on the design and development of a novel calibration device dedicated to determining the ENA beam flux in an absolute manner in the energy range from 3 keV down to about 10 eV. This is realized by applying ENA scattering at a surface and coincident detection of scattered particles and created secondary electrons. Moreover, the neutral beam energy is determined by a time-of-flight measurement. The applied measurement principle relies on very low background signals. The observed background count rates are in the range 10-2 s for the individual channels and about 10-5 s for coincidence events. The background is, thus, at least two, typically four, orders of magnitude lower than the signal rate for neutral atom beams in the foreseen energy range. We demonstrate a concrete application using the absolute flux calibration of a laboratory neutralization stage

In and out of the Replication Factory

In this issue of Cell, Kitamura et al. (2006) use live-fluorescence microscopy to monitor individual genomic loci as they replicate in budding yeast. They confirm that DNA is recruited to replication factories and show that sister replication forks initiated from the same origin are held together within a single replication factory

Chiral perturbation theory for hadrons containing a heavy quark: the sequel

Charm and bottom mesons and baryons are incorporated into a low energy chiral Lagrangian. Interactions of the heavy hadrons with light octet Goldstone bosons are studied in a framework which represents a synthesis of chiral perturbation theory and the heavy quark effective theory. The differential decay rate for the semileptonic process \LBzero \to \Sigma_c^{++} + e^- + \bar{\nu}_e + \pi^- is calculated at the zero recoil point using this hybrid formalism.Comment: 12 pages (2 figures not included

Classical limit for semi-relativistic Hartree systems

We consider the three-dimensional semi-relativistic Hartree model for fast quantum mechanical particles moving in a self-consistent field. Under appropriate assumptions on the initial density matrix as a (fully) mixed quantum state we prove, using Wigner transformation techniques, that its classical limit yields the well known relativistic Vlasov-Poisson system. The result holds for the case of attractive and repulsive mean-field interaction, with an additional size constraint in the attractive case.Comment: 10 page

Proteomic analysis of the excretory-secretory products from larval stages of Ascaris suum reveals high abundance of glycosyl hydrolases

Background: Ascaris lumbricoides and Ascaris suum are socioeconomically important and widespread parasites of humans and pigs, respectively. The excretory-secretory (ES) molecules produced and presented at the parasite-host interface during the different phases of tissue invasion and migration are likely to play critical roles in the induction and development of protective immune and other host responses. Methodology/Principal Findings: The aim of this study was to identify the ES proteins of the different larval stages (L3-egg, L3-lung and L4) by LC-MS/MS. In total, 106 different proteins were identified, 20 in L3-egg, 45 in L3-lung stage and 58 in L4. Although most of the proteins identified were stage-specific, 15 were identified in the ES products of at least two stages. Two proteins, i.e. a 14-3-3-like protein and a serpin-like protein, were present in the ES products from the three different larval stages investigated. Interestingly, a comparison of ES products from L4 with those of L3-egg and L3-lung showed an abundance of metabolic enzymes, particularly glycosyl hydrolases. Further study indicated that most of these glycolytic enzymes were transcriptionally upregulated from L4 onwards, with a peak in the adult stage, particularly in intestinal tissue. This was also confirmed by enzymatic assays, showing the highest glycosidase activity in protein extracts from adult worms gut. Conclusions/Significance: The present proteomic analysis provides important information on the host-parasite interaction and the molecular of migratory stages of A. suum. In particularly, the high transcriptionally upregulated of glycosyl hydrolases from L4 onwards reveals indicate that the degradation of complex carbohydrates forms an essential part of the energy metabolism of this parasite once it establishes in the small intestine

The adsorption of biomolecules to multi-walled carbon nanotubes is influenced by both pulmonary surfactant lipids and surface chemistry

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>During production and processing of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), they may be inhaled and may enter the pulmonary circulation. It is essential that interactions with involved body fluids like the pulmonary surfactant, the blood and others are investigated, particularly as these interactions could lead to coating of the tubes and may affect their chemical and physical characteristics. The aim of this study was to characterize the possible coatings of different functionalized MWCNTs in a cell free environment.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To simulate the first contact in the lung, the tubes were coated with pulmonary surfactant and subsequently bound lipids were characterized. The further coating in the blood circulation was simulated by incubating the tubes in blood plasma. MWCNTs were amino (NH₂)- and carboxyl (-COOH)-modified, in order to investigate the influence on the bound lipid and protein patterns. It was shown that surfactant lipids bind unspecifically to different functionalized MWCNTs, in contrast to the blood plasma proteins which showed characteristic binding patterns. Patterns of bound surfactant lipids were altered after a subsequent incubation in blood plasma. In addition, it was found that bound plasma protein patterns were altered when MWCNTs were previously coated with pulmonary surfactant.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A pulmonary surfactant coating and the functionalization of MWCNTs have both the potential to alter the MWCNTs blood plasma protein coating and to determine their properties and behaviour in biological systems.</p