Graft-versus-host disease of the skin: life and death on the epidermal edge

AbstractDespite impressive advances in the field of allogeneic hematopoietic transplantation, graft versus host disease (GVHD) remains a significant obstacle to be overcome; it would enhance the safety and efficacy of this life-saving therapy. This review provides a framework for understanding the molecular and cellular basis underlying GVHD. We propose a 3-phase model of GVHD that highlights the importance of the conditioning regimen on the recipient tissues administered prior to infusion of donor bone marrow inoculum. A novel skin explant model, designed to take into consideration the immunobiological consequences of conditioning regimens on resident host cells, is proposed to advance our understanding of GVHD and serve as a potential prognostic tool when allogeneic recipient/donor combinations are being contemplated in the clinic. Within this review, specific emphasis is placed on the importance of defining the apoptotic machinery engaged in epidermal keratinocytes triggered by both conditioning regimens, and by host resident and recruited immunocytes and soluble mediators produced at sites of injury. The review is completed with a working model for cutaneous GVHD. Although the skin is highlighted because of its accessibility for clinical observations and serial sampling opportunities, lessons learned from studies of cutaneous GVHD are likely to provide valuable insights into GVHD occurring in the gastrointestinal tract, lung, and liver. With new insights designed to better predict and prevent GVHD and novel agents designed to treat GVHD, overcoming this current impediment to successful bone marrow transplantation should become increasingly feasible

Transferred III-V materials - novel devices and integration

Separating the substrate allows thin layers of III-V photonic semiconductor materials and devices to be integrated on foreign templates using transfer-printing. We demonstrate advanced light emitting and detecting devices based on this principle

A Novel Method for Remediation of PCBs in Weathered Coatings

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of synthetic aromatic compounds with the general formula C 12H1oCl that were historically used in industrial paints, caulking material and adhesives, as their properties enhanced structural integrity, reduced flammability and boosted antifungal properties. Although the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has banned the manufacture of PCBs since 1979, they have been found in at least 500 of the 1,598 National Priorities List (Superfund) sites identified by the USEPA. Prior to the USEPA's ban on PCB production, PCBs were commonly used as additives in paints and asphalt-based adhesives that were subsequently applied to a variety of structures. Government facilities constructed as early as 1930 utilized PCB-containing binders or PCB-containing paints, which are now leaching into the environment and posing ecological and worker health concerns. To date, no definitive in situ, non-destructive method is available for the removal of PCBs found in weathered coatings or on painted structures/equipment. The research described in this paper involves the laboratory development and field-scale deployment of a new and innovative solution for the removal and destruction of PCBs found in painted structures or within the binding or caulking material on structures. The technology incorporates a Bimetallic Treatment System (BTS) that extracts and degrades only the PCBs found on the facilities, leaving the structure virtually unaltered

The Grizzly, December 7, 2000

Football Coach Quits Amid Controversy • Field House Opening Postponed Until New Millennium • Ursinus\u27 Class of 2004 Survives Fall Semester • Finals Schedule • Holidays a Time for Giving at Ursinus • Islam Awareness Week Offers Cultural Insight • Students Experience Christmas in the Big Apple • Opinions: Campus Construction an Eyesore; UC Democrats Respond to Allegations; Grizzly a Success This Semester • First Annual Palooza a Poetic Success • Choir Angelic in Annual Coming of \u27Messiah\u27 • Hypnotist Anthony Entrances UC Students • Lady Bears Down, but not out • UC Swim Teams Suffer Defeat in Poolside Duels Against Archrivals • Wrestling Finishes 3rd at Invitational • Swarthmore Cuts Football, Wrestling, Badminton Programs • Pro Wrestlers Rumble on UC Campus • Barrett Breaks Scoring Record, Leads Bears to 3-2https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1481/thumbnail.jp

Microtransfer printing high-efficiency GaAs photovoltaic cells onto silicon for wireless power applications

Here, the development of high‐efficiency microscale gallium arsenide (GaAs) laser power converters, and their successful transfer printing onto silicon substrates is reported, presenting a unique, high power, low‐cost, and integrated power supply solution for implantable electronics, autonomous systems, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. 300 µm diameter single‐junction GaAs laser power converters are presented and the transfer printing of these devices to silicon is successfully demonstrated using a polydimethylsiloxane stamp, achieving optical power conversion efficiencies of 49% and 48% under 35 and 71 W cm−2 808 nm laser illumination respectively. The transferred devices are coated with indium tin oxide (ITO) to increase current spreading and are shown to be capable of handling very high short‐circuit current densities up to 70 A cm−2 under 141 W cm−2 illumination intensity (≈1400 Suns), while their open circuit voltage reaches 1235 mV, exceeding the values of pretransfer devices indicating the presence of photon recycling. These optical power sources could deliver Watts of power to sensors and systems in locations where wired power is not an option, while using a massively parallel, scalable, and low‐cost fabrication method for the integration of dissimilar materials and devices

Brief of Corporate Law Professors as Amici Curie in Support of Respondents

The Supreme Court has looked to the rights of corporate shareholders in determining the rights of union members and non-members to control political spending, and vice versa. The Court sometimes assumes that if shareholders disapprove of corporate political expression, they can easily sell their shares or exercise control over corporate spending. This assumption is mistaken. Because of how capital is saved and invested, most individual shareholders cannot obtain full information about corporate political activities, even after the fact, nor can they prevent their savings from being used to speak in ways with which they disagree. Individual shareholders have no “opt out” rights or practical ability to avoid subsidizing corporate political expression with which they disagree. Nor do individuals have the practical option to refrain from putting their savings into equity investments, as doing so would impose damaging economic penalties and ignore conventional financial guidance for individual investors

Nighttime removal of NOx in the summer marine boundary layer

The nitrate radical, NO3, and dinitrogen pentoxide, N2O5, are two important components of nitrogen oxides that occur predominantly at night in the lower troposphere. Because a large fraction of NO2 reacts to form NO3 and N2O5 during the course of a night, their fate is an important determining factor to the overall fate of NOx (=NO and NO2). As a comprehensive test of nocturnal nitrogen oxide chemistry, concentrations of O3, NO, NO2, NO3, N2O5, HNO3 and a host of other relevant compounds, aerosol abundance and composition, and meteorological conditions were measured in the marine boundary layer from the NOAA research vessel Ronald H. Brown off the East Coast of the United States as part of the New England Air Quality Study (NEAQS) during the summer of 2002. The results confirm the prominent role of NO3 and N2O5 in converting NOx to HNO3 at night with an efficiency on par with daytime photochemical conversion. The findings demonstrate the large role of nighttime chemistry in determining the NOx budget and consequent production of ozone. INDEX TERMS: 0322 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Constituent sources and sinks; 0345 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Pollution—urban and regional (0305); 0365 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Troposphere—composition and chemistry. Citation: Brown, S. S., et al. (2004), Nighttime removal of NOx in the summer marine boundary layer, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L07108, doi:10.1029/2004GL01941

Assessing the feasibility of GS FLX Pyrosequencing for sequencing the Atlantic salmon genome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>With a whole genome duplication event and wealth of biological data, salmonids are excellent model organisms for studying evolutionary processes, fates of duplicated genes and genetic and physiological processes associated with complex behavioral phenotypes. It is surprising therefore, that no salmonid genome has been sequenced. Atlantic salmon (<it>Salmo salar</it>) is a good representative salmonid for sequencing given its importance in aquaculture and the genomic resources available. However, the size and complexity of the genome combined with the lack of a sequenced reference genome from a closely related fish makes assembly challenging. Given the cost and time limitations of Sanger sequencing as well as recent improvements to next generation sequencing technologies, we examined the feasibility of using the Genome Sequencer (GS) FLX pyrosequencing system to obtain the sequence of a salmonid genome. Eight pooled BACs belonging to a minimum tiling path covering ~1 Mb of the Atlantic salmon genome were sequenced by GS FLX shotgun and Long Paired End sequencing and compared with a ninth BAC sequenced by Sanger sequencing of a shotgun library.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>An initial assembly using only GS FLX shotgun sequences (average read length 248.5 bp) with ~30× coverage allowed gene identification, but was incomplete even when 126 Sanger-generated BAC-end sequences (~0.09× coverage) were incorporated. The addition of paired end sequencing reads (additional ~26× coverage) produced a final assembly comprising 175 contigs assembled into four scaffolds with 171 gaps. Sanger sequencing of the ninth BAC (~10.5× coverage) produced nine contigs and two scaffolds. The number of scaffolds produced by the GS FLX assembly was comparable to Sanger-generated sequencing; however, the number of gaps was much higher in the GS FLX assembly.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results represent the first use of GS FLX paired end reads for <it>de novo </it>sequence assembly. Our data demonstrated that this improved the GS FLX assemblies; however, with respect to <it>de novo </it>sequencing of complex genomes, the GS FLX technology is limited to gene mining and establishing a set of ordered sequence contigs. Currently, for a salmonid reference sequence, it appears that a substantial portion of sequencing should be done using Sanger technology.</p