Kartlegging av forurensningstilstanden i Meråker gruvefelt

Avrenning fra kisgruvene i Meråkerfeltet påvirker fortsatt vannkvaliteten i vassdragene i nedbørfeltet selv 100 år etter at gruvedriften opphørte. Største forurensningskilde i området er Lillefjell gruve som bidrar med ca. 80 % av kobbertilførslene til Stjørdalselva som er ca. 3 tonn på årsbasis. Gilsåa og Dalåa er mest belastet med tungmetaller, men vassdragsreguleringen som er foretatt, kan ha bidratt til en forverret vannkvalitet i Torsbjørka nedenfor inntaket til kraftverket. Undersøkelser av bunnfaunaen viser klare påvirkninger i Dalåa, mens det var en naturlig bunnfauna i nedre del av Torsbjørka og i Stjørdalselva. Burforsøk med ørret viste en høy dødelighet i Gilsåa/Dalåa. Det ble også påvist at ørreten i Torsbjørka var metallbelastet

The influence of CYP 2C19*2 polymorphism on platelet function testing during single antiplatelet treatment with clopidogrel

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Different platelet function tests can be used to evaluate the degree of achieved platelet inhibition in patients treated with clopidogrel. The presence of CYP 2C19*2 polymorphism can reduce the formation of the active metabolite of clopidogrel, resulting in less platelet inhibition.</p> <p>Patients and Methods</p> <p>Patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease, all on chronic single aspirin treatment were randomized to continue on aspirin or change to clopidogrel. In 219 randomly selected clopidogrel treated patients, platelet reactivity was evaluated by VASP-PRI determination and by use of VerifyNow P2Y12-PRU. The CYP 2C19*2 G/A polymorphism was further determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The total frequency of clopidogrel resistance was 29.0% by VASP-PRI and 31.6% by VerifyNow-PRU. The number of patients being hetero- and homozygous combined for the CYP 2C19*2 polymorphism (GA/AA) was 64 (29%). Platelet reactivity was significantly higher in patients with the polymorphism compared to wild-type patients (GG). VASP-PRI was 50.9% (SD19) in patients having the polymorphism compared to 38.3% (SD21) in patients with the GG genotype (p = 0.001). Correspondingly, the mean PRU was 165 (SD67) compared to 124 (SD69) (p < 0.001). The frequency of clopidogrel resistance in patients with the polymorphism was 32% compared to 16% in wild-type patients when defined by VASP-PRI (p = 0.006). When defined by PRU (VerifyNow), the corresponding frequencies were 53% and 22% (p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Clopidogrel treated patients with the CYP 2C19*2 polymorphism have significantly increased platelet reactivity compared to patients with the wild-type, evaluated with the VASP determination, and even more pronounced with the VerifyNow P2Y12 method.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00222261">NCT00222261</a></p

Teleportation via thermally entangled state of a two-qubit Heisenberg XX chain

We find that quantum teleportation, using the thermally entangled state of two-qubit Heisenberg XX chain as a resource, with fidelity better than any classical communication protocol is possible. However, a thermal state with a greater amount of thermal entanglement does not necessarily yield better fidelity. It depends on the amount of mixing between the separable state and maximally entangled state in the spectra of the two-qubit Heisenberg XX model.Comment: 5 pages, 1 tabl

Current state of the art and use case description on geofencing for traffic management

This report is a result of a literature review and document gathering focused on geofence use cases specific for road traffic management. It presents geofence use cases that are trialled or to be trialled, implemented use cases, as well as conceptual and potential future use cases, showing for which type of transport they are used and how geofence zones are applied or to be applied. The report was conducted in the project GeoSence – Geofencing strategies for implementation in urban traffic management and planning. It is a Joint programme initiative (JPI) Urban Europe project funded by European Union´s Horizon 2020, under ERA-NET Cofund Urban Accessibility and Connectivity and gather project partners from Germany, Norway, Sweden and UK. The goal is to present the current state of art, and describe use cases, based on the working definition of geofencing in the project, where geofence is defined as a virtual geographically located boundary, statically or dynamically defined. The study shows that for implemented and real-traffic trial use case, geofencing has been applied within private car transport, shared micro-mobility, freight and logistics, public bus transportation and ridesourcing. For the future use cases, geofencing has been tested or conceptually developed also for automated vehicles and shared automated mobility, among others. The report summarises main use cases and find them to answering to especially four challenges in traffic management: safety, environment, efficiency, and tracking and data collection. Some of the use cases however answer to several of these challenges, such as differentiated road charging, and the use cases in micro-mobility. Further, the system and functionality of the trialled and/or implemented use cases, show different types of regulation geofence use cases can be used for, from informing, assisting, full enforcement, incentivising and penalisation. Guidelines and recommendations so far form national authorities show that the existence of joint regulation or guidelines for the use of geofencing for different use cases is low – with some exceptions. Digital representation of traffic regulation will be crucial for enabling geofencing

Growth restriction in gastroschisis: quantification of its severity and exploration of a placental cause

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gastroschisis patients are commonly small for gestational age (SGA, birth weight [BW] < 10^thcentile). However, the extent, symmetry and causes of that growth restriction remain controversial.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We compared BW, crown-heel length (LT), occipitofrontal circumference (OFC) and ponderal index (PI) in 179 gastroschisis cases and 895 matched controls by univariate and multiple regression. Fetal ultrasounds (N = 80) were reviewed to determine onset of growth restriction. Placental histology was examined in 31 gastroschisis patients whose placental tissue was available and in 29 controls.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Gastroschisis cases weighed less than controls (BW = 2400 ± 502 g vs. 2750 ± 532 g, p < 0.001) and their BW frequency curve was shifted to the left, indicating lower BW as a group compared to controls (p < 0.001 by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). BW differences varied from -148 g at 33 weeks to -616 g at 38 weeks gestation. Intrauterine growth restriction was symmetric with gastroschisis patients having a shorter LT (45.7 ± 3.3 vs. 48.4 ± 2.7 cm, p < 0.001), smaller OFC (31.9 ± 1.9 vs. 32.9 ± 1.6 cm, p < 0.001), but larger ponderal index (2.51 ± 0.37 vs. 2.40 ± 0.16, p < 0.001) compared to controls. Gastroschisis patients had a similar reduction in BW (-312 g, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -367, -258) compared to those with chromosomal abnormalities (-239 g, CI = -292, -187). Growth deficits appeared early in the second trimester and worsened as gestation increased. Placental chorangiosis was more common in gastroschisis patients than controls, even after removing all SGA patients (77% vs. 42%, p = 0.02).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Marked, relatively symmetric intrauterine growth restriction is an intrinsic part of gastroschisis. It begins early in the second trimester, and is associated with placental chorangiosis.</p

Protein N-terminal acetylation: NAT 2007–2008 Symposia

Protein N-terminal acetylation is a very common modification, but has during the past decades received relatively little attention. In order to put this neglected field back on the scientific map, we have in May 2007 and September 2008 arranged two international NAT symposia in Bergen, Norway. This supplement contains selected proceedings from these symposia reflecting the current status of the field, including an overview of protein N-terminal acetylation in yeast and humans, a novel nomenclature system for the N-terminal acetyltransferases (NATs) and methods for studying protein N-terminal acetylation in vitro and in vivo

Structural properties of the HNF-1A transactivation domain

Hepatocyte nuclear factor 1α (HNF-1A) is a transcription factor with important gene regulatory roles in pancreatic β-cells. HNF1A gene variants are associated with a monogenic form of diabetes (HNF1A-MODY) or an increased risk for type 2 diabetes. While several pancreatic target genes of HNF-1A have been described, a lack of knowledge regarding the structure-function relationships in HNF-1A prohibits a detailed understanding of HNF-1A-mediated gene transcription, which is important for precision medicine and improved patient care. Therefore, we aimed to characterize the understudied transactivation domain (TAD) of HNF-1A in vitro. We present a bioinformatic approach to dissect the TAD sequence, analyzing protein structure, sequence composition, sequence conservation, and the existence of protein interaction motifs. Moreover, we developed the first protocol for the recombinant expression and purification of the HNF-1A TAD. Small-angle X-ray scattering and synchrotron radiation circular dichroism suggested a disordered conformation for the TAD. Furthermore, we present functional data on HNF-1A undergoing liquid-liquid phase separation, which is in line with in silico predictions and may be of biological relevance for gene transcriptional processes in pancreatic β-cells.</p

Signal-background separation and energy reconstruction of gamma rays using pattern spectra and convolutional neural networks for the Small-Sized Telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) detect very high-energy gamma rays from ground level by capturing the Cherenkov light of the induced particle showers. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can be trained on IACT camera images of such events to differentiate the signal from the background and to reconstruct the energy of the initial gamma ray. Pattern spectra provide a 2-dimensional histogram of the sizes and shapes of features comprising an image and they can be used as an input for a CNN to significantly reduce the computational power required to train it. In this work, we generate pattern spectra from simulated gamma-ray and proton images to train a CNN for signal-background separation and energy reconstruction for the Small-Sized Telescopes (SSTs) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). A comparison of our results with a CNN directly trained on CTA images shows that the pattern spectra-based analysis is about a factor of three less computationally expensive but not able to compete with the performance of the CTA images-based analysis. Thus, we conclude that the CTA images must be comprised of additional information not represented by the pattern spectra.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research - section

Sink i ferskvann - kjemi, tilførsler og biologiske effekter

Det er laget en kunnskapsstatus for betydningen av sink i ferskvann med særlig vekt på tilførsler fra gruveavrenning. I tillegg ble det utført en undersøkelse av biologiske effekter i et vassdrag. Sveselva, med sink-belastning, men få andre metaller. Alle levende organismer har behov for sink, men det er begrensede kunnskaper om mekanismene bak giftigheten til metallet. Effekt-grenser for akvatiske organismer varier fra 10 til over 1000 µg/l. Blant de mest følsomme organismene er enkelte alger, planktoniske krepsdyr og utviklingsstadier hos fisk. I Sveselva var det tilsynelatende effekter på vegetasjon (begroing) allerede ved 20-30 µg/l, men det er usikkert om dette var det reelle belastningsnivået. Både vegetasjon og bunndyr var klart påvirket på stasjoner med konsentrasjoner i området 250-670 µg/l. Kadmium og sink akkumulerte i gjellene til utplassert dammusling på alle stasjoner nedenfor tilførslene og førte til noe forhøyede konsentrasjoner av metallotionein. Dammusling med høye metall-nivåer i gjellene filtrerte mindre alger og hadde høyere respirasjon enn dammusling med lavere metall-nivåer i gjellene. Resultatene viser at det er viktig å benytte flere mål for biologiske effekter i overvåking av effektene av metall-forurensning og å integrere kjemisk og biologisk overvåking

NatF Contributes to an Evolutionary Shift in Protein N-Terminal Acetylation and Is Important for Normal Chromosome Segregation

N-terminal acetylation (N-Ac) is a highly abundant eukaryotic protein modification. Proteomics revealed a significant increase in the occurrence of N-Ac from lower to higher eukaryotes, but evidence explaining the underlying molecular mechanism(s) is currently lacking. We first analysed protein N-termini and their acetylation degrees, suggesting that evolution of substrates is not a major cause for the evolutionary shift in N-Ac. Further, we investigated the presence of putative N-terminal acetyltransferases (NATs) in higher eukaryotes. The purified recombinant human and Drosophila homologues of a novel NAT candidate was subjected to in vitro peptide library acetylation assays. This provided evidence for its NAT activity targeting Met-Lys- and other Met-starting protein N-termini, and the enzyme was termed Naa60p and its activity NatF. Its in vivo activity was investigated by ectopically expressing human Naa60p in yeast followed by N-terminal COFRADIC analyses. hNaa60p acetylated distinct Met-starting yeast protein N-termini and increased general acetylation levels, thereby altering yeast in vivo acetylation patterns towards those of higher eukaryotes. Further, its activity in human cells was verified by overexpression and knockdown of hNAA60 followed by N-terminal COFRADIC. NatF's cellular impact was demonstrated in Drosophila cells where NAA60 knockdown induced chromosomal segregation defects. In summary, our study revealed a novel major protein modifier contributing to the evolution of N-Ac, redundancy among NATs, and an essential regulator of normal chromosome segregation. With the characterization of NatF, the co-translational N-Ac machinery appears complete since all the major substrate groups in eukaryotes are accounted for