A story about how the novel ROSPIN Academy programme is bringing space education to the Romanian youth in the pandemic context

Continuous education is the foundation of a sustainable society and ecosystem, and this paper relates the story of one of the most ambitious educational programmes for University students from Romania. The country acceded to the European Space Agency’s Convention in 2011, but does not have a dedicated undergraduate programme for space education, although the local space industry is growing and is demanding more skilled professionals. In this context, the Romanian Space Initiative has been organizing the ROSPIN Academy educational programme since the spring of 2021. Currently, each Edition of the Academy has 3 Levels, coordinated with the least busy University periods: Level 1 is an introduction to the space sector (autumn 2021), Level 2 consists of a technical overview of the lifecycle of space missions (spring 2022), and Level 3 offers hands-on experience with industry (summer 2022). Although the curriculum’s core is spacecraft engineering, it aims to reflect the sector’s interdisciplinarity, so topics such as astronomy, space sustainability and policy are also covered. The Lessons are delivered in English by national and international speakers from industry and academia, ranging from young graduates to experienced professionals. Participants can interact directly with them, in a context that promotes the idea that space is not only for rocket scientists. The participants’ interpersonal skills are also trained through exercises and games about space topics, which require them to work together in teams. The accepted participants of the Academy are selected based on their motivation and thinking, relevant knowledge and compatibility with the Academy learning concept. Currently, more than 400 applicants have been accepted in the past or current Editions of ROSPIN Academy. Last but not least, the national outreach achieved through this programme is a key defining value. ROSPIN Academy is present at national level, across industries, and mixes undergraduates and graduates, with focus on the former. This is demonstrated by the evolution of the distribution of the accepted participants, in terms of city, year and field of studies. Due to the organisation’s efforts to promote the second Edition nationwide with the support of professors from the biggest STEM Universities, this distribution has clearly evolved. Edition 2 shows a more diversified pool of participants compared to Edition 1, which mostly had active participants with aerospace background from Bucharest. As a result, ROSPIN Academy is uniting the local space communities while educating the next generation of space engineers

CURRENT USE OF NANOPARTICLES IN ENDODONTICS: A SYTEMATIC REVIEW

Nowadays, technology evolves very fast and we are witnesses of major changes in dentistry. Nanotechnology improved many fields of dentistry, including endodontics. In this paper, we compared different irrigants and sealers which are currently used in endodontic treatments, their advantages and disadvantages and their limitations. In the context of emerging trends of nanotechnology in all fields of dentistry, we aimed to highlight the importance of developing new irrigants and sealers improved with nanoparticles, with superior properties compared to traditional ones. As resulted from our research, the most used irrigants in endodontics (NaOCl, EDTA, CHX) possess different kinds of advantages, but none is flawless, also having some limitations. Also, every current sealer available on the market has one or more disadvantages. For this reason, nanotechnology is very welcomed in this field and different kinds of nanoparticles were proposed for their particularities in order to improve the performances of endodontic materials. We present in this work a review of the literature regarding different types of nanoparticles, their effects on endodontic microbiota and also, their particularities

Molekularidentifizierung von Erkennungstrukturen der Antigene in Immunkomplexe für Immunotherapeutische Anwendungen mittels Proteolytische und Massenspectrometrische Methoden

Recent advances in immunology and molecular biology have lead to the development of therapeutic vaccines which are of potential use in chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, where efficacies of available therapies are poor. Future advances in vaccine development will rely substantially on a more complete understanding of the structural basis of immune response. Mass spectrometry has emerged as a widespread technique for the study of protein structure, function and interaction with other biomolecules. To obtain information on complex protein mixtures and to dissect the structure of the molecular recognition domains diverse applications have been developed in conjunction with mass spectrometry. These methods include chromatographic and electrophoretic separations, proteolytic assays, differential chemical modification of specific amino acid functions and bioinformatic tools for data analysis.One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer´s Disease is the accumulation in the human brain of extracellular plaques containing aggregates of the neurotoxic ß-amyloid peptide. The immunotherapeutical approaches capable of triggering the clearance of amyloid plaques and preventing Aß aggregation have gained increasing interest in recent years. The first two parts of the thesis are focused on the development and application of mass spectrometric and immuno-analytical methods to the identification of epitopes on Aß recognized by anti-Aß antibodies.The first part of the thesis was focused on the detailed characterization of the ß-amyloid (4-10) FRHDSGY interaction with cognate antibodies. The sequence has been previously identified as a structural epitope for two antibodies, a polyclonal anti-Aß(1-42) and a monoclonal anti-Aß(1-17) antibody. In order to determine the functional significance of these residues to the antibodies, site-directed mutagenesis was performed using synthetic ß-amyloid (4-10) mutants as model substrate peptides. Selective identification of the affinity preserving mutant peptides was achieved by comparative ELISA binding studies. While the interaction to the polyclonal antibody was preserved in the D7A, S8A, G8A and Y10A mutants indicating F4, R5 and H6 as essential residues, for the monoclonal antibody all amino acid residues were essential for binding.The second and major part of the thesis was focused on the identification of the epitope recognized by anti-Aß-autoantibodies naturally occurring in human blood. The antibodies were isolated by affinity chromatography from human immunoglobulin preparations, and serum samples of Alzheimer´s disease patients. An affinity column for antibody isolation was prepared by immobilising Cys-Aß(1-40) on a iodoacetyl-support. For mass spectrometric epitope identification, an affinity column was prepared using the purified antibodies. In epitope excision, selective proteolytic cleavage of the intact Aß affinity- bound to the immobilised antibody was performed using trypsin or endoproteinase V8, followed by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometric analysis of the epitope- and non-epitope fractions, and provided direct information that the epitope is located within the sequence Aß(12-40). A consistent result was obtained by epitope extraction-mass spectrometry. The use of pronase provided the identification of Aß(21-37) as the minimal epitope structure for recognition. Comparative binding studies of human Aß-antibodies with Aß(1-16), Aß(1-40), Aß(12-40) and Aß(17-28), each synthesized with a pentaglycine spacer and biotin at the N-terminal end, were performed by indirect ELISA. The results showed that Aß(1-16) and Aß(17-28) do not interact with the antibodies while Aß(12-40) and Aß(1-40) reacted with the autoantibodies in a concentration-dependent manner. Similar results were obtained by analyzing samples of anti-Aß autoantibodies isolated from AD patients.A further part of the dissertation was focused on the serine protease HtrA1 which has been implicated in amyloid precursor protein processing. Astrocytes produce significant levels of HtrA1 and Aß and application of an HtrA1 inhibitor leads to the accumulation of Aß in cell culture supernatants. Proteolytic digestion by HtrA1 was analysed for APP(672-770) in comparison to APP(672-711), APP(672-713), APP(724-770) and APP(661-687), and digestion products were identified directly by high-resolution MALDI-FT-ICR. Digestion of APP(672-770) was established to occur after residues Val-683, Gln-686, Asn-755, and Asp-672 providing degradation products of approximately equal sequence lengths

Epitope structure of the carbohydrate recognition domain of asiaglycoprotein receptor to a monoclonal antibody revealed by high resolution proteolytic excision mass spectrometry

Recent studies suggest that the H1 subunit of the carbohydrate recognition domain (H1CRD) of the asialoglycoprotein receptor is used as entry site into hepatocytes by hepatitis A and B virus, and Marburg virus. Thus, molecules binding specifically to the CRD might exert inhibition towards these diseases by blocking the virus entry site. We report here the identification of the epitope structure of H1CRD to a monoclonal antibody by proteolytic epitope excision of the immune complex and high resolution MALDI-FTICR mass spectrometry. As a prerequisite of the epitope determination, the primary structure of the H1CRD antigen was characterised by ESI-FTICR-MS of the intact protein and by LCMS/MS of tryptic digest mixtures. Molecular mass determination and proteolytic fragments provided the identification of 2 intra-molecular disulfide bridges (7 Cys residues), and a Cysmercaptoethanol adduct formed by treatment with ß-mercaptoethanol during protein extraction. The H1CRD antigen binds to the monoclonal antibody in both native and Cysalkylated form. For identification of the epitope, the antibody was immobilized on N-hydroxysuccinimide activated Sepharose. Epitope- excision and - extraction with trypsin and FTICR-MS of affinity-bound peptides provided the identification of two specific epitope peptides, (5-16) and (17-23) which showed high affinity to the antibody. Affinity studies of the synthetic epitope peptides revealed independent binding of each peptide to the antibody

ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES IN REDUCING ANXIETY AND PAIN FOR INVASIVE PROCEDURES IN PEDIATRIC PRACTICE

The multiple roles that music plays in our life, entertainment, inspiration, development of cognitive skills and improvement of psychomotor and socio-affective abilities extends to therapeutic effects. The physiological effect of music is reducing the level of stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) and releasing endorphins with calming and analgesic properties. An invasive medical procedure such as endoscopy, colonoscopy or surgery is a major factor for distress in children. Dental anxiety with a high prevalence in children has numerous negative effects and a proper management is required; non-pharmacological alternative treatments are studied lately. Many studies concluded that music therapy is useful in reducing nervousness and pain, improving blood pressure, cardiovascular parameters and oxygen saturation and in increasing cooperation and tolerance. Music might be successfully used as a non-invasive, non-pharmacological alternative method with multiple benefits and the potential to reduce major effects of invasive medical procedures in children

Morphological and Biochemical Answer of the Wheat Seeds at Treatment with 2,4-Dinitrophenol and Potassium Iodate

Oxidative stress can be regarded as an imbalance between the amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the ability of a biological system to eliminate the toxic species and repair the resulting damages. Since the germinating seeds and the resulted seedlings are rich in enzymes, whereas the treatment with chemicals affects much the seed germination, producing also ROS, we evaluate here the influence of 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) and potassium iodate (KIO3) on wheat germination (Triticum aestivum L.) and seedlings growth. Germination rate, the masses and heights of the 7 day old seedlings, as well as the activity of some enzymes involved in the oxidative stress such as peroxidase, catalase and superoxide dismutase were measured seven days after the chemical treatment. The treatment of the wheat seeds with 10-5 - 10-3 M solutions of DNP resulted in a relative concentration-dependent inhibition of the germination, with a concomitant stimulation of the weight and height of viable seedlings. The Gasparom variety treated with 10-5 M KIO3 showed a slight increase in the germination rate in comparison with the control batch. The two tested substances determined a significantly modified response of the oxidative stress enzymes, especially in the seeds treated with 10-4 and 10-3 M solutions

Validation results of satellite mock-up capturing experiment using nets

The PATENDER activity (Net parametric characterization and parabolic flight), funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) via its Clean Space initiative, was aiming to validate a simulation tool for designing nets for capturing space debris. This validation has been performed through a set of different experiments under microgravity conditions where a net was launched capturing and wrapping a satellite mock-up. This paper presents the architecture of the thrown-net dynamics simulator together with the set-up of the deployment experiment and its trajectory reconstruction results on a parabolic flight (Novespace A-310, June 2015). The simulator has been implemented within the Blender framework in order to provide a highly configurable tool, able to reproduce different scenarios for Active Debris Removal missions. The experiment has been performed over thirty parabolas offering around 22 s of zero-g conditions. Flexible meshed fabric structure (the net) ejected from a container and propelled by corner masses (the bullets) arranged around its circumference have been launched at different initial velocities and launching angles using a pneumatic-based dedicated mechanism (representing the chaser satellite) against a target mock-up (the target satellite). High-speed motion cameras were recording the experiment allowing 3D reconstruction of the net motion. The net knots have been coloured to allow the images post-process using colour segmentation, stereo matching and iterative closest point (ICP) for knots tracking. The final objective of the activity was the validation of the net deployment and wrapping simulator using images recorded during the parabolic flight. The high-resolution images acquired have been post-processed to determine accurately the initial conditions and generate the reference data (position and velocity of all knots of the net along its deployment and wrapping of the target mock-up) for the simulator validation. The simulator has been properly configured according to the parabolic flight scenario, and executed in order to generate the validation data. Both datasets have been compared according to different metrics in order to perform the validation of the PATENDER simulator

Mass spectrometric approaches for elucidation of antigen antibody recognition structures in molecular immunology

Mass spectrometric approaches have recently gained increasing access to molecular immunology and several methods have been developed that enable detailed chemical structure identification of antigen-antibody interactions. Selective proteolytic digestion and MS-peptide mapping (epitope excision) has been successfully employed for epitope identification of protein antigens. In addition, affinity proteomics using partial epitope excision has been developed as an approach with unprecedented selectivity for direct protein identification from biological material. The potential of these methods is illustrated by the elucidation of a β- amyloid plaque-specific epitope recognized by therapeutic antibodies from transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer s disease. Using an immobilized antigen and antibody- proteolytic digestion and analysis by high resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry has lead to a new approach for the identification of antibody paratope structures (paratope-excision; parexprot ). In this method, high resolution MS-peptide data at the low ppm level are required for direct identification of paratopes using protein databases. Mass spectrometric epitope mapping and determination of molecular antibody-recognition signatures offer high potential, especially for the development of new molecular diagnostics and the evaluation of new vaccine lead structures

Major Phytocannabinoids and Their Related Compounds: Should We Only Search for Drugs That Act on Cannabinoid Receptors?

The most important discoveries in pharmacology, such as certain classes of analgesics or chemotherapeutics, started from natural extracts which have been found to have effects in traditional medicine. Cannabis, traditionally used in Asia for the treatment of pain, nausea, spasms, sleep, depression, and low appetite, is still a good candidate for the development of new compounds. If initially all attention was directed to the endocannabinoid system, recent studies suggest that many of the clinically proven effects are based on an intrinsic chain of mechanisms that do not necessarily involve only cannabinoid receptors. Recent research has shown that major phytocannabinoids and their derivatives also interact with non-cannabinoid receptors such as vanilloid receptor 1, transient receptor ankyrin 1 potential, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma or glitazone receptor, G55 protein-coupled receptor, and nuclear receptor, producing pharmacological effects in diseases such as Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, depression, neuropathic pain, cancer, and diabetes. Nonetheless, further studies are needed to elucidate the precise mechanisms of these compounds. Structure modulation of phytocannabinoids, in order to improve pharmacological effects, should not be limited to the exploration of cannabinoid receptors, and it should target other courses of action discovered through recent research