Personalized Optical Designs and Manipulating Optics: Applications on the Anterior Segment of the Eye

The image-forming properties of the eye can be described in terms of wave aberration. Understanding the link between aberrations and the anterior segment geometry is therefore of crucial importance for (i) comprehending how the eye works, (ii) modelling the optics of individual eyes, (iii) optimizing optical solutions, or (iv) designing surgical strategies. The eye has many innate adaptations that minimize optical aberrations. In most normal young eyes, the magnitude of aberrations of the cornea is significantly larger than for the whole eye, indicating a significant role of the crystalline lens in compensating corneal aberrations. However, due to geometrical and structural changes, this ocular compensation gets disturbed in different anterior segment conditions, such as keratoconus, presbyopia, or cataract. Keratoconus progressively degrades the corneal shape and, consequently, vision in the adolescence, with a prevalence of 0.05% in the general population. Meanwhile, presbyopia and cataract are conditions related to aging that affect the structure of the crystalline lens, one referring to a loss in accommodative amplitude (presbyopia) and the other to a progressive loss of transparency (cataract). Presbyopia affects 100% of the population older than 45¿years of age, ..

Characterization of mAb6-9-1 monoclonal antibody against hemagglutinin of avian influenza virus H5N1 and its engineered derivative, single-chain variable fragment antibody

Hemagglutinin (HA), as a major surface antigen of influenza virus, is widely used as a target for production of neutralizing antibodies. Monoclonal antibody, mAb6-9-1, directed against HA of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus A/swan/Poland/305-135V08/2006(H5N1) was purified from mouse hybridoma cells culture and characterized. The antigenic specificity of mAb6-9-1 was verified by testing its cross-reactivity with several variants of HA. The mimotopes recognized by mAb6-9-1 were selected from two types of phage display peptide libraries. The comparative structural model of the HA variant used for antibody generation was developed to further facilitate epitope mapping. Based on the sequences of the affinity- selected polypeptides and the structural model of HA the epitope was located to the region near the receptor binding site (RBS). Such localization of the epitope recognized by mAb6-9-1 is in concordance with its moderate hemagglutination inhibiting activity and its antigenic specificity. Additionally, total RNA isolated from the hybridoma cell line secreting mAb6-9-1 was used for obtaining two variants of cDNA encoding recombinant single-chain variable fragment (scFv) antibody. To ensure high production level and solubility in bacterial expression system, the scFv fragments were produced as chimeric proteins in fusion with thioredoxin or displayed on a phage surface after cloning into the phagemid vector. Specificity and affinity of the recombinant soluble and phage-bound scFv were assayed by suitable variants of ELISA test. The observed differences in specificity were discussed

Towards integration of research and monitoring at forest ecosystems in Europe

Aim of study: The main aim of the work was to summarize availability, quality and comparability of on-going European Research and Monitoring Networks (ERMN), based on the results of a COST FP0903 Action questionnaire carried out in September 2010 and May 2012. Area of study: The COST Action FP0903 involves 29 European countries and 4 non-COST institutions from USA, Morocco and Tunisia. In this study, the total of 22 replies to the questionnaire from 18 countries were included. Materials and methods: Based on the feedback from the Action FP0903 countries, the most popular European Networks were identified. Thereafter, the access to the network database, available quality assurance/quality control procedures and publication were described. Finally, the so-called “Supersites” concept, defined as a “highly instrumented research infrastructure, for both research and monitoring of soil-plant-atmosphere interactions” was discussed. Main results: The result of the survey indicate that the vast majority of the Action FP0903 countries participate in the International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forest (ICP Forest). The multi-disciplinary International Cooperative Programme on Integrated Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Ecosystems (ICPIM) is the second most widespread forest programme. Research highlights: To fully understand biochemical cycles in forest ecosystems, long-term monitoring is needed. Hence, a network of “Supersites”, is proposed. The application of the above infrastructure can be an effective way to attain a better integration of research and monitoring networks at forest sites in Europ

The acquisition of Sign Language: The impact of phonetic complexity on phonology

Research into the effect of phonetic complexity on phonological acquisition has a long history in spoken languages. This paper considers the effect of phonetics on phonological development in a signed language. We report on an experiment in which nonword-repetition methodology was adapted so as to examine in a systematic way how phonetic complexity in two phonological parameters of signed languages — handshape and movement — affects the perception and articulation of signs. Ninety-one Deaf children aged 3–11 acquiring British Sign Language (BSL) and 46 hearing nonsigners aged 6–11 repeated a set of 40 nonsense signs. For Deaf children, repetition accuracy improved with age, correlated with wider BSL abilities, and was lowest for signs that were phonetically complex. Repetition accuracy was correlated with fine motor skills for the youngest children. Despite their lower repetition accuracy, the hearing group were similarly affected by phonetic complexity, suggesting that common visual and motoric factors are at play when processing linguistic information in the visuo-gestural modality

Evaluation of the role of downregulation of SNF5/INI1 core subunit of SWI/SNF complex in clear cell renal cell carcinoma development

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is characterized by stabilization of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF1), and mutations in von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) gene. Additionally, in about 40% of ccRCC cases the mutation in PBRM1 (POLYBROMO1) gene coding for a non-core subunit of SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex was found suggesting potential impairment of this complex function in ccRCC. In this study we assessed the extent to which the core SWI/SNF complex subunit - INI1 (hSNF5/SMARCB1) is affected in ccRCC and whether it has any consequences on the development of this type of cancer. The evaluation of INI1 protein level in samples from 50 patients with diagnosed ccRCC, including three displaying rhabdoid features, showed the INI1 positive staining in rhabdoid cells while the conventional ccRCC cells exhibited reduced INI1 level. This indicated the rhabdoid component of ccRCC as distinct from other known rhabdoid tumors. The reduced INI1 protein level observed in all conventional ccRCC cases used in this study correlated with decreased SMARCB1 gene expression at the transcript level. Consistently, the overexpression of INI1 protein in A498 ccRCC cell line resulted in the elevation of endogenous SMARCB1 transcript level indicating that the INI1-dependent regulatory feedback loop controlling expression of this gene is affected in ccRCC Moreover, the set of INI1 target genes including i.e. CXCL12/CXCR7/CXCR4 chemokine axis was identified to be affected in ccRCC. In summary, we demonstrated that the inactivation of INI1 may be of high importance for ccRCC development and aggressiveness