FMECA and FTA analysis applied to the manufacturing process of pulsating heat pipes

Pulsating heat pipes (PHPs) offer significant advantages for the thermal control of electronic components due to their simple manufacturing and high heat transfer rates. The reliability of PHPs has traditionally been assessed through long-life testing, but detailed reliability analyses from an equipment perspective are limited. The study of PHP reliability is essential due to its application and operational conditions. For instance, in aerospace applications these devices operate under severe conditions, and maintenance or replacement is impossible during operation, making them critical components in system functionality. The reliability analysis of PHPs focuses on the manufacturing process, considering future operating conditions. Although preliminary PHP testing will be conducted on Earth, laboratory conditions are less stringent due to the difficulty of replicating launch acceleration and space conditions for long-term testing under microgravity. This study presents an FMECA (Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis) of the pulsating heat pipe manufacturing process, breaking down the production of each component. The results indicate that the most critical point is concentrated in the assembly of these components, leading to a higher incidence of welding failures. It recommends further work to improve welding and analyze mechanical stresses within the heat pipe

Combination of novel and public RNA-seq datasets to generate an mRNA expression atlas for the domestic chicken

Background: The domestic chicken (Gallus gallus) is widely used as a model in developmental biology and is also an important livestock species. We describe a novel approach to data integration to generate an mRNA expression atlas for the chicken spanning major tissue types and developmental stages, using a diverse range of publicly-archived RNA-seq datasets and new data derived from immune cells and tissues. Results: Randomly down-sampling RNA-seq datasets to a common depth and quantifying expression against a reference transcriptome using the mRNA quantitation tool Kallisto ensured that disparate datasets explored comparable transcriptomic space. The network analysis tool Graphia was used to extract clusters of co-expressed genes from the resulting expression atlas, many of which were tissue or cell-type restricted, contained transcription factors that have previously been implicated in their regulation, or were otherwise associated with biological processes, such as the cell cycle. The atlas provides a resource for the functional annotation of genes that currently have only a locus ID. We cross-referenced the RNA-seq atlas to a publicly available embryonic Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE) dataset to infer the developmental time course of organ systems, and to identify a signature of the expansion of tissue macrophage populations during development. Conclusion: Expression profiles obtained from public RNA-seq datasets - despite being generated by different laboratories using different methodologies - can be made comparable to each other. This meta-analytic approach to RNA-seq can be extended with new datasets from novel tissues, and is applicable to any species

Development of two multiplex mini-sequencing panels of ancestry informative SNPs for studies in Latin Americans: an application to populations of the State of Minas Gerais (Brazil)

Admixture occurs when individuals from parental populations that have been isolated for hundreds of generations form a new hybrid population. Currently, interest in measuring biogeographic ancestry has spread from anthropology to forensic sciences, direct-to-consumers personal genomics, and civil rights issues of minorities, and it is critical for genetic epidemiology studies of admixed populations. Markers with highly differentiated frequencies among human populations are informative of ancestry and are called ancestry informative markers (AIMs). For tri-hybrid Latin American populations, ancestry information is required for Africans, Europeans and Native Americans. We developed two multiplex panels of AIMs (for 14 SNPs) to be genotyped by two mini-sequencing reactions, suitable for investigators of medium-small laboratories to estimate admixture of Latin American populations. We tested the performance of these AIMs by comparing results obtained with our 14 AIMs with those obtained using 108 AIMs genotyped in the same individuals, for which DNA samples is available for other investigators. We emphasize that this type of comparison should be made when new admixture/population structure panels are developed. At the population level, our 14 AIMs were useful to estimate European admixture, though they overestimated African admixture and underestimated Native American admixture. Combined with more AIMs, our panel could be used to infer individual admixture. We used our panel to infer the pattern of admixture in two urban populations (Montes Claros and Manhuacu) of the State of Minas Gerais (southeastern Brazil), obtaining a snapshot of their genetic structure in the context of their demographic history

The genetic structure and adaptation of Andean highlanders and Amazonian dwellers is influenced by the interplay between geography and culture

Western South America was one of the worldwide cradles of civilization. The well known Inca Empire was the tip of the iceberg of a cultural and biological evolutionary process that started 14-11 thousand years ago. Genetic data from 18 Peruvian populations reveal that: (1) The between-population homogenization of the central-southern Andes and its differentiation with respect to Amazonian populations of similar latitudes do not extend northward. Instead, longitudinal gene flow between the northern coast of Peru, Andes and Amazonia accompanied cultural and socioeconomic interactions revealed by archeological studies. This pattern recapitulates the environmental and cultural differentiation between the fertile north, where altitudes are lower; and the arid south, where the Andes are higher, acting as a genetic barrier between the sharply different environments of the Andes and Amazonia (2). The genetic homogenization between the populations of the arid Andes is not only due to migration during the Inca Empire or the subsequent colonial period. It started at least during the earlier expansion of the pre-Inca Wari Empire (600-1000 YBP) (3) This demographic history allowed for cases of positive natural selection in the high and arid Andes vs. the low Amazon tropical forest: in the Andes, HAND2-AS1 (heart and neural crest derivatives expressed 2 antisense RNA1, related with cardiovascular function) and DUOX2 (dual oxidase 2, related to thyroid function and innate immunity) genes; in the Amazon, the gene encoding for the CD45 protein, essential for antigen recognition by T/B lymphocytes in viral-host interaction, consistent with the host-virus arms race hypothesis

The extracellular matrix protects Bacillus subtilis colonies from Pseudomonas invasion and modulates plant co-colonization.

Bacteria of the generaPseudomonasandBacilluscan promote plant growth and protect plantsfrom pathogens. However, the interactions between these plant-beneficial bacteria areunderstudied. Here, we explore the interaction betweenBacillus subtilis3610 andPseudomonaschlororaphisPCL1606. We show that the extracellular matrix protectsB. subtiliscolonies frominfiltration byP. chlororaphis. The absence of extracellular matrix results in increasedfluidityand loss of structure of theB. subtiliscolony. TheP. chlororaphistype VI secretion system(T6SS) is activated upon contact withB. subtiliscells, and stimulatesB. subtilissporulation.Furthermore, wefind thatB. subtilissporulation observed prior to direct contact withP.chlororaphisis mediated by histidine kinases KinA and KinB. Finally, we demonstrate theimportance of the extracellular matrix and the T6SS in modulating the coexistence of the twospecies on melon plant leaves and seed

LOXL2-mediated H3K4 oxidation reduces chromatin accessibility in triple-negative breast cancer cells

Oxidation of H3 at lysine 4 (H3K4ox) by lysyl oxidase-like 2 (LOXL2) generates an H3 modification with an unknown physiological function. We find that LOXL2 and H3K4ox are higher in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell lines and patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) than those from other breast cancer subtypes. ChIP-seq revealed that H3K4ox is located primarily in heterochromatin, where it is involved in chromatin compaction. Knocking down LOXL2 reduces H3K4ox levels and causes chromatin decompaction, resulting in a sustained activation of the DNA damage response (DDR) and increased susceptibility to anticancer agents. This critical role that LOXL2 and oxidized H3 play in chromatin compaction and DDR suggests that functionally targeting LOXL2 could be a way to sensitize TNBC cells to conventional therapy.This work was supported by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) FIS/FEDER (PI12/01250; CP08/00223; PI16/00253; and CB16/12/00449), MINECO (SAF2013-48849-C2-1-R) to SP, BFU2015-68354 to THS, Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF-17-008) to JA, AGL2014-52395-C2-2-R to DA, Worldwide Cancer Research, Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer (RD012/0036/005), Fundación Científica de la Asociación Española contra el Cáncer, and Fundació La Marató TV3.THS was supported by institutional funding (MINECO) through theCentres of Excellence Severo Ochoa award and the CERCA Pro-gramme of the Catalan Government, and SS-B, by a Fundació LaCaixa fellowship. We thank La Caixa Foundation and Cellex Foun-dation for provide research facilities and equipment. GV has received f unding from the MINECO (a “Juan de la Cierva Incorporation ” fellowship; IJCI-2014-20723). SP was a recipient of a Miguel Servet contract (ISCIII/FIS), and AI, JPC-C, LP-G, and GS-B are supported by contracts from Worldwide Cancer Research, Fundació La MaratóTV3, Fundació FERO, and a FI Fellowship from the Generalitat de Catalunya, respectively