NESTOR - A NEUTRINO PARTICLE ASTROPHYSICS UNDERWATER LABORATORY FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN

An underwater neutrino astrophysics laboratory, to be located in the international waters off the Southwest of Greece, near the town of Pylos is now under construction. In the last two years a group of physicists from Greece and Russia have carried out two demonstration experiments in 4km deep water, counting muons and verifying the adequacy of the deep sea site. Plans are presented for a 100,000 m2 high energy neutrino detector composed of a hexagon of hexagonal towers, with 1176 optical detector units. A progress report is given and the physics potential of a single tower with 168 phototubes (currently under construction) is described

NESTOR: a status report

NESTOR is an underwater neutrino astrophysics laboratory to be located in the international waters of the southwest of Greece. The first phase of this experiment is the construction and deployment of one hexagonal tower consisting of 168 optical modules, with effective area of 20000m(2) for E greater than or equal to TeV neutrinos. Over the past few years detailed studies of the site have been carried out while many tests have been performed. The current status of the preparation of the experiment and the future plans will be presented

The relationship between SNPS in the genes of TLR signal transduction pathway downstream elements and rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an important role in the induction and regulation of the innate immune system or adaptive immune responses. Genetic variations within human TLRs have been reported to be associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This study was conducted to investigate correlation between SNP of downstream mononucleotide in signal transduction of Toll-like receptors and predisposing genes of RA. There was obviously correlative between single nucleotide polymorphism and predisposing genes of RA. G-type of IL-1RAP rs766442 may be protecting genes of RA, while T-type alleles of IL-6R rs11265618 and IL-1RAP rs766442 may be susceptible genes of RA. In conclusion, the studies on the nucleis acid polymorphism in TLRs signal pathway contribute to disclose genes’ influence on the attack mechanism of RA, early diagnosis and treatment of RA.Толл-подобные рецепторы (TLRs) играют важную роль в индукции и регуляции врожденной иммунной системы или адаптивных иммунных ответах. Показано, что что генетическая изменчивость TLRs человека связана с ревматоидным артритом (РА). Целью настоящей работы было изучение корреляций между однонуклеотидным полиморфизмом в сигнальной трансдукции TLRs и генами предрасположенности к РА. G-тип IL-1RAP rs766442 могут быть генами, предохраняющими от РА, в то время как аллели T-типа IL-6R rs11265618 и IL-1RAP rs766442 могут быть генами чувствительности к РА. Изучение полиморфизма нуклеиновых кислот в сигнальном пути TLRs может внести вклад в выявление участия генов в механизмах приступов РА, раннюю диагностику и лечение РА.The study was supported by Shandong Province young scientist in incentive fund (Grant № 2006BS03018) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant № 30801025)