Digital multiplexed mRNA analysis of functionally important genes in single human oocytes and correlation of changes in transcript levels with oocyte protein expression

Objective To investigate functionally important transcripts in single human oocytes with the use of NanoString technology and determine whether observed differences are biologically meaningful. Design Analysis of human oocytes with the use of NanoString and immunoblotting. Setting University-affiliated reproductive medicine unit. Patients Women undergoing in vitro fertilization. Intervention Human oocytes were analyzed with the use of NanoString or immunoblotting. Main Outcome Measures The abundance of transcripts for ten functionally important genes—AURKA, AURKC, BUB1, BUB1B (encoding BubR1), CDK1, CHEK1, FYN, MOS, MAP2K1, and WEE2—and six functionally dispensable genes were analyzed with the use of NanoString. BubR1 protein levels in oocytes from younger and older women were compared with the use of immunoblotting. Result(s) All ten functional genes but none of the six dispensable genes were detectable with the use of NanoString in single oocytes. There was 3- to 5-fold variation in BUB1, BUB1B, and CDK1 transcript abundance among individual oocytes from a single patient. Transcripts for these three genes—all players within the spindle assembly checkpoint surveillance mechanism for preventing aneuploidy—were reduced in the same oocyte from an older patient. Mean BUB1B transcripts were reduced by 1.5-fold with aging and associated with marked reductions in BubR1 protein levels. Conclusion(s) The abundance of functionally important transcripts exhibit marked oocyte-to-oocyte heterogeneity to a degree that is sufficient to affect protein expression. Observed variations in transcript abundance are therefore likely to be biologically meaningful, especially if multiple genes within the same pathway are simultaneously affected

Interface refactoring in performance-constrained web services

This paper presents the development of REF-WS an approach to enable a Web Service provider to reliably evolve their service through the application of refactoring transformations. REF-WS is intended to aid service providers, particularly in a reliability and performance constrained domain as it permits upgraded ’non-backwards compatible’ services to be deployed into a performance constrained network where existing consumers depend on an older version of the service interface. In order for this to be successful, the refactoring and message mediation needs to occur without affecting functional compatibility with the services’ consumers, and must operate within the performance overhead expected of the original service, introducing as little latency as possible. Furthermore, compared to a manually programmed solution, the presented approach enables the service developer to apply and parameterize refactorings with a level of confidence that they will not produce an invalid or ’corrupt’ transformation of messages. This is achieved through the use of preconditions for the defined refactorings

Heater improves cold-temperature capacity of silver-cadmium batteries

Eight heaters are included in 14-cell package to provide 14-Vdc. Each heater is 11-ohm self-adhesive strip placed across broad face of each pair of cells. They are installed before cells are wired. Heaters are in series and are connected through pair of redundant thermostats

Should we be treating animal schistosomiasis in Africa? The need for a One Health economic evaluation of schistosomiasis control in people and their livestock

A One Health economic perspective allows informed decisions to be made regarding control priorities and/or implementation strategies for infectious diseases. Schistosomiasis is a major and highly resilient disease of both humans and livestock. The zoonotic component of transmission in sub-Saharan Africa appears to be more significant than previously assumed, and may thereby affect the recently revised WHO vision to eliminate schistosomiasis as a public health problem by 2025. Moreover, animal schistosomiasis is likely to be a significant cost to affected communities due to its direct and indirect impact on livelihoods. We argue here for a comprehensive evaluation of the economic burden of livestock and zoonotic schistosomiasis in sub-Saharan Africa in order to determine if extending treatment to include animal hosts in a One Health approach is economically, as well as epidemiologically, desirable

New functional redundancy approaches for attitude control thruster systems

Functional redundancy safeguards for inert gas attitude control thruster system

Categorification of quantum symmetric pairs I

We categorify a coideal subalgebra of the quantum group of $\mathfrak{sl}_{2r+1}$ by introducing a $2$-category \`a la Khovanov-Lauda-Rouquier, and show that self-dual indecomposable $1$-morphisms categorify the canonical basis of this algebra. This allows us to define a categorical action of this coideal algebra on the categories of modules over cohomology rings of partial flag varieties and on the BGG category $\mathcal{O}$ of type B/C.Comment: final version, to appear in Quantum Topolog

Ab-initio determined electronic and magnetic properties of half-metallic NiCrSi and NiMnSi Heusler alloys; the role of interfaces and defects

Using state-of-the-art first-principles calculations we study the properties of the ferromagnetic Heusler compounds NiYSi where Y stands for V, Cr or Mn. NiCrSi and NiMnSi contrary to NiVSi are half-metallic at their equilibrium lattice constant exhibiting integer values of the total spin magnetic moment and thus we concentrate on these two alloys. The minority-spin gap has the same characteristics as for the well-known NiMnSb alloy being around $\sim$1 eV. Upon tetragonalization the gap is present in the density of states even for expansion or contraction of the out-of-plane lattice parameter by 5%. The Cr-Cr and Mn-Mn interactions make ferromagnetism extremely stable and the Curie temperature exceeds 1000 K for NiMnSi. Surface and interfaces with GaP, ZnS and Si semiconductors are not half-metallic but in the case of NiCrSi the Ni-based contacts present spin-polarization at the Fermi level over 90%. Finally, we show that there are two cases of defects and atomic-swaps. The first-ones which involve the Cr(Mn) and Si atoms induce states at the edges of the gap which persists for a moderate-concentration of defects. Defects involving Ni atoms induce states localized within the gap completely destroying the half-metallicity. Based on single-impurity calculations we associate these states to the symmetry of the crystal