Integrating Offshore Wind and Wave Resource Assessment

The aim of this paper is to review the sources of wind and wave information, the methodologies to assess offshore wind and wave energy resources, and the more relevant results at the European level as a first step to integration of the evaluation of both resources. In situ and remote sensed wind and wave data (using satellite based sensors) are done generally by distinct systems (except for SAR) but numerical atmospheric models and wind - wave models are closely related. Offshore wind resource studies using various types of data are reviewed especially in northern European seas and in the Mediterranean. The wave energy resource assessment at European and national levels is also reviewed and the various atlases are identified

Impact of Genetic Polymorphisms on the Smoking-related Risk of Periodontal Disease: the Population-based Study SHIP

Periodontitis is a bacterial inflammatory disease leading to attachment loss with the consequence of tooth loss. There exists a multifactorial risk pattern including bacterial challenge, smoking, age, sex, diabetes, socio-economic and genetic factors. Smoking has the highest impact on the course of the disease modulated by all the other factors. Here, we report the relationship between smoking and the polymorphisms of genetic polymorphisms inflicted in the pathogenesis

Chlamydia muridarum Genital and Gastrointestinal Infection Tropism Is Mediated by Distinct Chromosomal Factors

Some members of the genus Chlamydia, including the human pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis, infect multiple tissues, including the genital and gastrointestinal (GI) tracts. However, it is unknown if bacterial targeting to these sites is mediated by multifunctional or distinct chlamydial factors. We previously showed that disruption of individual large clostridial toxin homologs encoded within the Chlamydia muridarum plasticity zone were not critical for murine genital tract infection. Here, we assessed whether cytotoxin genes contribute to C. muridarum GI tropism. Infectivity and shedding of wild-type (WT) C. muridarum and three mutants containing nonsense mutations in different cytotoxin genes, tc0437, tc0438, and tc0439, were compared in mouse genital and GI infection models. One mutant, which had a nonsense mutation in tc0439, was highly attenuated for GI infection and had a GI 50% infectious dose (ID50) that was 1,000 times greater than that of the WT. GI inoculation with this mutant failed to elicit anti-chlamydial antibodies or to protect against subsequent genital tract infection. Genome sequencing of the tc0439 mutant revealed additional chromosomal mutations, and phenotyping of additional mutants suggested that the GI attenuation might be linked to a nonsense mutation in tc0600 The molecular mechanism underlying this dramatic difference in tissue-tropic virulence is not fully understood. However, isolation of these mutants demonstrates that distinct chlamydial chromosomal factors mediate chlamydial tissue tropism and provides a basis for vaccine initiatives to isolate chlamydia strains that are attenuated for genital infection but retain the ability to colonize the GI tract and elicit protective immune responses

Mutational Analysis of the Chlamydia muridarum Plasticity Zone

Pathogenically diverse Chlamydia spp. can have surprisingly similar genomes. C. trachomatis isolates that cause trachoma, sexually transmitted genital tract infections (chlamydia) and invasive lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV), and the murine strain C. muridarum share 99% of their gene content. A region of high genomic diversity between Chlamydia spp. termed the Plasticity Zone (PZ) may encode niche-specific virulence determinants that dictate pathogenic diversity. We hypothesized that PZ genes might mediate the greater virulence and IFN-γ resistance of C. muridarum compared to C. trachomatis in the murine genital tract. To test this hypothesis, we isolated and characterized a series of C. muridarum PZ nonsense mutants. Strains with nonsense mutations in chlamydial cytotoxins, guaBA-add and a phospholipase D homolog developed normally in cell culture. Two of the cytotoxin mutants were less cytotoxic than wild-type suggesting that the cytotoxins may be functional. However, none of the PZ nonsense mutants exhibited increased IFN-γ sensitivity in cell culture or were profoundly attenuated in a murine genital tract infection model. Our results suggest that C. muridarum PZ genes are transcribed and some may produce functional proteins, but are dispensable for infection of the murine genital tract