Oceans of Tomorrow sensor interoperability for in-situ ocean monitoring

The Oceans of Tomorrow (OoT) projects, funded by the European Commission’s FP7 program, are developing a new generation of sensors supporting physical, biogeochemical and biological oceanographic monitoring. The sensors range from acoustic to optical fluorometers to labs on a chip. The result is that the outputs are diverse in a variety of formats and communication methodologies. The interfaces with platforms such as floats, gliders and cable observatories are each different. Thus, sensorPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

A conformational RNA zipper promotes intron ejection during non-conventional XBP1 mRNA splicing.

The kinase/endonuclease IRE1 is the most conserved signal transducer of the unfolded protein response (UPR), an intracellular signaling network that monitors and regulates the protein folding capacity of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Upon sensing protein folding perturbations in the ER, IRE1 initiates the unconventional splicing of XBP1 mRNA culminating in the production of the transcription factor XBP1s, which expands the ER's protein folding capacity. We show that an RNA-intrinsic conformational change causes the intron of XBP1 mRNA to be ejected and the exons to zipper up into an extended stem, juxtaposing the RNA ends for ligation. These conformational rearrangements are important for XBP1 mRNA splicing in vivo. The features that point to such active participation of XBP1 mRNA in the splicing reaction are highly conserved throughout metazoan evolution, supporting their importance in orchestrating XBP1 mRNA processing with efficiency and fidelity

Developing tissue specific antisense oligonucleotide-delivery to refine treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe progressive muscle wasting disorder. DMD is caused by reading frame disrupting mutations in the DMD gene resulting is an absence of the dystrophin protein. Dystrophin is an important muscle protein as it provide stability upon muscle fiber contraction. Currently there is no therapy for the majority of the DMD patients. As part of the standard of care patient receive symptomatic treatment e.g. corticosteroids, respiratory and cardiac support. Various therapeutic approached are currently under development. Most advanced therapeutic approach is aimed to restore dystrophin production by using antisense oligonucleotides (AON): exon skipping. This thesis focusses on delivery of AON to skeletal and cardiac muscle for DMD. With the help of phage display technology combined with next generation sequencing analyses, muscle homing peptides have been identified. In this thesis is described how for the first time these homing peptides upon conjugation to a 2OMePS AON resulted in increased delivery and exon skipping in a mouse model for DMD. In Conclusion, muscle homing peptides have the potential to facilitate delivery of AONs and perhaps other compounds to skeletal and cardiac muscle.  Prinses Beatrix SpierfondsLUMC / Geneeskund

Radiation from polarized vacuum in a laser-particle collision

The probability of photon emission of a charged particle traversing a strong field becomes modified if vacuum polarization is considered. This feature is important for fundamental quantum electrodynamics processes present in extreme astrophysical environments and can be studied in a collision of a charged particle with a strong laser field. We show that for today's available 700 GeV (6.5 TeV) protons and the field provided by the next generation of lasers, the emission spectra peak is enhanced due to vacuum polarization effect by 30% (suppressed by 65%) in comparison to the traditionally considered Compton process. This striking phenomenon offers a novel path to the laboratory-based manifestation of vacuum polarization.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Applying OGC sensor web enablement to ocean observing systems

The complexity of marine installations for ocean observing systems has grown significantly in recent years. In a network consisting of tens, hundreds or thousands of marine instruments, manual configuration and integration becomes very challenging. Simplifying the integration process in existing or newly established observing systems would benefit system operators and is important for the broader application of different sensors. This article presents an approach for the automatic configuration and integration of sensors into an interoperable Sensor Web infrastructure. First, the sensor communication model, based on OGC's SensorML standard, is utilized. It serves as a generic driver mechanism since it enables the declarative and detailed description of a sensor's protocol. Finally, we present a data acquisition architecture based on the OGC PUCK protocol that enables storage and retrieval of the SensorML document from the sensor itself, and automatic integration of sensors into an interoperable Sensor Web infrastructure. Our approach adopts Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) as alternative serialization form of XML or JSON. It solves the bandwidth problem of XML and JSON.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

On the new and old physics in the interaction of a radiating electron with the extreme electromagnetic field

We show that an all-optical configuration of the laser-electron collision in the $\lambda^{3}$ configuration based on 10~PW-class lasers presents a viable platform for reaching the range of parameters where a perturbative QED in strong external electromagnetic field breaks. This case is contingently referred to as a case of the nonperturbative QED; and this range of parameters is the intriguing goal from an experimental point of view because of a possible manifestation of a new physics of the interaction of a highly radiating particle with a strong electromagnetic field. We show that the strong field region can be reached by the electrons having the initial energy higher than 50 GeV. Our theoretical considerations are in agreement with three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. While increasing of the electron energy raises the number of electrons experiencing the strong field region, the observable signature of photon emission radiative correction in the strong field is expected to fade out when the electron energy surpasses the optimal value. This threshold of electron energy is identified and the parameters for achieving the nonperturbative limit of QED are provided.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Highly Radiating Charged Particles in a Strong Electromagnetic Field

We consider highly radiating ultra-relativistic electrons in a strong external electromagnetic field. High intensity radiative losses and consequent $e^+e^-$-pair production, appearing in the frame of quantum electrodynamics, determine indirectly mass operator of electrons in the strong field. We calculate a leading term of the mass operator at asymptotically high energies of electrons in a strong constant field. We do not use any perturbation theory based on a low ratio of this mass operator to the electron mass $m_e$, but only the original small parameter of quantum electrodynamics, the fine structure constant, $\alpha$. The analogous %but less nontrivial result is obtained for the polarization operator for photon propagator. These results resolve at least partially a very long-lasted controversy originating from traditional and straightforward application of perturbative approaches for description of highly radiating ultra-relativistic charged particles in a very strong electromagnetic fields.Comment: 5 page