Implementation and Validation of the Roche Light Cycler 480 96-Well Plate Platform as a Real-Time PCR Assay for the Quantitative Detection of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) in Clinical Specimens Using the Luminex MultiCode ASRs System.

Allogenic stem-cell therapies benefit patients in the treatment of multiple diseases; however, the side effects of stem-cell therapies (SCT) derived from the concomitant use of immune suppression agents often include triggering infection diseases. Thus, analysis is required to improve the detection of pathogen infections in SCT. We develop a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methodology for the qualitative real-time DNA detection of cytomegalovirus (CMV), with reference to herpes simplex virus types 1 (HSVI), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and varicella-zoster virus (VZV) in blood, urine, solid tissues, and cerebrospinal fluid. This real-time PCR of 96-well plate format provides a rapid framework as required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical settings, including the processing of specimens, reagent handling, special safety precautions, quality control criteria and analytical accuracy, precisely reportable range (analyst measurement range), reference range, limit of detection (LOD), analytical specificity established by interference study, and analyte stability. Specifically, we determined the reportable range (analyst measurement range) with the following criteria: CMV copies ≥200 copies/mL; report copy/mL value; CMV copies ≤199 copies/mL; report detected but below quantitative range; CMV copies = 0 with report <200 copies/mL. That is, with reference range, copy numbers (CN) per milliliter (mL) of the LOD were determined by standard curves that correlated Ct value and calibrated standard DNA panels. The three repeats determined that the measuring range was 1E2~1E6 copies/mL. The standard curves show the slopes were within the range -2.99 to -3.65 with R2 ≥ 0.98. High copy (HC) controls were within 0.17-0.18 log differences of DNA copy numbers; (2) low copy (LC) controls were within 0.17-0.18 log differences; (3) LOD was within 0.14-0.15 log differences. As such, we set up a fast, simple, inexpensive, sensitive, and reliable molecular approach for the qualitative detection of CMV pathogens. Conclusion: This real-time PCR of the 96-well plate format provides a rapid framework as required by the FDA for clinical settings

Velocities of Reacting Boron Particles within a Solid Fuel Ramjet Combustion Chamber

A 2D-laser doppler velocimeter was used to measure velocities of reacting boron (B) particles during the combustion of a metallised solid fuel slab inside a 20-combustion chamber. The solid fuel hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) was enriched with B particles to increase its specific heat. To obtain information on the combustion process and on the movement of B particles, their velocities were measured. The experiments were performed at ambient pressure. The behaviour of the B particles concerning the exit velocities from the fuel slab has been discussed on the basis of the experimental results

Mistakes, Crises, and Research Independence: The Perils of Fieldwork as a form of Evidence

Drawing on examples from rural Ethiopia and Uganda, this research note highlights some of the difficulties experienced in fieldwork. These difficulties do not justify the reluctance of increasingly risk-averse universities and funders to support independent fieldwork in Africa, but they do show that the rationale for research and the features of its design can provoke animosity and tensions. They also show that our own failure on occasion to appreciate local political dynamics made the situation more difficult. Challenges and threats came not only from local political forces but also from multinational companies and Fairtrade organizations uncomfortable with our findings and with fully independent research. The research note argues that the details of our experience have a practical value for other researchers, and that at least some of them should be treated as substantive forms of evidence and insight, rather than simply as threats or failures. We conclude that some crude best-practice norms and pressures on academics to form partnerships to conduct policy-relevant work may undermine the potential for truly independent and intensive field research. However, crises should not necessarily be seen as an unwelcome interruption to smooth processes of research; they can illuminate the context and power relations that the research is trying to understand

Fairtrade and Labour Markets in Ethiopia and Uganda

Drawing on four years of fieldwork in Ethiopia and Uganda, this paper addresses gaps in knowledge about the mechanisms linking agricultural exports with poverty reduction, the functioning of rural labour markets, and the relevance to the lives of the poorest people of Fairtrade. Statistical analysis of survey evidence, complemented by qualitative research, highlights the relatively poor payment and non-pay working conditions of those employed in research sites dominated by Fairtrade producer organizations. We conclude that Fairtrade is not an effective way to improve the welfare of the poorest rural people

New data about Early Cretaceous Ginkgoales from southwestern Europe (middle-late Albian of Spain)

We present in this work a leaf-type corresponding to the Ginkgoales genus Sphenobaiera recorded in deposits from the middle-upper Albian (Lower Cretaceous) of northeastern Spain. The fossil leaf shows a widely dissected lamina that forks regularly six times ending at the apex in sixty-four tiny wedge-shaped segments, which are characters similar to those in Sphenobaiera pecten from the Middle Jurassic of England. The exceptional preservation of this fossil leaf, which preserves all segments in connection with its base, in addition to taphonomical and sedimentological data, indicates a nearby location for the parent plant, which grew near the shores of a tidally-influenced fluvial environment. A palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the sub-environments where the different types of Ginkgoales known from the Albian of northeastern Spain developed is also presented. The presence of a variety of different types of Ginkgoales in middle-upper Albian deposits from Spain represents a new contribution to the knowledge of the palaeoenvironmental conditions for this region of southwestern Eurasia during the late Early Cretaceous

Catabolite repression of the citST two-component system in Bacillus subtilis

In Bacillus subtilis, expression of the citrate transporter CitM is under strict control. Transcription of the citM gene is induced by citrate in the medium mediated by the CitS-CitT two-component system and repressed by rapidly degraded carbon sources mediated by carbon catabolite repression (CCR). In this study, we demonstrate that citST genes are part of a bicistronic operon. The promoter region was localized in a stretch of 58 base pairs upstream of the citS gene by deletion experiments. Transcription of the operon was repressed in the presence of glucose by the general transcription factor CcpA. A distal consensus cre site in the citS-coding sequence was implicated in the mechanism of repression. Furthermore, this repression was relieved in Bacillus subtilis mutants deficient in CcpA or Hpr/Crh, components essential to CCR. Thus, we demonstrate that CCR represses the expression of the citST operon, which is responsible for the induction of citM, through the cre site located 1326 bp from transcriptional start site of citST

Notas sobre el cinema soviético

Sender, RJ. (1933). Notas sobre el cinema soviético. Nuestro cinema. (13):219-220. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/42876.Importación Masiva2192201