Integration of a RSI microstructure sensing package into a Seaglider

Seagliders are a type of propeller-less AUV that glide through the water by changing their buoyancy. They have become mainstream collectors of standard oceanographic data (conductivity, temperature, pressure, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence and backscatter) and are increasingly used as trucks to carry a wide variety of hydrographic and bio-geochemical sensors. The extended sensor capability enhances the utility of the gliders for oceanographic observations. Seagliders are designed and optimized for long-term missions (up to 10 months) and deep sea profiling (up to 1000 m). They provide high resolution oceanographic data with very good temporal and spatial density, in near real-time, at a fraction of the cost of ship collected data. These performance parameters are sometimes at odds with the physical dimensions and electrical requirements of the hydrographic and bio-geochemical sensors scientists want installed in gliders. However, as the acceptance of gliders as an integral component of the oceanographic suite of measurement tools grows so do the efforts of sensor vendors to develop products that meet the size, weight and power requirements for successful glider integration. Turbulence microstructure sensors are one measurement system that scientists desired on Seagliders but that until recently did not fit the glider footprint. In collaboration with Rockland Scientific, Inc., a suite of RSI turbulence microstructure sensors was recently integrated into a Seaglider and the system’s performance validated during field tests in Puget Sound near Seattle, WA and in Loch Linnhe on the west coast of Scotland. Ocean turbulence controls the mixing of water masses, biogeochemical fluxes within them, and facilitates ocean-atmosphere gas exchange. As a result, turbulence impacts global ocean circulation, polar ice melt rates, drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide and carbon deposition, coastal and deep ocean ecology, commercial fisheries, and the dispersion of pollutants. Turbulent mixing is also recognized as a key parameter in global climate models, used for understanding and predicting future climate change. Seagliders equipped with turbulence microstructure sensors will allow scientists to map the geographical distribution and temporal variability of mixing in the ocean on scales not possible with ship-based measurements. This presentation discusses the technical aspects of the integration of the turbulence sensor suite on a Seaglider with an emphasis on achieving high data quality, while retaining the performance characteristics of the Seaglider. We will also describe applications for this sensor suite, examine the turbulence measurement data already collected by the Seaglider and discuss future deployment plans

小型クロロフィル・濁度計の空間解像度について

アレック電子株式会社東京水産大学海洋環境学科東京水産大学海洋環境学

Characterization of an Ex Vivo Skin Model for the Assessment of Dexamethasone-Loaded Core Multishell-Nanocarriers

Standard experimental set-ups for the assessment of skin penetration are typically performed on skin explants with an intact skin barrier or after a partial mechanical or chemical perturbation of the stratum corneum, but they do not take into account biochemical changes. Among the various pathological alterations in inflamed skin, aberrant serine protease (SP) activity directly affects the biochemical environment in the superficial compartments, which interact with topically applied formulations. It further impacts the skin barrier structure and is a key regulator of inflammatory mediators. Herein, we used short-term cultures of ex vivo human skin treated with trypsin and plasmin as inflammatory stimuli to assess the penetration and biological effects of the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone (DXM), encapsulated in core multishell-nanocarriers (CMS-NC), when compared to a standard cream formulation. Despite a high interindividual variability, the combined pretreatment of the skin resulted in an average 2.5-fold increase of the transepidermal water loss and swelling of the epidermis, as assessed by optical coherence tomography, as well as in a moderate increase of a broad spectrum of proinflammatory mediators of clinical relevance. The topical application of DXM-loaded CMS-NC or DXM standard cream revealed an increased penetration into SP-treated skin when compared to untreated control skin with an intact barrier. Both formulations, however, delivered sufficient amounts of DXM to effectively suppress the production of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and Thymic Stromal Lymphopoietin (TSLP). In conclusion, we suggest that the herein presented ex vivo inflammatory skin model is functional and could improve the selection of promising drug delivery strategies for anti-inflammatory compounds at early stages of development. View Full-Tex

The First Decade of Science with Chandra and XMM-Newton

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton made their first observations one decade ago. The unprecedented and complementary capabilities of these observatories to detect, image, and measure the energy of cosmic X-rays, achieved less than 50 years after the first detection of an extra-solar X-ray source, represent an increase in sensitivity comparable in going from naked-eye observations to the most powerful optical telescopes over the past 400 years! In this review, we highlight some of the many discoveries made by Chandra and XMM-Newton that have transformed 21st century astronomy and briefly discuss prospects for future research.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, published in Natur

Measuring turbulent dissipation rates beneath an Antarctic ice shelf

Microstructure shear, temperature, and conductivity observations from a tethered profiler have been made beneath George VI Ice Shelf to examine processes driving vertical heat flux in the oceanic turbulent boundary layer. Such measurements at the ice-ocean interface within the cavity of an ice shelf are unprecedented, requiring the deployment of a profiler through 400-m deep access boreholes. We describe the drilling technique developed for this purpose, which involves using a brush to widen the deepest section of the borehole, and as evidence that this novel technique can be successful, we present shear and thermal variance spectra from the profiler. These spectra indicate that dissipation rates of turbulent kinetic energy, from which heat flux can be calculated, can be resolved beneath an ice shelf as well as they can be in open water

Quantitative detection of α-Synuclein and Tau oligomers and other aggregates by digital single particle counting

The pathological hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases is the formation of toxic oligomers by proteins such as alpha-synuclein (aSyn) or microtubule-associated protein tau (Tau). Consequently, such oligomers are promising biomarker candidates for diagnostics as well as drug development. However, measuring oligomers and other aggregates in human biofluids is still challenging as extreme sensitivity and specificity are required. We previously developed surface-based fluorescence intensity distribution analysis (sFIDA) featuring single-particle sensitivity and absolute specificity for aggregates. In this work, we measured aSyn and Tau aggregate concentrations of 237 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from five cohorts: Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), Alzheimer's disease (AD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and a neurologically-normal control group. aSyn aggregate concentration discriminates PD and DLB patients from normal controls (sensitivity 73%, specificity 65%, area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) 0.68). Tau aggregates were significantly elevated in PSP patients compared to all other groups (sensitivity 87%, specificity 70%, AUC 0.76). Further, we found a tight correlation between aSyn and Tau aggregate titers among all patient cohorts (Pearson coefficient of correlation r = 0.81). Our results demonstrate that aSyn and Tau aggregate concentrations measured by sFIDA differentiate neurodegenerative disease diagnostic groups. Moreover, sFIDA-based Tau aggregate measurements might be particularly useful in distinguishing PSP from other parkinsonisms. Finally, our findings suggest that sFIDA can improve pre-clinical and clinical studies by identifying those individuals that will most likely respond to compounds designed to eliminate specific oligomers or to prevent their formation