WorldWideScience

Sample records for actf

  1. Recombinant α-actinin subunit antigens of Trichomonas vaginalis as potential vaccine candidates in protecting against trichomoniasis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Yi-Ting; Gao, Jiang-Mei; Wu, Ya-Ping; Tang, Petrus; Hide, Geoff; Lai, De-Hua; Lun, Zhao-Rong

    2017-02-16

    Human trichomoniasis caused by Trichomonas vaginalis is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases with more than 200 million cases worldwide. It has caused a series of health problems to patients. For prevention and control of infectious diseases, vaccines are usually considered as one of the most cost-efficient tools. However, until now, work on the development of T. vaginalis vaccines is still mainly focused on the screening of potential immunogens. Alpha-actinin characterized by high immunogenicity in T. vaginalis was suggested as a promising candidate. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the protective potency of recombinant α-actinin against T. vaginalis infection in a mouse intraperitoneal model. Two selected coding regions of α-actinin (ACT-F, 14-469 aa and ACT-T, 462-844 aa) amplified from cDNA were cloned into pET-32a (+) expression vector and transfected into BL21 cells. After induction with IPTG and purification with electroelution, the two recombinant fusion proteins were emulsified in Freund's adjuvant (FA) and used to immunize BALB/C mice. Following intraperitoneal inoculation with T. vaginalis, the survival rate of mice was monitored for the assessment of protective potency. After immunization, the antibody level in mouse serum was assessed by ELISA, splenocyte proliferation response was detected with CCK8 and cytokines in the supernatant of splenocytes were quantified with a cytometric bead-based assay. We successfully obtained purified ACT-F (70.33 kDa) and ACT-T (61.7kDa). Both recombinant proteins could provide significant protection against T. vaginalis challenge, especially ACT-T (with 100% protection within one month). Meanwhile, high levels of specific total IgG and subtypes (IgG1 > IgG2a) were detected in sera from the immunized mice. Our results also revealed a statistically significant increase in splenocyte proliferation and related cytokine (IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-17A and IL-10) production after repeated

  2. Amenability of low-grade uranium towards column bioleaching by acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abhilash; Mehta, K.D.; Kumar, V.; Pandey, B.D.; Tamrakar, P.K.

    2007-01-01

    R and D studies were carried out at NML using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (Ac.Tf) in column for the bio-recovery of uranium from the low-grade uranium ore containing 0.024% U 3 O 8 of Turamdih mines, Singhbhum. A recovery of 55.48% uranium was obtained in bio-leaching as against ∼ 44.9% in sterile control in 30 days at 1.7 pH in a column containing 2.5kg ore of particle size mainly in the range 5-1mm. In the large scale column, leaching with 80kg ore of particle size ∼ 0.5cm, uranium bio-recovery was found to be 69.8% in comparison to a recovery of 55% in control set at 1.7 pH in 50 days. The uranium recoveries followed indirect leaching mechanism. (author)

  3. ADVANCED CUTTINGS TRANSPORT STUDY

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ergun Kuru; Stefan Miska; Nicholas Takach; Kaveh Ashenayi; Gerald Kane; Len Volk; Mark Pickell; Evren Ozbayoglu; Barkim Demirdal; Paco Vieira; Affonso Lourenco

    1999-10-15

    This report includes a review of the progress made in ACTF Flow Loop development and research during 90 days pre-award period (May 15-July 14, 1999) and the following three months after the project approval date (July15-October 15, 1999) The report presents information on the following specific subjects; (a) Progress in Advanced Cuttings Transport Facility design and development, (b) Progress report on the research project ''Study of Flow of Synthetic Drilling Fluids Under Elevated Pressure and Temperature Conditions'', (c) Progress report on the research project ''Study of Cuttings Transport with Foam Under LPAT Conditions (Joint Project with TUDRP)'', (d) Progress report on the research project ''Study of Cuttings Transport with Aerated Muds Under LPAT Conditions (Joint Project with TUDRP)'', (e) Progress report on the research project ''Study of Foam Flow Behavior Under EPET Conditions'', (f) Progress report on the instrumentation tasks (Tasks 11 and 12) (g) Activities towards technology transfer and developing contacts with oil and service company members.

  4. Effects of amination and adsorption of ammonia on the electrical conductivity of the detonation nanodiamond powders

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Denisov S A; Sokolina G A; Spitsyn B V, E-mail: saldenisov@gmail.com, E-mail: sokolina@phyche.ac.ru, E-mail: bspitsyn@yahoo.com [A.N. Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry RAS (Russian Federation)

    2010-11-15

    In the present work, the temperature dependence of the static G{sub dc}(T) and dynamic conductivity G{sub ac}(T, f) of detonation nanodiamond powders in the frequency range 25-10 {sup 6} Hz and 300ac}(T,f) were obtained for the initial and aminated samples. It has shown that the value of electroconductivity for the intial and amianted nanodiamond powders differs by 2,5 order. A value of activation energy decreases compared to the original and equals 0.46 eV. Data on the effect of ammonia adsorption on G{sub dc}(T), G{sub ac}(T, f) and the frequency dependence of dielectric permeability ({epsilon}) were obtained for powders of DND at room temperature. The effect of giant dielectric permeability increase at low frequencies was found. After exposure to ammonia within 48 hours, the dielectric permeability changes from 15 to 2,1{center_dot}10{sup 5} for initial sample at a 25 Hz, and at 1 kHz from 11 to 1.6{center_dot}10{sup 3} for UDD-SP.

  5. Abrogation of the presenilin 1/beta-catenin interaction and preservation of the heterodimeric presenilin 1 complex following caspase activation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tesco, G; Kim, T W; Diehlmann, A; Beyreuther, K; Tanzi, R E

    1998-12-18

    beta-Catenin has previously been shown to interact with presenilin 1 (PS1) in transfected cells. Here we report that beta-catenin co-immunoprecipitates with the endogenous C-terminal fragment of presenilin 1 (PS1-CTF) but not with the endogenous CTF of presenilin 2 (PS2-CTF) in H4 human neuroglioma cells. During staurosporine (STS)-induced cell death, beta-catenin and PS1-CTF undergo a caspase-mediated cleavage. After 12 h of STS treatment, the beta-catenin.PS1-CTF interaction is abrogated. While PS1-CTF immunoprecipitated with all caspase-cleaved species of beta-catenin, beta-catenin holoprotein did not co-immunoprecipitate with the "alternative" caspase-derived PS1-CTF (PS1-aCTF). Thus, the abrogation of the beta-catenin.PS1-CTF complex was due to caspase cleavage of PS1-CTF. beta-Catenin co-immunoprecipitated with PS1-NTF, but only when PS1-NTF was associated with PS1-CTF. Even though PS1-NTF.CTF complex stability was not altered by caspase cleavage, its ability to bind beta-catenin was abolished. Thus, while the PS1-NTF.CTF complex is preserved after caspase cleavage, it may no longer be fully functional.

  6. ADVANCED CUTTINGS TRANSPORT STUDY

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stefan Miska; Nicholas Takach; Kaveh Ashenayi; Mengjiao Yu; Ramadan Ahmed; Mark Pickell; Len Volk; Lei Zhou; Zhu Chen; Aimee Washington; Crystal Redden

    2003-09-30

    The Quarter began with installing the new drill pipe, hooking up the new hydraulic power unit, completing the pipe rotation system (Task 4 has been completed), and making the SWACO choke operational. Detailed design and procurement work is proceeding on a system to elevate the drill-string section. The prototype Foam Generator Cell has been completed by Temco and delivered. Work is currently underway to calibrate the system. Literature review and preliminary model development for cuttings transportation with polymer foam under EPET conditions are in progress. Preparations for preliminary cuttings transport experiments with polymer foam have been completed. Two nuclear densitometers were re-calibrated. Drill pipe rotation system was tested up to 250 RPM. Water flow tests were conducted while rotating the drill pipe up to 100 RPM. The accuracy of weight measurements for cuttings in the annulus was evaluated. Additional modifications of the cuttings collection system are being considered in order to obtain the desired accurate measurement of cuttings weight in the annular test section. Cutting transport experiments with aerated fluids are being conducted at EPET, and analyses of the collected data are in progress. The printed circuit board is functioning with acceptable noise level to measure cuttings concentration at static condition using ultrasonic method. We were able to conduct several tests using a standard low pass filter to eliminate high frequency noise. We tested to verify that we can distinguish between different depths of sand in a static bed of sand. We tested with water, air and a mix of the two mediums. Major modifications to the DTF have almost been completed. A stop-flow cell is being designed for the DTF, the ACTF and Foam Generator/Viscometer which will allow us to capture bubble images without the need for ultra fast shutter speeds or microsecond flash system.

  7. The Cartoon quality in Internet. Clan TVE, Neox Kidz and Boing: entertainment platforms for young audiences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Inmaculada Sánchez-Labella Martín

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available With the advancement of technology, Internet it has become the primary means for audiovisual consumption while presenting a critical situation around the debate the quality of the content. With the emergence of DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television in Spain television networks, public and private, they have created new thematics channels focused on content for children. At the same time, with the rise of new electronic devices such as tablets and smartphones, they have moved such content to the network by creating of platforms whose programs are aimed childhood. The non-linearity and immediacy in consumption make the Internet becomes an active mean giving autonomy and freedom to access a multitude of content regardless of time and the device. In this situation the child consumers is the audience that worries both parents and educational institutions. Restless, therefore, that children do not find programs adjusted to their age. The quality concept harbors no concrete definition because of the multitude of factors and perspectives that influence it. This paper, and based on different measurement criteria set by countries like Argentina, Chile, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, Sweden, the University of Pennsylvania (USA or the ACTF (Australian Children´s Television Foundation poses as main objective to analyze the online platforms Clan RTVE, Neox Kidz and Boing of television TVE, Antena 3 and Telecinco, respectively, because they are considered spaces with audiovisual material created for children. With the intention of demonstrating that they are presented as quality environments for children who access them it will conduct a qualitative methodology. Using the content analysis technique to each of the animated titles we can say that the cartoons, as outlined above, are quality entertainment programs.

  8. Web accessibility and open source software.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Obrenović, Zeljko

    2009-07-01

    A Web browser provides a uniform user interface to different types of information. Making this interface universally accessible and more interactive is a long-term goal still far from being achieved. Universally accessible browsers require novel interaction modalities and additional functionalities, for which existing browsers tend to provide only partial solutions. Although functionality for Web accessibility can be found as open source and free software components, their reuse and integration is complex because they were developed in diverse implementation environments, following standards and conventions incompatible with the Web. To address these problems, we have started several activities that aim at exploiting the potential of open-source software for Web accessibility. The first of these activities is the development of Adaptable Multi-Interface COmmunicator (AMICO):WEB, an infrastructure that facilitates efficient reuse and integration of open source software components into the Web environment. The main contribution of AMICO:WEB is in enabling the syntactic and semantic interoperability between Web extension mechanisms and a variety of integration mechanisms used by open source and free software components. Its design is based on our experiences in solving practical problems where we have used open source components to improve accessibility of rich media Web applications. The second of our activities involves improving education, where we have used our platform to teach students how to build advanced accessibility solutions from diverse open-source software. We are also partially involved in the recently started Eclipse projects called Accessibility Tools Framework (ACTF), the aim of which is development of extensible infrastructure, upon which developers can build a variety of utilities that help to evaluate and enhance the accessibility of applications and content for people with disabilities. In this article we briefly report on these activities.

  9. ADVANCED CUTTINGS TRANSPORT STUDY

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stefan Miska; Nicholas Takach; Kaveh Ashenayi

    2004-07-31

    section was put into liquid holdup mode. Readings indicated 2.5 to 2.7 inches of sand. The corresponding nuclear densitometers readings were between 2.5 and 3.1 inches. Lab tests were conducted to check an on-line viewing system. Sharp images were obtained through a CCD camera with the use of a ring light or fiber light. A prototype device for measuring the average bubble size for the foam generator-viscometer was constructed from a 1/2 inch fitting. The new windowed cell has been received and installed on the ACTF Bubble Characterization Cart.

  10. ADVANCED CUTTINGS TRANSPORT STUDY

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stefan Miska; Nicholas Takach; Kaveh Ashenayi

    2004-01-31

    Final design of the mast was completed (Task 5). The mast is consisting of two welded plate girders, set next to each other, and spaced 14-inches apart. Fabrication of the boom will be completed in two parts solely for ease of transportation. The end pivot connection will be made through a single 2-inch diameter x 4 feet-8 inch long 316 SS bar. During installation, hard piping make-ups using Chiksan joints will connect the annular section and 4-inch return line to allow full movement of the mast from horizontal to vertical. Additionally, flexible hoses and piping will be installed to isolate both towers from piping loads and allow recycling operations respectively. Calibration of the prototype Foam Generator Cell has been completed and experiments are now being conducted. We were able to generate up to 95% quality foam. Work is currently underway to attach the Thermo-Haake RS300 viscometer and install a view port with a microscope to measure foam bubble size and bubble size distribution. Foam rheology tests (Task 13) were carried out to evaluate the rheological properties of the proposed foam formulation. After successful completion of the first foam test, two sets of rheological tests were conducted at different foam flow rates while keeping other parameters constant (100 psig, 70F, 80% quality). The results from these tests are generally in agreement with the previous foam tests done previously during Task 9. However, an unanticipated observation during these tests was that in both cases, the frictional pressure drop in 2 inch pipe was lower than that in the 3 inch and 4 inch pipes. We also conducted the first foam cuttings transport test during this quarter. Experiments on aerated fluids without cuttings have been completed in ACTF (Task 10). Gas and liquid were injected at different flow rates. Two different sets of experiments were carried out, where the only difference was the temperature. Another set of tests was performed, which covered a wide range of