Development of a turbojet combustor with a segmentally constructed liner Final summary report

Axial and circumferential segmented combustor liners for turbojet engin

Plant communities of Italy. The vegetation prodrome

The Vegetation Prodrome of Italy was promoted in 2012 by the Italian "Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea Protection", in collaboration with the "Italian Society of Botany", to provide a comprehensive and systematic catalogue and description of Italian plant communities. The Prodrome that is presented in this paper is the first full organic synthesis of the vegetation of Italy at the alliance syntaxonomic level. It fulfils several needs, the main one being a unified and comprehensive national framework that may make an important contribution to the definition of the European Vegetation Prodrome. Syntaxonomy, as well as taxonomy, is sometimes based on considerations that may in part diverge: several authors tend to favour models that are divisive or aggregative to a greater or lesser extent in terms of flora, biogeography and ecology. These different points of view stimulate the scientific debate and allow the adoption of a framework that is more widely supported. The Prodrome includes 75 classes, 2 subclasses, 175 orders, 6 suborders and 393 alliances. The classes were grouped into nine broad categories according to structural, physiognomic and synecological elements rather than to syntaxonomic criteria. The rank, full valid name, any synonymies and incorrect names are provided for each syntaxon. The short declaration highlights the physiognomy, synecology, syndynamics and distribution of the plant communities that belong to the syntaxon. The Prodrome of the Italian Vegetation is linked to the European Strategy for Biodiversity, the European Habitats Directive and the European Working Groups related to the ecosystems and their services. In addition to basic applications, the Prodrome can be used as a framework for scientific research related to the investigation of the relationships between plant communities and the environmental factors that influence their composition and distribution

Random insertion of GFP into the cAMP-dependent protein kinase regulatory subunit from Dictyostelium discoideum

The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is currently being used for diverse cellular biology approaches, mainly as a protein tag or to monitor gene expression. Recently it has been shown that GFP can also be used to monitor the activation of second messenger pathways by the use of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between two different GFP mutants fused to a Ca2+ sensor. We show here that GFP fusions can also be used to obtain information on regions essential for protein function. As FRET requires the two GFPs to be very close, N- or C-terminal fusion proteins will not generally produce FRET between two interacting proteins. In order to increase the probability of FRET, we decided to study the effect of random insertion of two GFP mutants into a protein of interest. We describe here a methodology for random insertion of GFP into the cAMP-dependent protein kinase regulatory subunit using a bacterial expression vector. The selection and analysis of 120 green fluorescent colonies revealed that the insertions were distributed throughout the R coding region. 14 R/GFP fusion proteins were partially purified and characterized for cAMP binding, fluorescence and ability to inhibit PKA catalytic activity. This study reveals that GFP insertion only moderately disturbed the overall folding of the protein or the proper folding of another domain of the protein, as tested by cAMP binding capacity. Furthermore, three R subunits out of 14, which harbour a GFP inserted in the cAMP binding site B, inhibit PKA catalytic subunit in a cAMP-dependent manner. Random insertion of GFP within the R subunit sets the path to develop two-component FRET with the C subuni

Mid-infrared Hall effect in thin-film metals: Probing the Fermi surface anisotropy in Au and Cu

A sensitive mid-infrared (MIR, 900-1100 cm-1, 112-136 meV) photo-elastic polarization modulation technique is used to measure simultaneously Faraday rotation and circular dichroism in thin metal films. These two quantities determine the complex AC Hall conductivity. This novel technique is applied to study Au and Cu thin films at temperatures down to 20 K and magnetic fields up to 8 T. The Hall frequency is consistent with band theory predictions. We report the first measurement of the MIR Hall scattering rate, which is significantly lower than that derived from Drude analysis of zero magnetic field MIR transmission measurements. This difference is qualitatively explained in terms of the anisotropy of the Fermi surface in Au and Cu.Comment: 14 pages of text, 5 figure

Impact of resistance to thyroid hormone on thecardiovascular system in adults.

Sixteen untreated and asymptomatic RTH patients (eight males; aged 33 +/- 12 yr, range 21-45 yr) and 16 controls (nine males; aged 33 +/- 5 yr, range 24-42 yr) were enrolled. Clinical data, thyroid status, and echocardiographic results were recorded.Our results suggest the presence of cardiovascular alterations in asymptomatic and untreated RTH patients similar to those reported in hypothyroid patients. Our strict selection likely created a bias in the inclusion of a particular type of RTH patients, who could represent a minority of patients with RTH. However, no correlation was found between the type of mutation and cardiovascular characteristics of RTH patient

Renal pericytes: regulators of medullary blood flow

Regulation of medullary blood flow (MBF) is essential in maintaining normal kidney function. Blood flow to the medulla is supplied by the descending vasa recta (DVR), which arise from the efferent arterioles of juxtamedullary glomeruli. DVR are composed of a continuous endothelium, intercalated with smooth muscle-like cells called pericytes. Pericytes have been shown to alter the diameter of isolated and in situ DVR in response to vasoactive stimuli that are transmitted via a network of autocrine and paracrine signalling pathways. Vasoactive stimuli can be released by neighbouring tubular epithelial, endothelial, red blood cells and neuronal cells in response to changes in NaCl transport and oxygen tension. The experimentally described sensitivity of pericytes to these stimuli strongly suggests their leading role in the phenomenon of MBF autoregulation. Because the debate on autoregulation of MBF fervently continues, we discuss the evidence favouring a physiological role for pericytes in the regulation of MBF and describe their potential role in tubulo-vascular cross-talk in this region of the kidney. Our review also considers current methods used to explore pericyte activity and function in the renal medulla

Bridging aortic valve surgery to 21st century. what can a surgeon do

Aortic valve stenosis is the most clinically relevant valvular heart disease in the elderlies. Surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) represented, for decades, the standard of care for the treatment of severe aortic stenosis. Although SAVR still represents a valid option in this clinical scenario, transcatheter aortic valve implantation proved to be superior to medical therapy and comparable to SAVR in several randomized trials in patients at high or intermediate operative risk. At the same time, the growing aging population carrying on greater morbidities and high risk profiles has led to the development of minimally invasive technologies, as rapid deployment aortic valve replacement or Sutureless, to minimize surgical impact on patients. The Heart Team is nowadays tasked to determine the best option tailored for each patient considering patient-related factors and mastering all the surgical options in terms of both different techniques and types of available valves. Nevertheless, some open issues need to be already answered as: which has the longest durability, which the lower complication rate and the lower overall mortality. The aim of this review is to briefly resume the main features of these different options and explore what kind of open questions these newer-generation prosthetic valves and delivery devices carry

An International Survey on Taking Up a Career in Cardiovascular Research: Opportunities and Biases toward Would-Be Physician-Scientists

Background Cardiovascular research is the main shaper of clinical evidence underpinning decision making, with its cyclic progression of junior researchers to mature faculty members. Despite efforts at improving cardiovascular research training, several unmet needs persist. We aimed to appraise current perceptions on cardiovascular research training with an international survey. Methods and Results We administered a 20-closed-question survey to mentors and mentees belonging to different international institutions. A total of 247 (12%) surveys were available (out of 2,000 invitations). Overall, mentees and mentors were reasonably satisfied with the educational and research resources. Significant differences were found analyzing results according to gender, geographic area, training and full-time researcher status. Specifically, women proved significantly less satisfied than men, disclosed access to fewer resources and less support from mentors (all P Conclusions Several potential biases appear to be present in the way training in cardiovascular research is provided worldwide, including one against women. If confirmed, these data require proactive measures to decrease discriminations and improve the cardiovascular research training quality