Design of a lunar oxygen production plant

To achieve permanent human presence and activity on the moon, oxygen is required for both life support and propulsion. Lunar oxygen production using resources existing on the moon will reduce or eliminate the need to transport liquid oxygen from earth. In addition, the co-products of oxygen production will provide metals, structural ceramics, and other volatile compounds. This will enable development of even greater self-sufficiency as the lunar outpost evolves. Ilmenite is the most abundant metal-oxide mineral in the lunar regolith. A process involving the reaction of ilmenite with hydrogen at 1000 C to produce water, followed by the electrolysis of this water to provide oxygen and recycle the hydrogen has been explored. The objective of this 1990 Summer Faculty Project was to design a lunar oxygen-production plant to provide 5 metric tons of liquid oxygen per year from lunar soil. The results of this study describe the size and mass of the equipment, the power needs, feedstock quantity and the engineering details of the plant

Market potential and challenges of water–soluble fertilizer adoption in Theni district

This study examines the market potential and challenges farmers face when purchasing and using water–soluble fertilizers in Theni district, Tamil Nadu. It focuses on key crops like bananas, coconuts, grapes, and mangoes. Farmers in the Theni district encounter issues with conventional fertilizers, such as low nutrient efficiency, soil degradation, and environmental pollution. Water–soluble fertilizers offer a promising alternative, enhancing nutrient absorption, reducing leaching, and minimizing environmental impact. Despite their benefits, adoption is hindered by higher initial costs, lack of farmer awareness, and the need for precision application techniques. Farms that have adopted these fertilizers report a 20–30 % increase in yield and a 15 % reduction in overall fertilizer use. The study highlights the potential of water–soluble fertilizers to address agricultural challenges in Theni, including nutrient deficiencies, making them a viable option for promoting sustainable farming in the region

Evaluation of luteolin from shells of Korean peanut cultivars for industrial utilization

Luteolin is a medicinally valuable phyto-chemical, which was indentified in plants. This study was aimed to analyse the luteolin content in peanut waste (shell) of 42 peanut cultivars. The concentration of luteolin varied in the range of 546.8 to 4485.0 mg/kg and a significantly higher concentration of luteolin (4485.0 mg) was found in Mikwang. This is the first report on luteolin analysis in Korean peanut shells. The results of the present study suggest that Mikwang peanut shells have higher concentration of luteolin, which would be useful for agricultural, industrial and pharmaceutical purposes.Keywords: Luteolin, peanut, shell, Mikwang.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(28), pp. 4477-448

An endophyte Paenibacillus dendritiformis strain APL3 promotes Amaranthus polygonoides L. sprout growth and their extract inhibits food-borne pathogens

Green leafy vegetables are rich sources of antioxidants and minerals, which prevent food-borne pathogen infections during our diet. This study was aimed to isolate and identify the plant growth-promoting endophytic bacterium from several plant species to enhance the growth of Amaranthus polygonoides L. and their antimicrobial potential against food-borne pathogens. Seven endophytic bacterial isolates were tested on two Amaranthus species to identify the suitable beneficial bacterium. The antioxidants capacity and antimicrobial activity of bacterial isolate (APL3) treated plants were analyzed. The bacterial isolate, APL3 showed a significantly higher growth of A. polygonoides L. than other isolates. It was identified as Paenibacillus dendritiformis strain APL3 by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. The endophyte (APL3) treated A. polygonoides L. sprouts had higher antioxidants potentials and significantly inhibited the growth of Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus sp. and Pseudomonas sp. The results of the present study suggest that utilization of P. dendritiformis strain APL3 triggers the growth of A. polygonoides L. and induces metabolic changes in plants to improve their antimicrobial properties to prevent foodborne pathogens

Post-Translational Loss of Renal TRPV5 Calcium Channel Expression, Ca2+ Wasting, and Bone Loss in Experimental Colitis

Dysregulated Ca2+ homeostasis likely contributes to the etiology of IBD-associated loss of bone mineral density (BMD). Experimental colitis leads to decreased expression of Klotho, a protein which supports renal Ca2+ reabsorption by stabilizing TRPV5 channel on the apical membrane of distal tubule epithelial cells

Sex differences in oncogenic mutational processes.

Sex differences have been observed in multiple facets of cancer epidemiology, treatment and biology, and in most cancers outside the sex organs. Efforts to link these clinical differences to specific molecular features have focused on somatic mutations within the coding regions of the genome. Here we report a pan-cancer analysis of sex differences in whole genomes of 1983 tumours of 28 subtypes as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium. We both confirm the results of exome studies, and also uncover previously undescribed sex differences. These include sex-biases in coding and non-coding cancer drivers, mutation prevalence and strikingly, in mutational signatures related to underlying mutational processes. These results underline the pervasiveness of molecular sex differences and strengthen the call for increased consideration of sex in molecular cancer research

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival