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Determination and interpretation of fungal gene expression profiles based on digital reconstruction of expressed sequenced tags (ESTs) are reported. A total of 51,524 DNA sequence files processed with PipeOnline resulted in 9775 single and 5660 contig unique ESTs, 31.2% of a typical fungal transcriptome. Half of the unique ESTs shared homology with genes in public databases, 35.8% of which are functionally defined and 64.2% are unclear or unknown. In Aspergillus nidulans 86% of transcripts associate with intermediate metabolism functions, mainly related to carbohydrate, amino acid, protein, and peptide biosynthesis. During asexual development, A. nidulans unexpectedly accumulates stress response and inducer-dependent transcripts in the absence of an inducer. Stress response genes in A. nidulans ESTs total 1039 transcripts, contrasting with 117 in Neurospora crassa, a 14.3-fold difference. A total of 5.6% of A. nidulans ESTs implicate inducer-dependent cell wall degradation or amino acid acquisition, 3.5-fold higher than in N. crassa. Accumulation of stress response and inducer-dependent transcripts suggests general derepression of cis-regulation during terminal asexual development.

Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) are one of the most widespread forms of geothermal energy technology. They utilise the near-constant temperature of the ground below the frost line to achieve energy-efficiencies two or three times that of conventional air-conditioners, consequently allowing a significant offset in electricity demand for space heating and cooling. Relatively mature GSHP markets are established in Europe and North America. GSHP implementation in Australia, however, is limited, due to high capital price, uncertainties regarding optimum designs for the Australian climate, and limited consumer confidence in the technology. Existing GSHP design standards developed in the Northern Hemisphere are likely to lead to suboptimal performance in Australia where demand might be much more cooling-dominated. There is an urgent need to develop Australia's own GSHP system optimisation principles on top of the industry standards to provide confidence to bring the GSHP market out of its infancy. To assist in this, the Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence (QGECE) has commissioned a fully instrumented GSHP experimental facility in Gatton, Australia, as a publically-accessible demonstration of the technology and a platform for systematic studies of GSHPs, including optimisation of design and operations. This paper presents a brief review on current GSHP use in Australia, the technical details of the Gatton GSHP facility, and an analysis on the observed cooling performance of this facility to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article argues that there is a crucial relationship between dramatist William Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" and "Acts 19" where the key evidence of the relationship is seen in the correspondence between Doctor Pinch's attempted exorcism and a specific story from Acts 19:13-17. It notes that the lexical evidence referred to comes when Adriana introduces Doctor Pinch as a conjurer, defined as one how practices conjuration. It cites an ironic movement of secularization in the play.

Abstract: Group A streptococci (GAS) cause a number of human diseases ranging from pharyngitis to necrotizing fasciitis. GAS are hypothesized to escape killing by either the immune system or beta lactam antibiotics by internalization into epithelial cells. A Tn917 library of transposon mutants was screened for capacity to invade and survive in human epithelial cells using a novel blood agar overlay method. Although the screen revealed that a majority of Tn917 insertions occurred within a 10kb region of the genome, GAS genes identified as essential for internalization into epithelial cells included ABC transporters, and DNA maintenance proteins, and citrate metabolism enzymes, underlining the importance of adaptation to the intracellular environment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The superantigens, toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) and staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB), were recently reported to repress global exoprotein synthesis in Staphylococcus aureus. To investigate if this phenomenon could be observed in a different Gram-positive pathogen, the effects of two major Streptococcus pyogenes superantigens on streptococcal secretome expression were examined. Using mutagenesis and genetic complementation, we demonstrated that neither streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin A (SPEA) nor streptococcal mitogenic exotoxin Z (SMEZ) had any consistent effect on global protein expression or on transcription of genes encoding the secreted exoproteins, DNase B, SPEB and SPEG. In S. pyogenes, superantigen production does not appear to have a major regulatory role. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In recent years there has been increasing interest in the application of passive technologies to reduce or remove contaminants from the subsurface environment including soil and ground water. In most cases, the impetus for this interest lies in a perceived savings compared with more traditional remedial alternatives. In a few cases, the infrastructure at contaminated sites, such as buildings, paved areas, and utilities, makes the use of conventional remedial measures difficult and expensive. To demonstrate that natural processes are effective in reaching established goals, it is necessary to determine that transformation processes are taking place at a rate that is protective of human health and the environment and that these processes will continue for an acceptable period of time. The basic conditions that must be present to confirm natural attenuation processes arc taking place are discussed along with the behavior of contaminated plumes, monitoring requirements, data analysis, rates of degradation, and mathematical modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the alternatives considered for the remediation of soil and ground water at hazardous wastes sites are the use of natural processes to reduce or remove the contaminants of concern, Under favorable conditions, the use of natural attenuation can result in significant cost savings and compensate for uncertainties encountered in complex subsurface settings. In order to demonstrate that natural processes are effective in reaching established goals it is necessary to determine that transformation processes are taking place at a rate which is protective of human health and the environment, and that these processes will continue for an acceptable period of time. While chemical transformation, dispersion, dilution, sorption, and volatilization are discussed, aerobic and anaerobic degradation comprise the major processes for the reduction of contaminant mass in the subsurface. In discussing the mechanisms of natural attenuation, chlorinated aliphatics and petroleum hydrocarbons are used as examples because of their significant impact on subsurface contamination and the effect of their physiochemical properties on attenuation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homelessness is a serious and growing problem in the UK, exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. The latest figures estimate that 160,000 households are at risk of the worst forms of homelessness. Employment is widely recognised as being critical to reducing homelessness, yet there has been no research into the role that the construction industry, as a major UK employer, can play in reducing this problem. The aim of this paper is to address this gap in knowledge and contribute to the emerging social procurement debate in construction by exploring the role that construction employment can play in reducing the risk of homelessness. Mobilising Sen's and Nussbaum's capabilities empowerment approach, an in-depth case study is presented of a construction employment program in Wales, UK, which was aimed at supporting young people who had experienced or who were at risk of homelessness. Contributing to the emerging social value and social procurement debate in construction and drawing on documentary analysis and interviews with young people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness who went through the program, findings indicate that these young people became empowered in ways which reduced their risk of homelessness. It is concluded that the capabilities empowerment framework is valuable in explaining how employment in the construction industry can reduce the risks of homelessness for disadvantaged youth with a care-experienced background or who were known to the criminal justice system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurological and developmental disorder characterized by behavioral and social impairments as well as multiple co-occurring conditions, such as gastrointestinal abnormalities, dental/periodontal diseases, and allergies. The etiology of ASD likely involves interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Recent studies suggest that oral and gut microbiome play important roles in the pathogenesis of inflammation, immune dysfunction, and disruption of the gut–brain axis, which may contribute to ASD pathophysiology. The majority of previous studies used unrelated neurotypical individuals as controls, and they focused on the gut microbiome, with little attention paid to the oral flora. In this pilot study, we used a first degree-relative matched design combined with high fidelity 16S rRNA (ribosomal RNA) gene amplicon sequencing in order to characterize the oral and gut microbiotas of patients with ASD compared to neurotypical individuals, and explored the utility of microbiome markers for ASD diagnosis and subtyping of clinical comorbid conditions. Additionally, we aimed to develop microbiome biomarkers to monitor responses to a subsequent clinical trial using probiotics supplementation. We identified distinct features of gut and salivary microbiota that differed between ASD patients and neurotypical controls. We next explored the utility of some differentially enriched markers for ASD diagnosis and examined the association between the oral and gut microbiomes using network analysis. Due to the tremendous clinical heterogeneity of the ASD population, we explored the relationship between microbiome and clinical indices as an attempt to extract microbiome signatures assocociated with clinical subtypes, including allergies, abdominal pain, and abnormal dietary habits. The diagnosis of ASD currently relies on psychological testing with potentially high subjectivity. Given the emerging role that the oral and gut microbiome plays in systemic diseases, our study will provide preliminary evidence for developing microbial markers that can be used to diagnose or guide treatment of ASD and comorbid conditions. These preliminary results also serve as a starting point to test whether altering the oral and gut microbiome could improve co-morbid conditions in patients with ASD and further modify the core symptoms of ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taylor–Couette–Poiseuille flow commonly occurs in rotating machinery in the annulus between the outer casing and rotating shaft as part of lubrication or thermal management systems. To improve efficiency of these machines, industry is beginning to work with low viscosity, high density fluids operating at high pressures, such as supercritical carbon dioxide turbines. Within existing literature, vast high quality heat transfer data exists for air under Taylor–Couette–Poiseuille flow regimes. However, for other fluids, these data are limited in their experimental coverage, especially at high Taylor numbers (i.e. > 1 × 10 10). This paper presents first of its kind experimental data for supercritical carbon dioxide. The data are analysed to provide insight into the heat transfer processes and to provide a Taylor–Couette–Poiseuille flow heat transfer correlation. Operating conditions of the experimental campaign cover pressures of 7 and 10 MPa, a temperature range of 315 to 333 K, and rotational speeds of 10 to 25 kRPM. This equates to Taylor number and axial Reynolds number ranges of 9.52 × 10 10 to 8.73 × 10 11 and 3.41 × 10 4 to 5.4 × 10 4 , respectively. The range of conditions tested covers the operational envelope of those found in thermal management systems for supercritical carbon dioxide turbine designs. It is found that heat transfer of supercritical carbon dioxide is significantly higher than that of ideal gases (e.g. air) for the same Taylor number range. Further findings show that change in fluid properties near the critical point (i.e. heat capacity and density) increase the Nusselt number from 1.5 × 10 3 at 10 MPa to 3.1 × 10 3 at 7 MPa at an effective Reynolds number of 2.5 × 10 6. A dimensional analysis shows the importance of capturing the change in fluid properties when near the critical point and to account for tangential energy transport. To capture this we introduce a non-dimensional parameter, Ψ , being the ratio of tangential energy flux to inertial energy flux. Including Ψ in heat transfer correlations improves their validity by capturing additional mechanisms that influence heat transfer. The suitability of correlations including Ψ are demonstrated using air and supercritical carbon dioxide data sets. Finally, analysing heat transfer trends across the range of Ψ tested provides insight on how heat transfer mechanisms vary with operating condition. This work provides a vital step forward for the unification of Taylor–Couette–Poiseuille flow heat transfer correlations across multiple experimental data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of microarrays in the analysis of gene expression is becoming widespread for many organisms, including yeast. However, although the genomes of a number of filamentous fungi have been fully or partially sequenced, microarray analysis is still in its infancy in these organisms. Here, we describe the construction and validation of microarrays for the fungus Aspergillus nidulans using PCR products from a 4092 EST conidial germination library. An experiment was designed to validate these arrays by monitoring the expression profiles of known genes following the addition of 1% (w/v) glucose to wild-type A. nidulans cultures grown to mid-exponential phase in Vogel’s minimal medium with ethanol as the sole carbon source. The profiles of genes showing statistically significant differential expression following the glucose up-shift are presented and an assessment of the quality and reproducibility of the A. nidulans arrays discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Despite high vaccination rates, the incidence of whooping cough has steadily been increasing in developing countries for several decades. The current acellular pertussis (aP) vaccines all include the major protective antigen pertussis toxin (PTx) and are safer, but they appear to be less protective than infection or older, whole-cell vaccines. To better understand the attributes of individual antibodies stimulated by aP, we isolated plasmablast clones recognizing PTx after booster immunization of two donors. Five unique antibody sequences recognizing native PTx were recovered and expressed as recombinant human IgG1 antibodies. The antibodies all bind different epitopes on the PTx S1 subunit, B oligomer, or S1-B subunit interface, and just one clone neutralized PTx in an in vitro assay. To better understand the epitopes bound by the nonneutralizing S1-subunit antibodies, comprehensive mutagenesis with yeast display provided a detailed map of the epitope recognized by antibodies A8 and E12. Residue R76 is required for antibody A8 binding and is present on the S1 surface but is only partially exposed in the holotoxin, providing a structural explanation for A8's inability to neutralize holotoxin. The B-subunit-specific antibody D8 inhibited PTx binding to a model receptor and neutralized PTx in vitro as well as in an in vivo leukocytosis assay. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to identify individual human antibodies stimulated by the acellular pertussis vaccine and demonstrates the feasibility of using these approaches to address outstanding issues in pertussis vaccinology, including mechanisms of accelerated waning of protective immunity despite repeated aP immunization., (Copyright © 2018 Acquaye-Seedah et al.)