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Relatively cheap or at no cost, easily available, renewable agricultural waste has been given a new purpose. Using coconut shells as the raw material, and being obtained from agricultural, industry by-products, or even waste materials were used as carbon resource. Acid etching coconut shells carbon (AC) rendered micro/nanoscale hierarchical structures and made the surface available for further modification. Then, the surface of acidified coconut shell carbon was engineered via mussel inspired chemistry. The polydopamine functionalized AC composites (AC-PDA) were applied for efficient removal of methylene blue (MB) dye. Further, the surface morphology, and chemical structure were evaluated by means of scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Through the combination of acid etching and mussel inspired chemistry, organic functional groups can be successfully introduced onto the surface of the coconut shells carbon. The improvement of adsorption capacity of AC-PDA compared with AC is probably due to the increased number of active binding sites resulting from surface modification and formation of new functional groups.

Background/Aims Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, most likely due to sun avoidance. Vitamin D acts through the vitamin D receptor (VDR) that is present in most cells, and it can regulate the transcription of over 200 genes. The expression of vitamin D receptors by a variety of cells belonging to the innate and adaptive immune systems has created interest with regards to the role of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of SLE. Several polymorphisms of the VDR gene have been described, namely Bsml (rs1544410), Apal (rs7975232), Taql(rs731236) and Fokl (rs2228570). A number of VDR gene polymorphisms have been associated with increased risk of SLE mostly in Asians and Africans. The aim of this study was to establish whether an association was present between VDR gene polymorphisms (Bsml, Apal, Taql and Fokl) and SLE susceptibility in a cohort of SLE patients living in Malta. Methods 63 SLE patients living in Malta and attending Rheumatology clinic at Mater Dei Hospital were recruited for the study after providing informed consent. The patients were over 18 years and fulfilled the SLICC classification criteria for SLE. Blood samples were taken from all the SLE patents. 93 cord blood samples obtained from individuals living in Malta were used as a control. DNA extraction was carried out from the blood samples. The VDR gene was screened and the regions containing the VDR polymorphisms were amplified for each patient. The amplified regions were then digested with their respective restriction enzymes in order to view the patient’s genotype via restriction fragment length polymorphism. Statistical analysis, including odds ratio (OR), was carried out to gauge the significance in the association of these polymorphisms with SLE. Results 93.7% of SLE patients were female and they had a mean age of 45.3 years. All the patients were of Caucasian ethnicity. 14.3% had vitamin D deficiency (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D < 20ng/ml) and 25.4% were vitamin D insufficient (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D 20-29ng/ml). The results showed that when Apa1 polymorphism was present as a homozygote for the variant allele (AA) there was a significant decrease in SLE prevalence (OR = 0.39, CI 0.17-0.87, p = 0.02). The results were also analysed by placing the polymorphs into haplotypes. The haplotype containing all wild-type alleles for the VDR gene and the haplotype containing all wild-type alleles with the variant allele for Fok1 had an increased prevalence of SLE by around 2 fold (OR = 1.95, CI 1.12-3.38, p = 0.01 and OR = 2.36, CI 1.13-4.91, p = 0.02 respectively). Conclusion The study showed that in the Maltese population the presence of the VDR gene polymorphism haplotype containing all wild-type alleles and the haplotype containing all wild-type alleles with the variant allele for Fok1 are associated with an increased risk of SLE. Disclosure J. Grech Meli: None. R. Magro: None. J. Debattista: None. N. Aquilina: None. K. Gatt: None. A.A. Borg: None. C. Scerri: None.

It is widely hypothesized that Atlantic salmon are imprinted at a young age with olfactory cues, which they use as a guide in order to return to their natal streams to spawn. However, the molecular mechanism(s) behind this biological phenomenon remain unknown. Therefore, in order to better understand imprinting and homing in Atlantic salmon, it is important to characterize the repertoire of olfactory receptors in thisspecies. A search of the first assembly of the Atlantic salmon genome revealed 27 putatively functional trace amine-associated receptor (TAAR) genes and 25 putative TAAR pseudo-genes. Genetic mapping, phylogenetic analysis, binding-site prediction, and quantitative PCR were performed using the Atlantic salmon TAAR genes. The identification of this gene family in Atlantic salmon will facilitate additional studiesinvolving olfaction and homing such as determining the range of allelic variation in olfactory receptors genes of different salmon populations.

There is a growing interest in the application of common terrestrial communications protocols, such as the Internet Protocol (IP), to spacecraft systems. There is also a desire to increase computing power through the use of commercial products with unknown or limited radiation survivability. Such interests are driven by the need to reduce the high costs of space technology while both standardizing and increasing capability. As part of the research process for Penn State’s Local Ionospheric Measurements Satellite (LionSat), a communications encoder was developed that implements IP and bi-phase L (BPL) encoding measures along with a data synchronizer to allow operation of a synchronous downlink using asynchronous data from the flight computer. Also developed was an error-detection-and-correction scheme to protect commercial high-speed SDRAM from multiple independent bit errors for a 32-bit Linux system. Both of these designs were created for implementation in a RadHard Aeroflex Eclipse FPGA and require a combined total of less than 45% of available logic cells. The resulting system provides a compact radiation-tolerant solution for the communication and memory assurance needs of a modern satellite flight computer.