Search

Mouse thymic virus (MTLV; murid herpesvirus 3) is a lymphotropic herpesvirus that cytolytically infects developing T lineage lymphocytes in the thymus of neonatal mice. MTLV establishes a persistent infection and can be recovered indefinitely from infected mice, but nothing is known about requirements for this persistent infection. In order to determine whether T lineage lymphocytes are required for infection, young adult athymic nude (nulnu) mice and euthymic littermates were infected with MTLV and tested for virus shedding. Although euthymic littermates regularly shed virus, in the nude mice only about 20% of isolation attempts up to 100 days postinfection were positive. Blind passage yielded an additional three isolations out of 14 samples (21 %). In addition, unlike many other herpesviruses, the virus did not replicate in a number of epithelial and fibroblastic cell lines that were tested. These data confirm that the virus is preferentially T lymphotropic and suggest that infection may require T lineage lymphocytes.

The work in progress includes characterization of linear system parametrizations for which parameter adaptive control is possible, and development of a realization theory for linear analytic systems with finite Votteria series, using only linearly algebraic constructions. (Author)

Publisher Summary This chapter examines the role of calcimedin in the macrophage inflammatory response. The calcimedins are a set of four calcium-dependent hydrophobic binding proteins. Polyclonal antibodies were raised against purified 67 k calcimedin and affinity purified. These antibodies recognize neither calmodulin, transferrin, bovine serum albumin or brain calelectrins nor do they recognize the three smaller calcimedin proteins. Macrophages are actively secretory phagocytic cells that are the key element in the inflammatory response. A large portion of the staining was cytoplasmic and no staining appeared to be associated with the nucleus. A part of the staining was associated with the limiting cellular membranes. Intraperitoneal administration of certain agents such as Brewer's thioglycolate broth causes an inflammatory response in the peritoneal cavity. This elicits a newly recruited population of macrophages that function in the inflammatory response and are distinct from the usual resident population. It is found that the thioglycolate elicited population had greatly increased staining for the 67k calcimedin, both at the membrane and the total staining. This staining pattern was trypsin sensitive and could not be blocked by prior addition of either normal goat serum or transferrin.

Aminofluorescein can be extracted with alkaline carbonate buffer (0.5% Na 2 CO 3 in 0.1 m NaOH) from fixed cells stained in indirect immunofluorescence by fluorescein-conjugated antibody. Fluorescence is then quantified by spectrofluorometry. A standard curve obtained by dilution of known fluorochrome allows for subsequent spectrofluorometric analysis of the extracted aminofluorescein. A saturating quantity of primary antibody should be used to determine the level of staining associated with a cellular antigen. This simple method makes it possible to quantify samples used for immunofluorescence microscopy. It can be adapted for determining the DNA content in the same samples, allowing the quantity of antigen to be equated either to DNA content or to cells plated.

A high proportion of positive results was found in fecal specimens from mice and rats tested by Rotazyme II enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, but the presence of virus could not be confirmed. Positive specimens and nonautoclaved rodent diet contained a substance that apparently attached nonspecifically to the antibody-coated beads used in the test and reacted directly with the substrate. Pretreatment of the beads with 0.1% bovine serum albumin eliminated this nonspecific activity.

This paper explores recent developments in the trade-offs between energy security, sustainability and globalisation, focusing on the European Union (EU) energy market. The EU's desire to secure long-term supplies of lower-carbon energy is a key driver for the diversification of sources of natural gas, as is a desire to diversify and maximise intra-EU sources of primary energy, including renewable and nuclear sources. However, any development of domestic energy sources within the EU faces resource limitations and appears to push against trends towards globalisation. This paper develops a risk-based analysis to explore some of these issues by comparing two long-term natural gas supply options for the EU. Firstly the supply of Russian natural gas (currently around 45% of total imports), delivered via pipelines crossing national borders, and an alternative of LNG supplied by Qatar's fast-growing export capacity.

Household water consumption in most high-income countries is well above that required to meet basic needs, but consumption levels vary significantly between these countries. In those where consumption levels are at the lower end of the spectrum as a result of improved efficiency of household appliances, scope for further significant reduction from improvements in efficiency alone is limited. Product-service systems are suggested as a means of significantly further lowering water consumption, there being a diverse range of such systems which could be developed in the water sector. In the theoretical analysis described here servicized greywater recycling systems are shown to have real potential in that they can help overcome maintenance and water quality issues associated with such systems. If servicized greywater recycling systems were introduced in all new-build dwellings in England and also when making major bathroom renovations, an absolute decoupling of population and economic growth, and household water consumption would be possible as a result of savings in mains water consumption.