Search

The experimental results of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment on barley (Hordeum Valgare L cv. Yusef) seed germination and seedling growth are analyzed and presented. The seeds were exposed to DBD plasma with 40-, 80-, and 120-W powers for 15 s. All treatments showed positive effects on seed germination, seedling growth, and vigor index. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images and water imbibition evaluations of plasma-treated seeds revealed that the treatments improved water absorption in the seeds. Similar positive improvements were observed for the plasma-treated seeds in the seedling stage. The best germination characteristics were obtained in 80-W DBD plasma, which included an 18.28% increment in total germination percentage, and 13.35%, 66.83%, 38.55%, and 31.93% increment on the seed germination potential, vigor index, shoot height, and root length, respectively. Moreover, the seed germination of the plasma-treated barley was studied after 2, 7, 14, and 30 days of storage, which indicated the desirable effect of plasma over the storage time. It is concluded that the use of cold plasma can significantly improve the germination and seedling growth of barley seeds.

In this article, a miniaturized Mather-type Plasma Focus (PF) device is presented. This device operates at a very low energy range (0.3–3 J). Here, the results of the first experiments with it at different working conditions (different gases, initial pressures and discharge voltages) have been investigated.

In this article, the experimental results of pinch characteristics in a miniaturized (20 J) repetitive Mather-type plasma focus device (SORENA-1) have been presented. Argon, neon and deuterium were used as working gases, and variations of pinch characteristics such as pinch time tp, negative spike height hp, pinch duration dt with working conditions (different gases, initial pressures and discharge voltages) were described and analyzed.

With the continued promise of immunotherapy as an avenue for treating cancer, understanding how host genetics contributes to the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) is essential to tailoring cancer risk screening and treatment strategies. Using genotypes from over 8,000 European individuals in The Cancer Genome Atlas and 137 heritable tumor immune phenotype components (IP components), we identified and investigated 532 TIME-SNPs. Focusing on 77 variants that were relevant to cancer risk, survival, or treatment response, we explored their potential to reveal novel targets for immunotherapy. Many variants overlapped regions with histone marks indicating active transcription, and influenced gene activities in specific immune cell subsets, such as macrophages and dendritic cells. TIME-SNPs implicated genes such as LAIR1, TREX1, CTSS, CTSW and LILRB2 were differentially expressed between responders and non-responders to immune-checkpoint blockade (ICB) in preclinical studies. Of these, LILRB2 and LAIR1 have already been identified as putative targets for immunotherapy. Here we found that inhibition of CTSS led to better tumor control and survival in murine models, alone or in combination with anti-PD-1. Collectively we show that through an integrative approach, it is possible to link host genetics to TIME characteristics, informing novel biomarkers for cancer risk and target identification in immunotherapy. Citation Format: Meghana Pagadala, Victoria Wu, Eva Pérez-Guijarro, Hyo Kim, Andrea Castro, James Talwar, Cristian Gonzalez-Colin, Steven Cao, Benjamin J. Schmiedel, Timothy Sears, Shervin Goudarzi, Divya Kirani, Rany M. Salem, Gerald P. Morris, Olivier Harismendy, Sandip P. Patel, Jill P. Mesirov, Maurizio Zanetti, Chi-Ping Day, Chun C. Fan, Wesley K. Thompson, Glenn Merlino, J. Silvio Gutkind, Pandurangan Vijayanand, Hannah Carter. Germline modifiers of the tumor immune microenvironment reveal drivers of immunotherapy response [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 3825.

With the continued promise of immunotherapy as an avenue for treating cancer, understanding how host genetics contributes to the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) is essential to tailoring cancer screening and treatment strategies. Approaches that intersect SNP modifiers of molecular phenotype, such as gene expression, with disease phenotypes have shown promise for implicating causal genetic factors. Here we evaluated 194 literature-curated TIME associations and 890 associations detected with 157 immune phenotype (IP) components found using genotypes from over 8,000 individuals in The Cancer Genome Atlas. Of these 1084, 233 associations comprising 219 unique TIME-SNPs were also cancer relevant, associating with cancer risk, survival, and/or immunotherapy treatment response. Many cancer relevant TIME-SNPS overlapped regions of active transcription, and were associated with gene expression in specific immune cell subsets, such as macrophages and dendritic cells. TIME-SNPs associated with cancer risk and response to immunotherapy implicated genes involved in antigen presentation, especially by antigen presenting cells. The strongest associations with survival were with PD-L1 and CTLA-4, suggesting that SNPs modifying the potential for immune evasion could contribute to disease progression. To assess whether our approach could reveal novel cancer immunotherapy targets, we inhibited CTSS, a gene implicated by cancer risk and immunotherapy response-associated TIME-SNPs; CTSS inhibition resulted in slowed tumor growth and extended survival in vivo. These results validate the potential of cancer relevant TIME-SNPs to implicate target genes for countering immune suppressive characteristics of the TIME and set the stage for future host genetics analysis integrating germline variation and TIME characteristics.SignificanceA systematic screen for common germline variants associated with the tumor immune microenvironment across > 8000 tumors reveals novel cancer risk factors and targets for immunotherapy.

In this article, the results of X-ray dose measurements executed using thermoluminescent dosimeters in experiments with a very small (20 J) repetitive plasma focus device named SORENA-1 are presented and analyzed. The working gas in these experiments was Argon. Also, pinch formation in experiments with this device has been observed. This device has been designed and constructed in Plasma and Nuclear Fusion Research School of Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute of Iran. From these results, it is concluded that we can do experiments with this device using Ar as working gas all over the working days of year, and a good symmetry for measured dose around the device has been seen.

SORENA-1 is a very small repetitive Mather-type plasma focus device (20 J) that can operate at frequencies up to 1 Hz. This device has been designed and constructed in the Plasma and Nuclear Fusion Research School of the Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute of Iran. In this article, the structure of SORENA-1 is described and results of experiments with Ar, Ne, and D2 working gases at several discharge voltages and initial pressures are presented and analyzed.

Concerning the increasing global energy demand, the current paper considers nuclear energy as a solution. Within this context, the 2011 disaster in Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant and, particularly, the technical disorders in boiling water reactors are explained. The deficiency of safety technique in boiling water reactors is explained. The deficiencies in safety procedure of this type of reactors manifested during 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami are explained. To complete the discussion, the newer technologies of reactors enabling them to act more safely during natural disasters are introduced. These investigations indicate that despite improvement in the fission reactor technologies, the danger embedded in them still remains. Therefore, the nuclear fusion using Deuterium-Tritium reaction is the best way forward for energy production in the future, and the best candidate of this type of reactors is Tokamak.

In this work capacity of tokamak plasma is calculated using modeling of tokamak configuration as toroidal and coaxial capacitor. This value is very important and plays an important role in time- varying regimes in tokamak. For exact simulation of plasma behavior, this amount will be added to circuit equations and transport codes. Since capacitive properties of tokamak cause production of a radial electric field, it deserves our special attention.

In this paper the experimental results in different working conditions in Amirkabir Plasma Focus (APF) Device have been compared with the numerical results of a two-dimensional simulation code based on Lee’s model. The experiments were done with pure Neon and Argon as operating gases over a wide range of working conditions (gas pressures and discharge voltages). It is observed that by a proper choice for values of the efficiency factors, comparison between numerical and experimental results shows a good agreement.

In this paper the results of the numerical simulation for Amirkabir Mather-type Plasma Focus Facility (16 kV, 36μF and 115 nH) in several experiments with Argon as working gas at different working conditions (different discharge voltages and gas pressures) have been presented and compared with the experimental results. Two different models have been used for simulation: five-phase model of Lee and lumped parameter model of Gonzalez. It is seen that the results (optimum pressures and current signals) of the Lee model at different working conditions show better agreement than lumped parameter model with experimental values.

Radiation losses play an important role on reaching to break-even conditions in Tokamaks. In this paper the results of measurement by a bolometer in Damavand Tokamak have been presented & analyzed. Meanwhile, we have explained our future research program on the base of last modifications in the control system of the DAMAVAND.

In this paper the design and construction of a very Small Plasma Focus Device (20J) that can operate at repetition rate about 1 Hz are described. In the first experiments with it using Ar as working gas, high negative spikes in current derivative signals have seen, and the proper range of the operation using the Ar is identified.