CP debugging tools: Clarification of functionalities and selection of the tools

Abstract is not available.

Microstructure and mechanical properties at high temperature of SiC-matrix by electrophoretic deposition and polymer infiltration and pyrolysis process

The EFDA-ITER programme for materials wants to develop new structural materials for future nuclear magnetic fusion reactors. In this context, special attention must be paid in the development of new composite materials that could support the hard working conditions of the nuclear fusion reactors: high temperature, high stresses, and high radiation.

Mechanical behaviour and formation process of silkworm silk gut

High performance silk fibers were produced directly from the silk glands of silkworms ("Bombyx mori") following an alternative route to natural spinning. This route is based on a traditional procedure that consists of soaking the silk glands in a vinegar solution and stretching them by hand leading to the so called silkworm guts. Here we present, to the authors’ best knowledge, the first comprehensive study on the formation, properties and microstructure of silkworm gut fibers. Comparison of the tensile properties and microstructural organization of the silkworm guts with those of naturally spun fibers allows gain of a deeper insight into the mechanisms that lead to the formation of the fiber, as well as the relationship between the microstructure and properties of these materials. In this regard, it is proved that an acidic environment and subsequent application of tensile stress in the range of 1000 kPa are sufficient conditions for the formation of a silk fiber.

Murine hematopoietic reconstitution after tagging and selection of retrovirally transduced bone marrow cells

A major problem facing the effective treatment of patients with cancer is how to get the specific antitumor agent into every tumor cell. In this report we describe the use of a strategy that, by using retroviral vectors encoding a truncated human CD5 cDNA, allows the selection of only the infected cells, and we show the ability to obtain, before bone marrow transplantation, a population of 5-fluouraci-treated murine bone marrow cells that are 100% marked. This marked population of bone marrow cells is able to reconstitute the hematopoietic system in lethally irradiated mice, indicating that the surface marker lacks deleterious effects on the functionality of bone marrow cells. No gross abnormalities in hematopoiesis were detected in mice repopulated with CD5-expressing cells. Nevertheless, a significant proportion of the hematopoietic cells no longer expresses the surface marker CD5 in the 9-month-old recipient mice. This transcriptional inactivity of the proviral long terminal repeat (LTR) was accompanied by de novo methylation of the proviral sequences. Our results show that the use of the CD5 as a retrovirally encoded marker enables the rapid, efficient, and nontoxic selection in vitro of infected primary cells, which can entirely reconstitute the hematopoietic system in mice. These results should now greatly enhance the power of studies aimed at addressing questions such as generation of cancer-negative hematopoiesis.

Evolution by the birth-and-death process in multigene families of the vertebrate immune system

Concerted evolution is often invoked to explain the diversity and evolution of the multigene families of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes and immunoglobulin (Ig) genes. However, this hypothesis has been controversial because the member genes of these families from the same species are not necessarily more closely related to one another than to the genes from different species. To resolve this controversy, we conducted phylogenetic analyses of several multigene families of the MHC and Ig systems. The results show that the evolutionary pattern of these families is quite different from that of concerted evolution but is in agreement with the birth-and-death model of evolution in which new genes are created by repeated gene duplication and some duplicate genes are maintained in the genome for a long time but others are deleted or become nonfunctional by deleterious mutations. We found little evidence that interlocus gene conversion plays an important role in the evolution of MHC and Ig multigene families.