24 research outputs found
ASC transdifferentiate into KLC.
No full text<p>(a) To evaluate ASC capacity to transdifferentiate into KLC ASC were either co-cultured with human keratinocytes or treated with human keratinocyte conditioned media (KCM). (b) Evaluation of the morphology between ASC, keratinocytes and ASC after co-culture or KCM treatment. KLC show a polygonal “cobblestone” shape characteristic of keratinocytes with a size of ∼50 µm in diameter. All pictures captured with a Nikon digital sight DS-2MBW camera on a Nikon Eclipse TS100 light-microscope. ASC panel was captured at 20x, the rest of the panels at 40x magnification. (Scale bars for ASC panel indicate a size of 100 µm, for the rest of the panels; scale bars indicate a size of 20 µm). (c) MTT assay was used to asses cell viability under the two different conditions (co-culture with keratinocytes and KCM treatment). These results demonstrate that either condition in which we induce morphological changes in ASC do not produce any adverse effects on cell viability.</p
A proposal for a more sustainable catering service for KL Cityhopper Fairline
No full textReducing the impact of flying is a concern in the aviation industry, especially on the short haul flights. KL Cityhopper (KLC) noticed they create food waste onboard of their European flights because they have a one-fits-all catering solution. They are aware that all back-up food and beverage options brought into the air cause extra weight and extra CO2 emission. They want their catering to have the option to be personalized to the needs of their passenger. This graduation project explores a new more sustainable way of providing a catering service to the passenger for the KLC Fairline. The internal and external analyses have been done to explore the current aviation catering and the behaviour of passengers; all gave valuable insights. The internal analysis showed that the catering on short haul is not possible to customize in advance. It is a free product provided during the flight and the passengers are not completely informed about what can be expected. While the longer flights have communications and choices in advance for the different types of catering onboard. Next to that, there is limited insights to the actual use of the service onboard. The competitors show in advance what can be expected of the free or paid services, using onboard magazines or websites with short movies. Resulting in insights about specific use per location.The passengers of KLC are demographically quite different, better to describe them by their needs during the journey. These diverse needs in the passenger travel journey are further explored by interviews, with the focus on the time they spend waiting at the airport.The future economy catering service of the KLC Fairline should be a brand store at the major airports, so KL can make use of this store too. The passengers can pick-up their own food and beverages and take it with them on the plane. The service will provide more options to fit better with the diverse food and beverage needs of passengers. The brand store is more sustainable solution because it will remove all catering trolleys from the planes on the short haul, it reduces weight and CO2 emission. The food waste will decrease significantly since the store has a system to keep track of the actual use of the service, further optimization of the service use is possible. The passengers informed of what is possible with the catering using information online, in e-mails and the KL-app.A roadmap for the KL catering service is made that includes the short, medium and long-haul flights. The steps for KLC from the current situation to the vision service are described, including how the current A La Carte product on the long haul can be extended to the medium haul.Integrated Product Desig
Inheritance and contact in the genesis of Gisamba (Bantu, L12a, DRC) : a diachronic phonological approach
No full textGisamba (ISO 639-3: smx) is a nearly undocumented and undescribed as well as highly endangered Bantu language spoken in the Kwilu and Kwango provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It belongs to the Kikongo Language Cluster (KLC), a discrete subclade of the West-Coastal Bantu (WCB) branch of the Bantu language family. Within the KLC, Gisamba forms a distinct subgroup called “Kikon-goid” together with Kiyaka, Kisuku and Kihungan, which are also spoken in the Kwilu and Kwango provinces of the DRC. In this article, we show how both divergence as part of WCB and the KLC and convergence through contact with neighboring WCB and South-West Bantu (SWB) languages contributed to the genesis of Gisamba as spoken today. For this purpose, we provide a synchronic and diachronic account of the phonology of Gisamba. Data used in this article stem from original fieldwork which the first author conducted in 2017 in the village of Kimafu. Some of the diachronic sound changes confirm Gisamba’s affiliation to WCB, the KLC and Kikongoid. Others show that Gisamba’s synchronic phonology cannot be accounted for as being only the result of vertical transmission through inheritance, but must be the outcome of horizontal transmission through space. This is well in line with the fact that Gisamba is currently endangered and that, historically speaking, its speech communities have been scattered in the Kwilu and Kwango provinces of the DRC where they are surrounded by much larger WCB and SWB speech communities
Abundance and diversity of archaeal ammonia oxidizers in a coastal groundwater system
No full textAuthor Posting. © The Author(s), 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of American Society for Microbiology for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology 76 (2010): 7938-7948, doi:10.1128/AEM.02056-09.Nitrification, the microbially-catalyzed oxidation of ammonia to nitrate, is a key process in the
nitrogen cycle. Archaea have been implicated in the first part of the nitrification pathway
(oxidation of ammonia to nitrite), but the ecology and physiology of these organisms remain
largely unknown. This work describes two different populations of sediment-associated
ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) in a coastal groundwater system on Cape Cod,
Massachusetts. Sequence analysis of the ammonia monooxygenase subunit A gene (amoA)
shows that one population of putative AOA inhabits the upper meter of the sediment where they
may experience frequent ventilation with tidally-driven overtopping and infiltration of bay water
supplying dissolved oxygen, ammonium and perhaps organic carbon. A genetically distinct
population occurs deeper in the sediment, in a mixing zone between a nitrate- and oxygen-rich
freshwater zone and a reduced, ammonium-bearing salt water wedge. Both of these AOA
populations are coincident with increases in the abundance of Group I crenarchaeota 16S rRNA
gene copies.Funding was provided by
WHOI’s Coastal Ocean Institute to DRR and KLC, as well as funding from NSF/OCE project
#05-24994 to KLC
Structural plasticity of the N-terminal capping helix of the TPR domain of kinesin light chain.
No full textKinesin1 plays a major role in neuronal transport by recruiting many different cargos through its kinesin light chain (KLC). Various structurally unrelated cargos interact with the conserved tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domain of KLC. The N-terminal capping helix of the TPR domain exhibits an atypical sequence and structural features that may contribute to the versatility of the TPR domain to bind different cargos. We determined crystal structures of the TPR domain of both KLC1 and KLC2 encompassing the N-terminal capping helix and show that this helix exhibits two distinct and defined orientations relative to the rest of the TPR domain. Such a difference in orientation gives rise, at the N-terminal part of the groove, to the formation of one hydrophobic pocket, as well as to electrostatic variations at the groove surface. We present a comprehensive structural analysis of available KLC1/2-TPR domain structures that highlights that ligand binding into the groove can be specific of one or the other N-terminal capping helix orientations. Further, structural analysis reveals that the N-terminal capping helix is always involved in crystal packing contacts, especially in a TPR1:TPR1' contact which highlights its propensity to be a protein-protein interaction site. Together, these results underline that the structural plasticity of the N-terminal capping helix might represent a structural determinant for TPR domain structural versatility in cargo binding
Statistics for Community Governance: The Yawuru Indigenous Population Survey, Western Australia
No full textThis article presents a case study of an exercise in Aboriginal community governance in Australia. It sets out the background events that led the Yawuru Native Title Holders Aboriginal Corporation in the town of Broome on Australia’s northwest coast to secure information for its own needs as an act of self-determination and essential governance, and it presents some of the key findings from that exercise. As the Indigenous rights agenda shifts from the pursuit of restitution to the management and implementation of benefits, those with proprietary rights are finding it increasingly necessary to build internal capacity for post-native title governance and community planning, including in the area of information retrieval and application. As an incorporated land-holding group, the Yawuru people of Broome are amongst the first in Australia to move in this area of information gathering, certainly in terms of the degree of local control, participation, and conceptual thinking around the logistics and rationale for such an exercise. An innovative addition has been the incorporation of survey output data into a Geographic Information System to provide for spatial analysis and a decision support mechanism for local community planning. In launching and administering the "Knowing our Community" household survey in Broome, the Yawuru have set a precedent in the acquisition and application of demographic information for internal planning and community development in the post-native title determination era
Denitrification likely catalyzed by endobionts in an allogromiid foraminifer
No full textAuthor Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in The ISME Journal 6 (2012): 951–960, doi:10.1038/ismej.2011.171.Nitrogen can be a limiting macronutrient for carbon uptake by the marine biosphere. The process of denitrification (conversion of nitrate to gaseous compounds, including N2) removes bioavailable nitrogen, particularly in marine sediments, making it a key factor in the marine nitrogen budget. Benthic foraminifera reportedly perform complete denitrification, a process previously considered nearly exclusively performed by bacteria and archaea. If the ability to denitrify is widespread among these diverse and abundant protists, a paradigm shift is required for biogeochemistry and marine microbial ecology. However, to date, the mechanisms of foraminiferal denitrification are unclear and it is possible that the ability to perform complete denitrification is due to symbiont metabolism in some foraminiferal species. Using sequence analysis and GeneFISH, we show that for a symbiont-bearing foraminifer, the potential for denitrification resides in the endobionts. Results also identify the endobionts as denitrifying pseudomonads and show that the allogromiid accumulates nitrate intracellularly, presumably for use in denitrification. Endobionts have been observed within many foraminiferal species, and in the case of associations with denitrifying bacteria, may provide fitness for survival in anoxic conditions. These associations may have been a driving force for early foraminiferal diversification, which is thought to have occurred in the Neoproterozoic when anoxia was widespread.This research was supported by NSF grant EF-0702491 to JMB, KLC and VPE; some ship support was provided by NSF MCB-0604084 to VPE and JMB.2012-06-0
Potential importance of physiologically diverse benthic foraminifera in sedimentary nitrate storage and respiration
No full textAuthor Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 117 (2012): G03002, doi:10.1029/2012JG001949.Until recently, the process of denitrification (conversion of nitrate or nitrite to gaseous products) was thought to be performed exclusively by prokaryotes and fungi. The finding that foraminifera perform complete denitrification could impact our understanding of nitrate removal in sediments as well as our understanding of eukaryotic respiration, especially if it is widespread. However, details of this process and the subcellular location of these reactions in foraminifera remain uncertain. For example, prokaryotic endobionts, rather than the foraminifer proper, could perform denitrification, as has been shown recently in an allogromiid foraminifer. Here, intracellular nitrate concentrations and isotope ratios (δ15NNO3 and δ18ONO3) were measured to assess the nitrate dynamics in four benthic foraminiferal species (Bolivina argentea, Buliminella tenuata, Fursenkoina cornuta, Nonionella stella) with differing cellular architecture and associations with microbial endobionts, recovered from Santa Barbara Basin, California. Cellular nitrate concentrations were high (12–217 mM) in each species, and intracellular nitrate often had elevated δ15NNO3 and δ18ONO3 values. Experiments including suboxic and anoxic incubations of B. argentea revealed a decrease in intracellular nitrate concentration and an increase in δ15NNO3 and δ18ONO3 over time, indicating nitrate respiration and/or denitrification within the foraminifera. Results illustrate that nitrate reduction occurs in a range of foraminiferal species, including some possessing endobionts (including a chloroplast-sequestering species) and others lacking endobionts, implying that microbial associates may not solely be responsible for this process in foraminifera. Furthermore, we show that benthic foraminifera may represent important reservoirs of nitrate storage in sediments, as well as mediators of its removal.This
research was supported by NSF grant EF-0702491 to JMB, KLC, and VPE.2013-01-0
Inverse kinetic isotope fractionation during bacterial nitrite oxidation
No full textAuthor Posting. © Elsevier B.V., 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 73 (2009): 2061-2076, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2008.12.022.Natural abundance stable isotopes in nitrate (NO3-), nitrite (NO2-), and nitrous oxide (N2O)
have been used to better understand the cycling of nitrogen in marine and terrestrial
environments. However, in order to extract the greatest information from the distributions of
these isotopic species, the kinetic isotope effects for each of the relevant microbial reactions are
needed. To date, kinetic isotope effects for nitrite oxidation and anaerobic ammonium oxidation
(anammox) have not been reported. In this study, the nitrogen isotope effect was measured for
microbial nitrite oxidation to nitrate. Nitrite oxidation is the second step in the nitrification
process, and it plays a key role in the regeneration of nitrate in the ocean. Surprisingly, nitrite
oxidation occurred with an inverse kinetic isotope effect, such that the residual nitrite became
progressively depleted in 15N as the reaction proceeded. Three potential explanations for this
apparent inverse kinetic isotope effect were explored: 1) isotope exchange equilibrium between
nitrite and nitrous acid prior to reaction, 2) reaction reversibility at the enzyme level, and 3) true
inverse kinetic fractionation. Comparison of experimental data to ab initio calculations and
theoretical predictions leads to the conclusion that the fractionation is most likely inverse at the
enzyme level. Inverse kinetic isotope effects are rare, but the experimental observations reported
here agree with kinetic isotope theory for this simple N-O bond-forming reaction. Nitrite
oxidation is therefore fundamentally different from all other microbial processes in which N
isotope fractionation has been studied. The unique kinetic isotope effect for nitrite oxidation
should help to better identify its role in the cycling of nitrite in ocean suboxic zones, and other
environments in which nitrite accumulates.Funding from NSF award OCE 05-26277 to KLC is also gratefully acknowledged
Data availability and requirements relevant for the Ariel space mission and other exoplanet atmosphere applications
No full textChubb, Katy L. et al.-- Full list of authors: Chubb, Katy L.; Robert, Séverine; Sousa-Silva, Clara; Yurchenko, Sergei N.; Allard, Nicole F.; Boudon, Vincent; Buldyreva, Jeanna; Bultel, Benjamin; Coustenis, Athena; Foltynowicz, Aleksandra; Gordon, Iouli E.; Hargreaves, Robert J.; Helling, Christiane; Hill, Christian; Hrodmarsson, Helgi Rafn; Karman, Tijs; Lecoq-Molinos, Helena; Migliorini, Alessandra; Rey, Michaël; Richard, Cyril; Sadiek, Ibrahim; Schmidt, Frédéric; Sokolov, Andrei; Stefani, Stefania; Tennyson, Jonathan; Venot, Olivia; Wright, Sam O. M.; Arenales-Lope, Rosa; Barstow, Joanna K.; Bocchieri, Andrea; Carrasco, Nathalie; Dubey, Dwaipayan; Egorov, Oleg; Muñoz, Antonio García; Gharib-Nezhad, Ehsan (Sam); Gkouvelis, Leonardos; Grübel, Fabian; Irwin, Patrick Gerard Joseph; Knížek, Antonín; Lewis, David A.; Lodge, Matt G.; Ma, Sushuang; Martins, Zita; Molaverdikhani, Karan; Morello, Giuseppe; Nikitin, Andrei; Panek, Emilie; Rengel, Miriam; Rinaldi, Giovanna; Skinner, Jack W.; Tinetti, Giovanna; van Kempen, Tim A.; Yang, Jingxuan; Zingales, Tiziano show lessThe goal of this white paper is to provide a snapshot of the data availability and data needs primarily for the Ariel space mission, but also for related atmospheric studies of exoplanets and cool stars. It covers the following data-related topics: molecular and atomic line lists, line profiles, computed cross-sections and opacities, collision-induced absorption and other continuum data, optical properties of aerosols and surfaces, atmospheric chemistry, UV photodissociation and photoabsorption cross-sections, and standards in the description and format of such data. These data aspects are discussed by addressing the following questions for each topic, based on the experience of the 'data-provider' and 'data-user' communities: (1) what are the types and sources of currently available data, (2) what work is currently in progress, and (3) what are the current and anticipated data needs. We present a GitHub platform for Ariel-related data, with the goal to provide a go-to place for both data-users and data-providers, for the users to make requests for their data needs and for the data-providers to link to their available data. Our aim throughout the paper is to provide practical information on existing sources of data whether in data bases, theoretical, or literature sources. © 2024 The Author(s).We thank the comprehensive efforts of the Reviewers for a number
of constructive comments through the paper. The ExoMol project
is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the
European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
through Advance Grant numbers 883830 (ExoMolHD). KLC was funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK
government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee as part of an ERC
Starter Grant [grant number EP/Y006313/1]. SY acknowledges
funding by STFC Projects No. ST/Y001508/1. SR acknowledges
funding by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) through
the FED-tWIN program (Prf-2019-077–RT-MOLEXO) and through
financial and contractual support coordinated by the ESA Prodex
Office (PEA 4000137943, 4000128137). AF acknowledges funding
by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW 2020.0303)
and the Swedish Research Council (2020-00238). This research
was supported by the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS which is
funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German
Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy–EXC2094–390783311. AVN and OE acknowledge the support from
the Russian Scientific Foundation (RSF, No. 22-42-09022). MR
acknowledges support from the French ANR TEMMEX project
(Grant 21-CE30-0053-01) and from the Romeo computer center
of Reims Champagne-Ardenne. FS acknowledges support from the
‘Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers’ (INSU), the ‘Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique’ (CNRS), and ‘Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales’ (CNES) through the ‘Programme National
de Planetologie’. ´ TZ acknowledges NVIDIA Academic Hardware
Grant Program for the use of the Titan V GPU card and the support
by the CHEOPS ASI-INAF agreement n. 2019-29-HH.0 and the
Italian MUR Departments of Excellence grant 2023-2027 ‘Quantum
Frontiers’. ChH and HLM acknowledge funding from the European Union H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019 under grant agreement no.
860470 (CHAMELEON). OV acknowledges funding from the ANR
project ‘EXACT’ (ANR- 21-CE49-0008-01) and the Centre National
d’Etudes ´ Spatiales (CNES). This work was also supported by CNES,
focused on Ariel, through ‘EXACT’. JKB is supported by an
STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship, grant number ST/T004479/1.
AM (Alessandra Migliorini) acknowledges funding from the Italian
Space Agency (ASI) contract with the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) n. 2018-22-HH.0.1-2020. IS acknowledges the
support by DFG (DFG, German Research Foundation)–project No.
SA 4483/1-1. MR acknowledges the support by the DFG priority
program SPP 1992 ‘Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets’
(DFG PR36 24602/41). AK (Anton´ın Kn´ızek) ˇ acknowledgessupport
from grant no. 24-12656K by the Czech Science Foundation and the
ESA Prodex project under PEA 4000129979. IEG and RJH acknowledge funding support through NASA grant 80NSSC23K1596 and
NASA PDART grant 80NSSC24K0080. ZM acknowledges, through
Centro de Qu´ımica Estrutural, the financialsupport of Fundac¸ao˜ para
a Ciencia ˆ e Tecnologia (FCT) for the projects UIDB/00100/2020
and UIDP/00100/2020, and through Institute of Molecular Sciences,
the financial support of FCT for the project LA/P/0056/2020. AB
was supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) with Ariel grant n.
2021.5.HH.0. NC thanksthe European Research Council for funding
via the ERC OxyPlanets project (grant agreement No. 101053033)Peer reviewe
