Transport of paramagnetic liquids under nonuniform high magnetic field

From recent investigations, the magnetic force generated by a heterogeneous high magnetic field has been highlighted, in particular by levitating systems. This paper is devoted to describing a new method for the analysis of the magnetic properties of liquids by using the magnetic force. This technique has consisted of observing and measuring the transport of a paramagnetic or diamagnetic liquid under the gradient of high magnetic fields. The theoretical approach of this phenomenon has been developed taking into account the fluid motion expanding in an axially symmetrical magnetic field. From this investigation, a typical experiment has been carried out by injecting a small amount of paramagnetic copper sulfate solution in a cell settled inside the bore of a superconducting magnet. Consequently, the accordance between the experimental results and the theoretical expectations has led to the determination of the magnetic susceptibility of the solution in a short time.     

Correction of inner filter effect in mirror coating cells for trace level fluorescence measurements

The sensitivity of the spectrofluorometric technique can be improved by a factor of about 3.6 using a mirror coating cell. In the case of a large working range, the nonlinear relationship due to the absorbance of solutions between concentration of the analyte of interest and fluorescence intensity (called inner filter effect) must be corrected. This paper suggests a universal inner filter correction equation based on the physical absorbance phenomenon of a mirror coating cell that only depends on the solution absorbance spectra and the cell parameters. These parameters are determined with rhodamine b standard solutions and a simplex method-based mathematical fitting. The methodology has been successfully applied to the correction of classical and synchronous spectra in absorbent media. The partial least squares (PLS) quantification of a mixture of trace levels (approximately 1-10 microg L(-1)) of six polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by synchronous fluorescence is possible, even in an absorbent matrix. This simple method allows extension of the analytical field of fluorescence quantification to a large working range in absorbent solutions.     

Novel TTLL5 Variants Associated with Cone-Rod Dystrophy and Early-Onset Severe Retinal Dystrophy

Variants of the TTLL5 gene, which encodes tubulin tyrosine ligase-like family member five, are a rare cause of cone dystrophy (COD) or cone-rod dystrophy (CORD). To date, only a few TTLL5 patients have been clinically and genetically described. In this study, we report five patients harbouring biallelic variants of TTLL5. Four adult patients presented either COD or CORD with onset in the late teenage years. The youngest patient had a phenotype of early onset severe retinal dystrophy (EOSRD). Genetic analysis was performed by targeted next generation sequencing of gene panels and assessment of copy number variants (CNV). We identified eight variants, of which six were novel, including two large multiexon deletions in patients with COD or CORD, while the EOSRD patient harboured the novel homozygous p.(Trp640*) variant and three distinct USH2A variants, which might explain the observed rod involvement. Our study highlights the role of TTLL5 in COD/CORD and the importance of large deletions. These findings suggest that COD or CORD patients lacking variants in known genes may harbour CNVs to be discovered in TTLL5, previously undetected by classical sequencing methods. In addition, variable phenotypes in TTLL5-associated patients might be due to the presence of additional gene defects.     

Retrovirally transduced bone marrow-derived dendritic cells require CD4+ T cell help to elicit protective and therapeutic antitumor immunity

It has been extensively documented that murine dendritic cells loaded with tumor-associated Ag (TAA)-derived peptides or protein can prime Ag-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T cells in vivo and can elicit Ag-specific immunity. Optimal presentation of TAA might be achieved by retroviral transduction of DCs allowing long term and stable expression of the TAA-peptides as well as the presentation of multiple epitopes in the context of MHC class I and/or class II molecules. Here we show that retroviral transduction of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (DCs) with chicken OVA cDNA or the reporter gene green fluorescent protein retained their potent stimulatory capacity and that the transduced DCs could process and present the endogenously expressed OVA protein. The DCs transduced with cDNA encoding native OVA protein presented OVA-derived peptides in the context of MHC class I as well as MHC class II and induced a strong Ag-specific CTL response. DCs expressing a cytosolic form of OVA presented OVA peptides only in the context of MHC class I and failed to induce an OVA-specific CTL response in vivo when they had been cultured in the absence of exogenous protein. Immunization with retrovirally transduced DCs resulted in an Ag-specific immunity and rejection of a tumor cell challenge and a significant survival advantage in tumor-bearing mice. These results obtained in this rapidly lethal tumor model suggest that DCs transduced with TAA may be useful for tumor immunotherapy and underscore the importance of the simultaneous delivery of T cell help in the development of Ag-specific cytotoxic T-cells.     

On the prediction of the reactor vessel integrity under severe accident loadings (RPVSA)

In order to allow more reliable predictions on the lower head response under core melt-down conditions, the temperature distribution has been analysed including the natural convection in the corium pool. Furthermore, the mechanical models and the failure criteria have been improved based on the RUPTHER and FASTHER experiments where typical temperature gradients are simulated. Lower head local melting as well as corium crust development has been addressed in the CORVIS experiments studying the contact between an alumina/iron thermite and a thick steel plate. The upper head loading by corium impact due to a postulated in-vessel steam explosion has been investigated by the BERDA experiments. Similarity rules were considered such that the results can be directly converted to reactor conditions. Based on these investigations admissible steam explosion energy releases are determined which the upper head can carry. If these limits are not exceeded the reactor containment cannot be endangered by broken head fragments. To provide the necessary basic data, mechanical material tests have been performed.     

Minimising heat dissipation in ultrasonic piezomotors by working in a resonant mode

Heat dissipation in ultrasonic motors should be limited, especially in precision applications since it causes thermal deformations. Therefore, an easy-to-understand mechanical model was developed to simulate heat dissipation in an ultrasonic motor. This model involves the dielectric, piezoelectric and mechanical hysteretic losses of the piezoelectric material. Both the model and the experiments lead to the same recommendations to minimise the heat dissipation for ultrasonic motors. Large piezoactuators, exciting passive structures at high resonance frequencies result in a minimum heat dissipation. Furthermore, it was shown that the optimal frequency regarding minimal heat dissipation lies between the resonance and the antiresonance frequency of the system, close to the resonance frequency.     

A Novel Constellation Shaping Technique for Bit-Interleaved Coded Modulation

We present a new and simple method which consists to apply constellation shaping to bit-interleaved turbo-coded modulation (BICTM) over additive white Gaussian noise channels. By assuming the example of a 3-bit/dim 16-PAM BITCM, it is shown that this technique can provide shaping gain of 0.79 dB.