Making a Cool Choice: The Materials Library of Magnetic Refrigeration

The phase‐down scenario of conventional refrigerants used in gas–vapor compressors and the demand for environmentally friendly and efficient cooling make the search for alternative technologies more important than ever. Magnetic refrigeration utilizing the magnetocaloric effect of magnetic materials could be that alternative. However, there are still several challenges to be overcome before having devices that are competitive with those based on the conventional gas–vapor technology. In this paper a rigorous assessment of the most relevant examples of 14 different magnetocaloric material families is presented and those are compared in terms of their adiabatic temperature and isothermal entropy change under cycling in magnetic‐field changes of 1 and 2 T, criticality aspects, and the amount of heat that they can transfer per cycle. The work is based on magnetic, direct thermometric, and calorimetric measurements made under similar conditions and in the same devices. Such a wide‐ranging study has not been carried out before. This data sets the basis for more advanced modeling and machine learning approaches in the near future.     

Living on the edge: the sponge fauna of Australia’s southwestern and northwestern deep continental margin

This first assessment of sponges on Australia’s deep western continental margin (100–1,100 m) found that highly species-rich sponge assemblages dominate the megabenthic invertebrate biomass in both southwestern (86%) and northwestern (35%) areas. The demosponge orders Poecilosclerida, Dictyoceratida, Haplosclerida, and Astrophorida are dominant, while the presence of the order Agelasida, lithistid sponges, and the Verongida are noteworthy in providing contrasts to other studies from the deep temperate Australian margin. Most sponge species appeared to be rare as two-thirds were present in only one or two samples—a finding consistent with studies of the shallow Australian sponge fauna. The Demospongiae and Calcarea had similar distribution and abundance patterns being found in the greatest numbers in the south on the outer shelf and shelf edge in hard substrates. In contrast, the Hexactinellida were more abundant at deeper depths and in soft substrates, and were more common in the north. Although the environmental factors that influence sponge distributions on the western margin cannot be completely understood from the physical covariates analyzed in this study, the data suggest depth-related factors, substrate type, and current regimes are the most influential. Incompletely documented historic demersal trawling may partly account for the lower sponge biomass found in the north. The potentially high importance of sponges to benthic ecosystems, as well as the potential for high impacts on sponges by bottom trawling, indicates that maintaining healthy sponge assemblages should be an important consideration for marine conservation planners. Successful management will need to be under-pinned by additional research that better identifies the ecological roles of sponges, and their distributions over local and broad environmental scales.     

High quality RNA from multiple brain regions simultaneously acquired by laser capture microdissection

Background  

Laser capture microdissection enables the isolation of single cells or small cell groups from histological sections under direct microscopic observation. Combined with quantitative PCR or microarray, it is a very powerful approach for studying gene expression profiles in discrete cell populations. The major challenge for such studies is to obtain good quality RNA from small amounts of starting material.     

Absolute configuration of antifibrotic (+)-episesamin isolated from Lindera obtusiloba BLUME

Fractionation of a 70% ethanolic extract from twigs of Lindera obtusiloba BLUME (Japanese spicebush, Tohaku) yielded five fractions of different polarity. The antifibrotic activity within the chloroform phase was best assessed by an in vitro bioassay using rat hepatic stellate cell (HSC) proliferation and their autocrine transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) expression as sensitive fibrosis-associated read out. Chromatography of the chloroform extract on Sephadex LH-20 or liquid-liquid extractions yielded a crystalline compound as an active principle, which was identified from NMR and ESI-MS analyses, its melting point, and its optical rotation as (7S,7'R,8R,8'R)-3,4:3',4'-bis(methylenedioxy)-7,9':7',9-diepoxy-lignane [(+)-episesamin]. X-Ray diffraction confirmed the structure and provided, for the first time, directly its absolute configuration. (+)-Episesamin blocked proliferation and the profibrotic autocrine TGF-beta expression HSC without significant cytotoxicity.     

Combining computational prediction of cis-regulatory elements with a new enhancer assay to efficiently label neuronal structures in the medaka fish

The developing vertebrate nervous system contains a remarkable array of neural cells organized into complex, evolutionarily conserved structures. The labeling of living cells in these structures is key for the understanding of brain development and function, yet the generation of stable lines expressing reporter genes in specific spatio-temporal patterns remains a limiting step. In this study we present a fast and reliable pipeline to efficiently generate a set of stable lines expressing a reporter gene in multiple neuronal structures in the developing nervous system in medaka. The pipeline combines both the accurate computational genome-wide prediction of neuronal specific cis-regulatory modules (CRMs) and a newly developed experimental setup to rapidly obtain transgenic lines in a cost-effective and highly reproducible manner. 95% of the CRMs tested in our experimental setup show enhancer activity in various and numerous neuronal structures belonging to all major brain subdivisions. This pipeline represents a significant step towards the dissection of embryonic neuronal development in vertebrates.     

Evolutionary dynamics of intratumor heterogeneity

Intraneoplastic diversity in human tumors is a widespread phenomenon of critical importance for tumor progression and the response to therapeutic intervention. Insights into the evolutionary events that control tumor heterogeneity would be a major breakthrough in our comprehension of cancer development and could lead to more effective prevention methods and therapies. In this paper, we design an evolutionary mathematical framework to study the dynamics of heterogeneity over time. We consider specific situations arising during tumorigenesis, such as the emergence of positively selected mutations ("drivers") and the accumulation of neutral variation ("passengers"). We perform exact computer simulations of the emergence of diverse tumor cell clones over time, and derive analytical estimates for the extent of heterogeneity within a population of cancer cells. Our methods contribute to a quantitative understanding of tumor heterogeneity and the impact of heritable alterations on this tumor trait.     

Characterizing the multiple roles of FGF-2 in SOD1G93A ALS mice in vivo and in vitro

We have previously shown that knockout of fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) and potential compensatory effects of other growth factors result in amelioration of disease symptoms in a transgenic mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS is a rapidly progressive neurological disorder leading to degeneration of cortical, brain stem, and spinal motor neurons followed by subsequent denervation and muscle wasting. Mutations in the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) gene are responsible for approximately 20% of familial ALS cases and SOD1 mutant mice still are among the models best mimicking clinical and neuropathological characteristics of ALS. The aim of the present study was a thorough characterization of FGF-2 and other growth factors and signaling effectors in vivo in the SOD1^G93A mouse model. We observed tissue-specific opposing gene regulation of FGF-2 and overall dysregulation of other growth factors, which in the gastrocnemius muscle was associated with reduced downstream extracellular-signal-regulated kinases (ERK) and protein kinase B (AKT) activation. To further investigate whether the effects of FGF-2 on motor neuron death are mediated by glial cells, astrocytes lacking FGF-2 were cocultured together with mutant SOD1 ^G93A motor neurons. FGF-2 had an impact on motor neuron maturation indicating that astrocytic FGF-2 affects motor neurons at a developmental stage. Moreover, neuronal gene expression patterns showed FGF-2- and SOD1 ^G93A-dependent changes in ciliary neurotrophic factor, glial-cell-line-derived neurotrophic factor, and ERK2, implying a potential involvement in ALS pathogenesis before the onset of clinical symptoms.