Peter Carlsson

The kidney-expressed winged helix transcription factor FREAC-4 is regulated by Ets-1. A possible role in kidney development.

In this paper we show that the kidney-expressed winged helix transcription factor FREAC-4 is regulated by Ets-1, another kidney-expressed transcription factor. Through transfection experiments three Ets-1 cis-elements are identified within the first 152 nucleotides upstream of the transcription start in thefreac-4 promoter. These sites are confirmed in a DNase Iin vitro protection assay using recombinant Ets-1 protein. In cotransfection experiments using an Ets-1 expression vector, the induction of freac-4 reporter gene activity is attenuated approximately 6-fold when the three Ets-1 binding sites are mutated. Furthermore, we demonstrate that overexpression of Ets-1 in the human embryonic kidney cell line 293 is sufficient to increasefreac-4 mRNA levels. These results are compatible with the hypothesis that Ets-1 acts as an upstream regulator of FREAC-4 expression during kidney development.

A supersonic gas injection system for fuelling and probing fusion plasmas

The large gas reservoir surrounding the H-1NF plasma leads to difficulties in achieving the density control required to maximize the plasma temperature. We have designed and tested an alternative fuelling system which uses a double conical nozzle to generate a directed flow of particles into the plasma without adding to the gas inventory in the rest of the vacuum vessel. By using a closed plenum at a programmable pressure and a piezo-electric valve, the particle flux can be dynamically changed in a controlled and quantitative manner. Measurements of the gas jet using constant temperature hot wire anemometry show that, for plenum pressures between 500 and 1000 Torr, the particle injection rate (helium) ranges between 2 × 1020 and 4 × 1020 s−1 with half-cone angles between 5° and 20°. The system has been installed on the H-1NF device and first plasma results indicate localized gas injection consistent with test tank anemometry measurements.