Evaluation of cover effects on bare stent mechanical response.

Covered tracheobronchial stents are used to prevent tumour growth from reoccluding the airways. In the present work a combination of experimental and computational methods are used to present the mechanical effects that adhered covers can have on stent performance. A prototype tracheobronchial stent is characterised in bare and covered configurations using radial force, flat plate and a novel non-uniform radial force test, while computational modelling is performed in parallel to extensively inform the physical testing. Results of the study show that cover configuration can have a significant structural effect on stent performance, and that stent response (bare or covered) is especially loading specific, highlighting that the loading configuration that a stent is about to be subjected to should be considered before stent implantation.

Nitinol stent design - understanding axial buckling.

Nitinol׳s superelastic properties permit self-expanding stents to be crimped without plastic deformation, but its nonlinear properties can contribute towards stent buckling. This study investigates the axial buckling of a prototype tracheobronchial nitinol stent design during crimping, with the objective of eliminating buckling from the design. To capture the stent buckling mechanism a computational model of a radial force test is simulated, where small geometric defects are introduced to remove symmetry and allow buckling to occur. With the buckling mechanism ascertained, a sensitivity study is carried out to examine the effect that the transitional plateau region of the nitinol loading curve has on stent stability. Results of this analysis are then used to redesign the stent and remove buckling. It is found that the transitional plateau region can have a significant effect on the stability of a stent during crimping, and by reducing the amount of transitional material within the stent hinges during loading the stability of a nitinol stent can be increased.

High resolution genetic and physical mapping of the I-3 region of tomato chromosome 7 reveals almost continuous microsynteny with grape chromosome 12 but interspersed microsynteny with duplications on Arabidopsis chromosomes 1, 2 and 3.

The tomato I-3 gene introgressed from the Lycopersicon pennellii accession LA716 confers resistance to race 3 of the fusarium wilt pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici. We have improved the high-resolution map of the I-3 region of tomato chromosome 7 with the development and mapping of 31 new PCR-based markers. Recombinants recovered from L. esculentum cv. M82 x IL7-2 F2 and (IL7-2 x IL7-4) x M82 TC1F2 mapping populations, together with recombinants recovered from a previous M82 x IL7-3 F2 mapping population, were used to position these markers. A significantly higher recombination frequency was observed in the (IL7-2 x IL7-4) x M82 TC1F2 mapping population based on a reconstituted L. pennellii chromosome 7 compared to the other two mapping populations based on smaller segments of L. pennellii chromosome 7. A BAC contig consisting of L. esculentum cv. Heinz 1706 BACs covering the I-3 region has also been established. The new high-resolution map places the I-3 gene within a 0.38 cM interval between the molecular markers RGA332 and bP23/gPT with an estimated physical size of 50-60 kb. The I-3 region was found to display almost continuous microsynteny with grape chromosome 12 but interspersed microsynteny with Arabidopsis thaliana chromosomes 1, 2 and 3. An S-receptor-like kinase gene family present in the I-3 region of tomato chromosome 7 was found to be present in the microsyntenous region of grape chromosome 12 but was absent altogether from the A. thaliana genome.

Fine mapping of the tomato I-3 gene for fusarium wilt resistance and elimination of a co-segregating resistance gene analogue as a candidate for I-3.

The I-3 gene from the wild tomato species Lycopersicon pennellii confers resistance to race 3 of the devastating vascular wilt pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici. As an initial step in a positional cloning strategy for the isolation of I-3, we converted restriction fragment length polymorphism and conserved orthologue set markers, known genes and a resistance gene analogue (RGA) mapping to the I-3 region into PCR-based sequence characterised amplified region (SCAR) and cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) markers. Additional PCR-based markers in the I-3 region were generated using the randomly amplified DNA fingerprinting (RAF) technique. SCAR, CAPS and RAF markers were used for high-resolution mapping around the I-3 locus. The I-3 gene was localised to a 0.3-cM region containing a RAF marker, eO6, and an RGA, RGA332. RGA332 was cloned and found to correspond to a putative pseudogene with at least two loss-of-function mutations. The predicted pseudogene belongs to the Toll interleukin-1 receptor-nucleotide-binding site-leucine-rich-repeat sub-class of plant disease resistance genes. Despite the presence of two RGA332 homologues in L. esculentum, DNA gel blot and PCR analysis suggests that no other homologues are present in lines carrying I-3 that could be alternative candidates for the gene.