Is aggregated synthetic amorphous silica toxicologically relevant?

The regulatory definition(s) of nanomaterials (NMs) frequently uses the term 'agglomerates and aggregates' (AA) despite the paucity of evidence that AA are significantly relevant from a nanotoxicological perspective. This knowledge gap greatly affects the safety assessment and regulation of NMs, such as synthetic amorphous silica (SAS). SAS is used in a large panel of industrial applications. They are primarily produced as nano-sized particles (1-100 nm in diameter) and considered safe as they form large aggregates (> 100 nm) during the production process. So far, it is indeed believed that large aggregates represent a weaker hazard compared to their nano counterpart. Thus, we assessed the impact of SAS aggregation on in vitro cytotoxicity/biological activity to address the toxicological relevance of aggregates of different sizes

HIF-1α is a key mediator of the lung inflammatory potential of lithium-ion battery particles

BACKGROUND: Li-ion batteries (LIB) are increasingly used worldwide. They are made of low solubility micrometric particles, implying a potential for inhalation toxicity in occupational settings and possibly for consumers. LiCoO2 (LCO), one of the most used cathode material, induces inflammatory and fibrotic lung responses in mice. LCO also stabilizes hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) -1α, a factor implicated in inflammation, fibrosis and carcinogenicity. Here, we investigated the role of cobalt, nickel and HIF-1α as determinants of toxicity, and evaluated their predictive value for the lung toxicity of LIB particles in in vitro assays. RESULTS: By testing a set of 5 selected LIB particles (LCO, LiNiMnCoO2, LiNiCoAlO2) with different cobalt and nickel contents, we found a positive correlation between their in vivo lung inflammatory activity, and (i) Co and Ni particle content and their bioaccessibility and (ii) the stabilization of HIF-1α in the lung. Inhibition of HIF-1α with chetomin or PX-478 blunted the lung inflammatory response to LCO in mice. In IL-1β deficient mice, HIF-1α was the upstream signal of the inflammatory lung response to LCO. In vitro, the level of HIF-1α stabilization induced by LIB particles in BEAS-2B cells correlated with the intensity of lung inflammation induced by the same particles in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that HIF-1α, stabilized in lung cells by released Co and Ni ions, is a mechanism-based biomarker of lung inflammatory responses induced by LIB particles containing Co/Ni. Documenting the Co/Ni content of LIB particles, their bioaccessibility and their capacity to stabilize HIF-1α in vitro can be used to predict the lung inflammatory potential of LIB particles

Emergence of seismic metamaterials: Current state and future perspectives

International audienceFollowing the advent of electromagnetic metamaterials, researchers working in wave physics have translated concepts of engineered media to acoustics, elastodynamics and diffusion processes. In elastodynamics, seismic metamaterials have emerged in the last decade for soft soils structured at the meter scale, and have been tested with full-scale experiments on holey soils. Born in the soil, seismic metamaterials have emerged from the field of tuned-resonators buried in the soil, around building's foundations or near the soil-structure interface as local seismic isolators. Forests of trees have been interpreted as above-surface resonators, and coined natural seismic metamaterials. We first review some advances made in seismic metamaterials and dress an inventory of which material parameters can be achieved and which cannot, from the effective medium theory perspective. We envision future developments of large scale auxetic metamaterials for building's foundations, above surface resonators for seismic protection and metamaterial-like transformed urbanism at the city scale

Role of nanophotonics in the birth of seismic megastructures

International audienceThe discovery of photonic crystals 30 years ago in conjunction with research advances in plasmonics and metamaterials, has inspired the concept of decameter scale metasurfaces, coined seismic metamaterials for an enhanced control of surface (Love and Rayleigh) and bulk (shear and pressure) elastodynamic waves. These powerful mathematical tools of coordinate transforms, effective medium and Floquet-Bloch theories which have revolutionized nanophotonics, can be translated in the language of civil engineering and geophysics. Experiments on seismic metamaterials made of buried elements in the soil demonstrate that the fore mentioned tools make a possible novel description of complex phenomena of soil-structure interaction during a seismic disturbance. But the concepts are already moving to more futuristic concepts and the same notions developed for structured soils are now used to examine the effects of buildings viewed as above surface resonators in megastructures such as metacities. But this perspective of future should not make us forget the heritage of the ancient peoples. Indeed, we finally point out the striking similarity between an invisible cloak design and the architecture of some ancient megastructures as the antique Gallo-Roman theaters and amphitheatres

Experimental evidence of auxetic features in seismic metamaterials: Ellipticity of seismic Rayleigh waves for subsurface architectured ground with holes

This paper describes auxetic features of an array of boreholes in a sedimentary soil when a seismic wave passes through. This is a collaboration between Stephane Brule at the Menard company and Stefan Enoch and Sebastien Guenneau at Institut Fresnel.Structured soils with regular meshes of metric size holes implemented in first ten meters of the ground have been theoretically and experimentally tested under seismic disturbance this last decade. Structured soils with rigid inclusions embedded in a substratum have been also recently developed. The influence of these inclusions in the ground can be characterized in different ways: redistribution of energy within the network with focusing effects for seismic metamaterials, wave reflection, frequency filtering, reduction of the amplitude of seismic signal energy, etc. Here we first provide some time-domain analysis of the flat lens effect in conjunction with some form of external cloaking of Rayleigh waves and then we experimentally show the effect of a finite mesh of cylindrical holes on the ellipticity of the surface Rayleigh waves at the level of the Earth's surface. Orbital diagrams in time domain are drawn for the surface particle's velocity in vertical (x, z) and horizontal (x, y) planes. These results enable us to observe that the mesh of holes locally creates a tilt of the axes of the ellipse and changes the direction of particle movement. Interestingly, changes of Rayleigh waves ellipticity can be interpreted as changes of an effective Poisson ratio. However, the proximity of the source is also important to explain the shape of the ellipses. We analyze these observations in terms of wave mode conversions inside the mesh and we propose to broaden the discussion on the complexity of seismic wave phenomena in structured soils such as soils foundations and on the coupling effects specific to the soil-structure interaction

Expression of Galectins in Cancer: A Critical Review

A large body of literature has examined and described galectin expression in cancer. Discrepancies have been observed in the reported data, which hampered clear understanding of the expression profiles. This relates to the use of different types of methods that evaluate either global or specific gene expression in heterogeneous cancer tissue samples, type of antibodies used in immunohistochemistry and procedures of comparison of gene expression. In this manuscript, we review the main data concerning expression of galectins in human cancer. Only galectin-1 and galectin-3, the most abundant and examined galectins, will be examined here

Métamatériaux sismiques et essais en centrifugeuses

AFPS 2015 - 9ème Colloque National, CHAMPS-SUR-MARNE, FRANCE, 30-/11/2015 - 02/12/2015Seismic metamaterials made of structured soils with holes or with inclusions are studied by means of numerical modelling, site full scale testing and analogy with perforated plates. These studies could be realized by geotechnical centrifuge modelling by applying a seismic disturbance.Les métamatériaux constitués de sols structurés avec des trous ou des inclusions sont étudiés par études numériques de propagation d'ondes, par des essais en vraie grandeur, ainsi que par des mesures sur des modèles réduits tels que des « plaques à trous ». Ces études pourraient être menées par des essais en centrifugeuse sur modèles réduits avec une sollicitation sismique

Métamatériaux sismiques et essais en centrifugeuses

AFPS 2015 - 9ème Colloque National, CHAMPS-SUR-MARNE, FRANCE, 30-/11/2015 - 02/12/2015Seismic metamaterials made of structured soils with holes or with inclusions are studied by means of numerical modelling, site full scale testing and analogy with perforated plates. These studies could be realized by geotechnical centrifuge modelling by applying a seismic disturbance.Les métamatériaux constitués de sols structurés avec des trous ou des inclusions sont étudiés par études numériques de propagation d'ondes, par des essais en vraie grandeur, ainsi que par des mesures sur des modèles réduits tels que des « plaques à trous ». Ces études pourraient être menées par des essais en centrifugeuse sur modèles réduits avec une sollicitation sismique

Control of Rayleigh-like waves in thick plate Willis metamaterials

International audienceRecent advances in control of anthropic seismic sources in structured soil led us to explore interactions of elastic waves propagating in plates (with soil parameters) structured with concrete pillars buried in the soil. Pillars are 2 m in diameter, 30 m in depth and the plate is 50 m in thickness. We study the frequency range 5 to 10 Hz, for which Rayleigh wave wavelengths are smaller than the plate thickness. This frequency range is compatible with frequency ranges of particular interest in earthquake engineering. It is demonstrated in this paper that two seismic cloaks’ configurations allow for an unprecedented flow of elastodynamic energy associated with Rayleigh surface waves. The first cloak design is inspired by some approximation of ideal cloaks’ parameters within the framework of thin plate theory. The second, more accomplished but more involved, cloak design is deduced from a geometric transform in the full Navier equations that preserves the symmetry of the elasticity tensor but leads to Willis’ equations, well approximated by a homogenization procedure, as corroborated by numerical simulations. The two cloaks’s designs are strickingly different, and the superior efficiency of the second type of cloak emphasizes the necessity for rigour in transposition of existing cloaks’s designs in thin plates to the geophysics setting. Importantly, we focus our attention on geometric transforms applied to thick plates, which is an intermediate case between thin plates and semi-infinite media, not studied previously. Cloaking efficiency (reduction of the disturbance of the wave wavefront and its amplitude behind an obstacle) and protection (reduction of the wave amplitude within the center of the cloak) are studied for ideal and approximated cloaks’ parameters. These results represent a preliminary step towards designs of seismic cloaks for surface Rayleigh waves propagating in sedimentary soils structured with concrete pillars