pH-responsive microcapsules synthesized via a water-in-oil-in-water emulsion template

Biological agents, such as peptides and nucleic acids (siRNA or dsRNA), are becoming increasingly employed in both the therapeutic and agrochemical industries as alternatives to synthetic chemicals. These agents have a number of advantages, including their specificity for a target, ease of registration and low human toxicity.1 Chemical pesticides are currently the most common method of crop protection, but have a number of drawbacks including their toxicity and effects on non-target species.2 Therefore, there is an ever-shifting move to the use of more eco-friendly biological control measures; however, these also have negative attributes. Bio-control agents are often unstable3 and, upon ingestion, are subjected to degradation by hydrolytic enzymes and conditions favouring acid hydrolysis. As a result, these water soluble agents must be protected by encapsulation in a water continuous phase. This provides a protective shell, ensuring their stability during delivery and giving the ability to control and trigger release, which facilitates a more efficient use. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Search for intermediate-mass black hole binaries in the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

International audienceIntermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) span the approximate mass range 100−105 M⊙, between black holes (BHs) that formed by stellar collapse and the supermassive BHs at the centers of galaxies. Mergers of IMBH binaries are the most energetic gravitational-wave sources accessible by the terrestrial detector network. Searches of the first two observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo did not yield any significant IMBH binary signals. In the third observing run (O3), the increased network sensitivity enabled the detection of GW190521, a signal consistent with a binary merger of mass ∼150 M⊙ providing direct evidence of IMBH formation. Here, we report on a dedicated search of O3 data for further IMBH binary mergers, combining both modeled (matched filter) and model-independent search methods. We find some marginal candidates, but none are sufficiently significant to indicate detection of further IMBH mergers. We quantify the sensitivity of the individual search methods and of the combined search using a suite of IMBH binary signals obtained via numerical relativity, including the effects of spins misaligned with the binary orbital axis, and present the resulting upper limits on astrophysical merger rates. Our most stringent limit is for equal mass and aligned spin BH binary of total mass 200 M⊙ and effective aligned spin 0.8 at 0.056 Gpc−3 yr−1 (90% confidence), a factor of 3.5 more constraining than previous LIGO-Virgo limits. We also update the estimated rate of mergers similar to GW190521 to 0.08 Gpc−3 yr−1.Key words: gravitational waves / stars: black holes / black hole physicsCorresponding author: W. Del Pozzo, e-mail: [email protected]† Deceased, August 2020