A systematic review and meta-analyses of pregnancy and fetal outcomes in women with multiple sclerosis: a contribution from the IMI2 ConcePTION project.

Neurologists managing women with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) need information about the safety of disease modifying drugs (DMDs) during pregnancy. However, this knowledge is limited. The present study aims to summarize previous studies by performing a systematic review and meta-analyses. The terms "multiple sclerosis" combined with DMDs of interest and a broad profile for pregnancy terms were used to search Embase and Medline databases to identify relevant studies published from January 2000 to July 2019.1260 studies were identified and ten studies met our inclusion criteria. Pooled risk ratios (RR) of pregnancy and birth outcomes in pregnancies exposed to DMDs compared to those not exposed were calculated using a random effects model. For spontaneous abortion RR = 1.14, 95% CI 0.99-1.32, for preterm births RR = 0.93, 95% CI 0.72-1.21 and for major congenital malformations RR = 0.86, 95% CI 0.47-1.56. The most common major congenital malformations reported in MS patients exposed to MS drugs were atrial septal defect (ASD) (N = 4), polydactyly (N = 4) and club foot (N = 3), which are among the most prevalent birth defects observed in the general population. In conclusion, interferons, glatiramer acetate or natalizumab, do not appear to increase the risk for spontaneous abortions, pre-term birth or major congenital malformations. There were very few patients included that were exposed to fingolimod, azathioprine and rituximab; therefore, these results cannot be generalized across drugs. Future studies including internal comparators are needed to enable treating physicians and their patients to decide on the best treatment options

Hochtemperatur-Festelektrolyt-Brennstoffzelle umfassend einen Verbund aus nanoporoesen Duennschichtelektroden und einem strukturiertem Elektrolyt

WO2003092089 A UPAB: 20031203 NOVELTY - High temperature, solid electrolyte fuel cell with an electrolyte layer between 2 electrode layers is obtained by (i) applying electrolyte particles in a screen printing paste to an unsintered electrolyte and sintering the resultant structure; and (ii) depositing a nanoporous electrode thin film on this structure by sol-gel or MOD (metal organic deposition) process and heat treating the structure. USE - The products are high-temperature, solid electrolyte fuel cells (claimed). ADVANTAGE - These high temperature fuel cells have higher long-term stability, higher current density and lower polarization resistance than usual. They also have a higher specific capacity for given area at the same degree of efficiency and can be produced cost-effectively, as costly and chemically pure materials need be used only on the electrochemically active areas of the boundaries. The structurized electrolyte surface has better adhesion to the electrode layer, which reduces degradation resulting from delamination

Rye as an Energy Cover Crop: Management, Forage Quality, and Revenue Opportunities for Feed and Bioenergy

Harvesting a winter rye energy cover crop (Secale cereale L.) could help sustain growing food and energy demand, provide new revenue streams, and enhance ecosystem services without inducing land-use change. A two-year field experiment with three planting methods and three N fertilization rates (0, 60, and 120 kg N ha−1) that produced >5.0 Mg ha−1 yr−1 of biomass was evaluated for (1) fresh and anaerobically digested rye forage quality; (2) revenue potential from renewable bioenergy, carbon markets, and digestate feed protein; and (3) potential greenhouse gas (GHG) offsets. We showed that rye can be harvested as forage for animals or anaerobically digested to produce renewable natural gas (RNG), with the residue after digestion (digestate) still available as a feed protein concentrate. Anaerobically digesting rye improved forage quality indicators. Digestion significantly decreased acid- and neutral-detergent fiber (ADF and NDF) by 5.2% and 17.8%, respectively, while significantly increasing crude protein (CP) (33.6%), total digestible nutrients (TDN) (2.0%), relative feed value (RFV) (23.6%), net energy for lactation (8.3%), maintenance (7.5%), and gain (20.0%). Using market prices for RNG, high protein feed, and GHG mitigation, potential on-farm revenue ranged from USD 307 Mg−1 and USD 502 Mg−1 dry matter with an average of USD 402 Mg−1. However, there are substantial costs associated with RNG and the revenue potential does not represent the profitability of this system. Evaluation of the integrated system showed GHG emissions associated with rye fertilization were more than offset by the benefits of increasing yield in the 60 kg N ha−1 treatment. The overall carbon footprint of the integrated system was strongly carbon negative, confirming the potential of this strategy to sustainably intensify land use in the Midwestern United States.This article is published as Herbstritt, Steph, Tom L. Richard, Sergio H. Lence, Huaiqing Wu, Peter L. O’Brien, Bryan D. Emmett, Tom C. Kaspar, Douglas L. Karlen, Keith Kohler, and Robert W. Malone. 2022. "Rye as an Energy Cover Crop: Management, Forage Quality, and Revenue Opportunities for Feed and Bioenergy" Agriculture 12, no. 10: 1691. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12101691. Posted with permission.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Rye-soybean double-crop: planting method and N fertilization effects in the North Central US

Double-cropping winter rye cover crops (CC) with soybean in the North Central US could help with the global effort to sustainably intensify agriculture. Studies addressing the management of these systems are limited. Therefore, a field study was conducted from 2017 to 2019 in Central Iowa, US to evaluate winter rye CC biomass production, aboveground N accumulation, estimated economics, estimated within-field energy balance and estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under three N application rates (0, 60, 120 kg N ha−1) and three planting methods (pre- and post-harvest broadcast and post-harvest drilling). Averaged over N rates, all planting methods resulted in >5.0 Mg ha−1 year−1 rye aboveground biomass dry matter. Averaged over the 2-year study and compared with unfertilized treatments, applying 60 kg N ha−1 produced 1.1 Mg ha−1 more aboveground biomass (6.1 vs 5.0 Mg ha−1), accumulated 30 kg ha−1 more N in aboveground biomass (88 vs 58 kg N ha−1), and led to 20 GJ ha−1 more net energy. Biomass production was not significantly higher with 120 kg N ha−1 compared with the 60 kg N ha−1 rate. Even when accounting for an estimated 0.75 Mg ha−1 of above ground rye biomass left in the field after harvesting, more N was removed than applied at the 60 kg N ha−1 rate. The minimum rye prices over the 2-year study needed for double-cropping winter rye CC to be profitable (breakeven prices) averaged $117 and$104 Mg−1 for the 0 and 60 kg N ha−1 rates, which factors in estimated soybean yield reductions in 2019 compared with local averages but not off-site transportation. GHG emissions were estimated to increase approximately threefold between the unfertilized and 60 kg N ha−1 rates without considering bioenergy offsets. While environmental tradeoffs need further study, results suggest harvesting fertilized rye CC biomass before planting soybean is a promising practice for the North Central US to maximize total crop and net energy production.This article is published as Malone RW et al (2022). Rye-soybean double-crop: planting method and N fertilization effects in the North Central US. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742170522000096. Works produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted

Sol-gel deposition processes of thin ceramic films

The development of inorganic functional thin films is driven by applications in electronics, solar technology, optics and other high- tech fields. A wide range of film compositions can be manufactured by gas phase or liquid phase deposition methods. Due to the high apparative costs of gas phase methods, the use of the sol-gel processing offers advantages by sufficiently inexpensive film technologies. Additionally, purity and stability of the precursors, homogeneity of mixed precursors, comparably low processing temperatures to transfer gel films into pure inorganic films can be used to generate high-performance thin films. Generally, the precursors used are highly reactive compounds such as transition metal alkoxides. They tend to cause problems due to precipitations and ageing of the sols. Chelating agents such as beta - diketones and/or carboxylates can be used as key to control and to moderate the reactivity. This leads to only partially hydrolyzable precursors that can form highly stable sols or even completely redissolvable dried powders. Using this approach, a large number of final compositions like titania, zirconia, silica, lead zirconate titanate and others are available. Film deposition using these coating sols with an adjustable viscosity and the final thermal treatment by rapid thermal annealing lead to thin films. The approach will be demonstrated with selected systems in order to explain the principles of sol-gel chemistry and deposition methods used to produce thin films with excellent properties

Harvested winter rye energy cover crop: multiple benefits for North Central US

Cover crops (CCs) can reduce nitrogen (N) loss to subsurface drainage and can be reimagined as bioenergy crops for renewable natural gas production and carbon (C) benefits (fossil fuel substitution and C storage). Little information is available on the large-scale adoption of winter rye for these purposes. To investigate the impacts in the North Central US, we used the Root Zone Water Quality Model to simulate corn-soybean rotations with and without winter rye across 40 sites. The simulations were interpolated across a five-state area (IA, IL, IN, MN, and OH) with counties in the Mississippi River basin, which consists of ∼8 million ha with potential for rye CCs on artificially drained corn-soybean fields (more than 63 million ha total). Harvesting fertilized rye CCs before soybean planting in this area can reduce N loads to the Gulf of Mexico by 27% relative to no CCs, and provide 18 million Mg yr ^−1 of biomass-equivalent to 0.21 EJ yr ^−1 of biogas energy content or 3.5 times the 2022 US cellulosic biofuel production. Capturing the CO _2 in biogas from digesting rye in the region and sequestering it in underground geologic reservoirs could mitigate 7.5 million Mg CO _2 yr ^−1 . Nine clusters of counties (hotspots) were identified as an example of implementing rye as an energy CC on an industrial scale where 400 Gg yr ^−1 of rye could be sourced within a 121 km radius. Hotspots consisted of roughly 20% of the region’s area and could provide ∼50% of both the N loss reduction and rye biomass. These results suggest that large-scale energy CC adoption would substantially contribute to the goals of reducing N loads to the Gulf of Mexico, increasing bioenergy production, and providing C benefits