Photocatalytic activity of nitrogen-doped TiO2-based nanowires: a photo-assisted Kelvin probe force microscopy study

The emerging industrial business partnerships, which feature cross-functional and cross-company development efforts, raise the barrier for the establishment of effective knowledge sharing practices in the larger organization. This chapter aims to highlight the role of knowledge as a key enabler for effective engineering activities in the light of such emerging enterprise collaboration models. Knowledge Enabled Engineering (KEE) is presented as an approach to enhance the extended organization’s capability to establish effective collaboration among its parts, in spite of different organizational structures, technologies or processes. KEE is analysed in its constituent parts, highlighting areas, methods and tools that are particularly interesting for leveraging companies’ knowledge sharing capabilities

Subwavelength anti-diffracting beams propagating over more than 1,000 Rayleigh lengths

Propagating light beams with widths down to and below the optical wavelength require bulky large-aperture lenses and remain focused only for micrometric distances. Here, we report the observation of light beams that violate this localization/depth- of-focus law by shrinking as they propagate, allowing resolution to be maintained and increased over macroscopic propagation lengths. In nanodisordered ferroelectrics we observe a non-paraxial propagation of a sub-micrometre-sized beam for over 1,000 diffraction lengths, the narrowest visible beam reported to date. This unprecedented effect is caused by the nonlinear response of a dipolar glass, which transforms the leading opticalwave equation into a Klein-Gordon-type equation that describes a massive particle field. Our findings open the way to high-resolution optics over large depths of focus, and a route to merging bulk optics into nanodevices

High prevalence of germline STK11 mutations in Hungarian Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) is a rare autosomal dominantly inherited disease characterized by gastrointestinal hamartomatous polyposis and mucocutaneous pigmentation. The genetic predisposition for PJS has been shown to be associated with germline mutations in the <it>STK11</it>/<it>LKB1 </it>tumor suppressor gene. The aim of the present study was to characterize Hungarian PJS patients with respect to germline mutation in <it>STK11</it>/<it>LKB1 </it>and their association to disease phenotype.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Mutation screening of 21 patients from 13 PJS families were performed using direct DNA sequencing and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA). Comparative semi-quantitative sequencing was applied to investigate the mRNA-level effects of nonsense and splice-affecting mutations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thirteen different pathogenic mutations in <it>STK11</it>, including a high frequency of large genomic deletions (38%, 5/13), were identified in the 13 unrelated families studied. One of these deletions also affects two neighboring genes (<it>SBNO2 </it>and <it>GPX4</it>), located upstream of <it>STK11</it>, with a possible modifier effect. The majority of the point mutations (88%, 7/8) can be considered novel. Quantification of the <it>STK11 </it>transcript at the mRNA-level revealed that the expression of alleles carrying a nonsense or frameshift mutation was reduced to 30-70% of that of the wild type allele. Mutations affecting splice-sites around exon 2 displayed an mRNA processing pattern indicative of co-regulated splicing of exons 2 and 3.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A combination of sensitive techniques may assure a high (100%) <it>STK11 </it>mutation detection frequency in PJS families. Characterization of mutations at mRNA level may give a deeper insight into the molecular consequences of the pathogenic mutations than predictions made solely at the genomic level.</p

Analysis of gas exchange in seedlings of Acer saccharum : integration of field and laboratory studies

In the field, photosynthesis of Acer saccharum seedlings was rarely light saturated, even though light saturation occurs at about 100 μmol quanta m -2 s -1 photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD). PPFD during more than 75% of the daylight period was 50 μmol m -2 s -1 or less. At these low PPFD's there is a marked interaction of PPFD with the initial slope (CE) of the CO 2 response. At PPFD-saturation CE was 0.018 μmol m -2 s -1 /(μl/l). The apparent quantum efficiency (incident PPFD) at saturating CO 2 was 0.05–0.08 mol/mol. and PPFD-saturated CO 2 exchange was 6–8 μmol m -2 s -1 . The ratio of internal CO 2 concentration to external ( C i / C a ) was 0.7 to 0.8 except during sunflecks when it decreased to 0.5. The decrease in C i / C a during sunflecks was the result of the slow response of stomates to increased PPFD compared to the response of net photosynthesis. An empirical model, which included the above parameters was used to simulate the measured CO 2 exchange rate for portions of two days. Parameter values for the model were determined in experiments separate from the daily time courses being sumulated. Analysis of the field data, partly through the use of simulations, indicate that the elimination of sunflecks would reduce net carbon gain by 5–10%.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47755/1/442_2004_Article_BF00378907.pd

Pigmentation plasticity enhances crypsis in larval newts: Associated metabolic cost and background choice behaviour

In heterogeneous environments, the capacity for colour change can be a valuable adaptation enhancing crypsis against predators. Alternatively, organisms might achieve concealment by evolving preferences for backgrounds that match their visual traits, thus avoiding the costs of plasticity. Here we examined the degree of plasticity in pigmentation of newt larvae (Lissotriton boscai) in relation to predation risk. Furthermore, we tested for associated metabolic costs and pigmentation-dependent background choice behaviour. Newt larvae expressed substantial changes in pigmentation so that light, high-reflecting environment induced depigmentation whereas dark, low-reflecting environment induced pigmentation in just three days of exposure. Induced pigmentation was completely reversible upon switching microhabitats. Predator cues, however, did not enhance cryptic phenotypes, suggesting that environmental albedo induces changes in pigmentation improving concealment regardless of the perceived predation risk. Metabolic rate was higher in heavily pigmented individuals from dark environments, indicating a high energetic requirement of pigmentation that could impose a constraint to larval camouflage in dim habitats. Finally, we found partial evidence for larvae selecting backgrounds matching their induced phenotypes. However, in the presence of predator cues, larvae increased the time spent in light environments, which may reflect a escape response towards shallow waters rather than an attempt at increasing crypsisFinancial support was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN), Grant CGL2012-40044 to IGM, and by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Short Stay Grant to NPC. Additional financial support was provided by the MICINN, Grant CGL2015-68670-R to NP

Para-infectious brain injury in COVID-19 persists at follow-up despite attenuated cytokine and autoantibody responses

Data Availability Statement: The individual-level data from these studies is not publicly available to main confidentiality. Data generated by the ISARIC4C consortium is available for collaborative analysis projects through an independent data and materials access committee at isaric4c.net/sample_access. Data and samples from the COVID-Clinical Neuroscience Study are available through collaborative research by application through the NIHR bioresource at https://bioresource.nihr.ac.uk/using-our-bioresource/apply-for-bioresource-data-access/. Brain injury marker and immune mediator data are present in the paper and in the source data file. Source data are provided with this paper.To understand neurological complications of COVID-19 better both acutely and for recovery, we measured markers of brain injury, inflammatory mediators, and autoantibodies in 203 hospitalised participants; 111 with acute sera (1–11 days post-admission) and 92 convalescent sera (56 with COVID-19-associated neurological diagnoses). Here we show that compared to 60 uninfected controls, tTau, GFAP, NfL, and UCH-L1 are increased with COVID-19 infection at acute timepoints and NfL and GFAP are significantly higher in participants with neurological complications. Inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-12p40, HGF, M-CSF, CCL2, and IL-1RA) are associated with both altered consciousness and markers of brain injury. Autoantibodies are more common in COVID-19 than controls and some (including against MYL7, UCH-L1, and GRIN3B) are more frequent with altered consciousness. Additionally, convalescent participants with neurological complications show elevated GFAP and NfL, unrelated to attenuated systemic inflammatory mediators and to autoantibody responses. Overall, neurological complications of COVID-19 are associated with evidence of neuroglial injury in both acute and late disease and these correlate with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses acutely.National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) (CO-CIN-01) and jointly by NIHR and UK Research and Innovation (CV220-169, MC_PC_19059). B.D.M. is supported by the UKRI/MRC (MR/V03605X/1), the MRC/UKRI (MR/V007181/1), MRC (MR/T028750/1) and Wellcome (ISSF201902/3). C.D. is supported by MRC (MC_PC_19044). We would like to thank the University of Liverpool GCP laboratory facility team for Luminex assistance and the Liverpool University Biobank team for all their help, especially Dr. Victoria Shaw, Lara Lavelle-Langham, and Sue Holden. We would like to acknowledge the Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre for providing infrastructure support for this research (Grant Reference: C18616/A25153). We acknowledge the Liverpool Centre for Cell Imaging (CCI) for provision of imaging equipment (Dragonfly confocal microscope) and excellent technical assistance (BBSRC grant number BB/R01390X/1). Tom Solomon is supported by The Pandemic Institute and the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections at University of Liverpool. D.K.M. and E.N. are supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Centre and by NIHR funding to the NIHR BioResource (RG94028 and RG85445), and by funding from Brain Research UK 201819-20. We thank NIHR BioResource volunteers for their participation, and gratefully acknowledge NIHR BioResource centres, NHS Trusts and staff for their contribution. We thank the National Institute for Health and Care Research, NHS Blood and Transplant, and Health Data Research UK as part of the Digital Innovation Hub Programme. Support for title page creation and format was provided by AuthorArranger, a tool developed at the National Cancer Institute. The authors would like to acknowledge the eDRIS team (Public Health Scotland) for their support in obtaining approvals, the provisioning and linking of data and facilitating access to the National Safe Haven. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the UKRI, NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care

The Seventeenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: Complete Release of MaNGA, MaStar, and APOGEE-2 Data

This paper documents the seventeenth data release (DR17) from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys; the fifth and final release from the fourth phase (SDSS-IV). DR17 contains the complete release of the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, which reached its goal of surveying over 10,000 nearby galaxies. The complete release of the MaNGA Stellar Library accompanies this data, providing observations of almost 30,000 stars through the MaNGA instrument during bright time. DR17 also contains the complete release of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 survey that publicly releases infrared spectra of over 650,000 stars. The main sample from the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), as well as the subsurvey Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey data were fully released in DR16. New single-fiber optical spectroscopy released in DR17 is from the SPectroscipic IDentification of ERosita Survey subsurvey and the eBOSS-RM program. Along with the primary data sets, DR17 includes 25 new or updated value-added catalogs. This paper concludes the release of SDSS-IV survey data. SDSS continues into its fifth phase with observations already underway for the Milky Way Mapper, Local Volume Mapper, and Black Hole Mapper surveys