Pressure-induced defects in zirconates

Defects, e.g. vacancies and interstitials, play an important role on the physical properties of oxides, especially on their ionic transport. Those defects in oxides are generally controlled and analyzed as functions of dopant concentration, c, temperature, T, and oxygen chemical potential, O2, but not of total pressure, P. This is not surprising given that a molar volume, Vm, of solids is much smaller than that of gas phase by a factor of ≈1/1000. Meanwhile, under high pressure such as several GPa, the effect of total pressure on free energy, i.e. VmP, reaches 20~100 kJ/mol, which is high enough to affect the defect formation and migration in solids. In fact, pressure-induced phenomena are recently of great interest in solid state ionics. In this study, we focus on the pressure effects on the defect formation in some stabilized ZrO2 and acceptor-doped BaZrO3. For Y-stabilized ZrO2, reduction was found to be enhanced under high pressure. Figure 1 shows the lattice constant of 8YSZ electrochemically reduced under high pressure as a function of oxygen deficiency introduced. Under high pressure such as 1 to 6 GPa, 8YSZ was easily reduced even at 3VDC at 500°C. The oxygen deficiency reaches = 0.05. Unlike reduced CeO2 which shows lattice expansion, the reduced 8YSZ shows 0.5% smaller lattice constant. The lattice shrinkage was also confirmed by DFT calculations. This supports that applying high pressure, which in general enhances a reaction with negative volume change, enhances the reducing reaction of cubic ZrO2. Figure 2 shows the temperature dependence of electrical conductivity of reduced 8YSZ. The reduced 8YSZ appears to show mixed ionic and electronic conduction; major carrier is electrons. Acceptor-doped BaZrO3 was also subjected to high pressure on the order of GPa. Their defect equilibrium and proton conductivity will be also discussed. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Therapeutic approaches targeting midkine suppress tumor growth and lung metastasis in osteosarcoma

Midkine (MK) plays important roles in tumorigenesis, however, the biological function of MK and whether MK can be a therapeutic target in osteosarcoma are unclear. Here, we found that osteosarcoma tissues showed high MK expression. MK knockdown by small interfering RNA significantly induced apoptosis in osteosarcoma cells, whereas recombinant MK increased cell proliferation. Inhibition of MK signaling by anti-MK monoclonal antibody (anti-MK mAb) suppressed growth of osteosarcoma cells both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, inhibition of MK function significantly suppressed lung metastasis in xenograft transplantation model. Targeting MK by anti-MK mAb may have value in the treatment of osteosarcoma

Decreasing radioactive cesium in lodged buckwheat grain after harvest

This study assessed soil contamination with high radioactive cesium (R–Cs) concentration in buckwheat grains by lodging, and assessed the possibility of R–Cs reduction in grain through post-harvest preparation. Analysis of buckwheat grain produced in farmers’ fields and reports from farmers indicated that grain from fields that had lodging showed higher R–Cs than grain from fields with no lodging. A field experiment demonstrated that R–Cs in grain after threshing and winnowing (TW) was about six times higher in lodged plants than in nonlodged plants. In lodged plants, R–Cs in grain was decreased to about one-fourth by polishing, and was decreased to about one-seventh by ultrasonic cleaning, compared with R–Cs in grain after TW. These results demonstrate that R–Cs of buckwheat grain of lodged plants can be decreased by removing soil from the grain surface by polishing and winnowing