Modeling electric vehicle benefits connected to smart grids

Connecting electric storage technologies to smartgrids will have substantial implications in building energy systems. Local storage will enable demand response. Mobile storage devices in electric vehicles (EVs) are in direct competition with conventional stationary sources at the building. EVs will change the financial as well as environmental attractiveness of on-site generation (e.g. PV, or fuel cells). In order to examine the impact of EVs on building energy costs and CO2 emissions in 2020, a distributed-energy-resources adoption problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear program with minimization of annual building energy costs or CO2 emissions. The mixed-integer linear program is applied to a set of 139 different commercial buildings in California and example results as well as the aggregated economic and environmental benefits are reported. The research shows that considering second life of EV batteries might be very beneficial for commercial buildings

Redirecting T Cells to Ewing's Sarcoma Family of Tumors by a Chimeric NKG2D Receptor Expressed by Lentiviral Transduction or mRNA Transfection

We explored the possibility to target Ewing's sarcoma family of tumors (ESFT) by redirecting T cells. To this aim, we considered NKG2D-ligands (NKG2D-Ls) as possible target antigens. Detailed analysis of the expression of MICA, MICB, ULBP-1, -2, and -3 in fourteen ESFT cell lines revealed consistent expression of at least one NKG2D-L. Thus, for redirecting T cells, we fused a CD3ζ/CD28-derived signaling domain to the ectodomain of NKG2D, however, opposite transmembrane orientation of this signaling domain and NKG2D required inverse orientation fusion of either of them. We hypothesized that the particularly located C-terminus of the NKG2D ectodomain should allow reengineering of the membrane anchoring from a native N-terminal to an artificial C-terminal linkage. Indeed, the resulting chimeric NKG2D receptor (chNKG2D) was functional and efficiently mediated ESFT cell death triggered by activated T cells. Notably, ESFT cells with even low NKG2D-L expression were killed by CD8pos and also CD4pos cells. Both, mRNA transfection and lentiviral transduction resulted in high level surface expression of chNKG2D. However, upon target-cell recognition receptor surface levels were maintained by tranfected RNA only during the first couple of hours after transfection. Later, target-cell contact resulted in strong and irreversible receptor down-modulation, whereas lentivirally mediated expression of chNKG2D remained constant under these conditions. Together, our study defines NKG2D-Ls as targets for a CAR-mediated T cell based immunotherapy of ESFT. A comparison of two different methods of gene transfer reveals strong differences in the susceptibility to ligand-induced receptor down-modulation with possible implications for the applicability of RNA transfection

Myeloid and plasmacytoid dendritic cells: reference ranges in the peripheral blood of healthy children.

To date, few publications report on dendritic cells values in healthy children and mostly are found as control groups in studies focused on either allergic and autoimmune diseases or malignancies. This report provides an overview of 8 publications regarding absolute dendritic cells quantification in the peripheral blood of healthy children by using minimum manipulated samples processed within 24 hours

Shocked quartz in Sahara fulgurite

Comparative strain analyses were performed on quartz crystals within a Sahara fulgurite using neutron diffraction experiments. Besides, 3D mXRCT three dimensional micro X ray computed tomography studies of the fulgurite were implemented in order to quantify the fusion behaviour, the expansion of the fulgurite as well as the distribution of the stressed quartz crystals. The study of the neutron diffraction pattern was carried out by applying an integral breadth method, more precisely a Rietveld and a LeBail strain size evaluation with the software FullProf. The absorption contrast of the neutron diffraction pattern shows a concentration of the shocked quartz crystals in the outer shell of the Sahara fulgurite, while the inner part of the fulgurite is mostly glassy. On the basis of the diffraction results, the quartz crystals in the fulgurite can be assigned to a stage of deformation for which the causal shock pressure reaches about 25 GPa, as compared to a melting threshold pressure for quartz of about 50 GPa. Comparing the average density of the fulgurite with the average bulk density of quartz based sand, it can be concluded that the fulgurite expanded by more than 35 during its formatio