The relationship between irritable bowel syndrome and psychiatric disorders: from molecular changes to clinical manifestations

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional syndrome characterized by chronic abdominal pain accompanied by altered bowel habits. Although generally considered a functional disorder, there is now substantial evidence that IBS is associated with a poor quality of life and significant negative impact on work and social domains. Neuroimaging studies documented changes in the prefrontal cortex, ventro-lateral and posterior parietal cortex and thalami, and implicate alteration of brain circuits involved in attention, emotion and pain modulation. Emerging data reveals the interaction between psychiatric disorders including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia and IBS, which suggests that this association should not be ignored when developing strategies for screening and treatment. Psychological, social and genetic factors appear to be important in the development of IBS symptomatology through several mechanisms: alteration of HPA axis modulation, enhanced perception of visceral stimuli or psychological vulnerability. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms of IBS with or without psychiatric comorbidities is crucial for elucidating the pathophysiology and for the identification of new therapeutical targets in IBS

Romania\u27s Participation to the European Assessment Project Titled HyUnder, Multi-Criterial Analyses of Salt Cavern Locations

The scope of the work is to assess the potential, the actors and relevant business cases for large scale storage of renewable electricity by hydrogen underground storage in Romania. This presentation intends to provide a picture of the multi-criterial analyses of salt cavern locations in Romania. The energy sector is facing with the necessity to store large energy quantities for short to long term in order to adapt to the increasingly intermittent renewable energy. The results of this presentation have originated from an ongoing European assessment project by the name of HyUnder (FCH JU, grant 303417) regarding utilization of salt caverns for hydrogen underground storage. Currently, main uses of salt caverns include storage of hydrocarbons or wastes disposal. Salt caverns have stirred the interest of the scientific community regarding the potential applications in hydrogen economy. Romania has active mines or caverns and others closed, many of them have the potential to be used from hydrogen storage. These facts represent an interested situation in order to initiate studies or assessments of the potential hydrogen underground storage. The salt mines, hydrogen producers, renewable energy sources and research centers with high qualified scientists, represent essentially elements for new type of studies regarding hydrogen economy. In the context of scientific community\u27s efforts from Romania to assert active in the area of hydrogen technologies, this approach can certainly constitutes an attractive example for pan-European cooperation. The work disclaims the technic multi-criterial analyses of salt cavern locations regarding hydrogen underground storage. The introduction of hydrogen into economy offers the possibility to provide a number of advantages: sustainable development, valorization of local resources and improvement of competitiveness. The opportunities and viabilities of salt cavern locations are analyzed

Shared nomenclature and identifiers for telescopes and instruments

In the context of sharing public data, science results are expected to be reproducible and therefore we need full traceability of the origin of the data. On the documentalist side, there is a need to relate instrumental origins to the published data. We propose to define a shared nomenclature to index each publication with unique designations for facilities, telescopes and instruments which could benefit from the Virtual Observatory work on semantics. This would help the documentalists to check the consistency of the instrument description in publications or make it more explicit. Observation period, data quality and spectral coverage, for instance, may be checked by referencing a global instrumentation service which gathers the nominal observation parameters for the telescope/facility/instrument involved. Based on this indexation mechanism, then the bibliographic metrics for telescope /instrument usage would be easy to compute, and tracking services like the ESO telescope bibliography database (TelBib) or others would be easier to feed. This paper traces the existing initiatives and gives the example of a facility description framework reusing Virtual Observatory metadata which could be fed by the community

Shared nomenclature and identifiers for telescopes and instruments

International audienceIn the context of sharing public data, science results are expected to be reproducible and therefore we need full traceability of the origin of the data. On the documentalist side, there is a need to relate instrumental origins to the published data. We propose to define a shared nomenclature to index each publication with unique designations for facilities, telescopes and instruments which could benefit from the Virtual Observatory work on semantics. This would help the documentalists to check the consistency of the instrument description in publications or make it more explicit. Observation period, data quality and spectral coverage, for instance, may be checked by referencing a global instrumentation service which gathers the nominal observation parameters for the telescope/facility/instrument involved. Based on this indexation mechanism, then the bibliographic metrics for telescope /instrument usage would be easy to compute, and tracking services like the ESO telescope bibliography database (TelBib) or others would be easier to feed. This paper traces the existing initiatives and gives the example of a facility description framework reusing Virtual Observatory metadata which could be fed by the community

Carbon-Coated SiO2 Composites as Promising Anode Material for Li-Ion Batteries

Porous silica-based materials are a promising alternative to graphite anodes for Li-ion batteries due to their high theoretical capacity, low discharge potential similar to pure silicon, superior cycling stability compared to silicon, abundance, and environmental friendliness. However, several challenges prevent the practical application of silica anodes, such as low coulombic efficiency and irreversible capacity losses during cycling. The main strategy to tackle the challenges of silica as an anode material has been developed to prepare carbon-coated SiO2 composites by carbonization in argon atmosphere. A facile and eco-friendly method of preparing carbon-coated SiO2 composites using sucrose is reported herein. The carbon-coated SiO2 composites were characterized using X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, transmission and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and charge–discharge cycling. A C/SiO2-0.085 M calendered electrode displays the best cycling stability, capacity of 714.3 mAh·g−1, and coulombic efficiency as well as the lowest charge transfer resistance over 200 cycles without electrode degradation. The electrochemical performance improvement could be attributed to the positive effect of the carbon thin layer that can effectively diminish interfacial impedance

HiPSgen: The Hierarchical Progressive Survey Generation Tool

International audienceHierarchical Progressive Surveys (HiPS) have become a widely used standard for storing and exploring large image surveys in the last decade. This success is a combined effect of different tools and contexts (the possibility of tile by tile visualisation, the evolution of HiPS clients (e.g. Aladin Desktop, Aladin Lite, firefly, WWT), the IVOA context and standardisation...). Among these, the HiPSgen tool has had a special role. HiPSgen enables anyone to easily transform a set of individual images into a HiPS and its usage has enabled the creation of a vast collection of surveys

COSIM: The necessary evolution of a cross-identification tool along with data evolution

SIMBAD is a bibliographic added-value database on astronomical objects, where the data on individual objects are cross-identified as far as possible. The data comes exclusively from what has been published by the scientific community. To treat large tables, the work is done semi-automatically with the help of a customized software. Since 2014, we are using a new one, called COSIM (Comparison of Objects for SIMBAD). It meets the new requirements which is a consequence of the evolution of the available astronomical data. It has increased in number, accuracy and diversity. On the basis of the data presented in a published table, COSIM searches for objects that are already known in SIMBAD, by name or by coordinates. A combination of scores based on the available and comparable parameters, like the main object type, coordinates, velocity and magnitudes, suggests whether the candidate is good for cross-identification or not. As soon as the result of the search is clear, indicating that there is either no matching candidate or only one good candidate, COSIM creates the commands necessary for updating the SIMBAD database. The documentalists can act on the method of calculation of each score, according to the nature of the objects in the table. Thus, with COSIM the documentalists manage to obtain a good cross-identification level with a minimum risk of omitted or false cross-identifications in a relatively short time compared to the treated data number

COSIM: The necessary evolution of a cross-identification tool along with data evolution

SIMBAD is a bibliographic added-value database on astronomical objects, where the data on individual objects are cross-identified as far as possible. The data comes exclusively from what has been published by the scientific community. To treat large tables, the work is done semi-automatically with the help of a customized software. Since 2014, we are using a new one, called COSIM (Comparison of Objects for SIMBAD). It meets the new requirements which is a consequence of the evolution of the available astronomical data. It has increased in number, accuracy and diversity. On the basis of the data presented in a published table, COSIM searches for objects that are already known in SIMBAD, by name or by coordinates. A combination of scores based on the available and comparable parameters, like the main object type, coordinates, velocity and magnitudes, suggests whether the candidate is good for cross-identification or not. As soon as the result of the search is clear, indicating that there is either no matching candidate or only one good candidate, COSIM creates the commands necessary for updating the SIMBAD database. The documentalists can act on the method of calculation of each score, according to the nature of the objects in the table. Thus, with COSIM the documentalists manage to obtain a good cross-identification level with a minimum risk of omitted or false cross-identifications in a relatively short time compared to the treated data number

Aging of LNMO-Based Lithium Ion Battery Pouch Cells

Cobalt-free cathode materials are a key factor for building more sustainable and costeffective batteries. One promising cobalt-free material is the high-voltage spinel LNMO (LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4) due to its high energy density and high operating voltage of 4.7 V. However, the high operating voltage has also its drawbacks. Commonly used carbonate-based electrolytes oxidize at high voltages, leading to the continuous formation of a cathodeelectrolyte interface (CEI). Additionally, LNMO is prone to transition metal dissolution which not only leads to a reduced stability of the cathode active material but due to migration and deposition of the transition metals on the anode surface also to an altered solid electrolyte interface (SEI) formation and significant impedance rise of the anode.1 Both ageing mechanisms provoke increased lithium loss and high resistances and thus a poor cycling performance.2, 3 In the Horizon 2020 LC-BAT5 project HYDRA, LNMO-based prototype pouch cells are developed and built. Herein, their performance and cycling behavior are analyzed by electrochemical methods such as differential voltage analysis and impedance spectroscopy to investigate the influence of upper cut-off voltage, charge and discharge current rate as well as temperature on the degradation. We thereby reveal the main degradation modes as a function of the cycling conditions and derive solutions on how to increase the cycle life. 1. C. Zhan, T. Wu, J. Lu and K. Amine, Energy Environ. Sci., 11 (2), 243-257 (2018). 2. J. Ma, P. Hu, G. Cui and L. Chen, Chem. Mater., 28 (11), 3578-3606 (2016). 3. W. Li, Y.-G. Cho, W. Yao, Y. Li, A. Cronk, R. Shimizu, M. A. Schroeder, Y. Fu, F. Zou, V. Battaglia, A. Manthiram, M. Zhang and Y. S. Meng, J. Power Sources, 473, (2020

Aging Study of LNMO-Based Lithium Ion Battery Pouch Cells

Cobalt-free cathode materials like LNMO (LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4) are promising candidates on the way to more sustainable and affordable batteries. However, up to now the cycle life of LNMO full cells is limited. To tackle this challenge, LNMO-based prototype pouch cells are developed and built in the Horizon 2020 project Hydra. In this talk, we will present the results from the comprehensive analysis of their performance and cycling behavior. The influence of upper cut-off voltage, charge and discharge current rate as well as temperature on the degradation are thoroughly investigated by electrochemical methods such as differential voltage analysis and impedance spectroscopy. We thereby analyze the main degradation modes as a function of the cycling conditions and derive solutions on how to increase the cycle life