Crafting zero-bias one-way transport of charge and spin

We explore the electronic structure and transport properties of a metal on top of a (weakly coupled) two-dimensional topological insulator. Unlike the widely studied junctions between topological non-trivial materials, the systems studied here allow for a unique bandstructure and transport steering. First, states on the topological insulator layer may coexist with the gapless bulk and, second, the edge states on one edge can be selectively switched-off, thereby leading to nearly perfect directional transport of charge and spin even in the zero bias limit. We illustrate these phenomena for Bernal stacked bilayer graphene with Haldane or intrinsic spin-orbit terms and a perpendicular bias voltage. This opens a path for realizing directed transport in materials such as van der Waals heterostructures, monolayer and ultrathin topological insulators.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Disease Knowledge Transfer across Neurodegenerative Diseases

We introduce Disease Knowledge Transfer (DKT), a novel technique for transferring biomarker information between related neurodegenerative diseases. DKT infers robust multimodal biomarker trajectories in rare neurodegenerative diseases even when only limited, unimodal data is available, by transferring information from larger multimodal datasets from common neurodegenerative diseases. DKT is a joint-disease generative model of biomarker progressions, which exploits biomarker relationships that are shared across diseases. Our proposed method allows, for the first time, the estimation of plausible, multimodal biomarker trajectories in Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA), a rare neurodegenerative disease where only unimodal MRI data is available. For this we train DKT on a combined dataset containing subjects with two distinct diseases and sizes of data available: 1) a larger, multimodal typical AD (tAD) dataset from the TADPOLE Challenge, and 2) a smaller unimodal Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA) dataset from the Dementia Research Centre (DRC), for which only a limited number of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans are available. Although validation is challenging due to lack of data in PCA, we validate DKT on synthetic data and two patient datasets (TADPOLE and PCA cohorts), showing it can estimate the ground truth parameters in the simulation and predict unseen biomarkers on the two patient datasets. While we demonstrated DKT on Alzheimer's variants, we note DKT is generalisable to other forms of related neurodegenerative diseases. Source code for DKT is available online: https://github.com/mrazvan22/dkt.Comment: accepted at MICCAI 2019, 13 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Systemic transport of Alfalfa mosaic virus can be mediated by the movement proteins of several viruses assigned to five genera of the 30K family

We previously showed that the movement protein (MP) gene of Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV) is functionally exchangeable for the cell-to-cell transport of the corresponding genes of Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), Brome mosaic virus, Prunus necrotic ringspot virus, Cucumber mosaic virus and Cowpea mosaic virus. We have analysed the capacity of the heterologous MPs to systemically transport the corresponding chimeric AMV genome. All MPs were competent in systemic transport but required the fusion at their C terminus of the coat protein-interacting C-terminal 44 aa (A44) of the AMV MP. Except for the TMV MP, the presence of the hybrid virus in upper leaves correlated with the capacity to move locally. These results suggest that all the MPs assigned to the 30K superfamily should be exchangeable not only for local virus movement but also for systemic transport when the A44 fragment is present.We thank L. Corachan for her excellent technical assistance. This work was supported by the Spanish granting agency DGICYT via grant BIO2011-25018 and by the Generalitat Valenciana via grant PROMETEO 2011-003.Fajardo, TVM.; Peiró Morell, A.; Pallás Benet, V.; Sanchez Navarro, JA. (2013). Systemic transport of Alfalfa mosaic virus can be mediated by the movement proteins of several viruses assigned to five genera of the 30K family. Journal of General Virology. 94:677-681. https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.048793-0S6776819

Pesticide residues and transformation products in groundwater from a Spanish agricultural region on the Mediterranean Coast

An overview is given on the presence and changes over time of pesticide residues in groundwater from the Valencia region, one of the most important citrus cultivation sites of southern Europe. A multiresidue LC-MS/MS method was applied for the screening of around 50 pesticides in 75 water samples collected during 2000. The herbicides simazine, terbuthylazine, bromacil, terbumeton, and diuron were the most frequently detected compounds. On the basis of compounds detected in these samples, another method that focused on 30 herbicides and relevant transformation products (TPs) was developed and applied to around 80 water samples collected during 2003. Simazine was the most frequently found compound followed by several triazine metabolites. Data for this paper show the vulnerability of groundwater in this area to herbicide applications and illustrate the importance of including pesticide TPs in environmental monitoring programmes, as four out of the five compounds most frequently detected were pesticide TP

The vanishing axis as a resource in the architectonic backgrounds in the full-length films of animation in USA (1980-2005)

Pese a la abundancia de material fílmico producido por la industria de animación norteamericana en el período que abarca los últimos veinte años del siglo xx y los inicios del xxi, son escasos los estudios sobre la perspectiva en el trabajo de fondos de estas películas. Si bien parece que los fondos sean una parte secundaria, éstos juegan, no obstante, un papel esencial en la expresión de los personajes y en el sentido de realidad o de fantasía en el que se les busca ubicar. Vamos a analizar la aplicación del eje de fugas como recurso perspectivo que incide en la representación figurativa, ayudando a salvar unas veces pequeñas limitaciones perspectivas, mientras que en otras ocasiones simplemente son empleados como parte del juego perspectivo. En este contexto analizaremos también la estructura espacial, para lo cual efectuaremos restituciones de las obras y veremos lo que éstas nos descubren, intentando averiguar la intención del artista y el papel que ejerce este tipo de soluciones sobre la acción de los personajes en el espacio representado y sus consecuencias en el referente visual. Por razones temáticas, el ámbito de estudio de los fondos se centra en elementos arquitectónicos exteriores y en espacios interiores, dentro de un período temporal que hemos considerado como el más creativo e influyente.Despite the abundance of footage produced by the North American animation industry in the period covering the last twenty years of the 20th century and early 21st, there are few studies on perspective in the backgrounds of these films. Although it seems that the backgrounds are a secondary part in animation, they play, however, an essential role in the expression of the characters and in the atmosphere of reality or fantasy in which they are located. We are going to analyze the application of the vanishing axis as a resource for the firgurative representation, sometimes helping to save small perspective limitations, while in other occasions they are simply used as part of perspective game. In this context we will also analyze the spatial structure, for which we will make restitution of the works to see what they discover us. We try to find out the purpose of the artist, and the role played by such solutions on the action of the characters in those backgrounds and its consequences for visual reference. For thematic reasons the field of our study on backgrounds focuses on exterior architectural elements and interior spaces within a time period that we consider as the most creative and influential

Protein- and polysaccharide-based particles used for Pickering emulsion stabilisation

[EN] A few protein- and polysaccharide-based particles can function as effective stabilisers in multi-phase food systems. Combining both polymer-based particles and tailoring the wettability of colloidal systems result in particlestabilised emulsions with great stability. High internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) have also been produced using such particles giving rise to a more stable, highly viscous structure. Thus, the purpose here is to review the advantages and disadvantages of using protein, polysaccharide and protein-polysaccharide complexes and conjugates for stabilising emulsions, highlighting the composites of amphiphilic protein-polysaccharide particles that can function as outstanding copolymer stabilising agents. The current challenges and emerging research trends are exploring renewable, sustainable, clean-label, and eco-friendly biopolymer particles that are effective as Pickering stabilisers.The authors would like to thank the project RTI-2018-099738-B-C22 from the 'Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades', the Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior - Brazil (CAPES) Finance Code 001, and Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP - Grant number 2016/227278) . They would also like to thank Phillip John Bentley for assistance correcting the manuscript's English.Ribeiro, EF.; Morell-Esteve, P.; Nicoletti, VR.; Quiles Chuliá, MD.; Hernando Hernando, MI. (2021). Protein- and polysaccharide-based particles used for Pickering emulsion stabilisation. Food Hydrocolloids. 119:1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodhyd.2021.106839S11311

Specific protein content of pools of plasma for fractionation from different sources: impact of frequency of donations

Background and Objectives Plasma pools for the production of human plasma medicinal products are distinguished according to the collection method (recovered or apheresis plasma) and the donor remuneration status. National regulations and the physical status of the donor determine the donation frequency and plasma volume per session. Relevant protein contents of different types of pools have not fully been compared. Materials and Methods We compared the levels of total protein, 15 main relevant plasma protein markers, and anti-B19 and anti-Streptococcus pneumoniae IgG in single-type pools of donations from different countries (Belgium, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Germany, United States). Both recovered plasma from non-remunerated donors and apheresis plasma from remunerated and non-remunerated donors were studied. Results Pools from paid US high-frequency, high-volume plasmapheresis donors showed significantly lower total protein ()9%), albumin ()15%), total IgG ()24%), IgM ()28%), hemopexin ()11%) and retinol-binding protein ()10%) but higher C1inhibitor, pre-albumin and C-reactive protein contents than pools from unpaid European Union (EU) or US whole-blood or plasmapheresis donors. In contrast to pools from compensated EU plasmapheresis donors, pools from unpaid whole-blood or plasmapheresis donors showed no significant differences, whatever the collection method or country. Reductions in specific protein contents correlated well with protein half-life. Conclusion These results should be taken into account with regard to donor health management and protein recovery. Key words: albumin, donor remuneration, immunoglobulin, plasma donors, plasma fractionation, proteins