Nanoparticle gas phase electrodeposition: fundamentals, fluid dynamics, and deposition kinetics

This communication uncovers missing fundamental elements and an expanded model of gas phase electrodeposition; a relatively new and in large parts unexplored process, which combines particle generation, transport zone and deposition zone in an interacting setup. The process enables selected area deposition of charged nanoparticles that are dispersed and transported by a carrier gas at atmospheric pressure conditions. Two key parameters have been identified: carrier gas flow rate and spark discharge power. Both parameters affect electrical current carried by charged species, nanoparticle mass, particle size and film morphology. In combination, these values enable to provide an estimate of the gas flow dependent Debye length. Together with Langmuir probe measurements of electric potential and field distribution, the transport can be described and understood. First, the transport of the charged species is dominated by the carrier gas flow. In close proximity, the transport is electric field driven. The transition region is not fixed and correlates with the electric potential profile, which is strongly dependent on the deposition rate. Considering the film morphology, the power of the discharge turns out to be the most relevant parameter. Low spark power combined with low gas flow leads to dendritic film growth. In contrast, higher spark power combined with higher gas flow produces compact layers

Janus: Privacy-Preserving Billing for Dynamic Charging of Electric Vehicles

Dynamic charging is an emerging technology that allows an electric vehicle (EV) to charge its battery while moving along the road. Dynamic charging charges the EV’s battery through magnetic induction between the receiving coils attached to the EV’s battery and the wireless charging pads embedded under the roadbed and operated by Pad Owners (POs). A key challenge in dynamic charging is billing, which must consider the fact that the charging service happens while the EV is moving on the road, and should allow for flexible usage plans. A promising candidate could be the subscription-based billing model, in which an EV subscribes to an electric utility that has a business relationship with various POs that operate charging sections. The POs report charging information to the utility of the EV, and at the end of each billing cycle, the EV receives a single bill for all its dynamic charging sessions from the utility. Overshadowing its advantages, a major shortcoming of such a solution is that the utility gets access to the EVs’ mobility information, invading thus the location privacy of the EVs. To enable subscription based billing for dynamic charging, in this paper we propose Janus, a privacy-preserving billing protocol for dynamic EV charging. Janus uses homomorphic commitment and blind signatures with attributes to construct a cryptographic proof on the charging fee of each individual dynamic charging session, and allows the utility to verify the correctness of the EV’s total bill without learning the time, the location, or the charging fee of each individual charging session of the EV. Our Pythonbased implementation shows that the real-time computational overhead of Janus is less than 0.6 seconds, which is well within the delay constraint of the subscription-based billing model, and makes Janus an appealing solution for future dynamic charging applications.Department of Energy/DE-OE0000780Ope

QoS Analysis in Heterogeneous Choreography Interactions

International audienceWith an increasing number of services and devices interacting in a decentralized manner, choreographies are an active area of investigation. The heterogeneous nature of interacting systems leads to choreographies that may not only include conventional services, but also sensor-actuator networks, databases and service feeds. Their middleware behavior within choreographies is captured through abstract interaction paradigms such as client-service, publish-subscribe and tuple space. In this paper, we study these heterogeneous interaction paradigms, connected through an eXtensible Service Bus proposed in the CHOReOS project. As the functioning of such choreographies is dependent on the Quality of Service (QoS) performance of participating entities, an intricate analysis of interaction paradigms and their effect on QoS metrics is needed. We study the composition of QoS metrics in heterogeneous choreographies, and the subsequent tradeoffs. This produces interesting insights such as selection of a particular system and its middleware during design time or end-to-end QoS expectation/guarantees during runtime. Non-parametric hypothesis tests are applied to systems, where QoS dependent services may be replaced at runtime to prevent deterioration in performance

Overexpression of Hydroxynitrile Lyase in Cassava Roots Elevates Protein and Free Amino Acids while Reducing Residual Cyanogen Levels

Cassava is the major source of calories for more than 250 million Sub-Saharan Africans, however, it has the lowest protein-to-energy ratio of any major staple food crop in the world. A cassava-based diet provides less than 30% of the minimum daily requirement for protein. Moreover, both leaves and roots contain potentially toxic levels of cyanogenic glucosides. The major cyanogen in cassava is linamarin which is stored in the vacuole. Upon tissue disruption linamarin is deglycosylated by the apolplastic enzyme, linamarase, producing acetone cyanohydrin. Acetone cyanohydrin can spontaneously decompose at pHs >5.0 or temperatures >35°C, or is enzymatically broken down by hydroxynitrile lyase (HNL) to produce acetone and free cyanide which is then volatilized. Unlike leaves, cassava roots have little HNL activity. The lack of HNL activity in roots is associated with the accumulation of potentially toxic levels of acetone cyanohydrin in poorly processed roots. We hypothesized that the over-expression of HNL in cassava roots under the control of a root-specific, patatin promoter would not only accelerate cyanogenesis during food processing, resulting in a safer food product, but lead to increased root protein levels since HNL is sequestered in the cell wall. Transgenic lines expressing a patatin-driven HNL gene construct exhibited a 2–20 fold increase in relative HNL mRNA levels in roots when compared with wild type resulting in a threefold increase in total root protein in 7 month old plants. After food processing, HNL overexpressing lines had substantially reduced acetone cyanohydrin and cyanide levels in roots relative to wild-type roots. Furthermore, steady state linamarin levels in intact tissues were reduced by 80% in transgenic cassava roots. These results suggest that enhanced linamarin metabolism contributed to the elevated root protein levels

Hypericum sp.: essential oil composition and biological activities

Phytochemical composition of Hypericum genus has been investigated for many years. In the recent past, studies on the essential oils (EO) of this genus have been progressing and many of them have reported interesting biological activities. Variations in the EO composition of Hypericum species influenced by seasonal variation, geographic distribution, phenological cycle and type of the organ in which EO are produced and/or accumulated have also been reported. Although many reviews attributed to the characterization as well as biological activities of H. perforatum crude extracts have been published, no review has been published on the EO composition and biological activities of Hypericum species until recently (Crockett in Nat Prod Commun 5(9):1493–1506, 2010; Bertoli et al. in Global Sci Books 5:29–47, 2011). In this article, we summarize and update information regarding the composition and biological activities of Hypericum species EO. Based on experimental work carried out in our laboratory we also mention possible biotechnology approaches envisaging EO improvement of some species of the genus.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - project PTDC/AGR AAM/70418/2006, SFRH/BD/ 13283/2003

Cyanogenesis of Wild Lima Bean (Phaseolus lunatus L.) Is an Efficient Direct Defence in Nature

In natural systems plants face a plethora of antagonists and thus have evolved multiple defence strategies. Lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus L.) is a model plant for studies of inducible indirect anti-herbivore defences including the production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and extrafloral nectar (EFN). In contrast, studies on direct chemical defence mechanisms as crucial components of lima beans' defence syndrome under natural conditions are nonexistent. In this study, we focus on the cyanogenic potential (HCNp; concentration of cyanogenic glycosides) as a crucial parameter determining lima beans' cyanogenesis, i.e. the release of toxic hydrogen cyanide from preformed precursors. Quantitative variability of cyanogenesis in a natural population of wild lima bean in Mexico was significantly correlated with missing leaf area. Since existing correlations do not by necessity mean causal associations, the function of cyanogenesis as efficient plant defence was subsequently analysed in feeding trials. We used natural chrysomelid herbivores and clonal lima beans with known cyanogenic features produced from field-grown mother plants. We show that in addition to extensively investigated indirect defences, cyanogenesis has to be considered as an important direct defensive trait affecting lima beans' overall defence in nature. Our results indicate the general importance of analysing ‘multiple defence syndromes’ rather than single defence mechanisms in future functional analyses of plant defences