Nanoparticle formation by ozonolysis of inducible plant volatiles

International audienceWe present the first laboratory experiments of aerosol formation from oxidation of volatile organic species emitted by living plants, a process which for half a century has been known to take place in the atmosphere. We have treated white cabbage plants with methyl jasmonate in order to induce the production of monoterpenes and certain less-volatile sesqui- and homoterpenes. Ozone was introduced into the growth chamber in which the plants were placed, and the subsequent aerosol formation and growth of aerosols were monitored by measuring the particle size distributions continuously during the experiments. Our observations show similar particle formation rates as in the atmosphere but much higher growth rates. The results indicate that the concentrations of nonvolatile oxidation products of plant released precursors needed to induce the nucleation are roughly an order-of-magnitude higher than their concentrations during atmospheric nucleation events. Our results therefore suggest that if oxidized organics are involved in atmospheric nucleation events, their role is to participate in the growth of pre-existing molecular clusters rather than to form such clusters through homogeneous or ion-induced nucleation

Searching for Explanations for Cryptogenic Stroke in the Young: Revealing the Triggers, Causes, and Outcome (SECRETO): Rationale and design

Background: Worldwide, about 1.3 million annual ischaemic strokes (IS) occur in adults aged <50 years. Of these early-onset strokes, up to 50% can be regarded as cryptogenic or associated with conditions with poorly documented causality like patent foramen ovale and coagulopathies. Key hypotheses/aims: (1) Investigate transient triggers and clinical/sub-clinical chronic risk factors associated with cryptogenic IS in the young; (2) use cardiac imaging methods exceeding state-of-the-art to reveal novel sources for embolism; (3) search for covert thrombosis and haemostasis abnormalities; (4) discover new disease pathways using next-generation sequencing and RNA gene expression studies; (5) determine patient prognosis by use of phenotypic and genetic data; and (6) adapt systems medicine approach to investigate complex risk-factor interactions. Design: Searching for Explanations for Cryptogenic Stroke in the Young: Revealing the Etiology, Triggers, and Outcome (SECRETO; NCT01934725) is a prospective multi-centre case–control study enrolling patients aged 18–49 years hospitalised due to first-ever imaging-proven IS of undetermined etiology. Patients are examined according to a standardised protocol and followed up for 10 years. Patients are 1:1 age- and sex-matched to stroke-free controls. Key study elements include centralised reading of echocardiography, electrocardiography, and neurovascular imaging, as well as blood samples for genetic, gene-expression, thrombosis and haemostasis and biomarker analysis. We aim to have 600 patient– control pairs enrolled by the end of 2018. Summary: SECRETO is aiming to establish novel mechanisms and prognosis of cryptogenic IS in the young and will provide new directions for therapy development for these patients. First results are anticipated in 2019

Nonlinear multidisciplinary design approach for axial-flux eddy current brakes

This paper introduces a new nonlinear multidisciplinary design approach (NMDA) for axial-flux (AF) eddy current brakes (ECBs). The proposed NMDA is developed by nonlinear magnetic-thermal-structural coupled modeling. The nonlinear behaviors of the AF-ECB covering the BH curve, resistivity, heat capacity, thermal conductivity, and the temperature are jointly analyzed in time domain to investigate the actual brake properties and to determine brake operating range. In this paper, the nonlinear magnetic modeling based on two-dimensional (2-D) reluctance network is studied by a modified Newton-Raphson method. Furthermore, the nonlinear thermal modeling is carried out by lumped-parameters considering the change of heat capacity, thermal conductivity, and the temperature and updating the data in the evaluation process. Finally, the nonlinear structural modeling is performed to obtain the deflection and the mechanical safety factor of the brake. The nonlinear modeling methods in the proposed NMDA are validated by independent 3-D electromagnetic, thermal, and structural finite element analyses (FEAs), and the proposed NMDA is tested with two different AF-ECB prototypes. The experimental results confirm that the proposed NMDA has high accuracy, and compared to 3-D-FEA approaches, it provides a fast solution to predict the AF-ECB performance