Transition Metal Migration Can Facilitate Ionic Diffusion in Defect Garnet-Based Intercalation Electrodes

The importance of metal migration during multielectron redox activity has been characterized, revealing a competing demand to satisfy bonding requirements and local strains in structures upon alkali intercalation. The local structural evolution required to accommodate intercalation in Y2(MoO4)3 and Al2(MoO4)3 has been contrasted by operando characterization methods, including X-ray absorption spectroscopy and diffraction, along with nuclear magnetic resonance measurements. Computational modeling further rationalized behavioral differences. The local structure of Y2(MoO4)3 was maintained upon lithiation, while the structure of Al2(MoO4)3 underwent substantial local atomic rearrangements as the more ionic character of the bonds in Al2(MoO4)3 allowed Al to mix off its starting octahedral position to accommodate strain during cycling. However, this mixing was prevented in the more covalent Y2(MoO4)3, which accommodated strain through rotational motion of polyhedral subunits. Knowing that an increased ionic character can facilitate the diffusion of redox-inactive metals when cycling multielectron electrodes offers a powerful design principle when identifying next-generation intercalation hosts

T cell GM-CSF expression in juvenile arthritis is contingent upon Th17 plasticity.

Objectives Granulocyte monocyte colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is a potent inflammatory mediator responsible for recruitment and activation of innate immune cells. Recent murine data have identified Th17 cells as a key source of GM-CSF, and suggest that T cell derived GM-CSF is instrumental in the induction of autoimmune disease. We analysed the expression of T cell derived GM-CSF in the joints of patients with Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and investigated the development links between Th17 and GM-CSF+ T helper cells. Methods 24 patients with JIA were analysed for expression of GM-CSF and the Th17 marker CD161 in synovial and peripheral blood compartments using flow cytometry and RT-PCR. A cytokine capture assay was used to purify Th17 cells and test the plasticity of cytokine production in response to IL-12 and IL-23. Results The frequency of GM-CSF producing T helper cells were significantly enriched in JIA synovial fluid mononuclear cells (SFMC) compared to PBMC (24.1% vs 2.9% of CD4+ T cells) and closely correlated with ESR levels (r(2) =0.91, p=<0.001). Synovial GM-CSF+ T cells were predominantly CD161 positive and co-expressed interferon gamma (IFNγ) but not IL-17. Culture of Th17 cells in the presence of IL-12 led to rapid upregulation of GM-CSF and IFNγ, recapitulating the phenotype of GM-CSF expressing cells within the joint. Conclusions Our results identify a novel outcome of Th17 plasticity in humans that may account for the enrichment of GM-CSF expressing T cells found within the JIA joint. The association of GM-CSF expression with systemic inflammation highlights the potential role for Th17 related cytokines in the pathology of JIA. © 2014 American College of Rheumatology

A Pilot Study with a Novel Setup for Collaborative Play of the Humanoid Robot KASPAR with children with autism

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.This article describes a pilot study in which a novel experimental setup, involving an autonomous humanoid robot, KASPAR, participating in a collaborative, dyadic video game, was implemented and tested with children with autism, all of whom had impairments in playing socially and communicating with others. The children alternated between playing the collaborative video game with a neurotypical adult and playing the same game with the humanoid robot, being exposed to each condition twice. The equipment and experimental setup were designed to observe whether the children would engage in more collaborative behaviours while playing the video game and interacting with the adult than performing the same activities with the humanoid robot. The article describes the development of the experimental setup and its first evaluation in a small-scale exploratory pilot study. The purpose of the study was to gain experience with the operational limits of the robot as well as the dyadic video game, to determine what changes should be made to the systems, and to gain experience with analyzing the data from this study in order to conduct a more extensive evaluation in the future. Based on our observations of the childrens’ experiences in playing the cooperative game, we determined that while the children enjoyed both playing the game and interacting with the robot, the game should be made simpler to play as well as more explicitly collaborative in its mechanics. Also, the robot should be more explicit in its speech as well as more structured in its interactions. Results show that the children found the activity to be more entertaining, appeared more engaged in playing, and displayed better collaborative behaviours with their partners (For the purposes of this article, ‘partner’ refers to the human/robotic agent which interacts with the children with autism. We are not using the term’s other meanings that refer to specific relationships or emotional involvement between two individuals.) in the second sessions of playing with human adults than during their first sessions. One way of explaining these findings is that the children’s intermediary play session with the humanoid robot impacted their subsequent play session with the human adult. However, another longer and more thorough study would have to be conducted in order to better re-interpret these findings. Furthermore, although the children with autism were more interested in and entertained by the robotic partner, the children showed more examples of collaborative play and cooperation while playing with the human adult.Peer reviewe

Age- and Temperature-Dependent Somatic Mutation Accumulation in Drosophila melanogaster

Using a transgenic mouse model harboring a mutation reporter gene that can be efficiently recovered from genomic DNA, we previously demonstrated that mutations accumulate in aging mice in a tissue-specific manner. Applying a recently developed, similar reporter-based assay in Drosophila melanogaster, we now show that the mutation frequency at the lacZ locus in somatic tissue of flies is about three times as high as in mouse tissues, with a much higher fraction of large genome rearrangements. Similar to mice, somatic mutations in the fly also accumulate as a function of age, but they do so much more quickly at higher temperature, a condition which in invertebrates is associated with decreased life span. Most mutations were found to accumulate in the thorax and less in abdomen, suggesting the highly oxidative flight muscles as a possible source of genotoxic stress. These results show that somatic mutation loads in short-lived flies are much more severe than in the much longer-lived mice, with the mutation rate in flies proportional to biological rather than chronological aging

Charged Particle Production in Proton-, Deuteron-, Oxygen- and Sulphur-Nucleus Collisions at 200 GeV per Nucleon

The transverse momentum and rapidity distributions of net protons and negatively charged hadrons have been measured for minimum bias proton-nucleus and deuteron-gold interactions, as well as central oxygen-gold and sulphur-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon. The rapidity density of net protons at midrapidity in central nucleus-nucleus collisions increases both with target mass for sulphur projectiles and with the projectile mass for a gold target. The shape of the rapidity distributions of net protons forward of midrapidity for d+Au and central S+Au collisions is similar. The average rapidity loss is larger than 2 units of rapidity for reactions with the gold target. The transverse momentum spectra of net protons for all reactions can be described by a thermal distribution with `temperatures' between 145 +- 11 MeV (p+S interactions) and 244 +- 43 MeV (central S+Au collisions). The multiplicity of negatively charged hadrons increases with the mass of the colliding system. The shape of the transverse momentum spectra of negatively charged hadrons changes from minimum bias p+p and p+S interactions to p+Au and central nucleus-nucleus collisions. The mean transverse momentum is almost constant in the vicinity of midrapidity and shows little variation with the target and projectile masses. The average number of produced negatively charged hadrons per participant baryon increases slightly from p+p, p+A to central S+S,Ag collisions.Comment: 47 pages, submitted to Z. Phys.

Correlated Polyhedral Rotations in the Absence of Polarons during Electrochemical Insertion of Lithium in ReO₃

Understanding the structural transformations that materials undergo during (de)insertion of Li ions is crucial for designing high-performance intercalation hosts as these deformations can lead to significant capacity fade. Herein, we present a study of the metallic defect perovskite ReO₃ to determine whether these distortions are driven by polaronic charge transport (i.e., the electrons and ions moving through the lattice in a coupled way) due to the semiconducting nature of most oxide hosts. Employing numerous techniques, including electrochemical probes, operando X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations, we find that the cubic structure of ReO₃ experiences multiple phase changes involving the correlated twisting of rigid octahedral subunits upon lithiation. This results in exceptionally poor long-term cyclability due to large strains upon lithiation, even though metallic character is maintained throughout. This suggests that phase transformations during alkali ion intercalation are the result of local strains in the lattice and not exclusively due to polaron migration

Small but crucial : the novel small heat shock protein Hsp21 mediates stress adaptation and virulence in Candida albicans

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Study of evaluation of groundwater in Gadilam basin using hydrogeochemical and isotope data

Gadilam river basin has gained its importance due to the presence of Neyveli Lignite open cast mines and other industrial complexes. It is also due to extensive depressurization of Cuddalore aquifer, and bore wells for New Veeranam Scheme are constructed downstream of the basin. Geochemical indicators of groundwater were used to identify the chemical processes that control hydrogeochemistry. Chemical parameters of groundwater such as pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), calcium (Ca+), magnesium (Mg+), bicarbonate (HCO-3 ), sulfate (SO-4 ),phosphate (PO-4 ), and silica (H4SiO4) were determined. Interpretation of hydrogeochemical data suggests that leaching of ions followed by weathering and anthropogenic impact controls the chemistry of the groundwater. Isotopic study reveals that recharge from meteoric source in sedimentary terrain and rock-water interaction with significant evaporation prevails in hard rock region