Rapid deployable ballistic barriers based on airbag systems

The investigations included an outline of the threat scenarios which identified a list of situations where such a ballistic protection kit was urgently needed for improving security of individuals ending up with specifications. Predominantly, 2-3 persons have to be protected against the attack by hand guns and hand grenade and enable a counter attack from this safe area. The ballistic protection was established by a multitude of textiles layers made out of aramid fibres. The fibre weaving applying various methods, treatment by lamination and their combination was optimized by measuring the energy reduction of various layers to achieve best resistance against the impact of the selected ammunition. For the inflation of the ballistic package new approaches for the gas generator formulation and manufacturing techniques were investigated and successfully tested. This new composition combined pyrotechnic hot gas production with ablative cooling to provide cool gases for safely deploying the folded protecting shield stabilized by inflated tubular structure. Finally, all components were combined in a demonstrator which was tested on a shooting range. The results showed that the ballistic shield deployed in a short time and withstood the demanded impact of bullets, fragments and blasts according to the specifications. The current weight of the ballistic package has still to be reduced for which effective proposals are to be made

Influence of the slurry thickness and heat treatment parameters on the formation of aluminium diffusion coating

Formation of the FeAl3 or Fe2Al5 phase during the aluminization of iron-based alloys causes detrimental behaviour of the material due to the brittleness of these phases and the different coefficient of thermal expansion between the base material and the resulting diffusion coating. In order to control the microstructure of the produced diffusion zone and its evolution, two different slurry thicknesses (30–50 and 100–150 µm) using high-purity aluminium spherical particles and three different heat treatments times (5, 10 and 20 h) were tested over ferritic–martensitic P92 steel. After the heat treatment, iron–aluminide phases rich in aluminium content were formed. After 1350 hours of exposure in air at 650 °C, it was found that for the coatings in the range of 30–50 µm neither FeAl3 nor Fe2Al5 phase remained in the diffusion coating, while Fe2Al5 did remain in those coatings in the range of 100–150 µm

The risk of COVID-19 death is much greater and age dependent with type I IFN autoantibodies

International audienceSignificance There is growing evidence that preexisting autoantibodies neutralizing type I interferons (IFNs) are strong determinants of life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia. It is important to estimate their quantitative impact on COVID-19 mortality upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, by age and sex, as both the prevalence of these autoantibodies and the risk of COVID-19 death increase with age and are higher in men. Using an unvaccinated sample of 1,261 deceased patients and 34,159 individuals from the general population, we found that autoantibodies against type I IFNs strongly increased the SARS-CoV-2 infection fatality rate at all ages, in both men and women. Autoantibodies against type I IFNs are strong and common predictors of life-threatening COVID-19. Testing for these autoantibodies should be considered in the general population

The risk of COVID-19 death is much greater and age dependent with type I IFN autoantibodies

International audienceSignificance There is growing evidence that preexisting autoantibodies neutralizing type I interferons (IFNs) are strong determinants of life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia. It is important to estimate their quantitative impact on COVID-19 mortality upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, by age and sex, as both the prevalence of these autoantibodies and the risk of COVID-19 death increase with age and are higher in men. Using an unvaccinated sample of 1,261 deceased patients and 34,159 individuals from the general population, we found that autoantibodies against type I IFNs strongly increased the SARS-CoV-2 infection fatality rate at all ages, in both men and women. Autoantibodies against type I IFNs are strong and common predictors of life-threatening COVID-19. Testing for these autoantibodies should be considered in the general population

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field