Additive manufacturing for solid oxide cell electrode fabrication

© The Electrochemical Society.Additive manufacturing can potentially offer a highly-defined electrode microstructure, as well as fast and reproducible electrode fabrication. Selective laser sintering is an additive manufacturing technique in which three-dimensional structures are created by bonding subsequent layers of powder using a laser. Although selective laser sintering can be applied to a wide range of materials, including metals and ceramics, the scientific and technical aspects of the manufacturing parameters and their impact on microstructural evolution during the process are not well understood. In the present study, a novel approach for electrode fabrication using selective laser sintering was evaluated by conducting a proof of concept study. A Ni-patterned fuel electrode was laser sintered on an yttria-stabilized zirconia substrate. The optimization process of laser parameters (laser sintering rate and laser power) and the electrochemical results of a full cell with a laser sintered electrode are presented. The challenges and prospects of using selective laser sintering for solid oxide cell fabrication are discussed

Energy-Aware Scheduling of Conditional Task Graphs on NoC-Based MPSoCs

We investigate the problem of scheduling a set of tasks with individual deadlines and conditional precedence constraints on a heterogeneous Network on Chip (NoC)-based Multi-Processor System-on-Chip (MPSoC) such that the total expected energy consumption of all the tasks is minimized, and propose a novel approach. Our approach consists of a scheduling heuristic for constructing a single unified schedule for all the tasks and assigning a frequency to each task and each communication assuming continuous frequencies, an Integer Linear Programming (ILP)-based algorithm and a polynomial time heuristic for assigning discrete frequencies and voltages to tasks and communications. We have performed experiments on 16 synthetic and 4 real-world benchmarks. The experimental results show that compared to the state-of-the-art approach, our approach using the ILP-based algorithm and our approach using the polynomial-time heuristic achieve average improvements of 31% and 20%, respectively, in terms of energy reduction

A Case of Arterial and Venous Tear during Single Lead Extraction

Transcutaneous lead extraction can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The risk of causing concomitant arterial and venous injury is rare. We report a case of marginal artery rupture with coronary sinus rupture after a CS lead extraction. A 71-year-old male was admitted for extraction of a 6-year-old implantable cardioverter-defibrillator lead due to fracture from insulation break. During the lead extraction, blood pressure fell precipitously and echocardiographic findings were consistent with pericardial effusion. After unsuccessful pericardiocentesis, open chest sternotomy and evacuation of hematoma was performed. Subsequent surgical repair of several injuries was completed including the distal coronary sinus, a large degloving injury of posterior portion of the heart, and first obtuse marginal branch bleed. This case demonstrates that when performing transcutaneous lead extraction (TLE) with laser sheath, a degloving injury can cause arterial rupture with concomitant coronary sinus injury. A multidisciplinary team-based approach can ensure patient safety. Learning Objective. Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator leads will falter over time. With the advancement of new technology for extraction more frequent and serious complications will occur. Active fixation CS leads present unique challenges. In the presence of hemodynamic changes during extraction the occurrence of both an arterial and venous injury must be considered

MicroRNA and cDNA-Microarray as Potential Targets against Abiotic Stress Response in Plants: Advances and Prospects

Abiotic stresses, such as temperature (heat and cold), salinity, and drought negatively affect plant productivity; hence, the molecular responses of abiotic stresses need to be investigated. Numerous molecular and genetic engineering studies have made substantial contributions and revealed that abiotic stresses are the key factors associated with production losses in plants. In response to abiotic stresses, altered expression patterns of miRNAs have been reported, and, as a result, cDNA-microarray and microRNA (miRNA) have been used to identify genes and their expression patterns against environmental adversities in plants. MicroRNA plays a significant role in environmental stresses, plant growth and development, and regulation of various biological and metabolic activities. MicroRNAs have been studied for over a decade to identify those susceptible to environmental stimuli, characterize expression patterns, and recognize their involvement in stress responses and tolerance. Recent findings have been reported that plants assign miRNAs as critical post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression in a sequence-specific manner to adapt to multiple abiotic stresses during their growth and developmental cycle. In this study, we reviewed the current status and described the application of cDNA-microarray and miRNA to understand the abiotic stress responses and different approaches used in plants to survive against different stresses. Despite the accessibility to suitable miRNAs, there is a lack of simple ways to identify miRNA and the application of cDNA-microarray. The elucidation of miRNA responses to abiotic stresses may lead to developing technologies for the early detection of plant environmental stressors. The miRNAs and cDNA-microarrays are powerful tools to enhance abiotic stress tolerance in plants through multiple advanced sequencing and bioinformatics techniques, including miRNA-regulated network, miRNA target prediction, miRNA identification, expression profile, features (disease or stress, biomarkers) association, tools based on machine learning algorithms, NGS, and tools specific for plants. Such technologies were established to identify miRNA and their target gene network prediction, emphasizing current achievements, impediments, and future perspectives. Furthermore, there is also a need to identify and classify new functional genes that may play a role in stress resistance, since many plant genes constitute an unexplained fraction

The Transcriptional Landscape and Hub Genes Associated with Physiological Responses to Drought Stress in Pinus tabuliformis

Drought stress has an extensive impact on regulating various physiological, metabolic, and molecular responses. In the present study, the Pinus tabuliformis transcriptome was studied to evaluate the drought-responsive genes using RNA- Sequencing approache. The results depicted that photosynthetic rate and H2O conductance started to decline under drought but recovered 24 h after re-watering; however, the intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) increased with the onset of drought. We identified 84 drought-responsive transcription factors, 62 protein kinases, 17 transcriptional regulators, and 10 network hub genes. Additionally, we observed the expression patterns of several important gene families, including 2192 genes positively expressed in all 48 samples, and 40 genes were commonly co-expressed in all drought and recovery stages compared with the control samples. The drought-responsive transcriptome was conserved mainly between P. tabuliformis and A. thaliana, as 70% (6163) genes had a homologous in arabidopsis, out of which 52% homologous (3178 genes corresponding to 2086 genes in Arabidopsis) were also drought response genes in arabidopsis. The collaborative network exhibited 10 core hub genes integrating with ABA-dependent and independent pathways closely conserved with the ABA signaling pathway in the transcription factors module. PtNCED3 from the ABA family genes had shown significantly different expression patterns under control, mild, prolonged drought, and recovery stages. We found the expression pattern was considerably increased with the prolonged drought condition. PtNCED3 highly expressed in all drought-tested samples; more interestingly, expression pattern was higher under mild and prolonged drought. PtNCED3 is reported as one of the important regulating enzymes in ABA synthesis. The continuous accumulation of ABA in leaves increased resistance against drought was due to accumulation of PtNCED3 under drought stress in the pine needles

Single-cell sequencing reveals CD133+CD44--originating evolution and novel stemness related variants in human colorectal cancer

BACKGROUND: Tumor heterogeneity of human colorectal cancer (CRC)-initiating cells (CRCICs) in cancer tissues often represents aggressive features of cancer progression. For high-resolution examination of CRCICs, we performed single-cell whole-exome sequencing (scWES) and bulk cell targeted exome sequencing (TES) of CRCICs to investigate stemness-specific somatic alterations or clonal evolution. METHODS: Single cells of three subpopulations of CRCICs (CD133+CD44+, CD133-CD44+, and CD133+CD44- cells), CRC cells (CRCCs), and control cells from one CRC tissue were sorted for scWES. Then, we set up a mutation panel from scWES data and TES was used to validate mutation distribution and clonal evolution in additional 96 samples (20 patients) those were also sorted into the same three groups of CRCICs and CRCCs. The knock-down experiments were used to analyze stemness-related mutant genes. Neoantigens of these mutant genes and their MHC binding affinity were also analyzed. FINDINGS: Clonal evolution analysis of scWES and TES showed that the CD133+CD44- CRCICs were the likely origin of CRC before evolving into other groups of CRCICs/CRCCs. We revealed that AHNAK2, PLIN4, HLA-B, ALK, CCDC92 and ALMS1 genes were specifically mutated in CRCICs followed by the validation of their functions. Furthermore, four predicted neoantigens of AHNAK2 were identified and validated, which might have applications in immunotherapy for CRC patients. INTERPRETATION: All the integrative analyses above revealed clonal evolution of CRC and new markers for CRCICs and demonstrate the important roles of CRCICs in tumorigenesis and progression of CRCs. FUNDING: A full list of funding bodies that contributed to this study can be found in the Acknowledgements section

Gene mining and functional analysis related to maize (Zea mays L.) seed size

Maize has widely been studied as a model of plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Here, the genome sequences of 9P. The strains, together with 26 other sequenced Maize were comparatively studied. Phylogenetic analysis of the concatenated 244 single-copy core genes suggests that the 9P. The strains and 5 other Paenibacillus spp., isolated from diverse geographic regions and ecological niches, formed a closely related clade (here it is called Poly-clade). Analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) reveals local diversification of the 14 Poly-clade genomes. SNPs were not evenly distributed throughout the 14 genomes and the regions with high SNP density contain the genes related to secondary metabolism, including genes coding for polyketide. Recombination played an important role in the genetic diversity of this clade, although the rate of recombination was clearly lower than mutation. The distinction among people and different creatures can be gotten by relative examinations. This study reveals that both maize and its closely related species have plant growth promoting traits and they have great potential uses in agriculture and horticulture as PGPR