Composition, structure et comportement électrochimique d'Hydroxydes Doubles Lamellaires au cobalt : vers des applications en tant que matériaux d'électrodes

Layered Double Hydroxides (LDH) are lamellar materials with strong potentiality for numerous fields of application, however, their insulating electric character limits the possibilities for electrochemical applications. It is thus necessary to investigate for ways to improve their conductive properties. In this purpose, three approaches were envisaged: - insertion of cations of 3d transition metals into the lamellar sheets, - insertion of redox mediators between the layers or - addition of electronic percolants in the system to obtain “electroactive” LDH. Even if the possibilities of combination of divalent and trivalent metal cations within the LDH layer are tunable, all the studies were centered on the role of an element mainly, the cobalt. The chemical compositions of materials as well as their physico-chemical properties, in terms of morphology and global and local structure, were then studied by coupling various analytical techniques before realizing the characterization of the electrochemical properties by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. These analyses then showed the application potentialities of certain type of LDH materials. The capacitive properties of CoIICoIII-CO3 phases were studied as supercapacitor electrode materials while the presence of a redox mediator as well as the immobilization properties for enzymes of the hybrid phase Co2Al-ABTS allowed constructing bioelectrodes potentially applicable in biofuel cell.Les Hydroxydes Doubles Lamellaires (HDL) sont des matériaux en couches à forte potentialité pour de nombreux domaines d’applications, cependant, leur caractère d’isolants électriques limite les possibilités d’applications en électrochimie. Il est donc intéressant de chercher des moyens d’améliorer leurs propriétés conductrices. Dans ce but, trois approches ont été envisagées : - l’insertion de cations de métaux de transition 3d dans les feuillets, - l’intercalation de médiateurs redox entre les feuillets ou - l’ajout de percolant électronique dans le système afin d’obtenir des HDL « électroactifs ». Même si les combinaisons possibles de cations divalents et trivalents dans le feuillet HDL sont nombreuses, toutes les études ont été centrées sur le rôle d’un élément principalement, le cobalt. La composition chimique des matériaux ainsi que leurs propriétés physico-chimiques en termes de morphologie et de structure globale et locale ont été étudiées par le couplage de différentes techniques d’analyse (DRX, IRTF, MEB, ATG, XAS, PDF, XPS) avant de réaliser la caractérisation des propriétés électrochimiques par voltammétrie cyclique et spectroscopie d’impédance électrochimique. Ces analyses ont alors montré les potentialités applicatives de certaines compositions des matériaux HDL choisis. Les propriétés capacitives des phases CoIICoIII-CO3 ont été étudiées pour une utilisation en tant que matériaux d’électrodes de supercondensateurs alors que la présence d’un médiateur redox ainsi que les propriétés d’immobilisation d’enzymes de la phase hybride Co2Al-ABTS ont permis d’élaborer des bioélectrodes potentiellement adaptables dans une biopile

Vaccination with DNA plasmids expressing Gn coupled to C3d or alphavirus replicons expressing Gn protects mice against rift valley fever virus

Background: Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an arthropod-borne viral zoonosis. Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an important biological threat with the potential to spread to new susceptible areas. In addition, it is a potential biowarfare agent. Methodology/Principal Findings: We developed two potential vaccines, DNA plasmids and alphavirus replicons, expressing the Gn glycoprotein of RVFV alone or fused to three copies of complement protein, C3d. Each vaccine was administered to mice in an all DNA, all replicon, or a DNA prime/replicon boost strategy and both the humoral and cellular responses were assessed. DNA plasmids expressing Gn-C3d and alphavirus replicons expressing Gn elicited high titer neutralizing antibodies that were similar to titers elicited by the live-attenuated MP12 virus. Mice vaccinated with an inactivated form of MP12 did elicit high titer antibodies, but these antibodies were unable to neutralize RVFV infection. However, only vaccine strategies incorporating alphavirus replicons elicited cellular responses to Gn. Both vaccines strategies completely prevented weight loss and morbidity and protected against lethal RVFV challenge. Passive transfer of antisera from vaccinated mice into naïve mice showed that both DNA plasmids expressing Gn-C3d and alphavirus replicons expressing Gn elicited antibodies that protected mice as well as sera from mice immunized with MP12. Conclusion/Significance: These results show that both DNA plasmids expressing Gn-C3d and alphavirus replicons expressing Gn administered alone or in a DNA prime/replicon boost strategy are effective RVFV vaccines. These vaccine strategies provide safer alternatives to using live-attenuated RVFV vaccines for human use. © 2010 Bhardwaj et al

Schmallenberg virus pathogenesis, tropism and interaction with the innate immune system of the host

Schmallenberg virus (SBV) is an emerging orthobunyavirus of ruminants associated with outbreaks of congenital malformations in aborted and stillborn animals. Since its discovery in November 2011, SBV has spread very rapidly to many European countries. Here, we developed molecular and serological tools, and an experimental in vivo model as a platform to study SBV pathogenesis, tropism and virus-host cell interactions. Using a synthetic biology approach, we developed a reverse genetics system for the rapid rescue and genetic manipulation of SBV. We showed that SBV has a wide tropism in cell culture and “synthetic” SBV replicates in vitro as efficiently as wild type virus. We developed an experimental mouse model to study SBV infection and showed that this virus replicates abundantly in neurons where it causes cerebral malacia and vacuolation of the cerebral cortex. These virus-induced acute lesions are useful in understanding the progression from vacuolation to porencephaly and extensive tissue destruction, often observed in aborted lambs and calves in naturally occurring Schmallenberg cases. Indeed, we detected high levels of SBV antigens in the neurons of the gray matter of brain and spinal cord of naturally affected lambs and calves, suggesting that muscular hypoplasia observed in SBV-infected lambs is mostly secondary to central nervous system damage. Finally, we investigated the molecular determinants of SBV virulence. Interestingly, we found a biological SBV clone that after passage in cell culture displays increased virulence in mice. We also found that a SBV deletion mutant of the non-structural NSs protein (SBVΔNSs) is less virulent in mice than wild type SBV. Attenuation of SBV virulence depends on the inability of SBVΔNSs to block IFN synthesis in virus infected cells. In conclusion, this work provides a useful experimental framework to study the biology and pathogenesis of SBV

Interpreting Reactor Antineutrino Anomalies with STEREO data

Anomalies in past neutrino measurements have led to the discovery that theseparticles have non-zero mass and oscillate between their three flavors whenthey propagate. In the 2010's, similar anomalies observed in the antineutrinospectra emitted by nuclear reactors have triggered the hypothesis of theexistence of a supplementary neutrino state that would be sterile i.e. notinteracting via the weak interaction. The STEREO experiment was designed tostudy this scientific case that would potentially extend the Standard Model ofParticle Physics. Here we present a complete study based on our full set ofdata with significantly improved sensitivity. Installed at the ILL (InstitutLaue Langevin) research reactor, STEREO has accurately measured theantineutrino energy spectrum associated to the fission of 235U. Thismeasurement confirms the anomalies whereas, thanks to the segmentation of theSTEREO detector and its very short mean distance to the core (10~m), the samedata reject the hypothesis of a light sterile neutrino. Such a directmeasurement of the antineutrino energy spectrum suggests instead that biases inthe nuclear experimental data used for the predictions are at the origin of theanomalies. Our result supports the neutrino content of the Standard Model andestablishes a new reference for the 235U antineutrino energy spectrum. Weanticipate that this result will allow to progress towards finer tests of thefundamental properties of neutrinos but also to benchmark models and nucleardata of interest for reactor physics and for observations of astrophysical orgeo-neutrinos.<br

Rift Valley fever phlebovirus NSs protein core domain structure suggests molecular basis for nuclear filaments

Rift Valley fever phlebovirus (RVFV) is a clinically and economically important pathogen increasingly likely to cause widespread epidemics. RVFV virulence depends on the interferon antagonist non-structural protein (NSs), which remains poorly characterized. We identified a stable core domain of RVFV NSs (residues 83-248), and solved its crystal structure, a novel all-helical fold organized into highly ordered fibrils. A hallmark of RVFV pathology is NSs filament formation in infected cell nuclei. Recombinant virus encoding the NSs core domain induced intranuclear filaments, suggesting it contains all essential determinants for nuclear translocation and filament formation. Mutations of key crystal fibril interface residues in viruses encoding full-length NSs completely abrogated intranuclear filament formation in infected cells. We propose the fibrillar arrangement of the NSs core domain in crystals reveals the molecular basis of assembly of this key virulence factor in cell nuclei. Our findings have important implications for fundamental understanding of RVFV virulence.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Improved FIFRELIN de-excitation model for neutrino applications

The precise modeling of the de-excitation of Gd isotopes is of great interest for experimental studies of neutrinos using Gd-loaded organic liquid scintillators. The FIFRELIN code was recently used within the purposes of the STEREO experiment for the modeling of the Gd de-excitation after neutron capture in order to achieve a good control of the detection efficiency. In this work, we report on the recent additions in the FIFRELIN de-excitation model with the purpose of enhancing further the de-excitation description. Experimental transition intensities from EGAF database are now included in the FIFRELIN cascades, in order to improve the description of the higher energy part of the spectrum. Furthermore, the angular correlations between {\gamma} rays are now implemented in FIFRELIN, to account for the relative anisotropies between them. In addition, conversion electrons are now treated more precisely in the whole spectrum range, while the subsequent emission of X rays is also accounted for. The impact of the aforementioned improvements in FIFRELIN is tested by simulating neutron captures in various positions inside the STEREO detector. A repository of up-to-date FIFRELIN simulations of the Gd isotopes is made available for the community, with the possibility of expanding for other isotopes which can be suitable for different applications.Comment: Corrected typos on author names on arXiv metadat