A
bstract
We propose a novel mechanism to achieve superconductivity at zero chemical potential, within the holographic framework. Extending previous construction of the holographic superconductors, ...we consider an Einstein-Maxwell system coupled with two interacting scalars in Anti-de Sitter space. One of the scalar fields is charged and therefore, interacts non-trivially with the gauge field, while the other is uncharged. We find that, if we turn on a boundary source for the uncharged scalar field, it forces the condensation of the charged scalar, leading to a superconducting phase in the dual boundary theory. The condensation occurs at a certain critical value of the source, depending on the value of the chemical potential, which can even be zero. We work out the complete phase diagram of this scenario. We further corroborate the existence of superconductivity at zero chemical potential, through a fluctuation analysis on our solution. Notably, the conductivity of the system, as a function of probing frequency, exhibits characteristics of usual holographic superconductors. We also investigate how these properties of the system changes, as we vary the interaction strength between the scalar fields. Our results indicate a controlled mechanism to manipulate the phase transition temperature of superconductors with strongly coupled microscopics.
•Strategy determination and prioritization for better energy transition.•Determine strategies using strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats methods.•Hesitant fuzzy linguistic decision-making ...approach is used.•Weights and the ranks of the factors and the subfactors are estimated.•Sensitivity analysis is performed to evaluate the robustness of the obtained solution.
The current major challenge of the global energy transition is to follow the right path to meet the ever-increasing energy demand at an affordable cost with low carbon options. However, this has to be achieved in different ways by each country through optimising their available resources vis-a-vis constraints. It may depend on prioritizing strategies based on the country’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of its energy sector. As conflicting issues are always there, a multi criteria decision making approach with proper prioritization of these issues of a country is critical. Determination of appropriate priority of implementing the identified strategies may help to achieve a better energy transition towards sustainability. The proposed methodology of this study integrates Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats method with a Multi Criteria Decision Making approach, i.e., Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic-Analytic Hierarchy Process, and Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic-Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solutionto determine the appropriate priorities of energy strategies. Though the method is generic, it is demonstrated with data of India. The proposed methodology may help a country to achieve better energy transition for sustainability through prioritization of strategies with widely varying criteria. The study considered 17 essential strategies depending on the needs and constraints of the country. The analysis shows that elimination of the demand and supply gap by increasing the energy efficiency (WO1) is the highest priority strategy for India. Whereas imposing taxes on the conventional energy sources (WO4) evolves to be the least priority strategy. The sensitivity analysis also validates that the estimated priorities are reliable with robustness to accommodate limited uncertainties.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
Suppression of seed shattering was a key step during crop domestication that we have previously suggested to be convergent among independent cereal lineages. Positional, association, expression, and ...mutant complementation data all implicate a WRKY transcription factor, SpWRKY , in conferring shattering to a wild sorghum relative, Sorghum propinquum . We hypothesize that SpWRKY functions in a manner analogous to Medicago and Arabidopsis homologs that regulate cell wall biosynthesis genes, with low expression toward the end of floral development derepressing downstream cell wall biosynthesis genes to allow deposition of lignin that initiates the abscission zone in the seed–pedicel junction. The recent discovery of a YABBY locus that confers shattering within Sorghum bicolor and other cereals validated our prior hypothesis that some parallel domestication may have been convergent. Ironically, however, the shattering allele of SpWRKY appears to be recently evolved in S. propinquum and illustrates a case in which the genetic control of a trait in a wild relative fails to extrapolate even to closely related crops. Remarkably, the SpWRKY and YABBY loci lie only 300 kb apart and may have appeared to be a single genetic locus in some sorghum populations.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Infections caused by the opportunistic pathogen
can be difficult to treat due to innate and acquired antibiotic resistance and this is exacerbated by the emergence of multi-drug resistant strains. ...Unfortunately, no licensed vaccine yet exists to prevent
infections. Here we describe a novel subunit vaccine that targets the
type III secretion system (T3SS). This vaccine is based on the novel antigen PaF (Pa Fusion), a fusion of the T3SS needle tip protein, PcrV, and the first of two translocator proteins, PopB. Additionally, PaF is made self-adjuvanting by the N-terminal fusion of the A1 subunit of the mucosal adjuvant double-mutant heat-labile enterotoxin (dmLT). Here we show that this triple fusion, designated L-PaF, can activate dendritic cells
and elicits strong IgG and IgA titers in mice when administered intranasally. This self-adjuvanting vaccine expedites the clearance of
from the lungs of challenged mice while stimulating host expression of IL-17A, which may be important for generating a protective immune response in humans. L-PaF's protective capacity was recapitulated in a rat pneumonia model, further supporting the efficacy of this novel fusion vaccine.
In the past 200 years, urban spaces have been imagined as neatly laid out, well-planned, sanitised and civilised places of dense human habitation with regulated economic activity, where political ...power, financial capital, the frontiers of knowledge and technology thrive. This has been the urban planners dream, even while it does not reflect the full reality, whether of cities in the LMICs or the HICs. In the face of such homogenising visions arising from Euro-American models, formal urban systems fail to provide adequately for residents' needs, who then carve out their own resources and processes for meeting them, largely within the domain of urban “informality.” While large part of literature presents urban informality as reflected in the slum, others have shown how it is found in relation to all classes (
1
). The concept of informality has largely been applied to the core dimensions of economic life of the city. Applied to people's “ways of life,” intermingling of the formal and informal becomes distinctly evident in everyday practices in locations such as the peri-urban, and in activities such as health care. This paper opens up the sphere of health care for urban planning that has, in recent decades, left it largely untouched. It uses data from a rapid assessment of health seeking behaviour of three socioeconomic groups—the middle class, slum-dwellers, and homeless— in Delhi, the capital city of India. The findings, relevant beyond the specific location, reveal that people of all sections resort to myriad informal arrangements for their health care, challenging the dominant connotation of the formal-informal denoting a legitimate-illegitimate dichotomy. This provides potential directions to bridge the formal-informal divide, to re-configure urban planning towards more sustainable futures with plural visions of land use and urban greening for healthier urban conditions and for health care provisioning. The analysis posits that, besides the economic and political relations shaping the formal and informal, the politics of knowledge must be factored in if the informal has to be adequately understood for building sustainable futures.
BiCuSeO is a promising thermoelectric material not only because of its good thermoelectric properties, but also earth abundant constituents. In this report, Pb and Na have been simultaneously doped ...at the Bi site of BiCuSeO. Doping Pb is beneficial for the Seebeck coefficient whereas doping Na maintains the hole mobility. Both the dopants increase the carrier concentration and reduce the thermal conductivity by point-defect scattering. The samples with nominal composition Bi0.985-xNa0.015PbxCuSeO (x=0.00, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08) were prepared using two-step solid-state synthesis. The X-ray diffraction pattern reveals a small amount of Bi2O2.5 phase (<1 vol. %) which is responsible for adversely affecting the electrical conductivity of all the samples. Both the Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity decrease with increasing doping fraction due to increasing hole concentration. The highest power factor of 530 μW/mK2 was obtained for Bi0.905Na0.015Pb0.08CuSeO sample at 773 K because of moderate Seebeck coefficient and low electrical resistivity. A low lattice thermal conductivity of 0.37 W/m-K at 773 K was obtained in the Bi0.905Na0.015Pb0.08CuSeO. Due to this low lattice thermal conductivity combined with the high power factor, a zT of 0.63 was obtained for the Bi0.905Na0.015Pb0.08CuSeO sample at 773 K.
(Pa) is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen responsible for severe hospital acquired infections in immunocompromised and elderly individuals. Emergence of increasingly drug resistant strains and the ...absence of a broad-spectrum prophylactic vaccine against both T3SA
(type III secretion apparatus) and ExlA
/T3SA
Pa strains worsen the situation in a post-pandemic world. Thus, we formulated a candidate subunit vaccine (called ExlA/L-PaF/BECC/ME) against both Pa types. This bivalent vaccine was generated by combining the C-terminal active moiety of exolysin A (ExlA) produced by non-T3SA Pa strains with our T3SA-based vaccine platform, L-PaF, in an oil-in-water emulsion. The ExlA/L-PaF in ME (MedImmune emulsion) was then mixed with BECC438b, an engineered lipid A analogue and a TLR4 agonist. This formulation was administered intranasally (IN) to young and elderly mice to determine its potency across a diverse age-range. The elderly mice were used to mimic the infection seen in elderly humans, who are more susceptible to serious Pa disease compared to their young adult counterparts. After Pa infection, mice immunized with ExlA/L-PaF/BECC/ME displayed a T cell-mediated adaptive response while PBS-vaccinated mice experienced a rapid onset inflammatory response. Important genes and pathways were observed, which give rise to an anti-Pa immune response. Thus, this vaccine has the potential to protect aged individuals in our population from serious Pa infection.
Shigellosis (bacillary dysentery) is a severe gastrointestinal infection with a global incidence of 90 million cases annually. Despite the severity of this disease, there is currently no licensed ...vaccine against shigellosis.
Shigella
’s primary virulence factor is its type III secretion system (T3SS), which is a specialized nanomachine used to manipulate host cells. A fusion of T3SS injectisome needle tip protein IpaD and translocator protein IpaB, termed DBF, when admixed with the mucosal adjuvant double-mutant labile toxin (dmLT) from enterotoxigenic
E. coli
was protective using a murine pulmonary model. To facilitate the production of this platform, a recombinant protein that consisted of LTA-1, the active moiety of dmLT, and DBF were genetically fused, resulting in L-DBF, which showed improved protection against
Shigella
challenge. To extrapolate this protection from mice to humans, we modified the formulation to provide for a multivalent presentation with the addition of an adjuvant approved for use in human vaccines. Here, we show that L-DBF formulated (admix) with a newly developed TLR4 agonist called BECC438 (a detoxified lipid A analog identified as Bacterial Enzymatic Combinatorial Chemistry candidate #438), formulated as an oil-in-water emulsion, has a very high protective efficacy at low antigen doses against lethal
Shigella
challenge in our mouse model. Optimal protection was observed when this formulation was introduced at a mucosal site (intranasally). When the formulation was then evaluated for the immune response it elicits, protection appeared to correlate with high IFN-γ and IL-17 secretion from mucosal site lymphocytes.
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