Commercial lithium ion cells are now optimised for either high energy density or high power density. There is a trade off in cell design between the power and energy requirements. A tear down ...protocol has been developed, to investigate the internal components and cell engineering of nine cylindrical cells, with different power–energy ratios. The cells designed for high power applications used smaller particles of the active material in both the anodes and the cathodes. The cathodes for high power cells had higher porosities, but a similar trend was not observed for the anodes. In terms of cell design, the coat weights and areal capacities were lower for high power cells. The tag arrangements were the same in eight out of nine cells, with tags at each end of the anode, and one tag on the cathode. The thicknesses of the current collectors and separators were based on the best (thinnest) materials available when the cells were designed, rather than materials optimised for power or energy. To obtain high power, the resistance of each component is reduced as low as possible, and the lithium ion diffusion path lengths are minimised. This information illustrates the significant evolution of materials and components in lithium ion cells in recent years, and gives insight into designing higher power cells in the future.
In 1865, Walt Whitman commemorated the American Civil War with a slim poetry collection, Drum-Taps, but before he could distribute the book, it became "incomplete" when Abraham Lincoln was ...assassinated in April of that year. Whitman knew that he could not honor the war's legacy without recognizing the sacrifice of the Commander-in-Chief, and so retained the books until he could print Sequel to Drum-Taps and sew in these final pages to round out the volume. As in Drum-Taps, not all the poems in Sequel relate battles or muse on militaristic themes; one such poem is "Chanting the Square Deific," a surprising broadening of Trinitarian theology by the introduction of Satan as third person of a Quaternity and the gender inversion of the Holy Spirit as "Santa Spirita," thereby introducing femininity into the traditionally masculine triad. Reading the poem in dialogue with his more famous Lincoln elegy, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," reveals a condensed theology and its application: Whitman's theological "Squaring" of Father, Son, Satan, and Santa Spirita, reinforcing the quaternity of lilac, star, hermit thrush, and memory that helps him articulate his-and his nation's-grief over its loss.
Abstract
Miscanthus
is a perennial wild grass that is of global importance for paper production, roofing, horticultural plantings, and an emerging highly productive temperate biomass crop. We report ...a chromosome-scale assembly of the paleotetraploid
M. sinensis
genome, providing a resource for
Miscanthus
that links its chromosomes to the related diploid
Sorghum
and complex polyploid sugarcanes. The asymmetric distribution of transposons across the two homoeologous subgenomes proves
Miscanthus
paleo-allotetraploidy and identifies several balanced reciprocal homoeologous exchanges. Analysis of
M. sinensis
and
M. sacchariflorus
populations demonstrates extensive interspecific admixture and hybridization, and documents the origin of the highly productive triploid bioenergy crop
M. × giganteus
. Transcriptional profiling of leaves, stem, and rhizomes over growing seasons provides insight into rhizome development and nutrient recycling, processes critical for sustainable biomass accumulation in a perennial temperate grass. The
Miscanthus
genome expands the power of comparative genomics to understand traits of importance to Andropogoneae grasses.
SUMMARY
Bioenergy sorghum is a low‐input, drought‐resilient, deep‐rooting annual crop that has high biomass yield potential enabling the sustainable production of biofuels, biopower, and bioproducts. ...Bioenergy sorghum's 4–5 m stems account for ~80% of the harvested biomass. Stems accumulate high levels of sucrose that could be used to synthesize bioethanol and useful biopolymers if information about cell‐type gene expression and regulation in stems was available to enable engineering. To obtain this information, laser capture microdissection was used to isolate and collect transcriptome profiles from five major cell types that are present in stems of the sweet sorghum Wray. Transcriptome analysis identified genes with cell‐type‐specific and cell‐preferred expression patterns that reflect the distinct metabolic, transport, and regulatory functions of each cell type. Analysis of cell‐type‐specific gene regulatory networks (GRNs) revealed that unique transcription factor families contribute to distinct regulatory landscapes, where regulation is organized through various modes and identifiable network motifs. Cell‐specific transcriptome data was combined with known secondary cell wall (SCW) networks to identify the GRNs that differentially activate SCW formation in vascular sclerenchyma and epidermal cells. The spatial transcriptomic dataset provides a valuable source of information about the function of different sorghum cell types and GRNs that will enable the engineering of bioenergy sorghum stems, and an interactive web application developed during this project will allow easy access and exploration of the data (https://mc‐lab.shinyapps.io/lcm‐dataset/).
Significance Statement
Cell‐type‐specific gene expression directs the structure and function of cells, tissues, and organs, but the identity and regulatory mechanisms controlling these genes are unknown in many species. Here, we dissected five cell types across the Sorghum bicolor stem to reveal cell‐specific functions and gene regulatory networks. Additionally, we spatially resolved the gene networks controlling the differential composition of secondary cell walls and their regulation across the sorghum stem cell types.
Herbicide safeners protect cereal crops from herbicide injury by inducing genes and proteins involved in detoxification reactions, such as glutathione
-transferases (GSTs) and cytochrome P450s ...(P450s). Only a few studies have characterized gene or protein expression profiles for investigating plant responses to safener treatment in cereal crops, and most transcriptome analyses in response to safener treatments have been conducted in dicot model species that are not protected by safener from herbicide injury. In this study, three different approaches were utilized in grain sorghum (
(L.) Moench) to investigate mechanisms involved in safener-regulated signaling pathways. An initial transcriptome analysis was performed to examine global gene expression in etiolated shoot tissues of hybrid grain sorghum following treatment with the sorghum safener, fluxofenim. Most upregulated transcripts encoded detoxification enzymes, including P450s, GSTs, and UDP-dependent glucosyltransferases (UGTs). Interestingly, several of these upregulated transcripts are similar to genes involved with the biosynthesis and recycling/catabolism of dhurrin, an important chemical defense compound, in these seedling tissues. Secondly, 761 diverse sorghum inbred lines were evaluated in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to determine key molecular-genetic factors governing safener-mediated signaling mechanisms and/or herbicide detoxification. GWAS revealed a significant single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associated with safener-induced response on chromosome 9, located within a phi-class
gene and about 15-kb from a different phi-class
. Lastly, the expression of these two candidate
was quantified in etiolated shoot tissues of sorghum inbred BTx623 in response to fluxofenim treatment.
and
transcripts increased within 12-hr after fluxofenim treatment but the level of safener-induced expression differed between the two genes. In addition to identifying specific GSTs potentially involved in the safener-mediated detoxification pathway, this research elucidates a new direction for studying both constitutive and inducible mechanisms for chemical defense in cereal crop seedlings.
The field of engineering is a major contributor to the economic stability and growth of the UK and other economies. Therefore, the efficient operation of engineering companies and firms is vital. ...However, design projects undertaken by large engineering organizations are often beset with a number of problems and constraints that stem from the decision-making process and design process that have been selected. This PhD aims to investigate whether the design processes of design thinking and systems engineering can be combined. This would lead to better customer outcomes and reduced time to market, and thus remove the problems often found in large engineering organizations to improve the overall operational efficiency. The overarching research methodology used in this investigation will be action research and is likely to be predominantly qualitative in nature as it has been found that it is very difficult to establish quantitative metrics for design.
The neurodegenerative effects alcohol use disorder (AUD) have been well characterized and are likely due to the long‐term effects of alcohol on the brain. The molecular events that underlie regional ...neuronal loss are a focus of current research. Chronic inflammation in the central nervous system, termed neuroinflammation, contributes to the progressive loss of neurons in the brain. Using data from genome‐wide association studies and genetic and gene expression data, α‐synuclein was identified as a gene of interest for AUD almost 10 years ago. Despite this and the well‐recognized role of α‐synuclein in mediating neuroinflammation in other neurodegenerative diseases, its role in alcohol‐induced brain damage and AUD is yet to be elucidated. This systematic literature review quantifies and analyzes relationships between AUD, α‐synuclein, and neuroinflammation. The review identified fewer studies focused on the role in AUD of α‐synuclein (30) than on neuroinflammation (177), with published studies heavily centered on the myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MyD88)‐dependent toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4) pathway. The systematic review revealed that no original literature investigates the roles of α‐synuclein and neuroinflammation in AUD and that there are significantly fewer published articles on the role of α‐synuclein in AUD than in other neuroinflammatory conditions. Studies of the role of neuroinflammation in AUD are largely centered on the TLR4 signaling cascade, followed by TLR2 and TLR3, and soluble cytokines such as IL‐10, IL‐1β, and TNF‐α. Key research themes identified in other neurodegenerative disorders provide new insights for further investigation in AUD.
This systematic quantitative literature review explores the relationships among alcohol use disorder (AUD), α‐synuclein, and neuroinflammation, with a focused examination of the neuroinflammatory mediators implicated in AUD relative to other neurodegenerative disorders. The analysis highlights the prevailing significance of the myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MyD88)‐dependent toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4) pathway in the body of literature concerning AUD. There were significantly fewer published studies exploring the role of α‐synuclein in AUD compared to its well‐documented involvement in other neuroinflammatory conditions.
The Miscanthus genus of perennial C4 grasses contains promising biofuel crops for temperate climates. However, few genomic resources exist for Miscanthus, which limits understanding of its ...interesting biology and future genetic improvement. A comprehensive catalog of expressed sequences were generated from a variety of Miscanthus species and tissue types, with an emphasis on characterizing gene expression changes in spring compared to fall rhizomes.
Illumina short read sequencing technology was used to produce transcriptome sequences from different tissues and organs during distinct developmental stages for multiple Miscanthus species, including Miscanthus sinensis, Miscanthus sacchariflorus, and their interspecific hybrid Miscanthus × giganteus. More than fifty billion base-pairs of Miscanthus transcript sequence were produced. Overall, 26,230 Sorghum gene models (i.e., ~ 96% of predicted Sorghum genes) had at least five Miscanthus reads mapped to them, suggesting that a large portion of the Miscanthus transcriptome is represented in this dataset. The Miscanthus × giganteus data was used to identify genes preferentially expressed in a single tissue, such as the spring rhizome, using Sorghum bicolor as a reference. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to verify examples of preferential expression predicted via RNA-Seq. Contiguous consensus transcript sequences were assembled for each species and annotated using InterProScan. Sequences from the assembled transcriptome were used to amplify genomic segments from a doubled haploid Miscanthus sinensis and from Miscanthus × giganteus to further disentangle the allelic and paralogous variations in genes.
This large expressed sequence tag collection creates a valuable resource for the study of Miscanthus biology by providing detailed gene sequence information and tissue preferred expression patterns. We have successfully generated a database of transcriptome assemblies and demonstrated its use in the study of genes of interest. Analysis of gene expression profiles revealed biological pathways that exhibit altered regulation in spring compared to fall rhizomes, which are consistent with their different physiological functions. The expression profiles of the subterranean rhizome provides a better understanding of the biological activities of the underground stem structures that are essentials for perenniality and the storage or remobilization of carbon and nutrient resources.
Contrary to previous studies, we found that Xenopus laevis tadpoles raised in normoxic water without access to air can routinely complete metamorphosis with lungs that are either severely stunted and ...uninflated or absent altogether. This is the first demonstration that lung development in a tetrapod can be inhibited by environmental factors and that a tetrapod that relies significantly on lung respiration under unstressed conditions can be raised to forego this function without adverse effects. This study compared lung development in untreated, air-deprived (AD) and air-restored (AR) tadpoles and frogs using whole mounts, histology, BrdU labeling of cell division and antibody staining of smooth muscle actin. We also examined the relationship of swimming and breathing behaviors to lung recovery in AR animals. Inhibition and recovery of lung development occurred at the stage of lung inflation. Lung recovery in AR tadpoles occurred at a predictable and rapid rate and correlated with changes in swimming and breathing behavior. It thus presents a new experimental model for investigating the role of mechanical forces in lung development. Lung recovery in AR frogs was unpredictable and did not correlate with behavioral changes. Its low frequency of occurrence could be attributed to developmental, physical and behavioral changes, the effects of which increase with size and age. Plasticity of lung inflation at tadpole stages and loss of plasticity at postmetamorphic stages offer new insights into the role of developmental plasticity in amphibian lung loss and life history evolution.
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