Intramyocardial Inflammation after COVID-19 Vaccination: An Endomyocardial Biopsy-Proven Case Series

Myocarditis in response to COVID-19 vaccination has been reported since early 2021. In particular, young male individuals have been identified to exhibit an increased risk of myocardial inflammation following the administration of mRNA-based vaccines. Even though the first epidemiological analyses and numerous case reports investigated potential relationships, endomyocardial biopsy (EMB)-proven cases are limited. Here, we present a comprehensive histopathological analysis of EMBs from 15 patients with reduced ejection fraction (LVEF = 30 (14–39)%) and the clinical suspicion of myocarditis following vaccination with Comirnaty^® (Pfizer-BioNTech) (n = 11), Vaxzevria^® (AstraZenica) (n = 2) and Janssen^® (Johnson & Johnson) (n = 2). Immunohistochemical EMB analyses reveal myocardial inflammation in 14 of 15 patients, with the histopathological diagnosis of active myocarditis according the Dallas criteria (n = 2), severe giant cell myocarditis (n = 2) and inflammatory cardiomyopathy (n = 10). Importantly, infectious causes have been excluded in all patients. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has been detected sparsely on cardiomyocytes of nine patients, and differential analysis of inflammatory markers such as CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells suggests that the inflammatory response triggered by the vaccine may be of autoimmunological origin. Although a definitive causal relationship between COVID-19 vaccination and the occurrence of myocardial inflammation cannot be demonstrated in this study, data suggest a temporal connection. The expression of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein within the heart and the dominance of CD4⁺ lymphocytic infiltrates indicate an autoimmunological response to the vaccination.     

Development of an event-specific detection method for genetically modified rice Kefeng?6 by quantitative real-time PCR

The genetically modified (GM) rice Kefeng?6 has gained resistance against several rice pests by inserting the cpti and cry1Ac genes. As this transgenic line is not approved for import, processing and cultivation in the European Union (EU), sensitive and specific detection methods need to be available to monitor any illegal presence of Kefeng?6 in food products within the EU. The aim of this study was to develop and validate an event-specific detection method by means of quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) for the detection of Kefeng?6 in foodstuff. A primer pair and hydrolysis probe were designed according to the right border junction sequence of the transgene. The qPCR assay was validated according to the ENGL/EURL-GMFF guidelines for GMO testing and is presented according to the MIQE guidelines. The in-house validation process resulted in a limit of detection of 5 DNA copies of the transgene with confidence intervals (95?%) between 0.07 and 0.52, a PCR efficiency of 105?% and a correlation coefficient (R ²) value of 0.9997. The specificity of the assay was tested by end-point PCR, gel electrophoresis and subsequent sequencing of the PCR products. By testing DNA of several GM and non-GM crops, cross reactivity of the assay was not observed. Further, 35 food products were analyzed for the presence of Kefeng?6 by means of the event-specific detection method. For 9 out of 35 samples, PCR products for Kefeng?6 DNA were observed.     

Phytochemical composition and antioxidant capacity of various botanical parts of the fruits of Prunus × domestica L. from the Lorraine region of Europe

Mirabelle plums represent a famous fruit from the Lorraine region, however little is known about their phytochemical composition. The oil of the fruit contained predominantly oleic acid (59%) and linoleic acid (29%). The total content of phenolic antioxidants in the whole fruits was 5.338 g/kg with 456 mg/kg (9%), 701 mg/kg (13%) and 4159 mg/kg (78%) detected in the peels, flesh and pits respectively. The peels contained solely 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (270 mg/kg) and rutin (186 mg/kg), the flesh exclusively echinoids (723 mg/kg), whereas the pits contained a rich variety of phenolic compounds (4.2 g/kg) dominated by amygdalin (3.8 g/kg), but with significant contributions from vanillin (102 mg/kg), guajacyl-glycerin-coniferyl aldehyde isomers (87 mg/kg), dehydro-diconiferyl aldehyde (52 mg/kg), and vanillin diglucoside (48 mg/kg). Of the major phenolic compounds tested across a range of in vitro assays, rutin was the superior antioxidant.     

Metal‐containing Polymers via Electropolymerization

Electropolymerization represents a suitable and well‐established approach for the assembly of polymer structures, in particular with regard to the formation of thin, insoluble films. Utilization of monomers that are functionalized with metal complex units allows the combination of structural and functional benefits of polymers and metal moieties. Since a broad range of both electropolymerizable monomers and metal complexes are available, various structures and, thus, applications are possible. Recent developments in the field of synthesis and potential applications of metal‐functionalized polymers obtained via electropolymerization are presented, highlighting the significant advances in this field of research.     

Nanomembrane‐Based,Thermal‐Transport Biosensor for Living Cells

Knowledge of materials' thermal‐transport properties, conductivity and diffusivity, is crucial for several applications within areas of biology, material science and engineering. Specifically, a microsized, flexible, biologically integrated thermal transport sensor is beneficial to a plethora of applications, ranging across plants physiological ecology and thermal imaging and treatment of cancerous cells, to thermal dissipation in flexible semiconductors and thermoelectrics. Living cells pose extra challenges, due to their small volumes and irregular curvilinear shapes. Here a novel approach of simultaneously measuring thermal conductivity and diffusivity of different materials and its applicability to single cells is demonstrated. This technique is based on increasing phonon‐boundary‐scattering rate in nanomembranes, having extremely low flexural rigidities, to induce a considerable spectral dependence of the bandgap‐emission over excitation‐laser intensity. It is demonstrated that once in contact with organic or inorganic materials, the nanomembranes' emission spectrally shift based on the material's thermal diffusivity and conductivity. This NM‐based technique is further applied to differentiate between different types and subtypes of cancer cells, based on their thermal‐transport properties. It is anticipated that this novel technique to enable an efficient single‐cell thermal targeting, allow better modeling of cellular thermal distribution and enable novel diagnostic techniques based on variations of single‐cell thermal‐transport properties.     

Effect of size and shape of metal particles to improve hardness and electrical properties of carbon nanotube reinforced copper and copper alloy composites

Utilizing the extra-ordinary properties of carbon nanotube (CNT) in metal matrix composite (MMC) for macroscopic applications is still a big challenge for science and technology. Very few successful attempts have been made for commercial applications due to the difficulties incorporating CNTs in metals with up-scalable processes. CNT reinforced copper and copper alloy (bronze) composites have been fabricated by well-established hot-press sintering method of powder metallurgy. The parameters of CNT–metal powder mixing and hot-press sintering have been optimized and the matrix materials of the mixed powders and composites have been evaluated. However, the effect of shape and size of metal particles as well as selection of carbon nanotubes has significant influence on the mechanical and electrical properties of the composites. The hardness of copper matrix composite has improved up to 47% compared to that of pure copper, while the electrical conductivity of bronze composite has improved up to 20% compared to that of the pure alloy. Thus carbon nanotube can improve the mechanical properties of highly-conductive low-strength copper metals, whereas in low-conductivity high-strength copper alloys the electrical conductivity can be improved.     

Metasurfaces Atop Metamaterials: Surface Morphology Induces Linear Dichroism in Gyroid Optical Metamaterials

Optical metamaterials offer the tantalizing possibility of creating extraordinary optical properties through the careful design and arrangement of subwavelength structural units. Gyroid‐structured optical metamaterials possess a chiral, cubic, and triply periodic bulk morphology that exhibits a redshifted effective plasma frequency. They also exhibit a strong linear dichroism, the origin of which is not yet understood. Here, the interaction of light with gold gyroid optical metamaterials is studied and a strong correlation between the surface morphology and its linear dichroism is found. The termination of the gyroid surface breaks the cubic symmetry of the bulk lattice and gives rise to the observed wavelength‐ and polarization‐dependent reflection. The results show that light couples into both localized and propagating plasmon modes associated with anisotropic surface protrusions and the gaps between such protrusions. The localized surface modes give rise to the anisotropic optical response, creating the linear dichroism. Simulated reflection spectra are highly sensitive to minute details of these surface terminations, down to the nanometer level, and can be understood with analogy to the optical properties of a 2D anisotropic metasurface atop a 3D isotropic metamaterial. This pronounced sensitivity to the subwavelength surface morphology has significant consequences for both the design and application of optical metamaterials.     

用于细旦长丝变形的MPS CoolFlex

由于能耗可降低30%,MPS变形机可很容易地将速度提高30%,从而使MPS的构想成为一种用于细旦长丝变形加工的十分经济的方案.     

Consensus reaching in multi-agent packet-switched networks with non-linear coupling

An important task for multi-agent systems (MAS) is to reach a consensus, e.g. to align their velocity vectors. Recent results propose appropriate consensus protocols to achieve such tasks, but most of them do not consider the effect of communication constraints such as the presence of time-delays in the exchange of information between the agents. In this article, we provide conditions for a non-linear, locally passive MAS of arbitrary size to reach a consensus, when the agents communicate over a packet-switched network that is characterised by a given topology. Both the cases of constant and switching topologies are considered. The nature of the communication channel imposes constraints that are modelled using stochastic delays of arbitrary distribution. We first embed this model in another, distributed but deterministic delay model and provide conditions for the error introduced by this simplification. In our main result, we provide conditions for the locally passive MAS with distributed delays to reach a consensus. In the case of a fixed topology, the underlying directed graph has to contain a spanning tree. In the case of a switching topology, only the union graph of all graphs that persist over time is required to contain a spanning tree. These conditions are independent of the distribution and the size of the packet delays. To show attractivity of the consensus set, we use an invariance principle for systems described by functional differential equations based on an appropriate Lyapunov–Razumikhin function. This methodological approach is the main contribution of this work and can also be applied to other consensus problems with delays. We illustrate our results by numerical simulations showing synchronisation of non-linear Kuramoto oscillators over a digital network.