Electrostatic Aspect of the Proton Reactivity in Concentrated Electrolyte Solutions.

Water-in-salt electrolytes with a surprisingly large electrochemical stability window of ≤3 V have revived interest in aqueous electrolytes for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. However, recent reports of acidic pH measured in concentrated electrolyte solutions appear to be in contradiction with the suppressed activity of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Therefore, the fundamental thermodynamics of proton reactivity in concentrated electrolyte solutions remains elusive.

Modeling of Nanomaterials for Supercapacitors: Beyond Carbon Electrodes.

Capacitive storage devices allow for fast charge and discharge cycles, making them the perfect complements to batteries for high power applications. Many materials display interesting capacitive properties when they are put in contact with ionic solutions despite their very different structures and (surface) reactivity. Among them, nanocarbons are the most important for practical applications, but many nanomaterials have recently emerged, such as conductive metal-organic frameworks, 2D materials, and a wide variety of metal oxides.

Evaluation of Clinical Meaningfulness of Fortasyn Connect in Terms of "Time Saved".

Assessment of meaningfulness in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is challenging, particularly in early disease. Converting clinical outcomes to disease progression time allows assessment of treatment effects using a metric that is understandable and meaningful: time. We demonstrate time savings assessments using meta time component tests (TCTs) in the LipiDiDiet multinutrient RCT.

Combined Evidence for a Long-Term, Clinical Slowing Effect of Multinutrient Intervention in Prodromal Alzheimer's Disease: Post-Hoc Analysis of 3-Year Data from the LipiDiDiet Trial.

The LipiDiDiet randomized clinical trial is evaluating the long term effects of a multinutrient intervention (Fortasyn Connect) compared with control in participants with prodromal AD. In this post-hoc analysis we used the Alzheimer's Disease Composite Score (ADCOMS) as a measure of cognition and global function, together with a global statistical test (GST) and Bayesian hierarchical modelling (BHM) to evaluate the totality of evidence for an effect of the intervention over 36 months. The analysis includes 67 participants (39 active, 28 control) with change from baseline data after 36 months intervention.

Vertical traction device prevents abdominal wall retraction and facilitates early primary fascial closure of septic and non-septic open abdomen.

Purpose: One of the major challenges in the management of patients with septic and non-septic open abdomen (OA) is to control abdominal wall retraction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a novel vertical traction device (VTD) on primary fascial closure (PFC) and prevention of fascial retraction.

Methods: Twenty patients treated with OA were included in this retrospective multicenter study.

Early experience with the ARTISENTIAL articulated instruments in laparoscopic low anterior resection with TME.

Background: The notion of articulation in surgery has been largely synonymous with robotics. The ARTISENTIAL instruments aim at bringing advanced articulation to laparoscopy to overcome challenges in narrow anatomical spaces. In this paper, we present first single-center results of a series of low anterior resections, performed with ARTISENTIAL.

Searching for Dark Matter with an Optical Cavity and an Unequal-Delay Interferometer.

We propose a new type of experiment that compares the frequency of a clock (an ultrastable optical cavity in this case) at time t to its own frequency some time t-T earlier, by "storing" the output signal (photons) in a fiber delay line. In ultralight oscillating dark matter (DM) models, such an experiment is sensitive to coupling of DM to the standard model fields, through oscillations of the cavity and fiber lengths and of the fiber refractive index. Additionally, the sensitivity is significantly enhanced around the mechanical resonances of the cavity.

Prevention of Fascial Retraction in the Open Abdomen with a Novel Device.

The open abdomen requires intensive and specific treatment efforts. Long hospital admissions, treatment duration, high mortality rates, deferred and delayed wound closures with alloplastic materials or elaborate closure techniques, and the need for subsequent surgical procedures justify and call for implementation of new therapy options. The case presented here demonstrates the use of a new product (Fasciotens Abdomen) to prevent fascial retraction in the open abdomen of an extubated, conscious patient with four-quadrant peritonitis after perforated appendicitis.

Search for a Variation of the Fine Structure Constant around the Supermassive Black Hole in Our Galactic Center.

Searching for space-time variations of the constants of Nature is a promising way to search for new physics beyond general relativity and the standard model motivated by unification theories and models of dark matter and dark energy. We propose a new way to search for a variation of the fine-structure constant using measurements of late-type evolved giant stars from the S star cluster orbiting the supermassive black hole in our Galactic Center. A measurement of the difference between distinct absorption lines (with different sensitivity to the fine structure constant) from a star leads to a direct estimate of a variation of the fine structure constant between the star's location and Earth.

A population of dust-enshrouded objects orbiting the Galactic black hole.

The central 0.1 parsecs of the Milky Way host a supermassive black hole identified with the position of the radio and infrared source Sagittarius A* (refs. ), a cluster of young, massive stars (the S stars) and various gaseous features.

New Test of Lorentz Invariance Using the MICROSCOPE Space Mission.

We use data from the T-SAGE instrument on board the MICROSCOPE space mission to search for Lorentz violation in matter-gravity couplings as described by the Lorentz violating standard model extension (SME) coefficients (a[over ¯]_{eff})_{μ}^{w}, where (μ=T, X, Y, Z) and (w=e, p, n) for the electron, proton, and neutron. One of the phenomenological consequences of a nonzero value of those coefficients is that test bodies of different composition fall differently in an external gravitational field. This is similar to "standard" tests of the universality of free fall, but with a specific signature that depends on the orbital velocity and rotation of Earth.

Alzheimer's Disease Composite Score: A Post-Hoc Analysis Using Data from the LipiDiDiet Trial in Prodromal Alzheimer's Disease.

As research evolves in prodromal AD, the need to validate sufficiently sensitive outcome measures, e.g. the Alzheimer's Disease Composite Score (ADCOMS) is clear.

Relativistic redshift of the star S0-2 orbiting the Galactic Center supermassive black hole.

The general theory of relativity predicts that a star passing close to a supermassive black hole should exhibit a relativistic redshift. In this study, we used observations of the Galactic Center star S0-2 to test this prediction. We combined existing spectroscopic and astrometric measurements from 1995-2017, which cover S0-2's 16-year orbit, with measurements from March to September 2018, which cover three events during S0-2's closest approach to the black hole.

Using joint models to disentangle intervention effect types and baseline confounding: an application within an intervention study in prodromal Alzheimer's disease with Fortasyn Connect.

Background: Many prodromal Alzheimer's disease trials collect two types of data: the time until clinical diagnosis of dementia and longitudinal patient information. These data are often analysed separately, although they are strongly associated. By combining the longitudinal and survival data into a single statistical model, joint models can account for the dependencies between the two types of data.

Gravitational Redshift Test Using Eccentric Galileo Satellites.

We report on a new test of the gravitational redshift and thus of local position invariance, an integral part of the Einstein equivalence principle, which is the foundation of general relativity and all metric theories of gravitation. We use data spanning 1008 days from two satellites of Galileo, Europe's global satellite navigation system, which were launched in 2014, but accidentally delivered on elliptic rather than circular orbits. The resulting modulation of the gravitational redshift of the onboard atomic clocks allows the redshift determination with high accuracy.

Utilization of lactic acid in human myotubes and interplay with glucose and fatty acid metabolism.

Once assumed only to be a waste product of anaerobe glycolytic activity, lactate is now recognized as an energy source in skeletal muscles. While lactate metabolism has been extensively studied in vivo, underlying cellular processes are poorly described. This study aimed to examine lactate metabolism in cultured human myotubes and to investigate effects of lactate exposure on metabolism of oleic acid and glucose.

Lorentz Symmetry Violations from Matter-Gravity Couplings with Lunar Laser Ranging.

The standard-model extension (SME) is an effective field theory framework aiming at parametrizing any violation to the Lorentz symmetry (LS) in all sectors of physics. In this Letter, we report the first direct experimental measurement of SME coefficients performed simultaneously within two sectors of the SME framework using lunar laser ranging observations. We consider the pure gravitational sector and the classical point-mass limit in the matter sector of the minimal SME.

Testing General Relativity with Stellar Orbits around the Supermassive Black Hole in Our Galactic Center.

We demonstrate that short-period stars orbiting around the supermassive black hole in our Galactic center can successfully be used to probe the gravitational theory in a strong regime. We use 19 years of observations of the two best measured short-period stars orbiting our Galactic center to constrain a hypothetical fifth force that arises in various scenarios motivated by the development of a unification theory or in some models of dark matter and dark energy. No deviation from general relativity is reported and the fifth force strength is restricted to an upper 95% confidence limit of |α|<0.

Testing Lorentz Symmetry with Lunar Laser Ranging.

Lorentz symmetry violations can be parametrized by an effective field theory framework that contains both general relativity and the standard model of particle physics called the standard-model extension (SME). We present new constraints on pure gravity SME coefficients obtained by analyzing lunar laser ranging (LLR) observations. We use a new numerical lunar ephemeris computed in the SME framework and we perform a LLR data analysis using a set of 20 721 normal points covering the period of August, 1969 to December, 2013.

Searching for an Oscillating Massive Scalar Field as a Dark Matter Candidate Using Atomic Hyperfine Frequency Comparisons.

We use 6 yrs of accurate hyperfine frequency comparison data of the dual rubidium and caesium cold atom fountain FO2 at LNE-SYRTE to search for a massive scalar dark matter candidate. Such a scalar field can induce harmonic variations of the fine structure constant, of the mass of fermions, and of the quantum chromodynamic mass scale, which will directly impact the rubidium/caesium hyperfine transition frequency ratio. We find no signal consistent with a scalar dark matter candidate but provide improved constraints on the coupling of the putative scalar field to standard matter.

Effects of Souvenaid on plasma micronutrient levels and fatty acid profiles in mild and mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Circulating levels of uridine, selenium, vitamins B12, E and C, folate, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) have been shown to be lower in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) than in healthy individuals. These low levels may affect disease pathways involved in synapse formation and neural functioning. Here, we investigated whether, and to what extent, circulating levels of micronutrients and fatty acids can be affected by oral supplementation with Souvenaid (containing a specific nutrient combination), using data derived from three randomized clinical trials (RCT) and an open-label extension (OLE) study with follow-up data from 12 to 48 weeks.

Differences in nutritional status between very mild Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy controls.

Background: Studies on the systemic availability of nutrients and nutritional status in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are widely available, but the majority included patients in a moderate stage of AD.

Objective: This study compares the nutritional status between mild AD outpatients and healthy controls.

Methods: A subgroup of Dutch drug-naïve patients with mild AD (Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) ≥20) from the Souvenir II randomized controlled study (NTR1975) and a group of Dutch healthy controls were included.

Impact of dietary fat quantity and quality on skeletal muscle fatty acid metabolism in subjects with the metabolic syndrome.

Insulin resistance is characterized by disturbances in lipid metabolism in skeletal muscle. Our aim was to investigate whether gene expression and fatty acid (FA) profile of skeletal muscle lipids are affected by diets differing in fat quantity and quality in subjects with the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and varying degrees of insulin sensitivity. 84 subjects (age 57.

A Period 2 genetic variant interacts with plasma SFA to modify plasma lipid concentrations in adults with metabolic syndrome.

Genetic variants of Period 2 (PER2), a circadian clock gene, have been linked to metabolic syndrome (MetS). However, it is still unknown whether these genetic variants interact with the various types of plasma fatty acids. This study investigated whether common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the PER2 locus (rs934945 and rs2304672) interact with various classes of plasma fatty acids to modulate plasma lipid metabolism in 381 participants with MetS in the European LIPGENE study.

Adipose triglyceride lipase and hormone-sensitive lipase protein expression in subcutaneous adipose tissue is decreased after an isoenergetic low-fat high-complex carbohydrate diet in the metabolic syndrome.

The objective was to determine the contribution of dietary fat quantity and composition to lipolysis and lipolytic gene expression in humans in relation to obesity, insulin resistance, and the metabolic syndrome (MetS). Men and women with the MetS were randomly assigned to one of four isoenergetic diets: a high-fat saturated fat diet (n=10), a high-fat monounsaturated fat diet (n=7), and two low-fat high-complex carbohydrate (LFHCC) diets, one supplemented with 1.24 g/day long-chain n-3 PUFA (LFHCC: n=7, LFHCCn-3: n=8).