Temperature-stable high-power properties of (K,Na)NbO-based piezoelectric ceramics.

Piezoelectric ceramics tailored for high-power resonance applications are investigated, utilizing a composite structure comprising the ferroelectric phase (K,Na)NbO as a matrix integrated with the alkali titanoniobate dielectric phase KTiNbO. Achieving a mechanical quality factor of 750, comparable to lead-based counterparts, highlights their suitability for demanding applications. Crucially, these ceramics exhibit exceptional temperature stability of electromechanical properties, a critical attribute for real-world applications subject to temperature variations.

Diagnostic and epidemiological landscape of anaerobic bacteria in Europe, 2020-2023 (ANAEuROBE).

Introduction: Despite being implicated in a wide spectrum of community- and healthcare-acquired infections, anaerobes have not yet been incorporated into systematic surveillance programs in Europe.

Methods: We conducted a multicentre retrospective observational study analysing all anaerobic strains isolated from blood cultures in 44 European Hospital Centres over a 4-year period (2020-2023). Diagnostic approach, epidemiology, and antimicrobial susceptibility according to EUCAST v.

Taming interleukin-12: Engineering of bispecific antibody-based IL-12 mimetics with biased agonism capacities.

In this work, we have generated bispecific interleukin (IL)-12 surrogate agonists based on camelid-derived single-domain antibodies (sdAbs) targeting the IL-12 receptor (IL-12R) subunits IL-12Rβ1 and IL-12Rβ2. Following immunization and antibody display-based paratope isolation, respective sdAbs were combinatorially reformatted into a monovalent bispecific architecture by grafting resulting paratopes onto the hinge region of a heterodimeric Fc region. Functional characterization using NK-92 cells enabled the identification of multiple different sdAb-based bispecifics displaying divergent IL-12R agonism capacities as analyzed by STAT4 phosphorylation.

Impact of stress-induced precipitate variant selection on anisotropic electrical properties of piezoceramics.

Precipitation hardening has been recently validated as a new mechanism for domain wall pinning and mechanical loss reduction in piezoelectrics. While anisometric precipitates have high pinning strengths, there is limited knowledge about the electrical anisotropy of the precipitation-hardened piezoceramics. In the present work, we successfully orient the precipitates in LiNaNbO piezoceramics by applying a uniaxial stress during the aging and studied its electrical anisotropy.