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We introduce the setup of a versatile sample chamber for x-ray scattering experiments on liquids delivered by μ-jets. The simple implementation at x-ray light sources, adaptability to different nozzle types, and the availability of a microscope for observation of the jet flow allow for its broad application. In combination with an inbuilt recycling circle, a continuous flow operation is provided. Functionality of the system was demonstrated in a rheology study at PETRA III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dispersions of colloidal platelets in the nematic phase display strong wall anchoring, which competes with the reorientational motion of the director when the system is subjected to flow. We show that the mechanical response to large amplitude oscillatory strain and stress depends on the confinement of the system due to this competition. We elucidate the underlying structural response by deflecting a x-ray beam vertically along the vorticity direction of a Couette geometry, such that the structure can be probed throughout the gap with an unprecedented spatial resolution while recording in situ the mechanical response. We observe strong inhomogeneities in terms of the orientation of the nematic director, depending on the extent of the system's yield during an oscillation. At small strain amplitudes, we observe a small region where the director oscillates between wall anchoring and the Leslie angle, while in the bulk, the director tilts out of the flow–flow gradient plane. At large strain amplitudes, the oscillations of the director are symmetric, close to the wall, and propagate into the bulk. Here, a twinning is observed where the director rotates out-of-plane in two opposite directions. Using the sequence of physical process method to analyze the LAOStrain response for both the mechanical and structural response, we locate the yielding in a small time-window around flow reversal and identify that the bulk is the main contributor to the mechanical response. The structural response to LAOStress is much less pronounced even when the stress amplitude causes significant shear thinning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on high pressure small angle x-ray scattering on suspensions of colloidal crystallites in water. The crystallites made out of charge-stabilized poly-acrylate particles exhibit a complex pressure dependence which is based on the specific pressure properties of the suspending medium water. The dominant effect is a compression of the crystallites caused by the compression of the water. In addition, we find indications that also the electrostatic properties of the system, i.e. the particle charge and the dissociation ofions, might play a role for the pressure dependence of the samples. The data further suggest that crystallites in a metastable state induced by shear-induced melting can relax to a similar structural state upon the application of pressure and dilution with water. X-ray cross correlation analysis of the two-dimensional scattering patterns indicates a pressure-dependent increase of the orientational order of the crystallites correlated with growth of these in the suspension. This study underlines the potential of pressure as a very relevant parameter to understand colloidal crystallite systems in aqueous suspension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy we have measured the rotational modes of concentrated charged gibbsite platelets in the isotropic regime. This has been done by analyzing the data qualitatively using available theories for non-interacting systems. The relaxation spectra do not follow the same pattern as for spherical particles at larger wave vectors. It will be shown that this deviation from the behavior of spherical systems arises from the influence of the rotational modes. In addition, in the isotropic state a pre-transitional peak in the static q-dependent intensity at large q values is discussed. We suggest that this peak originates from a strong local alignment between platelets before the actual phase transition takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common challenge for pump-probe studies of structural dynamics at X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) is the determination of time zero (T0)--the time an optical pulse (e.g., an optical laser) arrives coincidently with the probe pulse (e.g., a XFEL pulse) at the sample position. In some cases, T0 might be extracted from the structural dynamics of the sample's observed response itself, but generally, an independent robust method is required or would be superior to the inferred determination of T0. In this paper, we present how the structural dynamics in ultrafast melting of bismuth can be exploited for a quickly performed, reliable and accurate determination of T0 with a precision below 20 fs and an overall experimental accuracy of 50 fs to 150 fs (estimated). Our approach is potentially useful and applicable for fixed-target XFEL experiments, such as serial femtosecond crystallography, utilizing an optical pump pulse in the ultraviolet to near infrared spectral range and a pixelated 2D photon detector for recording crystallographic diffraction patterns in transmission geometry. In comparison to many other suitable approaches, our method is fairly independent of the pumping wavelength (UV-IR) as well as of the X-ray energy and offers a favorable signal contrast. The technique is exploitable not only for the determination of temporal characteristics of the experiment at the interaction point but also for investigating important conditions affecting experimental control such as spatial overlap and beam spot sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine whether insulin reverses gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM)-reduced expression and activity of human equilibrative nucleoside transporters 1 (hENT1) in human umbilical vein endothelium cells (HUVECs).Research Design and Methods: Primary cultured HUVECs from full-term normal (n = 44) and diet-treated GDM (n = 44) pregnancies were used. Insulin effect was assayed on hENT1 expression (protein, mRNA, SLC29A1 promoter activity) and activity (initial rates of adenosine transport) as well as endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase activity (serine(1177) phosphorylation, l-citrulline formation). Adenosine concentration in culture medium and umbilical vein blood (high-performance liquid chromatography) as well as insulin receptor A and B expression (quantitative PCR) were determined. Reactivity of umbilical vein rings to adenosine and insulin was assayed by wire myography. Experiments were in the absence or presence of l-N(G)-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME; NO synthase inhibitor) or ZM-241385 (an A(2A)-adenosine receptor antagonist).Results: Umbilical vein blood adenosine concentration was higher, and the adenosine- and insulin-induced NO/endothelium-dependent umbilical vein relaxation was lower in GDM. Cells from GDM exhibited increased insulin receptor A isoform expression in addition to the reported NO-dependent inhibition of hENT1-adenosine transport and SLC29A1 reporter repression, and increased extracellular concentration of adenosine and NO synthase activity. Insulin reversed all these parameters to values in normal pregnancies, an effect blocked by ZM-241385 and l-NAME.Conclusions: GDM and normal pregnancy HUVEC phenotypes are differentially responsive to insulin, a phenomenon where insulin acts as protecting factor for endothelial dysfunction characteristic of this syndrome. Abnormal adenosine plasma levels, and potentially A(2A)-adenosine receptors and insulin receptor A, will play crucial roles in this phenomenon in GDM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy experiments on the dynamics of the glass-former polypropylene glycol covering a temperature range from room temperature to the glass transition at Tg = 205 K using silica tracer particles. Three temperature regimes are identified: At high temperatures, Brownian motion of the tracer particles is observed. Near Tg, the dynamics is hyperdiffusive and ballistic. Around 1.12Tg, we observe an intermediate regime. Here the stretching exponent of the Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts function becomes q dependent. By analyzing higher-order correlations in the scattering data, we find that dynamical heterogeneities dramatically increase in this intermediate-temperature regime. This leads to two effects: increasing heterogeneous dynamics and correlated motion at temperatures close to and below 1.12Tg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have used scanning micro x-ray diffraction to characterize different phases in superconducting KxFe2-ySe2 as a function of temperature, unveiling the thermal evolution across the superconducting transition temperature (Tc ∼ 32 K), phase separation temperature (Tps ∼ 520 K), and iron-vacancy order temperature (Tvo ∼ 580 K). In addition to the iron-vacancy ordered tetragonal magnetic phase and orthorhombic metallic minority filamentary phase, we have found clear evidence of the interface phase with tetragonal symmetry. The metallic phase is surrounded by this interface phase below ∼300 K, and is embedded in the insulating texture. The spatial distribution of coexisting phases as a function of temperature provides clear evidence of the formation of protected metallic percolative paths in the majority texture with large magnetic moment, required for the electronic coherence for the superconductivity. Furthermore, a clear reorganization of iron-vacancy order around the Tps and Tc is found with the interface phase being mostly associated with a different iron-vacancy configuration, that may be important for protecting the percolative superconductivity in KA Fe2-ySe2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a detailed investigation of the wave-vector dependence of collective atomic motion in Au49Cu26.9Si16.3Ag5.5Pd2.3 and Pd42.5Cu27Ni9.5P21 supercooled liquids close to the glass transition temperature. Using x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy in a previously uncovered spatial range of only a few interatomic distances, we show that the microscopic structural relaxation process mimics the structure and presents a marked slowing down at the main average interparticle distance. This behavior is accompanied by dramatic changes in the shape of the intermediate scattering functions, which suggest the presence of large dynamical heterogeneities at length scales corresponding to a few particle diameters. A ballisticlike mechanism of particle motion seems to govern the structural relaxation of the two systems in the highly viscous phase, likely associated with hopping of caged particles in agreement with theoretical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The yield point marks the beginning of plastic deformation for a solid subjected to sufficient stress,
but it can alternatively be reached by x-ray irradiation. We characterize this latter route in terms
of thermodynamics, structure and dynamics for a series of GeSe3 chalcogenide glasses with different
amount of disorder. We show that a sufficiently long irradiation at room temperature results in
a stationary and unique yielding state, independent of the initial state of the glass. The glass at
yield is more disordered and has higher enthalpy than the annealed glass, but its properties are not
extreme: they rather match those of a glass instantaneously quenched from a temperature 20% higher than the glass-transition temperature. This is a well-known, key temperature for glass-forming liquids
which marks the location of a dynamical transition, and it's remarkable that different glasses upon
irradiation head all there., (Creative Commons Attribution license.)

The advent of diffraction limited sources and developments in detector technology opens up new possibilities for the study of materials in situ and operando . Coherent X-ray diffraction techniques such as coherent X-ray diffractive imaging (CXDI) and X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) are capable for this purpose and provide complementary information, although due to signal-to-noise requirements, their simultaneous demonstration has been limited. Here, we demonstrate a strategy for the simultaneous use of CXDI and XPCS to study in situ the Brownian motion of colloidal gold nanoparticles of 200 nm diameter suspended in a glycerol-water mixture. We visualize the process of agglomeration, examine the spatiotemporal space accessible with the combination of techniques, and demonstrate CXDI with 22 ms temporal resolution.

Bragg coherent X-ray diffraction imaging (BCDI) has emerged as a powerful technique for strain imaging and morphology reconstruction of nanometre-scale crystals. However, BCDI often suffers from angular distortions that appear during data acquisition, caused by radiation pressure, heating or imperfect scanning stages. This limits the applicability of BCDI, in particular for small crystals and high-flux X-ray beams. Here, we present a pre-processing algorithm that recovers the 3D datasets from the BCDI dataset measured under the impact of large angular distortions. We systematically investigate the performance of this method for different levels of distortion and find that the algorithm recovers the correct angles for distortions up to 16.4× (1640%) the angular step size dθ = 0.004°. We also show that the angles in a continuous scan can be recovered with high accuracy. As expected, the correction provides marked improvements in the subsequent phase retrieval., (open access.)

Purpose: Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a debilitating disease characterized by persistent fatigue and decreased daily activity following physical and/or cognitive exertion. While ME/CFS affects both sexes, there is a higher prevalence in women. However, studies evaluating this sex-related bias are limited., Methods: Circulating steroid hormones, including mineralocorticoids (aldosterone), glucocorticoids (cortisol, corticosterone, 11-deoxycortisol, cortisone), androgens (androstenedione, testosterone), and progestins (progesterone, 17α-hydroxyprogesterone), were measured in plasma samples using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). Samples were obtained from mild/moderate (ME/CFSmm; females, n=20; males, n=8), severely affected patients (ME/CFSsa; females, n=24; males, n=6), and healthy controls (HC, females, n=12; males, n=17)., Results: After correction for multiple testing, we observed that circulating levels of 11-deoxycortisol, 17α-hydroxyprogesterone in females, and progesterone in males were significantly different between HC, ME/CFSmm, and ME/CFSsa. Comparing two independent groups, we found that female ME/CFSsa had higher levels of 11-deoxycortisol (vs. HC and ME/CFSmm) and 17α-hydroxyprogesterone (vs. HC). In addition, female ME/CFSmm showed a significant increase in progesterone levels compared to HC. In contrast, our study found that male ME/CFSmm had lower circulating levels of cortisol and corticosterone, while progesterone levels were elevated compared to HC. In addition to these univariate analyses, our correlational and multivariate approaches identified differential associations between our study groups. Also, using two-component partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), we were able to discriminate ME/CFS from HC with an accuracy of 0.712 and 0.846 for females and males, respectively., Conclusion: Our findings suggest the potential value of including steroid hormones in future studies aimed at improving stratification in ME/CFS. Additionally, our results provide new perspectives to explore the clinical relevance of these differences within specific patient subgroups., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

We investigated the effect of the NaCl concentration (0.3-2M) on the structure and dynamics of hen egg yolk at room temperature and during thermal gelation at temperatures in the range of 66-90 °C utilizing low-dose x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy in ultra-small angle x-ray scattering geometry. With an increase in the salt concentration, we observe progressive structural and dynamic changes at room temperature, indicating the disruption of yolk components such as yolk-granules and yolk-plasma proteins. Temperature- and salt-dependent structural and dynamic investigations suggest a delay in the gel formation and aggregation of yolk low-density lipoproteins with increasing ionic strength. However, the time-temperature superposition relationship observed in all samples suggests an identical mechanism underlying protein aggregation-gelation with a temperature-dependent reaction rate. The sol-gel transition time extracted from kinetic and dynamic information follows Arrhenius's behavior, and the activation energy (460 kJ/mol) is found to be independent of the salt concentration., (© 2024 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).)

We report on the feasibility of Fourier transform holography in the hard X-ray regime using a Free Electron Laser source. Our study shows successful single and multi-pulse holographic reconstructions of the nanostructures. We observe beam-induced heating of the sample exposed to the intense X-ray pulses leading to reduced visibility of the holographic reconstructions. Furthermore, we extended our study exploring the feasibility of recording holographic reconstructions with hard X-ray split-and-delay optics. Our study paves the way towards studying dynamics at sub-nanosecond timescales and atomic lengthscales., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Spatial User Interfaces along the Reality-Virtuality continuum heavily depend on accurate depth perception. However, current display technologies still exhibit shortcomings in the simulation of accurate depth cues, and these shortcomings also vary between Virtual or Augmented Reality (VR, AR: eXtended Reality (XR) for short). This article compares depth perception between VR and Video See-Through (VST) AR. We developed a digital twin of an existing office room where users had top erform five depth-dependent tasks in VR and VST AR. Thirty-two participants took part in a user study using a 1 × 4 within-subjects design. Our results reveal higher misjudgment rates in VST AR due to conflicting depth cues between virtual and physical content. Increased head movements observed in participants were interpreted as a compensatory response to these conflicting cues. Furthermore, a longer task completion time in the VST AR condition indicates a lower task performance in VST AR. Interestingly, while participants rated the VR condition as easier and contrary to the increased misjudgments and lower performance with the VST AR display, a majority still expressed a preference for the VST AR experience. We discuss and explain these findings with the high visual dominance and referential power of the physical content in the VST AR condition, leading to a higher spatial presence and plausibility.

A new experimental setup combining X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) in the hard X-ray regime and a high-pressure sample environment has been developed to monitor the pressure dependence of the internal motion of complex systems down to the atomic scale in the multi-gigapascal range, from room temperature to 600 K. The high flux of coherent high-energy X-rays at fourth-generation synchrotron sources solves the problems caused by the absorption of diamond anvil cells used to generate high pressure, enabling the measurement of the intermediate scattering function over six orders of magnitude in time, from 10 -3  s to 10 3  s. The constraints posed by the high-pressure generation such as the preservation of X-ray coherence, as well as the sample, pressure and temperature stability, are discussed, and the feasibility of high-pressure XPCS is demonstrated through results obtained on metallic glasses., (open access.)

Synchrotron-radiation-based techniques are a powerful tool for the investigation of materials. In particular, the availability of highly brilliant sources has opened the possibility to develop techniques sensitive to dynamics at the atomic scale such as X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS). XPCS is particularly relevant in the study of glasses, which have been often investigated at the macroscopic scale by, for example, differential scanning calorimetry. Here, we show how to adapt a Flash calorimeter to combine XPCS and calorimetric scans. This setup paves the way to novel experiments requiring dynamical and thermodynamic information, ranging from the study of the crystallization kinetics to the study of the glass transition in systems that can be vitrified thanks to the high cooling rates reachable with an ultrafast calorimeter., (open access.)

Stimuli-responsive polymers are an important class of materials with many applications in nanotechnology and drug delivery. The most prominent one is poly- N -isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAm). The characterization of the kinetics of its change after a temperature jump is still a lively research topic, especially at nanometer-length scales where it is not possible to rely on conventional microscopic techniques. Here, we measured in real time the collapse of a PNIPAm shell on silica nanoparticles with megahertz x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy at the European XFEL. We characterize the changes of the particles diffusion constant as a function of time and consequently local temperature on sub-microsecond timescales. We developed a phenomenological model to describe the observed data and extract the characteristic times associated to the swelling and collapse processes. Different from previous studies tracking the turbidity of PNIPAm dispersions and using laser heating, we find collapse times below microsecond timescales and two to three orders of magnitude slower swelling times.

Unraveling the mechanism of water's glass transition and the interconnection between amorphous ices and liquid water plays an important role in our overall understanding of water. X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) experiments were conducted to study the dynamics and the complex interplay between the hypothesized glass transition in high-density amorphous ice (HDA) and the subsequent transition to low-density amorphous ice (LDA). Our XPCS experiments demonstrate that a heterodyne signal appears in the correlation function. Such a signal is known to originate from the interplay of a static component and a dynamic component. Quantitative analysis was performed on this heterodyne signal to extract the intrinsic dynamics of amorphous ice during the HDA-LDA transition. An angular dependence indicates non-isotropic, heterogeneous dynamics in the sample. Using the Stokes-Einstein relation to extract diffusion coefficients, the data are consistent with the scenario of static LDA islands floating within a diffusive matrix of high-density liquid water.

Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a devastating disease affecting millions of people worldwide. Due to the 2019 pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), we are facing a significant increase of ME/CFS prevalence. On May 11th to 12th, 2023, the second international ME/CFS conference of the Charité Fatigue Center was held in Berlin, Germany, focusing on pathomechanisms, diagnosis, and treatment. During the two-day conference, more than 100 researchers from various research fields met on-site and over 700 attendees participated online to discuss the state of the art and novel findings in this field. Key topics from the conference included: the role of the immune system, dysfunction of endothelial and autonomic nervous system, and viral reactivation. Furthermore, there were presentations on innovative diagnostic measures and assessments for this complex disease, cutting-edge treatment approaches, and clinical studies. Despite the increased public attention due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the subsequent rise of Long COVID-19 cases, and the rise of funding opportunities to unravel the pathomechanisms underlying ME/CFS, this severe disease remains highly underresearched. Future adequately funded research efforts are needed to further explore the disease etiology and to identify diagnostic markers and targeted therapies., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)