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Arrays of interacting 2D nanomagnets display unprecedented electromagnetic properties via collective effects, demonstrated in artificial spin ices and magnonic crystals. Progress toward 3D magnetic metamaterials is hampered by two challenges: fabricating 3D structures near intrinsic magnetic length scales (sub-100 nm) and visualizing their magnetic configurations. Here, we fabricate and measure nanoscale magnetic gyroids, periodic chiral networks comprising nanowire-like struts forming three-connected vertices. Via block copolymer templating, we produce Ni75Fe25 single-gyroid and double-gyroid (an inversion pair of single-gyroids) nanostructures with a 42 nm unit cell and 11 nm diameter struts, comparable to the exchange length in Ni–Fe. We visualize their magnetization distributions via off-axis electron holography with nanometer spatial resolution and interpret the patterns using finite-element micromagnetic simulations. Our results suggest an intricate, frustrated remanent state which is ferromagnetic but without a unique equilibrium configuration, opening new possibilities for collective phenomena in magnetism, including 3D magnonic crystals and unconventional computing.

Biodiversity loss is a major challenge. Over the past century, the average rate of vertebrate extinction has been about 100-fold higher than the estimated background rate and population declines continue to increase globally. Birth and death rates determine the pace of population increase or decline, thus driving the expansion or extinction of a species. Design of species conservation policies hence depends on demographic data (e.g., for extinction risk assessments or estimation of harvesting quotas). However, an overview of the accessible data, even for better known taxa, is lacking. Here, we present the Demographic Species Knowledge Index, which classifies the available information for 32,144 (97%) of extant described mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. We show that only 1.3% of the tetrapod species have comprehensive information on birth and death rates. We found no demographic measures, not even crude ones such as maximum life span or typical litter/clutch size, for 65% of threatened tetrapods. More field studies are needed; however, some progress can be made by digitalizing existing knowledge, by imputing data from related species with similar life histories, and by using information from captive populations. We show that data from zoos and aquariums in the Species360 network can significantly improve knowledge for an almost eightfold gain. Assessing the landscape of limited demographic knowledge is essential to prioritize ways to fill data gaps. Such information is urgently needed to implement management strategies to conserve at-risk taxa and to discover new unifying concepts and evolutionary relationships across thousands of tetrapod species.

Biodiversity loss is a major challenge. Over the past century, the average rate of vertebrate extinction has been about 100-fold higher than the estimated background rate and population declines continue to increase globally. Birth and death rates determine the pace of population increase or decline, thus driving the expansion or extinction of a species. Design of species conservation policies hence depends on demographic data (e.g., for extinction risk assessments or estimation of harvesting quotas). However, an overview of the accessible data, even for better known taxa, is lacking. Here, we present the Demographic Species Knowledge Index, which classifies the available information for 32,144 (97%) of extant described mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. We show that only 1.3% of the tetrapod species have comprehensive information on birth and death rates. We found no demographic measures, not even crude ones such as maximum life span or typical litter/clutch size, for 65% of threatened tetrapods. More field studies are needed; however, some progress can be made by digitalizing existing knowledge, by imputing data from related species with similar life histories, and by using information from captive populations. We show that data from zoos and aquariums in the Species360 network can significantly improve knowledge for an almost eightfold gain. Assessing the landscape of limited demographic knowledge is essential to prioritize ways to fill data gaps. Such information is urgently needed to implement management strategies to conserve at-risk taxa and to discover new unifying concepts and evolutionary relationships across thousands of tetrapod species.

Photovoltaics is amongst the most important technologies for renewable energy sources, and plays a key role in the development of a society with a smaller environmental footprint. Key parameters for solar cells are their energy conversion efficiency, their operating lifetime, and the cost of the energy obtained from a photovoltaic system compared to other sources. The optimization of these aspects involves the exploitation of new materials and development of novel solar cell concepts and designs. Both theoretical modeling and characterization of such devices require a comprehensive view including all scales from the atomic to the macroscopic and industrial scale. The different length scales of the electronic and optical degrees of freedoms specifically lead to an intrinsic need for multiscale simulation, which is accentuated in many advanced photovoltaics concepts including nanostructured regions. Therefore, multiscale modeling has found particular interest in the photovoltaics community, as a tool to advance the field beyond its current limits. In this article, we review the field of multiscale techniques applied to photovoltaics, and we discuss opportunities and remaining challenges. © T. Abu Hamed et al., published by EDP Sciences, 2018.

Synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis and osteitis (SAPHO) syndrome is a rare disease with inflammatory osteoarticular and skin involvement. The pathogenesis of SAPHO syndrome remains unclear, but evidence suggests it may be an autoinflammatory disease triggered upon exposure to infectious agents in genetically predisposed individuals. Induction of the IL-23/Th17 axis as well as neutrophil activation seem to play a key role, and therapies targeting these immunological pathways, including TNF-inhibitors, ustekinumab, secukinumab and the IL-1 inhibitor anakinra are potential treatment options that need further investigation. Here we report a case of a 24-year-old woman suffering from SAPHO syndrome who presented at our clinic with palmoplantar pustulosis and sternoclavicular joint involvement. Previous treatments with topical steroids and keratolytics combined with NSAIDs, intravenous methylprednisolone, methotrexate and salazopyrin had all failed to improve symptoms. Therapy with etanercept was not tolerated, and due to a previous demyelinating peripheral neuropathy, further treatment with TNF inhibitors was avoided. We initiated ustekinumab 45mg, which improved skin manifestations but not joint pain. Dose escalation to 90mg initially improved joint pain, but the dose had to be reduced to 45mg again due to increased infections. During subsequent 45mg ustekinumab treatment joint pain exacerbated so we switched to secukinumab, which improved skin and joint symptoms significantly but was associated with a pustular hypersensitivity reaction. Finally, we began treatment with apremilast, a pan-cytokine approach, resulting in stabilization of the skin and joint symptoms without side effects. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of apremilast as a treatment for SAPHO syndrome.

The formation of the biophotonic gyroid material in butterfly wing scales is an exceptional feat of evolutionary engineering of functional nanostructures. It is hypothesized that this nanostructure forms by chitin polymerization inside a convoluted membrane of corresponding shape in the endoplasmic reticulum. However, this dynamic formation process, including whether membrane folding and chitin expression are simultaneous or sequential processes, cannot yet be elucidated by in vivo imaging. We report an unusual hierarchical ultrastructure in the butterfly Thecla opisena that, as a solid material, allows high-resolution three-dimensional microscopy. Rather than the conventional polycrystalline space-filling arrangement, a gyroid occurs in isolated facetted crystallites with a pronounced size gradient. When interpreted as a sequence of time-frozen snapshots of the morphogenesis, this arrangement provides insight into the formation mechanisms of the nanoporous gyroid material as well as of the intracellular organelle membrane that acts as the template.

Die therapeutische Applikation von Immunoglobulien ( Antikörpern) wird angewandt zur Substitution bei Patienten, welche an einem primären oder sekundären Antikörpermangel leiden, oder zur Immunmodulation bei Patienten mit gewissen Autoimmunerkrankungen, wie z.B. Guillain-Barré Syndrom, Deramatomyositis, Autoimmun Hämolytische Anämie oder Pemphigus Vulgaris, vgl. auch Tabelle

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The triazole fungicide triadimenol is known to have plant growth regulator (PGR) activity in cereals when applied as a seed dressing. The effect of environmental conditions on PGR activity of triadimenol, other triazoles (flutriafol, prothioconazole, tebuconazole), the benzimidazole fuberidazole, imidazoles (imazalil, prochloraz), and the strobilurin fluoxastrobin on barley (Hordeum vulgare) was investigated using commercial seed dressings also including pyrimethanil (anilinopyrimidine) and triazoxide (benzotriazine), under controlled conditions. Irrespective of temperature or soil water content (SWC) triazole-containing seed treatments had a significant effect on the time and rate of plant emergence. Both triadimenolcontaining products significantly reduced the length of subcrown internodes and resulted in reduced shoot length three weeks after sowing. Growth suppression was stronger under optimal environmental conditions (17 to 19°C, 60 % SWC). Under suboptimal conditions – 9 to 10°C and 40 % SWC, respectively – no differences in shoot length were detected five weeks after sowing, whereas under optimal conditions plant growth retardation was still significant. The flutriafol-containing product partly inhibited shoot elongation, but never affected dry mass accumulation and root growth. The strobilurin-containing seed dressing had no marked plant growth activities on seedling emergence, shoot length and subcrown internode, but slightly stimulated root growth under all environmental conditions. The results indicate varying PGR activities of triazole seed dressings in response to mixing partner and growth conditions and suggest an increased stress tolerance of seedlings treated with triadimenol, enabling barley to better cope with suboptimal environmental conditions.

An experimental study was carried out to assess the efficiency of self-cleaning properties of three wheat cultivars and their potential in the protection against Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, a fungus that causes powdery mildew. Leaf samples with intact epicuticular structure were compared to such with wiped wax crystals. Contact angles were determined and the surfaces were subjected to a standardized contamination test with hydrophobic fluorescence powder. Another set of samples was inoculated with conidia of B. graminis and, after various time intervals, exposed to artificial fog or rain. For the intact surfaces of all cultivars contact angles of about 165° were measured. It is therefore suggested that wheat should be termed superhydrophobic. The wiping of the wax crystals led to a significant decrease of contact angles. This fact underlines the importance of surface roughness for achieving extreme water-repellency. In the standardized contamination test significantly more particles remained on the wiped surfaces than on those who had been left intact. This result was ascribed to increased adhesion on the smoothed samples.The inoculation with subsequent precipitation revealed a significantly better removal effect of conidia from intact than from wiped surfaces. This was irrespective of the wheat cultivar. In general, conidia were more effectively removed by rain than by fog. This was probably due to the higher kinetic energy and the greater amount of water when using rain. If fog application was delayed by 3 hours a higher percentage of conidia remained on the surface. As possible causes are discussed increased adhesion by conidia secretions or the development of primary germ tubes.Despite its highly efficient self-cleaning properties proved here, wheat is frequently infected by Blumeria graminis. We conclude that the high water content of the mildew conidia, the ability of Blumeria graminis to germinate at very low humidities and its rapid irreversible adhesi

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