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A skillful balance of theoretical considerations and practical know-how Backed by a team of expert contributors, the Second Edition of this highly acclaimed publication brings a solid understanding of impedance spectroscopy to students, researchers, and engineers in physical chemistry, electrochemistry, and physics. Starting with general principles, the book moves on to explain in detail practical applications for the characterization of materials in electrochemistry, semiconductors, solid electrolytes, corrosion, solid-state devices, and electrochemical power sources. The book covers all of the topics needed to help readers identify whether impedance spectroscopy may be an appropriate method for their particular research problem. The book helps readers quickly grasp how to apply their new knowledge of impedance spectroscopy methods to their own research problems through the use of unique features such as: * Step-by-step instructions for setting up experiments and then analyzing the results * Theoretical considerations for dealing with modeling, equivalent circuits, and equations in the complex domain * Best measurement methods for particular systems and alerts to potential sources of errors * Equations for the most widely used impedance models * Figures depicting impedance spectra of typical materials and devices * Extensive references to the scientific literature for more information on particular topics and current research This Second Edition incorporates the results of the last two decades of research on the theories and applications of impedance spectroscopy. Most notably, it includes new chapters on batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells, and photochromic materials. A new chapter on commercially available measurement systems reflects the emergence of impedance spectroscopy as a mainstream research tool. With its balanced focus on both theory and practical problem solving, Impedance Spectroscopy: Theory, Experiment, and Applications, Second Edition serves as an excellent graduate-level textbook as well as a hands-on guide and reference for researchers and engineers.

Cholera toxoid is an established tool for use in cellular tracing in neuroscience and cell biology. We use a sortase labeling approach to generate site-specific N-terminally modified variants of both the A2-B5 heterohexamer and B5 pentamer forms of the toxoid. Both forms of the toxoid are endocytosed by GM1-positive mammalian cells, and while the heterohexameric toxoid was principally localized in the ER, the B5 pentamer showed an unexpectedly specific localization in the medial/trans-Golgi. This study suggests a future role for specifically labeled cholera toxoids in live-cell imaging beyond their current applications in neuronal tracing and labeling of lipid rafts in fixed cells.

Background Intramyocellular lipids are an important source of fuel for mitochondrial fat oxidation and play an important role in intramuscular lipid homeostasis. We hypothesised that due to the phenotype associated with cancer cachexia, there would exist an association between increasing weight loss and the number/size of intramyocellular lipid droplets. Methods Nineteen cancer patients and 6 controls undergoing surgery were recruited. A rectus abdominis biopsy was performed and processed for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The number of intramyocellular lipid droplets and lipid droplet diameter were calculated from the TEM images. CT scans, performed as part of patients' routine care, were analysed to determine amount of adipose (intermuscular, visceral and subcutaneous) and muscle tissue. Results Compared with controls, cancer patients had increased numbers of lipid droplets (mean (SD) 1.8 (1.9) vs. 6.4 (9.1) per ×2,650 field, respectively, p  = 0.036). Mean (SD) lipid droplet diameter was also higher in cancer patients compared with controls (0.42 (0.13) vs. 0.24 (0.21) μm, p  = 0.015). Mean lipid droplet count correlated positively with the severity of weight loss ( R  = 0.51, p  = 0.025) and negatively with CT-derived measures of intermuscular fat ( R  = −0.53, p  = 0.022) and visceral fat ( R  = −0.51, p  = 0.029). Conclusions This study suggests that the number and size of intramyocellular lipid droplets is increased in the presence of cancer and increases further with weight loss/loss of adipose mass in other body compartments.

The Essential Reference for the Field, Featuring Protocols, Analysis, Fundamentals, and the Latest Advances Impedance Spectroscopy: Theory, Experiment, and Applications provides a comprehensive reference for graduate students, researchers, and engineers working in electrochemistry, physical chemistry, and physics. Covering both fundamentals concepts and practical applications, this unique reference provides a level of understanding that allows immediate use of impedance spectroscopy methods. Step-by-step experiment protocols with analysis guidance lend immediate relevance to general principles, while extensive figures and equations aid in the understanding of complex concepts. Detailed discussion includes the best measurement methods and identifying sources of error, and theoretical considerations for modeling, equivalent circuits, and equations in the complex domain are provided for most subjects under investigation. Written by a team of expert contributors, this book provides a clear understanding of impedance spectroscopy in general as well as the essential skills needed to use it in specific applications. Extensively updated to reflect the field's latest advances, this new Third Edition: * Incorporates the latest research, and provides coverage of new areas in which impedance spectroscopy is gaining importance * Discusses the application of impedance spectroscopy to viscoelastic rubbery materials and biological systems * Explores impedance spectroscopy applications in electrochemistry, semiconductors, solid electrolytes, corrosion, solid state devices, and electrochemical power sources * Examines both the theoretical and practical aspects, and discusses when impedance spectroscopy is and is not the appropriate solution to an analysis problem Researchers and engineers will find value in the immediate practicality, while students will appreciate the hands-on approach to impedance spectroscopy methods. Retaining the reputation it has gained over years as a primary reference, Impedance Spectroscopy: Theory, Experiment, and Applications once again present a comprehensive reference reflecting the current state of the field.

Dynapenia is defined as the age-related loss of muscle strength, and plays a significant role in the loss of physical function and increased risk of disability among older individuals. The need for an early diagnosis supports the search for a biomarker that reflects muscle 'weakening'. This has previously proven difficult due to patient heterogeneity at presentation and lack of understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms. The aim of the present study was to identify potential urinary biomarkers of dynapenia in patients undergoing potentially curative surgery for upper gastrointestinal cancer. Maximum isometric knee extensor strength (strain gauge) and maximum leg extensor power (Nottingham power rig) measurements were taken. Cut-off values for dynapenia were based on the Allied Dunbar national fitness survey. Values below the 5th percentile for the population matched for age and sex on the Allied Dunbar national fitness survey were used to stratify the cohort into dynapenic or normal. Urine samples taken at induction of anaesthesia were analysed by SELDI-TOF mass spectrometry using CM10 and IMAC30 chip-types to establish statistically significant m/z peak fingerprint patterns, followed by in-gel LC-MS/MS to identify molecular constituents. Statistical analysis of decision-tree calculations using Biomarker Pattern software resulted in models with sensitivities of 86 and 96%, specificities of 81 and 89%, and overall correctness of 84 and 93%, when applied to the entire cohort for power and strength measurement-based stratifications using the IMAC30 chip-type and the CM10 chip-type, respectively. The molecular identities of 10 peaks of interest were further investigated. After subtraction of potentially unrelated proteins, they were identified as fragments of Annexin A1, collagen α-1 (XV), perlecan and myotrophin. These results demonstrate that urinary screening can be used to define cancer-associated muscle weakness, and the identification of potential biomarkers could be invaluable in establishing a rapid test to measure and assess dynapenia in the clinical setting.

Myosteatosis, the infiltration of fat in skeletal muscle, is associated with lower skeletal muscle density (SMD) as detected by computed tomography (CT). It increases with aging and obesity and is thought to play a role in the aetiology of insulin resistance and type II diabetes. The clinical significance of myosteatosis in cancer cachexia, however, remains to be determined. Along with demonstrable subcutaneous and visceral lipolysis, myosteatosis may also be a key component of the syndrome. We aimed to investigate the use of human urine as a non-invasive way to screen for molecular biomarkers of myosteatosis/reduced SMD using SELDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Pre-operative CT scans of patients undergoing surgery for upper gastrointestinal or hepatopancreaticobiliary cancer were analysed at the level of the third lumbar vertebrae. Myosteatosis was inferred as the presence of reduced SMD, which was defined as Hounsfield units for skeletal muscle <39.5 (two standard deviations below a normal healthy cohort). Urine was analysed by mass spectrometry using CM10 and IMAC30 SELDI-chips. Peaks observed in the CM10 and IMAC30 chip types, showed marked expressional differences between control and myosteatosis, were further investigated by mascot SELDI matrix matching. A total of 55 patients was recruited; 31 patients were found to be myosteatotic on CT scan. Application of the IMAC30-derived model to the entire cohort showed a sensitivity of 97%, specificity of 71% and an overall correctness of 85%. Application of the CM10 chipset-based model to the entire cohort, showed a 77% sensitivity, 67% specificity and 73% overall correctness. Analysis of the peaks of interest resulted in the identification of significant fragments of cathepsin C, argin, arylsulfatase A and glial fibrillary acidic protein. We identified several potential urinary molecular biomarkers associated with reduced SMD in cancer. Such markers are potentially useful in deriving a clinical screening test for myosteatosis.

AIM: Advancement in ecological methods predicting species distributions is a crucial precondition for deriving sound management actions. Maximum entropy (MaxEnt) models are a popular tool to predict species distributions, as they are considered able to cope well with sparse, irregularly sampled data and minor location errors. Although a fundamental assumption of MaxEnt is that the entire area of interest has been systematically sampled, in practice, MaxEnt models are usually built from occurrence records that are spatially biased towards better‐surveyed areas. Two common, yet not compared, strategies to cope with uneven sampling effort are spatial filtering of occurrence data and background manipulation using environmental data with the same spatial bias as occurrence data. We tested these strategies using simulated data and a recently collated dataset on Malay civet Viverra tangalunga in Borneo. LOCATION: Borneo, Southeast Asia. METHODS: We collated 504 occurrence records of Malay civets from Borneo of which 291 records were from 2001 to 2011 and used them in the MaxEnt analysis (baseline scenario) together with 25 environmental input variables. We simulated datasets for two virtual species (similar to a range‐restricted highland and a lowland species) using the same number of records for model building. As occurrence records were biased towards north‐eastern Borneo, we investigated the efficacy of spatial filtering versus background manipulation to reduce overprediction or underprediction in specific areas. RESULTS: Spatial filtering minimized omission errors (false negatives) and commission errors (false positives). We recommend that when sample size is insufficient to allow spatial filtering, manipulation of the background dataset is preferable to not correcting for sampling bias, although predictions were comparatively weak and commission errors increased. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that a substantial improvement in the quality of model predictions can be achieved if uneven sampling effort is taken into account, thereby improving the efficacy of species conservation planning.

This volume provides the latest research and theory in the area of children's play with their parents. It includes discussions of the basic processes involved in parent-child play, parent-child play in atypical populations of children, and parent-child play from a cross-cultural perspective. Fifteen chapters follow the introduction, \"Parents and Children Playing\" (Kevin MacDonald). The chapters are: (1) \"Dilemmas in Adult Play with Children\" (Brian Sutton-Smith); (2) \"Parent-Infant Games as Dynamic Social Systems\" (Alan Fogel and others); (3) \"Parent-Infant Play as a Window on Infant Competence: An Organizational Approach to Assessment\" (Marjorie Beeghley); (4) \"Parent-Child Play: An Evolutionary Perspective (Kevin MacDonald); (5) \"Rough and Tumble Play: A Fundamental Brain Process\" (Jaak Panksepp); (6) \"Lessons from Primate Play\" (Maxine Biben and Steven Suomi); (7) \"Parent-Child Physical Play: Determinants and Consequences\" (James Carson and others); (8) \"The Necessary Lightness of Mother-Child Play\" (Phyllis Levenstein and John O'Hara); (9) \"Mother-Infant Play and Maternal Depression\" (Jeffrey Cohn); (10) \"Peekaboo across Cultures: How Mothers and Infants Play with Voices, Faces, and Expectations\" (Anne Fernald and Daniela O'Neill); (11) \"Gentle Play Partners: Mother-Child and Father-Child Play in New Delhi, India\" (Jaipaul Roopnarine and others); (12) \"Mother, Older Sibling and Me: The Overlapping Roles of Caregivers and Companions in the Social World of Two- to Three-Year-Olds in Ngeca, Kenya\" (Carolyn Edwards and Beatrice Whiting); (13) \"Persistence of Play and Feeding Interaction Differences in Three Miami Cultures\" (Tiffany Field); (14) \"Cultural Differences in Scaffolding Pretend Play: A Comparison of American and Mexican Mother-Child and Sibling-Child Pairs\" (Jo Ann Farver); and (15) \"The Cultural Context of Mother-Infant Play in the Newborn Period\" (Kevin Nugent and others). Each chapter includes references. (TJQ)

For patients with heart failure, reduced left ventricular ejection fraction and iron deficiency, intravenous ferric carboxymaltose administration improves quality of life and exercise capacity in the short-term and reduces hospital admissions for heart failure up to 1 year. We aimed to evaluate the longer-term effects of intravenous ferric derisomaltose on cardiovascular events in patients with heart failure. IRONMAN was a prospective, randomised, open-label, blinded-endpoint trial done at 70 hospitals in the UK. Patients aged 18 years or older with heart failure (left ventricular ejection fraction ≤45%) and transferrin saturation less than 20% or serum ferritin less than 100 μg/L were eligible. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) using a web-based system to intravenous ferric derisomaltose or usual care, stratified by recruitment context and trial site. The trial was open label, with masked adjudication of the outcomes. Intravenous ferric derisomaltose dose was determined by patient bodyweight and haemoglobin concentration. The primary outcome was recurrent hospital admissions for heart failure and cardiovascular death, assessed in all validly randomly assigned patients. Safety was assessed in all patients assigned to ferric derisomaltose who received at least one infusion and all patients assigned to usual care. A COVID-19 sensitivity analysis censoring follow-up on Sept 30, 2020, was prespecified. IRONMAN is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02642562. Between Aug 25, 2016, and Oct 15, 2021, 1869 patients were screened for eligibility, of whom 1137 were randomly assigned to receive intravenous ferric derisomaltose (n=569) or usual care (n=568). Median follow-up was 2·7 years (IQR 1·8–3·6). 336 primary endpoints (22·4 per 100 patient-years) occurred in the ferric derisomaltose group and 411 (27·5 per 100 patient-years) occurred in the usual care group (rate ratio [RR] 0·82 [95% CI 0·66 to 1·02]; p=0·070). In the COVID-19 analysis, 210 primary endpoints (22·3 per 100 patient-years) occurred in the ferric derisomaltose group compared with 280 (29·3 per 100 patient-years) in the usual care group (RR 0·76 [95% CI 0·58 to 1·00]; p=0·047). No between-group differences in deaths or hospitalisations due to infections were observed. Fewer patients in the ferric derisomaltose group had cardiac serious adverse events (200 [36%]) than in the usual care group (243 [43%]; difference –7·00% [95% CI –12·69 to –1·32]; p=0·016). For a broad range of patients with heart failure, reduced left ventricular ejection fraction and iron deficiency, intravenous ferric derisomaltose administration was associated with a lower risk of hospital admissions for heart failure and cardiovascular death, further supporting the benefit of iron repletion in this population. British Heart Foundation and Pharmacosmos.

With large wildfires becoming more frequent 1 , 2 , we must rapidly learn how megafires impact biodiversity to prioritize mitigation and improve policy. A key challenge is to discover how interactions among fire-regime components, drought and land tenure shape wildfire impacts. The globally unprecedented 3 , 4 2019–2020 Australian megafires burnt more than 10 million hectares 5 , prompting major investment in biodiversity monitoring. Collated data include responses of more than 2,000 taxa, providing an unparalleled opportunity to quantify how megafires affect biodiversity. We reveal that the largest effects on plants and animals were in areas with frequent or recent past fires and within extensively burnt areas. Areas burnt at high severity, outside protected areas or under extreme drought also had larger effects. The effects included declines and increases after fire, with the largest responses in rainforests and by mammals. Our results implicate species interactions, dispersal and extent of in situ survival as mechanisms underlying fire responses. Building wildfire resilience into these ecosystems depends on reducing fire recurrence, including with rapid wildfire suppression in areas frequently burnt. Defending wet ecosystems, expanding protected areas and considering localized drought could also contribute. While these countermeasures can help mitigate the impacts of more frequent megafires, reversing anthropogenic climate change remains the urgent broad-scale solution. Data collected from more than 2,000 taxa provide an unparalleled opportunity to quantify how extreme wildfires affect biodiversity, revealing that the largest effects on plants and animals were in areas with frequent or recent past fires and within extensively burnt areas.