Integrated Calendar

This talk will introduce the concept of using multiple phases to control properties of bulk ceramic materials for extreme environment applications such as inert matrix nuclear fuel. Multiples phases stabilize the grain size and limit grain growth in nanocrystalline materials, even at high temperatures. The mechanical properties can be tailored using different compositions and optimized using a nanocrystalline grain size. Ceramics with heterointerfaces are found to be even more effective sinks for point defects than same-phase grain boundaries, thus heterointerfaces promote radiation stability under irradiation at high temperatures. The thermal conductivity however can be limited by the Kapitza resistance (thermal resistance) to phonon transport at grain boundaries. We have discovered that the Kapitza resistance of heterointerfaces is significantly higher than same-phase grain boundaries, and must be considered in design of nanocrystalline materials for thermal applications. Lastly, this talk will cover recent results on direct electric field sintering of multiphase ceramics in air, allowing densification and new phase formation in seconds via flash sintering.

Single-cell genomics allows to understand cellular heterogeneity at an unprecedented resolution. The SMARTer ICELL8 Single-Cell System gives more control in the experimental design, more confidence in the data and unique workflow flexibilities while reducing the experimental costs.
The ICELL8 multi-nanowell chip can isolate hundreds of cells from multiple samples at once, from the very small, like nuclei from frozen tissues, to the very large, like primary cardiomyocytes and spheroids.
The SMARTer ICELL8 has been validated for multiple applications, including gene expression analysis, full-length transcriptomics, T-Cell Receptor sequencing and ATAC-seq, which have been developed by Takara Bio’s R&D or ICELL8 users.

Chemical composition and Sr-Nd isotope ratios of sediments from lake Huguangyan Maar and its vicinity are used to infer the hydro-climatic conditions that prevailed during the last Glacial and early- to mid-Holocene periods in South China. Variations in 87Sr/86Sr ratios in the lake sediments indirectly indicate two modes of climate conditions: wet intervals during which the lake sediments are mainly derived from the volcanic-lake rim materials, expressed in low 87Sr/86Sr, and dry intervals during which fine particles from the nearby granitic soils are windblown to the lake and supply local dust with high 87Sr/86Sr ratios to the sediments. These wet and dry intervals generally correspond to regional climate records (e.g., speleothem δ18O profiles in southeast China) and correlate with global climate events, (e.g., Heinrich events). While δ18O records of speleothems from southeast China caves are dominated by the precession signal, the Huguangyan Maar Sr record mainly correlates with obliquity. This most likely reflects masking of the precession signal due to regional climate variability, accentuating the obliquity signal. These local effects may also account for some of the differences that have been observed between the various East Asian monsoon records in the region. More importantly, the masking of the precession signal reveals the influence of obliquity on the hydro-climate regime in South China.