Forward genetic studies use meiotic mapping to adduce evidence that a particular mutation, normally induced by a germline mutagen, is causative of a particular phenotype. Particularly in small pedigrees, cosegregation of multiple mutations, occasional unawareness of mutations, and paucity of homozygotes may lead to erroneous declarations of cause and effect. We sought to improve the identification of mutations causing immune phenotypes in mice by creating Candidate Explorer (CE), a machine-learning software program that integrates 67 features of genetic mapping data into a single numeric score, mathematically convertible to the probability of verification of any putative mutation–phenotype association. At this time, CE has evaluated putative mutation–phenotype associations arising from screening damaging mutations in ∼55% of mouse genes for effects on flow cytometry measurements of immune cells in the blood. CE has therefore identified more than half of genes within which mutations can be causative of flow cytometric phenovariation in Mus musculus. The majority of these genes were not previously known to support immune function or homeostasis. Mouse geneticists will find CE data informative in identifying causative mutations within quantitative trait loci, while clinical geneticists may use CE to help connect causative variants with rare heritable diseases of immunity, even in the absence of linkage information. CE displays integrated mutation, phenotype, and linkage data, and is freely available for query online.
To harvest and reuse low-temperature waste heat, we propose and realize an emergent concept—barocaloric thermal batteries based on the large inverse barocaloric effect of ammonium thiocyanate (NH 4 SCN). Thermal charging is initialized upon pressurization through an order-to-disorder phase transition, and the discharging of 43 J g −1 takes place at depressurization, which is 11 times more than the input mechanical energy. The thermodynamic equilibrium nature of the pressure-restrained heat-carrying phase guarantees stable long-duration storage. The barocaloric thermal batteries reinforced by their solid microscopic mechanism are expected to substantially advance the ability to take advantage of waste heat.
First-order magnetic transitions are of both fundamental and technological interest given that a number of emergent phases and functionalities are thereby created [1][2][3][4][5] . Of particular interest are giant magnetocaloric effects, which are attributed to first-order magnetic transitions and have attracted broad attention for solid-state refrigeration applications 6 . While the conventional wisdom is that atomic lattices play an important role in first-order magnetic transitions 7,8 , a coherent microscopic description of the lattice and spin degrees of freedom is still lacking. Here, we study the magnetic phase transition dynamics on the intermetallic LaFe 13-x Si x , which is one of the most classical giant magnetocaloric systems, in both frequency and time domains utilizing neutron scattering and ultrafast X-ray diffraction. We have observed a strong magnetic diffuse scattering in the paramagnetic state preceding the first-order magnetic transition, corresponding to picosecond ferromagnetic fluctuations. Upon photon-excitation, the ferromagnetic state is completely suppressed in 0.9 ps and recovered in 20 ps.The ultrafast dynamics suggest that the magnetic degree of freedom dominates this magnetoelastic transition and ferromagnetic fluctuations might be universally relevant for this kind of compounds.First-order magnetic transitions (FOMTs) take place with abrupt changes of several physical quantities at transition points with respect to temperature, magnetic field, electric field, pressure, stress, etc [1][2][3][4][5] . Such features offer a great opportunity for applications in a variety of functional sensors with high intrinsic signal-to-noise ratios.More importantly, the multiple degrees of freedom are often strongly coupled at FOMTs so that some unprecedented functionalities become possible based on crossing control. FOMTs can be categorized into magneto-structural and magnetoelastic transitions 9 . The former involves two magnetic phases accommodating different
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