Evidence of robust 2D transport and Efros-Shklovskii variable range hopping in disordered topological insulator (Bi2Se3) nanowires

We report the experimental observation of variable range hopping conduction in focused-ion-beam (FIB) fabricated ultra-narrow nanowires of topological insulator (Bi2Se3). The value of the exponent in the hopping equation was extracted as ~ 1/2 for different widths of nanowires, which is the proof of the presence of Efros-Shklovskii hopping transport mechanism in a strongly disordered system. High localization lengths (0.5nm, 20nm) were calculated for the devices. A careful analysis of the temperature dependent fluctuations present in the magnetoresistance curves, using the standard Universal Conductance Fluctuation theory, indicates the presence of 2D topological surface states. Also, the surface state contribution to the conductance was found very close to one conductance quantum. We believe that our experimental findings shed light on the understanding of quantum transport in disordered topological insulator based nanostructures.Comment: 14pages, 4 figure

Effect of polyamines and natural growth substances on the growth and flowering of rose (Rosa hybrida) cv. Samurai under protected conditions

Investigations were conducted to study the effect of different polyamines and natural growth substances as a pre harvest foliar spray on greenhouse rose cv. Samurai. The study involved preharvest foliar spraying with polyamines like spermine (10 ppm) and spermidine (10 ppm); natural growth substances like enriched banana pseudostem sap (1 per cent) and cow urine (2 per cent). All the treatments improved the vegetative and flowering characters over control. However, among different treatments, foliar spray of spermine 10 ppm, followed by spermidine 10 ppm were highly significant in influencing all vegetative parameters like plant height (79 cm), number of branches per plant (3.73), stem girth (10.69 mm), number of leaves per plant (91.33), leaf area (14.68 cm2) and leaf chlorophyll content (36.96 mg/g). Further, flowering parameters like flower stalk length (61.24cm), bud length (2.70mm), flower diameter (6.50 cm), number of petals per flower (55.90) and vase life (6.63 days) were significantly maximum in plants sprayed with spermine 10ppm. The treatment of foliar spray with spermine and spermidine almost doubled the flower production and improved the flower quality in tems of bud size and vase life as compared to control

Heterogeneity of diabetes outcomes among asians and pacific islanders in the US: the diabetes study of northern california (DISTANCE).

ObjectiveEthnic minorities with diabetes typically have lower rates of cardiovascular outcomes and higher rates of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) compared with whites. Diabetes outcomes among Asian and Pacific Islander subgroups have not been disaggregated.Research design and methodsWe performed a prospective cohort study (1996-2006) of patients enrolled in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Diabetes Registry. There were 64,211 diabetic patients, including whites (n = 40,286), blacks (n = 8,668), Latinos (n = 7,763), Filipinos (n = 3,572), Chinese (n = 1,823), Japanese (n = 951), Pacific Islanders (n = 593), and South Asians (n = 555), enrolled in the registry. We calculated incidence rates (means ± SD; 7.2 ± 3.3 years follow-up) and created Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for age, educational attainment, English proficiency, neighborhood deprivation, BMI, smoking, alcohol use, exercise, medication adherence, type and duration of diabetes, HbA(1c), hypertension, estimated glomerular filtration rate, albuminuria, and LDL cholesterol. Incidence of myocardial infarction (MI), congestive heart failure, stroke, ESRD, and lower-extremity amputation (LEA) were age and sex adjusted.ResultsPacific Islander women had the highest incidence of MI, whereas other ethnicities had significantly lower rates of MI than whites. Most nonwhite groups had higher rates of ESRD than whites. Asians had ~60% lower incidence of LEA compared with whites, African Americans, or Pacific Islanders. Incidence rates in Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos were similar for most complications. For the three macrovascular complications, Pacific Islanders and South Asians had rates similar to whites.ConclusionsIncidence of complications varied dramatically among the Asian subgroups and highlights the value of a more nuanced ethnic stratification for public health surveillance and etiologic research

Effect of various levels of nitrogen on quantitative and qualitative parameters of Rose var. “Top Secret” under poly house condition

Study was conducted to find out the effect of various levels (100, 150, 200, 250,300 mg/plant/week) of nitrogen on growth parameters in terms of qualitative and quantitative traits of rose var. Top Secret. Plant growth in general increased with increase in nitrogen levels. Among various levels of nitrogen application, 300 mg nitrogen per plant per week significantly increased all vegetative growth parameters and showed maximum plant height (117.45 cm), leaf area (98.91 cm2 ) and a number of leaves (62.50). Further, flowering parameters like stalk length (83.53cm), bud diameter (2.45cm), bud length (2.55 cm), number of flowers per plant (7.30) as well as per square meter (53.05) were also significantly maximum in plants given nitrogen @ 300 mg per plant per week. Leaf N (2.94 %), P (0.19%), K (1.87%) and chlorophyll content in leaves (4.41mg/g) was also higher with 300 mg N per plant per week. Vase life (10 days) and anthocyanin content in petal tissue (2.09 mg/g) were found the maximum in plants given nitrogen @ 250 mg per plant per week, which was at par with the treatment of nitrogen @ 300 mg per plant per week. Nitrogen should be applied at the rate of 300 mg/plant/week under protected cultivation as the optimum dose for good plant growth and qualitative flower production in rose var. Top Secret under protected cultivation

Robust broad spectral photodetection (UV-NIR) and ultra high responsivity investigated in nanosheets and nanowires of Bi2Te3 under harsh nano-milling conditions

Due to miniaturization of device dimensions, the next generations photodetector based devices are expected to be fabricated from robust nanostructured materials. Hence there is an utmost requirement of investigating exotic optoelectronic properties of nanodevices fabricated from new novel materials and testing their performances at harsh conditions. The recent advances on 2D layered materials indicate exciting progress on broad spectral photodetection (BSP) but still there is a great demand for fabricating ultra-high performance photodetectors made from single material sensing broad electromagnetic spectrum since the detection range 325 nm to 1550 nm is not covered by the conventional Si or InGaAs photodetectors. Alternatively, Bi2Te3 is a layered material, possesses exciting optoelectronic, thermoelectric, plasmonics properties. Here we report robust photoconductivity measurements on Bi2Te3 nanosheets and nanowires demonstrating BSP from UV to NIR. The nanosheets of Bi2Te3 show the best ultra-high photoresponsivity (~74 A/W at 1550 nm ). Further these nanosheets when transform into nanowires using harsh FIB milling conditions exhibit about one order enhancement in the photoresponsivity without affecting the performance of the device even after 4 months of storage at ambient conditions. An ultra-high photoresponsivity and BSP indicate exciting robust nature of topological insulator based nanodevices for optoelectronic applications.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Cognitive Based Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Detection with Ability Assessment Using Auto Encoder Based Hidden Markov Model

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a frequent Neuro-generative mental disorder. It can persist in adulthood and be expressed as a cognitive complaint. Behavioural analysis of ADHD consumes more time. This is a multi-informant complex procedure due to the overlaps in symptomatology which is the cause for delay in diagnosis and treatment. Dur to these behavioural consequences and various causes, no single test is utilized till now for diagnosing this disorder. Hence, a diagnosing model of ADHD based on Continuous Ability Assessment Test (CAAT) can enhance and balance behavioural assessment. The objective behind this study is to use a deep learning based model with CAAT for predicting ADHD. The proposed Auto Encoder Based Hidden Markov Model (AE-HMM) produces low-dimensional features of brain structures, and a novel Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) is employed for normalizing these features in order to minimize batch effects over populations and datasets. This goal is consistently achieved and thus the proposed model outperforms few standard approaches which are considered like CogniLearn and 3-D Convolutional Neural Networks (3DCNN). It is found that the proposed AE-HMM method achieves 93.68% of accuracy, 90.66% of sensitivity, 87.72% of specificity, 87.78% of F1-score and 74.22% of kappa score

Chop (Ddit3) Is Essential for D469del-COMP Retention and Cell Death in Chondrocytes in an Inducible Transgenic Mouse Model of Pseudoachondroplasia

Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), a secreted glycoprotein synthesized by chondrocytes, regulates proliferation and type II collagen assembly. Mutations in the COMP gene cause pseudoachondroplasia and multiple epiphyseal dysplasia. Previously, we have shown that expression of D469del-COMP in transgenic mice causes intracellular retention of D469del-COMP, thereby recapitulating pseudoachondroplasia chondrocyte pathology. This inducible transgenic D469del-COMP mouse is the only in vivo model to replicate the critical cellular and clinical features of pseudoachondroplasia. Here, we report developmental studies of D469del-COMP-induced chondrocyte pathology from the prenatal period to adolescence. D469del-COMP retention was limited prenatally and did not negatively affect the growth plate until 3 weeks after birth. Results of immunostaining, transcriptome analysis, and qRT-PCR suggest a molecular model in which D469del-COMP triggers apoptosis during the first postnatal week. By 3 weeks (when most chondrocytes are retaining D469del-COMP), inflammation, oxidative stress, and DNA damage contribute to chondrocyte cell death by necroptosis. Importantly, by crossing the D469del-COMP mouse onto a Chop null background (Ddit3 null), thereby eliminating Chop, the unfolded protein response was disrupted, thus alleviating both D469del-COMP intracellular retention and premature chondrocyte cell death. Chop therefore plays a significant role in processes that mediate D469del-COMP retention. Taken together, these results suggest that there may be an optimal window before the induction of significant D469del-COMP retention during which endoplasmic reticulum stress could be targeted

Metabolic Syndrome Derived from Principal Component Analysis and Incident Cardiovascular Events: The Multi Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) and Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC).

Background. The NCEP metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a combination of dichotomized interrelated risk factors from predominantly Caucasian populations. We propose a continuous MetS score based on principal component analysis (PCA) of the same risk factors in a multiethnic cohort and compare prediction of incident CVD events with NCEP MetS definition. Additionally, we replicated these analyses in the Health, Aging, and Body composition (Health ABC) study cohort. Methods and Results. We performed PCA of the MetS elements (waist circumference, HDL, TG, fasting blood glucose, SBP, and DBP) in 2610 Caucasian Americans, 801 Chinese Americans, 1875 African Americans, and 1494 Hispanic Americans in the multiethnic study of atherosclerosis (MESA) cohort. We selected the first principal component as a continuous MetS score (MetS-PC). Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the association between MetS-PC and 5.5 years of CVD events (n = 377) adjusting for age, gender, race, smoking and LDL-C, overall and by ethnicity. To facilitate comparison of MetS-PC with the binary NCEP definition, a MetS-PC cut point was chosen to yield the same 37% prevalence of MetS as the NCEP definition (37%) in the MESA cohort. Hazard ratio (HR) for CVD events were estimated using the NCEP and Mets-PC-derived binary definitions. In Cox proportional models, the HR (95% CI) for CVD events for 1-SD (standard deviation) of MetS-PC was 1.71 (1.54-1.90) (P < 0.0001) overall after adjusting for potential confounders, and for each ethnicity, HRs were: Caucasian, 1.64 (1.39-1.94), Chinese, 1.39 (1.06-1.83), African, 1.67 (1.37-2.02), and Hispanic, 2.10 (1.66-2.65). Finally, when binary definitions were compared, HR for CVD events was 2.34 (1.91-2.87) for MetS-PC versus 1.79 (1.46-2.20) for NCEP MetS. In the Health ABC cohort, in a fully adjusted model, MetS-PC per 1-SD (Health ABC) remained associated with CVD events (HR = 1.21, 95%CI 1.12-1.32) overall, and for each ethnicity, Caucasian (HR = 1.24, 95%CI 1.12-1.39) and African Americans (HR = 1.16, 95%CI 1.01-1.32). Finally, when using a binary definition of MetS-PC (cut point 0.505) designed to match the NCEP definition in terms of prevalence in the Health ABC cohort (35%), the fully adjusted HR for CVD events was 1.39, 95%CI 1.17-1.64 compared with 1.46, 95%CI 1.23-1.72 using the NCEP definition. Conclusion. MetS-PC is a continuous measure of metabolic syndrome and was a better predictor of CVD events overall and in individual ethnicities. Additionally, a binary MetS-PC definition was better than the NCEP MetS definition in predicting incident CVD events in the MESA cohort, but this superiority was not evident in the Health ABC cohort

Joint degeneration in a mouse model of pseudoachondroplasia: ER stress, inflammation, and block of autophagy

Pseudoachondroplasia (PSACH), a short limb skeletal dysplasia associated with premature joint degeneration, is caused by misfolding mutations in cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP). Here, we define mutant-COMP-induced stress mechanisms that occur in articular chondrocytes of MT-COMP mice, a murine model of PSACH. The accumulation of mutant-COMP in the ER occurred early in MT-COMP articular chondrocytes and stimulated inflammation (TNFα) at 4 weeks, and articular chondrocyte death increased at 8 weeks while ER stress through CHOP was elevated by 12 weeks. Importantly, blockage of autophagy (pS6), the major mechanism that clears the ER, sustained cellular stress in MT-COMP articular chondrocytes. Degeneration of MT-COMP articular cartilage was similar to that observed in PSACH and was associated with increased MMPs, a family of degradative enzymes. Moreover, chronic cellular stresses stimulated senescence. Senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) may play a role in generating and propagating a pro-degradative environment in the MT-COMP murine joint. The loss of CHOP or resveratrol treatment from birth preserved joint health in MT-COMP mice. Taken together, these results indicate that ER stress/CHOP signaling and autophagy blockage are central to mutant-COMP joint degeneration, and MT-COMP mice joint health can be preserved by decreasing articular chondrocyte stress. Future joint sparing therapeutics for PSACH may include resveratrol

RNAi Reduces Expression and Intracellular Retention of Mutant Cartilage Oligomeric Matrix Protein

Mutations in cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), a large extracellular glycoprotein expressed in musculoskeletal tissues, cause two skeletal dysplasias, pseudoachondroplasia and multiple epiphyseal dysplasia. These mutations lead to massive intracellular retention of COMP, chondrocyte death and loss of growth plate chondrocytes that are necessary for linear growth. In contrast, COMP null mice have only minor growth plate abnormalities, normal growth and longevity. This suggests that reducing mutant and wild-type COMP expression in chondrocytes may prevent the toxic cellular phenotype causing the skeletal dysplasias. We tested this hypothesis using RNA interference to reduce steady state levels of COMP mRNA. A panel of shRNAs directed against COMP was tested. One shRNA (3B) reduced endogenous and recombinant COMP mRNA dramatically, regardless of expression levels. The activity of the shRNA against COMP mRNA was maintained for up to 10 weeks. We also demonstrate that this treatment reduced ER stress. Moreover, we show that reducing steady state levels of COMP mRNA alleviates intracellular retention of other extracellular matrix proteins associated with the pseudoachondroplasia cellular pathology. These findings are a proof of principle and the foundation for the development of a therapeutic intervention based on reduction of COMP expression