Vancomycin architecture dependence on the capture efficiency of antibody-modified microbeads by magnetic nanoparticles

We show that the ability to control the architecture/orientation of vancomycin on the surface of magnetic nanoparticles has a drastic effect on the ability of the nanoparticles to magnetically confine vancomycin-antibody modified polystyrene microbeads.NRC publication: Ye

Motifs de migration et besoins des néo-ruraux adultes et retraités dans Brome-Missisquoi ainsi qu’une synthèse comparative avec les jeunes néo-ruraux.

Ce rapport sur les néo-ruraux établis dans le territoire de la MRC de Brome-Missisquoi est issu d’un projet financé par le Pacte rural de Brome-Missisquoi 2008. Il en constitue la deuxième étape. Il se situe dans le cadre de la volonté de cette MRC d’adopter une stratégie globale de croissance démographique et de renouvellement de sa population. Plus spécifiquement, il s’agit ici de présenter un portrait des adultes d'âges moyens et des retraités qui ont fait le choix de quitter la ville pour s'installer en permanence en milieu rural. Ce rapport est donc destiné à fournir des connaissances nouvelles et utiles, en particulier aux divers décideurs et acteurs-clefs de la MRC au niveau de leur recherche de solutions, mesures et politiques pour repeupler et dynamiser leur territoire

Verapamil-associated cardiogenic shock in a 71-year-old man with myasthenia gravis: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Myasthenia gravis is a rare neuromuscular disorder associated with a reduction in the availability of acetylcholine receptors at the post-synaptic membranes of skeletal muscles. This is caused by the production of anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies at the neuromuscular junction due to an autoimmune insult, leading to a compromised neuromuscular transmission. Verapamil can influence, in a dose-dependent fashion, the neuromuscular transmission in myasthenia gravis.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a 71-year-old Caucasian man with myasthenia gravis suffering from a cardiogenic shock following a single dose of verapamil. The patient had uncontrolled atrial fibrillation with a heart rate of 120 beats/min. Atenolol 100 mg was started. The next day, verapamil SR 240 mg was started. Two hours after the first dose of verapamil, the patient complained of weakness and dyspnea with signs of shock; his blood pressure was 70/50 mm Hg and heart rate at 101 beats/min. An echocardiogram showed diffuse hypokinesis of both ventricles with an ejection fraction of 20%. Cardiac catheterization was performed and coronary arteries appeared without significant stenosis, but there was a diffuse hypokinesis. Verapamil was stopped and the patient received intravenous glucagon and calcium chloride. Both the anti-acetylcholine receptor and anti-striated muscle antibodies tested positive. A few hours later, another echocardiogram showed an improvement in the ventricular function, which returned to normal five days later.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Caution is needed when administering verapamil to patients with myasthenia gravis, especially when the anti-acetylcholine receptor and anti-striated muscle antibodies titres are positive.</p

Dual phase-shift Bragg grating silicon photonic modulator operating up to 60 Gb/s

We demonstrate PAM-4 and OOK operation of a novel silicon photonic modulator. The modulator design is based on two phase-shifts in a Bragg Grating structure driven in a push pull configuration. Back-to-back PAM-4 modulation is demonstrated below the FEC threshold at up to 60 Gb/s. OOK modulation is also shown up to 55 Gb/s with MMSE equalization and up to 50 Gb/s without equalization. Eye diagrams and BER curves at different bit rates are provided for both PAM-4 and OOK modulations. To our knowledge, this structure is the fastest silicon photonic modulator based on Bragg gratings, reaching modulation speed comparable to the fastest Mach-Zehnder modulators and micro-ring modulators

Linear and nonlinear optical properties of carbon nanotube-coated single-mode optical fiber gratings

This paper was published in OPTICS LETTERS and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.36.002104. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law[EN] Single-wall carbon nanotube deposition on the cladding of optical fibers has been carried out to fabricate an all-fiber nonlinear device. Two different nanotube deposition techniques were studied. The first consisted of repeatedly immersing the optical fiber into a nanotube supension, increasing the thickness of the coating in each step. The second deposition involved wrapping a thin film of nanotubes around the optical fiber. For both cases, interaction of transmitted light through the fiber core with the external coating was assisted by the cladding mode resonances of a tilted fiber Bragg grating. Ultrafast nonlinear effects of the nanotube-coated fiber were measured by means of a pump-probe pulses experiment. © 2011 Optical Society of America.This work was financially supported by the European Commission under the FP7 EURO-FOS Network of Excellence (ICT-2007-2-224402), the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia SINADEC project (TEC2008-06333), and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The work of G. E. Villanueva was supported by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia Formación de Profesorado Universitario programs. The work of P. Pérez-Millán was supported by the Juan de la Cierva program, JCI-2009-05805.Villanueva Ibáñez, GE.; Jakubinek, M.; Simard, B.; Oton Nieto, CJ.; Matres Abril, J.; Shao, L.; Pérez Millán, P.... (2011). Linear and nonlinear optical properties of carbon nanotube-coated single-mode optical fiber gratings. Optics Letters. 36(11):2104-2106. https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.36.002104S210421063611Sakakibara, Y., Rozhin, A. G., Kataura, H., Achiba, Y., & Tokumoto, M. (2005). Carbon Nanotube-Poly(vinylalcohol) Nanocomposite Film Devices: Applications for Femtosecond Fiber Laser Mode Lockers and Optical Amplifier Noise Suppressors. Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 44(4A), 1621-1625. doi:10.1143/jjap.44.1621Chow, K. K., Yamashita, S., & Song, Y. W. (2009). A widely tunable wavelength converter based on nonlinear polarization rotation in a carbon-nanotube-deposited D-shaped fiber. Optics Express, 17(9), 7664. doi:10.1364/oe.17.007664Set, S. Y., Yaguchi, H., Tanaka, Y., & Jablonski, M. (2004). Ultrafast Fiber Pulsed Lasers Incorporating Carbon Nanotubes. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 10(1), 137-146. doi:10.1109/jstqe.2003.822912Chow, K. K., Tsuji, M., & Yamashita, S. (2010). Single-walled carbon-nanotube-deposited tapered fiber for four-wave mixing based wavelength conversion. Applied Physics Letters, 96(6), 061104. doi:10.1063/1.3304789Chow, K. K., & Yamashita, S. (2009). Four-wave mixing in a single-walled carbon-nanotube-deposited D-shaped fiber and its application in tunable wavelength conversion. Optics Express, 17(18), 15608. doi:10.1364/oe.17.015608Choi, S. Y., Rotermund, F., Jung, H., Oh, K., & Yeom, D.-I. (2009). Femtosecond mode-locked fiber laser employing a hollow optical fiber filled with carbon nanotube dispersion as saturable absorber. Optics Express, 17(24), 21788. doi:10.1364/oe.17.021788Chan, C.-F., Chen, C., Jafari, A., Laronche, A., Thomson, D. J., & Albert, J. (2007). Optical fiber refractometer using narrowband cladding-mode resonance shifts. Applied Optics, 46(7), 1142. doi:10.1364/ao.46.001142Kingston, C. T., Jakubek, Z. J., Dénommée, S., & Simard, B. (2004). Efficient laser synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes through laser heating of the condensing vaporization plume. Carbon, 42(8-9), 1657-1664. doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2004.02.020Jakubinek, M. B., Johnson, M. B., White, M. A., Guan, J., & Simard, B. (2010). Novel Method to Produce Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Films and Their Thermal and Electrical Properties. Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 10(12), 8151-8157. doi:10.1166/jnn.2010.3014Vallaitis, T., Koos, C., Bonk, R., Freude, W., Laemmlin, M., Meuer, C., … Leuthold, J. (2008). Slow and fast dynamics of gain and phase in a quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifier. Optics Express, 16(1), 170. doi:10.1364/oe.16.00017

Laser-assisted synthesis of superparamagnetic Fe@Au core-shell nanoparticles

Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Aestivation of the African Malaria Mosquito, Anopheles gambiae in the Sahel

The African malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, inhabits diverse environments including dry savannas, where surface waters required for larval development are absent for 4–8 months per year. Under such conditions, An. gambiae virtually disappears. Whether populations survive the long dry season by aestivation (a dormant state promoting extended longevity during the summer) or are reestablished by migrants from distant locations where larval sites persist has remained an enigma for over 60 years. Resolving this question is important, because fragile dry season populations may be more susceptible to control. Here, we show unequivocally that An. gambiae aestivates based on a demographic study and a mark release–recapture experiment spanning the period from the end of one wet season to the beginning of the next. During the dry season, An. gambiae was barely detectable in Sahelian villages of Mali. Five days after the first rain, before a new generation of adults could be produced, mosquito abundance surged 10-fold, implying that most mosquitoes were concealed locally until the rain. Four days after the first rain, a marked female An. gambiae s.s. was recaptured. Initially captured, marked, and released at the end of the previous wet season, she has survived the 7-month-long dry season. These results provide evidence that An. gambiae persists throughout the dry season by aestivation and open new questions for mosquito and parasite research. Improved malaria control by targeting aestivating mosquitoes using existing or novel strategies may be possible

Synergies and Prospects for Early Resolution of the Neutrino Mass Ordering

The measurement of neutrino Mass Ordering (MO) is a fundamental element for the understanding of leptonic flavour sector of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Its determination relies on the precise measurement of $\Delta m^2_{31}$ and $\Delta m^2_{32}$ using either neutrino vacuum oscillations, such as the ones studied by medium baseline reactor experiments, or matter effect modified oscillations such as those manifesting in long-baseline neutrino beams (LB$\nu$B) or atmospheric neutrino experiments. Despite existing MO indication today, a fully resolved MO measurement ($\geq$5$\sigma$) is most likely to await for the next generation of neutrino experiments: JUNO, whose stand-alone sensitivity is $\sim$3$\sigma$, or LB$\nu$B experiments (DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande). Upcoming atmospheric neutrino experiments are also expected to provide precious information. In this work, we study the possible context for the earliest full MO resolution. A firm resolution is possible even before 2028, exploiting mainly vacuum oscillation, upon the combination of JUNO and the current generation of LB$\nu$B experiments (NOvA and T2K). This opportunity is possible thanks to a powerful synergy boosting the overall sensitivity where the sub-percent precision of $\Delta m^2_{32}$ by LB$\nu$B experiments is found to be the leading order term for the MO earliest discovery. We also found that the comparison between matter and vacuum driven oscillation results enables unique discovery potential for physics beyond the Standard Model.Comment: Entitled in arXiv:2008.11280v1 as "Earliest Resolution to the Neutrino Mass Ordering?

SPH fluids for viscous jet buckling

We present a novel meshfree technique for animating\ud free surface viscous liquids with jet buckling effects, such as\ud coiling and folding. Our technique is based on Smoothed Particle\ud Hydrodynamics (SPH) fluids and allows more realistic and\ud complex viscous behaviors than the preceding SPH frameworks\ud in computer animation literature. The viscous liquid is modeled\ud by a non-Newtonian fluid flow and the variable viscosity under\ud shear stress is achieved using a viscosity model known as Cross\ud model. The proposed technique is efficient and stable, and our\ud framework can animate scenarios with high resolution of SPH\ud particles in which the simulation speed is significantly accelerated\ud by using Computer Unified Device Architecture (CUDA)\ud computing platform. This work also includes several examples\ud that demonstrate the ability of our technique.FAPESP - processos nos. 2013/19760-5 e 2014/11981-5FAPES - processos no. 53600100/11CNP

Recent Advances in Neural Recording Microsystems

The accelerating pace of research in neuroscience has created a considerable demand for neural interfacing microsystems capable of monitoring the activity of large groups of neurons. These emerging tools have revealed a tremendous potential for the advancement of knowledge in brain research and for the development of useful clinical applications. They can extract the relevant control signals directly from the brain enabling individuals with severe disabilities to communicate their intentions to other devices, like computers or various prostheses. Such microsystems are self-contained devices composed of a neural probe attached with an integrated circuit for extracting neural signals from multiple channels, and transferring the data outside the body. The greatest challenge facing development of such emerging devices into viable clinical systems involves addressing their small form factor and low-power consumption constraints, while providing superior resolution. In this paper, we survey the recent progress in the design and the implementation of multi-channel neural recording Microsystems, with particular emphasis on the design of recording and telemetry electronics. An overview of the numerous neural signal modalities is given and the existing microsystem topologies are covered. We present energy-efficient sensory circuits to retrieve weak signals from neural probes and we compare them. We cover data management and smart power scheduling approaches, and we review advances in low-power telemetry. Finally, we conclude by summarizing the remaining challenges and by highlighting the emerging trends in the field