CSF lactate dehydrogenase activity in patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease exceeds that in other dementias

The diagnosis of Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease (CJD) is still made by exclusion of other dementias. We now evaluated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as a possible additional diagnostic tool. CSF LDH levels of patients with CJD ( n = 26) were compared with those in other dementias ( n = 28). LDH isoenzymes were determined in a subset ( n = 9). Total LDH and isoenzyme LDH-1 were significantly higher, whereas the fractions of LDH-2 and LDH-3 were significantly lower in CJD patients. We conclude that in addition to established CSF parameters, LDH and its isoenzymes might serve as a further help to discriminate between CJD and other dementias. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

Rocking motion induced charging of C60 on h-BN/Ni(111)

One monolayer of C60 on one monolayer of hexagonal boron nitride on nickel is investigated by photoemission. Between 150 and 250 K the work function decreases and the binding energy of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) increases by approx. 100 meV. In parallel, the occupancy of the, in the cold state almost empty, lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) changes by 0.4 electrons. This charge redistribution is triggered by onset of molecular rocking motion, i.e. by orientation dependent tunneling between the LUMO of C60 and the substrate. The magnitude of the charge transfer is large and cannot be explained within a single particle picture. It is proposed to involve electron-phonon coupling where C60- polaron formation leads to electron self-trapping.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Carbon nanotube forests as top electrode in electroacoustic resonators

We grow carbon nanotube forests on piezoelectric AlN films and fabricate and characterize nanotube-based solidly mounted bulk acoustic wave resonators employing the forests as the top electrode material. The devices show values for quality factor at anti-resonance of ∼430, and at resonance of ∼100. The effective coupling coefficient is of ∼6%, and the resonant frequencies are up to ∼800 MHz above those observed with metallic top electrodes. AlN promotes a strong catalyst-support interaction, which reduces Fe catalyst mobility, and thus enforces the growth of forests by the base growth mechanism.</jats:p

Characterization of high-quality MgB2(0001) epitaxial films on Mg(0001)

High-grade MgB2(0001) films were grown on Mg(0001) by means of ultra-high-vacuum molecular beam epitaxy. Low energy electron diffraction and x-ray diffraction data indicate that thick films are formed by epitaxially oriented grains with MgB2 bulk structure. The quality of the films allowed angle-resolved photoemission and polarization dependent x-ray absorption measurements. For the first time, we report the band mapping along the Gamma-A direction and the estimation of the electron-phonon coupling constant l ~ 0.55 for the surface state electrons.Comment: 15 text pages, 6 figures Submitted for publicatio

Stability of graphene doping with MoO<inf>3</inf>and I<inf>2</inf>

We dope graphene by evaporation of MoO_3 or by solution-deposition of I_2 and assess the doping stability for its use as transparent electrodes. Electrical measurements show that both dopants increase the graphene sheet conductivity and find that MoO_3-doped graphene is significantly more stable during thermal cycling. Raman spectroscopy finds that neither dopant creates defects in the graphene lattice. In-situ photoemission determines the minimum necessary thickness of MoO_3 for full graphene doping.This is the author's accepted manuscript. Copyright (2014) American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters (volume 105) and may be found at http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/105/10/10.1063/1.489502

Low-Temperature Growth of Carbon Nanotube Forests Consisting of Tubes with Narrow Inner Spacing Using Co/Al/Mo Catalyst on Conductive Supports.

We grow dense carbon nanotube forests at 450 °C on Cu support using Co/Al/Mo multilayer catalyst. As a partial barrier layer for the diffusion of Co into Mo, we apply very thin Al layer with the nominal thickness of 0.50 nm between Co and Mo. This Al layer plays an important role in the growth of dense CNT forests, partially preventing the Co-Mo interaction. The forests have an average height of ∼300 nm and a mass density of 1.2 g cm(-3) with tubes exhibiting extremely narrow inner spacing. An ohmic behavior is confirmed between the forest and Cu support with the lowest resistance of ∼8 kΩ. The forest shows a high thermal effusivity of 1840 J s(-0.5) m(-2) K(-1), and a thermal conductivity of 4.0 J s(-1) m(-1) K(-1), suggesting that these forests are useful for heat dissipation devices.This work has been funded by the European projects Technotubes and Grafol. H.S. acknowledges a research fellowship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsami.5b04846

Engaging, Standing, and Stepping: Evaluating Anthropological Activism on an Amazonian Petro-Frontier

Anthropologists and activists portray the lives and lands of Ecuador’s Indigenous Cofán people as a case study of the damage caused by petroleum extraction. Yet during my fieldwork on the issue, I began to question the nature of the Cofán-oil encounter when the community in which I worked decided to allow oil companies onto their land. In this article, I examine my own involvements with Cofán oil politics in dialogue with Stuart Kirsch’s concept of ‘engaged anthropology’ and Kim TallBear’s call for researchers to ‘stand with’ their research subjects. I argue that anthropological activism is necessarily a complex and shifting affair, especially when our collaborators’ perspectives diverge from our own regarding the best possible paths to their wellbeing. I suggest that the most ethical option is for anthropologists to commit themselves to continuous, co-con-structed partnerships in which they are perpetually prepared to transform their most basic political and intellectual positions

Temperature-Driven Changes of the Graphene Edge Structure on Ni(111): Substrate vs Hydrogen Passivation

Atomic-scale description of the structure of graphene edges on Ni(111), both during and post growth, is obtained by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) in combination with density functional theory (DFT). During growth, at 470 \ub0C, fast STM images (250 ms/image) evidence graphene flakes anchored to the substrate, with the edges exhibiting zigzag or Klein structure depending on the orientation. If growth is frozen, the flake edges hydrogenate and detach from the substrate, with hydrogen reconstructing the Klein edges

Creating Knowledge: The Literary Dictionary Assignment

A literary dictionary assignment provides honors students with an understanding of the ways knowledge shifts and changes over time as well as an opportunity to create knowledge rather than just recall correct answers. For honors students, reciting the correct definitions of key terms—regardless of discipline—is generally simple. Where they struggle is understanding the ways such definitions may shift over time, shedding or accruing meanings with changes in usage, context, and critical perspective. To allow students to engage with such changes and to continue a tradition of “teaching the conflicts,” I have students create a dictionary of literary terms over the course of the semester. Though Gerald Graff argued for more complex issues, his larger point is worth recalling, namely that knowledge is not a fixed, immutable thing transferred from professor to student and then recited by the student to the professor in an endless loop. Honors students, many of whom struggle under the weight of perfectionism, need especially to understand language as fluid and malleable rather than as fixed and invariable