2,602 research outputs found
In-vivo magnetic resonance imaging of hyperpolarized silicon particles
Silicon-based micro and nanoparticles have gained popularity in a wide range
of biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability
in-vivo, as well as a flexible surface chemistry, which allows drug loading,
functionalization and targeting. Here we report direct in-vivo imaging of
hyperpolarized 29Si nuclei in silicon microparticles by MRI. Natural physical
properties of silicon provide surface electronic states for dynamic nuclear
polarization (DNP), extremely long depolarization times, insensitivity to the
in-vivo environment or particle tumbling, and surfaces favorable for
functionalization. Potential applications to gastrointestinal, intravascular,
and tumor perfusion imaging at sub-picomolar concentrations are presented.
These results demonstrate a new background-free imaging modality applicable to
a range of inexpensive, readily available, and biocompatible Si particles.Comment: Supplemental Material include
THE EFFECT OF VISUAL GAZE LOCATION ON BLOCK-START BIOMECHANICS IN ATHLETICS
This study investigated the effects of varying visual gaze location (VGL), by means of externally-focused instruction, during the block-start “set” phase with the intention of optimizing block-start biomechanics for faster starts in an athlete-specific manner. Nine collegiate sprinters performed a series of block-starts while directing their VGL to their personal baselines, and at 0.5m, 1m, 2m and 3m from the start line. Twelve infrared opto-reflective cameras and one force plate were utilized to assess trunk, hip, knee and centre of mass kinematics, and blocks push-phase kinetics. An eyetracker was used to determine participants’ VGL. Some postural changes observed were a significant decrease in pelvic height in the “set” position, and more upright trunk postures at toe-off from the blocks, when participants gazed further at 2m and 3m. Gazing at 1m was effective in eliciting changes to pelvic horizontal velocity. These results suggest that manipulating VGL could help certain athletes to optimize their block-start biomechanics for faster starts. Coaches can consider redirecting VGL in addition to usual instructional methods to improve the block-start performances of athletes
Decoding the multifaceted HIV-1 virus-host interactome
Recently in BMC Medical Genomics, Tozeren and colleagues have uncovered virus-host interactions by searching for conserved peptide motifs in HIV and human proteins. Their computational model provides a novel perspective in the interpretation of high-throughput data on the HIV-host interactome
Transmission of viruses via our microbiomes.
BackgroundBacteria inhabiting the human body have important roles in a number of physiological processes and are known to be shared amongst genetically-related individuals. Far less is known about viruses inhabiting the human body, but their ecology suggests they may be shared between close contacts.ResultsHere, we report the ecology of viruses in the guts and mouths of a cohort and demonstrate that substantial numbers of gut and oral viruses were shared amongst genetically unrelated, cohabitating individuals. Most of these viruses were bacteriophages, and each individual had distinct oral and gut viral ecology from their housemates despite the fact that some of their bacteriophages were shared. The distribution of bacteriophages over time within households indicated that they were frequently transmitted between the microbiomes of household contacts.ConclusionsBecause bacteriophages may shape human oral and gut bacterial ecology, their transmission to household contacts suggests they could have substantial roles in shaping the microbiota within a household
Poloidal-toroidal decomposition in a finite cylinder. II. Discretization, regularization and validation
The Navier-Stokes equations in a finite cylinder are written in terms of
poloidal and toroidal potentials in order to impose incompressibility.
Regularity of the solutions is ensured in several ways: First, the potentials
are represented using a spectral basis which is analytic at the cylindrical
axis. Second, the non-physical discontinuous boundary conditions at the
cylindrical corners are smoothed using a polynomial approximation to a steep
exponential profile. Third, the nonlinear term is evaluated in such a way as to
eliminate singularities. The resulting pseudo-spectral code is tested using
exact polynomial solutions and the spectral convergence of the coefficients is
demonstrated. Our solutions are shown to agree with exact polynomial solutions
and with previous axisymmetric calculations of vortex breakdown and of
nonaxisymmetric calculations of onset of helical spirals. Parallelization by
azimuthal wavenumber is shown to be highly effective
Charge sensing in carbon nanotube quantum dots on microsecond timescales
We report fast, simultaneous charge sensing and transport measurements of
gate-defined carbon nanotube quantum dots. Aluminum radio frequency single
electron transistors (rf-SETs) capacitively coupled to the nanotube dot provide
single-electron charge sensing on microsecond timescales. Simultaneously, rf
reflectometry allows fast measurement of transport through the nanotube dot.
Charge stability diagrams for the nanotube dot in the Coulomb blockade regime
show extended Coulomb diamonds into the high-bias regime, as well as even-odd
filling effects, revealed in charge sensing data.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Improving audio-visual temporal perception through training enhances beta-band activity
Multisensory integration strongly depends on the temporal proximity between two inputs. In the audio-visual domain, stimulus pairs with delays up to a few hundred milliseconds can be perceived as simultaneous and integrated into a unified percept. Previous research has shown that the size of this temporal window of integration can be narrowed by feedback-guided training on an audio-visual simultaneity judgment task. Yet, it has remained uncertain how the neural network that processes audio-visual asynchronies is affected by the training. In the present study, participants were trained on a 2-interval forced choice audio-visual simultaneity judgment task. We recorded their neural activity with magnetoencephalography in response to three different stimulus onset asynchronies (0 ms, each participant’s individual binding window, 300 ms) before, and one day following training. The Individual Window stimulus onset asynchrony condition was derived by assessing each participant’s point of subjective simultaneity. Training improved performance in both asynchronous stimulus onset conditions (300 ms, Individual Window). Furthermore, beta-band amplitude (12–30 Hz) increased from pre-compared to post-training sessions. This increase moved across central, parietal, and temporal sensors during the time window of 80–410 ms post-stimulus onset. Considering the putative role of beta oscillations in carrying feedback from higher to lower cortical areas, these findings suggest that enhanced top-down modulation of sensory processing is responsible for the improved temporal acuity after training. As beta oscillations can be assumed to also preferentially support neural communication over longer conduction delays, the widespread topography of our effect could indicate that training modulates not only processing within primary sensory cortex, but rather the communication within a large-scale network
Evidence for a diffusion-controlled mechanism for fluorescence blinking of colloidal quantum dots
Fluorescence blinking in nanocrystal quantum dots is known to exhibit power-law dynamics, and several different mechanisms have been proposed to explain this behavior. We have extended the measurement of quantum-dot blinking by characterizing fluctuations in the fluorescence of single dots over time scales from microseconds to seconds. The power spectral density of these fluctuations indicates a change in the power-law statistics that occurs at a time scale of several milliseconds, providing an important constraint on possible mechanisms for the blinking. In particular, the observations are consistent with the predictions of models wherein blinking is controlled by diffusion of the energies of electron or hole trap states
Quantum Chaos in Open versus Closed Quantum Dots: Signatures of Interacting Particles
This paper reviews recent studies of mesoscopic fluctuations in transport
through ballistic quantum dots, emphasizing differences between conduction
through open dots and tunneling through nearly isolated dots. Both the open
dots and the tunnel-contacted dots show random, repeatable conductance
fluctuations with universal statistical proper-ties that are accurately
characterized by a variety of theoretical models including random matrix
theory, semiclassical methods and nonlinear sigma model calculations. We apply
these results in open dots to extract the dephasing rate of electrons within
the dot. In the tunneling regime, electron interaction dominates transport
since the tunneling of a single electron onto a small dot may be sufficiently
energetically costly (due to the small capacitance) that conduction is
suppressed altogether. How interactions combine with quantum interference are
best seen in this regime.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, PDF 2.1 format, to appear in "Chaos, Solitons &
Fractals
Energetics of the primary electron transfer reaction revealed by ultrafast spectroscopy on modified bacterial reaction centers
The modification of reaction centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides by the introduction of pheophytins instead of bacteriopheophytins leads to interesting changes in the primary photosynthetic reaction: long-living populations of the excited electronic state of the special pair P* and the bacteriochlorophyll anion B−A show up. The data allow the determination of the energetics in the reaction center. The free energy of the first intermediate P+B−A, where the electron has reached the accessory bacteriochlorophyll BA lies ≈ 450 cm−1 below the initially excited special pair P*
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