Effects of transverse electric fields on Landau subbands in bilayer zigzag graphene nanoribbons

The magnetoelectronic properties of quasi-one-dimensional zigzag graphene nanoribbons are investigated by using the Peierls tight-binding model. Quasi-Landau levels (QLLs), dispersionless Landau subbands within a certain region of k-space, are resulted from the competition between magnetic and quantum confinement effects. In bilayer system, the interlayer interactions lead to two groups of QLLs, one occurring at the Fermi level and the other one occurring at higher energies. Transverse electric fields are able to distort energy spectrum, tilt two groups of QLLs and cause semiconductor-metal transition. From the perspective of wave functions, the distribution of electrons is explored, and the evolution of Landau states under the influence of electric fields is clearly discussed. More interestingly, the band mixing phenomena exhibited in the energy spectrum are related to the state mixing, which can be apparently seen in the wave functions. The density of states, which could be verified through surface inspections and optical experiments, such as scanning tunneling spectroscopy and absorption spectroscopy, is provided at last

Line nodes, Dirac points and Lifshitz transition in 2D nonsymmorphic photonic crystals

Topological phase transitions, which have fascinated generations of physicists, are always demarcated by gap closures. In this work, we propose very simple 2D photonic crystal lattices with gap closure points, i.e. band degeneracies protected by nonsymmorphic symmetry. Our photonic structures are relatively easy to fabricate, consisting of two inequivalent dielectric cylinders per unit cell. Along high symmetry directions, they exhibit line degeneracies protected by glide reflection symmetry, which we explicitly demonstrate for $pg,pmg,pgg$ and $p4g$ nonsymmorphic groups. In the presence of time reversal symmetry, they also exhibit point degeneracies (Dirac points) protected by a $Z_2$ topological number associated with crystalline symmetry. Strikingly, the robust protection of $pg$-symmetry allows a Lifshitz transition to a type II Dirac cone across a wide range of experimentally accessible parameters, thus providing a convenient route for realizing anomalous refraction. Further potential applications include a stoplight device based on electrically induced strain that dynamically switches the lattice symmetry from $pgg$ to the higher $p4g$ symmetry. This controls the coalescence of Dirac points and hence the group velocity within the crystal.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 3 table

CR3 and Dectin-1 Collaborate in Macrophage Cytokine Response through Association on Lipid Rafts and Activation of Syk-JNK-AP-1 Pathway

Copyright: © 2015 Huang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited Acknowledgments We are grateful to the Second Core Laboratory of Research Core Facility at the National Taiwan University Hospital for confocal microscopy service and providing ultracentrifuge. We thank Dr. William E. Goldman (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC) for kindly providing WT and ags1-null mutant of H. capsulatum G186A. Funding: This work is supported by research grants 101-2320-B-002-030-MY3 from the Ministry of Science and Technology (http://www.most.gov.tw) and AS-101-TP-B06-3 from Academia Sinica (http://www.sinica.edu.tw) to BAWH. GDB is funded by research grant 102705 from Welcome Trust (http://www.wellcome.ac.uk). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Alcohol Use, Abuse, and Dependency in Shanghai

The use of alcohol for social and ceremonial occasions was recorded in Chinese history as early as 1760 B.C. during the Yin Dynasty (Ci-Hai Encyclopedia, 1979:936). The cultural tradition of ancient China placed alcoholic beverages at the center of social occasions, which presumably was the origin of the adage: Without wine, there is no li (or etiquette). Thus, the use of alcoholic beverages has always been accompanied by the concept of propriety and the discharging of one\u27s role obligations m social functions, rather than that of personal indulgence

Hyperspectral sensing for turbid water quality monitoring in freshwater rivers: Empirical relationship between reflectance and turbidity and total solids

Total suspended solid (TSS) is an important water quality parameter. This study was conducted to test the feasibility of the band combination of hyperspectral sensing for inland turbid water monitoring in Taiwan. The field spectral reflectance in the Wu river basin of Taiwan was measured with a spectroradiometer; the water samples were collected from the different sites of the Wu river basin and some water quality parameters were analyzed on the sites (in situ) as well as brought to the laboratory for further analysis. To obtain the data set for this study, 160 in situ sample observations were carried out during campaigns from August to December, 2005. The water quality results were correlated with the reflectivity to determine the spectral characteristics and their relationship with turbidity and TSS. Furthermore, multiple-regression (MR) and artificial neural network (ANN) were used to model the transformation function between TSS concentration and turbidity levels of stream water, and the radiance measured by the spectroradiometer. The value of the turbidity and TSS correlation coefficient was 0.766, which implies that turbidity is significantly related to TSS in the Wu river basin. The results indicated that TSS and turbidity are positively correlated in a significant way across the entire spectrum, when TSS concentration and turbidity levels were under 800 mg·L(-1) and 600 NTU, respectively. Optimal wavelengths for the measurements of TSS and turbidity are found in the 700 and 900 nm range, respectively. Based on the results, better accuracy was obtained only when the ranges of turbidity and TSS concentration were less than 800 mg·L(-1) and less than 600 NTU, respectively and used rather than using whole dataset (R(2) = 0.93 versus 0.88 for turbidity and R(2) = 0.83 versus 0.58 for TSS). On the other hand, the ANN approach can improve the TSS retrieval using MR. The accuracy of TSS estimation applying ANN (R(2) = 0.66) was better than with the MR approach (R(2) = 0.58), as expected due to the nonlinear nature of the transformation model

THE EFFECT OF INSULIN AND CARBOHYDRATE SUPPLEMENTATION ON GLYCOGEN REPLENISHMENT AMONG DIFFERENT HINDLIMB MUSCLES IN RATS FOLLOWING PROLONGED SWIMMING

In the present study we investigated the interactive effects of insulin and carbohydrate on glycogen replenishment in different rat hindlimb muscles. Forty male Sprague Dawley rats were assigned to 5 groups, including 1) sedentary control with carbohydrate supplement (2 g glucose · kg body wt-1), 2) sedentary rats with 16 hours recovery, carbohydrate and insulin (0.5 U · kg body wt-1), 3) swimming without recovery, 4) swimming with 16 hours recovery and carbohydrate supplement, and 5) swimming with 16 hours recovery, carbohydrate and insulin. The swimming protocol consisted of two 3 h swimming sections, which were separated by a 45 min rest. The insulin and carbohydrate were administered to the rats immediately after exercise. At the end of the experiment, the soleus (S), plantaris (P), quadriceps (Q) and gastrocnemius (G) were surgically excised to evaluate glycogen utilization and replenishment. We observed that glycogen utilization was significantly lower in G and Q than S and P during swimming (p <0.05), and S showed the greatest capacity of glycogen resynthesis after post-exercise recovery (p <0.05). In the sedentary state, the glycogen synthesis did not differ among hindlimb muscles during insulin and carbohydrate treatments. Interestingly, with insulin and carbohydrate, the glycogen resynthesis in S and P were significantly greater than in Q and G following post-exercise recovery (p <0.05). We therefore concluded that the soleus and plantaris are the primary working muscles during swimming, and the greatest glycogen replenishment capacity of the soleus during post-exercise recovery is likely due to its highest insulin sensitivity

Evaluation of the anti-inflammatory effect of chalcone and chalcone analogues in a zebrafish model

[[abstract]]The aim of this study was to investigate novel chalcones with potent anti-inflammatory activities in vivo. Chalcone and two chalcone analogues (compound 5 and 9) were evaluated using a caudal fin-wounded transgenic zebrafish line “Tg(mpx:gfp)” to visualize the effect of neutrophil recruitment dynamically. Results showed that treatment with compound 9 not only affected wound-induced neutrophil recruitment, but also affected Mpx enzymatic activity. Moreover, protein expression levels of pro-inflammatory factors (Mpx, NFκB, and TNFα) were also regulated by compound 9. Taken together, our results provide in vivo evidence of the anti-inflammatory effects of synthesized chalcone analogues on wound-induced inflammation.[[notice]]補正完畢[[incitationindex]]SCI[[booktype]]紙本[[booktype]]電子