Making graphene nanoribbons photoluminescent

We demonstrate the alignment-preserving transfer of parallel graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) onto insulating substrates. The photophysics of such samples is characterized by polarized Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies. The Raman scattered light and the PL are polarized along the GNR axis. The Raman cross section as a function of excitation energy has distinct excitonic peaks associated with transitions between the one-dimensional parabolic subbands. We find that the PL of GNRs is intrinsically low but can be strongly enhanced by blue laser irradiation in ambient conditions or hydrogenation in ultrahigh vacuum. These functionalization routes cause the formation of sp3 defects in GNRs. We demonstrate the laser writing of luminescent patterns in GNR films for maskless lithography by the controlled generation of defects. Our findings set the stage for further exploration of the optical properties of GNRs on insulating substrates and in device geometries

Bail-In from an Insolvency Law Perspective

Coherent privaatrech

Violent aggression predicted by multiple pre-adult environmental hits

Early exposure to negative environmental impact shapes individual behavior and potentially contributes to any mental disease. We reported previously that accumulated environmental risk markedly decreases age at schizophrenia onset. Follow-up of matched extreme group individuals (≤1 vs. ≥3 risks) unexpectedly revealed that high-risk subjects had >5 times greater probability of forensic hospitalization. In line with longstanding sociological theories, we hypothesized that risk accumulation before adulthood induces violent aggression and criminal conduct, independent of mental illness. We determined in 6 independent cohorts (4 schizophrenia and 2 general population samples) pre-adult risk exposure, comprising urbanicity, migration, physical and sexual abuse as primary, and cannabis or alcohol as secondary hits. All single hits by themselves were marginally associated with higher violent aggression. Most strikingly, however, their accumulation strongly predicted violent aggression (odds ratio 10.5). An epigenome-wide association scan to detect differential methylation of blood-derived DNA of selected extreme group individuals yielded overall negative results. Conversely, determination in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of histone-deacetylase1 mRNA as 'umbrella mediator' of epigenetic processes revealed an increase in the high-risk group, suggesting lasting epigenetic alterations. Together, we provide sound evidence of a disease-independent unfortunate relationship between well-defined pre-adult environmental hits and violent aggression, calling for more efficient prevention

Impaired Immunoglobulin G Fc Fragment Function in Diabetics is Caused by a Mechanism Different from Glycation

Peer Reviewe

Possible Significance of Advanced Glycation End Products in Serum in End-Stage Renal Disease and in Late Complications of Diabetes

Peer Reviewe

Facilitating access to further languages: trialling materials combining parallel texts with reflective learning

This article reports on the practitioner research conducted by the English participants in a European Co-operation Programme project entitled Lateral Language Learning. The project was based on the belief that there is much that teachers of a first foreign language can do to prepare heir students to access other languages in the future, and, starting from this premiss, it aimed to develop resources for teachers to use in the classroom. In the English context, a college of further education, the researchers investigated the use of parallel texts within a reflective learning environment. An intitial set of materials using parallel texts in English, Spanish and Portuguese was devised and trialled with four students of A Level Spanish in order to explore how learners could use a parallel text in a related unknown language to identify rules or patterns of correlation and then use this knowledge to access the unknown language. From their observations and evaluation of the students' performance, the researchers drew up a set of principles to inform the design of a second set of aterials. These materials are offered as the basis for a second cycle of practitioner research, to be undertaken by teachers in their own teaching context, and are suitable for use with students learning any foreign language

Glycation of CD59 impairs complement regulation on erythrocytes from diabetic subjects

Type 1 diabetes is associated with anaemia. Although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, the accompanying reticulocytosis implies that erythrocyte lifespan in the circulation is shortened. Among the factors that permit prolonged survival of erythrocytes are the membrane complement regulators. In conditions such as paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria, where erythrocyte expression of these regulators is reduced, erythrocyte survival is compromised and anaemia follows. Recent in vitro evidence indicates that one of the key membrane complement regulators, CD59, is inactivated by glycation in the presence of high concentrations of glucose or other glycating sugars. To ascertain whether glycation-induced inactivation of CD59 occurrs in vivo we examined CD59 surface expression and function on erythrocytes from a cohort with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes (hyperglycaemic) and from matched normoglycaemic controls. Although expression of CD59, assessed using polyclonal anti-CD59 antiserum, was similar in the two groups, erythrocytes from hyperglycaemic individuals were more susceptible to lysis by complement, entirely as a result of the loss of functional CD59. These data implicate glycation-induced inactivation of CD59 as a factor contributing to anaemia in type 1 diabetes