3,057 research outputs found
Immobilization of single strand DNA on solid substrate
Thin films based on Layer-by-Layer (LbL) self assembled technique are useful
for immobilization of DNA onto solid support. This communication reports the
immobilization of DNA onto a solid support by electrostatic interaction with a
polycation Poly (allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH). UV-Vis absorption and steady
state fluorescence spectroscopic studies exhibit the characteristics of DNA
organized in LbL films. The most significant observation is that single strand
DNA are immobilized on the PAH backbone of LbL films when the films are
fabricated above the melting temperature of DNA. DNA immobilized in this way on
LbL films remains as such when the temperature is restored at room temperature
and the organization remains unaffected even after several days. UV-Vis
absorption spectroscopic studies confirm this finding.Comment: Eight pages, five figure
Population-level approaches to universal health coverage in resource-poor settings: Lessons from tobacco control policy in Vietnam
Population-based health promotion and disease prevention approaches are essential elements in achieving universal health coverage; yet they frequently do not appear on national policy agendas. This paper suggests that resource-poor countries should take greater advantage of such approaches to reach all segments of the population to positively affect health outcomes and equity, especially considering the epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases and associated modifiable risk factors. Tobacco control policy development and implementation in Vietnam provides a case study to discuss opportunities and challenges associated with such strategies
The development of Tobacco Harm Prevention Law in Vietnam: stakeholder tensions over tobacco control legislation in a state owned industry
Background: Building on its National Tobacco Control Policy initiated in 2000, Vietnam is currently considering introducing a comprehensive law to strengthen the implementation of tobacco control policy. This study analyses the positions of key stakeholders in the development of tobacco control legislation in the context of a largely state-owned industry, and discusses their implications for the policy process
Recommended from our members
Effects of biomass burning, lightning, and convection on O-3, CO, and NOy over the tropical Pacific and Australia in August-October 1998 and 1999
Molybdenum sputtering film characterization for high gradient accelerating structures
Technological advancements are strongly required to fulfill the demands of
new accelerator devices with the highest accelerating gradients and operation
reliability for the future colliders. To this purpose an extensive R&D
regarding molybdenum coatings on copper is in progress. In this contribution we
describe chemical composition, deposition quality and resistivity properties of
different molybdenum coatings obtained via sputtering. The deposited films are
thick metallic disorder layers with different resistivity values above and
below the molibdenum dioxide reference value. Chemical and electrical
properties of these sputtered coatings have been characterized by Rutherford
backscattering, XANES and photoemission spectroscopy. We will also present a
three cells standing wave section coated by a molybdenum layer 500 nm
thick designed to improve the performance of X-Band accelerating systems.Comment: manuscript has been submitted and accepted by Chinese Physics C
(2012
Transcriptional repressor ZEB2 promotes terminal differentiation of CD8âș effector and memory T cell populations during infection
ZEB2 is a multi-zinc-finger transcription factor known to play a significant role in early neurogenesis and in epithelial-mesenchymal transition-dependent tumor metastasis. Although the function of ZEB2 in T lymphocytes is unknown, activity of the closely related family member ZEB1 has been implicated in lymphocyte development. Here, we find that ZEB2 expression is up-regulated by activated T cells, specifically in the KLRG1(hi) effector CD8(+) T cell subset. Loss of ZEB2 expression results in a significant loss of antigen-specific CD8(+) T cells after primary and secondary infection with a severe impairment in the generation of the KLRG1(hi) effector memory cell population. We show that ZEB2, which can bind DNA at tandem, consensus E-box sites, regulates gene expression of several E-protein targets and may directly repress Il7r and Il2 in CD8(+) T cells responding to infection. Furthermore, we find that T-bet binds to highly conserved T-box sites in the Zeb2 gene and that T-bet and ZEB2 regulate similar gene expression programs in effector T cells, suggesting that T-bet acts upstream and through regulation of ZEB2. Collectively, we place ZEB2 in a larger transcriptional network that is responsible for the balance between terminal differentiation and formation of memory CD8(+) T cells
Molecular motion in cell membranes: analytic study of fence-hindered random walks
A theoretical calculation is presented to describe the confined motion of
transmembrane molecules in cell membranes. The study is analytic, based on
Master equations for the probability of the molecules moving as random walkers,
and leads to explicit usable solutions including expressions for the molecular
mean square displacement and effective diffusion constants. One outcome is a
detailed understanding of the dependence of the time variation of the mean
square displacement on the initial placement of the molecule within the
confined region. How to use the calculations is illustrated by extracting
(confinement) compartment sizes from experimentally reported published
observations from single particle tracking experiments on the diffusion of
gold-tagged G-protein coupled mu-opioid receptors in the normal rat kidney cell
membrane, and by further comparing the analytical results to observations on
the diffusion of phospholipids, also in normal rat kidney cells.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Current status of the CLIO project
CLIO (Cryogenic Laser Interferometer Observatory) is a Japanese gravitational
wave detector project. One of the main purposes of CLIO is to demonstrate
thermal-noise suppression by cooling mirrors for a future Japanese project,
LCGT (Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitational Telescope). The CLIO site is in
Kamioka mine, as is LCGT. The progress of CLIO between 2005 and 2007 (room- and
cryogenic-temperature experiments) is introduced in this article. In a
room-temperature experiment, we made efforts to improve the sensitivity. The
current best sensitivity at 300 K is about
around 400 Hz. Below 20 Hz, the strain (not displacement) sensitivity is
comparable to that of LIGO, although the baselines of CLIO are 40-times shorter
(CLIO: 100m, LIGO: 4km). This is because seismic noise is extremely small in
Kamioka mine. We operated the interferometer at room temperature for
gravitational wave observations. We obtained 86 hours of data. In the cryogenic
experiment, it was confirmed that the mirrors were sufficiently cooled (14 K).
However, we found that the radiation shield ducts transferred 300K radiation
into the cryostat more effectively than we had expected. We observed that noise
caused by pure aluminum wires to suspend a mirror was suppressed by cooling the
mirror.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. Amaldi7 proceedings, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.
(accepted
Functional Integration of Ecological Networks through Pathway Proliferation
Large-scale structural patterns commonly occur in network models of complex
systems including a skewed node degree distribution and small-world topology.
These patterns suggest common organizational constraints and similar functional
consequences. Here, we investigate a structural pattern termed pathway
proliferation. Previous research enumerating pathways that link species
determined that as pathway length increases, the number of pathways tends to
increase without bound. We hypothesize that this pathway proliferation
influences the flow of energy, matter, and information in ecosystems. In this
paper, we clarify the pathway proliferation concept, introduce a measure of the
node--node proliferation rate, describe factors influencing the rate, and
characterize it in 17 large empirical food-webs. During this investigation, we
uncovered a modular organization within these systems. Over half of the
food-webs were composed of one or more subgroups that were strongly connected
internally, but weakly connected to the rest of the system. Further, these
modules had distinct proliferation rates. We conclude that pathway
proliferation in ecological networks reveals subgroups of species that will be
functionally integrated through cyclic indirect effects.Comment: 29 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables, Submitted to Journal of Theoretical
Biolog
- âŠ