56 research outputs found
Direct monitoring of pulmonary disease treatment biomarkers using plasmonic gold nanorods with diffusion-sensitive OCT
The solid concentration of pulmonary mucus (wt%) is critical to respiratory health. In patients with respiratory disease, such as Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD), mucus hydration is impaired, resulting in high wt%. Mucus with high wt% is a hallmark of pulmonary disease that leads to obstructed airways, inflammation, and infection. Methods to measure mucus hydration in situ and in real-time are needed for drug development and personalized therapy. We employed plasmonic gold nanorod (GNR) biosensors that intermittently collide with macromolecules comprising the mucus mesh as they self-diffuse, such that GNR translational diffusion (DT) is sensitive to wt%. GNRs are attractive candidates for bioprobes due to their anisotropic optical scattering that makes them easily distinguishable from native tissue using polarization-sensitive OCT. Using principles of heterodyne dynamic light scattering, we developed diffusion-sensitive optical coherence tomography (DS-OCT) to spatially-resolve changing DT in real-time. DS-OCT enables, for the first time, direct monitoring of changes in nanoparticle diffusion rates that are sensitive to nanoporosity with spatial and temporal resolutions of 4.7 μm and 0.2 s. DS-OCT therefore enables us to measure spatially-resolved changes in mucus wt% over time. In this study, we demonstrate the applicability of DS-OCT on well-differentiated primary human bronchial epithelial cells during a clinical mucus-hydrating therapy, hypertonic saline treatment (HST), to reveal, for the first time, mucus mixing, cellular secretions, and mucus hydration on the micrometer scale that translate to long-term therapeutic effects
First observation of excited states in 118Ba: Possible evidence for octupole correlations in neutron-deficient barium isotopes
Quadrupole moments of the six known superdeformed ~SD! bands of 193Hg and the yrast SD band of 192Hg
have been determined by a Doppler-shift-attenuation-method measurement utilizing the gammasphere array.
The quadrupole moments of all 193Hg SD bands were found to be similar, suggesting the active single-particle
orbitals in the mass-190 region exhibit only small shape-driving effects. Additionally, there is evidence for an
unexpected difference in the quadrupole moments of SD bands in 192Hg and 193Hg
Identification of excited states in 117Cs: Systematics of the ν(h11/2)2 alignment
Excited states have been identified in the very neutron-deficient 11755Cs62 nucleus. High-spin spectroscopy has been performed using the Gammasphere array, and the assignment of gamma-ray transitions to 117Cs has been made in a separate experiment in which gamma rays were detected in coincidence with x rays and with recoiling evaporation residues. A previously observed sequence of five gamma rays has been extended by 11 transitions, to high spin, and has been identified as the yrast π(h11/2)[550]1/2- band of 117Cs. Two additional bands have been observed and are tentatively assigned to be based on protons in the [404]9/2+ and [422]3/2+ orbitals. Alignments of pairs of h11/2 neutrons and protons are observed in all of the bands. The alignments are compared to cranked Woods-Saxon calculations, and are discussed with respect to the effects of a neutron-proton interaction. Of particular interest are the features of the ν(h11/2)2 alignment in the π[550]1/2- band and of the π(h11/2)2 alignment in the [422]3/2+ band. The frequencies of these alignments can be qualitatively explained only if a neutron-proton interaction is taken into account
Identification of excited states in 119Ba
Excited states have been identified in the very neutron-deficient 119Ba nucleus. Two bands have been observed, which are likely to be based on h11/2 and (g7/2d5/2) neutron orbitals. Despite this being the first observation of excited states in 119Ba, the bands extend to (75/2)ℏ and (79/2)ℏ, respectively. The bands have been assigned to 119Ba using gamma-recoil and gamma-x-ray coincidences. Several quasiparticle alignments have been identified, involving neutron (h11/2)2 and proton (h11/2)2 aligned configurations. Furthermore, the bands show features which are reasonably consistent with smooth band termination at high spin. Theoretical results for 119Ba are discussed within the framework of cranked Woods-Saxon and Nilsson-Strutinsky calculations
Detector Description and Performance for the First Coincidence Observations between LIGO and GEO
For 17 days in August and September 2002, the LIGO and GEO interferometer
gravitational wave detectors were operated in coincidence to produce their
first data for scientific analysis. Although the detectors were still far from
their design sensitivity levels, the data can be used to place better upper
limits on the flux of gravitational waves incident on the earth than previous
direct measurements. This paper describes the instruments and the data in some
detail, as a companion to analysis papers based on the first data.Comment: 41 pages, 9 figures 17 Sept 03: author list amended, minor editorial
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Detection of quantitative trait loci associated with leaf rust resistance in bread wheat
Heat‐labile enterotoxin‐induced activation of NF‐κB and MAPK pathways in intestinal epithelial cells impacts enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli
The effect of cutting and grazing managements on dry matter yield of white clover varieties (Trifolium repens) when grown with S23 perennial ryegrass
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