Electrochemical immunosensing of low-density lipoprotein based on sol-gel encapsulation

Lipoprotein monitoring is desirable in the management of medical conditions such as atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and coronary artery disease, in which controlling the concentration of these chylomicrons is crucial. Current clinical methods are complex and present poor reproducibility between laboratories. For these reasons, recent guidelines discard the assessment of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) as a routine analysis during lipid-lowering therapies. Concerning the importance of monitoring this parameter, the authors present an electrochemical immunosensor constructed from a simple and easy-to-reproduce platform that allows detecting and quantifying LDL nanoparticles directly from human serum samples. The performance of the biosensor was studied by scanning electron microscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The biosensing platform displays good stability and linearity between 30 mg dL-1 and 135 mg dL-1 with a detection limit of 20 mg dL-1. The proposed biosensor can be easily employed for monitoring LDL concentration in clinical treatments

Helicoidal surfaces rotating/translating under the mean curvature flow

We describe all possible self-similar motions of immersed hypersurfaces in Euclidean space under the mean curvature flow and derive the corresponding hypersurface equations. Then we present a new two-parameter family of immersed helicoidal surfaces that rotate/translate with constant velocity under the flow. We look at their limiting behaviour as the pitch of the helicoidal motion goes to 0 and compare it with the limiting behaviour of the classical helicoidal minimal surfaces. Finally, we give a classification of the immersed cylinders in the family of constant mean curvature helicoidal surfaces.Comment: 21 pages, 22 figures, final versio

Efeito do tratamento com aminoetoxivinilglicina (AVG) na queda pré-colheita e na maturação dos frutos em macieiras

ABSTRACTApple trees cultivars Gala and Fuji were sprayed four weeks before commercial harvest with aminoethoxyvinilglycine (AVG), at doses of 0, 125, or 250 mg L-1, and assessed for preharvest fruit drop, fruit growth, and maturation on tree. In 'Gala', 64 days after AVG spraying, fruit drop for control treatment was 85%, and AVG (at 125 and 250 mg L-1) reduced it to 10%. In 'Fuji', 64 days after AVG spraying, fruit drop for control was 6%, while treatments with AVG (at 125 and 250 mg L-1) increased fruit drop to 10%. AVG was a powerful retardant of fruit maturation for 'Gala' but not for 'Fuji'. In 'Gala', the most affected attribute was the skin background color, followed, in decreasing order, by soluble solids content, the starch index, skin red color, the flesh firmness, and titratable acidity. In 'Gala', only flesh firmness retention was improved by increasing AVG dose from 125 mg L-1 to 250 mg L-1. The AVG at 250 mg L-1 inhibited "Gala" late fruit growth but not 'Fuji'. __________________________________________________________________________________ RESUMOMacieiras, das cultivares Gala e Fuji, foram pulverizadas quatro semanas antes do início da colheita comercial dos frutos com aminoetoxivinilglicina (AVG), nas concentrações de 0; 125 ou 250 mg L-1, e avaliadas quanto à queda de frutos na pré-colheita, o crescimento e maturação dos frutos. Na cultivar Gala, 64 dias após a pulverização com AVG, a queda pré-colheita no tratamento-controle era de 85%, mas os tratamentos com AVG (125 e 250 mg L-1) reduziram esta queda para 10%. Na cultivar Fuji, 64 dias após a pulverização com AVG, a queda de frutos no tratamento-controle era de 6%, e os tratamentos com AVG (125 e 250 mg L-1) aumentaram esta queda para 10%. Tratamentos com AVG retardaram substancialmente a maturação dos frutos da cultivar Gala, mas não da 'Fuji'. Na cultivar Gala, o atributo mais afetado foi a cor de fundo da casca, seguido, em ordem decrescente, pelo conteúdo de sólidos solúveis totais, índice de iodo-amido, cor vermelha da casca, firmeza de polpa e acidez titulável. Na cultivar Gala, apenas a retenção de firmeza de polpa foi significativamente aumentada com o aumento na concentração de AVG de 125 mg L-1 para 250 mg L-1. A concentração de 250 mg L-1 inibiu o crescimento final de frutos na cultivar Gala, mas não na 'Fuji'

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter