1,571 research outputs found
Humide areas in Paraguay: description of vegetation
The humid areas in Paraguay have been poorly studied, and in some of them only sporadic collections have been performed in order to explore both their fauna and flora. The best studied zones in this regard have been the surroundings of the Ypacaraí lake as well as the swamps of the humid Chaco, which are the main subjects in this work
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Impact of Molecular Architecture and Adsorption Density on Adhesion of Mussel-Inspired Surface Primers with Catechol-Cation Synergy.
Marine mussels secrete proteins rich in residues containing catechols and cationic amines that displace hydration layers and adhere to charged surfaces under water via a cooperative binding effect known as catechol-cation synergy. Mussel-inspired adhesives containing paired catechol and cationic functionalities are a promising class of materials for biomedical applications, but few studies address the molecular adhesion mechanism(s) of these materials. To determine whether intramolecular adjacency of these functionalities is necessary for robust adhesion, a suite of siderophore analog surface primers was synthesized with systematic variations in intramolecular spacing between catechol and cationic functionalities. Adhesion measurements conducted with a surface forces apparatus (SFA) allow adhesive failure to be distinguished from cohesive failure and show that the failure mode depends critically on the siderophore analog adsorption density. The adhesion of these molecules to muscovite mica in an aqueous electrolyte solution demonstrates that direct intramolecular adjacency of catechol and cationic functionalities is not necessary for synergistic binding. However, we show that increasing the catechol-cation spacing by incorporating nonbinding domains results in decreased adhesion, which we attribute to a decrease in the density of catechol functionalities. A mechanism for catechol-cation synergy is proposed based on electrostatically driven adsorption and subsequent binding of catechol functionalities. This work should guide the design of new adhesives for binding to charged surfaces in saline environments
Sub-optical resolution of single spins using magnetic resonance imaging at room temperature in diamond
There has been much recent interest in extending the technique of magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) down to the level of single spins with sub-optical
wavelength resolution. However, the signal to noise ratio for images of
individual spins is usually low and this necessitates long acquisition times
and low temperatures to achieve high resolution. An exception to this is the
nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center in diamond whose spin state can be detected
optically at room temperature. Here we apply MRI to magnetically equivalent NV
spins in order to resolve them with resolution well below the optical
wavelength of the readout light. In addition, using a microwave version of MRI
we achieved a resolution that is 1/270 size of the coplanar striplines, which
define the effective wavelength of the microwaves that were used to excite the
transition. This technique can eventually be extended to imaging of large
numbers of NVs in a confocal spot and possibly to image nearby dark spins via
their mutual magnetic interaction with the NV spin.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, Journal of Luminescence (Article in Press
Rapid flipping of parametric phase states
Since the invention of the solid-state transistor, the overwhelming majority
of computers followed the von Neumann architecture that strictly separates
logic operations and memory. Today, there is a revived interest in alternative
computation models accompanied by the necessity to develop corresponding
hardware architectures. The Ising machine, for example, is a variant of the
celebrated Hopfield network based on the Ising model. It can be realized with
artifcial spins such as the `parametron' that arises in driven nonlinear
resonators. The parametron encodes binary information in the phase state of its
oscillation. It enables, in principle, logic operations without energy transfer
and the corresponding speed limitations. In this work, we experimentally
demonstrate flipping of parametron phase states on a timescale of an
oscillation period, much faster than the ringdown time \tau that is often
(erroneously) deemed a fundamental limit for resonator operations. Our work
establishes a new paradigm for resonator-based logic architectures.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Serum protein electrophoresis : an underused but very useful test
Serum protein electrophoresis is used in clinical practice to identify patients with multiple myeloma and other serum protein disorders. It is an inexpensive and easy-to-perform screening procedure. Electrophoresis separates serum proteins based on their physical properties and identifies morphologic patterns in response to acute and chronic inflammation, various malignancies, liver or renal failure, and hereditary protein disorders. For gastroenterologists, the use of serum protein electrophoresis may be helpful in the diagnosis of both common diseases with unusual presentations and rare disorders with typical presentations. Therefore, it represents an ideal screening tool
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RSK Activation of Translation Factor eIF4B Drives Abnormal Increases of Laminin γ2 and MYC Protein during Neoplastic Progression to Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Overexpression of the basement membrane protein Laminin γ2 (Lamγ2) is a feature of many epidermal and oral dysplasias and all invasive squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs). This abnormality has potential value as an immunohistochemical biomarker of premalignancy but its mechanism has remained unknown. We recently reported that Lamγ2 overexpression in culture is the result of deregulated translation controls and depends on the MAPK-RSK signaling cascade. Here we identify eIF4B as the RSK downstream effector responsible for elevated Lamγ2 as well as MYC protein in neoplastic epithelial cells. Premalignant dysplastic keratinocytes, SCC cells, and keratinocytes expressing the E6 oncoprotein of human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 displayed MAPK-RSK and mTOR-S6K1 activation and overexpressed Lamγ2 and MYC in culture. Immunohistochemical staining of oral dysplasias and SCCs for distinct, RSK- and S6K1-specific S6 phosphorylation events revealed that their respective upstream pathways become hyperactive at the same time during neoplastic progression. However, pharmacologic kinase inhibitor studies in culture revealed that Lamγ2 and MYC overexpression depends on MAPK-RSK activity, independent of PI3K-mTOR-S6K1. eIF4B knockdown reduced Lamγ2 and MYC protein expression, consistent with the known requirement for eIF4B to translate mRNAs with long, complex 5′ untranslated regions (5′-UTRs). Accordingly, expression of a luciferase reporter construct preceded by the Lamγ2 5′-UTR proved to be RSK-dependent and mTOR-independent. These results demonstrate that RSK activation of eIF4B is causally linked to elevated Lamγ2 and MYC protein levels during neoplastic progression to invasive SCC. These findings have potential clinical significance for identifying premalignant lesions and for developing targeted drugs to treat SCC
Harnessing nuclear spin polarization fluctuations in a semiconductor nanowire
Soon after the first measurements of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in a
condensed matter system, Bloch predicted the presence of statistical
fluctuations proportional to in the polarization of an ensemble of
spins. First observed by Sleator et al., so-called "spin noise" has
recently emerged as a critical ingredient in nanometer-scale magnetic resonance
imaging (nanoMRI). This prominence is a direct result of MRI resolution
improving to better than 100 nm^3, a size-scale in which statistical spin
fluctuations begin to dominate the polarization dynamics. We demonstrate a
technique that creates spin order in nanometer-scale ensembles of nuclear spins
by harnessing these fluctuations to produce polarizations both larger and
narrower than the natural thermal distribution. We focus on ensembles
containing ~10^6 phosphorus and hydrogen spins associated with single InP and
GaP nanowires (NWs) and their hydrogen-containing adsorbate layers. We monitor,
control, and capture fluctuations in the ensemble's spin polarization in
real-time and store them for extended periods. This selective capture of large
polarization fluctuations may provide a route for enhancing the weak magnetic
signals produced by nanometer-scale volumes of nuclear spins. The scheme may
also prove useful for initializing the nuclear hyperfine field of electron spin
qubits in the solid-state.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure
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