Role of Osteoprotegerin and Its Gene Polymorphisms in the Occurrence of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Essential Hypertensive Patients

Overall view from N. Grand Avenue, looking southwest; Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at left; A 739-seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center designed by Welton Becket and Associates. The smallest of the three venues, the Taper is flanked by the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Ahmanson Theatre on the Music Center Plaza. Mr. Becket designed the center in the style of New Formalism, which emphasized geometric shapes. The perfectly circular Taper is considered one of his best works, featuring a distinctive decorated drum of a design with its exterior wrapped in a lacy precast relief by Jacques Overhoff. The lobby has a curving, abalone wall by Tony Duquette. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 7/29/2013

Bilingual cognitive control in language switching: an fMRI study of English-Chinese late bilinguals.

The present study explored the bilingual cognitive control mechanism by comparing Chinese-English bilinguals' language switching in a blocked picture naming paradigm against three baseline conditions, namely the control condition (a fixation cross, low-level baseline), single L1 production (Chinese naming, high-level baseline), and single L2 production (English naming, high-level baseline). Different activation patterns were observed for language switching against different baseline conditions. These results indicate that different script bilingual language control involves a fronto-parietal-subcortical network that extends to the precentral gyrus, the Supplementary Motor Area, the Supra Marginal Gyrus, and the fusiform. The different neural correlates identified across different comparisons supported that bilingual language switching involves high-level cognitive processes that are not specific to language processing. Future studies adopting a network approach are crucial in identifying the functional connectivity among regions subserving language control

Confined Self-Assembly of Asymmetric Diblock Copolymers within Silica Nanobowl Arrays

The confined self-assembly of asymmetric diblock copolymer polystyrene-<i>block</i>-poly­(methyl methacrylate) (PS-<i>b</i>-PMMA) within an array of silica nanobowls prepared using a colloidal spheres templating technique is investigated. By manipulation of the nanobowl size, block copolymer (BCP) thickness, and interfacial interaction, a rich variety of ordered BCP nanostructures not accessible in the bulk system or under other confinements are obtained, resulting in hierarchically ordered nanostructures

Hexagonal Crown-Capped Zinc Oxide Micro Rods: Hydrothermal Growth and Formation Mechanism

Hexagonal crown-capped ZnO micro rods were successfully prepared by a facile low-temperature hydrothermal method. The as-prepared ZnO micro rods are 4.4–5.2 μm in length and 2.4–3.6 μm in diameter, possessing a single-crystal hexagonal structure. The morphology evolution and structure changes were tracked during hydrothermal growth by field-emission scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, respectively. A three-stage growth mechanism of the hexagonal crown-capped ZnO micro rods was proposed and further verified by a growth solution renewal experiment. The room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of the hexagonal crowns exhibits a strong UV emission at about 382 nm. The temperature dependent PL results indicate that the UV emission originates from the radiative free-exciton recombination