Spin dynamics of electrons in the first excited subband of a high-mobility low-density 2D electron system

We report on time-resolved Kerr rotation measurements of spin coherence of electrons in the first excited subband of a high-mobility low-density two-dimensional electron system in a GaAs/Al0.35Ga0.65As heterostructure. While the transverse spin lifetime (T2*) of electrons decreases monotonically with increasing magnetic field, it has a non-monotonic dependence on the temperature, with a peak value of 596 ps at 36 K, indicating the effect of inter-subband electron-electron scattering on the electron spin relaxation. The spin lifetime may be long enough for potential device application with electrons in excited subbands

Novel Non-Toxic Xylene Substitute (SBO) for Histology

Xylene has been generally used as a clearing and deparaffinizing agent in histology. Because of the potential toxic and flammable nature of xylene, its substitutes have been introduced into some laboratories. In this study, we introduced a novel, non-toxic xylene substitute (SBO), which was  generated through a mixture of 86% of white oil No.2 and 14% of N-heptane. SBO had a high boiling point (188°C) and flash point (144°C) coupled with a scentless and decreased volatility. To compare the effectiveness of SBO and xylene in histology, a wide range of tissue samples from rats and human beings were processed in parallel in SBO and xylene, subjected to various staining procedures. Similar to the xylene-processed paraffin blocks, the SBO-processed counterparts were easy to section without any evidence of cell shrinkage. Assessment of the SBO-treated sections stained with hematoxylin-eosin revealed a good maintenance of cell morphology and structure, and a clear definition of the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Moreover, comparable good results were achieved between the SBO- and xylene-processed tissues in other histochemical and immunohistochemical stainings. Six-month clinical applications at one department of pathology supported the potentials of SBO as a xylene substitute. In conclusion, we suggest that SBO is a safe and efficient substitute of xylene and may probably replace xylene without losing valuable diagnostic information.Key words: SBO, clearing agent, xylene, histology, toxicit

Depinning of domain walls in permalloy nanowires with asymmetric notches

E ective control of the domain wall (DW) motion along the magnetic nanowires is of great importance for fundamental research and potential application in spintronic devices. In this work, a series of permalloy nanowires with an asymmetric notch in the middle were fabricated with only varying the width (d) of the right arm from 200 nm to 1000 nm. The detailed pinning and depinning processes of DWs in these nanowires have been studied by using focused magneto-optic Kerr e ect (FMOKE) magnetometer, magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and micromagnetic simulation. The experimental results unambiguously exhibit the presence of a DW pinned at the notch in a typical sample with d equal to 500 nm. At a certain range of 200 nm < d < 500 nm, both the experimental and simulated results show that the DW can maintain or change its chirality randomly during passing through the notch, resulting in two DW depinning elds. Those two depinning elds have opposite d dependences, which may be originated from di erent potential well/barrier generated by the asymmetric notch with varying d

Critical success criteria for B2B E-commerce systems in Chinese medical supply chain.

The paper presents an exploratory investigation to determine and prioritise the critical success criteria, which can measure and guide the successful application and performance improvement of business to business e-commerce system (BBECS) in a medical supply chain's selling and buying functions, in the context of global business expansion. The research reveals that the buying and the selling functions have different prioritisations on the majority of the determined critical success measuring criteria. These criteria are categorised into three Critical Success Measuring Criteria Groups, for the selling and the buying functions, respectively, guiding medical supply chain members in harnessing the full advantage of a BBECS. For the selling function, the top critical success measuring criteria are as follows: integrating information searching/transmission and application processes, ensuring the reliability and timeliness of technical support, ensuring recognition and acceptance of e-commerce processes, displaying the organisation's business focus and product/service provisions online, securing a large scale/amount of business transactions, adjusting production outputs and inventory levels and having more registered users than competitors do. The top critical success measuring criteria for the buying function are as follows: securing the establishment of business relationships between businesses, displaying the measures ensuring mutual trust and cooperation online, ensuring employees' recognition of the benefit of e-commerce in increasing revenue, ensuring the contribution to the development and realisation of corporate strategy, achieving cost reduction for the organisation, making the purchase of famous brand products available/doable, securing a large scale/amount of business transactions, and ensuring the attainability of products/services at a lower price

Polyimide hollow fiber membranes for CO2 separation from wet gas mixtures

Matrimid®5218 hollow fiber membranes were prepared using the dry-wet spinning process. The transport properties were measured with pure gases (H2, CO2, N2, CH4 and O2) and with a mixture (30% CO2 and 70% N2) in dry and wet conditions at 25 ºC, 50 ºC, 60 ºC and 75 ºC and up to 600 kPa. Interesting values of single gas selectivity up to 60 ºC (between 31 and 28 for CO2/N2 and between 33 and 30 for CO2/CH4) in dry condition were obtained. The separation factor measured for the mixture was 20% lower compared to the single gas selectivity, in the whole temperature range analyzed. In saturation conditions the data showed that water influences the performance of the membranes, inducing a reduction of the permeance of all gases. Moreover, the presence of water caused a decrease of single gas selectivity and separation factor, although not so significant, highlighting the very high water resistance of hollow fiber membrane modules

GJB2 mutation spectrum in 2063 Chinese patients with nonsyndromic hearing impairment

Background: Mutations in GJB2 are the most common molecular defects responsible for autosomal recessive nonsyndromic hearing impairment (NSHI). The mutation spectra of this gene vary among different ethnic groups. Methods: In order to understand the spectrum and frequency of GJB2 mutations in the Chinese population, the coding region of the GJB2 gene from 2063 unrelated patients with NSHI was PCR amplified and sequenced. Results: A total of 23 pathogenic mutations were identified. Among them, five (p.W3X, c.99delT, c.155_c.158delTCTG, c.512_c.513insAACG, and p.Y152X) are novel. Three hundred and seven patients carry two confirmed pathogenic mutations, including 178 homozygotes and 129 compound heterozygotes. One hundred twenty five patients carry only one mutant allele. Thus, GJB2 mutations account for 17.9% of the mutant alleles in 2063 NSHI patients. Overall, 92.6% (684/739) of the pathogenic mutations are frame-shift truncation or nonsense mutations. The four prevalent mutations; c.235delC, c.299_c.300delAT, c.176_c.191del16, and c.35delG, account for 88.0% of all mutantalleles identified. The frequency of GJB2 mutations (alleles) varies from 4% to 30.4% among different regions of China. It also varies among different sub-ethnic groups. Conclusion: In some regions of China, testing of the three most common mutations can identify at least one GJB2 mutant allele in all patients. In other regions such as Tibet, the three most common mutations account for only 16% the GJB2 mutant alleles. Thus, in this region, sequencing of GJB2 would be recommended. In addition, the etiology of more than 80% of the mutant alleles for NSHI in China remains to be identified. Analysis of other NSHI related genes will be necessary

Genetics of rheumatoid arthritis contributes to biology and drug discovery

A major challenge in human genetics is to devise a systematic strategy to integrate disease-associated variants with diverse genomic and biological datasets to provide insight into disease pathogenesis and guide drug discovery for complex traits such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA)1. Here, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis in a total of >100,000 subjects of European and Asian ancestries (29,880 RA cases and 73,758 controls), by evaluating ~10 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We discovered 42 novel RA risk loci at a genome-wide level of significance, bringing the total to 1012–4. We devised an in-silico pipeline using established bioinformatics methods based on functional annotation5, cis-acting expression quantitative trait loci (cis-eQTL)6, and pathway analyses7–9 – as well as novel methods based on genetic overlap with human primary immunodeficiency (PID), hematological cancer somatic mutations and knock-out mouse phenotypes – to identify 98 biological candidate genes at these 101 risk loci. We demonstrate that these genes are the targets of approved therapies for RA, and further suggest that drugs approved for other indications may be repurposed for the treatment of RA. Together, this comprehensive genetic study sheds light on fundamental genes, pathways and cell types that contribute to RA pathogenesis, and provides empirical evidence that the genetics of RA can provide important information for drug discovery

Coordination behavior of erbium chloride hydrate with diethylammonium diethyldithiocarbamate

The complex of erbium chloride lower hydrate with diethylammonium diethyldithiocarbamate (D-DDC) has been synthesized conveniently in absolute alcohol and dry N2 atmosphere. The title complex was identified as Et2NH2[Er(S2CNEt2)4] by chemical and elemental analyses, the bonding characteristics of which was characterized by IR. The enthalpies of solution of erbium chloride hydrate and D-DDC in absolute alcohol at 298.15 K and the enthalpies change of liquid-phase reaction of formation for Et2NH2[Er(S2CNEt 2)4 at different temperatures were determined, by microealorimetry. On the basis of experimental and calculated results, three thermodynamic parameters (the activation enthalpy, the activation entropy and the activation free energy), the rate constant and three kinetic parameters (the apparent activation energy, the pre-exponential constant and die reaction order) of liquid phase reaction of formation were obtained. The enthalpy change of the solid-phase title reaction at 298.15 K was calculated by a thermochemical cycle.EI1273-2827

Electrophysiology and genetic testing in the precision medicine of congenital deafness: A review

Congenital hearing loss is remarkably heterogeneous, with over 130 deafness genes and thousands of variants, making for innumerable genotype/phenotype combinations. Understanding both the pathophysiology of hearing loss and molecular site of lesion along the auditory pathway permits for significantly individualized counseling. Electrophysiologic techniques such as electrocochleography (ECochG) and electrically-evoked compound action potentials (eCAP) are being studied to localize pathology and estimate residual cochlear vs. neural health. This review describes the expanding roles of genetic and electrophysiologic evaluation in the precision medicine of congenital hearing loss. The basics of genetic mutations in hearing loss and electrophysiologic testing (ECochG and eCAP) are reviewed, and how they complement each other in the diagnostics and prognostication of hearing outcomes. Used together, these measures improve the understanding of insults to the auditory system, allowing for individualized counseling for CI candidacy/outcomes or other habilitation strategies. Despite tremendous discovery in deafness genes, the effects of individual genes on neural function remain poorly understood. Bridging the understanding between molecular genotype and neural and functional phenotype is paramount to interpreting genetic results in clinical practice. The future hearing healthcare provider must consolidate an ever-increasing amount of genetic and phenotypic information in the precision medicine of hearing loss