Micro- and Nanotexturization of Liquid Silicone Rubber Surfaces by Injection Molding Using Hybrid Polymer Inlays

Micro- and nanotexturization of surfaces can give to the parts different advanced functionalities, such as superhydrophobicity, self-cleaning, or antibacterial capabilities. These advanced properties in combination with the biocompatibility of Liquid Silicone Rubber are an interesting approach for obtaining high-performance medical devices. The industrial production of surface textures in polymeric materials is through the replication technique, and the best option to attain a high production rate is injection molding. Moreover, its low viscosity during processing can provide an accurate replication capacity by the easy filling by capillarity of the microtextures. An innovative replicating technique for Liquid Silicone Rubber is presented by studying the replication of different shaped textures within a diameter range of between 2 and 50 mu m. The copying process consists in the overmolding of a textured polymeric inlay obtained by nanoimprint lithography. At the end of the process, a textured part is obtained, while the imprinted film remains in the mold. The injection molding parameters are optimized to increase the replication accuracy, and their effect on texture replicability is analyzed and discussed. Finally, it is shown that the textured surfaces improve their wettability behavior, which is a necessary and important characteristic in the development of biomedical devices

Self‐assembled quantum dots of InSb grown on InP by atomic layer molecular beam epitaxy: Morphology and strain relaxation

Self-organized InSb dots grown by atomic layer molecular beam epitaxy on InP substrates have been characterized by atomic force and transmission electron microscopy. Measurement of high-energy electron diffraction during the growth indicates a Stransky–Krastanov growth mode beyond the onset of 1.4 InSb monolayer ~ML! deposition. The dots obtained after a total deposition of 5 and 7 ML of InSb present a truncated pyramidal morphology with rectangular base oriented along the ^110& directions, elongated towards the @110# direction with $111$113%/$114$111%A lateral facets in @11 ¯ 0# views, and ~001! flat top surfaces. The mismatch between the dot and the substrate has been accommodated by a network of 90° misfit dislocation at the interface. A corrugation of the InP substrate surrounding the dot has been also observedThis work has been funded by the Spanish CICYT Project MAT95-0966.Peer reviewe

Metal–organic fireworks: MOFs as integrated structural scaffolds for pyrotechnic materials

A new approach to formulating pyrotechnic materials is presented whereby constituent ingredients are bound together in a solid-state lattice. This reduces the batch inconsistencies arising from the traditional approach of combining powders by ensuring the key ingredients are ‘mixed’ in appropriate quantities and are in intimate contact. Further benefits of these types of material are increased safety levels as well as simpler logistics, storage and manufacture. A systematic series of new frameworks comprising fuel and oxidiser agents (group 1 and 2 metal nodes & terephthalic acid derivatives as linkers) has been synthesised and structurally characterised. These new materials have been assessed for pyrotechnic effect by calorimetry and burn tests. Results indicate that these materials exhibit the desired pyrotechnic material properties and the effect can be correlated to the dimensionality of the structure. A new approach to formulating pyrotechnic materials is proposed whereby constituent ingredients are bound together in a solid-state lattice. A series of Metal–organic framework frameworks comprising fuel and oxidiser agents exhibits the desired properties of a pyrotechnic material and this effect is correlated to the dimensionality of the structure

Megabank found? Flanks record sea level

On Leg 101, the first international voyage for the Ocean Drilling Program, the deep-sea drilling ship JOIOES Resolution (SEDCO/BP 471) left Miami, Fla., on Jan. 31 to investigate the geology of the Bahamas. (Leg 100 tested the Resolution's readiness. See July Geotimes.) Before returning to Miami on March 14, the crew had drilled 19 holes al 11 sites and recovered 46.2% of the cored section (about 1.5 of 3.1 km cored). The scientific party wanted to test conflicting hypotheses about the development of the modern shallow water carbonate banks and intervening deep -water throughs in the Bahamas, and to study the growth patterns of carbonate slopes and their response to sea-level fluctuations. Those objectives (the 'deep ' and the 'shallow') were selected beause recent advances in interpreting the micropaleontology of shallow-water carbonate platforms, coupled with data from previous sedimentological investigations and regional and site-specific seismic surveys, now permit consistent stratigraphic comparisons in the Bahamas

Late Silurian plutons in Yucatan

This is the published version. Copyright 1996 American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.U-Pb measurements of zircons from two composite plutons in the Maya Mountains of the Yucatan Block (Belize) give Late Silurian ages. Zircons from one of the five compositional phases of the Mountain Pine Ridge pluton yield an age of 418±3.6 Ma. A second compositional phase gives a minimum age of 404 Ma, and zircons from a third phase, although plagued with high common Pb, yield ages consistent with the other two. Zircons from one compositional phase of the Hummingbird-Mullins River pluton indicate an age of about 410–420 Ma. These data demonstrate that two of the three Maya Mountains plutons residing among the strata of the Late Pennsylvanian through Permian Santa Rosa Group are older than that sedimentation. Although the third pluton was not dated, both the similarity of sedimentary facies patterns adjacent to it to those adjacent to one of the plutons dated as Late Silurian and a published single Rb-Sr age of 428 ± 41 Ma suggest this third pluton also was emergent during Santa Rosa deposition. Thus the new U/Pb dates and other data suggest that all three Maya Mountains plutons pre-date Late Carboniferous sedimentation and that none intrude the Santa Rosa Group. Although very uniform ages of about 230 Ma amongst all plutons, derived from abundant earlier dating by the K-Ar system, led to the conclusion that intrusion mostly had occurred in the Late Triassic, the U-Pb ages (obtained from the same sites as the K-Ar dates) demonstrate that the K-Ar ages do not derive from a Late Triassic intrusive episode. The K-Ar dates probably are a signature of the rifting associated with Pangean breakup and formation of the Gulf of Mexico. In a reconstructed Pangea, the position of the Maya Mountains Late Silurian plutons suggests that the Late Silurian Acadian-Caledonian orogen of eastern North America extended through the region of the future Gulf of Mexico. Finally, the U-Pb ages of the Maya Mountains plutons are the same as those of a group of shocked zircons found in the Chicxulub impact structure and its fallout layer. The presence of these ages in both locations suggests that the Maya Mountains exposures may be representative of the basement of the Yucatan Block, hence of the basement impacted by the Chicxulub object

The systemic lupus erythematosus IRF5 risk haplotype is associated with systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a fibrotic autoimmune disease in which the genetic component plays an important role. One of the strongest SSc association signals outside the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region corresponds to interferon (IFN) regulatory factor 5 (IRF5), a major regulator of the type I IFN pathway. In this study we aimed to evaluate whether three different haplotypic blocks within this locus, which have been shown to alter the protein function influencing systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) susceptibility, are involved in SSc susceptibility and clinical phenotypes. For that purpose, we genotyped one representative single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of each block (rs10488631, rs2004640, and rs4728142) in a total of 3,361 SSc patients and 4,012 unaffected controls of Caucasian origin from Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and United Kingdom. A meta-analysis of the allele frequencies was performed to analyse the overall effect of these IRF5 genetic variants on SSc. Allelic combination and dependency tests were also carried out. The three SNPs showed strong associations with the global disease (rs4728142: P = 1.34×10<sup>−8</sup>, OR = 1.22, CI 95% = 1.14–1.30; rs2004640: P = 4.60×10<sup>−7</sup>, OR = 0.84, CI 95% = 0.78–0.90; rs10488631: P = 7.53×10<sup>−20</sup>, OR = 1.63, CI 95% = 1.47–1.81). However, the association of rs2004640 with SSc was not independent of rs4728142 (conditioned P = 0.598). The haplotype containing the risk alleles (rs4728142*A-rs2004640*T-rs10488631*C: P = 9.04×10<sup>−22</sup>, OR = 1.75, CI 95% = 1.56–1.97) better explained the observed association (likelihood P-value = 1.48×10<sup>−4</sup>), suggesting an additive effect of the three haplotypic blocks. No statistical significance was observed in the comparisons amongst SSc patients with and without the main clinical characteristics. Our data clearly indicate that the SLE risk haplotype also influences SSc predisposition, and that this association is not sub-phenotype-specific

A genome-wide association study follow-up suggests a possible role for PPARG in systemic sclerosis susceptibility

Introduction: A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) comprising a French cohort of systemic sclerosis (SSc) reported several non-HLA single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) showing a nominal association in the discovery phase. We aimed to identify previously overlooked susceptibility variants by using a follow-up strategy.<p></p> Methods: Sixty-six non-HLA SNPs showing a P value <10-4 in the discovery phase of the French SSc GWAS were analyzed in the first step of this study, performing a meta-analysis that combined data from the two published SSc GWASs. A total of 2,921 SSc patients and 6,963 healthy controls were included in this first phase. Two SNPs, PPARG rs310746 and CHRNA9 rs6832151, were selected for genotyping in the replication cohort (1,068 SSc patients and 6,762 healthy controls) based on the results of the first step. Genotyping was performed by using TaqMan SNP genotyping assays. Results: We observed nominal associations for both PPARG rs310746 (PMH = 1.90 × 10-6, OR, 1.28) and CHRNA9 rs6832151 (PMH = 4.30 × 10-6, OR, 1.17) genetic variants with SSc in the first step of our study. In the replication phase, we observed a trend of association for PPARG rs310746 (P value = 0.066; OR, 1.17). The combined overall Mantel-Haenszel meta-analysis of all the cohorts included in the present study revealed that PPARG rs310746 remained associated with SSc with a nominal non-genome-wide significant P value (PMH = 5.00 × 10-7; OR, 1.25). No evidence of association was observed for CHRNA9 rs6832151 either in the replication phase or in the overall pooled analysis.<p></p> Conclusion: Our results suggest a role of PPARG gene in the development of SSc

CUDASW++2.0: enhanced Smith-Waterman protein database search on CUDA-enabled GPUs based on SIMT and virtualized SIMD abstractions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Due to its high sensitivity, the Smith-Waterman algorithm is widely used for biological database searches. Unfortunately, the quadratic time complexity of this algorithm makes it highly time-consuming. The exponential growth of biological databases further deteriorates the situation. To accelerate this algorithm, many efforts have been made to develop techniques in high performance architectures, especially the recently emerging many-core architectures and their associated programming models.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>This paper describes the latest release of the CUDASW++ software, CUDASW++ 2.0, which makes new contributions to Smith-Waterman protein database searches using compute unified device architecture (CUDA). A parallel Smith-Waterman algorithm is proposed to further optimize the performance of CUDASW++ 1.0 based on the single instruction, multiple thread (SIMT) abstraction. For the first time, we have investigated a partitioned vectorized Smith-Waterman algorithm using CUDA based on the virtualized single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) abstraction. The optimized SIMT and the partitioned vectorized algorithms were benchmarked, and remarkably, have similar performance characteristics. CUDASW++ 2.0 achieves performance improvement over CUDASW++ 1.0 as much as 1.74 (1.72) times using the optimized SIMT algorithm and up to 1.77 (1.66) times using the partitioned vectorized algorithm, with a performance of up to 17 (30) billion cells update per second (GCUPS) on a single-GPU GeForce GTX 280 (dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295) graphics card.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>CUDASW++ 2.0 is publicly available open-source software, written in CUDA and C++ programming languages. It obtains significant performance improvement over CUDASW++ 1.0 using either the optimized SIMT algorithm or the partitioned vectorized algorithm for Smith-Waterman protein database searches by fully exploiting the compute capability of commonly used CUDA-enabled low-cost GPUs.</p