Nonlinear thermoelectric efficiency of superlattice-structured nanowires

We theoretically investigate nonlinear ballistic thermoelectric transport in a superlattice-structured nanowire. By a special choice of nonuniform widths of the superlattice barriers - analogous to anti-reflection coating in optical systems - it is possible to achieve a transmission which comes close to a square profile as a function of energy. We calculate the low-temperature output power and power-conversion efficiency of a thermoelectric generator based on such a structure and show that the efficiency remains high also when operating at a significant power. To provide guidelines for experiments, we study how the results depend on the nanowire radius, the number of barriers, and on random imperfections in barrier width and separation. Our results indicate that high efficiencies can indeed be achieved with todays capabilities in epitaxial nanowire growth.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Discovery of Stable and Selective Antibody Mimetics from Combinatorial Libraries of Polyvalent, Loop-Functionalized Peptoid Nanosheets.

The ability of antibodies to bind a wide variety of analytes with high specificity and high affinity makes them ideal candidates for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. However, the poor stability and high production cost of antibodies have prompted exploration of a variety of synthetic materials capable of specific molecular recognition. Unfortunately, it remains a fundamental challenge to create a chemically diverse population of protein-like, folded synthetic nanostructures with defined molecular conformations in water. Here we report the synthesis and screening of combinatorial libraries of sequence-defined peptoid polymers engineered to fold into ordered, supramolecular nanosheets displaying a high spatial density of diverse, conformationally constrained peptoid loops on their surface. These polyvalent, loop-functionalized nanosheets were screened using a homogeneous Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay for binding to a variety of protein targets. Peptoid sequences were identified that bound to the heptameric protein, anthrax protective antigen, with high avidity and selectivity. These nanosheets were shown to be resistant to proteolytic degradation, and the binding was shown to be dependent on the loop display density. This work demonstrates that key aspects of antibody structure and function-the creation of multivalent, combinatorial chemical diversity within a well-defined folded structure-can be realized with completely synthetic materials. This approach enables the rapid discovery of biomimetic affinity reagents that combine the durability of synthetic materials with the specificity of biomolecular materials

On Cross-Layer Routing in Wireless Multi-Hop Networks

International audienc

The role of decision making processes in urban management systems : (case study of Tehran)

PhD ThesisTehran, the capital city of Iran, has grown from a small village to a giant metropolis within two centuries. The population explosion - the result of both natural growth and migration from around the country to this city- led to the growth of the city and emergence of an unplanned mega city. As a densely populated mega city (with an average 10,000 persons/square km as population density), Tehran suffers from acute problems. Undoubtedly, the task of managing a metropolis with enormous problems and challenges is complex. Some of the elements that empower city managers to address such problems include adequate political and financial power, strategic plans, long-term views for urban development, and efficient decision making processes. The present research study primarily focuses on the latter element in Tehran‘s city management system, particularly in Tehran Municipality as the front line organisation, investigating the interrelationship between the quality of decision making process and the performance of city management systems. For this purpose, the research study concentrates on three distinctive periods after Iran‘s Islamic Revolution, i.e., the period commencing from Revolution including the Iran-Iraq War (1979-1990), the 1990‘s known as Tehran‘s reconstruction or post-war period, and the period after 1999 characterised by novice city councils during the first experience of elected bodies in Iranian urban management system. The thesis initially draws the pictures of Tehran in two snapshots of time: 1990 and 1999, i.e. the beginning and ending points of the second period of investigation, highlighting the considerable advancements in this period in terms of infrastructure development and urban facilities such as transportation network, public transit, green areas, cultural spaces, and other facilities. Then, employing a multi-criteria evaluation model, it conducts a quantitative analysis and measures the relative merit of decision making process at each period using the weighting and scoring method suggested by AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process). Finding the highest score of decision making quality in the second investigated period, the quantitative analysis suggests a positive interrelationship between a qualified decision making process and an efficient city management system. Furthermore, it shows that the quality of decision making has the most significant role among other investigated managerial power elements. The outcomes of the quantitative model are supported by a qualitative analysis through which a number of key decisions made during the second period were investigated to show the instances of qualified decision making process and how they impacted the performance of city management

Vitamin E inhibits the UVAI induction of “light” and “dark” cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers, and oxidatively generated DNA damage, in keratinocytes

Solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR)-induced DNA damage has acute, and long-term adverse effects in the skin. This damage arises directly by absorption of UVR, and indirectly via photosensitization reactions. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of vitamin E on UVAI-induced DNA damage in keratinocytes in vitro. Incubation with vitamin E before UVAI exposure decreased the formation of oxidized purines (with a decrease in intracellular oxidizing species), and cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPD). A possible sunscreening effect was excluded when similar results were obtained following vitamin E addition after UVAI exposure. Our data showed that DNA damage by UVA-induced photosensitization reactions can be inhibited by the introduction of vitamin E either pre- or post-irradiation, for both oxidized purines and CPD (including so-called “dark” CPDs). These data validate the evidence that some CPD are induced by UVAI initially via photosensitization, and some via chemoexcitation, and support the evidence that vitamin E can intervene in this pathway to prevent CPD formation in keratinocytes. We propose the inclusion of similar agents into topical sunscreens and aftersun preparations which, for the latter in particular, represents a means to mitigate on-going DNA damage formation, even after sun exposure has ended

Effects of Probability Function on the Performance of Stochastic Programming

Stochastic programming is a valuable optimization tool where used when some or all of the design parameters of an optimization problem are defined by stochastic variables rather than by deterministic quantities. Depending on the nature of equations involved in the problem, a stochastic optimization problem is called a stochastic linear or nonlinear programming problem. In this paper,a stochastic optimization problem is transformed intoan equivalent deterministic problem,which can be solved byany known classical methods (interior penalty method is applied here).The paper mainly focuseson investigatingthe effect of applying various probability functions distributions(normal, gamma, and exponential) for design variables. The following basic required equations to solve nonlinear stochastic problems with various probability functionsfor random variables are derived and sensitivity analyses to studythe effects of distribution function typesand input parameterson the optimum solution are presented as graphs and in tables by studyingtwoconsidered test problems. It is concluded that thedifference between probabilistic and deterministic solutions toa problem, when the normal distribution ofrandom variables isused, is very different fromthe results when gamma and exponential distribution functions are used. Finally, it is shownthat the rate of solution convergence tothe normal distribution is faster than the other distributions

Rescue of cells from apoptosis increases DNA repair in UVB exposed cells: implications for the DNA damage response

Classically, the nucleotide excision repair (NER) of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPD) is a lengthy process (t1/2 \u3e 48 h). Using the T4 endonuclease V-modified comet assay, we uniquely found a far more rapid repair of UVA-induced CPD (t1/2 = 4.5 h) in human skin keratinocytes. The repair of UVB-induced CPD began to slow within 1 h of irradiation, causing damage to persist for over 36 h. A similar trend was noted for the repair of oxidatively-modified purine nucleobases. Supportive of this differential repair, we noted an up-regulation of key genes associated with NER in UVA-irradiated cells, whereas the same genes were down regulated in UVB-irradiated cells. There were no significant differences in cell viability between the two treatments over the first 6 h post-irradiation, but after 24 h apoptosis had increased significantly in the UVB-irradiated cells. The role of apoptosis was confirmed using a pan-caspase inhibitor, which increased CPD repair, similar to that seen with UVA. These data indicate that the cellular ‘decision’ for apoptosis/DNA repair occurs far earlier than previously understood, and that the induction of apoptosis leads to lesion persistence, and not vice versa. This also highlights a new, potential increased carcinogenic risk from UVA-induced DNA damage as, rather than undergoing apoptosis, high levels of damage are tolerated and repaired, with the attendant risk of mutation

On Delay Fairness for Multiple Network Coding Transmissions

This paper studies the unfairness issues of network coding in multi hop wireless networks. Most of the work on network coding focuses on the obtained throughput gain. They show that mixing lineally the packets at the intermediate nodes is capacity-achieving. However, network coding schemes designed only to maximize the throughput could be unfairly biased. The reason is that by mixing different flows, packets destined to one destination in order to be decoded need to wait for the reception of the whole mixed set of encoded packets that may be totally independent in terms of final destination. This may lead to highly unfair delay for small block data. To mitigate this unfairness, relay nodes may mix only packets going to the same destination. We call this strategy FairMix. Although FairMix may limit the maximum attainable throughput, it aims to make distinct for decoding delay of each destination corresponding to the size of the data block. In order to investigate this trade off, we compare the FairMix performance with a naive network coding which mixes packets destined to different destinations. The simulation under lossy wireless links, limited memory and bandwidth resources, and different block sizes shows that FairMix is effective in improving fairness among destinations in comparison to naive network coding

A High-Throughput Comet Assay Approach for Assessing Cellular DNA Damage

open access articleCells are continually exposed to agents arising from the internal and external environments, which may damage DNA. This damage can cause aberrant cell function, and therefore DNA damage may play a critical role in the development of, conceivably, all major human diseases, e.g., cancer, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disease, and aging. Single-cell gel electrophoresis (i.e., the comet assay) is one of the most common and sensitive methods to study the formation and repair of a wide range of types of DNA damage (e.g., single- and double-strand breaks, alkali-labile sites, DNA-DNA crosslinks, and, in combination with certain repair enzymes, oxidized purines, and pyrimidines), in both in vitro and in vivo systems. However, the low sample throughput of the conventional assay and laborious sample workup are limiting factors to its widest possible application. With the "scoring" of comets increasingly automated, the limitation is now the ability to process significant numbers of comet slides. Here, a high-throughput (HTP) variant of the comet assay (HTP comet assay) has been developed, which significantly increases the number of samples analyzed, decreases assay run time, the number of individual slide manipulations, reagent requirements, and risk of physical damage to the gels. Furthermore, the footprint of the electrophoresis tank is significantly decreased due to the vertical orientation of the slides and integral cooling. Also reported here is a novel approach to chilling comet assay slides, which conveniently and efficiently facilitates the solidification of the comet gels. Here, the application of these devices to representative comet assay methods has been described. These simple innovations greatly support the use of the comet assay and its application to areas of study such as exposure biology, ecotoxicology, biomonitoring, toxicity screening/testing, together with understanding pathogenesis