22,561 research outputs found
Nitrogen doping of carbon nanoelectrodes for enhanced control of DNA translocation dynamics
Controlling the dynamics of DNA translocation is a central issue in the
emerging nanopore-based DNA sequencing. To address the potential of heteroatom
doping of carbon nanostructures to achieve this goal, herein we carry out
atomistic molecular dynamics simulations for single-stranded DNAs translocating
between two pristine or doped carbon nanotube (CNT) electrodes. Specifically,
we consider the substitutional nitrogen doping of capped CNT (capCNT)
electrodes and perform two types of molecular dynamics simulations for the
entrapped and translocating single-stranded DNAs. We find that the
substitutional nitrogen doping of capCNTs stabilizes the edge-on nucleobase
configurations rather than the original face-on ones and slows down the DNA
translocation speed by establishing hydrogen bonds between the N dopant atoms
and nucleobases. Due to the enhanced interactions between DNAs and N-doped
capCNTs, the duration time of nucleobases within the nanogap was extended by up
to ~ 290 % and the fluctuation of the nucleobases was reduced by up to ~ 70 %.
Given the possibility to be combined with extrinsic light or gate voltage
modulation methods, the current work demonstrates that the substitutional
nitrogen doping is a promising direction for the control of DNA translocation
dynamics through a nanopore or nanogap based of carbon nanomaterials.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Probing resonance decays to two visible and multiple invisible particles
We consider the decay of a generic resonance to two visible particles and any
number of invisible particles. We show that the shape of the invariant mass
distribution of the two visible particles is sensitive to both the mass
spectrum of the new particles, as well as the decay topology. We provide the
analytical formulas describing the invariant mass shapes for the nine simplest
topologies (with up to two invisible particles in the final state). Any such
distribution can be simply categorized by its endpoint, peak location and
curvature, which are typically sufficient to discriminate among the competing
topologies. In each case, we list the effective mass parameters which can be
measured by experiment. In certain cases, the invariant mass shape is
sufficient to completely determine the new particle mass spectrum, including
the overall mass scale.Comment: Added new figures, conclusions unchanged, published versio
On higher ground: Moral thinking leads to abstract processing
We often describe people who do the "right" thing as "on the moral high ground". Do such people see their world from a higher distance? Four experiments find that moral thinking leads to abstract processing. This research contributes to the understanding of morality from an embodied cognition perspective
Dilaton as a Dark Matter Candidate and its Detection
Assuming that the dilaton is the dark matter of the universe, we propose an
experiment to detect the relic dilaton using the electromagnetic resonant
cavity, based on the dilaton-photon conversion in strong electromagnetic
background. We calculate the density of the relic dilaton, and estimate the
dilaton mass for which the dilaton becomes the dark matter of the universe.
With this we calculate the dilaton detection power in the resonant cavity, and
compare it with the axion detection power in similar resonant cavity
experiment.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figure
Functional rescue of dystrophin deficiency in mice caused by frameshift mutations using Campylobacter jejuni Cas9
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal, X-linked muscle wasting disease caused by mutations in the DMD gene. In 51% of DMD cases, a reading frame is disrupted because of deletion of several exons. Here, we show that CjCas9 derived from Campylobacter jejuni can be
used as a gene editing tool to correct an out-of-frame Dmd exon in Dmd knockout mice. Herein, we used Cas9 derived from S. pyogenes to generate Dmd knockout (KO) mice with a frameshift mutation in Dmd gene. Then, we expressed CjCas9, its single-guide RNA, and the eGFP gene
in the tibialis anterior muscle of the Dmd KO mice using an all-in-one adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector. CjCas9 cleaved the target site in the Dmd gene efficiently in vivo and induced small insertions or deletions at the target site. This treatment resulted in conversion of the
disrupted Dmd reading frame from out-of-frame to in-frame, leading to the expression of dystrophin in the sarcolemma. Importantly, muscle strength was enhanced in the CjCas9-treated muscles, without off-target mutations, indicating high efficiency and specificity of CjCas9. This work suggests that in vivo DMD frame correction, mediated by CjCas9 has great potential for the treatment of DMD and other neuromuscular diseases
Nanoparticle iron-phosphate anode material for Li-ion battery
Nanoparticle crystalline iron phosphates (FePO4.2H(2)O and FePO4) were synthesized using a (CTAB) surfactant as an anode material for Li rechargeable batteries. The electrochemical properties of the nanoparticle iron phosphates were characterized with a voltage window of 2.4-0 V. A variscite orthorhombic FePO4.2H(2)O showed a large initial charge capacity of 609 mAh/g. On the other hand, a tridymite triclinic FePO4 exhibited excellent cyclability: the capacity retention up to 30 cycles was similar to80%, from 485 to 375 mAh/g. The iron phosphate anodes exhibited the highest reported capacity, while the cathode LiFePO4 has an ideal capacity of 170 mAh/g.open515
- …