Fullerene-driven encapsulation of a luminescent Eu(III) complex in carbon nanotubes

A novel CNT-based hybrid luminescent material was obtained via encapsulation of a C60-based Eu(III) complex into single-, double- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs, DWCNTs and MWCNTs, respectively). Specifically, a luminescent negatively charged Eu(III) complex, electrostatically bonded to an imidazolium-functionalized fullerene cage, was transported inside CNTs by exploiting the affinity of fullerenes for the inner surface of these carbonaceous containers. The filling was performed under supercritical CO2 (scCO2) conditions to facilitate the entrapment of the ion-paired assembly. Accurate elemental, spectroscopic and morphological characterization not only demonstrated the efficiency of the filling strategy, but also the occurrence of nano-ordering of the encapsulated supramolecular luminophores when SWCNTs were employed

A porous fibrous hyperelastic damage model for human periodontal ligament: Application of a microcomputerized tomography finite element model

The periodontal ligament (PDL) is a soft biological tissue that connects the tooth with the trabecular bone of the mandible. It plays a key role in load transmission and is primarily responsible for bone resorption and most common periodontal diseases. Although several numerical studies have analysed the biomechanical response of the PDL, most did not consider its porous fibrous structure, and only a few analysed damage to the PDL. This study presents an innovative numerical formulation of a porous fibrous hyperelastic damage material model for the PDL. The model considers two separate softening phenomena: fibre alignment during loading and fibre rupture. The parameters for the material model characterization were fitted using experimental data from the literature. Furthermore, the experimental tests used for characterization were computationally modelled to verify the material parameters. A finite element model of a portion of a human mandible, obtained by microcomputerized tomography, was developed, and the proposed constitutive model was implemented for the PDL. Our results confirm that damage to the PDL may occur mainly because of overpressure of the interstitial fluid, while large forces must be applied to damage the PDL fibrous network. Moreover, this study clarifies some aspects of the relationship between PDL damage and the bone remodelling process

Síntesis y medición de acidez superficial de catalizadores soportados en SBA-15

Heteropoliácido H₃PW₁₂O₄₀ y platino fueron soportados por el método de impregnación húmeda incipiente sobre SBA-15. El sólido mesoporoso SBA-15 fue sintetizado mediante un proceso de hidrolisis-condensación del tetraetilortosilicato (TEOS) como precursor de silicio y el tensoactivo P123 [(PEO)₇₀ (PPO)₂₀ (PEO)₇₀]. Los catalizadores resultantes fueron caracterizados por difracción de rayos x (XRD), microscopía electrónica de transmisión (TEM), fisisorción de N₂ y espectroscopia de infrarrojo con transformada de Fourier (FTIR) usando piridina como método de prueba. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que se obtuvo la estructura cristalina hexagonal característica del SBA-15, así de como una buena distribución del heteropoliácido en el soporte. En los catalizadores están presentes sitios tanto sitios ácidos de Brönsted como Lewis. Las propiedades catalíticas de los catalizadores serán evaluadas en la reacción de n-heptano, variando condiciones experimentales.Heteropolyacid H₃PW₁₂O₄₀ and platinum were immobilized onto SBA-15 by incipient wetness impregnation method. The SBA-15 mesoporous material was synthesized by a process of hydrolysis-condensation of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) as silicon precursor and the surfactant P123 [(PEO) ₇₀ (PPO) ₂₀ (PEO) ₇₀]. The resulting catalyst were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N₂physisorption and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy using pyridine as a molecular probe. The results show that a characteristic hexagonal crystal structure of SBA-15 as well as a good distribution of the heteropolyacid in the support surface was obtained. The Brönsted acids and Lewis sites are present in all catalysts. The catalytic properties of the catalysts will be evaluated in the reaction of n-heptane, varying experimental conditions

Quantum entanglement and disentanglement of multi-atom systems

We present a review of recent research on quantum entanglement, with special emphasis on entanglement between single atoms, processing of an encoded entanglement and its temporary evolution. Analysis based on the density matrix formalism are described. We give a simple description of the entangling procedure and explore the role of the environment in creation of entanglement and in disentanglement of atomic systems. A particular process we will focus on is spontaneous emission, usually recognized as an irreversible loss of information and entanglement encoded in the internal states of the system. We illustrate some certain circumstances where this irreversible process can in fact induce entanglement between separated systems. We also show how spontaneous emission reveals a competition between the Bell states of a two qubit system that leads to the recently discovered "sudden" features in the temporal evolution of entanglement. An another problem illustrated in details is a deterministic preparation of atoms and atomic ensembles in long-lived stationary squeezed states and entangled cluster states. We then determine how to trigger the evolution of the stable entanglement and also address the issue of a steered evolution of entanglement between desired pairs of qubits that can be achieved simply by varying the parameters of a given system.Comment: Review articl

A pilot study of a phenomenological model of adipogenesis in maturing adipocytes using Cahn–Hilliard theory

We consider the accumulation and formation of lipid droplets in an adipocyte cell. The process incorporates adipose nucleation (adipogenesis) and growth. At later stages, there will be merging of droplets and growth of larger droplets at the expense of the smaller droplets, which will essentially undergo lipolysis. The process is modeled by the use of the Cahn–Hilliard equation, which is mass-conserving and allows the formation of secondary phases in the context of spinodal decomposition. The volume of fluid (VOF) method is used to determine the total area that is occupied by the lipids in a given cross section. Further, we present an algorithm, applicable to all kinds of grids (structured or unstructured) in two spatial dimensions, to count the number of lipid droplets and the portion of the domain of computation that is occupied by the lipid droplets as a function of time during the process. The results are preliminary and are validated from a qualitative point using experiments carried out on cell cultures. It turns out that the Cahn–Hilliard theory can model many of the features during adipogenesis qualitatively

Control of somatosensory cortical processing by thalamic posterior medial nucleus: A new role of thalamus in cortical function

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Current knowledge of thalamocortical interaction comes mainly from studying lemniscal thalamic systems. Less is known about paralemniscal thalamic nuclei function. In the vibrissae system, the posterior medial nucleus (POm) is the corresponding paralemniscal nucleus. POm neurons project to L1 and L5A of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in the rat brain. It is known that L1 modifies sensory-evoked responses through control of intracortical excitability suggesting that L1 exerts an influence on whisker responses. Therefore, thalamocortical pathways targeting L1 could modulate cortical firing. Here, using a combination of electrophysiology and pharmacology in vivo, we have sought to determine how POm influences cortical processing. In our experiments, single unit recordings performed in urethane- anesthetized rats showed that POm imposes precise control on the magnitude and duration of supra- and infragranular barrel cortex whisker responses. Our findings demonstrated that L1 inputs from POm imposed a time and intensity dependent regulation on cortical sensory processing. Moreover, we found that blocking L1 GABAergic inhibition or blocking P/Q-type Ca2+ channels in L1 prevents POm adjustment of whisker responses in the barrel cortex. Additionally, we found that POm was also controlling the sensory processing in S2 and this regulation was modulated by corticofugal activity from L5 in S1. Taken together, our data demonstrate the determinant role exerted by the POm in the adjustment of somatosensory cortical processing and in the regulation of cortical processing between S1 and S2. We propose that this adjustment could be a thalamocortical gain regulation mechanism also present in the processing of information between cortical areas.This work was supported by a grant from Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (BFU2012- 36107

Expression analysis of α-smooth muscle actin and tenascin-C in the periodontal ligament under orthodontic loading or in vitro culture

α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and tenascin-C are stress-induced phenotypic features of myofibroblasts. The expression levels of these two proteins closely correlate with the extracellular mechanical microenvironment. We investigated how the expression of α-SMA and tenascin-C was altered in the periodontal ligament (PDL) under orthodontic loading to indirectly reveal the intrinsic mechanical microenvironment in the PDL. In this study, we demonstrated the synergistic effects of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) and mechanical tensile or compressive stress on myofibroblast differentiation from human periodontal ligament cells (hPDLCs). The hPDLCs under higher tensile or compressive stress significantly increased their levels of α-SMA and tenascin-C compared with those under lower tensile or compressive stress. A similar trend was observed in the tension and compression areas of the PDL under continuous light or heavy orthodontic load in rats. During the time-course analysis of expression, we observed that an increase in α-SMA levels was matched by an increase in tenascin-C levels in the PDL under orthodontic load in vivo. The time-dependent variation of α-SMA and tenascin-C expression in the PDL may indicate the time-dependent variation of intrinsic stress under constant extrinsic loading