Effect of Pions in Cosmic Rays

The effects of pions for vacuum polarization in background magnetic fields are considered. The effects of quark condensates is also briefly addresses. Although these effects are out of the measurement accuracy of laboratory experiments they may be relevant for gamma-ray burst propagation. In particular, for emissions from the center of the galaxy, we show that the mixing between the neutral pion and photons results in a deviation of the gamma-ray spectrum from the standard power-law in the TeV range.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; Based in arXiv:0707.4200 with a new very short discussion in qq condensates. To appear in the Proceedings of Scadron'7

African vegetable diversity in the limelight: project activities by ProNIVA.

Poster presented at Botanical Congress. Hamburg (Germany), 3-7 Sep 200

Design of double-walled carbon nanotubes for biomedical applications

Double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWNTs) prepared by catalytic chemical vapour deposition were functionalized in such a way that they were optimally designed as a nano-vector for the delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA), which is of great interest for biomedical research and drug development. DWNTs were initially oxidized and coated with a polypeptide (Poly(Lys:Phe)), which was then conjugated to thiol-modified siRNA using a heterobifunctional cross-linker. The obtained oxDWNT–siRNA was characterized by Raman spectroscopy inside and outside a biological environment (mammalian cells). Uptake of the custom designed nanotubes was not associated with detectable biochemical perturbations in cultured cells, but transfection of cells with DWNTs loaded with siRNA targeting the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene, serving as a model system, as well as with therapeutic siRNA targeting the survivin gene, led to a significant gene silencing effect, and in the latter case a resulting apoptotic effect in cancer cells