Nanoscale Porosity of High Surface Area Gadolinium Oxide Nanofoam Obtained With Combustion Synthesis

Nanoscale gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3) is a promising nanomaterial with unique physicochemical properties that finds various applications ranging from biomedicine to catalysis. The preparation of highly porous Gd2O3 nanofoam greatly increases its surface area thereby boosting its potential for functional use in applications such as water purification processes and in catalytic applications. By using the combustion synthesis method, a strong exothermic redox reaction between gadolinium nitrate hexahydrate and glycine causes the formation of crystalline nanoporous Gd2O3. In this study, the synthesis of Gd2O3 nanofoam is achieved with combustion synthesis at large scale (grams). Its nanoscale porosity is investigated by nitrogen physisorption and its nanoscale 3D structure by electron tomography, and the formation process is investigated as well by means of in situ heating inside the transmission electron microscope. The bulk nanofoam product is highly crystalline and porous with a surface area of 67 m2 g−1 as measured by physisorption, in good agreement with the electron tomographic 3D reconstructions showing an intricate interconnected pore network with pore sizes varying from 2 to 3 nm to tens of nanometers. In situ heating experiments point to many possibilities for tuning the porosity of the Gd2O3 nanofoam by varying the experimental synthesis conditions

Towards quantum 3d imaging devices

We review the advancement of the research toward the design and implementation of quantum plenoptic cameras, radically novel 3D imaging devices that exploit both momentum–position entanglement and photon–number correlations to provide the typical refocusing and ultra-fast, scanning-free, 3D imaging capability of plenoptic devices, along with dramatically enhanced performances, unattainable in standard plenoptic cameras: diffraction-limited resolution, large depth of focus, and ultra-low noise. To further increase the volumetric resolution beyond the Rayleigh diffraction limit, and achieve the quantum limit, we are also developing dedicated protocols based on quantum Fisher information. However, for the quantum advantages of the proposed devices to be effective and appealing to end-users, two main challenges need to be tackled. First, due to the large number of frames required for correlation measurements to provide an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio, quantum plenoptic imaging (QPI) would require, if implemented with commercially available high-resolution cameras, acquisition times ranging from tens of seconds to a few minutes. Second, the elaboration of this large amount of data, in order to retrieve 3D images or refocusing 2D images, requires high-performance and time-consuming computation. To address these challenges, we are developing high-resolution single-photon avalanche photodiode (SPAD) arrays and high-performance low-level programming of ultra-fast electronics, combined with compressive sensing and quantum tomography algorithms, with the aim to reduce both the acquisition and the elaboration time by two orders of magnitude. Routes toward exploitation of the QPI devices will also be discussed

Combining Genomics and Metabolomics for the Discovery of Regulatory Genes and Their Use in Metabolic Engineering to Produce ‘Healthy Foods’

Plants often accumulate their natural products to relatively low levels, so there is a lot of interest in breeding or engineering plants that produce higher levels. It has been shown that the most effective way to increase the accumulation of secondary metabolites is to increase the activity of genes that regulate the activity of the biosynthetic pathways that make different natural products. Regulatory genes of this type encode proteins called transcription factors. The biggest bottleneck in using this strategy to develop plants that accumulate significantly higher levels of important natural products is that not many transcription factors regulating secondary metabolism have yet been identified at the molecular level. Genes encoding transcription factors can be identified from model plants with sequenced genomes. The ability of such genes to regulate metabolism can be assayed by examination of mutants (reverse genetics) and by investigating the metabolic effects of high levels of expression of the genes. The combined techniques of metabolic fingerprinting and metabolite profiling of mutant and transgenic plants are allowing us to identify new genes encoding transcription factors controlling secondary metabolism, that can be used as tools for engineering natural product accumulatio

Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

Enterpreneurship as part of rural areas development on the example of selected commune

Znaczenie przedsiębiorczości w rozwoju społeczno-gospodarczym sprawia, iż staje się ona coraz częściej przedmiotem zainteresowania wielu dyscyplin naukowych. Często przedsiębiorczość analizowana jest przez pryzmat zespołu takich cech człowieka, jak kreatywność, elastyczność, zaradność i umiejętność radzenia sobie w trudnych sytuacjach. W pracy przedstawiono stan przedsiębiorczości wśród mieszkańców gminy Krasne w 2014 roku oraz ukazano czynniki sprzyjające rozwojowi przedsiębiorczości na obszarze tej gminy. Wskaźnik przedsiębiorczości na terenie badanej gminy wyniósł 27,06. W grupie czynników sprzyjających rozwojowi przedsiębiorczości za najważniejszy uznano osobowość właściciela firmy.The paper presents the state of entrepreneurship among the residents of the municipality of Krasne in 2014 and shown the factors promoting development of entrepreneurship in the area of the municipality. In 2014 on the Krasne commune worked 105 entities, of which 13 were farmers. Indicator of entrepreneurship in the municipalities studied was 27.06. In the group of factors that contribute to the development of entrepreneurship as the most important was the personality of the business owner. These studies provide an insight into the need for an active role of local government in creating “climate” for business development. Still a small percentage of residents of the municipality Krasne (2.7%) operates, and an even smaller group are farmers (0.3%)

Post-Variscan thermal and tectonic evolution of the KTB site and its surroundings.

The post-Carboniferous crustal evolution of the German Continental Deep Drilling Program (KTB) area, as summarized in this paper, could not be predicted from surface observations: deep drilling was essential for its revelation, The most conspicuous and unexpected feature discovered in the drill hole is the absence of marked gradients with respect to the pre-Carboniferous record, There are no depth-related differences in K-Ar cooling ages of hornblende and white mica, in petrology or in lithology, All metamorphic rocks encountered, both at the surface as well as in the drill hole down to 9100 m depth, were below 300 degrees C from the Carboniferous onward. The late to post-Carboniferous deformation is essentially confined to several fault zones, A major fault zone encountered in the drill hole at 7000 m depth is linked by a prominent seismic reflector to the Franconian Lineament, the surface boundary between Variscan basement and Mesozoic cover, This fault zone probably formed in the late Paleozoic and reactivated as a reverse fault in the Mesozoic. Two important episodes of NE-SW directed shortening by movements along reverse faults took place in the early Triassic and in the late Cretaceous, as indicated by the distribution of apatite and titanite fission-track ages, the sericite K-Ar ages of fault rocks, and the sedimentary record in the adjacent basins, Upper crustal slices were detached at a specific level, corresponding to the approximate position of the brittle-ductile transition in post-Variscan times, and form an antiformal stack that was penetrated by the KTB throughout its entire depth range