751 research outputs found
Robust Adaptive Control of a Class of Nonlinear Strict-feedback Discrete-time Systems with Exact Output Tracking
10.1016/j.automatica.2009.07.025Automatica45112537-2545ATCA
Facile Synthesis of High Quality Graphene Nanoribbons
Graphene nanoribbons have attracted attention for their novel electronic and
spin transport properties1-6, and because nanoribbons less than 10 nm wide have
a band gap that can be used to make field effect transistors. However,
producing nanoribbons of very high quality, or in high volumes, remains a
challenge. Here, we show that pristine few-layer nanoribbons can be produced by
unzipping mildly gas-phase oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotube using
mechanical sonication in an organic solvent. The nanoribbons exhibit very high
quality, with smooth edges (as seen by high-resolution transmission electron
microscopy), low ratios of disorder to graphitic Raman bands, and the highest
electrical conductance and mobility reported to date (up to 5e2/h and 1500
cm2/Vs for ribbons 10-20 nm in width). Further, at low temperature, the
nanoribbons exhibit phase coherent transport and Fabry-Perot interference,
suggesting minimal defects and edge roughness. The yield of nanoribbons was ~2%
of the starting raw nanotube soot material, which was significantly higher than
previous methods capable of producing high quality narrow nanoribbons1. The
relatively high yield synthesis of pristine graphene nanoribbons will make
these materials easily accessible for a wide range of fundamental and practical
applications.Comment: Nature Nanotechnology in pres
XRCC2 R188H (rs3218536), XRCC3 T241M (rs861539) and R243H (rs77381814) single nucleotide polymorphisms in cervical cancer risk
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the main cause of cervical cancer and its precursor lesions. Transformation may be induced by several mechanisms, including oncogene activation and genome instability. Individual differences in DNA damage recognition and repair have been hypothesized to influence cervical cancer risk. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the double strand break gene polymorphisms XRCC2 R188H G>A (rs3218536), XRCC3 T241M C>T (rs861539) and R243H G>A (rs77381814) are associated to cervical cancer in Argentine women. A case control study consisting of 322 samples (205 cases and 117 controls) was carried out. HPV DNA detection was performed by PCR and genotyping of positive samples by EIA (enzyme immunoassay). XRCC2 and 3 polymorphisms were determined by pyrosequencing. The HPV-adjusted odds ratio (OR) of XRCC2 188 GG/AG genotypes was OR = 2.4 (CI = 1.1-4.9, p = 0.02) for cervical cancer. In contrast, there was no increased risk for cervical cancer with XRCC3 241 TT/CC genotypes (OR = 0.48; CI = 0.2-1; p = 0.1) or XRCC3 241 CT/CC (OR = 0.87; CI = 0.52-1.4; p = 0.6). Regarding XRCC3 R243H, the G allele was almost fixed in the population studied. In conclusion, although the sample size was modest, the present data indicate a statistical association between cervical cancer and XRCC2 R188H polymorphism. Future studies are needed to confirm these findings.Fil: Perez, Luis Orlando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Crivaro, Andrea Natalia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Barbisan, Gisela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Poleri, LucĂa BelĂ©n. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Golijow, Carlos Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria; Argentin
Familial congenital cyanosis caused by Hb-MYantai(α-76 GAC â TAC, Asp â Tyr)
Methemoglobin (Hb-M) is a rare hemoglobinopathy in China. We hereby report on a family living in Yantai, East China, with congenital cyanosis due to Hb-M mutation. The proband, a 65-year-old female, presented 63% oxygen saturation. Both Hb-M concentration and arterial oxygen saturation remained unchanged, even following intravenous treatment with methylene blue. There was also no change in blood-color (chocolate-brown) after adding 0.1% KCN. A fast-moving band (Hb-X) in hemolysates was found by cellulose acetate electrophoresis, the Hb-X/Hb-A ratio exceeding 10%. GT transition at 131nt of exon 2, although present in one of the α2 -globin alleles, was not found in α1 -globin alleles as a whole. This mutation leads to the aspartic acid to tyrosine substitution (Asp76Tyr). In this family, the novel mutation in the α2 -globin gene resulted in a rare form of congenital cyanosis due to Hb-M. This hemoglobin was named Hb-M Yantai
Gestational diabesity and foetoplacental vascular dysfunction
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) shows a deficiency in the metabolism of D-glucose and other nutrients, thereby negatively affecting the foetoplacental vascular endothelium. Maternal hyperglycaemia and hyperinsulinemia play an important role in the aetiology of GDM. A combination of these and other factors predisposes women to developing GDM with pre-pregnancy normal weight, viz. classic GDM. However, women with GDM and prepregnancy obesity (gestational diabesity, GDty) or overweight (GDMow) show a different metabolic status than women with classic GDM. GDty and GDMow are associated with altered l-arginine/nitric oxide and insulin/adenosine axis signalling in the human foetoplacental microvascular and macrovascular endothelium. These alterations differ from those observed in classic GDM. Here, we have reviewed the consequences of GDty and GDMow in the modulation of foetoplacental endothelial cell function, highlighting studies describing the modulation of intracellular pH homeostasis and the potential implications of NO generation and adenosine signalling in GDty-associated foetal vascular insulin resistance. Moreover, with an increase in the rate of obesity in women of childbearing age worldwide, the prevalence of GDty is expected to increase in the next decades. Therefore, we emphasize that women with GDty and GDMow should be characterized with a different metabolic state from that of women with classic GDM to develop a more specific therapeutic approach for protecting the mother and foetus
Quantification of thermal ring flexibilities of aromatic and heteroaromatic compounds
The consequences of thermal fluctuations occurring at room temperatures on the aromatic character of a broad group of compounds were analyzed in three distinct ways. First of all, the ring deformations were modeled along normal coordinates coming from quantum thermo-chemistry computations. The amplitudes of vibrations were estimated according to absorbed energies at room temperature. Alternatively, in-plane and out-of-plane ring deformations were modeled via scanning procedure with partial relaxation of the molecular geometry. The influence of ring deformations on Ïâelectron delocalization was expressed in terms of HOMA values. Besides, the ring deformability was defined as the averaged change of bond angles or dihedral angles constituting the ring that was associated with 1.5 kcal mol-1 increase of the system energy. The molecules structures adopted during vibrations at room temperature can lead to significant heterogeneity of structural index of aromaticity. The broad span of HOMA values was obtained for analyzed five- or six-membered aromatic and heteroaromatic rings. However, the averaged values obtained for such fluctuations almost perfectly match HOMA values of molecule in the ground state. It has been demonstrated that the ring deformability imposed by bond angle changes is much smaller than for dihedral angles with the same rise of system energy. Interestingly in the case of out-of-plane vibrations modeled by scanning procedure there is observed linear correlation between ring deformability and HOMA values. Proposed method for inclusion of thermal vibrations in the framework of Ïâelectron delocalization provides natural shift of the way of thinking about aromaticity from a static quantity to a dynamic and heterogeneous one due to inclusion of a more realistic object of analysis â thermally deformed structures. From this perspective the thermal fluctuations are supposed to be non-negligible contributions to aromaticity phenomenon
Etching and Narrowing of Graphene from the Edges
Large scale graphene electronics desires lithographic patterning of narrow
graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) for device integration. However, conventional
lithography can only reliably pattern ~20nm wide GNR arrays limited by
lithography resolution, while sub-5nm GNRs are desirable for high on/off ratio
field-effect transistors (FETs) at room temperature. Here, we devised a gas
phase chemical approach to etch graphene from the edges without damaging its
basal plane. The reaction involved high temperature oxidation of graphene in a
slightly reducing environment to afford controlled etch rate (\leq ~1nm/min).
We fabricated ~20-30nm wide GNR arrays lithographically, and used the gas phase
etching chemistry to narrow the ribbons down to <10nm. For the first time, high
on/off ratio up to ~10^4 was achieved at room temperature for FETs built with
sub-5nm wide GNR semiconductors derived from lithographic patterning and
narrowing. Our controlled etching method opens up a chemical way to control the
size of various graphene nano-structures beyond the capability of top-down
lithography.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Nature Chemistr
Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay
The decay channel
is studied using a sample of events collected
by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is
observed in the invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit
with an -wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of
and a
narrow width that is at the 90% confidence level.
These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width
values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics
A regularization algorithm for a common solution of generalized equilibrium problem, fixed point problem and the zero points of the sum of two operators
Polarimetric Plasmonic Sensing with Bowtie Nanoantenna Arrays
We propose a polarimetric plasmonic biosensor based on bowtie nanoantenna array transducers. Through numerical simulations, based on the finite element method (FEM), we study the phase retardation between the components of light polarized parallel and perpendicular to the major axis of the bowties within the arrays. From a design for high volumetric sensitivity at a wavelength of 780 nm, sensitivities âŒ5 rad/RIU is obtained, corresponding to a detection limit of âŒ10â7 when using a polarimetric readout platform. Similarly, surface sensitivity of the same array is evaluated by simulating the phase retardation changes induced by the coverage of bioreceptors and analytes of the metallic nanostructures
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