2,011 research outputs found
Self-Organized Ni Nanocrystal Embedded in BaTiO3 Epitaxial Film
Ni nanocrystals (NCs) were embedded in BaTiO3 epitaxial films using the laser molecular beam epitaxy. The processes involving the self-organization of Ni NCs and the epitaxial growth of BaTiO3 were discussed. With the in situ monitoring of reflection high-energy electron diffraction, the nanocomposite films were engineered controllably by the fine alternation of the self-organization of Ni NCs and the epitaxial growth of BaTiO3. The transmission electron microscopy and the X-ray diffraction characterization confirmed that the composite film consists of the Ni NCs layers alternating with the (001)/(100)-oriented epitaxial BaTiO3 separation layers
Explosive Nucleosynthesis: What we learned and what we still do not understand
This review touches on historical aspects, going back to the early days of
nuclear astrophysics, initiated by BFH and Cameron, discusses (i) the
required nuclear input from reaction rates and decay properties up to the
nuclear equation of state, continues (ii) with the tools to perform
nucleosynthesis calculations and (iii) early parametrized nucleosynthesis
studies, before (iv) reliable stellar models became available for the late
stages of stellar evolution. It passes then through (v) explosive environments
from core-collapse supernovae to explosive events in binary systems (including
type Ia supernovae and compact binary mergers), and finally (vi) discusses the
role of all these nucleosynthesis production sites in the evolution of
galaxies. The focus is put on the comparison of early ideas and present, very
recent, understanding.Comment: 11 pages, to appear in Springer Proceedings in Physics (Proc. of
Intl. Conf. "Nuclei in the Cosmos XV", LNGS Assergi, Italy, June 2018
Altruism in a volatile world
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Nature via the DOI in this record.The evolution of altruism – costly self-sacrifice in the service of others – has puzzled biologists since
The Origin of Species. For half a century, attempts to understand altruism have been built on the insight
that altruists may help relatives to have extra offspring in order to spread shared genes . This theory –
known as inclusive fitness – is founded on a simple inequality termed ‘Hamilton’s rule’. However, explanations of altruism have typically ignored the stochasticity of natural environments, which will not
necessarily favour genotypes that produce the greatest average reproductive success. Moreover,
empirical data across many taxa reveal associations between altruism and environmental stochasticity, a pattern not predicted by standard interpretations of Hamilton’s rule. Here, we derive Hamilton’s rule
with explicit stochasticity, leading to novel predictions about the evolution of altruism. We show that of offspring produced by relatives. Consequently, costly altruism can evolve even if it has a net negative
effect on the average reproductive success of related recipients. The selective pressure on volatility
suppressing altruism is proportional to the coefficient of variation in population fitness, and is therefore diminished by its own success. Our results formalise the hitherto elusive link between bet-hedging and
altruism, and reveal missing fitness effects in the evolution of animal societies.PK was supported by the National Geographic Society (GEF-NE 145-15) and a
University of Bristol Research Studentship; ADH was supported by the Natural Environment Research
Council (NE/L011921/1); ANR was supported by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant
(award no. 682253); and SS was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council
(NE/M012913/2)
Particle-Hole Symmetry Breaking in the Pseudogap State of Bi2201
In conventional superconductors, a gap exists in the energy absorption
spectrum only below the transition temperature (Tc), corresponding to the
energy price to pay for breaking a Cooper pair of electrons. In high-Tc cuprate
superconductors above Tc, an energy gap called the pseudogap exists, and is
controversially attributed either to pre-formed superconducting pairs, which
would exhibit particle-hole symmetry, or to competing phases which would
typically break it. Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) studies suggest that
the pseudogap stems from lattice translational symmetry breaking and is
associated with a different characteristic spectrum for adding or removing
electrons (particle-hole asymmetry). However, no signature of either spatial or
energy symmetry breaking of the pseudogap has previously been observed by
angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). Here we report ARPES data
from Bi2201 which reveals both particle-hole symmetry breaking and dramatic
spectral broadening indicative of spatial symmetry breaking without long range
order, upon crossing through T* into the pseudogap state. This symmetry
breaking is found in the dominant region of the momentum space for the
pseudogap, around the so-called anti-node near the Brillouin zone boundary. Our
finding supports the STM conclusion that the pseudogap state is a
broken-symmetry state that is distinct from homogeneous superconductivity.Comment: Nature Physics advance online publication, 04/04/2010
(doi:10.1038/nphys1632) Author's version of the paper
Minor Components of Micropapillary and Solid Subtypes in Lung Adenocarcinoma are Predictors of Lymph Node Metastasis and Poor Prognosis
Type Ia Supernovae as Stellar Endpoints and Cosmological Tools
Empirically, Type Ia supernovae are the most useful, precise, and mature
tools for determining astronomical distances. Acting as calibrated candles they
revealed the presence of dark energy and are being used to measure its
properties. However, the nature of the SN Ia explosion, and the progenitors
involved, have remained elusive, even after seven decades of research. But now
new large surveys are bringing about a paradigm shift --- we can finally
compare samples of hundreds of supernovae to isolate critical variables. As a
result of this, and advances in modeling, breakthroughs in understanding all
aspects of SNe Ia are finally starting to happen.Comment: Invited review for Nature Communications. Final published version.
Shortened, update
Enrichment analysis of Alu elements with different spatial chromatin proximity in the human genome
Transposable elements (TEs) have no longer been totally considered as “junk DNA” for quite a time since the continual discoveries of their multifunctional roles in eukaryote genomes. As one of the most important and abundant TEs that still active in human genome, Alu, a SINE family, has demonstrated its indispensable regulatory functions at sequence level, but its spatial roles are still unclear. Technologies based on 3C(chromosomeconformation capture) have revealed the mysterious three-dimensional structure of chromatin, and make it possible to study the distal chromatin interaction in the genome. To find the role TE
playing in distal regulation in human genome, we compiled the new released Hi-C data, TE annotation, histone marker annotations, and the genome-wide methylation data to operate correlation analysis, and found that the density of Alu elements showed a strong positive correlation with the level of chromatin interactions (hESC: r=0.9, P<2.2×1016; IMR90 fibroblasts: r = 0.94, P < 2.2 × 1016) and also have a significant positive correlation withsomeremote functional DNA elements like enhancers and promoters (Enhancer: hESC: r=0.997, P=2.3×10−4; IMR90: r=0.934, P=2×10−2; Promoter: hESC: r = 0.995, P = 3.8 × 10−4; IMR90: r = 0.996, P = 3.2 × 10−4). Further investigation involving GC content and methylation status showed the GC content of Alu covered sequences shared a similar pattern with that of the overall sequence, suggesting that Alu elements also function as the GC nucleotide and CpG site provider. In all, our results suggest that the Alu elements may act as an alternative parameter to evaluate the Hi-C data, which is confirmed by the correlation analysis of Alu elements and histone markers. Moreover, the GC-rich Alu sequence can bring high GC content and methylation flexibility to the regions with more distal chromatin contact, regulating the transcription of tissue-specific genes
Resistance to autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease in an APOE3 Christchurch homozygote: a case report.
We identified a PSEN1 (presenilin 1) mutation carrier from the world's largest autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease kindred, who did not develop mild cognitive impairment until her seventies, three decades after the expected age of clinical onset. The individual had two copies of the APOE3 Christchurch (R136S) mutation, unusually high brain amyloid levels and limited tau and neurodegenerative measurements. Our findings have implications for the role of APOE in the pathogenesis, treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease
A coarse-to-fine approach to prostate boundary segmentation in ultrasound images
BACKGROUND: In this paper a novel method for prostate segmentation in transrectal ultrasound images is presented. METHODS: A segmentation procedure consisting of four main stages is proposed. In the first stage, a locally adaptive contrast enhancement method is used to generate a well-contrasted image. In the second stage, this enhanced image is thresholded to extract an area containing the prostate (or large portions of it). Morphological operators are then applied to obtain a point inside of this area. Afterwards, a Kalman estimator is employed to distinguish the boundary from irrelevant parts (usually caused by shadow) and generate a coarsely segmented version of the prostate. In the third stage, dilation and erosion operators are applied to extract outer and inner boundaries from the coarsely estimated version. Consequently, fuzzy membership functions describing regional and gray-level information are employed to selectively enhance the contrast within the prostate region. In the last stage, the prostate boundary is extracted using strong edges obtained from selectively enhanced image and information from the vicinity of the coarse estimation. RESULTS: A total average similarity of 98.76%(± 0.68) with gold standards was achieved. CONCLUSION: The proposed approach represents a robust and accurate approach to prostate segmentation
Vasohibin inhibits angiogenic sprouting in vitro and supports vascular maturation processes in vivo
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The murine homologue of human vasohibin (mVASH1), a putative antiangiogenic protein, was investigated for its effects on <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo </it>angiogenesis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cell growth and migration were analyzed in murine fibroblasts, smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells. Angiogenic sprouting was studied in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in the spheroid sprouting assay. <it>In vivo </it>effects on blood vessel formation were investigated in the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay and in the C57BL/6 melanoma xenograft model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Purified murine and human VASH1 protein induced apoptosis of murine fibroblasts <it>in vitro</it>, but not of vascular aortic smooth muscle cells (AoSMC) or endothelial cells. Adenoviral overexpression of murine and human VASH1 inhibited capillary sprouting of HUVECs in the spheroid assay. Administration of recombinant murine and human VASH1 inhibited growth of large vessels in the CAM assay and promoted the formation of a dense, fine vascular network. Murine VASH1-overexpressing B16F10 melanomas displayed a reduction in large vessels and vascular area. Moreover, tumors showed more microvessels that stained positive for the mural cell markers α-smooth muscle cell actin (ASMA) and proteoglycan (NG2).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data imply that murine VASH1 causes angiogenic remodelling by inhibiting angiogenic sprouting and large vessel growth, thereby supporting the formation of a vascular bed consisting predominantly of mature microvessels.</p
- …