Bent-core liquid crystalline cyanostilbenes : fluorescence switching and thermochromism

The authors from ICMA greatly appreciate financial support from the Spanish Government (MINECO-FEDER project MAT2012-38538-C03-01), the Aragon's Government and FSE (project E04) and the Jae PreDoc-CSIC (M. M.-A.) fellowship program.Fluorescent bent-core molecules, bearing one or two cyanostilbene units in the lateral structure and different positions of the cyano group (α- or β-isomers), are described with the aim of modulating the molecular packing and fluorescence properties. These compounds give rise to a variety of crystal polymorphs and bent-core liquid crystalline phases (SmCP, Colr and B6), offering the unique chance to study the fluorescence properties of the cyanostilbene structure in different phases. Experimental and computational studies elucidate geometrical and electronic properties of these bent-core structures but especially the fluorescence properties (spectral positions, quantum yields and decay curves), in a detailed comparison between diluted solutions, in dichloromethane (DCM) or poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA), and condensed phases. Quantum yields as high as 70% have been obtained in some diluted solutions (PMMA) and condensed phases. Remarkably, the quantum yield values depend on the position of the cyano group, being higher for β- than for the α-isomers due to the higher radiative rates and lower non-radiative rates of the former. The photophysical characterization in the condensed phase focuses on RT studies with solid samples and different processing, and show that, upon aggregation, interactions between the cyanostilbene groups result in changes of the emission spectra and dynamics compared to the diluted systems in DCM and PMMA, giving rise to H-aggregations of varying strength. Furthermore, the compounds exhibit thermochromism, showing a green-yellow fluorescence in the pristine crystalline phase that changes to blue on heating to the liquid crystal phase. This journal isPostprintPeer reviewe

Epidemiological evidence that garden birds are a source of human salmonellosis in England and Wales

The importance of wild bird populations as a reservoir of zoonotic pathogens is well established. Salmonellosis is a frequently diagnosed infectious cause of mortality of garden birds in England and Wales, predominantly caused by Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhimurium definitive phage types 40, 56(v) and 160. In Britain, these phage types are considered highly host-adapted with a high degree of genetic similarity amongst isolates, and in some instances are clonal. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis, however, demonstrated minimal variation amongst matched DT40 and DT56(v) isolates derived from passerine and human incidents of salmonellosis across England in 2000-2007. Also, during the period 1993-2012, similar temporal and spatial trends of infection with these S. Typhimurium phage types occurred in both the British garden bird and human populations; 1.6% of all S. Typhimurium (0.2% of all Salmonella) isolates from humans in England and Wales over the period 2000-2010. These findings support the hypothesis that garden birds act as the primary reservoir of infection for these zoonotic bacteria. Most passerine salmonellosis outbreaks identified occurred at and around feeding stations, which are likely sites of public exposure to sick or dead garden birds and their faeces. We, therefore, advise the public to practise routine personal hygiene measures when feeding wild birds and especially when handling sick wild birds

Surface Roughness and Effective Stick-Slip Motion

The effect of random surface roughness on hydrodynamics of viscous incompressible liquid is discussed. Roughness-driven contributions to hydrodynamic flows, energy dissipation, and friction force are calculated in a wide range of parameters. When the hydrodynamic decay length (the viscous wave penetration depth) is larger than the size of random surface inhomogeneities, it is possible to replace a random rough surface by effective stick-slip boundary conditions on a flat surface with two constants: the stick-slip length and the renormalization of viscosity near the boundary. The stick-slip length and the renormalization coefficient are expressed explicitly via the correlation function of random surface inhomogeneities. The effective stick-slip length is always negative signifying the effective slow-down of the hydrodynamic flows by the rough surface (stick rather than slip motion). A simple hydrodynamic model is presented as an illustration of these general hydrodynamic results. The effective boundary parameters are analyzed numerically for Gaussian, power-law and exponentially decaying correlators with various indices. The maximum on the frequency dependence of the dissipation allows one to extract the correlation radius (characteristic size) of the surface inhomogeneities directly from, for example, experiments with torsional quartz oscillators.Comment: RevTeX4, 14 pages, 3 figure

18F-FDG PET/CT Evaluation of Regional Cerebral Metabolic Activities in Childhood Onset Schizophrenia

Introduction: Functional neuro-imaging with FDG PET CT in schizophrenic patients have reported certain patterns of increased or decreased metabolism in specific areas of the brain. Frontal lobe is one of the cortical areas consistently associated with schizophrenia and the activity levels have been reported to vary with the symptomatology at presentation. Predominantly positive symptoms cause and underlying hyperfrontality and negative symptoms are associated with hypofrontality. This study aims to assess the imaging patterns in unmedicated pediatric patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and predominantly positive symptoms.Patients and methods: 48 pediatric patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (all unmedicated, 38 never medicated) and 10 healthy age-matched controls were evaluated with FDG PET CT. The patients met ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia and all reported psychotic, “positive†symptoms when tested.Results: Children with schizophrenia and positive symptoms had a pattern of diffuse hyper-metabolism involving the bilateral frontal cortices and could be demonstrated on quantification by region to occipital ratio comparison . Associated statistically significant differences were also found when comparing ratios of occipital to thalamic, striatal and temporal cortex in these patients when compared to controls.Conclusion: Diffuse frontal hypermetabolism or hyperfrontality is observed in children with schizophrenia when there is a predominance of positive symptoms. There could be a possible disruption of cortico-striato-thalamic feedback loops causing hyperfrontality as seen in in experimentally induced models of psychosis