Superparamagnetic-like behaviour in RE2WO6 tungstates (where RE = Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Dy, Ho and Er)

The magnetization isotherms were used to study the superparamagnetic-like behaviour in polycrystalline (powder) RE2WO6 tungstates (where RE = Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Dy, Ho and Er). The magnetization isotherms of the majority tungstates under study revealed both the spontaneous magnetic moments and hysteresis characteristic for the superparamagnetic-like behaviour with blocking temperature TB ¼ 30 K except the Sm2WO6 and Eu2WO6 compounds

Influence of Cr-substitution on the electrical properties of Fe1-xCrxVSbO6

Fe1xCrxVSbO6 solid solution is semiconductor with the activation energy decreasing both in the intrinsic and extrinsic conductivity temperature regions as the Cr-content increases. The n-type conduction is observed for Fe-richer samples while a change of the Seebeck coe cient (from n to p) for Cr-richer ones. Magnetic isotherms for all samples of solid solution under study are characteristic of the universal Brillouin function, indicating paramagnetic response. These e ects are discussed within the framework of the appearance of the mixed valence of both Fe and Cr ions

High spin-low spin transitions in Cu 0.2Co 0.76Cr 1.83Se 4 semiconductor

Magnetization, ac and dc magnetic susceptibility measured in the zero- eld-cooled mode were used to study the high spin low spin transitions in polycrystalline Cu0:2Co0:76Cr1:83Se4 semiconductor. The real part component of fundamental susceptibility ′ 1(T) and its second ( 2) and third ( 3) harmonics revealed two spectacular peaks at 128 K and at 147 K, con rming the appearance of the spin-crossover phenomenon.Magnetization, ac and dc magnetic susceptibility measured in the zero- eld-cooled mode were used to study the high spin low spin transitions in polycrystalline Cu0:2Co0:76Cr1:83Se4 semiconductor. The real part component of fundamental susceptibility ′ 1(T) and its second ( 2) and third ( 3) harmonics revealed two spectacular peaks at 128 K and at 147 K, con rming the appearance of the spin-crossover phenomenon

Spin crossover in CuxCoyCrzSe4 semiconductors

Magnetization and magnetic susceptibility measured in the zero-field-cooled mode were used to study the spin crossover transition in polycrystalline CuxCoyCrzSe4 compounds. With increasing Co content a transition from ferromagnetic order via ferrimagnetic one to antiferromagnetic-like behaviour was observed. This transition is accompanied with a lowering symmetry from cubic to monoclinic and for the latter the spin crossover phenomenon occurs. These results are considered in a framework of the ligand–field split and the spin–orbit coupling

Specific heat and magnetic properties of single-crystalline (Zn0.925In0.054)[Cr1.84In0.152]Se-4 semiconductor

An antiferromagnetic order with a Néel temperature TN = 17:5 K, a strong ferromagnetic exchange evidenced by a positive Curie Weiss temperature CW = 77:3 K, the fuzzy peaks in the real component of susceptibility x′ (T) and the disappearance of the second critical eld were established. The curvature of speci c heat C(T) and C(T)=T in surrounding of TN indicated a broad peak, characteristic for the system with inhomogeneous magnetic state (spin-glass-like phase). The calculated magnetic entropy showed the value of S(T) 1 J/(mol K) which is extremely small; i.e., much lower than the magnetic contribution Rln(2S + 1) = 11:52 J/(mol K) calculated for the spin 3/2

Influence of substitution of the chromium ions by the nonmagnetic Sb and Al ions on the magnetization processes in CuCr2X4 (X = S, Se) spinels

Both the dc and ac magnetic susceptibilities as well as magnetization measurements were used to study the influence of the dilution of the magnetic chromium subarray by nonmagnetic antimony and aluminium ions on the magnetization processes for four spinel families under investigation. Substitution of the chromium ions by the nonmagnetic Sb and Al ions in the compounds under study leads to the very hard magnetization in the case of the compounds with Sb and very easy magnetization in the compounds with Al. This effect is connected with the electronic configurations of the Sb and Al ions as well as with ionic radii of these cations

The impact of classroom noise on reading comprehension of secondary school pupils

It has been known for many years that poor acoustic conditions in classrooms leading to high noise levels and poor speech intelligibility cause annoyance to pupils and teachers and affect the academic performance of pupils. Much of the previous research concerning the impact of noise and poor acoustics on pupils has involved children in primary schools, with fewer studies related to pupils of secondary school age. Furthermore, the majority of previous studies in schools have examined the impact of environmental noise, particularly aircraft noise, on children. The aim of the study described here was to examine the effects of typical levels of classroom noise on secondary school pupils, and to attempt to identify the threshold level at which adverse impacts might occur. A survey of acoustic conditions in secondary schools in England1 was accompanied by questionnaire surveys of pupils to ascertain levels of annoyance caused by noise, and their perceptions of its interference with their ability to hear and understand their teachers2 . In addition, students were tested in numeracy, mathematical reasoning, memory and reading comprehension in different levels of classroom noise. This paper describes the results of reading comprehension tests undertaken by nearly 1000 pupils aged between 11 and 16 years while they were exposed to typical classroom noise at different levels

Transcriptional Activation of c3 and hsp70 as Part of the Immune Response of Acropora millepora to Bacterial Challenges

The impact of disease outbreaks on coral physiology represents an increasing concern for the fitness and resilience of reef ecosystems. Predicting the tolerance of corals to disease relies on an understanding of the coral immune response to pathogenic interactions. This study explored the transcriptional response of two putative immune genes (c3 and c-type lectin) and one stress response gene (hsp70) in the reef building coral, Acropora millepora challenged for 48 hours with bacterial strains, Vibrio coralliilyticus and Alteromonas sp. at concentrations of 106 cells ml-1. Coral fragments challenged with V. coralliilyticus appeared healthy while fragments challenged with Alteromonas sp. showed signs of tissue lesions after 48 hr. Coral-associated bacterial community profiles assessed using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis changed after challenge by both bacterial strains with the Alteromonas sp. treatment demonstrating the greatest community shift. Transcriptional profiles of c3 and hsp70 increased at 24 hours and correlated with disease signs in the Alteromonas sp. treatment. The expression of hsp70 also showed a significant increase in V. coralliilyticus inoculated corals at 24 h suggesting that even in the absence of disease signs, the microbial inoculum activated a stress response in the coral. C-type lectin did not show a response to any of the bacterial treatments. Increase in gene expression of c3 and hsp70 in corals showing signs of disease indicates their potential involvement in immune and stress response to microbial challenges

Promoter Methylation in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Lines Is Significantly Different than Methylation in Primary Tumors and Xenografts

Studies designed to identify novel methylation events related to cancer often employ cancer cell lines in the discovery phase of the experiments and have a relatively low rate of discovery of cancer-related methylation events. An alternative algorithm for discovery of novel methylation in cancer uses primary tumor-derived xenografts instead of cell lines as the primary source of nucleic acid for evaluation. We evaluated DNA extracted from primary head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC), xenografts grown from these primary tumors in nude mice, HNSCC-derived cell lines, normal oral mucosal samples, and minimally transformed oral keratinocyte-derived cell lines using Illumina Infinum Humanmethylation 27 genome-wide methylation microarrays. We found >2,200 statistically significant methylation differences between cancer cell lines and primary tumors and when comparing normal oral mucosa to keratinocyte cell lines. We found no statistically significant promoter methylation differences between primary tumor xenografts and primary tumors. This study demonstrates that tumor-derived xenografts are highly accurate representations of promoter methylation in primary tumors and that cancer derived cell lines have significant drawbacks for discovery of promoter methylation alterations in primary tumors. These findings also support use of primary tumor xenografts for the study of methylation in cancer, drug discovery, and the development of personalized cancer treatments

Serum microrna biomarkers for detection of non-small cell lung cancer

Non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality world-wide and the majority of cases are diagnosed at late stages of disease. There is currently no cost-effective screening test for NSCLC, and the development of such a test is a public health imperative. Recent studies have suggested that chest computed tomography screening of patients at high risk of lung cancer can increase survival from disease, however, the cost effectiveness of such screening has not been established. In this Phase I/II biomarker study we examined the feasibility of using serum miRNA as biomarkers of NSCLC using RT-qPCR to examine the expression of 180 miRNAs in sera from 30 treatment naive NSCLC patients and 20 healthy controls. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) and area under the curve were used to identify differentially expressed miRNA pairs that could distinguish NSCLC from healthy controls. Selected miRNA candidates were further validated in sera from an additional 55 NSCLC patients and 75 healthy controls. Examination of miRNA expression levels in serum from a multi-institutional cohort of 50 subjects (30 NSCLC patients and 20 healthy controls) identified differentially expressed miRNAs. A combination of two differentially expressed miRNAs miR-15b and miR-27b, was able to discriminate NSCLC from healthy controls with sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of 100% in the training set. Upon further testing on additional 130 subjects (55 NSCLC and 75 healthy controls), this miRNA pair predicted NSCLC with a specificity of 84% (95% CI 0.73-0.91), sensitivity of 100% (95% CI; 0.93-1.0), NPV of 100%, and PPV of 82%. These data provide evidence that serum miRNAs have the potential to be sensitive, cost-effective biomarkers for the early detection of NSCLC. Further testing in a Phase III biomarker study in is necessary for validation of these results. © 2012 Hennessey et al