Large-scale and rapid synthesis of disk-shaped and nano-sized graphene

We synthesized disk-shaped and nano-sized graphene (DSNG) though a novel ion-exchange methodology. This new methodology is achieved by constructing metal ion/ion-exchange resin framework. The morphology and size of the graphene can be modulated by changing the mass ratio of the carbon-containing resin to the cobalt-containing precursor. This is the first time to show that the DSNG formed on the granular transition metal substrate. The DSNG gives a high intensity of photoluminescence at near-UV wavelength of 311 nm which may provide a new type of fluorescence for applications in laser devices, ultraviolet detector UV-shielding agent and energy technology. The emission intensity of the DSNG is thirty times higher than that of the commercial large graphene. Our approach for graphene growth is conveniently controllable, easy to scale-up and the DSNG shows superior luminescent properties as compared to conventional large graphene

MITOCHONDRIAL HEALTHDURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF CANCER CACHEXIA IN FEMALE MICE

Lauren C. Westervelt1, Seongkyun Lim1, Megan E. Rosa-Caldwell1, Wesley S. Haynie1, Kirsten R. Dunlap1, Lisa T. Jansen1, Michael P. Wiggs2, Tyrone A. Washington1, Nicholas P. Greene, FACSM1 1University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR; 2University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, TX Cancer-cachexia is a debilitating syndrome characterized by weight loss, anemia, and wasting of adipose tissue and skeletal muscle. Muscle mass in both males and females is a strong predictor of quality of life and morbidity during cancer treatment. Mitochondrial dysfunction during cachexia has been well described in males, specifically our laboratory has found mitochondrial deteriorations to precede muscle loss in male models of cancer-cachexia. However, if these aberrations are conserved between sexes has yet to be investigated. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate muscle mitochondrial health during cancer-cachexia development in female mice. METHODS:40 femaleC57BL/6Jmice were implanted with ~1X106Lewis Lung Carcinoma (LLC) cells into the right hind flank. Tumors were allowed to develop up to 4 weeks. After3-4 weeks of tumor development, a clear dichotomy was noted in tumor burden. As such, tumor injected females were divided into high tumor (HT, tumor size\u3e 2000mg) and low tumor groups (LT, tumor sizeRESULTS: Tibialis anterior muscle masses were ~4mg (~10%) lower in HT compared to LT and CON. Similarly, plantaris muscle masses were ~1.5mg (~11%) lower in HT compared to LT and CON. Finally, gastrocnemius masses were ~4 mg (~5%) lower in HT compared to LT and CON animals. LT and CON animals showed no differences in muscle weights. Analysis of pMitoTimer demonstrated no differences between groups. CONCLUSION:LT had negligible muscle wasting when compared to HT, these differences in muscle loss did not appear to correspond to alterations in mitochondrial health. This directly contrasts prior literature in male models of cachexia suggesting divergent mechanisms between males and females in the development of cachexia. As such, further examination of why females had a dichotomy in tumor development and subsequent wasting mechanisms are necessary in order to further understand mechanisms contributing to development of cachexia. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Award Number: R15 AR069913/AR/NIAMS

Well-posedness and Exponential Decay for the Westervelt Equation with Inhomogeneous Dirichlet Boundary Data

This paper deals with global solvability of Westervelt equation, which model arises in the context of high intensity ultrasound. The PDE equations derived are evolutionary quasilinear, potentially degenerate damped wave equations defined on a bounded domain in Rn, n = 1, 2, 3. We prove local and global well-posedness as well as exponential decay rates for the Westervelt equation with inhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions and small Cauchy data. The local existence proofs are based on an application of Banach’s fixed point theorem to an appropriate formulation of these PDEs. Global well-posedness is shown by exploiting functional analytic properties enjoyed by the semigroups generated by strongly damped wave equations. These include analyticity, dissipativity and suitable characterization of fractional powers of the generator – properties that enable the applicability of the “barrier” method. The obtained result holds for all times, provided that the Cauchy data are taken from a suitably small (independent on time) ball characterized by the parameters of the equation, and the boundary data satisfy some decay condition

CAG repeat expansion in Huntington disease determines age at onset in a fully dominant fashion

Objective: Age at onset of diagnostic motor manifestations in Huntington disease (HD) is strongly correlated with an expanded CAG trinucleotide repeat. The length of the normal CAG repeat allele has been reported also to influence age at onset, in interaction with the expanded allele. Due to profound implications for disease mechanism and modification, we tested whether the normal allele, interaction between the expanded and normal alleles, or presence of a second expanded allele affects age at onset of HD motor signs. Methods: We modeled natural log-transformed age at onset as a function of CAG repeat lengths of expanded and normal alleles and their interaction by linear regression. Results: An apparently significant effect of interaction on age at motor onset among 4,068 subjects was dependent on a single outlier data point. A rigorous statistical analysis with a wellbehaved dataset that conformed to the fundamental assumptions of linear regression (e.g., constant variance and normally distributed error) revealed significance only for the expanded CAG repeat, with no effect of the normal CAG repeat. Ten subjects with 2 expanded alleles showed an age at motor onset consistent with the length of the larger expanded allele. Conclusions: Normal allele CAG length, interaction between expanded and normal alleles, and presence of a second expanded allele do not influence age at onset of motor manifestations, indicating that the rate of HD pathogenesis leading to motor diagnosis is determined by a completely dominant action of the longest expanded allele and as yet unidentified genetic or environmental factors. Copyright © 2012 by AAN Enterprises, Inc