Operando STM study of the interaction of imidazolium-based ionic liquid with graphite

Understanding interactions at the interfaces of carbon with ionic liquids (ILs) is crucially beneficial for the diagnostics and performance improvement of electrochemical devices containing carbon as active materials or conductive additives in electrodes and ILs as solvents or additives in electrolytes. The interfacial interactions of three typical imidazolium-based ILs, 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (AMImTFSI) ILs having ethyl (C2), butyl (C4) and octyl (C8) chains in their cations, with highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) were studied in-situ by electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy (EC-STM). The etching of HOPG surface and the exfoliation of graphite/graphene flakes as well as cation intercalation were observed at the HOPG/C2MImTFSI interface. The etching also takes place in C4MImTFSI at −1.5 V vs Pt but only at step edges with a much slower rate, whereas C8MIm+ cations adsorbs strongly on the HOPG surface under similar conditions with no observable etching or intercalation. The EC-STM observations can be explained by the increase in van der Waals interaction between the cations and the graphite surface with increasing length of alkyl chains

Ryanodine receptors, a family of intracellular calcium ion channels, are expressed throughout early vertebrate development

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Calcium signals ([Ca²⁺]_i) direct many aspects of embryo development but their regulation is not well characterised. Ryanodine receptors (RyRs) are a family of intracellular Ca²⁺release channels that control the flux of Ca²⁺from internal stores into the cytosol. RyRs are primarily known for their role in excitation-contraction coupling in adult striated muscle and <it>ryr </it>gene mutations are implicated in several human diseases. Current evidence suggests that RyRs do not have a major role to play prior to organogenesis but regulate tissue differentiation.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The sequences of the five zebrafish <it>ryr </it>genes were confirmed, their evolutionary relationship established and the primary sequences compared to other vertebrates, including humans. RyRs are differentially expressed in slow (<it>ryr1a</it>), fast (<it>ryr3</it>) and both types (<it>ryr1b</it>) of developing skeletal muscle. There are two <it>ryr2 </it>genes (<it>ryr2a </it>and <it>ryr2b</it>) which are expressed exclusively in developing CNS and cardiac tissue, respectively. In addition, <it>ryr3 </it>and <it>ryr2a </it>mRNA is detectable in the initial stages of development, prior to embryonic axis formation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our work reveals that zebrafish <it>ryr </it>genes are differentially expressed throughout the developing embryo from cleavage onwards. The data suggests that RyR-regulated Ca²⁺signals are associated with several aspects of embryonic development, from organogenesis through to the differentiation of the musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and nervous system. These studies will facilitate further work to explore the developmental function of RyRs in each of these tissue types.</p

In vitro investigation of the hypoglycemic activity of yeasts using models of rat epididymal adipocyte and differentiated mouse 3T3-L1 adipocyte

The differentiated mouse 3T3-L1 adipocytes (3T3-L1 model) were used in studying glucose metabolisms without the need for feeding (Sprague-Dawley, SD model) the rat prior to hypoglycemic activity evaluation. Both models were adopted to evaluate the hypoglycemic activities of 58 yeast strains isolated from various sources (grape, vine yard soil, winery soil). Among the 58 tested yeast isolates, strain 54 (Saccharomyces pastorianus no. 54) which showed the highest hypoglycemic activity was chosen to be the test strain. The optimal insulin concentration used in these 2 models (SD and 3T3-L1) for measuring the hypoglycemic activity of hypoglycemic yeast extract (HGYE) was 10 nM. The range of linear relation in the dose-response curve was 0-1000 g/ml for SD model, and 0-250 g/ml for 3T3-L1 model. The linear coefficient was 0.8611. The radioactive labeled 2-[1-14C]-Deoxy-D-Glucose was also used to confirm cytoplasmic glucose uptake by 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Comparing both the results of insulin effect and dose response of HGYE by both models, it was concluded that the 3T3-L1 model can serve as a rapid and reliable assay model for in vitro evaluation of hypoglycemic activity of yeast.Key words: 3T3-L1 adipocytes, Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat, epididymal adipocytes, hypoglycemic activity, yeast

Security Analysis and Modification of ID-Based Encryption with Equality Test from ACISP 2017

At ACISP 2017, Wu et al. presented an identity-based encryption with equality test (IBEET) that considers to prevent insider attacks. To analyze its security, they proposed a new security notion for IBEET, which is slightly weaker than the indistinguishability under adaptive identity and chosen ciphertext attacks (IND-ID-CCA2) for traditional identity-based encryption. Then, they claimed that their proposed scheme achieves this new security notion under the Bilinear Diffie-Hellman (BDH) assumption in the random oracle model. In this paper, we demonstrate that their scheme does not achieve the claimed security requirement by presenting an attack. Our attack algorithm is very simple: It requires only a pair of message and ciphertext, and takes one exponentiation and two bilinear map evaluations. Subsequently, we present a modification of their IBEET construction and show that it satisfies their security notion under the BDH assumption and the existence of strong pseudorandom permutation and existentially unforgeable message authentication code in the random oracle model. We remark that our modification has better efficiency than the original construction

CFP: Cooperative fast protection

Article number: 5062196The 28th Conference on Computer Communications, IEEE INFOCOM 2009, Miniconference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 19-25 April 2009We introduce Cooperative Fast Protection (CFP) as a novel protection scheme in WDM networks. CFP achieves capacity-efficient fast protection with the features of node-autonomy and failure-independency. It differs from p-cycle by reusing the released working capacity of the disrupted lightpaths (i.e. stubs) in a cooperative manner. This is achieved by allowing all the failure-aware nodes to switch the traffic, such that the disrupted lightpaths can be protected even if the end nodes of the failed link are not on the protecting cycles. CFP also differs from FIPP p-cycle by not requiring the source node of the disrupted lightpath on the protecting cycle. By jointly optimizing both working and spare capacity placement, we formulate an ILP for CFP design. Numerical results show that CFP significantly outperforms p-cycle by achieving faster protection with much higher capacity efficiency. © 2009 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

School health partnership in service learning : a Hong Kong experience

Version of RecordPublishe

Optical layer monitoring schemes for fast link failure localization in all-optical networks

Optical layer monitoring and fault localization serves as a critical functional module in the control and management of optical networks. An efficient monitoring scheme aims at minimizing not only the hardware cost required for 100{%} link failure localization, but also the number of redundant alarms and monitors such that the network fault management can be simplified as well. In recent years, several optical layer monitoring schemes were reported for fast and efficient link failure localization, including simple, non-simple monitoring cycle (m-cycle) and monitoring trail (m-trail). Optimal ILP (Integer Linear Program) models and heuristics were also proposed with smart design philosophy on flexibly trading off different objectives. This article summarizes those innovative ideas and methodologies with in-depth analysis on their pros and cons. We also provide insights on future research topics in this area, as well as possible ways for extending the new failure localization approaches to other network applications. © 2005 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Excitation Spectra And Hard-core Thermodynamics Of Bosonic Atoms In Optical Superlattices

A generalized double-well-basis coupled representation is proposed to investigate excitation spectra and thermodynamics of bosonic atoms in double-well optical superlattices. In the hard-core limit and with a filling factor of one, excitations describing the creation of pairs of a doubly occupied state and a simultaneous empty state, and those from a symmetric singly occupied state to an antisymmetric state are carefully analyzed and their excitation spectra are calculated within mean-field theory. Based on the hard-core statistics, the equilibrium properties such as heat capacity and particle populations are studied in detail. The cases with other filling factors are also briefly discussed.published_or_final_versio

Artificial interspecific hybridization between Macrobrachium species

Viable F-1 hybrids were obtained from crosses of female Macrobrachium nipponense and male Macrobrachium hainanense involving spermatophore transfer and artificial insemination. This represents the first successful known case of hybridization of two Macrobrachium species by means of artificial insemination. The hatching rate was over 90%. About 20-60% of newly hatched larvae metamorphosed to postlarvae. The morphological characteristics of the hybrids resembled a combination of features of both parents. Malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and esterase (EST) isozyme electrophoresis indicated parents and F-1 hybrids showed co-dominant expression of the paternal and maternal alleles controlling the isozymes and confirmed the hybridization. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Viable F-1 hybrids were obtained from crosses of female Macrobrachium nipponense and male Macrobrachium hainanense involving spermatophore transfer and artificial insemination. This represents the first successful known case of hybridization of two Macrobrachium species by means of artificial insemination. The hatching rate was over 90%. About 20-60% of newly hatched larvae metamorphosed to postlarvae. The morphological characteristics of the hybrids resembled a combination of features of both parents. Malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and esterase (EST) isozyme electrophoresis indicated parents and F-1 hybrids showed co-dominant expression of the paternal and maternal alleles controlling the isozymes and confirmed the hybridization. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved