2,383 research outputs found
Living arrangements and elderly care : the case of Hong Kong
Hong Kong has been a British Colony for more than one and a half centuries. The British has provided a legal-administrative framework under which the Chinese live and work (Chan and Lee, 1995), The Census showed that ninety-eight percent of the Territory\u27s total population are ethnically Chinese. In 1991, nearly one half of HongKong\u27s residents were immigrants from the Chinese Mainland and two thirds of the remaining were Hong Kong born off-springs of immigrants from the mainland. Although expatriotes from other countries are accountable for the remainder 2% of the population, a great majority of expatriotes are from overseas Chinese communities in southeast Asia: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Burma. It cannot be overstated that Hong Kong has a fairly homogenous cultural values that can be described as “Chinese”, the beliefs with respect to filial piety and honouring one\u27s ancestors still play a significant role in shaping and regulating the local Chinese social life and familial behavior
Quantum Size Effects on the Chemical Sensing Performance of Two-Dimensional Semiconductors
We investigate the role of quantum confinement on the performance of gas
sensors based on two-dimensional InAs membranes. Pd-decorated InAs membranes
configured as H2 sensors are shown to exhibit strong thickness dependence, with
~100x enhancement in the sensor response as the thickness is reduced from 48 to
8 nm. Through detailed experiments and modeling, the thickness scaling trend is
attributed to the quantization of electrons which favorably alters both the
position and the transport properties of charge carriers; thus making them more
susceptible to surface phenomena
Effective microwave-assisted approach to 1,2,3-triazolobenzodiazepinones via tandem Ugi reaction/catalyst-free intramolecular azide–alkyne cycloaddition
A novel catalyst-free synthetic approach to 1,2,3-triazolobenzodiazepinones has been developed and optimized. The Ugi reaction of 2-azidobenzaldehyde, various amines, isocyanides, and acids followed by microwave-assisted intramolecular azide–alkyne cycloaddition (IAAC) gave a series of target heterocyclic compounds in moderate to excellent yields. Surprisingly, the normally required ruthenium-based catalysts were found to not affect the IAAC, only making isolation of the target compounds harder while the microwave-assisted catalyst-free conditions were effective for both terminal and non-terminal alkyne
Dressed Bose-Einstein Condensates in High-Q Cavities
We propose and analyze a way in which effective multicomponent condensates
can be created inside high-Q multimode cavities. In contrast to the situation
involving several atomic species or levels, the coupling between the various
components of the dressed condensates is linear. We predict analytically and
numerically confirm the onset of instabilities in the quasiparticle excitation
spectrum.Comment: plain tex, 20 pages, 4 figure
Ultrathin compound semiconductor on insulator layers for high performance nanoscale transistors
Over the past several years, the inherent scaling limitations of electron
devices have fueled the exploration of high carrier mobility semiconductors as
a Si replacement to further enhance the device performance. In particular,
compound semiconductors heterogeneously integrated on Si substrates have been
actively studied, combining the high mobility of III-V semiconductors and the
well-established, low cost processing of Si technology. This integration,
however, presents significant challenges. Conventionally, heteroepitaxial
growth of complex multilayers on Si has been explored. Besides complexity, high
defect densities and junction leakage currents present limitations in the
approach. Motivated by this challenge, here we utilize an epitaxial transfer
method for the integration of ultrathin layers of single-crystalline InAs on
Si/SiO2 substrates. As a parallel to silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology14,we
use the abbreviation "XOI" to represent our compound semiconductor-on-insulator
platform. Through experiments and simulation, the electrical properties of InAs
XOI transistors are explored, elucidating the critical role of quantum
confinement in the transport properties of ultrathin XOI layers. Importantly, a
high quality InAs/dielectric interface is obtained by the use of a novel
thermally grown interfacial InAsOx layer (~1 nm thick). The fabricated FETs
exhibit an impressive peak transconductance of ~1.6 mS/{\mu}m at VDS=0.5V with
ON/OFF current ratio of greater than 10,000 and a subthreshold swing of 107-150
mV/decade for a channel length of ~0.5 {\mu}m
The Formation of Cosmic Structures in a Light Gravitino Dominated Universe
We analyse the formation of cosmic structures in models where the dark matter
is dominated by light gravitinos with mass of eV -- 1 keV, as predicted
by gauge-mediated supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking models. After evaluating the
number of degrees of freedom at the gravitinos decoupling (), we compute
the transfer function for matter fluctuations and show that gravitinos behave
like warm dark matter (WDM) with free-streaming scale comparable to the galaxy
mass scale. We consider different low-density variants of the WDM model, both
with and without cosmological constant, and compare the predictions on the
abundances of neutral hydrogen within high-redshift damped Ly-- systems
and on the number density of local galaxy clusters with the corresponding
observational constraints. We find that none of the models satisfies both
constraints at the same time, unless a rather small value (\mincir
0.4) and a rather large Hubble parameter (\magcir 0.9) is assumed.
Furthermore, in a model with warm + hot dark matter, with hot component
provided by massive neutrinos, the strong suppression of fluctuation on scales
of \sim 1\hm precludes the formation of high-redshift objects, when the
low-- cluster abundance is required. We conclude that all different variants
of a light gravitino DM dominated model show strong difficulties for what
concerns cosmic structure formation.
This gives a severe cosmological constraint on the gauge-mediated SUSY
breaking scheme.Comment: 28 pages,Latex, submitted for publication to Phys.Rev.
Strangeness nuclear physics: a critical review on selected topics
Selected topics in strangeness nuclear physics are critically reviewed. This
includes production, structure and weak decay of --Hypernuclei, the
nuclear interaction and the possible existence of bound
states in nuclei. Perspectives for future studies on these issues are also
outlined.Comment: 63 pages, 51 figures, accepted for publication on European Physical
Journal
The diacylglycerol kinase α/Atypical PKC/β1 integrin pathway in SDF-1α mammary carcinoma invasiveness
Diacylglycerol kinase α (DGKα), by phosphorylating diacylglycerol into phosphatidic acid, provides a key signal driving cell migration and matrix invasion. We previously demonstrated that in epithelial cells activation of DGKα activity promotes cytoskeletal remodeling and matrix invasion by recruiting atypical PKC at ruffling sites and by promoting RCP-mediated recycling of α5β1 integrin to the tip of pseudopods. In here we investigate the signaling pathway by which DGKα mediates SDF-1α-induced matrix invasion of MDA-MB-231 invasive breast carcinoma cells. Indeed we showed that, following SDF-1α stimulation, DGKα is activated and localized at cell protrusion, thus promoting their elongation and mediating SDF-1α induced MMP-9 metalloproteinase secretion and matrix invasion. Phosphatidic acid generated by DGKα promotes localization at cell protrusions of atypical PKCs which play an essential role downstream of DGKα by promoting Rac-mediated protrusion elongation and localized recruitment of β1 integrin and MMP-9. We finally demonstrate that activation of DGKα, atypical PKCs signaling and β1 integrin are all essential for MDA-MB-231 invasiveness. These data indicates the existence of a SDF-1α induced DGKα - atypical PKC - β1 integrin signaling pathway, which is essential for matrix invasion of carcinoma cells
Structure of the hDmc1-ssDNA filament reveals the principles of its architecture
In eukaryotes, meiotic recombination is a major source of genetic diversity, but its defects in humans lead to abnormalities such as Down's, Klinefelter's and other syndromes. Human Dmc1 (hDmc1), a RecA/Rad51 homologue, is a recombinase that plays a crucial role in faithful chromosome segregation during meiosis. The initial step of homologous recombination occurs when hDmc1 forms a filament on single-stranded (ss) DNA. However the structure of this presynaptic complex filament for hDmc1 remains unknown. To compare hDmc1-ssDNA complexes to those known for the RecA/Rad51 family we have obtained electron microscopy (EM) structures of hDmc1-ssDNA nucleoprotein filaments using single particle approach. The EM maps were analysed by docking crystal structures of Dmc1, Rad51, RadA, RecA and DNA. To fully characterise hDmc1-DNA complexes we have analysed their organisation in the presence of Ca2+, Mg2+, ATP, AMP-PNP, ssDNA and dsDNA. The 3D EM structures of the hDmc1-ssDNA filaments allowed us to elucidate the principles of their internal architecture. Similar to the RecA/Rad51 family, hDmc1 forms helical filaments on ssDNA in two states: extended (active) and compressed (inactive). However, in contrast to the RecA/Rad51 family, and the recently reported structure of hDmc1-double stranded (ds) DNA nucleoprotein filaments, the extended (active) state of the hDmc1 filament formed on ssDNA has nine protomers per helical turn, instead of the conventional six, resulting in one protomer covering two nucleotides instead of three. The control reconstruction of the hDmc1-dsDNA filament revealed 6.4 protein subunits per helical turn indicating that the filament organisation varies depending on the DNA templates. Our structural analysis has also revealed that the N-terminal domain of hDmc1 accomplishes its important role in complex formation through domain swapping between adjacent protomers, thus providing a mechanistic basis for coordinated action of hDmc1 protomers during meiotic recombination
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