Bandgap and effective mass of epitaxial cadmium oxide

The bandgap and band-edge effective mass of single crystal cadmium oxide, epitaxially grown by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy, are determined from infrared reflectivity, ultraviolet/visible absorption, and Hall effect measurements. Analysis and simulation of the optical data, including effects of band nonparabolicity, Moss-Burstein band filling and bandgap renormalization, reveal room temperature bandgap and band-edge effective mass values of 2.16±0.02 eV and 0.21±0.01m0 respectively

Valence band offset of the ZnO/AlN heterojunction determined by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy

The valence band offset of ZnO/AlN heterojunctions is determined by high resolution x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The valence band of ZnO is found to be 0.43±0.17 eV below that of AlN. Together with the resulting conduction band offset of 3.29±0.20 eV, this indicates that a type-II (staggered) band line up exists at the ZnO/AlN heterojunction. Using the III-nitride band offsets and the transitivity rule, the valence band offsets for ZnO/GaN and ZnO/InN heterojunctions are derived as 1.37 and 1.95 eV, respectively, significantly higher than the previously determined values

New properties of a bioinspired pyridine benzimidazole compound as a novel differential staining agent for endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus in fluorescence live cell imaging

Indexación: Scopus.In this study, we explored new properties of the bioinspired pyridine benzimidazole compound B2 (2,4-di-tert-butyl-6-(3H-imidazo[4,5-c]pyridine-2-yl)phenol) regarding its potential use as a differential biomarker. For that, we performed 1D 1HNMR (TOCSY), UV-Vis absorption spectra in different organic solvents, voltammetry profile (including a scan-rate study), and TD-DFT calculations that including NBO analyses, to provide valuable information about B2 structure and luminescence. In our study, we found that the B2 structure is highly stable, where the presence of an intramolecular hydrogen bond (IHB) seems to have a crucial role in the stability of luminescence, and its emission can be assigned as fluorescence. In fact, we found that the relatively large Stokes Shift observed for B2 (around 175 nm) may be attributed to the stability of the B2 geometry and the strength of its IHB. On the other hand, we determined that B2 is biocompatible by cytotoxicity experiments in HeLa cells, an epithelial cell line. Furthermore, in cellular assays we found that B2 could be internalized by passive diffusion in absence of artificial permeabilization at short incubation times (15 min to 30 min). Fluorescence microscopy studies confirmed that B2 accumulates in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi apparatus, two organelles involved in the secretory pathway. Finally, we determined that B2 exhibited no noticeable blinking or bleaching after 1 h of continuous exposure. Thus, B2 provides a biocompatible, rapid, simple, and efficient way to fluorescently label particular organelles, producing similar results to that obtained with other well-established but more complex methods. © 2018 Llancalahuen, Fuentes, Carreño, Zúñiga, Páez-Hernández, Gacitúa, Polanco, Preite, Arratia-Pérez and Otero.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fchem.2018.00345/ful

Genetic Mapping in Tetraploid Alfalfa: Results and Prospects

Among the difficulties of improving forages is their perennial nature, which necessarily requires long selection cycles to fully evaluate genotypes. Further, traits of particular importance—yield and winter hardiness—are difficult to assess on single plants, necessitating evaluation of progeny, which is both time consuming and expensive. Because of this, yield of many forages, and particularly alfalfa, has not improved substantially over the past 25 years (Riday and Brummer, 2002). Winter hardiness often has a negative correlation with autumn growth, although some evidence suggests this is not always true (Brummer et al., 2000). One way to overcome some of these limitations may be through the use of genetic markers to help select desirable genotypes. The objective of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that quantitative trait loci (QTL) for complex agronomic traits could be identified in a segregating tetraploid alfalfa population

Strain evolution in GaN Nanowires: from free-surface objects to coalesced templates

Top-down fabricated GaN nanowires, 250 nm in diameter and with various heights, have been used to experimentally determine the evolution of strain along the vertical direction of 1-dimensional objects. X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence techniques have been used to obtain the strain profile inside the nanowires from their base to their top facet for both initial compressive and tensile strains. The relaxation behaviors derived from optical and structural characterizations perfectly match the numerical results of calculations based on a continuous media approach. By monitoring the elastic relaxation enabled by the lateral free-surfaces, the height from which the nanowires can be considered strain-free has been estimated. Based on this result, NWs sufficiently high to be strain-free have been coalesced to form a continuous GaN layer. X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence clearly show that despite the initial strain-free nanowires template, the final GaN layer is strained

A Chandra Study of the Rosette Star-Forming Complex. III. The NGC 2237 Cluster and the Region's Star Formation History

We present Chandra X-ray images of the NGC 2237 young star cluster on the periphery of the Rosette Nebula. We detect 168 X-ray sources, 80% of which have counterparts in USNO, 2MASS, and deep FLAMINGOS images. These constitute the first census of the cluster members with 0.2<~M<~2 Msun. Star locations in near-infrared color-magnitude diagrams indicate a cluster age around 2 Myr with a visual extinction of 1<Av<3 at 1.4 kpc, the distance of the Rosette Nebula's main cluster NGC 2244. We derive the K-band luminosity function and the X-ray luminosity function of the cluster, which indicate a population ~400-600 stars. The X-ray-selected sample shows a K-excess disk frequency of 13%. The young Class II counterparts are aligned in an arc ~3 pc long suggestive of a triggered formation process induced by the O stars in NGC 2244. The diskless Class III sources are more dispersed. Several X-ray emitting stars are located inside the molecular cloud and around gaseous pillars projecting from the cloud. These stars, together with a previously unreported optical outflow originating inside the cloud, indicate that star formation is continuing at a low level and the cluster is still growing. This X-ray view of young stars on the western side of the Rosette Nebula complements our earlier studies of the central cluster NGC 2244 and the embedded clusters on the eastern side of the Nebula. The large scale distribution of the clusters and molecular material is consistent with a scenario in which the rich central NGC 2244 cluster formed first, and its expanding HII region triggered the formation of the now-unobscured clusters RMC XA and NGC 2237. A large swept-up shell material around the HII region is now in a second phase of collect-and-collapse fragmentation, leading to the recent formation of subclusters. Other clusters deeper in the molecular cloud appear unaffected by the Nebula expansion.Comment: Accepted to ApJ. 49 pages, 16 figures, and 4 tables

Evaluation of two toothbrushes prescriptions on the removal of plaque in patients with fixed orthodontic appliances

Indexación: Web of Science; ScieloLa aparatología empleada en los tratamientos de ortodoncia, favorece la retención de placa bacteriana y dificulta su eliminación por parte del paciente, aumentando el riesgo de desarrollar caries, manchas blancas y enfermedad periodontal. Diferentes cepillos dentales se han desarrollado para facilitar la mantención de una adecuada higiene oral en estos pacientes, sin embargo, se ha observado que los cepillos comunmente indicados (cepillo ortodóncico mas cepillo unipenacho), no siempre son bien manejados y difícilmente se usan ambos. El cepillo Cross Action Pro-Salud®, se ha presentado como una alternativa simple de usar y de transportar, por ser un único cepillo que combina las caracteristicas de los dos cepillos comunmente recomendados. Para evaluar la efectividad de este cepillo, en comparación con la prescripción convencional, se evaluaron 2 grupos, de 23 pacientes cada uno, portadores de aparatología fija. Un grupo utilizó la prescripción habitual y un segundo grupo utilizó cepillo Cross Action Pro-Salud®, por un período de 45 días. Los indices de higiene de O`leary, de placa en brackets y gingival modificado fueron registrados al inicio y 45 días después del uso diario de los cepillos antes mencionados. Se utilizó test-t para comparar los resultados obtenidos y se determinó que se produjo una disminución significativa en los tres indices de higiene, no existiendo diferencias en los resultados obtenidos entre ambas prescripciones. El cepillo Oral-B Cross-Action Pro-Salud® es una alternativa recomendable, ya que permite eliminar efectivamente la placa bacteriana en pacientes ortodónticos, y al ser un único cepillo, facilita y acorta el tiempo de cepillado.Orthodontic fixed appliances include elements that allow the accumulation of bacterial plaque, making tooth brushing more difficult and increasing the risk of developing caries, white spot lesions, and periodontal disease. Several toothbrushes designs have been developed to facilitate oral hygiene in orthodontic patients; however, it has been observed that most patients do not take enough time to brush using adequately both commonly prescribed toothbrushes (Oral-B End-Tufted® and Oral-B Orthodontic® brushes). Oral B Cross Action Pro-Health® has been presented as an alternative, easier to use and to transport. To assess the effectiveness of Cross Action Pro-Health® versus commonly prescribed toothbrushes, two randomly assigned groups of 23 orthodontic patients each, were evaluated. One group of patients used commonly prescribed toothbrushes and the second group used Cross Action Pro-Health®. O`Leary, modified gingival and Bracket plaque index were measured before and 45 days after the daily use of the two mentioned toothbrushes prescriptions. T-test was used to detect statistically significant differences among the brushes for each index. The results demonstrated a significant reduction of the three indexes with the daily use of Cross Action Pro-Health® and no differences were found versus commonly used prescription. Orthodontic patients may benefit from the use of a single brush prescription (Cross Action Pro-Health®), because effective plaque removal can be achieved easier and faster.http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0719-01072012000300002&nrm=is

Diets of leaf litter-associated invertebrates in three tropical streams

Shredders play a major ecological role in temperate streams, but their numerical importance is highly variable within the tropics. Detailed studies on the diets of tropical stream invertebrates are advisable to be able to better describe and understand this variation. Here, we examined the diets of invertebrates collected from the leaf litter of three tropical streams in Colombia, using gut content analysis. Fine and coarse particulate organic matter were the main food resources for invertebrates, which could be divided into four main dietary groups: predators, shredders, specialist collectors and generalist collectors. While the specialist collectors were the most numerically abundant group (54%), shredder biomass accounted for 63% of total invertebrate biomass, suggesting that shredders play a significant ecological role in the study streams. We describe the diets of 12 out of 47 taxa that were previously unknown, which indicates that knowledge about the feeding ecology of tropical stream invertebrates is still incipient. © 2012 EDP Sciences.Peer Reviewe