ALBERT

Description: The ligands exchange process on gold nanoparticles (GNPs) was proceeded by using hydrophobic group (PPh 3 ) and hydrophilic group (THPO) in acetone solution. The FTIR and XPS results demonstrated that part of THPO was replaced by PPh 3 which was dissolved in polar solution (acetone); the results were in accordance with the electrochemical analysis where the differential capacity decreased with increasing exchange time. After 12 h, the exchange process terminated and the final ratio of PPh 3 and THPO was about 1.4: 1. This ratio remained unchanged although the PPh 3 and THPO modified GNPs re-dispersed in the PPh 3 acetone solution demonstrating the stable adsorption of both ligands after exchanging for 12 h. The TEM images showed that the gold nanoparticles were self-assembled from scattered to arranged morphology due to the existence of hydrophilic and hydrophobic ligands and led to Janus gold nanoparticles.

Description: Recent advances in materials, mechanics, and electronic device design are rapidly establishing the foundations for health monitoring technologies that have "skin-like" properties, with options in chronic (weeks) integration with the epidermis. The resulting capabilities in physiological sensing greatly exceed those possible with conventional hard electronic systems, such as those found in wrist-mounted wearables, because of the intimate skin interface. However, most examples of such emerging classes of devices require batteries and/or hard-wired connections to enable operation. The work reported here introduces active optoelectronic systems that function without batteries and in an entirely wireless mode, with examples in thin, stretchable platforms designed for multiwavelength optical characterization of the skin. Magnetic inductive coupling and near-field communication (NFC) schemes deliver power to multicolored light-emitting diodes and extract digital data from integrated photodetectors in ways that are compatible with standard NFC-enabled platforms, such as smartphones and tablet computers. Examples in the monitoring of heart rate and temporal dynamics of arterial blood flow, in quantifying tissue oxygenation and ultraviolet dosimetry, and in performing four-color spectroscopic evaluation of the skin demonstrate the versatility of these concepts. The results have potential relevance in both hospital care and at-home diagnostics.

Description: Although the function of silicon (Si) in plant physiology has long been debated, its beneficial effects on plant resistance against abiotic and biotic stresses, including insect herbivory, have been well documented. In addition, the jasmonate (JA) signaling pathway plays a crucial role in mediating antiherbivore defense responses in plants. However,...

Description: Reprogramming of mouse fibroblasts toward a myocardial cell fate by forced expression of cardiac transcription factors or microRNAs has recently been demonstrated. The potential clinical applicability of these findings is based on the minimal regenerative potential of the adult human heart and the limited availability of human heart tissue. An...

Description: We collect two months of ambient noise data recorded by 35 broad-band seismic stations in a 9 x 11 km area (1–3 km station interval) near Karamay, China, and do cross-correlation of noise data between all station pairs. Array beamforming analysis of the ambient noise data shows that ambient noise sources are unevenly distributed and the most energetic ambient noise mainly comes from azimuths of 40°–70°. As a consequence of the strong directional noise sources, surface wave components of the cross-correlations at 1–5 Hz show clearly azimuthal dependence, and direct dispersion measurements from cross-correlations are strongly biased by the dominant noise energy. This bias renders that the dispersion measurements from cross-correlations do not accurately reflect the interstation velocities of surface waves propagating directly from one station to the other, that is, the cross-correlation functions do not retrieve empirical Green's functions accurately. To correct the bias caused by unevenly distributed noise sources, we adopt an iterative inversion procedure. The iterative inversion procedure, based on plane-wave modeling, includes three steps: (1) surface wave tomography, (2) estimation of ambient noise energy and biases and (3) phase velocities correction. First, we use synthesized data to test the efficiency and stability of the iterative procedure for both homogeneous and heterogeneous media. The testing results show that: (1) the amplitudes of phase velocity bias caused by directional noise sources are significant, reaching ~2 and ~10 per cent for homogeneous and heterogeneous media, respectively; (2) phase velocity bias can be corrected by the iterative inversion procedure and the convergence of inversion depends on the starting phase velocity map and the complexity of the media. By applying the iterative approach to the real data in Karamay, we further show that phase velocity maps converge after 10 iterations and the phase velocity maps obtained using corrected interstation dispersion measurements are more consistent with results from geology surveys than those based on uncorrected data. As ambient noise in high-frequency band (〉1 Hz) is mostly related to human activities or climate events, both of which have strong directivity, the iterative approach demonstrated here helps improve the accuracy and resolution of ANT in imaging shallow earth structures.

Description: RIG-I and MDA5 are the major intracellular immune receptors that recognize viral RNA species and undergo a series of conformational transitions leading to the activation of the interferon-mediated antiviral response. However, to date, full-length RLRs have resisted crystallographic efforts and a molecular description of their activation pathways remains hypothetical. Here we employ hydrogen/deuterium exchange coupled with mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) to probe the apo states of RIG-I and MDA5 and to dissect the molecular details with respect to distinct RNA species recognition, ATP binding and hydrolysis and CARDs activation. We show that human RIG-I maintains an auto-inhibited resting state owing to the intra-molecular HEL2i-CARD2 interactions while apo MDA5 lacks the analogous intra-molecular interactions and therefore adopts an extended conformation. Our work demonstrates that RIG-I binds and responds differently to short triphosphorylated RNA and long duplex RNA and that sequential addition of RNA and ATP triggers specific allosteric effects leading to RIG-I CARDs activation. We also present a high-resolution protein surface mapping technique that refines the cooperative oligomerization model of neighboring MDA5 molecules on long duplex RNA. Taken together, our data provide a high-resolution view of RLR activation in solution and offer new evidence for the molecular mechanism of RLR activation.

Description: Coatings have been widely used in engineering and decoration to protect components and products and enhance their life span. Nickel (Ni) is one of the most important hard coatings. Improvement in its tribological and mechanical properties would greatly enhance its use in industry. Nanocomposite coatings of metals with various reinforced nanoparticles have been developed in last few decades. Titania (TiO 2 ) exhibit excellent mechanical properties. It is believed that TiO 2 incorporation in Ni matrix will improve the properties of Ni coatings significantly. The main purpose of the current work is to investigate the mechanical and anti-corrosion properties of the electroplated nickel nanocomposite with a small percentage of TiO 2 . The surface morphology of nanocomposite coating was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The hardness of the nanocoating was carried out using micromaterials nanoplatform. The sliding wear rate of the coating ...

Description: Author(s): X. Lin, H. J. Guo, C. Y. Shen, Y. K. Luo, Q. Tao, G. H. Cao, and Z. A. Xu Superconductivity of polycrystalline Sr and Co codoped Pr_{1-y} Sr_{y} Fe_{1-x} Co_{x} AsO samples was investigated by measuring resistivity, dc magnetic susceptibility, thermopower, and Hall effect. In the PrFe_{1-x} Co_{x} AsO samples with only Co doping, T_{c} reaches a maximum of 16 K at x=0.075... [Phys. Rev. B 83, 014503] Published Wed Jan 12, 2011

Description: AlN and AlScN thin films with 27% scandium (Sc) were synthesized by DC magnetron sputtering deposition and used to fabricate surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. Compared with AlN-based devices, the AlScN SAW devices exhibit much better transmission properties. Scandium doping results in electromechanical coupling coefficient, K 2 , in the range of 2.0% ∼ 2.2% for a wide normalized thickness range, more than a 300% increase compared to that of AlN-based SAW devices, thus demonstrating the potential applications of AlScN in high frequency resonators, sensors, and high efficiency energy harvesting devices. The coupling coefficients of the present AlScN based SAW devices are much higher than that of the theoretical calculation based on some assumptions for AlScN piezoelectric material properties, implying there is a need for in-depth investigations on the material properties of AlScN.

Description: We report ZnO/glass surface acoustic wave (SAW) humidity sensors with high sensitivity and fast response using graphene oxide sensing layer. The frequency shift of the sensors is exponentially correlated to the humidity change, induced mainly by mass loading effect rather than the complex impedance change of the sensing layer. The SAW sensors show high sensitivity at a broad humidity range from 0.5%RH to 85%RH with 〈 1 sec rise time. The simple design and excellent stability of our GO-based SAW humidity sensors, complemented with full humidity range measurement, highlights their potential in a wide range of applications. Scientific Reports 4 doi: 10.1038/srep07206