Ultrastructural analysis of the nucleolar aspects at spermiogenesis in triatomines (Heteroptera,Triatominae)

In this study the ultrastructural technique was used to analyze seminiferous tubule cells of the triatomine species Panstrongylus megistus, Rhodnius pallescens and Triatoma infestans. The data obtained provided evidence of the phenomenon known as persistence of the nucleolar material in initial spermatids at early differentiation. Our results confirmed the presence of the nucleolus and its products during spermiogenesis up to the formation of the axoneme and during spermatid elongation in all three species studied, similar to the process that takes place during cell division. In early spermatids, the nucleoli had a reticulate appearance and a well defined nucleolonema in P. megistus; showed a clear distinction between the fibrillar and the granular component in T. infestans; and had a compact aspect in R. pallescens. In this study, ultrastructural analyses at spermiogenesis indicated that these nucleolar products may represent RNP complexes that will probably be needed at early spermiogenesis when important changes such as chromatin condensation and acrosome and flagellum formation take place. Therefore, it was concluded from the ultrastructural analysis that the triatomine nucleolus does not totally disappear but remains as corpuscles that gather to form the next nucleolar cycle that in the case of meiosis, will be completed if fertilization occurs and a zygote is formed.     

Fluctuations in adhesion behavior of dividing/budding mycobacterium sp. strains JLS,KMS, MCS: An AFM evaluation

AFM was used to evaluate topography and adhesion properties of dividing Gram-positive mycobacterium sp. strains JLS, KMS, and MCS. This research revealed that these three mycobacterium strains divided by budding, and the adhesion force of mother cells differed from their daughter (or budding) cells. At the early stage of division, the adhesion force of the mother cell was larger than that of newly formed daughter cell (10–30%); however, at the anaphase of division, the mother cell possessed smaller adhesion force compared with daughter cell (4–15%). According to the range of the adhesion force measured on the dividing (budding) mycobacterium JLS (M.JLS) cells, the schematic division (or budding) models were proposed, and these mycobacterium strains were found to follow well these division models. Altogether, AFM-based topography and adhesion force measurements at the nanoscale resolution may offer new insightful views that would further facilitate the understanding and elucidation of the biophysical behaviors during division (or budding) processes of microorganisms.     

Theoretical study of mesoscopic stochastic mechanism and effects of finite size on cell cycle of fission yeast

Based on a deterministic cell cycle model, the mesoscopic stochastic differential equations are theoretically derived from the biochemical reactions. The effects of the finite cell size on the cell cycle regulation in the wild type and wee1^-cdc25Δ double mutant type are numerically studied by virtue of the chemical Langevin equations. (i) When the system is driven only by the internal noise, our numerical results are in qualitative agreement well with some experimental observations and data. (ii) A parameter, which is sensitive to two resettings of M-phase promoting factor to G₂, is treated as a stochastic variable, and the system driven only by the external noise for double mutant type is investigated. (iii) When the system is driven by both the internal and external noise, a simple discussion about the combined effect for double mutant type is given. Our results imply some experimental results would be explained by introducing the appropriate internal or external noise into the cell cycle system.     

Study of Inx(O,OH,S)y buffer layer effect on CIGSe thin film solar cells

In_x(O,OH,S)_y buffer layer has been applied to Cu(In,Ga)Se₂(CIGSe) solar cell by chemical bath deposition (CBD). The cell efficiency was observed to be dependant on film growth mode of In_x(O,OH,S)_y buffer layer, which was affected by the CBD conditions such as sulfur chemical concentration and deposition time. The fabricated solar cell showing higher conversion efficiency was observed to have non-porous and uniform texture of buffer, whereas the lower conversion efficiency cells were found to have fibrous texture or detached texture of buffer. The fibrous texture and the detached texture induced high series resistance and lower shunt resistance, respectively, which all resulted in lower cell efficiency with reduced fill factor. External quantum efficiency and temperature dependence of open circuit voltage measurements revealed that the lower efficiency cells suffered from higher interface recombination loss due to the related defects.     

Multidimensional solid-state NMR spectroscopy of plant cell walls

Plant biomass has become an important source of bio-renewable energy in modern society. The molecular structure of plant cell walls is difficult to characterize by most atomic-resolution techniques due to the insoluble and disordered nature of the cell wall. Solid-state NMR (SSNMR) spectroscopy is uniquely suited for studying native hydrated plant cell walls at the molecular level with chemical resolution. Significant progress has been made in the last five years to elucidate the molecular structures and interactions of cellulose and matrix polysaccharides in plant cell walls. These studies have focused on primary cell walls of growing plants in both the dicotyledonous and grass families, as represented by the model plants Arabidopsis thaliana, Brachypodium distachyon, and Zea mays. To date, these SSNMR results have shown that 1) cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectins form a single network in the primary cell wall; 2) in dicot cell walls, the protein expansin targets the hemicellulose-enriched region of the cellulose microfibril for its wall-loosening function; and 3) primary wall cellulose has polymorphic structures that are distinct from the microbial cellulose structures. This article summarizes these key findings, and points out future directions of investigation to advance our fundamental understanding of plant cell wall structure and function.     

Rotational spectrum of ONCl in the (0, 0, 1) and (0, 1, 0) vibrational states and “b” type spectrum in the ground state. Comparison of force field obtained by different combinations of experimental data

From the rotational spectrum of ONCl in (0, 0, 1) and (0, 1, 0) excited vibrational states the inertia defects in these states have been determined. The “b” type rotational spectrum in the ground state has also been measured allowing the determination of Δ⁰ and of all the first-order centrifugal distortion constants.It is shown that by using differences of inertia defects Δ₂ and Δ₃ together with centrifugal distortion constants which do not involve the planarity relations and with harmonic vibrational frequencies of two isotopic species, the harmonic vibrational frequencies of two other isotopic species can be satisfactorily predicted.By using only inertia defects differences Δ₂ and Δ₃ as extra data, a definite choice can be made among the three sets of force constants which equally well reproduce the harmonic frequencies of four isotopic species.     

Differences in mushroom bodies morphogenesis in workers,queens and drones of Apis mellifera: Neuroblasts proliferation and death

Apis mellifera is an interesting model to neurobiological studies. It has a relatively small brain that commands the complex learning and memory tasks demanded by the social organization. An A. mellifera colony is made up of a queen, thousands of workers and a varying number of drones. The latter are males, whereas the former are the two female castes. These three phenotypes differ in morphology, physiology and behavior, correlated with their respective functions in the society. Such differences include the morphology and architecture of their brains. To understand the processes generating such polymorphic brains we characterized the cell division and cell death dynamics which underlie the morphogenesis of the mushroom bodies, through several methods suitable for evidence the time and place of occurrence. Cell death was detected in mushroom bodies of last larval instar and mainly in black-eyed pupae. Cell division was observed in mushroom bodies, primarily at the start of metamorphosis, exhibiting temporal differences among workers, queens and males.     

Thermodynamic properties of titanium dioxide,niobium dioxide and their solid solutions at high temperature

By means of thermogravimetric measurements, it has been possible to obtain information on the nature of the intrinsic and extrinsic defects of TiO₂, NbO₂ and solid solutions Nb_yTi_1?yO_2±x Pure TiO₂ is an oxygen-deficient oxide The main defects are oxygen vacancies, doubly ionized V^.._o or singly ionized V^._o, and interstitial titanium Ti³_i NbO₂ is a metal-deficient oxide The main defects are neutral niobium vacancies. The solid solutions Nb_yTi_1?yO_2±x may be divided into two groups If y > 0 04, the behavior is analogous to that of NbO₂; with the same defects, but the width of the homogeneity range decreases with the titanium content and Nb_{0 04}Ti_{0 96}O₂ is a stoichiometnc oxide If y < 004, the oxides are both metal deficient and oxygen deficient according to the oxygen partial pressure. We have particularly studied the solution Ti_{0 995}Nb_{0 005}O₂ In the oxygen-deficient domain, the main defects are assumed to be neutral or singly ionized oxygen vacancies In the metal-deficient domain, the main defects are metal vacancies V⁴_Ti From these results we have deduced the nature of intrinsic defects in TiO₂ to be Schottky defects: 2V^.._O + V⁴_T1.     

Interacting Frenkel defects at high concentration and the superionic transition in fluorite crystals

A spherical cell model is proposed to account for the explicit concentration dependence of Frenkel defects in an ionic system. In the model, the linearized Debye-Hückel equation is soluble exactly, subject to the boundary condition that the electric field is zero at the cell boundary R, related to the concentration c of defects by $\text{R ∝ c}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>3</mtext>}}$This screened field is used to calculate the chemical potential, which in turn leads to a condition for the instability of the interacting defect assembly. This condition allows one to calculate the enhancement of the concentration of defects above its Arrhenius value at the point of instability in terms of (a) the critical concentration c₀, (b) $\text{a}\text{R}$, where a is the radius of defect and (c) the Debye-Hückel screening length k_c.It is clear from the cell model that this enhancement factor is reduced somewhat in the relevant range of parameters in some of the fluorites from its value in extended Debye-Hückel theory. It is anticipated that the instability discussed here should afford an upper bound to c_v, at the superionic transition, within the range of validity of the model. The excess heat capacity c_p is also discussed briefly.     

Optimization of the Q factor of the magnetic M x resonance under optical pump conditions

Optimization of parameters of the M _x resonance, which excited between Zeeman sublevels of a single HFS level of the ground state of an alkali metal in a vacuum cell in a circuit with a single beam for pumping and detection (M _x magnetometer circuit), has been carried out. A simple model taking into account all main factors controlling the resolving power of the M _x resonance (including spin-exchange broadening and absorption in a thick layer of the cell has been constructed. It is shown that the spin-resonance broadening of the resonance line is mainly determined by the requirements imposed on the optical thickness of the cell, which considerably restricts the realization of advantages of ultranarrow (<1 Hz) lines in magnetometry. The experiment confirming the efficiency of the model has been carried out.     

Electron transfer in low energetic Ne2+/Ar,Kr collisions

Single electron capture processes in Ne²⁺/Ar, Kr collisions were studied by aid of the high-resolution translational spectroscopy. At low collision energies (<1 keV) the dominant contribution to the Ne⁺-spectrum arises from Ne²⁺ ions in the metastable¹ S ₀-state, although it is the weakest component of the primary Ne²⁺ beam. Ne²⁺(³ P) and Ne^2+*(¹ D) projectiles play no important role due to unfavourable energy defects. Target excitation processes as well as transfer ionisation are considered as a possible explanation for different structures in the measured Ne⁺ spectra.     

Nonideality of Au/Si and Au/GaAs Schottky barriers due to process-induced defects

A mechanism of local lowering of the Schottky barrier height (SBH) is proposed, which causes nonideality in nearly ideal Au/n-Si and Au/n-GaAs Schottky barriers. Positively ionized defects generated by the process very close to the interface induce electrons in the metal-induced gap states (MIGS) and lower the SBH locally. The spatial density distribution of the ionized defects obtained from the SBH distribution is determined by the unique interaction with the MIGS. The defects are considered to have the negative-U property and are neutralized at very close positions to the MIGS. The potential distributions close to the interface have a considerable potential drop due to the large defect density. These inhomogeneous potentials are coincident with the energy level scheme of the defect identified as the defect causing the nonideality. This defect is Si self-interstitial in Au/Si SB, and As antisite in Au/n-GaAs SB. This MIGS with process-induced defect model supersedes the previously proposed two major Fermi level pinning models. The mystery of the T₀ effect is solved. The thermionic-field emission current taking place in the strong electric field has influence on the I-V characteristics at low temperatures. Regarding the C-V characteristics of Au/Si SB, the observed extra capacitance under the forward bias is an experimental evidence in accordance with the proposed model.     

Ab initio density functional study on changes in local structure in perovskite compound,LixLa1/3NbO3

Present paper describes the changes in local structure of perovskite type electrode material, Li_xLa_1/3NbO₃, by using ab initio density functional theory calculations. Although the lithium insertion leads to the elongation of Nb–O bonds due to reduction of Nb, no marked change in cell volume is indicated in the calculated results as well as experimental observation previously reported. (M. Nakayama et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 109 (2005) 14648) The distribution of bond angles of Nb–O–Nb deviated from 180° by lithium insertion. Such behaviors was ascribed to the tilt of the NbO₆ octahedron induced by lithium insertion.     

Preparation-dependent properties of Ca(Cu,Mn)7O12 CMR materials

Both magnetic ordering temperatures and lattice constants were observed to be a function of preparation temperature for single-phase CaCuMn₆O₁₂ CMR ceramics of the same cation, oxygen composition and crystal structure. It was found for the first time that higher preparation temperatures result in a linear increase of a cubic cell parameter a, , and in a sharp decrease of magnetic ordering temperatures , by about , for quenched samples. High resolution NPD experiments have shown the presence of antisite defects resulting in partial occupation of octahedral (8c) sites by Cu²⁺ at higher preparation temperatures as never assumed for an ideal structure. The data obtained give a new insight to the problem of functional properties reproducibility suggesting stronger requirements for the production control of CMR materials.     

Statistical correlations on the BiO surface in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8−x single crystals

Low temperature scanning tunneling microscope techniques are applied to study statistical properties of the BiO plane in 2212 high-T_c single crystals. The correlation functions of height deviations in x and k -spaces have been numerically obtained. Long range power law correlations have been found and attributed to half lattice cell jumps of known height in the c direction. Analysis of the correlation function in k-space reveals two modulating superstructures in the b direction. The most pronounced structure is the well known superstructure with period a₁ ≈ 27 Å. The other one has period a₂ ≈ 58 Å which is a little more than twice the period of the main superstructure.     

Elongation rate measurements of nanofilms by microbump method induced by laser pulse

A laser pulse-induced microbump method that aims to measure the elongation rate of nanofilms is proposed. The sample structure is designed as “substrate/active layer/nanofilm” and the laser pulse is used as energy source to heat the active layer and to create microbump. These cause the nanofilm to expand and elongate. The surface area and length change of nanofilm is calculated by measuring the deflections and diameters of the microbumps, as well as to obtain the elongation rate of the nanofilms. A series of microbumps with different deflections are obtained. The deflections are measured precisely by atomic force microscopy (AFM) by taking AgO_x and ZnS-SiO₂ as the active layer and nanofilm, respectively, and by controlling pulse laser parameters. The line elongation rate and plane elongation rate of ZnS-SiO₂ nanofilm are measured at thickness of only 10 nm. Results show that both the two elongation rates linearly increases with laser power from 3.2 to 5.2 mW. Plane elongation rate is a little higher than the line elongation rate at the same laser power. The rupture at 5.4 mW laser power corresponds to fracture strength of the film. The maximum line elongation rate and plane elongation rate are 13.241% and 19.766%, respectively. This method applies a reproducible and efficient method for its applications in the near future.     

Electronic structure of BN nanotubes with intrinsic defects NB and BN and isoelectronic substitutional impurities PN, AsN, SbN, InB, GaB, and AlB

The effect of intrinsic defects and isoelectronic substitutional impurities on the electronic structure of boron-nitride (BN) nanotubes is investigated using a linearized augmented cylindrical wave method and the local density functional and muffin-tin approximations for the electron potential. In this method, the electronic spectrum of a system is governed by a free movement of electrons in the interatomic space between cylindrical barriers and by a scattering of electrons from the atomic centers. Nanotubes with extended defects of substitution N_B of a boron atom by a nitrogen atom and, vice versa, nitrogen by boron B_N with one defect per one, two, and three unit cells are considered. It is shown that the presence of such defects significantly affects the band structure of the BN nanotubes. A defect band π(B, N) is formed in the optical gap, which reduces the width of the gap. The presence of impurities also affects the valence band: the widths of s, sp, and p_π bands change and the gap between s and sp bands is partially filled. A partial substitution of the N by P atoms leads to a decrease in the energy gap, to a separation of the Ds(P) band from the high-energy region of the s(B, N) band, as well as to the formation of the impurity Dπ(P) and Dπ*(P) bands, which form the valence-band top and conduction-band bottom in the doped system. The influence of partial substitution of N atoms by the As atom on the electronic structure of BN nanotubes is qualitatively similar to the case of phosphorus, but the optical gap becomes smaller. The optical gap of the BN tubule is virtually closed due to the effect of one Sb atom impurity per translational unit cell, in contrast to the weak indium-induced perturbation of the band structure of the BN nanotube. Introduction of the one In, Ga or Al atom per three unit cells of the (5, 5) BN nanotube results in 0.6 eV increase of the optical gap. The above effects can be detected by optical and photoelectron spectroscopy methods, as well as by measuring electrical properties of the pure and doped BN nanotubes. They can be used to design electronic devices based on BN nanotubes.