Autocatalytic membrane-amplification on a pre-existing vesicular surface

In water, phosphoric membrane molecule (V(-)) self-assembled to form an anionic giant vesicle, the surface of which served as a catalyst for the autocatalytic formation of V(-) from its membrane precursor (V*), and the amplified V(-) produced a new vesicle using the original vesicle as a scaffold.     

Chemical synthesis, folding, and structural insights into O-fucosylated epidermal growth factor-like repeat 12 of mouse Notch-1 receptor

Notch receptors are cell surface glycoproteins that play key roles in a number of developmental cascades in metazoa. The extracellular domains of Notch-1 receptors are composed of 36 tandem epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like repeats, many of which are modified at highly conserved consensus sites by an unusual form of O-glycan, with O-fucose. The O-fucose residues on certain EGF repeats may be elongated. In mammalian cells this can be a tetrasaccharide, Siaα2,3Galβ1,4GlcNAcβ1,3Fucα1→. This elongation process is initiated by the action of O-fucose-specific β1,3 N-acetylglucosaminyltransferases of the Fringe family. There is evidence that the addition of GlcNAc by Fringe serves as an essential modulator of the interaction of Notch with its ligands and the triggering of activation. Here we describe the efficient synthesis, folding, and structural characterization of EGF repeat 12 (EGF 12) of a mouse Notch-1 receptor bearing different O-fucose glycan chains. We demonstrate that the three disulfide bonds, Cys(456)-Cys(467) (C1-C3), Cys(461)-Cys(476) (C2-C4), and Cys(478)-Cys(487) (C5-C6) were correctly formed in the nonglycosylated as well as the O-fucosylated forms of EGF 12. Three-dimensional structural studies by NMR reveal that the methyl group of fucose is in close contact with ILe(475), Met(477), Pro(478) residues and this stabilizes the conformation of the antiparallel β-sheet of EGF 12. The addition of the GlcNAc residue on O-fucosylated EGF 12 induces a significant conformational change in the adjacent tripeptide sequence, Gln(462)Asn(463)Asp(464), which is a motif involved in the natural, enzymatic O-fucosylation at the conserved site (Cys(461)X(4)Ser/ThrCys(467)).     

Theoretical study of time-resolved photoemission of graphite near Brillouin zone K and H points

The time-resolved photoemission spectra of graphite near the Brillouin zone K and H points are obtained by the many-body time-dependent approach, where the nonradiative relaxation process of the excited electron by the phonon release is considered. The relaxation of the spectral weight is highly suppressed near the H point compared to the K point. This implies that the effective electron-phonon coupling near the K point is stronger than that near the H point.     

Design of highly nonlinear dispersion-flattened square photonic crystal fiber for medical applications

In this paper, we report the design of a highly nonlinear dispersion flattened high-index-core square photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for applications in optical coherence tomography (OCT). The finite-difference method with an anisotropic perfectly matched boundary layer is used as a numerical simulation tool. A set of optimized design parameters numerically resulted in a nonlinear coefficient of 79.9W⁻¹ km⁻¹ and a dispersion of −0:186 ps/(nm·km) at a wavelength of approximately 1.06 μm. Owing to its high nonlinear coefficient and flattened dispersion, the PCF is expected to be suitable for broadband supercontinuum generation, which is considered very important in OCT medical applications.     

Widening the range of high-precision quantitative measurement in retardation-modulated differential interference microscope

To realize high-precision and wide-field measurements in retardation-modulated differential interference contrast (RM-DIC) microscope, we developed a new technique to stitch plural images taken by a high-magnification objective lens with attention paid to the high edge detection ability of the RM-DIC microscope. We showed some experimental results with grating samples and made sure that the developed new method had good performance for widening the measurement field of the RM-DIC microscope.     

The pathophysiology of prospective memory failure after diffuse axonal injury - Lesion-symptom analysis using diffusion tensor imaging

Background  

Prospective memory (PM) is one of the most important cognitive domains in everyday life. The neuronal basis of PM has been examined by a large number of neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies, and it has been suggested that several cerebral domains contribute to PM. For these activation studies, a constellation of experimental PM trials was developed and adopted to healthy subjects. In the present study, we used a widely used clinical PM assessment battery to determine the lesions attributable to PM failure, with the hypothesis that lesion-symptom analysis using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in subjects with diffuse axonal injury (DAI) can reveal the neuronal basis of PM in everyday life.     

Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube-Assisted Encapsulation Approach for Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are regarded as the next-generation thin-film energy harvester, owing to their high performance. However, there is a lack of studies on their encapsulation technology, which is critical for resolving their shortcomings, such as their degradation by oxygen and moisture. It is determined that the moisture intrusion and the heat trapped within the encapsulating cover glass of PSCs influenced the operating stability of the devices. Therefore, we improved the moisture and oxygen barrier ability and heat releasing capability in the passivation of PSCs by adding multi-walled carbon nanotubes to the epoxy resin used for encapsulation. The 0.5 wt% of carbon nanotube-added resin-based encapsulated PSCs exhibited a more stable operation with a ca. 30% efficiency decrease compared to the ca. 63% decrease in the reference devices over one week under continuous operation. Specifically, the short-circuit current density and the fill factor, which are affected by moisture and oxygen-driven degradation, as well as the open-circuit voltage, which is affected by thermal damage, were higher for the multi-walled carbon nanotube-added encapsulated devices than the control devices, after the stability test.     

Scanning tunneling microscopy and abinitio studies of precursor states of Ga-induced cluster on Si(0 0 1) surface

The growth processes and structures of Ga layers formed on a Si(0 0 1) surface have been studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and abinitio calculation. The precursor states of the Ga clusters that compose the Si(0 0 1) 8 × n-Ga (n = 4, 5, 6) structures are observed in addition to the 2 × 2- and 4 × 2-Ga structures at a Ga coverage of 0.55 ML at 300 °C. There are two types of precursor clusters whose protrusions are observed as different shapes in filled-state STM images. We compare the observed STM images with the simulated ones to identify the possible structural models. From the results, we determine the structure of each precursor cluster. On the basis of the results, the formation processes of the cluster are discussed.     

Surface plasmon resonance detection using amorphous carbon/Au multilayer structure

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) can be used to detect the change in reflective index on a metal surface. In this report, we propose detection of the SPR can easily be applied to estimate the thickness of the amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films. To detect changes in film thickness using SPR, devices with an a-C:H/Au structure were fabricated. The a-C:H films were deposited by electron cyclotron resonance plasma chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD) and sputtering, and the obtained film densities were 1.4 and 1.6 g/cm³, respectively. By the deposition of an 11-nm thick a-C:H film on a Au layer by sputtering, the SPR angle changed from 44.90° to 47.05°. For a-C:H deposited by ECR-CVD, the SPR angle was shifted from 44.24° for Au without the a-C:H layer to 58.44° after deposition of 45 nm thick a-C:H film. In both systems of the SPR angle increased with increasing the film thickness. The rate at which the SPR angle shifted depended on the a-C:H film density. These results show that the thickness of an a-C:H film can be determined by the SPR angle shift on an a-C:H layer using a-C:H/Au device with an a-C:H film of the same density.     

2H Natural-abundance MAS NMR spectroscopy: an alternative approach to obtain 1H chemical shifts in solids

(2)H NMR was examined as an approach to determine (1)H chemical shifts in solids. For high-resolution observation, the line width due to (2)H quadrupole interaction and chemical-shift anisotropy was removed by magic-angle spinning and that due to (1)H-(2)H dipolar interactions by (1)H decoupling. Further, we showed that the sensitivity can be enhanced by applying (1)H to (2)H cross polarization and by adding spinning-sideband spectra. These make it possible to obtain (2)H natural-abundance MAS spectra revealing highly resolved (2)H signals. The second-order quadrupole effects of (2)H are also examined.