On Excess-time Correlated Cumulative Processes

In this paper a class of correlated cumulative processes, B _s (t) = ∑^N(t)_i=1 H _s (X _i )X _i , is studied with excess level increments X _i ?s, where {N(t), t ?0} is the counting process generated by the renewal sequence T _n , T _n and X _n are correlated for given n, H _s (t) is the Heaviside function and s?0 is a given constant. Several useful results, for the distributions of B _s (t), and that of the number of excess (non-excess) increments on (0, t) and the corresponding means, are derived. First passage time problems are also discussed and various asymptotic properties of the processes are obtained. Transform results, by applying a flexible form for the joint distribution of correlated pairs (T _n , X _n ) are derived and inverted. The case of non-excess level increments, X _i < s, is also considered. Finally, applications to known stochastic shock and pro-rata warranty models are given.     

Biomedical applications of functionalised carbon nanotubes

The organic functionalisation of carbon nanotubes can improve substantially their solubility and biocompatibility profile; as a consequence, their manipulation and integration into biological systems has become possible so that functionalised carbon nanotubes hold currently strong promise as novel systems for the delivery of drugs, antigens and genes.     

Binding and condensation of plasmid DNA onto functionalized carbon nanotubes: toward the construction of nanotube-based gene delivery vectors

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) constitute a class of nanomaterials that possess characteristics suitable for a variety of possible applications. Their compatibility with aqueous environments has been made possible by the chemical functionalization of their surface, allowing for exploration of their interactions with biological components including mammalian cells. Functionalized CNTs (f-CNTs) are being intensively explored in advanced biotechnological applications ranging from molecular biosensors to cellular growth substrates. We have been exploring the potential of f-CNTs as delivery vehicles of biologically active molecules in view of possible biomedical applications, including vaccination and gene delivery. Recently we reported the capability of ammonium-functionalized single-walled CNTs to penetrate human and murine cells and facilitate the delivery of plasmid DNA leading to expression of marker genes. To optimize f-CNTs as gene delivery vehicles, it is essential to characterize their interactions with DNA. In the present report, we study the interactions of three types of f-CNTs, ammonium-functionalized single-walled and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (SWNT-NH3+; MWNT-NH3+), and lysine-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT-Lys-NH3+), with plasmid DNA. Nanotube-DNA complexes were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, surface plasmon resonance, PicoGreen dye exclusion, and agarose gel shift assay. The results indicate that all three types of cationic carbon nanotubes are able to condense DNA to varying degrees, indicating that both nanotube surface area and charge density are critical parameters that determine the interaction and electrostatic complex formation between f-CNTs with DNA. All three different f-CNT types in this study exhibited upregulation of marker gene expression over naked DNA using a mammalian (human) cell line. Differences in the levels of gene expression were correlated with the structural and biophysical data obtained for the f-CNT:DNA complexes to suggest that large surface area leading to very efficient DNA condensation is not necessary for effective gene transfer. However, it will require further investigation to determine whether the degree of binding and tight association between DNA and nanotubes is a desirable trait to increase gene expression efficiency in vitro or in vivo. This study constitutes the first thorough investigation into the physicochemical interactions between cationic functionalized carbon nanotubes and DNA toward construction of carbon nanotube-based gene transfer vector systems.     

Topological mixing in -spaces

If is a proper -space and a non-elementary discrete group of isometries acting properly discontinuously on it is shown that the geodesic flow on the quotient space is topologically mixing, provided that the generalized Busemann function has zeros on the boundary and the non-wandering set of the flow equals the whole quotient space of geodesics (the latter being redundant when is compact). Applications include the proof of topological mixing for (A) compact negatively curved polyhedra, (B) compact quotients of proper geodesically complete -spaces by a one-ended group of isometries and (C) finite -dimensional ideal polyhedra.

     

Proton radiation tolerance of nanocrystal memories

We report on proton radiation tolerance of Si-nanocrystal (Si-NCs) MOS structures aiming at non-volatile memory applications. Si-NCs were formed by low-energy (1 keV) ion-beam-synthesis within a 9 nm thick SiO₂ layer. A 2-D layer of Si-NCs with 3 nm mean diameter and 10¹² cm⁻² surface density was successfully achieved. After fabrication of Al capacitors, samples with and without Si-NCs were 1.5 and 6.5 MeV proton were irradiated at doses ranging from 1 Mrad (SiO₂) to 120 Mrad (SiO₂). Significant irradiation-dose-dependent shifts are detected in the C–V curves of the NC-MOS cells and programmed cells are found to undergo bit flip. Despite the above, the attainable memory windows after write/erase operations remain unchanged. Retention time characteristics at room temperature for the write and erase states of irradiated and non-irradiated samples reveal that even after an irradiation dose as high as 120 Mrad (SiO₂) the devices still exhibit long time charge storage behavior. We observe that the erase state flat-band voltage decay rate does not depend on the irradiation-dose while the opposite happens for the write state flat-band voltage decay rate which is found to be directly dependent on D_it values giving insight to the physics of the discharging mechanisms.     

Boosting the feasibility pump

The feasibility pump (FP) has proved to be an effective method for finding feasible solutions to mixed integer programming problems. FP iterates between a rounding procedure and a projection procedure, which together provide a sequence of points alternating between LP feasible but fractional solutions, and integer but LP infeasible solutions. The process attempts to minimize the distance between consecutive iterates, producing an integer feasible solution when closing the distance between them. We investigate the benefits of enhancing the rounding procedure with a clever integer line search that efficiently explores a large set of integer points. An extensive computational study on benchmark instances demonstrates the efficacy of the proposed approach.     

Excess-time Renewal Theory with Applications

In this paper, the renewal theory is investigated from the point of view of the excess-time (non-excess-time) renewal intervals. Useful results are derived, and applications to several renewal models are given.     

Oxidase‐Like Activity of Polymer‐Coated Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles

Inorganic enzyme? Ceria nanoparticles exhibit unique oxidase‐like activity at acidic pH values. These redox catalysts can be used in immunoassays (ELISA) when modified with targeting ligands (see picture; light blue and yellow structures are nanoparticles with attached ligands). This modification allows both for binding and for detection by the catalytic oxidation of sensitive colorimetric dyes (e.g. TMB).