Versatile Near-Infrared Super-Resolution Imaging of Amyloid Fibrils with the Fluorogenic Probe CRANAD-2

CRANAD-2 is a fluorogenic curcumin derivative used for near-infrared detection and imaging in vivo of amyloid aggregates, which are involved in neurodegenerative diseases. We explore the performance of CRANAD-2 in two super-resolution imaging techniques, namely stimulated emission depletion (STED) and single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM), with markedly different fluorophore requirements. By conveniently adapting the concentration of CRANAD-2, which transiently binds to amyloid fibrils, we show that it performs well in both techniques, achieving a resolution in the range of 45–55 nm. Correlation of SMLM with atomic force microscopy (AFM) validates the resolution of fine features in the reconstructed super-resolved image. The good performance and versatility of CRANAD-2 provides a powerful tool for near-infrared nanoscopic imaging of amyloids in vitro and in vivo.     

Assessment of Noise Exposure of Sawmill Workers in Southwest,Nigeria

Economic wood processing employs the use of industrial machines for cutting, shaping, milling, and sawing timber, thereby leading to the generation of high levels of noise. Published data from empirical studies have categorized noise as an environmental hazard of global significance. Furthermore, noise exposure limits for different industries and all the industrial machines available has not been formally established as it presently exists in developed nations around the world. Therefore, this study assessed the daily exposure of sawmills workers to noise in Southwestern Nigeria. Reconnaissance surveys were first carried out in Osun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Lagos, and Ogun States to select sawmills that were fully operational and fit for the study. Two fully functional sawmills in two cities of each State were eventually selected for data collection, making a total of 24 sawmills, while the Circular Machines (CM), Planer Machines (PM), and Band-saw Machines (BM) were the machines in each sawmill considered. Two machines each of CM, PM, and BM were considered in each sawmill, making a total of forty-eight (48) machines each of CM, PM, and BM. Sound data were collected between 7 am and 7 pm each day for six days (between Monday and Saturday) using Extech 407732 sound level meter and all stabilized measurements were taken three times at different intervals. The data collected were in three different periods: Machine No-work Period (NP_m), Machine Idle Period (IP_m), and Machine Working Period (WP_m). A two–way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was carried out at P < 0.05 to determine whether there is a significant difference in the sound level average before and after the break, for both the idle and working periods of the three machines considered. This was also done to determine whether there is a significant difference between the sound level average of the results collected during idle and working periods of the three machines. Noise Pollution Levels (L_np) ranged from 83.20 dB (PM) to 107.65 (BM) and 93.42 (CM and PM) – 116.00 (BM) respectively, while IP_m also gave the least noise pollution level of 95.79 dB and WP_m gave the highest level of 102.88 dB. The results revealed that all the machines’ L_np values in the working period are more than the 90 dB acceptable limit the recommendation value of 90 dB while 89.6% of CMs, 75% of PMs, and 89.6% of BM had their L_np above 90 dB in the idle period respectively. The minimum and the maximum noise dose levels for IP_m, WP_m and overall are 0.09 (BM) and 2.37 (CM), 0.50 (CM), and 4.77 (PM) and 0.69 (BM) and 6.64 (PM) respectively. The study found out that the fundamental contributing factors to the high noise levels in sawmills are poor machine maintenance, use of old and obsolete machines, poor housekeeping strategy, limited space, workers’ negligence, lack of PPE, and lack of occupational safety training. The study recommends that proper workplace practices such as use of personal protective equipment, new and modern machines, training, and occupational safety programmes be implemented in the considered sawmills.     

Electrical behavior of the Au/MoS2 interface studied by light emission induced by scanning tunneling microscopy

Light emitted in the tunneling junction of a scanning tunneling microscope has been used to establish the electrical characteristics of nanojunctions made of Au islands deposited on flat MoS₂ surfaces. It is shown that these characteristics are those of rectifying contacts when the gold islands are isolated and that they evolve toward those of ohmic contacts when the island density increases. It is observed that the rectifying behavior also evolves over time as on infinite metal/semiconductor contacts. Using the STM tip, single gold islands can be manipulated on the MoS₂ surface so that their electrical behavior can be changed depending on their position with regard to the other islands.     

LONG-TIME BEHAVIOR OF A CLASS OF REACTION DIFFUSION EQUATIONS WITH TIME DELAYS

The present paper devotes to the long-time behavior of a class of reaction diffusion equations with delays under Dirichlet boundary conditions. The stability and global attractability for the zero solution are provided, and the existence, stability and attractability for the positive stationary solution are also obtained.     

A stability of the steady flow of compressible viscous fluid with respect to initial disturbance (v∞ ≠ 0)

We consider a compressible viscous fluid with the velocity at infinity equal to a strictly non‐zero constant vector in ?³. Under the assumptions on the smallness of the external force and velocity at infinity, Novotny–Padula (Math. Ann. 1997; 308 :439– 489) proved the existence and uniqueness of steady flow in the class of functions possessing some pointwise decay. In this paper, we study stability of the steady flow with respect to the initial disturbance. We proved that if H³‐norm of the initial disturbance is small enough, then the solution to the non‐stationary problem exists uniquely and globally in time, which satisfies a uniform estimate on prescribed velocity at infinity and converges to the steady flow in L_q‐norm for any number q? 2. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spectral and temporal characteristics of metallic nanoparticles produced by femtosecond laser pulses

We study the time of flight optical emission from titanium and tungsten nanosized particles, generated through femtosecond laser-matter interaction in vacuum, in the wavelength spectral range from 300 to 900 nm. Typical spectra consist of broadband structureless signals similar to black body emission from a macroscopic object. Nanoparticles temperature, deduced from their emission spectra, decreases drastically as a function of their time of arrival at a given distance from the target. This behaviour is seen to be independent of individual particle velocities.     

生长温度对碳纳米管阴极场发射性能的影响

碳纳米管(Carbon Nanotubes,CNTs)场发射平面显示器(Field Emission Display,FED)与其他显示器比较显示了其独特优点,被认为是未来理想的平面显示器之一。碳纳米管阴极作为器件的核心部分,其性能的好坏直接影响显示器的性能。针对30~60英寸(76.2~152.4cm)大屏幕显示器所用的厚膜工艺,即采用丝网印刷法制备了碳纳米管阴极阵列,研究了化学气相沉积法在不同温度下生长的CNTs的场发射电流-电压特性,找到了适合FED用碳纳米管的最佳生长温度。结果表明生长温度越高(750℃),CNTs场发射性能越好。并用荧光粉阳极测试这些CNTs的场发射发光显示效果,验证了上述结论。     

Phenylene dendrimers and novel hyperbranched polyphenylenes as light emissive materials for blue OLEDs

New materials based on low-generation polyphenylene dendrimers with the light emission in the blue spectrum range were synthesized and examined for an efficient organic light emitting diodes (OLED) application. It has been shown that the ratio of p-phenylene groups with high fluorescence parameters to 1,3,5-triphenylbenzene groups with low fluorescent parameters may be the possible reason for the experimental variations of relative quantum yield of photoluminescence in the compounds explored. The quantum yield value is increased with a number of dendrimer generations up to 50–70%. The role of bromine atoms as the luminescence quenchers have been demonstrated, which is important for synthesis route choice.     

Single to 16-Channel Wavelength Conversion at 10 Gb/s Based on Cross-Gain Modulation of ASE Spectrum in SOA

A simple scheme for single to multi-channel wavelength conversion based on cross-gain modulation of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) spectrum in semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is described. Single to 16-channel wavelength conversion at 10 Gb/s is first demonstrated without any additional probe lights, the modulation information carried by input signal could be converted into arbitrary many channels if only the demultiplexer with enough channels is exploited. Output performance and pattern effects are investigated experimentally.     

半导体激光器发射光谱实验仪

设计了一种半导体激光器发射光谱实验仪 ,可以用来观测LD发射的荧光光谱、激光光谱 ,以及了解光栅外腔选取单纵模、压窄线宽、波长调谐的机理 .该实验仪结构紧凑 ,物理概念清晰 ,适用于大专院校的光学实验教学