Wet Etching Study of La0.67(Sr0.5Ca0.5)0.33MnO3 Films on Silicon Substrates

Wet etching of colossal magnetoresistive (CMR) perovskite La_0.67(Sr_0.5 Ca_0.5)_0.33MnO₃ (LSCMO) films on Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂/CeO₂/yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ)-buffered Si substrates was investigated using potassium hydroxide (KOH) and buffered hydrofluoric acid (BHF) solutions. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning spreading resistance microscopy (SSRM) measurements revealed that the morphological roughness of the LSCMO films increases, while the electrical resistance roughness decreases, with increasing KOH etching time. The LSCMO films are highly chemically resistant to KOH solution; however, in the case of BHF etching, an etch rate of 22 nm/min was obtained with high selectivity over a photoresist mask.     

Bit error performance of diffuse indoor optical wireless channel pulse position modulation system employing artificial neural networks for channel equalisation

The bit-error rate (BER) performance of a pulse position modulation (PPM) scheme for non-line-of-sight indoor optical links employing channel equalisation based on the artificial neural network (ANN) is reported. Channel equalisation is achieved by training a multilayer perceptrons ANN. A comparative study of the unequalised dasiasoftdasia decision decoding and the dasiaharddasia decision decoding along with the neural equalised dasiasoftdasia decision decoding is presented for different bit resolutions for optical channels with different delay spread. We show that the unequalised dasiaharddasia decision decoding performs the worst for all values of normalised delayed spread, becoming impractical beyond a normalised delayed spread of 0.6. However, dasiasoftdasia decision decoding with/without equalisation displays relatively improved performance for all values of the delay spread. The study shows that for a highly diffuse channel, the signal-to-noise ratio requirement to achieve a BER of 10^-5 for the ANN-based equaliser is ~10~dB lower compared with the unequalised-soft-decoding for 16-PPM at a data rate of 155 Mbps. Our results indicate that for all range of delay spread, neural network equalisation is an effective tool of mitigating the inter-symbol interference.     

Change in properties of polycaproamide during a heat-treatment process

Conclusions -- The change in basic molecular and certain specific characteristics of PCA during the process of heat-treating it in the presence of air has been studied.-- It has been shown that the degree of thermo-oxidative degradation of PCA may be judged from the change in molecular weight characteristics in combination with the results of change in the Huggins constant, the relative chemical nonuniformity, the content of carbonyl compounds, and the integral UV-absorption.-- The inhibiting action of a Bulgarian copper thermostabilizer and of N-1 thermostabilizer on the thermo-oxidative degradation of PCA has been evaluated.Translated from Khimicheskie Volokna, No. 6, pp. 42–44, November–December, 1990.     

Endothelin binding to NG108-15 cells: evidence for conventional ETA and ETB receptor subtypes and super-high affinity binding components

The endothelin (ET) peptides have been identified in the CNS, but there is a paucity of information on their physiological roles. NG108-15 cells, a clonal strain of a neuroblastoma x glioma hybrid cell line, have been widely used in neurobiological research since they retain certain differentiated properties of the non-transformed parental cells. It is known that NG108-15 cells respond to the ET peptides, but only limited information is available on the characterization of the ET receptors that mediate these effects. The present study was designed to identify the type(s) of ET receptors on NG108-15 cells in a proliferative state by competitive binding assays using [125I]ET-1 as the radiolabelled ligand and the receptor-selective ligands. ET-1, ET-3, BQ-123, sarafatoxin-6-c and [Ala1,3,11,15]ET-1. The results suggested the presence of conventional ETA and ETB receptor subtypes, with ETA in excess over ETB. These findings were consistent with the results of Northern analysis in that mRNAs encoding the ETA and ETB receptor subtypes were identified in NG108-15 cells, with a preponderance of ETA to ETB. Of considerable interest was the observation of other ET-binding components with much higher affinities than the conventional receptors. It remains to be demonstrated if these particular binding components are functional and represent differ gene products or arise from association of the conventional ETA and ETB receptor subtypes with themselves or other structures, e.g. proteins or lipids, of CNS origin.     

Increased Efficacy of Zinc Complexes With Picolinic and Aspartic Acids Against Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) Infection When Combined With the Pavine Alkaloid (-)-Thalimonine

Complexes of zinc with picolinic and aspartic acids inhibit key steps of HSV-1 replication affecting different virus-specific targets. As was recently demonstrated by us, the pavine alkaloid (-)-thalimonine irreversibly inhibits HSV-1 infection in cultured cells. The aim of the present study was the evaluation of the combined effect of zinc complexes and (-)-thalimonine on uninfected and HSV-1 infected cells. The data obtained have shown that zinc complexes and the alkaloid exert decreased cytotoxicity (antagonistic effect) and significantly increased anti-HSV-1 activity (synergistic effect) when applied in dual chess-board combinations as compared to the individual effects of compounds tested. These combinations are also effective against the infection caused by a resistant to acyclovir (ACV) HSV-1 mutant and the effect has been recognised as synergistic.     

Bright fluorescent dsDNA probes: novel polycationic asymmetric monomethine cyanine dyes based on thiazolopyridine‐quinolinium chromophore

Seven tri‐ and tetracationic monomeric and homodimeric monomethine cyanine dyes based on thiazolo[4,5‐b]pyridinium and quinolinium end groups were synthesised and characterised. The dyes were tested as fluorescent DNA intercalating probes to apply in DNA gel electrophoresis. The DNA samples stained with all dyes from the series demonstrated bright fluorescent signals. DNA fragments were successfully visualised under orange and green filters as well as under standard UV transillumination. Two of the studied dyes revealed higher sensitivity to DNA when compared with the commercial dimeric cyanine dye TOTO‐1. Their sensitivity reached that of the commercial dimeric cyanine dye YOYO‐1, but the emission was shifted to longer wavelengths. These qualities make the dyes suitable to apply in a wide range of medical and scientific analytical methods.