The properties of samarium doped ceria oxide thin films grown by e-beam deposition technique

One of the main challenges in today's solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology is the reduction of their operating temperature. New types of oxygen ion conducting materials are currently under investigation to overcome the problems which SOFC faces at high temperatures. Samarium doped ceria oxide (SDC) was the material of investigation in this work. Optical quartz (SiO₂) and Fe–Ni–Cr alloy (Alloy 600) were the two types of chosen substrates onto which SDC thin films were deposited by e-beam evaporation technique. The bias voltage was applied to the substrate during film growth. It had an influence on film formation, its microstructure and density because of the ionized particles presence in the SDC vapor stream. Changes in crystallite size and surface morphology were determined from X-ray diffraction data and scanning electron microscopy images. Influence of bias voltage on porosity of formed SDC thin films on optical quartz were calculated from transmittance spectra data by using Swanepoel method. The porosity decreases up to 12% by decreasing bias voltage from 0 to ?150 V.     

Mesenchymal and Proneural Subtypes of Glioblastoma Disclose Branching Based on GSC Associated Signature

Glioblastomas (GBM)—the most common, therapy-resistant, and lethal tumors driven by populations of glioma stem cells (GSCs) are still on the list of the most complicated pathologies. Thus, deeper understanding and characterization of GSCs is indispensable to find suitable targets and develop more effective therapies. In the present study, we applied native glioblastoma cells and GSCs sequencing, screened for GSC-specific targets and checked if the signature is related to GBM patient pathological, clinical data as well as molecular subtypes applying TCGA cohort. Data analysis revealed that tumors of proneural and mesenchymal subtypes are branching in separate clusters based on screened gene expression. Samples of the same subtype revealed significantly different patient survival prognosis as well as recurrence chance between the clusters. Recently, different subpopulations of mesenchymal GSC demonstrating different properties were shown, which indicates possible internal heterogeneity of GBM subtypes as well. Current findings also revealed branching of molecular GBM subtypes that were significantly linked to patient outcome and that might be decided by distinct GSC subpopulations.     

The peculiarities of sprayed liquid’s thermal state change,as droplets are heated by conduction

The change of thermal state and phase transformation intensity of sprayed water, n-hexane, n-heptane and n-decane is numerically modelled in the case, as droplets are heated by conduction; the influence of the Knudsen layer is neglected; warming and evaporation of the droplets has no influence on the state of the carrying air flow. The research results prove that a peculiar change of the thermal state of sprayed liquid, irrespective of droplet’s dispersivity, exists in the time scale, expressed by Fourier number. The above-mentioned change can be conveniently defined by the characteristic curves, representing the change of a droplet surface, centre, and mean mass temperatures, which are sensibly influenced by temperature of gas mixture and partial pressure of liquid vapour in it. As these characteristic curves were expressed in regards to the initial and equilibrium evaporation temperatures of liquid, the universal curves, representing the change of thermal states of the examined liquids, were obtained in the time scale, expressed by Fourier number. It is shown that liquid evaporation rate and the change of a droplet dimension can also be described by characteristic curves.     

Obtaining of high surface roughness copper deposits by electroless plating technique

The use of pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic and 4-hydroxypyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acids as copper(II) ligands in formaldehyde-containing alkaline electroless copper plating solutions allowed to obtain copper layers with extremely high surface roughness factor reaching approximately 120. The Cu deposits of higher surface area were formed at highly negative open-circuit (mixed) potentials; the correlation between copper electrode overpotential and roughness of the deposit was found and discussed. The copper films obtained demonstrate a high electrocatalytic activity in anodic formaldehyde oxidation process, the oxidation rate reaches 40 mA cm⁻² and exceeds considerably that for other copper surfaces.     

Covert visual search: A comparison of performance by humans and macaques (Macaca mulatta).

The duration of the visual search by human participants for visual features is independent of the number of targets being viewed. In contrast, search for targets formed by conjunction of features is characterized by reaction times (RTs) that increase as a linear function of the number of items viewed, suggesting that the target detection requires scrutiny of the search array by focal attention. Macaque (Macaca mulatta) and human performance on feature and conjunction search tasks was compared in 7 human Ss and 5 female monkeys by using color or motion, or by conjunctions of color and motion. Like human participants, monkeys exhibited a dichotomy between feature and conjunction search performance. This finding suggests that humans and macaques engage similar brain mechanisms for representation of feature and conjunction targets. This behavioral paradigm can thus be used in neurophysiological experiments directed at the mechanisms of feature integration and target selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of microstructure replication using vibratory assisted thermal imprint process

Microsystem Technologies - In this article, thermal imprint process for replication of high-quality microstructures on the surface of polymer is investigated. Vibrations has been previously...     

Cardiovascular oscillations of the carotid artery assessed by magnetoelastic skin curvature sensor

The present study concerns the nondisturbing assessment of cardiovascular oscillations of the carotid artery using a novel skin curvature sensor on the neck. The mechanical oscillations of the skin reflect changes of the artery radius and thus relevant physiological data such as cardiac and respiratory activities, their mutual dependencies, and even changes of blood pressure. The skin curvature sensor is easy to handle and it minimally disturbs the patient, which is relevant for many medical areas such as sleep monitoring.     

Antioxidative activity of<Emphasis Type="Italic"> Geranium macrorrhizum</Emphasis>

The composition of radical-scavenging compounds from Geranium macrorrhizum leaves was analyzed and the antioxidative activities of various extracts was determined. Seven compounds, namely gallic acid, ellagic acid, 4-galloyl quinic acid, the flavonoid quercetin and three of its glycosides, quercetin-3--glucopyranoside, quercetin-3--galactopyranoside and quercetin-4--glucopyranoside were isolated and identified in the various fractions. The radical-scavenging activity of the isolated compounds was measured using DPPH^· and ABTS^·+ scavenging assays and compared with the activity of rosmarinic acid. Quercetin-3-glucopyranoside and quercetin-3-galactopyranoside showed the highest antioxidative capacities. Antioxidative activities of all plant fractions were assessed by model system tests (superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide scavenging) and by oxidation tests (-carotene bleaching, peroxide value, UV absorbance and headspace-gas chromatography hexanal determination). The ethanol-butanol fraction of the plant possessed the highest activity in most of the tests.