Active Transport of Hepatotoxic Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids in HepaRG Cells

1,2-unsaturated pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are secondary plant metabolites occurring as food contaminants that can cause severe liver damage upon metabolic activation in hepatocytes. However, it is yet unknown how these contaminants enter the cells. The role of hepatic transporters is only at the beginning of being recognized as a key determinant of PA toxicity. Therefore, this study concentrated on assessing the general mode of action of PA transport in the human hepatoma cell line HepaRG using seven structurally different PAs. Furthermore, several hepatic uptake and efflux transporters were targeted with pharmacological inhibitors to identify their role in the uptake of the PAs retrorsine and senecionine and in the disposition of their N-oxides (PANO). For this purpose, PA and PANO content was measured in the supernatant using LC-MS/MS. Also, PA-mediated cytotoxicity was analyzed after transport inhibition. It was found that PAs are taken up into HepaRG cells in a predominantly active and structure-dependent manner. This pattern correlates with other experimental endpoints such as cytotoxicity. Pharmacological inhibition of the influx transporters Na⁺/taurocholate co-transporting polypeptide (SLC10A1) and organic cation transporter 1 (SLC22A1) led to a reduced uptake of retrorsine and senecionine into HepaRG cells, emphasizing the relevance of these transporters for PA toxicokinetics.     

双活塞式压力计准确度等级的确定

双活塞式压力计基于不同结构可分为双活塞式压力真空计和双量程活塞式压力计两种。针对后者的结构特点,分析两套活塞系统共用一套砝码的问题,根据活塞的参数以及专用砝码质量计算出标称值下的实际压力值。本研究根据不同压力量程段来划分活塞式压力计的准确度等级,实现活塞式压力计的溯源性校准,以保证压力量传中的准确性和一致性。     

Electromechanical Interactions in Multibody Systems Containing Electromechanical Drives

Electromechanical systems are characterized by interaction of electromagnetic fields with inertial bodies. Electromechanical interactions can be described by so-called constitutive equations.Constitutive equations describing the coupling of multibody dynamics with Kirchhoffs theory of electrical networks as a quasi stationaryapproximation of Maxwells theory define discrete electromechanicalsystems, i.e. systems with a finite degree of freedom.Then, based on the principle of virtual work, motion equations can be obtained as Lagranges equations in explicit form due to a unified approach. The motion equations can be generated automatically. Hence, all electromechanical interactions are correctly taken into account.Examples for a MAGLEV and a planar motor are given.     

Greatly Enhanced Anticorrosion of Cu by Commensurate Graphene Coating

Metal corrosion is a long‐lasting problem in history and ultrahigh anticorrosion is one ultimate pursuit in the metal‐related industry. Graphene, in principle, can be a revolutionary material for anticorrosion due to its excellent impermeability to any molecule or ion (except for protons). However, in real applications, it is found that the metallic graphene forms an electrochemical circuit with the protected metals to accelerate the corrosion once the corrosive fluids leaks into the interface. Therefore, whether graphene can be used as an excellent anticorrosion material is under intense debate now. Here, graphene‐coated Cu is employed to investigate the facet‐dependent anticorrosion of metals. It is demonstrated that as‐grown graphene can protect Cu(111) surface from oxidation in humid air lasting for more than 2.5 years, in sharp contrast with the accelerated oxidation of graphene‐coated Cu(100) surface. Further atomic‐scale characterization and ab initio calculations reveal that the strong interfacial coupling of the commensurate graphene/Cu(111) prevents H₂O diffusion into the graphene/Cu(111) interface, but the one‐dimensional wrinkles formed in the incommensurate graphene on Cu(100) can facilitate the H₂O diffusion at the interface. This study resolves the contradiction on the anticorrosion capacity of graphene and opens a new opportunity for ultrahigh metal anticorrosion through commensurate graphene coating.     

Low-temperature epitaxy of transferable high-quality Pd(111) films on hybrid graphene/Cu(111) substrate

Nano Research - The continuous pursuit of miniaturization in the electronics and optoelectronics industry demands all device components with smaller size and higher performance, in which thin metal...     

Ferroelectric gated electrical transport in CdS nanotetrapods

Complex nanostructures such as branched semiconductor nanotetrapods are promising building blocks for next-generation nanoelectronics. Here we report on the electrical transport properties of individual CdS tetrapods in a field effect transistor (FET) configuration with a ferroelectric Ba(0.7)Sr(0.3)TiO(3) film as high-k, switchable gate dielectric. A cryogenic four-probe scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is used to probe the electrical transport through individual nanotetrapods at different temperatures. A p-type field effect is observed at room temperature, owing to the enhanced gate capacitance coupling. And the reversible remnant polarization of the ferroelectric gate dielectric leads to a well-defined nonvolatile memory effect. The field effect is shown to originate from the channel tuning in the arm/core/arm junctions of nanotetrapods. At low temperature (8.5 K), the nanotetrapod devices exhibit a ferroelectric-modulated single-electron transistor (SET) behavior. The results illustrate how the characteristics of a ferroelectric such as switchable polarization and high dielectric constant can be exploited to control the functionality of individual three-dimensional nanoarchitectures.     

Synthesis,Structure, and Properties of Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Great interest in single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) derives from their remarkable electrical, thermal, optical, and mechanical properties together with their lower density, which promise extensive and unique applications. Much progress has been achieved in the fundamental and applied investigations of SWCNTs over the past decade. At the same time, many obstacles still remain, hampering further development in this field. To clarify the emerging problems and to provide a comprehensive understanding of the field, we review the recent progress of research on the synthesis, structure, and properties of SWCNTs, in particular the SWCNT non‐woven film, SWCNT rings, boron–nitrogen (B–N) co‐doped SWCNTs (BCN‐SWNTs), and individual SWCNTs. Some long‐standing problems and topics warranting further investigations in the near future are addressed.     

The Global Positioning System: Signals,measurements, and performance

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation and time transfer system developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. It serves marine, airborne, and terrestrial users, both military and civilian. Specifically, GPS includes the Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which provides civilian users with 100 meter accuracy, and it serves military users with the Precise Positioning Service (PPS) which provides 20-m accuracy. Both of these services are available worldwide with no requirement for a local reference station. In contrast, differential operation of GPS provides 2- to 10-m accuracy to users within 1000 km of a fixed GPS reference receiver. Finally, carrier phase comparisons can be used to provide centimeter accuracy to users within 10 km and potentially within 100 km of a reference receiver. This advanced tutorial will describe the GPS signals, the various measurements made by the GPS receivers, and estimate the achievable accuracies. It will not dwell on those aspects of GPS which are well known to those skilled in the radio communications art, such as spread-spectrum or code division multiple access. Rather, it will focus on topics which are more unique to radio navigation or GPS. These include code-carrier divergence, codeless tracking, carrier aiding, and narrow correlator spacing.