Extraordinary optical transmission brightens near-field fiber probe

Near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) offers high optical resolution beyond the diffraction limit for various applications in imaging, sensing, and lithography; however, for many applications the very low brightness of NSOM aperture probes is a major constraint. Here, we report a novel NSOM aperture probe that gives a 100× higher throughput and 40× increased damage threshold than conventional near-field aperture probes. These brighter probes facilitate near-field imaging of single molecules with apertures as small as 45 nm in diameter. We achieve this improvement by nanostructuring the probe and by employing a novel variant of extraordinary optical transmission, relying solely on a single aperture and a coupled waveguide. Comprehensive electromagnetic simulations show good agreement with the measured transmission spectra. Due to their significantly increased throughput and damage threshold, these resonant configuration probes provide an important step forward for near-field applications.     

Synthesis and Caracterization of Mesoporous FePO<Subscript>4</Subscript> as Positive Electrode Materials for Lithium Batteries

Mesoporous iron phosphates were synthesized using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as surfactants. The material synthesized in the presence of SDS was not applied as a positive electrode active material of a lithium battery. The results show that the obtained FePO₄ has a mesoporous structure with a specific surface area of 70 m² g^?1 and a dominant pore diameter of 3 nm. Those mesoporous were characterized by different microstructural and electrochemical analyzes. Among the materials studied under different conditions, those calcined at 450°C preserve mesoporous structures and exhibit the best electrochemical performance when used as active materials of the positive electrodes of lithium batteries. Effectively, a relatively high specific capacity of 135 and 122 mAh g^?1 was registered at C/20 collected experimentally by the samples synthesized in the presence of SDS and CTAB, respectively.     

Tampering with Cell Division by Using Small‐Molecule Inhibitors of CDK–CKS Protein Interactions

Cyclin‐dependent kinases (CDKs) control many cellular processes and are considered important therapeutic targets. Large collections of inhibitors targeting CDK active sites have been discovered, but their use in chemical biology or drug development has been often hampered by their general lack of specificity. An alternative approach to develop more specific inhibitors is targeting protein interactions involving CDKs. CKS proteins interact with some CDKs and play important roles in cell division. We discovered two small‐molecule inhibitors of CDK–CKS interactions. They bind to CDK2, do not inhibit its enzymatic activity, inhibit the proliferation of tumor cell lines, induce an increase in G1 and/or S‐phase cell populations, and cause a decrease in CDK2, cyclin A, and p27^Kip1 levels. These molecules should help decipher the complex contributions of CDK–CKS complexes in the regulation of cell division, and they might present an interesting therapeutic potential.     

Regularization in parallel magnetic resonance imaging

SPIRiT (iterative self‐consistent parallel imaging reconstruction) can be solved efficiently for data acquired on arbitrary k‐space trajectories, and its sparsity regularized variant L1‐SPIRiT accelerates reconstruction. In this paper, we propose a regularized SPIRiT reconstruction based on steerable pyramid decomposition. The directionally filter banks lead to a better separation of signal and noise compared to a discrete wavelet transform (DWT). In vivo datasets and eight‐channel Shepp‐Logan phantom studies demonstrate efficient reconstructions. We compared our work with five state‐of‐the‐art parallel imaging techniques; our method yields better reconstruction results.     

Changes in Volatile Compounds During Processing of Tunisian-Style Table Olives

Table olive (Olea europaea L.) fruit is widely used in the food industry due to its excellent nutritional and health values. The objective of the present research was to determine aroma profiles by hydrodistillation and GC/MS of the autochthonous Meski and two introduced table olives (Picholine and Manzanella) treated with two traditional Tunisian processes. Independent of the processing method, the olive fruit had significant cultivar-dependent differences. The volatile compounds of the treated products were affected by processing: total terpenes increased, while aldehydes decreased and new aroma profiles emerged with large variations in the rate of appearances of the different aroma compounds. Principal component analysis showed that fruit quality is strongly affected by its endogenous specificity and by the processing method used.     

Physicochemical,Rheological, and Thermal Properties of Six Types of Honey from Various Floral Origins in Tunisia

The present study was undertaken to determine the physicochemical, rheological, and thermal properties of six types of Tunisian honey samples from various floral origins (eucalyptus, orange, thyme, mint, rosemary, and horehound). All the honey samples exhibited non-Newtonian behavior at a shear rate ranging between 0.01 and 500 s^–1, with the highest levels of viscosity (µ) being observed for thyme, followed by eucalyptus, rosemary, mint, orange, and horehound honeys, respectively. The effect of temperature on the dynamic viscosity of the samples followed an Arrhenius-like pattern, with activation energy values ranging from 21.23 to 34.91 kJ/mol. The results from oscillatory rheology analysis also revealed that the loss modulus predominated over the storage one in the whole frequency range. As determined by differential scanning calorimetry, the glass transition (T_g) and melting temperatures of the Tunisian honey samples varied between –41.55 and –47.06 °C and between 197.9 and 221.1°C depending on their sugar compositions, respectively.