Black raspberry extract can lower serum LDL cholesterol via modulation of gut microbial composition and serum bile acid profile in rats fed trimethylamine-N-oxide with a high-fat diet

Food Science and Biotechnology - Blood trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) has been associated with cardiovascular disease. Black raspberry (Rubus occidentalis, BR) has been regarded to be beneficial for...     

Effects of shape memory alloys on low velocity impact characteristics of composite plate

The effects of shape memory alloy thin films embedded in composite plates for improving damage resistance of composite structures under low velocity impact were investigated numerically. Analysis model for SMA thin film was developed based on Lagoudas’ model and implemented using the user defined material subroutine of the ABAQUS/Explicit finite element program. Composite damage model based on the Chang–Chang failure criteria was also implemented to consider progressive damage behavior. The finite element simulation of low velocity impact behavior of a shape memory alloy hybrid composite plate was performed using the ABAQUS/Explicit program. Parametric studies were performed to investigate the effect of shape memory alloys for improving damage resistance of composite plate.     

Antimony selenide phase-change nanowires for memory application

Synthesis and device characteristics of highly scalable antimony selenide nanowire-based phase transition memory are reported. Antimony selenide nanowires prepared using the metal-catalyst-free approach are single-crystalline and of high-purity. The nanowire memory can be repeatedly switched between high-resistance (approximately 10 Momega) and low-resistance (approximately 1 komega) states which are attributed to amorphous and crystalline states, respectively.     

Fluorination of aluminum oxide gate dielectrics using fluorine neutral/ion beams

The effect of the fluorination of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) in an oxide-nitride-aluminum oxide (SiO2-Si3N4-Al2O3, ONA) layer through fluorine (F) ion and neutral-beam treatments on the characteristics of the ONA layer was investigated to study the effect of charge-related damage during F ion beam treatment. The treatment with an F beam at approximately 10 eV energy produced an about-5-nm-thick fluorinated alumina layer by replacing the aluminum-oxygn (Al-O) bonding with Al-F bonding for both the F neutral-beam and F ion beam treatments. Moreover, no significant differences in the physical and chemical properties of the ONA layers treated with the two beams were observed. When the electrical characteristics of the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices were compared, however, the lowest leakage current and highest memory window characteristics were observed in the MOS device fabricated with an F neutral beam, due to the Al-F layer formed on the Al2O3 surface. In the case of the MOS device fabricated with the F-ion-beam-treated ONA layer, however, lower electrical characteristics were observed compared to the MOS device fabricated with the F-neutral-beam-treated ONA layer, possibly due to the charge-related damage that occurred during the F ion beam treatment, even though the memory characteristics were improved compared to the reference due to the Al-F layer formed on the Al2O3 surface.     

The Platelet Collagen Receptor GPVI Is Cleaved by Tspan15/ADAM10 and Tspan33/ADAM10 Molecular Scissors

The platelet-activating collagen receptor GPVI represents the focus of clinical trials as an antiplatelet target for arterial thrombosis, and soluble GPVI is a plasma biomarker for several human diseases. A disintegrin and metalloproteinase 10 (ADAM10) acts as a ‘molecular scissor’ that cleaves the extracellular region from GPVI and many other substrates. ADAM10 interacts with six regulatory tetraspanin membrane proteins, Tspan5, Tspan10, Tspan14, Tspan15, Tspan17 and Tspan33, which are collectively termed the TspanC8s. These are emerging as regulators of ADAM10 substrate specificity. Human platelets express Tspan14, Tspan15 and Tspan33, but which of these regulates GPVI cleavage remains unknown. To address this, CRISPR/Cas9 knockout human cell lines were generated to show that Tspan15 and Tspan33 enact compensatory roles in GPVI cleavage, with Tspan15 bearing the more important role. To investigate this mechanism, a series of Tspan15 and GPVI mutant expression constructs were designed. The Tspan15 extracellular region was found to be critical in promoting GPVI cleavage, and appeared to achieve this by enabling ADAM10 to access the cleavage site at a particular distance above the membrane. These findings bear implications for the regulation of cleavage of other ADAM10 substrates, and provide new insights into post-translational regulation of the clinically relevant GPVI protein.