Cell Signaling through Protein Kinase C Oxidation and Activation

Due to the growing importance of cellular signaling mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS), proteins that are reversibly modulated by these reactant molecules are of high interest. In this context, protein kinases and phosphatases, which act coordinately in the regulation of signal transduction through the phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of target proteins, have been described to be key elements in ROS-mediated signaling events. The major mechanism by which these proteins may be modified by oxidation involves the presence of key redox-sensitive cysteine residues. Protein kinase C (PKC) is involved in a variety of cellular signaling pathways. These proteins have been shown to contain a unique structural feature that is susceptible to oxidative modification. A large number of scientific studies have highlighted the importance of ROS as a second messenger in numerous cellular processes, including cell proliferation, gene expression, adhesion, differentiation, senescence, and apoptosis. In this context, the goal of this review is to discuss the mechanisms by which PKCs are modulated by ROS and how these processes are involved in the cellular response.     

Limitations of silicon diodes for clinical electron dosimetry

This work investigates the relevance of several factors affecting the response of silicon diode dosemeters in depth-dose scans of electron beams. These factors are electron energy, instantaneous dose rate, dose per pulse, photon/electron dose ratio and electron scattering angle (directional response). Data from the literature and our own experiments indicate that the impact of these factors may be up to +/-15%. Thus, the different factors would have to cancel out perfectly at all depths in order to produce true depth-dose curves. There are reports of good agreement between depth-doses measured with diodes and ionisation chambers. However, our measurements with a Scantronix electron field detector (EFD) diode and with a plane-parallel ionisation chamber show discrepancies both in the build-up and in the low-dose regions, with a ratio up to 1.4. Moreover, the absolute sensitivity of two diodes of the same EFD model was found to differ by a factor of 3, and this ratio was not constant but changed with depth between 5 and 15% in the low-dose regions of some clinical electron beams. Owing to these inhomogeneities among diodes even of the same model, corrections for each factor would have to be diode-specific and beam-specific. All these corrections would have to be determined using parallel plane chambers, as recommended by AAPM TG-25, which would be unrealistic in clinical practice. Our conclusion is that in general diodes are not reliable in the measurement of depth-dose curves of clinical electron beams.     

Metallicity and ferromagnetism in nanosystem of charge ordered Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3

The fascinating phenomenon of destabilization of charge/orbital order in Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 with the reduction of grain size is critically investigated. Based on our magnetic and transport experiments followed by a theoretical analysis, we analyze various possible mechanisms and try to delineate a universal scenario behind this phenomenon. We revisit this issue carefully and discuss various evidences from experiments in nano and bulk manganites on the absence of correlation between size reduction and pressure effects on manganites. We propose a phenomenological model based on enhanced surface disorder to explain the appearance of weak ferromagnetism and metallicity in nanosize Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 system. All evidence seems to suggest that the transport is mediated through the surface via enhanced density of states in the nanometric grains. We provide theoretical support for this by performing an ab-initio electronic structure calculation as well as from a recent numerical simulation and argue that the mechanism is likely to be general in all nanosize charge ordered manganites.     

Carbon nanotubes on fluorine-doped tin oxide for fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells at low temperature condition

The multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), electrophoretically deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO), were employed as charge-collecting channels in the TiO2 photoelectrode of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) fabricated at 200 degrees C. The CNT-networks at the conducting substrate increased the charge collection efficiency of the porous TiO2 film, while the short circuit current increased up to ca. 43% under optimized condition. However, the significant decrease in the open-circuit voltage (Voc) up to ca. 132 mV resulted in the failure of the overall cell efficiency improvement. Findings reveal that the transfer process for the back electron is mainly responsible for the significant Voc drop when the MWCNTs were deposited at the electron-collecting substrate of the photoelectrode. The study demonstrates that electrophoretic deposition of MWCNTs on charge collecting substrate would be applicable to introduce an effective charge-collecting channel for the fabrication of flexible DSSCs under low temperature sintering condition.     

Mass transfer effects on the generalised vortex flow over a stationary surface with or without magnetic field

The effect of injection and suction on the generalised vortex flow of a steady laminar incompressible fluid over a stationary infinite disc with or without magnetic field under boundary-layer approximations has been studied. The coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations governing the self-similar flow have been numerically solved using the finite-difference scheme. The results indicate that the injection produces a deeper inflow layer and de-stabilises the motion while suction or magnetic field suppresses the inflow layer and produces stability. The effect of decreasingn, the parameter characterising the nature of vortex flow, is similar to that of increasing the injection rate.     

Nonlinear transient response of isotropic circular plates

The present work investigates the nonlinear transient response for stresses and deflection of thin linear elastic circular plates subjected to different time-dependent loads. Space-wise discretisation has been done using collocation method with the zeros of a Chebyshev polynomial as collocation points. Newmark-β scheme has been used for time-marching. Time and space-wise convergence studies have been carried out. Both the linear and nonlinear transient response of clamped and simply supported circular plates under six different sets of transient loads have been obtained. Several new useful results are reported in the present study.     

Thermal conductivity of copper films

The thermal conductivity of thin films of copper (400–8000 Å) has been measured in the temperature range 100–500 K. It decreases with decreasing film thickness. An electrical-thermal transport analogy has been used to calculate the size-dependent thermal conductivity of the thin copper films. The decrease of the thermal conductivity with thickness is attributed partly to the scattering of the conduction electrons from the film surfaces and partly to the scattering by lattice impurities and frozen-in structural defects in the films. The variation of the thermal conductivity with temperature agrees with the variation for bulk copper. The Lorentz ratio has been determined and is found to vary from 2.4 × 10^-8 to $\text{2.0 × 10}{}^{-8}\text{W}\text{Ω/}\text{deg}{}^2$ for film thicknesses ranging from 400 to 8000 Å.     

Isomerisation of xylenes over a silica–alumina catalyst

The catalytic vapour phase isomerisation of m-xylene into o- and p-xylenes was studied in a flow system in the temperature range 460–700 °C, and over a wide range of space velocities on a silica–alumina catalyst. The isomeric distribution of the products, as determined by a combination of spectroscopic and chromatographic methods, was found to be consistent with calculated equilibrium values. Reduced pressures tended to suppress undesirable side reactions such as disproportionation and favoured the isomerisation. First order kinetics appeared to be applicable and the overall activation energy for both isomerisation reactions (i.e. meta- to para-, and meta- to ortho-) was found to be close to 25 kcal/mol, being of the same order of magnitude in both cases. Isomerisation of o-, m- and p-xylenes failed to occur even at 600 °C under non-catalytic thermal treatment, although formation of polynuclear ring systems (“coke”) in small quantities was observed. The results appear to indicate that the mechanism of isomerisation of xylenes over acidic catalysts involves essentially ionic intermediates. Based on the evidence obtained, it is concluded that the vapour phase isomerisation of xylenes apparently proceeds via the formation of a localised π-complex, leading to a 1,2-intramolecular shift of the methyl group.