Appraisal of self, social environment, and state authority as a possible mediator of posttraumatic stress disorder in tortured political activists.

This study examined appraisal of self and others, as measured by semantic differential ratings of Police, State, Society, Family, Friend, Myself as a Man/Woman, and Myself as a Political Person, in 55 tortured political activists in Turkey, 55 nontortured political activists, and 55 nontortured, politically noninvolved controls. There were no remarkable differences between tortured and nontortured political activists; both groups differed from controls in having a more negative appraisal of the police and the state and stronger perceptions of danger, mistrust, and injustice in relation to state authority. Lack of beliefs concerning a "benevolent state" may have protected the survivors from the traumatic effects of state-perpetrated torture. Further research into the possible protective role of belief systems in posttraumatic stress disorder is needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New Approach to Structure–Property Correlations of Different Films of Sorbitan Esters and Their Self-Assembly into Viscoelastic Monolayers

This publication is focused on the structural origin of viscoelasticity in Langmuir monolayers. To improve the understanding of the structural origin of viscoelasticity of surfactant films, we systematically studied interfacial films of different sorbitan esters with saturated (Span 60 and 65) and unsaturated (Span 80 and 85) paraffin chains by means of surface rheology, Langmuir isotherms, X-ray reflectometry (XRR), and Brewster angle microscopy (BAM). The results of two-dimensional shear rheological measurements revealed the existence of temporarily cross-linked networks. In dynamic BAM experiments, we observed a swinging motion of the monolayers as a result of a sudden externally initiated mechanical perturbation. The viscoelastic film response, which relaxed with time as the external force vanished, could be traced back to the presence of foam-like supramolecular structures that interlinked solid-condensed domains. The temperature dependence of the elastic response implied that the solid domains decomposed at temperatures close to the bulk melting point of Span 60 and Span 65. We concluded that insoluble surfactants formed solid domains at the interface, which were linked with each other by nonsolid areas, giving viscoelastic films. These newly discovered insights into coherent film formations could provide new opportunities for designing mechanically stable surfactant interfaces.     

Histone Methylation Marks on Circulating Nucleosomes as Novel Blood-Based Biomarker in Colorectal Cancer

Circulating nucleic acids (CNAs) are under investigation as a liquid biopsy in cancer as potential non-invasive biomarkers, as stable structure in circulation nucleosomes could be valuable sources for detection of cancer-specific alterations in histone modifications. Our interest is in histone methylation marks with a focus on colorectal cancer, one of the leading cancers respective the incidence and mortality. Our previous work included the analysis of trimethylations of lysine 9 on histone 3 (H3K9me3) and of lysine 20 on histone 4 (H4K20me3) by chromatin immuno- precipitation-related PCR in circulating nucleosomes. Here we asked whether global immunologic measurement of histone marks in circulation could be a suitable approach to show their potential as biomarkers. In addition to H3K9me3 and H4K20me3 we also measured H3K27me3 in plasma samples from CRC patients (n = 63) and cancer free individuals (n = 40) by ELISA-based methylation assays. Our results show that of three marks, the amounts of H3K27me3 (p = 0.04) and H4K20me3 (p < 0.001) were significantly lower in CRC patients than in healthy controls. For H3K9me3 similar amounts were measured in both groups. Areas under the curve (AUC) in receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves indicating the power of CRC detection were 0.620 for H3K27me3, 0.715 for H4K20me3 and 0.769 for the combination of both markers. In conclusion, findings of this preliminary study reveal the potential of blood-based detection of CRC by quantification of histone methylation marks and the additive effect of the marker combination.     

High-performance a-IGZO-based flexible TTFT with stacked dielectric layers via ultrathin high-κ SrTiO3 buffer layer grown on HfO2

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - In this study, ITO-coated PET was used as the substrate to create a flexible and transparent structure. a-IGZO (amorphous InGaZnO4) is...     

Effects of annealing on the structural and magnetic properties of flame spray pyrolyzed MnFe2O4 nanoparticles

In this study, manganese ferrite (MnFe₂O₄) nanoparticles were produced through flame spray pyrolysis (FSP). To investigate the effects of heat treatment, the nanoparticles were annealed between 400 and 650°C for 4 h in air in a comparative manner. The structural, chemical, morphological, and magnetic properties of the nanoparticles were evaluated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), respectively. The XRD results showed that the nanoparticles synthesized by the FSP method exhibited the MnFe₂O₄ spinel ferrite structure. The annealing process led to the decomposition of MnFe₂O₄ into various phases. According to the morphological analysis, the as-synthesized particles were hemispherical–cubic in shape and had an average particle size of less than 100 nm. In addition, the chemical bond structures of the nanoparticles were confirmed in detail by XPS elemental analysis. The highest saturation magnetization was recorded as 33.50 emu/g for the as-produced nanoparticles. The saturation magnetization of the nanoparticles decreased with increasing annealing temperature, while coercivity increased.     

Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Polymeric Coatings for Colorful Artificial Muscles and Motile Humidity Sensor Skin Integrated with Magnetic Composites

Structural colorful cholesterics show impressive susceptibility to external stimulation, leading to applications in electro/mechano-chromic devices. However, out-of-plane actuation of structural colorful actuators based on cholesterics and the integration with other stimulation remains underdeveloped. Herein, colorful actuators and motile humidity sensors are developed using humidity-responsive cholesteric liquid crystal networks (CLCNs) and magnetic composites. The developed colorful actuator can exhibit synergistic out-of-plane shape morphing and color change in response to humidity, with CLCNs as colorful artificial muscles. Through the integration with magnetic control, the motile sensor can be navigated to open and confined spaces with the aid of friction to detect local relative humidity. The integration of multi-stimulation actuation of cholesteric magnetic actuators will expand the research frontier of structural colorful actuators and motile sensors for confined spaces.     

A two-dimensional material for high capacity supercapacitors: S-doped graphene

In this work, sulfur-doped graphene-coated electrodes are prepared by cyclic voltammetry in different potential ranges and different cycles (from 10 to 50) for selective modification of electrodes by different functional groups. The prepared electrodes are characterized by spectroscopic, microscopic and electrochemical methods. In scanning electron microscopic analysis, formation of graphene layers and their porous structure have been determined. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopic and cyclic voltammetric analyses are also used in electrochemical characterization of the electrodes. Then, the prepared sulfur-doped graphene-coated electrodes by using cyclic voltammetry in one-step and low cost are used as electrode materials of supercapacitor for the first time in the literature. Since the mesoporous structure of the electrodes prepared in lower potential ranges increases, specific capacitance of the electrodes increases from 74 to 1833 mF cm⁻² with 10 mA cm⁻² current density. This result shows that specific capacitances of prepared electrodes are higher than those of the electrodes prepared with metal-doped in the literature.     

A novel proximity graph: Circular neighborhood cell graph for histopathological tissue image analyzing

The cell is the smallest unit of living beings, which has structural and functional properties. Almost all cell behaviors are regulated by various intracellular reactions initiated by the signaling. The signaling and the distance between cells influence each other. Thus, cell-location-based modeling and analyzing of histopathological tissues provide important information to the expert. In literature, methods such as distance-based threshold, K-Nearest Neighbor, Voronoi graphs, Delaunay triangulation, and colored graph have been used. However, circular neighborhood relationships of cells have not been considered by any CAD system so far despite of its crucial impact. Thus, we developed the circular neighborhood cell-graph. Histopathological images of liver were classified by using features extracted from T-Distance, K-Nearest Neighbor, Voronoi, Delaunay, and the proposed cell-graph. Then, the classification performances of the methods were compared. Experimental results show that liver tissue images can be classified with accuracy of 95.7% by using the features provided by the proposed cell-graph model.     

Overview of Compaction Data Analysis Techniques

In this review article, the techniques that have been utilized to assess the compactional behaviour of pharmaceutical materials were presented, and the advantages, limitations and modifications of some of these methods were discussed. It was concluded that despite some of these techniques, such as Heckel equation, F-D curves, energy of compaction, tensile strength and hardness measurements, have received considerable attention, none of them was found to be satisfactory for the comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms involved in the compaction of the solid particulate matter.     

Formulation and Compaction of Microspheres

The factors affecting the tabletability of formulations containing uncoated and/or coated microspheres were discussed by presenting a case study. The size and shape, as well as surface properties of microspherical particles, the type and amount of coating agent, selection of the external additives, and the rate and magnitude of the pressure applied were found to be the most critical factors to be considered in order to obtain and maintain the desired drug release properties of the microspheres. It was found that microcrystalline cellulose was needed in order to produce satisfactory beads in terms of size, shape and surface characteristics. The microsphere formulations, which were found to be highly sensitive to lubrication, were more compressible than their powder forms, but produced much weaker tablets. When coated with Surelease, increasing the amount of coating on the pellets reduced the tensile strength of their compacts. Compaction of the microspheres at high velocities resulted in a decrease in the tensile strength values and an increase in the volumetric strain recovery values. Dissoultion studies revealed that, regardless of the amount of coating applied, the coated microspheres lost their sustained release properties during compaction.