Light-induced electron spin polarization in the ground state of water-soluble copper porphyrins

Light-induced spin-polarized transient EPR spectra are reported for several water-soluble copper porphyrins. The spectra are assigned to the doublet ground state, with emissive spin polarization resulting from photoexcitation and subsequent electronic relaxation. In contrast to other systems for which polarization of a doublet ground state has been observed, the exchange interactions in the copper porphyrins are strong and the geometry is fixed. It is proposed that intersystem crossing from the photoexcited trip-doublet to the trip-quartet state can lead to net polarization of the spin system and that this polarization is maintained during electronic decay, possibly via charge-transfer and exciplex states. The intensity of the observed spin polarization is essentially independent of the molecular orientation in the external field, but is strongly dependent on the nature of the charged peripheral groups. Possible reasons for this behavior are discussed.     

Age-related changes in cognitive ERPs of attenuation

The purpose of this article is to deliberate the moral and legal dilemma entailed in the weapon of the labour strike as a pressure tactic on the Israeli Finance Ministry regarding job slots, budgets and, in effect, violating the collective agreement signed by the nurses and impairing patients' treatment, as opposed to refraining from striking and suffering the heavy burden of work, the lack of trained personnel, low wages, and the inability to give patients proper, high quality treatment.     

Rheumatoid nodules: MR/pathological correlation

A 62-year-old female who had a complaint of palpitation was diagnosed as bicuspid aortic stenosis and left single coronary artery by the echocardiographic examination, cardiac catheterization study and coronary artery angiography. Aortic valve replacement was performed and the patient was discharged 22 days after surgery with good post-operative course. Preoperative coronary artery angiography was important in the case of aortic valvular disease.     

Explosion risks during the confined storage of bituminous coals : Calculation of gaseous hydrogen accumulation in ship holds

Bituminous coal piles stored in the open air can undergo autocatalytic heating accompanied by the emission of small but appreciable amounts of molecular hydrogen. When the coal is contained in a confined space and the temperature reaches 40°C, accumulation of hydrogen is expected. This process has been observed for a wide variety of bituminous coals. The amount of hydrogen gas expected to accumulate in the air pocket above the coal cargo in ship holds (assuming that the coal's temperature approaches 40°C during the voyage) has been calculated. The results clearly indicate that in most cases the hydrogen concentration will be appreciably above the lower explosion limit in air. Hence when bituminous coals are stored in a confined space (e.g. a ship hold), the explosive risk of hydrogen should be taken into account.     

Twinning of YBa2Cu3O7 thin films on different substrates

The twinning of YBa₂Cu₃O₇ (YBCO) thin films with c-axis orientation on (001) MgO, (001) SrTiO₃, (012) LaAlO₃, (110) NdGaO₃ and (001) NdGaO₃ substrates, prepared by laser ablation, has been examined using a combination of and θ/2θ scans at a four-circle diffractometer. On all substrates, except for (001) NdGaO₃, the tetragonal to orthorhombal phase transition results in four different orientations of YBCO twins relating to the substrate. On (001) NdGaO₃ only two different twin orientations, accompanied by a slight lattice monoclinization, has been observed.     

CDC15, an essential cell cycle gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, encodes a protein kinase domain

The cell division cycle gene CDC15 is essential for the late nuclear division in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The amino acid sequence of the 974 amino acids/110 kDa CDC15 gene product, as deduced from the nucleotide sequence, includes an aminoterminal protein kinase domain which contains a primary sequence mosaic showing patterns specific for protein serine/threonine kinases besides those for protein tyrosine kinases. Many protein kinases non-essential for growth are known. CDC15 represents an essential protein kinase like CDC7 and CDC28. A carboxyterminal deletion of 32 amino acids renders the protein inactive.     

The Prominin-1-Derived Peptide Improves Cardiac Function Following Ischemia

Myocardial infarction (MI) remains the leading cause of death in the western world. Despite advancements in interventional revascularization technologies, many patients are not candidates for them due to comorbidities or lack of local resources. Non-invasive approaches to accelerate revascularization within ischemic tissues through angiogenesis by providing Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) in protein or gene form has been effective in animal models but not in humans likely due to its short half-life and systemic toxicity. Here, we tested the hypothesis that PR1P, a small VEGF binding peptide that we developed, which stabilizes and upregulates endogenous VEGF, could be used to improve outcome from MI in rodents. To test this hypothesis, we induced MI in mice and rats via left coronary artery ligation and then treated animals with every other day intraperitoneal PR1P or scrambled peptide for 14 days. Hemodynamic monitoring and echocardiography in mice and echocardiography in rats at 14 days showed PR1P significantly improved multiple functional markers of heart function, including stroke volume and cardiac output. Furthermore, molecular biology and histological analyses of tissue samples showed that systemic PR1P targeted, stabilized and upregulated endogenous VEGF within ischemic myocardium. We conclude that PR1P is a potential non-invasive candidate therapeutic for MI.     

Pickup (critical) velocity of particles

This work presents experimental results on pickup velocity (critical velocity) measurements for a variety of particulate solids. The present experiments together with previously published experiments of a number of researchers encompass about 100 measurements of 24 materials for a wide range of particle sizes, shapes and densities. Based on the experimental results, three zones are defined by establishing simple relationships between the Reynolds and Archimedes numbers. The empirical relationships were further modified by taking into account the pipe diameter and particle shape (sphericity). The three-zone model was shown to reasonably correlate to Geldart's classification groups.     

A sweeping window method for detection of flaws using an explicit dynamic XFEM and absorbing boundary layers

We present a sweeping window method in elastodynamics for detection of multiple flaws embedded in a large structure. The key idea is to measure the elastic wave propagation generated by a dynamic load within a smaller substructural detecting window domain, given a sufficient number of sensors. Hence, rather than solving the full structure, one solves a set of smaller dynamic problems quickly and efficiently. To this end, an explicit dynamic extended FEM with circular/elliptical void enrichments is implemented to model the propagation of elastic waves in the detecting window domain. To avoid wave reflections, we consider the window as an unbounded domain with the option of full‐infinite/semi‐infinite/quarter‐infinite domains and employ a simple multi‐dimensional absorbing boundary layer technique. A spatially varying Rayleigh damping is proposed to eliminate spurious wave reflections at the artificial model boundaries. In the process of flaw detection, two phases are proposed: (i) pre‐analysis—identification of rough damage regions through a data‐driven approach, and (ii) post‐analysis‐–identification of the true flaw parameters by a two‐stage optimization technique. The ‘pre‐analysis’ phase considers the information contained in the ‘pseudo’ healthy structure and the scattered wave signals, providing an admissible initial guess for the optimization process. Then a two‐stage optimization approach (the simplex method and a damped Gauss–Newton algorithm) is carried out in the ‘post‐analysis’ phase for convergence to the true flaw parameters. A weighted sum of the least squares, of the residuals between the measured and simulated waves, is used to construct the objective function for optimization. Several benchmark examples are numerically illustrated to test the performance of the proposed sweeping methodology for detection of multiple flaws in an unbounded elastic domain. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.