and biological systems at the atomic level with high efficiency is a current roadblock to solving many of today's greatest scientific challenges in energy,
health, security and the environment. Currently, optical efficiency drops dramatically for studies on areas smaller than 10 nm.
Coupled with the unique properties of hard x-rays, namely penetration of complex environments and operation in electric and magnetic fields, such optics will enable highest-resolution imaging of systems under in-situ and in-operando conditions,
such as operating batteries and catalysts. It could enable the manipulation of the inner workings of matter to understand,
improve manufacturing and help develop therapies for disease. The need for this optics technology will grow with the construction of the next-generation of light sources
and the lens tested in this work was only the first iteration--a proof of concept.
The lenses were made by researchers from APS and NSLS II at BNL and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven.
Testing was done at the APS beamlines 1-BM-B and 34-ID-C at Argonne with the help of researchers from the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the UK Research Complex at Harwell
and the focus size was measured at beamline 34-ID-C. The research was funded by the U s. Department of energy, Office of Basic energy Sciences and the National Science Foundation n
specialised labs or expensive reagents, has been developed at Uppsala University, Sweden. The technique could be developed further to be used in point of care devices, for instance for diagnostic purposes.
and localize proteins in tissues is essential for understanding disease mechanisms and for diagnostics. However, today very advanced instruments are needed often to study proteins
and often requires special training to handle. In order to use protein detection for diagnostic purposes, e g. in a clinic, new, less complicated methods to study proteins are needed.
Such methods should be temperature insensitive and not require expensive instruments, costly reagents or specially trained staff.
In the most recent issue of the journal Nature Communications the researchers present a technique that could be used by for instance hospital staff,
to detect relevant proteins. The technique is based on the binding of antibodies, either to two sites on the same protein or to two proteins that are localised very close to each other.
The antibodies have been linked to DNA strands that will attach to each other if they are close enough.
When this happens a chain reaction will start in which increasing numbers of DNA strands are attached.
To each DNA strand a fluorescent substance has been linked, which will emit light when it is irradiated with light of a certain wavelength.
and commonly available in hospital and research labs. Since two antibodies are bound in the first step alsesignals can be avoided,
#Graphene quantum dot LEDS Graphene is a 2d carbon nanomaterial with many fascinating properties that can enable to creation of next-generation electronics.
However, it is known that graphene is not applicable to optical devices due to its lack of an electronic band gap.
which are merely a few nanometers large in the lateral dimension, are shown to emit light upon excitation in the visible spectral range.
tunable luminescence, superior photostability, low toxicity, and chemical resistance. Recently, Prof. Seokwoo Jeon (Material Science and Engineering), Prof.
Seunghyup Yoo (Electrical engineering) have succeeded in developing LEDS based on graphene quantum dots. Highly pure GQDS were synthesized by an environmentally-friendly method designed by Prof.
Yoo's group brought their OLED expertise to create GQD-based LEDS. The GQDS with high luminance tunability and efficiency were synthesized by a route based on graphite intercalation compounds (GICS.
The proposed method is cost-effective, eco-friendly, and scalable, as it allows direct fabrication of GQDS using water without surfactant or chemical solvent.
GQDS were used then as emitters in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDS) in order to identify the GQD's key optical properties.
so that electron and hole injection could be balanced, the constructed GQD LEDS exhibited luminance of 1, 000 cd/m2,
which is well over the typical brightness levels of the portable displays used in smartphones. Considering how thin GQDS are,
a foldable paperlike display could soon become a reality. The present work for the first time, demonstrated that GQDS can be applied to optical devices by fabricating GQD-based LEDS with meaningful brightness.
Although, the efficiency of GQD-based LEDS is currently less than those of conventional LEDS, they are expected to improve in the near future with an optimized material process and device structure.
Arra a
#New mechanism that attacks viral infections discovered An innovative mechanism that the innate immune system uses to control viral infections has been uncovered by researchers at the University Medical centers in Mainz and Freiburg.
Central to this is the discovery that two different but related elements of the immune system can act together in concert to fight, for example, rotavirus infections.
Infection with rotavirus is the most common cause of diarrhea in children around the world.
The results of the research have recently been published in the eminent scientific journal Nature Immunology.
The innate immune system is able to combat infective pathogens such as viruses bacteria, and parasites on several levels.
Among other things, so-called'interferons'play an important role in antiviral defense. These are special proteins
which are released quickly in response to a viral infection and which can trigger a relevant immune response against the cells under attack.
At the same time, so-called'innate lymphoid cells'(ILCS) are a significant factor in the functioning of the innate immune system.
ILCS are mainly active in inner and outer body surfaces where they produce special proteins, in this case interleukins,
and thus participate in an early stage of the immune response to infection by viruses, bacteria, and parasites.
The researchers were able to use the example of the rotavirus to demonstrate how such an infection could be battled very effectively.
Rotaviruses are highly contagious pathogens which cause vomiting and diarrhea. Rotavirus infection is the most frequent cause of diarrhea in children
and is responsible for more than 500,000 deaths around the world each year. It attacks the epithelial cells that coat the intestine and damages them."
"We were able to show that interferon-lambda (IFN? -although a required factor, is not capable by itself to control rotavirus infection
but that the presence of interleukin-22 (IL-22) is also necessary to effectively combat rotavirus,
"explained Professor Andreas Diefenbach of the Department of Medical microbiology and Hygiene of the Mainz University Medical center.
The researchers were able to identify the mechanism underlying this synergistic effect. They discovered that both messenger substances act jointly to optimally fight rotavirus by triggering the formation of antiviral proteins particularly in the epithelial cells of the intestine;
these effectively prevent the synthesis of new virus particles. It is known already that the messenger substance interleukin-22 has a variety of functions in immune response reactions,
such as, for example, defending the intestines and lungs against bacterial infections. In addition, interleukin-22 makes an important contribution to tissue repair processes in the intestines following damage to the intestinal epithelium following exposure to radiation."
Interferons are used, for example, in the immunotherapy of often refractory chronic viral infections such as hepatitis. The researchers postulate that the innovative mechanism in which two components of the innate immune system collaborate effectively in the epithelial cells may have developed in the course of evolution as a secondary line of immune defense in an environment in
which viruses have changed continually and adapted. Because rotavirus is a particular threat to children the researchers also hope to acquire insight into the functioning of the immune system at the beginning of life before the acquired immune system has had time to fully develop l
from the University's Department of Engineering Mathematics, have designed a smart materials system, inspired by biological chromatophores,
which creates patterns that change and morph over time and mimic biological patterning. Arraythe researchers have shown the artificial skin,
made from electroactive dielectric elastomer, a soft, compliant smart material, can effectively copy the action of biological chromatophores.
Chromatophores are pigmented small cells embedded on cephalopods skin which can expand and contract and that work together to change skin colour and texture.
The system achieves the dynamic pattern generation by using simple local rules in the artificial chromatophore cells
so that they can sense their surroundings and manipulate their change. By modelling sets of artificial chromatophores in linear arrays of cells, the researchers explored
The researchers found that it is possible to mimic complex dynamic patterning seen in real cephalopods such as the Passing Cloud display,
Aaron Fishman, Visiting Fellow in Engineering Mathematics, said:""Our ultimate goal is to create artificial skin that can mimic fast acting active camouflage
"The cloaking suit could be used to blend into a variety of environments, such as in the wild.
"The researchers investigated making bio-inspired artificial skin embedded with artificial chromatophores using thin sheets (five to ten millimetre) of dielectric elastomer--a soft,
#Bacteria could help clean groundwater contaminated by uranium ore processing A team of Rutgers University scientists
and collaborators discovered the bacteria in soil at an old uranium ore mill in Rifle, Colorado, almost 200 miles west of Denver.
The site is one of nine such mills in Colorado used during the heyday of nuclear weapons production.
"said Lee Kerkhof, a professor of marine and coastal sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological sciences."
"Kerkhof leads the Rutgers team that works with U s. Department of energy researchers. Breathing uranium is rather rare in the microbial world.
but often breathe compounds based on metals--typically forms of solid iron. Scientists had witnessed previously decreasing concentrations of uranium in groundwater
Kerkhof said it's still a mystery how the reduced uranium produced by this microorganism ultimately behaves in the subsurface environment."
"It appears that they form uranium nanoparticles, "he said, but the mineralogy is still not well known
and will be the subject of ongoing research. The Rutgers team was able to isolate the uranium-breathing bacterium in the lab by recognizing that uranium in samples from the Rifle site could be toxic to microorganisms as well as humans.
The researchers looked for signs of bacterial activity when they gradually added small amounts of dissolved uranium at the right concentration back to the samples where uranium had become immobilized.
So just like bacteria pick up resistance to things like antibiotics and heavy metal toxicity, this bacterium"picked up a genetic element that's now allowing it to detoxify uranium,
"His research team has completed sequencing its genome to support future research into the genetic elements that allow the bacterium to grow on uranium.
What Kerkhof is optimistic about is the potential for these bacteria to mitigate the specific groundwater pollution problem in Rifle.
"Biology is a way to solve this contamination problem, especially in situations like this where the radionuclides are diluted highly
it could be considered for other sites where uranium was processed for nuclear arsenals or power plant fuel. While the problem isn't widespread,
And the problem could spread beyond traditional places such as ore processing sites.""There is depleted uranium in a lot of armor-piercing munitions,
"he said, "so places like the Middle east that are experiencing war could be exposed to high levels of uranium in the groundwater
#Scientists find genetic variants key to understanding origins of ovarian cancer New research by an international team including Keck Medicine of USC scientists is bringing the origins of ovarian cancer into sharper focus.
It remains a mystery where these cancers come from, 'said Simon Gayther, Ph d.,professor in preventive medicine, Keck School of medicine of USC, corresponding author of the international genome-wide association study (GWAS).'
'By finding these genetic markers, we begin to understand more about the biology of the disease itself.
This study tells us more about the biology of ovarian cancer from the early development stage than most research has.'
'Ovarian cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer in American women and seventh most common cancer in women throughout the world (World health organization.
In 2015, more than 14,000 American women will die of ovarian cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
Most ovarian cancers have low survival rates, typically because of the misunderstanding of symptoms and discovery of the cancer in later, less treatable stages.'
'Although MOCS are a less common type of ovarian cancer with generally good prognosis when diagnosed in early stages,
they are twice as likely to be resistant to treatment at later stages, 'said Andrew Berchuck, M d.,director of gynecologic oncology at Duke university Cancer Institute,
and senior author of the study.''Our results will contribute to the identification of women at greatest risk of developing the disease with the long-term goal of prevention.'
'The association analysis was based on 1, 644 women diagnosed with MOC and more than 21,000 women without ovarian cancer.
The research was conducted as part of the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS), launched in 2009 with the goal of determining risks of breast, ovarian and prostate cancer.'
'A major strength of this study is the large number of women with MOCS, which was made possible by pooling data contributed by investigators from over 40 international studies of ovarian cancer within the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium,
'said Linda Kelemen, Sc. D.,associate professor and researcher at the Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South carolina,
and co-first author.''By using a genome-wide scan, we could identify genetic variants that were significantly more common in women with MOC compared to those without ovarian cancer.'
'Co-first author Kate Lawrenson, Ph d. of Keck Medicine of USC believes the research will lead the way to the development of risk prediction strategies followed by clinical interventions with the potential to prevent ovarian cancer altogether,
rather than treating the disease once it has taken already hold.''The five year survival rates for ovarian cancer have not changed much in the past 30 years
and is partly from viewing ovarian cancer as a single disease, 'she said.''Our results shed light on differences in genetic risk factors for the different ovarian cancers such as MOCS.
I'm hanging my hopes on prevention. My bet is that prevention approaches will be better than finding a cure for a disease that is often diagnosed late
#New type of gecko-like gripper created Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are developing a new kind of gripper,
motivated by the ability of animals like the gecko to grip and release surfaces, that is perfectly suited for the delicate work involved in semiconductor manufacturing.
Like the gecko, the gripper has"tunable adhesion, "meaning that, despite having no moving parts,
its effective stickiness can be tuned from strong to weak. Unlike the gecko and other artificial imitators that rely on structures with complex shapes,
the Penn team's gripper uses a simpler, two-material structure that is easier to mass-produce.
At their current millimeter-scale size the grippers can be used for moving smooth, fragile components, like silicon wafers or glass sheets.
Scaled down, they could be used in arrays to grip to a range of rough and smooth surfaces,
making them useful for climbing robots and other larger-scale applications. The research was conducted by Kevin Turner, the Gabel Family Term Associate professor in the School of engineering and Applied science's Department of Mechanical engineering and Applied Mechanics,
and Helen Minsky, a graduate student in his lab. Array"When it comes to tunable adhesion,
"Turner said, "everyone is familiar with the gecko, and everyone tries to copy it. The problem is that it's really hard to manufacture complex structures as well as nature.
We've come up with a strategy that can achieve similar adhesion behavior but is much easier to make."
There, what look like ridges to the naked eye are actually a dense array of tiny fibers with flared tips,
But with many angled, flared-tip fibers lying flush with this rough terrain, Van der waals forces are strong enough for the gecko to stick to a wall.
Changing the angle of their feet is what makes the gecko's adhesion"tunable"and
what allows them to detach from the wall to take each step.""Other researchers have mimicked these structures to achieve tunable adhesion,
a hard plastic core surrounded by a softer silicone rubber shell.""Anytime you have a corner,
you have a place that has higher stress, "Minsky said.""The reason the gecko's fibers stick so well is because the mushroom-shaped tip forces the high stressed region from edge to the center,
where it's hard to start a crack.""""The composite post geometry,"Turner said, "achieves the same effect as the mushroom shape.
The soft rubber conforms to the roughness of the surface, and, by putting a stiff core in the middle,
you concentrate the stress in the center when you're pulling straight up.""To detach the posts,
the researchers apply a lateral force, which shifts the stress back to the edge and allows the crack to easily start from there.
The researchers'prototype grippers are a few millimeters in diameter and designed to grip smooth surfaces, such as glass.
"Our view is that this composite post structure presented in this work is a fundamental building block to realize larger adhesive surfaces with tunable properties,
#Bacterial genome scalpel can identify key gene regions Arraybacteria use CRISPR-Cas as a self-cleansing defense mechanism and immune system against unwanted DNA invaders such as viruses,
plasmids and other mobile genetic elements, says Rodolphe Barrangou, associate professor of food science at NC State and a co-corresponding author of the paper.
including the region containing the milk-utilization gene.''Once that region was gone, the bacteria could no longer preserve milk,
yet the cells were still alive, 'Selle said.''That result showed that this area was expendable and not essential to bacterial survival when not growing in milk.'
'That result also contained a surprise for the researchers. Cutting out one of the islands--the one that contained the milk-utilization genes--reduced the genome by about 5 percent.
Overall, elimination of all four areas reduced the genome by 7 percent.''We did not expect that magnitude of reduction in a relatively small genome,
'Barrangou said.''When you use pinpointed targeting of a specific portion of the genome, you expect a smaller deletion to occur.'
'The researchers say that that the same techniques can be used as a template to study essential and nonessential genomic regions in any bacterium of interest
--and can perhaps be used to target unsavory antibiotic resistance genes in bacterial pathogens and occasionally in beneficial bacteria.'
'Bacteria are littered with genes that are unknown--it's like genetic dark matter, 'Selle said.''Now we can learn more about what these elements provide
''This work represents a stunning discovery of the grand and expansive genome rearrangements that occurred in beneficial bacteria that evolved to preserve foods,
and now present genomic tools that can be used to expand their fermentation properties in the future, 'Klaenhammer said.'
'The research was funded by NC State start-up funds, the North carolina Agriculture Foundation and Dupont Nutrition and Health h
#New honeycomb-inspired design delivers superior protection from impact The technology could have major implications for the design
and production of future vehicles and military gear to improve safety. Array"Whether you're serving our country in uniform, playing in a big game,
or biking to work, the potential for multiple collisions or impacts over time--however big or small--is said a reality
mechanical engineering professor Carolyn Conner Seepersad.""We believe that this technology, when constructed in future helmets
or even prevent many of the blunt-force injuries we see today.""Seepersad led the work along with UT Austin research scientist Michael Haberman.
Conventional honeycomb structures are insular panels of repeating, often hexagonal-shaped cells in a range of sizes and configurations.
The shortcoming of conventional honeycombs is that they lose their full protective properties after only one impact due to plastic buckling of the material.
This means that after absorbing the force of one compression, they do not return to their original shape.
NS honeycombs, on the other hand, bounce back. The researchers devised a cell geometry capable of elastic buckling, giving NS honeycomb structures the resilience to recover their energy-absorbing shape and properties after impact.
The current 3. 5-inch lab prototype, for example, has a force threshold level of 200 newtons--capable of absorbing the energy of a 100 mph fastball in 0. 03 seconds.
The researchers manufactured 3. 5-inch NS honeycomb structures, as well as miniature NS honeycomb cells, from nylon using selective laser sintering for experimentation.
NS honeycombs can be made from a variety of materials to suit distinct applications. Subsequent custom compression and drop tests, designed
and fabricated at UT Austin, have confirmed the NS honeycomb structures'predicted energy-absorbing behavior and resilience.
That funding and additional collaboration with the Maritime Applied Physics Corporation, an engineering company that frequently partners with the U s. military, helped support the advancement of NS honeycomb technology.
The researchers are also building a lab prototype of an enhanced combat helmet with NS honeycomb cells integrated that will be completed this fall.
In a new study published in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, researchers report successfully growing multiple brain structures
Mesencephalic dopaminergic (mda) neurons and their connections to other neurons in the brain are believed to be related to disorders including drug abuse, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease,
and perhaps eating disorders, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, Tourette's syndrome, and Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. However studying mda neurons and neocortical neurons in isolation does not reveal much data about how these cells actually interact in these conditions.
This new capability to grow and interconnect two types of neurons in vitro now provides researchers with an excellent model for further study."
"This method, therefore, has the potential to expand the potential of hpsc-derived neurons to allow for studies of human neural systems
to see how seasonal differences in exposure to ultraviolet B radiation, dietary Vitamin d, genetics, and pigmentation affected Vitamin d levels,
and one of the world's highest rates of HIV-1 infection, peaking in young adults,
"said Nina Jablonski, Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology, Penn State, who led the research. One hundred healthy young individuals divided between those of Xhosa ancestry
the darker the skin's pigment, the more ultraviolet B radiation necessary to trigger the precursor chemicals in the body to produce Vitamin d."
genetics and other variables played very small roles in Vitamin d status, although some genetic variations did influence the success of supplementation.
To test how Vitamin d status affected the immune system and HIV-1 in particular the researchers exposed blood samples from Xhosa and Cape mixed participants taken during the summer
the winter blood samples had greater infection than those taken in summer. After six weeks of Vitamin d supplementation, the Xhosa blood sample levels of HIV-1 infection were the same as those during the summer."
"High-dosage oral vitamin D3 supplementation attenuated HIV-1 replication, increased circulating white blood cells and reversed winter-associated anemia,"the researchers reported."
"Vitamin D3 presents a low-cost supplementation to improve HIV-associated immunity
#Violence by teachers almost halved in primary schools An innovative program of activities used in Ugandan primary schools has succeeded in reducing violence by teachers against children by 42 percent, according to new research.
An innovative programme of activities used in Ugandan primary schools has succeeded in reducing violence by teachers against children by 42,
%according to new research published in The Lancet Global Health. The study is published on 16 june, the Day of the African Child.
The Good School Toolkit is a behavioural intervention designed by Ugandan NGO Raising Voices, which aims to foster change in operational culture at the school level.
posters and guides for around 60 different activities. 1 To evaluate the Toolkit's effectiveness, researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine,
They found that the Toolkit produced a large reduction in physical violence from school staff--42%--as reported by primary school students.
results suggested that the Toolkit was more effective for male students. Students in intervention schools reported improved feelings of well-being and safety at school
suggesting that the Toolkit succeeded in changing the school environment. Study lead author, Dr Karen Devries from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:"
"What's notable about these results is that we found a very large reduction. We don't normally see a shift of such magnitude.
That said, levels of school violence remain high. We need to do more.""Given the prevalence of violence observed in the East African region,
levels of physical violence in the intervention schools remained high, with 30%and 60%of students reporting violence in the past week and past term respectively.
While school staff (unlike students) might be expected to emphasise an improvement, their reports show very similar effect sizes
and direction to those of the students'reports, lending weight to the results. Students in Ugandan primary schools are slightly older than those in higher income countries
a factor to consider when generalising the results to primary school populations with different age profiles.
#Protein discovery fuels redesign of mosquito-based malaria vaccine A promising type of vaccine designed to eradicate malaria by blocking parasite transmission could be a step closer,
as a result of experts uncovering new information about the targeted protein. The international team of researchers co-led by Dr Natalie Borg from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular biology at Monash University,
and Dr Rhoel Dinglasan from the Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health in Baltimore, USA, focused on a protein in the Anopheles mosquito midgut called Anapn1.
The research, published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular biology provides for the first time, detailed information on the shape of Anapn1
and where antibodies against Anapn1 that can and can't block parasite development, bind to the protein.
Malaria is transmitted to humans by the bite of a mosquito infected with the Plasmodium parasite.
Malaria transmission-blocking vaccines are designed to prevent the spread of malaria by interrupting parasite transmission.
Vaccinated individuals in malaria-endemic countries produce antibodies to Anapn1. During routine disease transmission, when these same immunised individuals become infected with malaria parasites,
both antibodies and parasites are ingested by a mosquito during blood feeding. The antibodies block parasite development in the mosquito
breaking the cycle of transmission. The Anapn1 protein is a leading candidate for a mosquito-based malaria transmission-blocking vaccine that is being developed by Dr Dinglasan."
"This type of vaccine won't boost people's immunity to malaria, but instead it will provide a delayed benefit to the individual by protecting the entire community from parasite transmission,
"Dr Dinglasan said.""Ultimately it could lead to a reduced number of infected mosquitoes and the eventual elimination and eradication of the disease,
"he said. Anapn1 is found on the mosquito gut and is potentially a receptor for the parasite.
Dr Dinglasan said as a vaccine antigen, Anapn1 prompts people to make antibodies; however only some of these antibodies block parasite transmission,
while others do not.""This dilution of the overall antibody response to Anapn1 is problematic.
To further improve vaccine immunogenicity at the preclinical stage, we need to immuno-focus the antibody response to only the critical,
'transmission-blocking'regions of the protein, "he said. An understanding of how Anapn1 antibodies that are generated can block parasite transmission to mosquitoes
and their binding region on Anapn1 has remained elusive until now. Using the Australian Synchrotron, Dr Borg's team at Monash University were able to visualise the crystal structure of the Anapn1 protein for the first time, providing valuable insights.
Dr Dinglasan's team then provided the critical functional data to support the hypotheses generated by the Anapn1 structure."
"The Australian Synchrotron was critical in providing detailed imaging of the structure of Anapn1. In combination with other experimental data, the structure enabled us to pinpoint the binding site of Anapn1 antibodies that can
and can't block parasite development, "Dr Borg said.""We now know much more about which parts of the Anapn1 protein are involved in generating transmission-blocking antibodies
and have a new hypothesis as to how they might work, "she said. This discovery will fuel further work to understand what critical interaction the Anapn1 transmission-blocking antibodies are blocking.
It will also prompt the redesign of the Anapn1 antigen to make it more effective e
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