The recent discovery of graphene has led to many advances in two-dimensional physics and devices. The graphene devices fabricated so far have relied on SiO(2) back gating. Electrochemical top gating ...is widely used for polymer transistors, and has also been successfully applied to carbon nanotubes. Here we demonstrate a top-gated graphene transistor that is able to reach doping levels of up to 5x1013 cm-2, which is much higher than those previously reported. Such high doping levels are possible because the nanometre-thick Debye layer in the solid polymer electrolyte gate provides a much higher gate capacitance than the commonly used SiO(2) back gate, which is usually about 300 nm thick. In situ Raman measurements monitor the doping. The G peak stiffens and sharpens for both electron and hole doping, but the 2D peak shows a different response to holes and electrons. The ratio of the intensities of the G and 2D peaks shows a strong dependence on doping, making it a sensitive parameter to monitor the doping.
The emergence of diseases and mortalities in aquaculture and development of antibiotics resistance in aquatic microbes, has renewed a great interest towards alternative methods of prevention and ...control of diseases. Nanoparticles have enormous potential in controlling human and animal pathogens and have scope of application in aquaculture. The present investigation was carried out to find out suitable nanoparticles having antimicrobial effect against aquatic microbes. Different commercial as well as laboratory synthesized metal and metal oxide nanoparticles were screened for their antimicrobial activities against a wide range of bacterial and fungal agents including certain freshwater cyanobacteria. Among different nanoparticles, synthesized copper oxide (CuO), zinc oxide (ZnO), silver (Ag) and silver doped titanium dioxide (Ag–TiO₂) showed broad spectrum antibacterial activity. On the contrary, nanoparticles like Zn and ZnO showed antifungal activity against fungi like Penicillium and Mucor species. Since CuO, ZnO and Ag nanoparticles showed higher antimicrobial activity, they may be explored for aquaculture use.
ABSTRACT
We study the dark matter (DM) effects on the nuclear matter (NM) parameters characterizing the equation of states of super dense neutron-rich nucleonic matter. The observables of the NM, ...i.e. incompressibility, symmetry energy and its higher order derivatives in the presence DM for symmetric and asymmetric NM are analysed with the help of an extended relativistic mean field model. The calculations are also extended to β-stable matter to explore the properties of the neutron star (NS). We analyse the DM effects on symmetric NM, pure neutron matter, and NS using NL3, G3, and IOPB-I forces. The binding energy per particle and pressure is calculated with and without considering the DM interaction with the NM systems. The influences of DM are also analysed on the symmetry energy and its different coefficients. The incompressibility and the skewness parameters are affected considerably due to the presence of DM in the NM medium. We extend the calculations to the NS and find its mass, radius and the moment of inertia for static and rotating NS with and without DM contribution. The mass of the rotating NS is considerably changing due to rapid rotation with the frequency in the mass-shedding limit. The effects of DM are found to be important for some of the NM parameters, which are crucial for the properties of astrophysical objects.
In a coalescence plus fragmentation approach we calculate the heavy baryon/meson ratio and the
p
T
spectra of charmed hadrons
D
0
,
D
s
and
Λ
c
+
in a wide range of transverse momentum from low
p
T
...up to about 10 GeV and discuss their ratios from RHIC to LHC energies without any change of the coalescence parameters. We have included the contribution from decays of heavy hadron resonances and also the one due to fragmentation of heavy quarks which do not undergo the coalescence process. The coalescence process is tuned to have all charm quarks hadronizing in the
p
T
→
0
limit and at finite
p
T
charm quarks not undergoing coalescence are hadronized by independent fragmentation. The
p
T
dependence of the baryon/meson ratios are found to be sensitive to the masses of coalescing quarks, in particular the
Λ
c
/
D
0
can reach values of about
1
÷
1.5
at
p
T
≈
3
GeV, or larger, similarly to the light baryon/meson ratio like
p
/
π
and
Λ
/
K
, however a marked difference is a quite weak
p
T
dependence with respect to the light case, such that a larger value at intermediate
p
T
implies a relatively large value also for the integrated yields. A comparison with other coalescence model and with the prediction of thermal model is discussed.
We study the thermal effects on the nuclear matter (NM) properties such as binding energy, incompressibility, free symmetry energy and its coefficients using NL3, G3 and IU-FSU parameter sets of ...relativistic mean-field models. These models being consistent with the properties of cold NM, have also been used to study the effect of temperature by incorporating the Fermi function. The critical temperature for the liquid-gas phase transition in the symmetric NM is found to be 14.60, 15.37 and 14.50 MeV for NL3, G3 and IU-FSU parameter sets respectively, which is in excellent agreement with previous theoretical and experimental studies. We inspect that the properties related to second differential coefficient of the binding energy and free symmetry energy at saturation density ( i.e.
K
0
(
n
,
T
)
and
Q
s
y
m
,
0
) exhibit the contrary effects for NL3 and G3 parameters as the temperature increases. We find that the prediction of saturated curvature parameter (
K
s
y
m
,
0
) for G3 equation of state at finite temperature favour the combined analysis of
K
s
y
m
,
0
for the existence of massive pulsars, gravitational waves from GW170817 and NICER observations of PSR J0030+0451. Further, we investigate the cooling mechanism of newly born stars through neutrino emissivity controlled by direct Urca process and instate some interesting remarks about neutrino emissivity. We also deliberate the effect of temperature on the M-R profile of Proto-Neutron star.
Pathologic alterations in podocytes lead to failure of an essential component of the glomerular filtration barrier and proteinuria in chronic kidney diseases. Elevated levels of saturated free fatty ...acid (FFA) are harmful to various tissues, implemented in the progression of diabetes and its complications such as proteinuria in diabetic nephropathy. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanism of palmitate cytotoxicity in cultured mouse podocytes. Incubation with palmitate dose-dependently increased cytosolic and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, depolarized the mitochondrial membrane potential, impaired ATP synthesis and elicited apoptotic cell death. Palmitate not only evoked mitochondrial fragmentation but also caused marked dilation of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Consistently, palmitate upregulated ER stress proteins, oligomerized stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) in the subplasmalemmal ER membrane, abolished the cyclopiazonic acid-induced cytosolic Ca(2+) increase due to depletion of luminal ER Ca(2+). Palmitate-induced ER Ca(2+) depletion and cytotoxicity were blocked by a selective inhibitor of the fatty-acid transporter FAT/CD36. Loss of the ER Ca(2+) pool induced by palmitate was reverted by the phospholipase C (PLC) inhibitor edelfosine. Palmitate-dependent activation of PLC was further demonstrated by following cytosolic translocation of the pleckstrin homology domain of PLC in palmitate-treated podocytes. An inhibitor of diacylglycerol (DAG) kinase, which elevates cytosolic DAG, strongly promoted ER Ca(2+) depletion by low-dose palmitate. GF109203X, a PKC inhibitor, partially prevented palmitate-induced ER Ca(2+) loss. Remarkably, the mitochondrial antioxidant mitoTEMPO inhibited palmitate-induced PLC activation, ER Ca(2+) depletion and cytotoxicity. Palmitate elicited cytoskeletal changes in podocytes and increased albumin permeability, which was also blocked by mitoTEMPO. These data suggest that oxidative stress caused by saturated FFA leads to mitochondrial dysfunction and ER Ca(2+) depletion through FAT/CD36 and PLC signaling, possibly contributing to podocyte injury.
Understanding the spatial spreading patterns of plant-available sulphur (S) (AS) and plant-available micronutrients (available zinc (AZn), available iron (AFe), available copper (ACu), available ...manganese (AMn) and available boron (AB)) in soils, especially in coastal agricultural soils subjected to various natural and anthropogenic activities, is vital for sustainable crop production by adopting site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) strategies. We studied the spatial distribution patterns of AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB in cultivated soils of coastal districts of India using geostatistical approaches. Altogether 39,097 soil samples from surface (0 to 15 cm depth) layers were gathered from farm lands of 68 coastal districts. The analysis of soil samples was carried out for soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), soil organic carbon (SOC) and AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB. Soil pH, EC and SOC varied from 3.70 to 9.90, 0.01 to 7.45 dS m.sup.-1 and 0.02 to 3.74%, respectively. The concentrations of AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB varied widely in the study area with their corresponding mean values were 37.4±29.4, 1.50±1.53, 27.9±35.1, 2.14±1.74, 16.9±18.4 and 1.34±1.52 mg kg.sup.-1, respectively. The coefficient of variation values of analyzed soil parameters varied from 14.6 to 126%. The concentrations of AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB were negatively and significantly correlated with soil pH and positively and significantly correlated with SOC. The geostatistical analysis indicated stable, Gaussian and exponential best-fit semivariogram models with moderate to strong spatial dependence for available nutrients. The generated spatial spreading maps revealed different distribution patterns for AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB. There were variations in spatial spreading patterns of AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB in east- and west-coastal area. About 62, 35, 12, 0.4, 23 and 45% of the study area had deficiency of AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB, respectively. The spatial spreading maps will be highly useful for SSNM in the cultivated coastal soils of the country. This study could also be used as a base for assessing spatial spreading patterns of soil parameters in cultivated coastal areas of other parts of the world.
The spatial distribution and hazard assessment of heavy metals in the soils of surrounding agricultural fields affected by mine drainage of Ledo coal mining area of Tinsukia district, Assam, India, ...were investigated using statistics, geostatistics and geographic information system techniques. The amounts of Cr, Cd, Ni and Pb were determined from 83 soil samples collected within the contaminated area. The maps based on ordinary kriging showed that high concentrations of heavy metals were located in the low-lying paddy field and near coal mining site. Indicator kriged probability maps were prepared based on the concentrations to exceed permissible limit (MPL). It was seen that more than 95 % of the studied area has a higher than 50 % probability to exceed the MPL value of Pb and Ni. Multivariate statistical analyses and principal component analysis suggest that Cd and Pb are derived from anthropogenic sources, particularly coal mining activities, whereas Ni and Cr are derived from lithogenic and/or anthropogenic sources.
The rechargeable aluminum-ion battery Jayaprakash, N; Das, S. K; Archer, L. A
Chemical communications (Cambridge, England),
01/2011, Letnik:
47, Številka:
47
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We report a novel aluminium-ion rechargeable battery comprised of an electrolyte containing AlCl
3
in the ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, and a V
2
O
5
nano-wire cathode against ...an aluminium metal anode. The battery delivered a discharge capacity of 305 mAh g
−1
in the first cycle and 273 mAh g
−1
after 20 cycles, with very stable electrochemical behaviour.
We report the first example of an Al-ion rechargeable battery comprised of a metallic aluminium anode and a V
2
O
5
nano-wire cathode in an ionic liquid electrolyte.