This collection of Russian short stories from the 21st century includes works by famous writers and young talents alike, representing a diversity of generational, gender, ethnic and national ...identities. Most of texts in this volume appear in English for the first time. 21 will appeal to anyone interested in contemporary Russia.
Converging evidence suggests that each parahippocampal and hippocampal subregion contributes uniquely to the encoding, consolidation and retrieval of declarative memories, but their precise roles ...remain elusive. Current functional thinking does not fully incorporate the intricately connected networks that link these subregions, owing to their organizational complexity; however, such detailed anatomical knowledge is of pivotal importance for comprehending the unique functional contribution of each subregion. We have therefore developed an interactive diagram with the aim to display all of the currently known anatomical connections of the rat parahippocampal-hippocampal network. In this Review, we integrate the existing anatomical knowledge into a concise description of this network and discuss the functional implications of some relatively underexposed connections.
We discuss the effects of rotation on confining properties of gauge theories focusing on compact electrodynamics in two spatial dimensions as an analytically tractable model. We show that at finite ...temperature, the rotation leads to a deconfining transition starting from a certain distance from the rotation axis. A uniformly rotating confining system possesses, in addition to the usual confinement and deconfinement phases, a mixed inhomogeneous phase which hosts spatially separated confinement and deconfinement regions. The phase diagram thus has two different deconfining temperatures. The first deconfining temperature can be made arbitrarily low by sufficiently rapid rotation while the second deconfining temperature is largely unaffected by the rotation. Implications of our results for the phase diagram of QCD are presented. We point out that uniformly rotating quark-gluon plasma should therefore experience an inverse hadronization effect when the hadronization starts from the core of the rotating plasma rather than from its boundary.
Sugar palm fiber (SPF) is an agro‐waste plant that can be used as potential source of biomass for various biomaterial applications. In this study, sugar palm nanofibrillated cellulose (SPNFC) that ...was isolated from SPF was used as a nanofiller to reinforce sugar palm starch (SPS) to produce bionanocomposites. To attain SPNFCs, SPF was undergo strong acid and alkaline treatments. Later, the SPNFCs were prepared from SPFs via high pressurized homogenization process. The reinforcement of SPNFCs (0‐1.0 wt%) and SPS is done by using solution casting methods. The films were characterized in terms of physical properties such as light transmittance, moisture content, water solubility, and water absorption. The resulting nanocomposites permitted better water resistance, low moisture absorption, and low light transmittance as compared to control SPS film. Adding 1 wt% SPNFCs loading significantly improved the water absorption and water solubility of the composite film by 24.13% and 18.60%, respectively, compared with the control SPS film. This was attributed to the high compatibility between the SPNFCs and SPS matrixes, which composed of the multi‐hydroxyl polymer having three hydroxyl groups per monomer. Thus, this study is to show the potential of SPS/SPNFCs nanocomposite films in packaging industries.
A top-down nanofabrication approach is used to develop silicon nanowires from silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers and involves direct-write electron beam lithography (EBL), inductively coupled ...plasma-reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) and a size reduction process. To achieve nanometer scale size, the crucial factors contributing to the EBL and size reduction processes are highlighted. The resulting silicon nanowires, which are 20 nm in width and 30 nm in height (with a triangular shape) and have a straight structure over the length of 400 μm, are fabricated precisely at the designed location on the device. The device is applied in biomolecule detection based on the changes in drain current (Ids), electrical resistance and conductance of the silicon nanowires upon hybridization to complementary target deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). In this context, the scaled-down device exhibited superior performances in terms of good specificity and high sensitivity, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 10 fM, enables for efficient label-free, direct and higher-accuracy DNA molecules detection. Thus, this silicon nanowire can be used as an improved transducer and serves as novel biosensor for future biomedical diagnostic applications.
The inflammatory response is a crucial aspect of the tissues' responses to deleterious inflammogens. This complex response involves leukocytes cells such as macrophages, neutrophils, and lymphocytes, ...also known as inflammatory cells. In response to the inflammatory process, these cells release specialized substances which include vasoactive amines and peptides, eicosanoids, proinflammatory cytokines, and acute-phase proteins, which mediate the inflammatory process by preventing further tissue damage and ultimately resulting in healing and restoration of tissue function. This review discusses the role of the inflammatory cells as well as their by-products in the mediation of inflammatory process. A brief insight into the role of natural anti-inflammatory agents is also discussed. The significance of this study is to explore further and understand the potential mechanism of inflammatory processes to take full advantage of vast and advanced anti-inflammatory therapies. This review aimed to reemphasize the importance on the knowledge of inflammatory processes with the addition of newest and current issues pertaining to this phenomenon.
A novel nanomaterial, bacterial cellulose (BC), has become noteworthy recently due to its better physicochemical properties and biodegradability, which are desirable for various applications. Since ...cost is a significant limitation in the production of cellulose, current efforts are focused on the use of industrial waste as a cost-effective substrate for the synthesis of BC or microbial cellulose. The utilization of industrial wastes and byproduct streams as fermentation media could improve the cost-competitiveness of BC production. This paper examines the feasibility of using typical wastes generated by industry sectors as sources of nutrients (carbon and nitrogen) for the commercial-scale production of BC. Numerous preliminary findings in the literature data have revealed the potential to yield a high concentration of BC from various industrial wastes. These findings indicated the need to optimize culture conditions, aiming for improved large-scale production of BC from waste streams.
A look at alloy negative electrodes for LI-ion batteries is presented. The fundamentals in li insertion in metals and alloys and the electrochemistry of silicon are among the topics discussed.