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A detailed analysis of the influence of thermal nonequilibrium on transport in semiconductors was carried out. Special attention was paid to the effect of this nonequilibrium on recombination and the space charge. In particular, recombination has the same mathematical expression for band-to-band and Shockley–Read–Hall transitions; the only difference between the expressions of these recombination mechanisms is a different lifetime. For both types of recombination, the space charge and homogeneity in space nonequilibrium temperature do not affect charge transport, but it modifies, of course, the electron and hole concentrations in nonequilibrium conditions. The lifetime can be introduced only for band-to-band recombination under the quasineutrality condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research quaternary alloy thin films made of Cu, CdTe, and O have been grown and characterized. The samples used in this investigation were grown simultaneously by reactive RF co-sputtering and by introducing oxygen and argon in the chamber during growth and changing the power in the Cu target from 10 W to 50 W. The carrier distribution as a function of the position was studied by using energy dispersive spectroscopy-scanning electronic microscopy (EDS-SEM), micro-Raman spectroscopy, and photocarrier images. Structural characterization was carried out by using X-ray diffraction. According to the results, a lateral carrier distribution was found in all samples and a new phase identified as CuTe was revealed for samples grown at 50 W. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary productivity of the Salton Sea, California is excessively high, leading to low-oxygen conditions, low clarity, and odors associated with algal decomposition. Treating the inflow water with aluminum sulfate (alum) to remove soluble phosphorus (P), the limiting nutrient, is being considered to improve water quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of alum to remove dissolved phosphorus from New River water, and the potential for the Al-bound P to be released into the Salton Sea. The New River is dominated by agricultural wastewater and has a salinity somewhat higher than normally encountered for alum treatment (total dissolved solids = 2,300 mg l−1), thus, evaluation of alum’s effectiveness is needed. In addition, alum may be dosed directly into the New River and the floc allowed to flow into the Salton Sea if the precipitated P is stable in Salton Sea water. In this study, we evaluated the potential for floc-bound P to be desorbed in Salton Sea water, which has an unusually high salinity (46 g l−1). Aluminum at a 5-mg l−1 dose was effective in removing over 90% of the soluble phosphorus from the New River water. However, when the alum floc was added to Salton Sea water, up to 100% of the Al-bound P was released into the Sea water due to desorption, dissolution, and recrystallization of the alum floc. These results indicate that treatment of agricultural drainage water to reduce P-loading can be effective if the alum floc is settled and not allowed to enter the saline Salton Sea. In addition to alum costs, estimated at US$13 million year−1, settling basin construction and maintenance for floc removal would be required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Salton Sea is a hypereutrophic, saline lake in the desert of southern California. Like many lakes, the primary productivity of the Sea is limited by phosphorus. However, unlike most lakes, the release of P from the sediments is not controlled by the reductive dissolution of Fe(III)-oxide minerals. Most of the iron in the sediments of the Salton Sea is present as Fe(II)-sulfides and silicates. Rather, the sediments are dominated by calcite which is actively precipitating due to alkalinity production via sulfate reduction reactions. We hypothesized that calcite could be an important sink for phosphorus released from the decomposing organic matter. In this work we evaluated the potential for phosphate to coprecipitate with calcite formed in simulated Salton Sea sediment pore water. At calcite precipitation levels and P concentrations typical for the Salton Sea pore water, coprecipitation of P removed 82–100% of the dissolved phosphorus. The amount of P incorporated into the calcite was independent of temperature. The results of this work indicate that the internal loading of P within the Salton Sea is being controlled by calcite precipitation. Management of external P loading should have an immediate impact on reducing algae blooms in the Salton Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human keratinocytes are exposed to strong physical changes, and have the potentiality to react to external stimuli by switching on adaptation mechanisms. In hyperosmotically shocked keratinocytes a rapid and strong increase in calcium has been observed. We showed that this increase could not be prevented by growing the cells in medium devoid of calcium and in the presence of EGTA, indicating that the intracellular calcium increase was due to delivery from internal stores. Further, we observed an increased synthesis of dyacylglycerol and inositol trisphosphates after shock, suggesting that phospholipase C mediates both events. Our experiments demonstrated that osmotic shock in human keratinocytes leads to activation of phospholipase C-γ1, as measured using an in vitro assay system. This activation is independent of protein tyrosine phosphorylation and corresponded to a relocation of the enzyme to perinuclear membranes as shown by immunofluorescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stem cells possess significant age-dependent differences in their immune-response profile. These differences were analysed by Next-Generation Sequencing of six age groups from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. A total of 9,628 genes presenting differential expression between age groups were grouped into metabolic pathways. We focused our research on young, pre-pubertal and adult groups, which presented the highest amount of differentially expressed genes related to inflammation mediated by chemokine and cytokine signalling pathways compared with the newborn group, which was used as a control. Extracellular vesicles extracted from each group were characterized by nanoparticle tracking and flow cytometry analysis, and several micro-RNAs were verified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction because of their relationship with the pathway of interest. Since miR-21-5p showed the highest statistically significant expression in extracellular vesicles from mesenchymal stem cells of the pre-pubertal group, we conducted a functional experiment inhibiting its expression and investigating the modulation of Toll-Like Receptor 4 and their link to damage-associated molecular patterns. Together, these results indicate for the first time that mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles have significant age-dependent differences in their immune profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As is well known, the metallurgical microstructure of carbon steel is formed by ferrite and pearlite after the annealing heat treatment. When the cooling rate increases, the diffusive process is interrupted causing a change in the metallurgical microstructure which will affect steel properties. The aim of this work was to study thermal, structural, and microstructural properties of annealed carbon steel samples with four different carbon contents. Crystalline structure and crystalline quality were studied by the X-ray diffraction technique, where the full width at half maximum analysis showed that as the carbon content increased, the crystalline quality decreased. The metallurgical microstructure morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy. The thermal diffusivity and the heat capacity were determined by the photoacoustic technique and by the thermal relaxation method, respectively. The thermal diffusivity and the thermal conductivity decreased as the carbon content increased. The amplitude signal of photothermal radiometry increased as the carbon content increased, while the phase signal of photothermal radiometry did not show significant differences among studied carbon steel types. The photoacoustic technique represents an important alternative in the steel characterization field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Binary metal oxides with different degrees of covalent/ionic character of the oxygen-metal bond are tested as a partial coating of glassy carbon electrode surfaces. The electrocatalytic and antifouling properties of the resulting bicomponent electrode systems are analysed in view of possible applications in different fields of electrochemistry, such as electroremediation and electroanalysis. Based on the performance with respect to oxidation of ascorbic acid, as to sensitivity, repeatability of the responses, and activation of electrocatalytic oxidation, CeO has been preferred. This same electrode system has been further studied in respect to a trickier electrochemical process, namely the anodic oxidation of a chlorophenol derivative, which induces massive passivation of bare electrode surfaces. The effectiveness of the bicomponent electrode system in anodic oxidation of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol has been ascertained, over a wide range of concentrations, by comparison with pure glassy carbon surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research that defined the expression of PD-L1 and PD-1 in clonal PCs and T and natural killer (NK) cells on bone marrow (BM) aspirates from monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUs) and multiple myeloma (MM) patients at diagnosis following treatment and upon relapse using standardized multidimensional flow cytometry (MFC). It suggests that PD-L1 can operate as an immune checkpoint in the tumor microenvironment.

In total, 17 pediatric patients with hematologic malignancies (n=14) and Fanconi anemia (FA) (n=3) underwent haploidentical SCT with T-cell depletion. The patients were conditioned with reduced-intensity regimens, and CYA was used for GVHD prophylaxis. Successful engraftment occurred in 16 patients (94%). One patient failed to achieve a primary engraftment. Another patient rejected the first SCT after 10 weeks and had a successful second transplant. Of all engrafted patients, only one developed severe acute GVHD. Ten patients were alive at a median follow-up of 18 months (range, 5-62 months). The 5-years' OS was 53.8%. The three patients with FA are currently well with full-donor chimerism at 16, 6 and 5 months post transplant, respectively. The OS of 14 patients with high-risk hematologic malignancies was 47.6%. Three patients died as a result of post transplant leukemia relapse. CMV infection, GVHD and organ injury were other causes of mortality. Haploidentical SCT was found to be an alternative feasible treatment in Uruguay for patients who need allogenic transplantation but lack an HLA-identical family donor. It should be considered as an early option in FA patients before transformation or significant exposure to blood products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicon is more than the dominant material in the conventional microelectronics industry: it also has potential as a host material for emerging quantum information technologies. Standard fabrication techniques already allow the isolation of single electron spins in silicon transistor-like devices. Although this is also possible in other materials, silicon-based systems have the advantage of interacting more weakly with nuclear spins. Reducing such interactions is important for the control of spin quantum bits because nuclear fluctuations limit quantum phase coherence, as seen in recent experiments in GaAs-based quantum dots. Advances in reducing nuclear decoherence effects by means of complex control still result in coherence times much shorter than those seen in experiments on large ensembles of impurity-bound electrons in bulk silicon crystals. Here we report coherent control of electron spins in two coupled quantum dots in an undoped Si/SiGe heterostructure and show that this system has a nuclei-induced dephasing time of 360 nanoseconds, which is an increase by nearly two orders of magnitude over similar measurements in GaAs-based quantum dots. The degree of phase coherence observed, combined with fast, gated electrical initialization, read-out and control, should motivate future development of silicon-based quantum information processors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the presence of the serine protease Omi in the supernatant of isolated mitochondria exposed to recombinant truncated Bid. Amino acid sequence; Interaction between endogeneous Omi and recombinant XIAP.

A hallmark of apoptosis is the fragmentation of nuclear DNA. Although this activity involves the caspase-3-dependent DNAse CAD (caspase-activated DNAse), evidence exists that DNA fragmentation can occur independently of caspase activity. Here we report on the ability of truncated Bid (tBid) to induce the release of a DNAse activity from mitochondria. This DNAse activity was identified by mass spectrometry as endonuclease G, an abundant 30 kDa protein released from mitochondria under apoptotic conditions. No tBid-induced endonuclease G release could be observed in mitochondria from Bcl-2-transgenic mice. The in vivo occurrence of endonuclease G release from mitochondria during apoptosis was confirmed in the liver from mice injected with agonistic anti-Fas antibody and is completely prevented in Bcl-2 transgenic mice. These data indicate that endonuclease G may be involved in CAD-independent DNA fragmentation during cell death pathways in which truncated Bid is generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]