Dual functionality anti-reflection and biocidal coatings

A thin film combination of anti-reflection (AR) and biocidal properties would be of particular interest to reduce the transfer of infection and improve readability of public high use touch screens. In this paper we describe the development of a dual functionality film of silica (AR) and copper oxide (biocidal). Deposition was via flame assisted chemical vapour deposition (FACVD) which has the advantages of being a cost efficient atmospheric pressure technique enabling use of non-volatile precursors and that no closed reaction cell is required so making it ideal for integration into industrial production lines. The resulting films were characterized by a range of techniques including optical spectroscopy, electron microscope and X-ray fluorescence. Biocidal behavior was tested by determining the kill rate of Escherichia coli. A 3 layer stack on glass of silica/copper oxide/silica had better adhesion and lower reflection than a comparable 2 layer stack. This multilayer film led to a > 2% drop in reflection from that of uncoated glass, similar to that of silica only film. In addition, showed a > 6 log10 kill between 6 and 24 h for as deposited and annealed samples

Direct electronic measurement of the spin Hall effect

The generation, manipulation and detection of spin-polarized electrons in nanostructures define the main challenges of spin-based electronics[1]. Amongst the different approaches for spin generation and manipulation, spin-orbit coupling, which couples the spin of an electron to its momentum, is attracting considerable interest. In a spin-orbit-coupled system, a nonzero spin-current is predicted in a direction perpendicular to the applied electric field, giving rise to a "spin Hall effect"[2-4]. Consistent with this effect, electrically-induced spin polarization was recently detected by optical techniques at the edges of a semiconductor channel[5] and in two-dimensional electron gases in semiconductor heterostructures[6,7]. Here we report electrical measurements of the spin-Hall effect in a diffusive metallic conductor, using a ferromagnetic electrode in combination with a tunnel barrier to inject a spin-polarized current. In our devices, we observe an induced voltage that results exclusively from the conversion of the injected spin current into charge imbalance through the spin Hall effect. Such a voltage is proportional to the component of the injected spins that is perpendicular to the plane defined by the spin current direction and the voltage probes. These experiments reveal opportunities for efficient spin detection without the need for magnetic materials, which could lead to useful spintronics devices that integrate information processing and data storage.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Nature (pending format approval

マウスとウシの脂肪蓄積におけるAdipogeninの役割に関する研究

要約のみTohoku University盧尚建課

High-Throughput Genotyping in Metastatic Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Identifies Phosphoinositide-3-Kinase and BRAF Mutations

Background: Given the high incidence of metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, especially in Asia, we screened for the presence of somatic mutations using OncoMap platform with the aim of defining subsets of patients who may be potential candidate for targeted therapy. Methods and Materials We analyzed 87 tissue specimens obtained from 80 patients who were pathologically confirmed with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and received 5-fluoropyrimidine/platinum-based chemotherapy. OncoMap 4.0, a mass-spectrometry based assay, was used to interrogate 471 oncogenic mutations in 41 commonly mutated genes. Tumor specimens were prepared from primary cancer sites in 70 patients and from metastatic sites in 17 patients. In order to test the concordance between primary and metastatic sites from the patient for mutations, we analyzed 7 paired (primary-metastatic) specimens. All specimens were formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissues and tumor content was >70%. Results: In total, we have detected 20 hotspot mutations out of 80 patients screened. The most frequent mutation was PIK3CA mutation (four E545K, five H1047R and one H1047L) (N = 10, 11.5%) followed by MLH1 V384D (N = 7, 8.0%), TP53 (R306, R175H and R273C) (N = 3, 3.5%), BRAF V600E (N = 1, 1.2%), CTNNB1 D32N (N = 1, 1.2%), and EGFR P733L (N = 1, 1.2%). Distributions of somatic mutations were not different according to anatomic sites of esophageal cancer (cervical/upper, mid, lower). In addition, there was no difference in frequency of mutations between primary-metastasis paired samples. Conclusions: Our study led to the detection of potentially druggable mutations in esophageal SCC which may guide novel therapies in small subsets of esophageal cancer patients

Social disorganization and history of child sexual abuse against girls in sub-Saharan Africa : a multilevel analysis

Background: Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a considerable public health problem. Less focus has been paid to the role of community level factors associated with CSA. The aim of this study was to examine the association between neighbourhood-level measures of social disorganization and CSA. Methods: We applied multiple multilevel logistic regression analysis on Demographic and Health Survey data for 6,351 adolescents from six countries in sub-Saharan Africa between 2006 and 2008. Results: The percentage of adolescents that had experienced CSA ranged from 1.04% to 5.84%. There was a significant variation in the odds of reporting CSA across the communities, suggesting 18% of the variation in CSA could be attributed to community level factors. Respondents currently employed were more likely to have reported CSA than those who were unemployed (odds ratio [OR] = 2.05, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.48 to 2.83). Respondents from communities with a high family disruption rate were 57% more likely to have reported CSA (OR=1.57, 95% CI 1.14 to 2.16). Conclusion: We found that exposure to CSA was associated with high community level of family disruption, thus suggesting that neighbourhoods may indeed have significant important effects on exposure to CSA. Further studies are needed to explore pathways that connect the individual and neighbourhood levels, that is, means through which deleterious neighbourhood effects are transmitted to individuals

First Results from the AMoRE-Pilot neutrinoless double beta decay experiment

The Advanced Molybdenum-based Rare process Experiment (AMoRE) aims to search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0$\nu\beta\beta$) of $^{100}$Mo with $\sim$100 kg of $^{100}$Mo-enriched molybdenum embedded in cryogenic detectors with a dual heat and light readout. At the current, pilot stage of the AMoRE project we employ six calcium molybdate crystals with a total mass of 1.9 kg, produced from $^{48}$Ca-depleted calcium and $^{100}$Mo-enriched molybdenum ($^{48\textrm{depl}}$Ca$^{100}$MoO$_4$). The simultaneous detection of heat(phonon) and scintillation (photon) signals is realized with high resolution metallic magnetic calorimeter sensors that operate at milli-Kelvin temperatures. This stage of the project is carried out in the Yangyang underground laboratory at a depth of 700 m. We report first results from the AMoRE-Pilot $0\nu\beta\beta$ search with a 111 kg$\cdot$d live exposure of $^{48\textrm{depl}}$Ca$^{100}$MoO$_4$ crystals. No evidence for $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay of $^{100}$Mo is found, and a upper limit is set for the half-life of 0$\nu\beta\beta$ of $^{100}$Mo of $T^{0\nu}_{1/2} > 9.5\times10^{22}$ y at 90% C.L.. This limit corresponds to an effective Majorana neutrino mass limit in the range $\langle m_{\beta\beta}\rangle\le(1.2-2.1)$ eV

High-Throughput Mutation Profiling Identifies Frequent Somatic Mutations in Advanced Gastric Adenocarcinoma

Background: Gastric cancer is one of the leading cancer types in incidence and mortality, especially in Asia. In order to improve survival, identification of a catalogue of molecular alterations underlying gastric cancer is a critical step for developing and designing genome-directed therapies. Methodology/Principal Findings The Center for Cancer Genome Discovery (CCGD) at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) has adapted a high-throughput genotyping platform to determine the mutation status of a large panel of known cancer genes. The mutation detection platform, termed OncoMap v4, interrogates 474 “hotspot” mutations in 41 genes that are relevant for cancer. We performed OncoMap v4 in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue specimens from 237 gastric adenocarcinomas. Using OncoMap v4, we found that 34 (14.4%) of 237 gastric cancer patients harbored mutations. Among mutations we screened, PIK3CA mutations were the most frequent (5.1%) followed by p53 (4.6%), APC (2.5%), STK11 (2.1%), CTNNB1 (1.7%), and CDKN2A (0.8%). Six samples harbored concomitant somatic mutations. Mutations of CTNNB1 were significantly more frequent in EBV-associated gastric carcinoma (P = 0.046). Our study led to the detection of potentially druggable mutations in gastric cancer which may guide novel therapies in subsets of gastric cancer patients. Conclusions/Significance: Using high throughput mutation screening platform, we identified that PIK3CA mutations were the most frequently observed target for gastric adenocarcinoma