Effect of additives on the viscosity of liquid-phase dimethylaluminum hydride

The effect of additives on the viscosity of liquid-phase dimethylaluminum hydride (DMAH) was investigated. The viscosity of pure liquid DMAH was measured to be 6400 centipoise (cP) and due to its high viscosity, it is difficult to vaporize DMAH effectively in a bubbler in the chemical vapor deposition of aluminum. N,N-Dimethyl-1-naphthylamine and N-ethyl-N-methylaniline were selected as an additive because they are a liquid at room temperature and have a high boiling point. The viscosity of DMAH was drastically reduced down to 6 cP with the addition of 3.2 mol % of N-ethyl-N-methylaniline and 8 cP with the addition of 4.3 mol % of N,N-dimethyl-1-naphthylamine.ope

A Ru-catalyzed one-pot synthesis of homopropargylic amines from alkyl azides under photolytic conditions

A new synthetic method for homopropargylic amines from alkyl azides is presented. A salient feature of this reaction is the involvement of N-unsubstituted imines as the key intermediates, which are generated from alkyl azides by Ru catalysis under photolytic conditions. Notably, this method avoids the use of a protective group strategy in the homopropargylic amine synthesis.X111312sciescopu

Flagellin is a strong vaginal adjuvant of a therapeutic vaccine for genital cancer

Cervical cancer is a high-incidence female cancer most commonly caused by human papilloma virus (HPV) infection of the genital mucosa. Immunotherapy targeting HPV-derived tumor antigens (TAs) has been widely studied in animal models and in patients. Because the female genital tract is a portal for the entry of HPV and a highly compartmentalized system, the development of topical vaginal immunotherapy in an orthotopic cancer model would provide an ideal therapeutic. Thus, we examined whether flagellin, a potent mucosal immunomodulator, could be used as an adjuvant for a topical therapeutic vaccine for female genital cancer. Intravaginal (IVAG) co-administration of the E6/E7 peptides with flagellin resulted in tumor suppression and long-term survival of tumor-bearing mice. In contrast to IVAG vaccination, intranasal (IN) or subcutaneous (SC) immunization did not induce significant tumor suppression in the same model. The vaginal adjuvant effect of the flagellin was completely abolished in Toll-like receptor-5 (TLR5) knock-out mice. IVAG immunization with the E6/E7 peptides plus flagellin induced the accumulation of CD4(+) and CD8(+) cells and the expression of T cell activation-related genes in the draining genital lymph nodes (gLNs). The co-administered flagellin elicited antigen-specific IFN gamma production in the gLNs and spleen. The intravaginally administered flagellin was found in association with CD11c(+) cells in the gLNs. Moreover, after immunization with a flagellin and the E6/E7 peptides, the TLR5 expression in gLN cells was significantly upregulated. These results suggest that flagellin serves as a potent vaginal adjuvant for a therapeutic peptide cancer vaccine through the activation of TLR5 signaling.1166sciescopu

Big hearts, small hands:A focus group study exploring parental food portion behaviours

© The Author(s). 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background: The development of healthy food portion sizes among families is deemed critical to childhood weight management; yet little is known about the interacting factors influencing parents' portion control behaviours. This study aimed to use two synergistic theoretical models of behaviour: the COM-B model (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation - Behaviour) and Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to identify a broad spectrum of theoretically derived influences on parents' portion control behaviours including examination of affective and habitual influences often excluded from prevailing theories of behaviour change. Methods: Six focus groups exploring family weight management comprised of one with caseworkers (n = 4), four with parents of overweight children (n = 14) and one with parents of healthy weight children (n = 8). A thematic analysis was performed across the dataset where the TDF/COM-B were used as coding frameworks. Results: To achieve the target behaviour, the behavioural analysis revealed the need for eliciting change in all three COM-B domains and nine associated TDF domains. Findings suggest parents' internal processes such as their emotional responses, habits and beliefs, along with social influences from partners and grandparents, and environmental influences relating to items such as household objects, interact to influence portion size behaviours within the home environment. Conclusion: This is the first study underpinned by COM-B/TDF frameworks applied to childhood weight management and provides new targets for intervention development and the opportunity for future research to explore the mediating and moderating effects of these variables on one another.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

The frontline antibiotic vancomycin induces a zinc starvation response in bacteria by binding to Zn(II).

Vancomycin is a front-line antibiotic used for the treatment of nosocomial infections, particularly those caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Despite its clinical importance the global effects of vancomycin exposure on bacterial physiology are poorly understood. In a previous transcriptomic analysis we identified a number of Zur regulon genes which were highly but transiently up-regulated by vancomycin in Streptomyces coelicolor. Here, we show that vancomycin also induces similar zinc homeostasis systems in a range of other bacteria and demonstrate that vancomycin binds to Zn(II) in vitro. This implies that vancomycin treatment sequesters zinc from bacterial cells thereby triggering a Zur-dependent zinc starvation response. The Kd value of the binding between vancomycin and Zn(II) was calculated using a novel fluorometric assay, and NMR was used to identify the binding site. These findings highlight a new biologically relevant aspect of the chemical property of vancomycin as a zinc chelator.This work was supported by funding from the Royal Society, UK (516002.K5877/ROG), the Medical Research Council, UK (G0700141). A.Z. was supported from the Said foundation and Cambridge Trust.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep1960

Search for Charged Higgs Bosons in e+e- Collisions at \sqrt{s} = 189 GeV

A search for pair-produced charged Higgs bosons is performed with the L3 detector at LEP using data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 188.6 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 176.4 pb^-1. Higgs decays into a charm and a strange quark or into a tau lepton and its associated neutrino are considered. The observed events are consistent with the expectations from Standard Model background processes. A lower limit of 65.5 GeV on the charged Higgs mass is derived at 95 % confidence level, independent of the decay branching ratio Br(H^{+/-} -> tau nu)

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Debris Disks: Probing Planet Formation

Debris disks are the dust disks found around ~20% of nearby main sequence stars in far-IR surveys. They can be considered as descendants of protoplanetary disks or components of planetary systems, providing valuable information on circumstellar disk evolution and the outcome of planet formation. The debris disk population can be explained by the steady collisional erosion of planetesimal belts; population models constrain where (10-100au) and in what quantity (>1Mearth) planetesimals (>10km in size) typically form in protoplanetary disks. Gas is now seen long into the debris disk phase. Some of this is secondary implying planetesimals have a Solar System comet-like composition, but some systems may retain primordial gas. Ongoing planet formation processes are invoked for some debris disks, such as the continued growth of dwarf planets in an unstirred disk, or the growth of terrestrial planets through giant impacts. Planets imprint structure on debris disks in many ways; images of gaps, clumps, warps, eccentricities and other disk asymmetries, are readily explained by planets at >>5au. Hot dust in the region planets are commonly found (<5au) is seen for a growing number of stars. This dust usually originates in an outer belt (e.g., from exocomets), although an asteroid belt or recent collision is sometimes inferred.Comment: Invited review, accepted for publication in the 'Handbook of Exoplanets', eds. H.J. Deeg and J.A. Belmonte, Springer (2018

Risk propensity in the foreign direct investment location decision of emerging multinationals

A distinguishing feature of emerging economy multinationals is their apparent tolerance for host country institutional risk. Employing behavioral decision theory and quasi-experimental data, we find that managers’ domestic experience satisfaction increases their relative risk propensity regarding controllable risk (legally protectable loss), but decreases their tendency to accept non-controllable risk (e.g., political instability). In contrast, firms’ potential slack reduces relative risk propensity regarding controllable risk, yet amplifies the tendency to take non-controllable risk. We suggest that these counterbalancing effects might help explain observation that risk-taking in FDI location decisions is influenced by firm experience and context. The study provides a new understanding of why firms exhibit heterogeneous responses to host country risks, and the varying effects of institutions

MUDENG Expression Profiling in Cohorts and Brain Tumor Biospecimens to Evaluate Its Role in Cancer

Mu-2-related death-inducing gene (MUDENG, MuD) has been reported to be involved in the tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)-associated apoptotic pathway of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cells; however, its expression level, interactors, and role in tumors are yet to be discovered. To investigate whether MuD expression correlates with cancer progression, we analyzed The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database using UALCAN and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA). Differential expression of MuD was detected in 6 and 10 cancer types, respectively. Validation performed using data from the Gene Expression Omnibus database showed that MuD expression is downregulated in KIRC tumor and correlate with higher chance of survival. Upregulation of MuD expression in GBM tumors was detected through GEPIA and high MuD expression correlated with higher survival in proneural GBM, whereas the opposite was observed in classical GBM subtype. GBM biospecimens analysis shows that MuD protein level was upregulated in three of six specimens, whereas mRNA level remained relatively unaltered. Therefore, MuD may exert differential effects according to subtypes, and/or be subjected to post-translational regulation in GBM. Correlation analysis between GBM cohort database and experiments using GBM cell lines revealed its positive effect on regulation of protein phosphatase 2 regulatory subunit B'Epsilon (PPP2R5E) and son of sevenless homolog 2 (SOS2). STRING database analysis indicated that the components of adaptor protein complexes putatively interacted with MuD but showed no correlation in terms of survival of patients with different GBM subtypes. In summary, we analyzed the expression of MuD in publicly available cancer patient data sets, GBM cell lines, and biospecimens to demonstrate its potential role as a biomarker for cancer prognosis and identified its candidate interacting molecules