| 1. |
- Alavian Ghavanini, Farzan, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Controlling the initial phase of PECVD growth of vertically aligned carbon nanofibres on TiN
- 2011
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Ingår i: Sensors and Actuators A-Physical. - : Elsevier BV. - 0924-4247 .- 1873-3069. ; 172:1, s. 347-358
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We explore the growth of vertically aligned carbon nanofibers by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, using lithographically defined Ni catalyst seeds on TiN. TiN is selected for being an electrically conducting diffusion barrier suitable for the realization of electronic devices. We show that the rate of Ni diffusion correlates to both the level of oxygen content in the TiN film and to the film resistivity. The synthesis of the nanofibers was characterized using electron microscopy with an emphasis on three growth parameters: substrate temperature, plasma power, and chamber pressure. We propose that a catalyst surface free from carbon deposits throughout the process will induce diffusion-limited growth. The growth will shift towards a supply-limited process when the balance between acetylene, as the effective carbon bearing gas, and atomic hydrogen, as the main etching agent, is skewed in favor of acetylene. This determines whether the dominating growth mode will be vertically aligned tip-type or disordered base-type, by affecting the competition between the formation of the first graphitic sheets on the catalyst surface and at the catalyst-substrate interface
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| 2. |
- Alavian Ghavanini, Farzan, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Direct measurement of bending stiffness and estimation of Young's modulus of vertically aligned carbon nanofibers
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Physics. - : AIP Publishing. - 0021-8979 .- 1089-7550. ; 113:19
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The bending stiffness of individual, as-grown, vertically aligned carbon nanofibers was measured using a custom-built atomic force microscope placed inside a scanning electron microscope. The internal structure of the nanofiber was best modeled as dual-phase, composed of an inner graphitic core covered with a tapered amorphous carbon shell. It was found that the fibers have a relatively low bending stiffness, with Young's modulus values of about 10 GPa for the inner core and 65 GPa for the outer shell. The low Young's modulus of the inner core is attributed to a non-zero angle between the graphitic sheets and the nanofiber axis. The weak shear modulus between graphitic sheets thereby dominates the mechanical behaviour of the fibers.
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| 3. |
- Alavian Ghavanini, Farzan, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Direct Measurement of the Bending Stiffness of Individual Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofibers (VACNFs)
- 2011
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Ingår i: NT11 International Conference on the Science and Application of Nanotubes University of Cambridge, Cambridge, 10 – 16 July, 2011.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs) are synthesized in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process (PECVD) in which the position, diameter, length, and alignment of individual nanofibers can be controlled accurately. This has provided an unprecedented opportunity to realize a new bottom-up-engineered material with excellent mechanical and electrical properties which could exploit the third dimension at a reasonable cost. VACNFs have been already employed in a number of applications including electron emitters, gene delivery arrays, and nanoelectromechanical systems. However, no direct measurement of the Young’s modulus of VACNFs has been reported yet. Qi et al. have used nanoindentation method to measure the collective response of a forest of VACNFs with a distribution in length and diameter of the constituent nanofibers. Kaul et al., have reported in situ uniaxial compression tests on individual VACNFs but they have not provided enough information to evaluate the accuracy of their measurements. Indirect estimation of the VACNFs Young’s modulus has also been reported by Eriksson et al. from measurements of the resonance frequency of a nanofiber deposited on top of an excitation electrode. Here, we report on direct measurements of VACNFs Young’s modulus using a piezoresistive atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever implemented inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The VACNFs were grown from Ni catalyst seeds, patterned using electron-beam lithography on top of a stoichiometric TiN underlayer. The VACNFs were grown in a commercially available PECVD chamber (AIXTRON BlackMagic™). The nanofibers were approached from the side and pushed at the tip (resembling a cantilever beam) and force-deflection curves were obtained. By calibrating the AFM sensor the bending stiffness of the nanofiber could be determined. The Young’s modulus was then estimated by taking the nanofibers dimensions into account. The sub-nano Newton force precision provided by the AFM force-sensor together with the fact the individual VACNFs could be observed in the SEM simultaneously during the measurements, has enabled us to measure the nanofibers Young’s modulus with a high precision. Preliminary measurements indicate that VACNFs posses a Young’s modulus between 40 to 100 GPa which is comparable to CVD grown carbon nanotubes of similar diameter.
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| 4. |
- Chorell, Elin, et al.
(författare)
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A Multivariate Screening Strategy for Investigating Metabolic Effects of Strenuous Physical Exercise in Human Serum
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Proteome Research. - : American Chemical Society. - 1535-3893 .- 1535-3907. ; 6:6, s. 2113-2120
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A novel hypothesis-free multivariate screening methodology for the study of human exercise metabolism in blood serum is presented. Serum gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC/TOFMS) data was processed using hierarchical multivariate curve resolution (H-MCR), and orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) was used to model the systematic variation related to the acute effect of strenuous exercise. Potential metabolic biomarkers were identified using data base comparisons. Extensive validation was carried out including predictive H-MCR, 7-fold full cross-validation, and predictions for the OPLS-DA model, variable permutation for highlighting interesting metabolites, and pairwise t tests for examining the significance of metabolites. The concentration changes of potential biomarkers were verified in the raw GC/TOFMS data. In total, 420 potential metabolites were resolved in the serum samples. On the basis of the relative concentrations of the 420 resolved metabolites, a valid multivariate model for the difference between pre- and post-exercise subjects was obtained. A total of 34 metabolites were highlighted as potential biomarkers, all statistically significant (p < 8.1E-05). As an example, two potential markers were identified as glycerol and asparagine. The concentration changes for these two metabolites were also verified in the raw GC/TOFMS data.The strategy was shown to facilitate interpretation and validation of metabolic interactions in human serum as well as revealing the identity of potential markers for known or novel mechanisms of human exercise physiology. The multivariate way of addressing metabolism studies can help to increase the understanding of the integrative biology behind, as well as unravel new mechanistic explanations in relation to, exercise physiology.
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| 5. |
- Ghavanini, Farzan, et al.
(författare)
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Direct Measurement of the Young’s Modulus of Individual Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofibers (VACNFs)
- 2011
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs) are synthesized in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process (PECVD) in which the position, diameter, length, and alignment of individual nanofibers can be controlled accurately. This has provided an unprecedented opportunity to realize a new bottom-up-engineered material with excellent mechanical and electrical properties which could exploit the third dimension at a reasonable cost. VACNFs have been already employed in a number of applications including electron emitters, gene delivery arrays, and nanoelectromechanical systems. However, no direct measurement of the Young’s modulus of VACNFs has been reported yet. Qi et al. have used nanoindentation method to measure the collective response of a forest of VACNFs with a distribution in length and diameter of the constituent nanofibers. Kaul et al., have reported in situ uniaxial compression tests on individual VACNFs but they have not provided enough information to evaluate the accuracy of their measurements. Indirect estimation of the VACNFs Young’s modulus has also been reported by Eriksson et al. from measurements of the resonance frequency of a nanofiber deposited on top of an excitation electrode. Here, we report on direct measurements of VACNFs Young’s modulus using a piezoresistive atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever implemented inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The VACNFs were grown from Ni catalyst seeds, patterned using electron-beam lithography on top of a stoichiometric TiN underlayer. The VACNFs were grown in a commercially available PECVD chamber (AIXTRON BlackMagic™). The nanofibers were approached from the side and pushed at the tip (resembling a cantilever beam) and force-deflection curves were obtained. By calibrating the AFM sensor the bending stiffness of the nanofiber could be determined. The Young’s modulus was then estimated by taking the nanofibers dimensions into account. The sub-nano Newton force precision provided by the AFM force-sensor together with the fact the individual VACNFs could be observed in the SEM simultaneously during the measurements, has enabled us to measure the nanofibers Young’s modulus with a high precision. Preliminary measurements indicate that VACNFs posses a Young’s modulus between 40 to 100 GPa which is comparable to CVD grown carbon nanotubes of similar diameter
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| 6. |
- Gomez, Federico, et al.
(författare)
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Metabolomic evaluation of pulsed electric field-induced stress on potato tissue
- 2009
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Ingår i: Planta. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0032-0935 .- 1432-2048. ; 230:3, s. 469-479
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Metabolite profiling was used to characterize stress responses of potato tissue subjected to reversible electroporation, providing insights on how potato tissue responds to a physical stimulus such as pulsed electric fields (PEF), which is an artificial stress. Wounded potato tissue was subjected to field strengths ranging from 200 to 400 V/cm, with a single rectangular pulse of 1 ms. Electroporation was demonstrated by propidium iodide staining of the cell nucleae. Metabolic profiling of data obtained through GC/TOF-MS and UPLC/TOF-MS complemented with orthogonal projections to latent structures clustering analysis showed that 24 h after the application of PEF, potato metabolism shows PEF-specific responses characterized by the changes in the hexose pool that may involve starch and ascorbic acid degradation.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Kuhl, Jeanette, et al.
(författare)
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Metabolomics as a tool to evaluate exercise-induced improvements in insulin sensitivity
- 2008
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Ingår i: Metabolomics. - : Springer Boston. - 1573-3882 .- 1573-3890. ; 4:3, s. 273-82
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Exercise affects substrate utilisation and insulin sensitivity, which in turn improve blood glucose and lipid levels in subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, making long-lasting lifestyle-changes might be more realistic if the results were easier to record. Screening for biomarkers reflecting metabolic fitness could thus serve as a tool for maintained motivation. The aim of this study was to test the possibility that metabolomics can be used to identify individuals with improved insulin sensitivity as a result of increased physical activity. Healthy and diabetic subjects were investigated before and after 3 months of exercise to determine various metabolic parameters. Insulin sensitivity was determined by hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamps and found to be improved in the diabetic men. Plasma was collected during the clamp and analyzed through GC/TOFMS. Healthy subjects could be distinguished from diabetics by means of low molecular-weight compounds (LMC) in plasma independently of gender or exercise, and exercise induced differences in LMC patterns both for healthy and T2D subjects. Forty-four significant metabolites were found to explain differences between LMC patterns obtained from trained and non-trained diabetics. Among these compounds, 17 could be annotated and 5 classified. Inositol-1-phosphate showed the highest correlation to insulin sensitivity in diabetic men, whereas an as yet unknown fatty acid correlated best with insulin sensitivity in women. Both metabolites were better correlated to insulin sensitivity than glucose. Finally, the finding that inostitol-1-phosphate negatively correlates with insulin sensitivity in diabetic men, was validated using samples obtained from a similar training study on diabetic men.
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| 9. |
- Lundgren, Fredrik, et al.
(författare)
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PTFE bypass to below-knee arteries : distal vein collar or not? A prospective randomised multicentre study
- 2010
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Ingår i: European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery. - : Elsevier BV. - 1078-5884 .- 1532-2165. ; 39:6, s. 747-754
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundPatency and limb salvage after synthetic bypass to the arteries below-knee are inferior to that which can be achieved with autologous vein. Use of a vein collar at the distal anastomosis has been suggested to improve patency and limb salvage, a problem that is analysed in this randomised clinical study.MethodsPatients with critical limb ischaemia undergoing polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) bypass to below-knee arteries were randomly either assigned a vein collar or not in two groups – bypass to the popliteal artery below-knee (femoro-popliteal below-knee (FemPopBK)) and more distal bypass (femoro-distal bypass (FemDist)). Follow-up was scheduled until amputation, death or at most 5 years, whichever event occurred first.ResultsIn the FemPopBK and in the FemDist groups, 115/202 and 72/150 were randomised to have a vein collar, respectively. Information was available for 345 of 352 randomised patients (98%).At 3 years, primary patency was 26% (95% confidence interval (CI) 18–38) with a vein collar and 43 (33–58) without a vein collar for femoro-popliteal bypass and 20 (11–38), and 17 (9–33) for femoro-distal bypass, respectively. The corresponding figures for limb salvage were 64 (54–75) and 61 (50–74) for femoro-popliteal bypass, and 59 (46–76) and 44 (32–61) for femoro-distal bypass with and without a vein collar, respectively. Log-rank-test for the whole Kaplan–Meier life table curve showed no statistically significant differences with or without vein collar primary patency: p = 0.0853, p = 0.228; secondary patency: p = 0.317, p = 0.280; limb salvage: p = 0.757, p = 0.187 for FemPopBK and FemDist, respectively. The use of a vein collar did not influence patency or limb salvage.ConclusionThis study failed to show any benefit for vein collar with PTFE bypass to a below-knee artery.
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| 10. |
- Ma, Jingkun, et al.
(författare)
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The sucrose-regulated Arabidopsis transcription factor bZIP11 reprograms metabolism and regulates trehalose metabolism
- 2011
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Ingår i: New Phytologist. - : Wiley. - 0028-646X .- 1469-8137. ; 191:3, s. 733-745
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- • The Arabidopsis basic region-leucine zipper transcription factor 11 (bZIP11) is known to be repressed by sucrose through a translational inhibition mechanism that requires the conserved sucrose control peptide encoded by the mRNA leader. The function of bZIP11 has been investigated in over-expression studies, and bZIP11 has been found to inhibit plant growth. The addition of sugar does not rescue the growth inhibition phenotype. Here, the function of the bZIP11 transcription factor was investigated. • The mechanism by which bZIP11 regulates growth was studied using large-scale and dedicated metabolic analysis, biochemical assays and molecular studies. • bZIP11 induction results in a reprogramming of metabolism and activation of genes involved in the metabolism of trehalose and other minor carbohydrates such as myo-inositol and raffinose. bZIP11 induction leads to reduced contents of the prominent growth regulatory molecule trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P). • The metabolic changes detected mimic in part those observed in carbon-starved plants. It is proposed that bZIP11 is a powerful regulator of carbohydrate metabolism that functions in a growth regulatory network that includes T6P and the sucrose non-fermenting-1 related protein kinase 1 (SnRK1).
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| 11. |
- Zheng, Bing Song, et al.
(författare)
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Arabidopsis sterol carrier protein-2 is required for normal development of seeds and seedlings
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Experimental Botany. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0022-0957 .- 1460-2431. ; 59:12, s. 3485-3499
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Arabidopsis thaliana sterol carrier protein-2 (AtSCP2) is a small, basic and peroxisomal protein that in vitro enhances the transfer of lipids between membranes. AtSCP2 and all other plant SCP-2 that have been identified are single-domain polypeptides, whereas in many other eukaryotes SCP-2 domains are expressed in the terminus of multidomain polypeptides. The AtSCP2 transcript is expressed in all analysed tissues and developmental stages, with the highest levels in floral tissues and in maturing seeds. The expression of AtSCP2 is highly correlated with the multifunctional protein-2 (MFP2) involved in β-oxidation. A. thaliana Atscp2-1 plants deficient in AtSCP2 show altered seed morphology, a delayed germination, and are dependent on an exogenous carbon source to avoid a delayed seedling establishment. Metabolomic investigations revealed 110 variables (putative metabolites) that differed in relative concentration between Atscp2-1 and normal A. thaliana wild-type seedlings. Microarray analysis revealed that many genes whose expression is altered in mutants with a deficiency in the glyoxylate pathway, also have a changed expression level in Atscp2-1. © 2008 The Author(s).
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