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- Aamodt, K., et al.
(author)
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The ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC
- 2008
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In: Journal of Instrumentation. - 1748-0221. ; 3:S08002
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a general-purpose, heavy-ion detector at the CERN LHC which focuses on QCD, the strong-interaction sector of the Standard Model. It is designed to address the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark-gluon plasma at extreme values of energy density and temperature in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Besides running with Pb ions, the physics programme includes collisions with lighter ions, lower energy running and dedicated proton-nucleus runs. ALICE will also take data with proton beams at the top LHC energy to collect reference data for the heavy-ion programme and to address several QCD topics for which ALICE is complementary to the other LHC detectors. The ALICE detector has been built by a collaboration including currently over 1000 physicists and engineers from 105 Institutes in 30 countries, Its overall dimensions are 16 x 16 x 26 m(3) with a total weight of approximately 10 000 t. The experiment consists of 18 different detector systems each with its own specific technology choice and design constraints, driven both by the physics requirements and the experimental conditions expected at LHC. The most stringent design constraint is to cope with the extreme particle multiplicity anticipated in central Pb-Pb collisions. The different subsystems were optimized to provide high-momentum resolution as well as excellent Particle Identification (PID) over a broad range in momentum, up to the highest multiplicities predicted for LHC. This will allow for comprehensive studies of hadrons, electrons, muons, and photons produced in the collision of heavy nuclei. Most detector systems are scheduled to be installed and ready for data taking by mid-2008 when the LHC is scheduled to start operation, with the exception of parts of the Photon Spectrometer (PHOS), Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) and Electro Magnetic Calorimeter (EMCal). These detectors will be completed for the high-luminosity ion run expected in 2010. This paper describes in detail the detector components as installed for the first data taking in the summer of 2008.
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- Klionsky, Daniel J., et al.
(author)
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Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy in higher eukaryotes
- 2008
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In: Autophagy. - : Landes Bioscience. - 1554-8627 .- 1554-8635. ; 4:2, s. 151-175
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Research in autophagy continues to accelerate,1 and as a result many new scientists are entering the field. Accordingly, it is important to establish a standard set of criteria for monitoring macroautophagy in different organisms. Recent reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose.2,3 There are many useful and convenient methods that can be used to monitor macroautophagy in yeast, but relatively few in other model systems, and there is much confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure macroautophagy in higher eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers of autophagosomes versus those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway; thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from fully functional autophagy that includes delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of the methods that can be used by investigators who are attempting to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as by reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that investigate these processes. This set of guidelines is not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to verify an autophagic response.
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- Gao, Feng, et al.
(author)
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Effects of substrate temperature on Bi0.8La0.2FeO3 thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition
- 2007
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In: Thin Solid Films. - : Elsevier. - 0040-6090 .- 1879-2731. ; 515:13, s. 5366-5373
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Bi0.8La0.2FeO3 thin films on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates at various substrate temperatures from 500 degrees C to 750 degrees C are prepared by pulsed laser deposition, and their microstructures and ferroelectric/magnetic properties are carefully investigated using various techniques. It is observed that the crystallographic orientation and Fe-ion valence state depend significantly on the substrate temperature, which consequently influences considerably on the ferroelectric and magnetic properties of the thin films. A considerable improvement of the ferroelectric and magnetic properties of the thin films can be achieved by optimizing the substrate temperature for deposition. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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7. |
- Howe, B., et al.
(author)
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Growth and physical properties of epitaxial metastable Hf1 - xAlxN alloys deposited on MgO(001) by ultrahigh vacuum reactive magnetron sputtering
- 2007
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In: Surface & Coatings Technology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0257-8972 .- 1879-3347. ; 202:4-7, s. 809-814
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Epitaxial metastable Hf1 - xAlxN alloys with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.50 were grown on MgO(001) substrates at 600 °C by ultrahigh vacuum reactive magnetron sputtering from Hf and Al targets in 90% Ar + 10% N2 discharges at 7 mTorr. X-Ray diffraction and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy show that Hf1 - xAlxN alloys are single crystals with the B1-NaCl structure. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy investigations reveal that all films are slightly overstochiometric with N / (Hf + Al) = 1.05 ± 0.05. The relaxed lattice parameter decreased linearly from 0.4519 nm with x = 0 to 0.4438 nm with x = 0.50, compared to 0.4320 nm expected from the linear Vegard's rule. We find a metastable single phase field that is remarkably broad given the large lattice mismatch (≃ 9%) between the two alloy components. Alloying HfN with AlN leads to an increase in hardness (≃ 30% to 32.4 ± 0.7 GPa), as well as nanostructured compositional modulations due to the onset of spinodal decomposition. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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- Liu, Jing-fu, et al.
(author)
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Disposable ionic liquid coating for headspace solid-phase microextraction of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene. and xylenes in paints followed by gas chromatography-flame ionization detection
- 2005
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In: Journal of Chromatography A. - : Elsevier BV. - 0021-9673. ; 1066:1-2, s. 27-32
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with a disposable ionic liquid (IL) coating was developed for headspace extraction of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) in paints. The SPME fiber was coated with IL prior to every extraction, then the analytes were extracted and desorbed on the injection port of gas chromatography, and finally the IL coating on the fiber was washed out with solvents. The coating and washing out of IL from the fiber can be finished in a few minutes. This disposable IL-coated fiber was applied to determine BTEX in water-soluble paints with results in good agreement with that obtained by using commercially available SPME fibers. For all the four studied paints samples, the benzene contents were under the detection limits, but relatively high contents of toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (56-271 mug g(-1)) were detected with spiked recoveries in the range of 70-114%. Compared to the widely used commercially available SPME fibers, this proposed disposable IL-coated fiber has much lower cost per determination, comparable reproducibility (RSD < 11%), and no carryover between each determination. Considering that IL possess good extractability for various organic compounds and metals ions, and that task-specific IL can be designed and synthesized for selective extraction of target analytes, this disposable IL coating SPME might has great potential in sample preparation. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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- Rönn, Tina, et al.
(author)
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A common variant in MTNR1B, encoding melatonin receptor 1B, is associated with type 2 diabetes and fasting plasma glucose in Han Chinese individuals.
- 2009
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In: Diabetologia. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1432-0428 .- 0012-186X. ; Feb 25, s. 830-833
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Recently, three groups independently reported that variation in MTNR1B, the gene encoding melatonin receptor 1B, was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, increased fasting plasma glucose and impaired insulin secretion in populations of European ancestry. In the present study, we investigated whether a single MTNR1B polymorphism was associated with type 2 diabetes in Han Chinese individuals, to elucidate whether this is a cross-populational effect. METHODS: The MTNR1B variant rs10830963 was genotyped in 1,165 type 2 diabetic patients and 1,105 normoglycaemic control individuals of southern Han Chinese ancestry who were residents of the metropolitan area of Shanghai. The risk of developing type 2 diabetes was calculated using a logistic regression model adjusted for age, sex and BMI. A possible association with fasting plasma glucose was analysed in the normoglycaemic control individuals using a multiple linear regression analysis with adjustments for age, sex and BMI. RESULTS: The genetic variant rs10830963 was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in our Han Chinese cohort (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.03-1.31, p = 0.015). As previously described, the risk variant was also associated with increased fasting plasma glucose, showing an increase of 0.068 mmol/l (95% CI 0.036-0.100, p = 4 x 10(-5)) per risk allele. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: A common variant in the MTNR1B gene is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and increased fasting plasma glucose in Han Chinese, suggesting an important role for this polymorphism in populations of different ethnic and environmental backgrounds.
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