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The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) Pr-Fe-B film with a fixed thickness of 125 nm was fabricated. Five various structures of PrFeB thin films were prepared by using magnetron sputtering at 650 °C in a high vacuum chamber. The magnetic properties of PrFeB films were studied as a function of compatibility between underlayer and substrate. All films exhibited various magneto-crystalline anisotropies with the variation of underlayer and substrate. Si3N4underlayer and Si substrate had the highest compatibility. Therefore, the PMA, coercivity, and the morphology significantly increased and changed correlatively in the structure of Si3N4top layer/Pr-Fe-B/Si3N4underlayer/Si(100) substrate. Especially, the appearance of Fe3Si(110) soft magnetic layer dramatically supported the evolution of Pr2Fe14B phase with PMA. The XPS analysis resulted in Pr and Fe occupied higher intensity than others in the sample. This confirmed the ascertained and strong magnetization degree. The presence of other elements played the role as the auxiliary-compositions.

This study was carried out to evaluate the prevalence of Salmonellaserogroups and serotypes and their virulence gene carriage in pig fecal samples from farms and slaughterhouses in some southern provinces of Vietnam. The presence of Salmonellawas assessed based on culture enrichment of the collected samples and biochemical and serological analyses; 27.7% (51) of 184 samples were posititve for Salmonella. Based on the availability of antisera, serogroups were determined for 61% (31) of 51 isolates. Twenty isolates belonging to Salmonellaserotypes Typhimurium (10 isolates), Anatum (8 isolates), Senftenberg (7 isolates), Paratyphi B (3 isolates), Paratyphi A (1 isolate), Montevideo (1 isolate), and Saintpaul (1 isolate) were further characterized by a multiplex PCR protocol targeting Salmonellainvasion A and virulence plasmid C genes (invAand spvC,respectively). Individual PCR assays were developed to detect genes for Salmonellaenterotoxin (stn), Salmonellaouter protein B (sopB), and Salmonellafimbriae (pef). Various carriage patterns were identified among tested isolates. The invAand sopBgenes were found in all isolates, and the stngene was found in 95% of the isolates. The spvCgene was found in only 5% of the SalmonellaTyphimurium isolates. None of the isolates were positive for the pefgene. Among all isolates, the predominant genotypic virulence profile (virulotype) was characterized by the concomitant presence of invA, sopB,and stnin carrier strains. In contrast, two virulotypes comprising either invA, sopB, spvC,and stnor invAand sopBwere identified for the SalmonellaTyphimurium isolates. Virulotypes made up of multiple virulence genes were predominant in most Salmonellastrains tested in this study, indicating that pigs might act as a reservoir for these virulent strains.

We investigate the geospace response to the 2015 St. Patrick's Day storm leveraging on instruments spread over Southeast Asia (SEA), covering a wide longitudinal sector of the low‐latitude ionosphere. A regional characterization of the storm is provided, identifying the peculiarities of ionospheric irregularity formation. The novelties of this work are the characterization in a broad longitudinal range and the methodology relying on the integration of data acquired by Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers, magnetometers, ionosondes, and Swarm satellites. This work is a legacy of the project EquatoRial Ionosphere Characterization in Asia (ERICA). ERICA aimed to capture the features of both crests of the equatorial ionospheric anomaly (EIA) and trough (EIT) by means of a dedicated measurement campaign. The campaign lasted from March to October 2015 and was able to observe the ionospheric variability causing effects on radio systems, GNSS in particular. The multiinstrumental and multiparametric observations of the region enabled an in‐depth investigation of the response to the largest geomagnetic storm of the current solar cycle in a region scarcely reported in literature. Our work discusses the comparison between northern and southern crests of the EIA in the SEA region. The observations recorded positive and negative ionospheric storms, spread Fconditions, scintillation enhancement and inhibition, and total electron content variability. The ancillary information on the local magnetic field highlights the variety of ionospheric perturbations during the different storm phases. The combined use of ionospheric bottomside, topside, and integrated information points out how the storm affects the Flayer altitude and the consequent enhancement/suppression of scintillations. Geospace characterization of Saint Patrick's Day storm over Southeast Asia with a multiinstrumental approach is providedPostsunset scintillation inhibition has been detected and compared with the morphology and dynamics of the ionospheric F layerMeridional and zonal variations between the equatorial ionospheric anomaly crests are discussed in depth

We present a detailed discussion of the self-energy embedding theory (SEET), which is a quantum embedding scheme allowing us to describe a chosen subsystem very accurately while keeping the description of the environment at a lower level. We apply SEET to molecular examples where our chosen subsystem is made out of a set of strongly correlated orbitals while the weakly correlated orbitals constitute an environment. Consequently, a highly accurate method is used to calculate the self-energy for the system, while a lower-level method is employed to find the self-energy for the environment. Such a self-energy separation is very general, and to make the SEET procedure applicable to multiple systems, a detailed and practical procedure for the evaluation of the system and environment self-energy is necessary. We list all of the intricacies for one of the possible procedures while focusing our discussion on many practical implementation aspects such as the choice of best orbital basis, impurity solver, and many steps necessary to reach chemical accuracy. Finally, on a set of carefully chosen molecular examples, we demonstrate that SEET, which is a controlled, systematically improvable Green’s function method, can be as accurate as established wave function quantum chemistry methods.

The search for newer histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors has attracted a great deal of interest of medicinal chemists worldwide, especially after the first HDAC inhibitor (Zolinza®, widely known as SAHA or Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid) was approved by the FDA for the treatment of Tcell lymphoma in 2006. As a continuity of our ongoing research in this area, we designed and synthesized a series of 5-aryl-1,3,4-thiadiazole-based hydroxamic acids as analogues of SAHA and evaluated their biological activities. Most of the compounds in this series, e.g. compounds with 5-aryl moiety being 2- furfuryl (5a), 5-bromofuran-2-yl (5b), 5-methylfuran-2-yl (5c), thiophen-2-yl (5d), 5-methylthiophen-2-yl (5f) and pyridyl (5g-i), were found to have potent anticancer cytotoxicity with IC50values of generally 5- to 10-fold lower than that of SAHA in 4 human cancer cell lines assayed. Those compounds with potent cytotoxicity were also found to have strong HDAC inhibition effects. Docking studies revealed that compounds 5a and 5d displayed high affinities towards HDAC2 and 8.

We have developed a new computational scheme for high-accuracy prediction of the isotropic hyperfine coupling constant (HFCC) of heavy molecules, accounting for the high-level electron correlation effects, as well as the scalar-relativistic effects. For electron correlation, we employed the ab initiodensity matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method in conjunction with a complete active space model. The orbital-optimization procedure was employed to obtain the optimized orbitals required for accurately determining the isotropic HFCC. For the scalar-relativistic effects, we initially derived and implemented the Douglas–Kroll–Hess (DKH) hyperfine coupling operators up to the third order (DKH3) by using the direct transformation scheme. A set of 4d transition-metal radicals consisting of Ag atom, PdH, and RhH2were chosen as test cases. Good agreement between the isotropic HFCC values obtained from DMRG/DKH3 and experiment was archived. Because there are no available gas-phase values for PdH and RhH2radicals in the literature, the results from the present high-level theory may serve as benchmark data.

The density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method is used in conjunction with the complete active space (CAS) procedure, the CAS configuration interaction (CASCI), and the CAS self-consistent field (CASSCF) to evaluate hyperfine coupling constants (HFCCs) for a series of diatomic 2Σ radicals (BO, CO+, CN, and AlO) and vinyl (C2H3) radical. The electron correlation effects on the computed HFCC values were systematically investigated using various levels of active space, which were increasingly extended from single valence space to large-size model space entailing double valence and at least single polarization shells. In addition, the core correlation was treated by including the core orbitals in active space. Reasonably accurate results were obtained by the DMRG-CASSCF method involving orbital optimization, while DMRG-CASCI calculations with Hartree–Fock orbitals provided poor agreement of the HFCCs with the experimental values. To achieve further insights into the accuracy of HFCC calculations, the orbital contributions to the total spin density were analyzed at a given nucleus, which is directly related to the FC term and is numerically sensitive to the level of correlation treatment and basis sets. The convergence of calculated HFCCs with an increasing number of renormalized states was also assessed. This work serves as the first study on the performance of the ab initioDMRG method for HFCC prediction.

Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) secreted from macrophages plays an important role in tissue destruction and inflammation through degradation of matrix proteins and proteolytic activation of cytokines/chemokines. Whereas the MEK-ERK and PI3K-Akt pathways up-regulate MMP-9 expression, regulation of MMP-9 by JNK remains controversial. Presently, we aimed to determine the role of JNK in MMP-9 regulation in Raw 264.7 cells. Inhibition of JNK by the JNK inhibitor SP600125 induced MMP-9 in the absence of serum and suppressed the expression of TNF-a, IL-6 and cyclooxygenase-2 in LPS-treated Raw 264.7 cells. In a knockdown experiment with small interfering RNA, suppression of JNK1 induced MMP-9 expression. Interestingly, mouse serum suppressed SP600125-mediated MMP-9 induction, similar to IFN-?. However, the inhibitory activity of mouse serum was not affected by pyridone 6, which inhibits Janus kinase downstream to IFN-?. In addition to mouse serum, conditioned media of Raw 264.7 cells contained the inhibitory factor(s) larger than 10 kDa, which suppressed SP600125- or LPS-induced MMP-9 expression. Taken together, these data suggest that JNK1 suppresses MMP-9 expression in the absence of serum. In addition, the inhibitory factor(s) present in serum or secreted from macrophages may negatively control MMP-9 expression.

Presents the one act play "Elevator/Sex," by Lan Tran.

Le comportement en présence d'eau des matériaux (granulats, sols, roches...) contenant des argiles dépend à la fois de la quantité d'argiles et de leurs natures minéralogiques. Selon la technique envisagée (matériaux traités au ciment, enrobés, béton...) seule la surface externe ou les surfaces interne et externe des argiles interviennent d'une façon prédominante. Dans cet article, nous décrivons deux manières simples d'utiliser l'essai au bleu de méthylène pour déterminer la nature gonflante des argiles à travers le rapport des surfaces interne et externe aussi bien que leur quantité. Les modes opératoires sont indiqués et les applications potentielles discutées. The behaviour in wet conditions of materials (aggregates, soils, rocks...) containing clay particles depends on both the latter content and its mineralogical nature. According to the technique involved (cement-treated soils, bituminous mixes, concrete...), only external surface area or both external and internal surface areas of the clays are dominantly relevant. In this paper, we describe two simple ways of using the Methylen Blue test which allow the swelling nature of the clays, through the ratio of the external to the internal surface areas as well as their amount to assessed for The operating procedures are given; potential applications are also discussed.

Rat adipose tissue possesses two Bordetella pertussis toxin (PTX) substrates and, in the same 39-41 kDa molecular mass range, positive immunoreactivity has also been reported with antibodies against the alpha subunit of Go, the major brain GTP-binding protein (G-protein). In this study, the presence of the brain Go alpha subunit at 39 kDa in adipocytes was reassessed, since direct correspondence between PTX substrates and Go alpha immunoreactivity has not yet been clearly established. On resolutive SDS/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis, the PTX substrates of human adipocytes were compared with the three PTX substrates found in brain. No ADP-ribosylated substrate at the level of the 39 kDa brain Go alpha could be detected in adipocyte membranes. Immunoblotting of human adipocyte membranes stained with our anti-Go alpha antibodies confirmed the presence of a positive immunoreactivity in this tissue, but the apparent molecular mass of the immunoreactive polypeptide in adipocytes was higher than that found in nervous tissues. Taken together, these results indicate that the brain Go alpha subunit is not present in adipose tissue. They also suggest the existence of a G-protein in adipocytes which is immunologically related to Go alpha but having a slightly higher molecular mass.

The J-aggregates of the diprotonated tetraphenylporphin formed in the o/w microemulsions including 2-alkyl alcohol, Triton X-100, toluene, and sulfuric acid, exhibited an induced circular dichroism (ICD) spectra corresponding to the chirality of the alcohol. The ICD intensity remarkably depended on the concentrations of Triton X-100 and sulfuric acid as well as 2-alkyl alcohol. The results suggested the nonstoichiometric formation of the chiral conformation of the nano-J-aggregates in the microemulsion droplets.

From infrared linear dichroism studies, direct evidence is given for a new Na DNA form, which is similar to the C form of Li DNA. This C-like form in Na DNA occurs under conditions of very low NaCl content (at high relative humidity), high NaCl content (at low relative humidity), and low G + C content of the DNA (at low relative humitiy). The C form of Li DNA was originally discovered by x-ray diffraction, but has not previously been characterized by infrared spectroscopy. The C form is primarily characterized by the orientation of the O2- -O3 line of the phosphate group, which is about 48° (±2°) with respect to the helical DNA axis and which is different from that of the B and A forms. Na DNA molecules rich in A + T may entirely or partially adopt the C form at low relative humidity. Since from infrared evidence, the C-like form is found not only in Li DNA at low relative humidity but also in Na DNA under different conditions, the C form may be biologically important. A possible role for recognition by proteins is suggested.

A new cyclodepsipeptide, isarin (1), was isolated from the insect pathogenic fungus Isaria japonicaYasuda, together with one known compound, beauveriolide I (2). The structure of this new compound was characterized using a combination of spectroscopic and spectrometric analyses.