Search results for "layer"

Spin-crossover nanoparticles anchored on MoS2 layers for heterostructures with tunable strain driven by thermal or light-induced spin switching

2021

In the past few years, the effect of strain on the optical and electronic properties of MoS2 layers has attracted particular attention as it can improve the performance of optoelectronic and spintronic devices. Although several approaches have been explored, strain is typically externally applied on the two-dimensional material. In this work, we describe the preparation of a reversible ‘self-strainable’ system in which the strain is generated at the molecular level by one component of a MoS2-based composite material. Spin-crossover nanoparticles were covalently grafted onto functionalized layers of semiconducting MoS2 to form a hybrid heterostructure. Their ability to switch between two spi…

Staining of immunoblots by immunochromatography.

1994

MgO/Ag(100): confined vibrational modes in the limit of ultrathin films

2003

The vibrational modes of clean MgO films are investigated vs film thickness by means of high-resolution electron energy-loss spectroscopy. For thin films (20\char21{}30 monolayers) we observe, in accord with the literature, the Fuchs-Kliewer phonon at $677{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ and the Wallis mode at $524{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}.$ For ultrathin films standing wave optical phonons confined in the overlayer are present, whose frequencies depend strongly on film thickness. Comparison with theoretical calculations for MgO slabs on a perfect conductor shows that the experimental frequencies are lower than expected, indicating the presence of compressive stress. At and below one-…

Alpha-toxin of Staphylococcus aureus

1991

Alpha-toxin, the major cytotoxic agent elaborated by Staphylococcus aureus, was the first bacterial exotoxin to be identified as a pore former. The protein is secreted as a single-chain, water-soluble molecule of Mr 33,000. At low concentrations (less than 100 nM), the toxin binds to as yet unidentified, high-affinity acceptor sites that have been detected on a variety of cells including rabbit erythrocytes, human platelets, monocytes and endothelial cells. At high concentrations, the toxin additionally binds via nonspecific absorption to lipid bilayers; it can thus damage both cells lacking significant numbers of the acceptor and protein-free artificial lipid bilayers. Membrane damage occu…

Altered pore-forming properties of proteolytically nicked staphylococcal alpha-toxin

1993

Staphylococcal alpha-toxin is a single-chain polypeptide with a molecular weight of 34,000 that hexamerizes in lipid bilayers to form pores of 1-1.5 nm effective diameter in membranes. We demonstrate that limited proteolysis of purified alpha-toxin with proteinase K generates a hemolytically active product that yields one major protein band of 17-18 kDa in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The 17-18-kDa protein band harbors two major fragments of similar size representing the N- and C-terminal halves, which remain associated with each other in non-denaturing buffers but dissociate in 6 M urea. Dissociation in urea leads to loss of hemolytic activity. In contrast, unnicked alpha-toxin …

Lipid and phase specificity of α-toxin from S. aureus

2013

AbstractThe pore forming toxin Hla (α-toxin) from Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogenic factor of the bacterium S. aureus and also a model system for the process of membrane-induced protein oligomerisation and pore formation. It has been shown that binding to lipid membranes at neutral or basic pH requires the presence of a phosphocholine-headgroup. Thus, sphingomyelin and phosphatidylcholine may serve as interaction partners in cellular membranes. Based on earlier studies it has been suggested that rafts of sphingomyelin are particularly efficient in toxin binding. In this study we compared the oligomerisation of Hla on liposomes of various lipid compositions in order to identif…

Staphylococcal alpha-toxin: formation of the heptameric pore is partially cooperative and proceeds through multiple intermediate stages.

1997

Staphylococcal alpha-toxin is a 293 residue polypeptide that assembles into pore-forming heptamers, residues 118-140, thereby inserting to form an amphipathic beta-barrel in the lipid bilayer. Fluorometric analyses were here conducted using cysteine-substitution mutants site-specifically-labeled at positions 35 or 130 with the environmentally-sensitive fluorophore acrylodan. In conjunction with functional assays, three conformational states of the heptamer were defined, which may represent transitional configurations of the toxin molecule along its way to membrane insertion and pore formation. The first was the freshly assembled, SDS-sensitive heptamer alpha7*a, where a minor alteration in …

Bright hot impacts by erupted fragments falling back on the Sun: UV redshifts in stellar accretion

2014

A solar eruption after a flare on 7 Jun 2011 produced EUV-bright impacts of fallbacks far from the eruption site, observed with the Solar Dynamics Observatory. These impacts can be taken as a template for the impact of stellar accretion flows. Broad red-shifted UV lines have been commonly observed in young accreting stars. Here we study the emission from the impacts in the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly's UV channels and compare the inferred velocity distribution to stellar observations. We model the impacts with 2D hydrodynamic simulations. We find that the localised UV 1600A emission and its timing with respect to the EUV emission can be explained by the impact of a cloud of fragments. The …

Using neural networks to obtain indirect information about the state variables in an alcoholic fermentation process

2020

This work provides a manual design space exploration regarding the structure, type, and inputs of a multilayer neural network (NN) to obtain indirect information about the state variables in the alcoholic fermentation process. The main benefit of our application is to help experts reduce the time needed for making the relevant measurements and to increase the lifecycles of sensors in bioreactors. The novelty of this research is the flexibility of the developed application, the use of a great number of variables, and the comparative presentation of the results obtained with different NNs (feedback vs. feed-forward) and different learning algorithms (Back-Propagation vs. Levenberg&ndash

Stock market dynamics and turbulence: parallel analysis of fluctuation phenomena

1997

Abstract We report analogies and differences between the fluctuations in an economic index and the fluctuations in velocity of a fluid in a fully turbulent state. Specifically, we systematically compare (i) the statistical properties of the S&P 500 cash index recorded during the period January 84–December 89 with (ii) the statistical properties of the velocity of turbulent air measured in the atmospheric surface layer about 6 m above a wheat canopy in the Connecticut Agricultural Research Station. We find non-Gaussian statistics, and intermittency, for both processes (i) and (ii) but the deviation from a Gaussian probability density function are different for stock market dynamics and turbu…