The current study demonstrates the potential of phosphoryalation, an essential biological process, to serve as a driving force for dramatic conformational changes of proteins modulating their affinity to target proteins.”
“Previous work showed that high density polyethylene (HDPE)/exfoliated graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) nanocomposites fabricated with melt extrusion followed by injection molding had a relatively high percolation threshold of between p38 MAPK signaling 10 and 15 vol % GNP loading. To lower the percolation threshold of injection molded HDPE/GNP nanocomposites, two special processing methods were investigated: solid state ball milling (SSBM) and solid state shear pulverization (SSSP). Results have

confirmed that the percolation threshold of HDPE/GNP nanocomposites could be reduced to

between 3 and 5 vol % GNP loading by these two approaches. The mechanism by which SSBM and SSSP are capable of producing lower percolation is to coat the polymer surface with GNP platelets which facilitates the formation of conductive networks during injection molding. However, it was found that HDPE/GNP nanocomposites obtained from these two techniques exhibited lower mechanical properties at high GNP loadings. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012″
“The reflection notch bandwidth Citarinostat of a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC), equal to the product of the liquid crystal (LC) birefringence (Delta n), and the pitch length

(p(o)), is typically on the order of 50-100 nm in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Static bandwidths greater than 100 nm can be observed in CLCs that possess a pitch gradient throughout the thickness of the cell. In this work, we report on polymer stabilized CLC (PSCLC) systems that exhibit electrically controllable, dynamic bandwidths governed by the strength of a direct current (DC) electric field applied across the sample. Symmetric notch broadening which increases linearly with field and reaches a Akt inhibitor drugs maximum value at 4 V/mu m is observed. Removal of the field returns the PSCLC cell to its original optical properties. A seven fold increase in bandwidth was observed for 22 mu m thick cells which contained LCs with a small birefringence (similar to 0.04). A variety of CLC mixtures with small positive or negative dielectric anisotropies are shown to exhibit this reversible dynamic bandwidth broadening. The magnitude of the effect was dependent on the amount of polymer stabilization controlled by initial monomer content. The underlying mechanism is partially elucidated by examining cells simultaneously in transmission and reflection and observing differences when modulating the DC polarity across the cell. Different mechanisms for the observed effects are discussed in terms of consistency with our experimental results. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.