Effects of NM23 transfection of human gastric carcinoma cells in mice.

Gastric carcinoma is a frequent malignant tumor worldwide. NM23 plays an important role in pathological processes, including in the occurrence and development of tumors. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of NM23 transfection of human gastric carcinoma cells (BGC-823) on growth and metastases of BGC-823 abdominal cancer xenografts in nude mice. BGC-823 cells were transfected with an adenovirus vector for NM23 (NM23-OE), transfected with an empty vector (NC), or were not transfected (Ctrl). Eighteen female BALB/c-nu mice were randomly divided into three groups (six per group) according to the type of BGC-823 cells administered by intraperitoneal injection. After 2 weeks, necropsies of mice were performed, abdominal circumferences were measured, and abdominal cavities were searched by ultrasound. In order to observe the xenografts in nude mice, there were gross macroscopic observations and microscopic observations. In addition, immunohistochemical analysis and western blot of NM23 were also performed. Green fluorescence in the NM23-OE and NC cells indicated successful transfection. The multiplicity of infection is 80%. A comparison of the three groups of mice indicated the NM23-OE group had positive conditions (abdominal circumferences: 81.83 ± 2.40 mm), but the other groups had negative conditions and enlarged abdomens (NC: 90.83 ± 2.32 mm; Ctrl: 92.67 ± 2.07 mm). Ultrasound observations confirmed large tumors in the NC and Ctrl groups, but did not find in the NM23-OE group. There were no obvious ascites in the NM23-OE group, but the cytological examination of ascites exfoliation in NC and Ctrl groups indicated that there were large and deep-stained gastric carcinoma cells. Tumor expression of NM23 was greater in the NM23-OE group than in the NC and Ctrl groups (both p < 0.05). In conclusion, transfection of BCG-823 cells with NM23 rather than an empty vector (NC) or no vector (Ctrl) led to reduced growth and metastases of abdominal cancer xenografts in nude mice.

Fission cross-section measurement for Xe135m and Xe135g in U238 reaction induced by 14MeV D-T neutrons.

In this work, the independent fission cross-sections of U(n,f)238Xe135g and U(n,f)238Xe135m reactions induced by neutrons with the energies of 14.1 MeV, 14.5 MeV, and 14.7 MeV were measured by activation methods. The neutrons from T(d,n)He4 were used in the experiments and their energies were determined by the ratio of Zr(n,2n)90Zr89 and Nb(n,2n)93Nb92m reaction cross-sections. Aluminum films were chosen as reference samples to measure the neutron fluence relative to the cross section of the Al(n,α)27Na24 reaction. The effect of self-absorption, geometry, and cascade coincidence were also considered during the data analysis. Besides, the increase in the daughter nuclide yield due to the decay of the parent nuclides in the same decay chain was deducted. As a result, the independent fission cross-sections of the U(n,f)238Xe135g reaction are 2.54 ± 0.14 mb, 3.05 ± 0.19 mb and 2.94 ± 0.19 mb, while the cross-sections of U(n,f)238Xe135m reaction are 2.11 ± 0.16 mb, 2.47 ± 0.18 mb and 2.34 ± 0.21 mb for 14.1 MeV, 14.5 MeV and 14.7 MeV neutrons, respectively. This work provides experimental data for the database of nuclear fission reactions.

The effect of Laves phase on heavy-ion radiation response of Nb-containing FeCrAl alloy for accident-tolerant fuel cladding.

As a promising candidate material for the accident tolerant fuel cladding in light water reactors, the Nb-containing FeCrAl alloy has shown outstanding out-of-pile service performance due to the Laves phase precipitation. In this work, the radiation response in FeCrAl alloys with gradient Nb content under heavy ion radiation has been investigated. The focus is on the effect of the Laves phase on irradiation-induced defects and hardening. We found that the phase boundary between the matrix and Laves phase can play a critical role in capturing radiation defects, as verified by in-situ heavy-ion radiation experiments and molecular dynamic simulations. Additionally, the evolution of Laves phase under radiation is analyzed. Radiation-induced amorphization and segregations observed at high radiation doses will deepen the fundamental understanding of the stability of Laves phases in the radiation environment.

A Review of Recent Applications of Ion Beam Techniques on Nanomaterial Surface Modification: Design of Nanostructures and Energy Harvesting.

Nanomaterials have gained plenty of research interest because of their excellent performance, which is derived from their small size and special structure. In practical applications, to acquire nanomaterials with high performance, many methods have been used to modulate the structure and components of materials. To date, ion beam techniques have extensively been applied for modulating the performance of various nanomaterials. Energetic ion beams can modulate the surface morphology and chemical components of nanomaterials. In addition, ion beam techniques have also been used to fabricate nanomaterials, including 2D materials, nanoparticles, and nanowires. Compared with conventional methods, ion beam techniques, including ion implantation, ion irradiation, and focused ion beam, are all pure physical processes; these processes do not introduce any impurities into the target materials. In addition, ion beam techniques exhibit high controllability and repeatability. Here, recent progress in ion beam techniques for nanomaterial surface modification is systematically summarized and existing challenges and potential solutions are presented.

Significantly enhanced visible light response in single TiO2 nanowire by nitrogen ion implantation.

The metal-oxide semiconductor TiO2 shows enormous potential in the field of photoelectric detection; however, UV-light absorption only restricts its widespread application. It is considered that nitrogen doping can improve the visible light absorption of TiO2, but the effect of traditional chemical doping is far from being used for visible light detection. Herein, we dramatically broadened the absorption spectrum of the TiO2 nanowire (NW) by nitrogen ion implantation and apply the N-doped single TiO2 NW to visible light detection for the first time. Moreover, this novel strategy effectively modifies the surface states and thus regulates the height of Schottky barriers at the metal/semiconductor interface, which is crucial to realizing high responsivity and a fast response rate. Under the illumination of a laser with a wavelength of 457 nm, our fabricated photodetector exhibits favorable responsivity (8 A W-1) and a short response time (0.5 s). These results indicate that ion implantation is a promising method in exploring the visible light detection of TiO2.

Negative differential resistance effect induced by metal ion implantation in SiO2 film for multilevel RRAM application.

Pt/SiO2:metal nanoparticles/Pt sandwich structure is fabricated with the method of metal ion (Ag) implantation. The device exhibits multilevel storage with appropriate R off/R on ratio, good endurance and retention properties. Based on transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometer analysis, we confirm that Pt nanoparticles are spurted into SiO2 film from Pt bottom electrode by Ag implantation; during electroforming, the local electric field can be enhanced by these Pt nanoparticles, meanwhile the Ag nanoparticles constantly migrate toward the Pt nanoparticles. The implantation induced nanoparticles act as trap sites in the resistive switching layer and play critical roles in the multilevel storage, which is evidenced by the negative differential resistance effect in the current-voltage (I-V) measurements.

Improved Thermal Stability of Graphene-Veiled Noble Metal Nanoarrays as Recyclable SERS Substrates.

The ability to enhance the heat resistance of noble metals is vital to many industrial and academic applications. Because of its exceptional thermal properties, graphene was used to enhance the thermal stability of noble metals. Monolayer graphene-covered noble metal triangular nanoarrays (TNAs) showed excellent heat resistance, which could maintain their original triangular nanoarrays at high temperatures, whereas bare noble metal TNAs all agglomerate into spherical nanoparticles. On the basis of this mechanism, we obtained a universal recyclable surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate; after 16 cycles, the SERS substrate still worked well. The improvement of the heat resistance of noble metals by graphene has a great significance to the working reliability and service life of electronic devices and the single-use problem of traditional SERS substrates.

Interface Energy Coupling between ß-tungsten Nanofilm and Few-layered Graphene.

We report the thermal conductance induced by few-layered graphene (G) sandwiched between ß-phase tungsten (ß-W) films of 15, 30 and 40 nm thickness. Our differential characterization is able to distinguish the thermal conductance of ß-W film and ß-W/G interface. The cross-plane thermal conductivity (k) of ß-W films is determined at 1.69~2.41 Wm-1K-1 which is much smaller than that of α-phase tungsten (174 Wm-1K-1). This small value is consistent with the large electrical resistivity reported for ß-W in literatures and in this work. The ß-W/ß-W and ß-W/G interface thermal conductance (G W/W and G W/G ) are characterized and compared using multilayered ß-W films with and without sandwiched graphene layers. The average G W/W is found to be at 280 MW m-2K-1. G W/G features strong variation from sample to sample, and has a lower-limit of 84 MW m-2K-1, taking into consideration of the uncertainties. This is attributed to possible graphene structure damage and variation during graphene transfer and W sputtering. The difference between G 2W/G and G W/W uncovers the finite thermal resistance induced by the graphene layer. Compared with up-to-date reported graphene interface thermal conductance, the ß-W/G interface is at the high end in terms of local energy coupling.

Confining Cation Injection to Enhance CBRAM Performance by Nanopore Graphene Layer.

Conductive-bridge random access memory (CBRAM) is considered a strong contender of the next-generation nonvolatile memory technology. Resistive switching (RS) behavior in CBRAM is decided by the formation/dissolution of nanoscale conductive filament (CF) inside RS layer based on the cation injection from active electrode and their electrochemical reactions. Remarkably, RS is actually a localized behavior, however, cation injects from the whole area of active electrode into RS layer supplying excessive cation beyond the requirement of CF formation, leading to deterioration of device uniformity and reliability. Here, an effective method is proposed to localize cation injection into RS layer through the nanohole of inserted ion barrier between active electrode and RS layer. Taking an impermeable monolayer graphene as ion barrier, conductive atomic force microscopy results directly confirm that CF formation is confined through the nanohole of graphene due to the localized cation injection. Compared with the typical Cu/HfO2 /Pt CBRAM device, the novel Cu/nanohole-graphene/HfO2 /Pt device shows improvement of uniformity, endurance, and retention characteristics, because the cation injection is limited by the nanohole graphene. Scaling the nanohole of ion barrier down to several nanometers, the single-CF-based CBRAM device with high performance is expected to achieve by confining the cation injection at the atomic scale.

Significant Radiation Tolerance and Moderate Reduction in Thermal Transport of a Tungsten Nanofilm by Inserting Monolayer Graphene.

Tungsten-graphene multilayer composites are fabricated using a stacking method. The thermal resistance induced by the graphene interlayer is moderate. An ion-implantation method is used to verify the radiation tolerance. The results show that graphene inserted among tungsten films plays a dominant role in reducing radiation damage. Furthermore, the performance of different tungsten period-thicknesses in radiation tolerance is systematically analyzed.