Lorentz Nanoplasmonics for Nonlinear Generation.

While past works have suggested that the Lorentz magnetic contribution to second harmonic generation from metal nanostructures is negligible as compared to other terms, here we demonstrate a dominant Lorentz contribution from T-shaped apertures in a gold film. The apertures are designed to have overlapping magnetic and electric near-field intensities at the plasmonic resonance. This gives 65% greater nonlinear generation from the Lorentz term than the sum of the other two terms. We demonstrate this effect experimentally by milling of nanoapertures of different size and orientation in a metal film and measuring their second harmonic generation. Good agreement is seen between the experiments and comprehensive calculations. In the development of highly efficient nonlinear metasurfaces, careful optimization of the Lorentz contribution should be considered in addition to all other contributions. Following the approach of this work, the Lorentz contribution may also be optimized for THz generation.

Nutrient sensing pathway genes expression dysregulated in patients with T2DM and coronary artery disease.

AIMS: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder and its prevalence is rapidly increasing worldwide. Patients with T2DM suffer from an increased risk of vascular complications. Of these, the development of coronary artery disease (CAD) causes the most mortality in patients with T2DM, however, its underlying molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. Nutrient sensing pathways which play a key role in sensing cellular energy and nutrients levels are reported to dysregulated in metabolic disease like T2DM. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression levels of nutrient sensing genes including SIRT1, PRKAB1, PRKAB2 and mTOR in CAD+ versus CAD-T2DM patients. METHODS: Sixty-five people with T2DM who referred to Tehran heart center were participated in this study. Based on coronary angiography data these individuals were classified into two groups: CAD+ T2DM (n = 34) and CAD-T2DM (n = 31). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from these patients and the expression levels of genes were evaluated by RT-qPCR. RESULTS: Significant down-regulations of the SIRT1 (3.1-fold, p = 0.0013) and PRKAB1 (3.5-fold, p = 0.0001) mRNA expression were observed in CAD+ T2DM group in comparison with CAD-T2DM patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the area under the ROC curve was 0.8529 (p = 0.0001) and 0.7078 (p = 0.004) for PRKAB1 and SIRT1 respectively. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the dysregulation of genes involved in nutrient sensing pathway may be associated with the pathogenesis of CAD in patients with T2DM. Furthermore, the expression levels of these genes could be consider as potential biomarkers.

Association of ANRIL Expression with Coronary Artery Disease in Type 2 Diabetic Patients.

OBJECTIVES: ANRIL is an important antisense noncoding RNA gene in the INK4 locus (9p21.3), a hot spot region associated with multiple disorders including coronary artery disease (CAD), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and many different types of cancer. It has been shown that its expression is dysregulated in a variety of immune-mediated diseases. CAD is a major problem in T2DM patients and the cause of almost 60% of deaths in these patients worldwide. The aim of the present study was to compare the expression level of ANRIL between T2DM patients with and without CAD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this case-control study, we examined ANRIL expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples by quantitative reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in 64 T2DM patients with and without CAD (33 CAD+ and 31 CAD- patients respectively, established by coronary angiography). RESULTS: Expression analysis revealed that ANRIL was up regulated (2.34-Fold, P=0.012) in CAD+ versus CADdiabetic patients. Data from receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis has shown that ANRIL could act as a potential biomarker for detecting CAD in diabetic patients. CONCLUSIONS: The expression level of ANRIL is associated with presence of CAD in diabetic patients and could be considered as a potential peripheral biomarker.

New hybrid nanocomposite of copper terephthalate MOF-graphene oxide: synthesis, characterization and application as adsorbents for toxic metal ion removal from Sungun acid mine drainage.

The application of a hybrid Cu(tpa).GO (Cu(tpa) copper terephthalate metal organic framework, GO graphene oxide) composite as a new adsorbent for the removal of toxic metal ions was reported. New hybrid nanocomposite with excellent dispersibility and stability was successfully fabricated by the simple and effective ultrasonication method. The synthesized composite was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-Vis and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) techniques. The characterization results concluded that the binding mechanism of the Cu(tpa) and GO was related to both π-π packing and hydrogen bonding. For scrutinizing the sorption activity, the prepared adsorbents were assessed for the removal of Mn2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Pb2+ and Fe3+ metal ions from aqueous synthetic solution and also acid mine drainage (AMD) wastewater. The sorption experiments demonstrated that the removal efficiency was significantly improved by modified hybrid Cu(tpa).GO composite, owing to the significant number of active binding sites and unique structure formed based on π-conjugated networks. Also, it was shown that the adsorption reaction was mainly attributed to the chemical interactions between metal ions and the surface functional groups. Moreover, kinetic and adsorption studies clarified that the adsorption process onto the Cu(tpa).GO follows a pseudo-second-order kinetics and fits the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models. Holistically, the results of this research represent that applying Cu(tpa).GO can be remarked as an effective adsorbent with high possibility at conventional water treatment.