“
“Ce-doped ZnO nanorods were prepared under mild hydrothermal condition. The microstructures, morphologies and optical properties of as-synthesized nanorods were investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS),

photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), and Raman spectroscopy. XRD and XPS results demonstrated that Ce ions were successfully incorporated into the lattice position of Zn ions in ZnO. TEM images illustrated that the average diameter of Ce-doped ZnO nanorods was 8 nm. PL measurements revealed MK-0518 supplier that both the undoped and Ce-doped ZnO nanorods had an UV emission and a defect emission and the Ce ions doping induced a redshift in the UV emission and a small enhancement in the defect emission. The slight shift in A(1L) and E(1L) in Raman spectra increased with the Ce ions doping also indicated that the Ce doping changed the free carrier concentration in the ZnO nanorods. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3318613]“
“Films

of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/sodium montmorillonite (Na+-MMT) nanocomposites have been successfully prepared utilizing Na+-MMT by N,N-dimethylformamide solution casting. The nanocomposite EPZ004777 ic50 films show high transparency, enhanced thermal resistance, and mechanical properties in comparison with the neat polymer film. The transparency of the films was investigated by UV-vis spectra. The exfoliated dispersion of Na+-MMT platelets in nanocomposites were investigated by HDAC inhibitor X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The enhanced thermal resistance and mechanical properties of PMMA were studied by thermal gravimetric analysis and dynamic mechanical analysis, respectively. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 115: 2773-2778, 2010″
“Protein conformational changes and dynamic behavior are fundamental for such processes as catalysis, regulation, and substrate recognition. Although protein dynamics have been successfully explored in computer simulation, there is an intermediate-scale of motions that has proven

difficult to simulate-the motion of individual segments or domains that move independently of the body the protein. Here, we introduce a molecular-dynamics perturbation method, the Rotamerically Induced Perturbation (RIP), which can generate large, coherent motions of structural elements in picoseconds by applying large torsional perturbations to individual sidechains. Despite the large-scale motions, secondary structure elements remain intact without the need for applying backbone positional restraints. Owing to its computational efficiency, RIP can be applied to every residue in a protein, producing a global map of deformability. This map is remarkably sparse, with the dominant sites of deformation generally found on the protein surface.