The increasing volume fraction of recrystallized < 111 > grains with time was monitored via the variation in the diffracted intensity. This variation could be represented by the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov model. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3514096]“
“Both food-storing behaviour and the hippocampus change annually in food-storing birds. Food storing increases substantially in autumn and winter in chickadees Entinostat and tits, jays and nutcrackers and nuthatches. The total size of the chickadee hippocampus increases in autumn and winter as does the rate of hippocampal neurogenesis. The hippocampus is necessary for accurate cache retrieval in

food-storing birds and is much larger in food-storing birds than in non-storing passerines. It therefore seems probable that seasonal change in caching and seasonal change in the hippocampus are causally related. The peak in recruitment of new neurons Selleckchem Torin 2 into the hippocampus occurs before birds have completed food storing and cache retrieval for the year and may therefore be associated with spacing caches, encoding the spatial locations of caches,

or creating a neuronal architecture involved in the recollection of cache sites. The factors controlling hippocampal plasticity in food-storing birds are not well understood. Photoperiodic manipulations that produce change in food-storing behaviour have no effect on either hippocampal size or neuronal recruitment. Available evidence suggests that changes in hippocampal size and neurogenesis may be a consequence of the behavioural and cognitive involvement of the hippocampus in storing and retrieving food.”
“Silica nanoparticles functionalized with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were obtained by the grinding/mechanical activation of quartz or nonfunctionalized silica nanoparticles in a stirred

media mill in the presence of 1-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone, as proven by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The polymer layer thickness formed on the silica nanoparticles after 8 h of mechanical activation in the absence of polymerization initiators amounted to about 10 nm, as derived from shear rheology. The silica nanoparticles functionalized with the hydrophilic PVP by mechanochemical polymerization reaction were used as fillers AZD5153 clinical trial for hydrogels based on poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (polyHEMA). The water absorption, release properties, and mechanical properties of the polyHEMA-silica composites were measured as functions of the filler content and particle size of the filler. PolyHEMA samples containing 20 wt % of the functionalized silica particles exhibited a higher maximum water absorption than the unfilled polymer; this showed that the hydrophilic interface between the filler and the matrix improved the water absorption. The release of methylene blue from the poly-HEMA-silica composites was governed by diffusion and was almost unaffected by the silica particles.