The effectiveness of hydrogen plasma for the reduction process of surface native oxide on InP substrates is investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (X'S) and by phase modulated spectroscopic ellipsometry PMSE). H2 plasmas, generated in a quartz tube by ap lying a r.f. field (13.56 MHz) to external electrodes, produce a very high H-atom flux (5.10~0 atoms/cm. g ec) in the doregion. The ...

Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) are emerging as novel materials with great potentials for various biomedical applications, but their biological activities are largely unknown. In the present study, we found that ferroferric oxide nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) induced autophagy in blood cells. Both naked and modified Fe3O4 NPs induced LC3 lipidation and degraded p62, a monitor of autophagy f...

The ability to engineer nearly perfect ultrathin oxide layers, up to the limit of monolayer thickness, is a key issue for nanotechnological applications. Here we face the difficult and important case of ultrathin MgO films on Ag(100), for which no extended and well-ordered layers could thus far be produced in the monolayer limit. We demonstrate that their final morphology depends not only on th...

Vertically aligned InAs nanowires (NWs) doped with Si were grown self-assisted by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs[111]B substrates covered with a thin SiO x layer. Using out-of-plane X-ray diffraction, the influence of Si supply on the growth process and nanostructure formation was studied. It was found that the number of parasitic crystallites grown between the NWs increases with increasing Si ...

Generally, the length of the oxide nanowires grown by vapor phase transport is limited by the degradation of the source materials. Furthermore, the source material is used once for the nanowires growth. By exploiting the Si-Zn phase diagram, we have developed a simple methodology for the non-catalytic growth of ultralong ZnO nanowires in large area with controllable aspect ratio and branched st...

objective(s) to determine the potential toxic effects of manual soldering flux cored solder wire on lung of the rat as an experimental model. materials and methods a total number of 48 adult male rats were divided into experimental (n= 30) and control (n= 18) groups. based on exposure time to solder fume, each group was further subdivided into 2, 4 and 6 week subgroups. rats of experimental gro...

We have made Na (+) and He (+) ions incident on the surface of solid state tunnel junctions and measured the energy loss due to atomic displacement and electronic excitations. Each tunnel junction consists of an ultrathin film metal-oxide-semiconductor device which can be biased to create a band of hot electrons useful for driving chemical reactions at surfaces. Using the binary collision appro...

The AgriGES project is a Concerted Research Action lead by Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, aiming to quantify methane and nitrous oxide emission from pastures and crop fields, respectively. Besides quantification, a second important goal of the AgriGES project is to study the flux dynamics and to gain a better understanding of the biophysical processes coming into play. We focus here on N2O fluxes and ...