University of Minho

About: University of Minho is a education organization based out in Braga, Portugal. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Population. The organization has 10585 authors who have published 34736 publications receiving 732436 citations. The organization is also known as: Universidade do Minho & UMinho.

Surface Modification of Electrospun Polycaprolactone Nanofiber Meshes by Plasma Treatment to Enhance Biological Performance

Abstract: A critical aspect in the development of biomaterials is the optimization of their surface properties to achieve an adequate cell response. In the present work, electrospun polycaprolactone nanofiber meshes (NFMs) are treated by radio-frequency (RF) plasma using different gases (Ar or O2), power (20 or 30W), and exposure time (5 or 10min). Morphological and roughness analysis show topographical changes on the plasma-treated NFMs. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results indicate an increment of the oxygen-containing groups, mainly ‐OH and ‐C‐ at the plasma-treated surfaces. Accordingly, the glycerol contact angle results demonstrate a decrease in the hydrophobicity of plasma-treated meshes, particularly in the O2-treated ones. Three model cell lines (fibroblasts, chondrocytes, and osteoblasts) are used to study the effect of plasma treatments over the morphology, cell adhesion, and proliferation. A plasma treatment with O2 and one with Ar are found to be the most successful for all the studied cell types. The influence of hydrophilicity and roughness of those NFMs on their biological performance is discussed. Despite the often claimed morphological similarity of NFMs to natural extracellular matrixes, their surface properties contribute substantially to the cellular performance and therefore those should be optimized.

Measurement of the inclusive W± and Z/γ∗ cross sections in the e and μ decay channels in pp collisions at √s=7TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: The production cross sections of the inclusive Drell-Yan processes W-+/- -> l nu and Z/gamma* -> ll (l = e, mu) are measured in proton-proton collisions at root s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector. The cross sections are reported integrated over a fiducial kinematic range, extrapolated to the full range, and also evaluated differentially as a function of the W decay lepton pseudorapidity and the Z boson rapidity, respectively. Based on an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb(-1) collected in 2010, the precision of these measurements reaches a few percent. The integrated and the differential W-+/- and Z/gamma* cross sections in the e and mu channels are combined, and compared with perturbative QCD calculations, based on a number of different parton distribution sets available at next-to-next-to-leading order.

Search for direct third-generation squark pair production in final states with missing transverse momentum and two b-jets in √s = 8 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: The results of a search for pair production of supersymmetric partners of the Standard Model third-generation quarks are reported. This search uses 20.1 fb-1 of pp collisions at sqrt{s}=8 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The lightest bottom and top squarks (b1 and t1 respectively) are searched for in a final state with large missing transverse momentum and two jets identified as originating from b-quarks. No excess of events above the expected level of Standard Model background is found. The results are used to set upper limits on the visible cross section for processes beyond the Standard Model. Exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on the masses of the third-generation squarks are derived in phenomenological supersymmetric R-parity-conserving models in which either the bottom or the top squark is the lightest squark. The b1 is assumed to decay via b1->b chi0 and the t via t1->b chipm, with undetectable products of the subsequent decay of the chipm due to the small mass splitting between the chipm and the chi0.

Search for new phenomena in dijet events using 37 fb-1 of pp collision data collected at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: Dijet events are studied in the proton-proton collision dataset recorded at root s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016, corresponding to integrated lumino ...