A novel polyol method to synthesize colloidal silver nanoparticles by ultrasonic irradiation

A polyol synthesis of silver nanoparticles in the presence of ultrasonic irradiation was compared with other configurations (at ambient temperature, 120 °C, and 120 °C with injected solutions) in the absence of ultrasonic irradiation in order to obtain systematic results for morphology and size distribution. For applying ultrasonic irradiation, rather fine and uniform spherical silver particles (21 ± 3.7 nm) were obtained in a simple (at ambient temperature without mechanical stirring) and fast (within 4 min, 3.61 × 10⁻³ mol min⁻¹) manner than other cases (at ambient temperature (for 8 h, 0.03 × 10⁻³ mol min⁻¹): 86 ± 16.8 nm, 120 °C (for 12 min, 1.16 × 10⁻³ mol min⁻¹): 64 ± 14.9 nm, and 120 °C with injected solutions (during 12 min): 35 ± 6.8 nm; all other cases contained anisotropic shaped particles). Even though the temperature of polyol reaction reached only at 80 °C (<120 °C) in the presence of ultrasonic irradiation, a uniform mixing (i.e. enhanced collision between silver particle and surrounding components) by ultrasonic irradiation might induce a better formation kinetics and morphological uniformity.     

Diode-pumped continuous-wave eye-safe Nd:YAG laser at 1415 nm

We describe the output performance of the 1415 nm emission in Nd:YAG in a plane-concave cavity under traditional pumping into the 4F5/2 level (808 nm) and direct in-band pumping into the 4F3/2 level (885 nm). An end-pumped Nd:YAG laser yielded maximum cw output power of 6.3 W and 4.2 W at 885 nm and 808 nm laser diode (LD) pumping, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power of a LD-pumped 1415 nm laser.     

Computational approach to structural identification of phospholipids using raw mass spectra from nanoflow liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry

A qualitative analysis tool (LiPilot) for identifying phospholipids (PLs), including lysophospholipids (LPLs), from biological mixtures is introduced. The developed algorithm utilizes raw data obtained from nanoflow liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry experiments of lipid mixture samples including retention time and m/z values of precursor and fragment ions from data‐dependent, collision‐induced dissociation. Library files based on typical fragmentation patterns of PLs generated with an LTQ‐Velos ion trap mass spectrometer are used to identify PL or LPL species by comparing experimental fragment ions with typical fragment ions in the library file. Identification is aided by calculating a confidence score developed in our laboratory to maximize identification efficiency. Analysis includes the influence of total ion intensities of matched and unmatched fragment ions, the difference in m/z values between observed and theoretical fragment ions, and a weighting factor used to differentiate regioisomers through data filtration. The present study focused on targeted identification of particular PL classes. The identification software was evaluated using a mixture of 24 PL and LPL standards. The software was further tested with a human urinary PL mixture sample, with 93 PLs and 22 LPLs identified. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Determination of relative tensor orientations by γ-encoded chemical shift anisotropy/heteronuclear dipolar coupling 3D NMR spectroscopy in biological solids

In this paper, we present 3D chemical shift anisotropy (CSA)/dipolar coupling correlation experiments, based on γ-encoded R-type symmetry sequences. The γ-encoded correlation spectra are exquisitely sensitive to the relative orientation of the CSA and dipolar tensors and can provide important structural and dynamic information in peptides and proteins. We show that the first-order (m = ±1) and second-order (m = ±2) Hamiltonians in the R-symmetry recoupling sequences give rise to different correlation patterns due to their different dependencies on the crystallite orientation. The relative orientation between CSA and dipolar tensors can be determined by fitting the corresponding correlation patterns. The orientation of (15)N CSA tensor in the quasi-molecular frame is determined by the relative Euler angles, α(NH) and β(NH), when the combined symmetry schemes are applied for orientational studies of (1)H-(15)N dipolar and (15)N CSA tensors. The correlation experiments introduced here work at moderate magic angle spinning frequencies (10-20 kHz) and allow for simultaneous measurement of multiple sites of interest. We studied the orientational sensitivity of γ-encoded symmetry-based recoupling techniques numerically and experimentally. The results are demonstrated on [(15)N]-N-acetyl-valine (NAV) and N-formyl-Met-Leu-Phe (MLF) tripeptide.     

On the Hénon equation: asymptotic profile of ground states, I

This paper is concerned with the qualitative property of the ground state solutions for the Hénon equation. By studying a limiting equation on the upper half space , we investigate the asymptotic energy and the asymptotic profile of the ground states for the Hénon equation. The limiting problem is related to a weighted Sobolev type inequality which we establish in this paper.     

On the finiteness of certain Rabinowitsch polynomials II

Let m be a positive integer and f_m(x) be a polynomial of the form f_m(x)=x²+x−m. We call a polynomial f_m(x) a Rabinowitsch polynomial if for and consecutive integers is either 1 or prime. In Byeon (J. Number Theory 94 (2002) 177), we showed that there are only finitely many Rabinowitsch polynomials f_m(x) such that 1+4m is square free. In this note, we shall remove the condition that 1+4m is square free.     

Multi-bump positive solutions for a nonlinear elliptic problem in expanding tubular domains

In this paper we study the existence of multi-bump positive solutions of the following nonlinear elliptic problem: $$\begin{aligned} -\Delta u=u^p \quad \text{ in }\; \Omega _t,\quad u=0 \quad \text{ on }\; \partial \Omega _t. \end{aligned}$$ Here $1<p<\frac{N+2}{N-2}$ when $N\ge 3,\,1<p<\infty $ when $N=2$ and $\Omega _t$ is a tubular domain which expands as $t\rightarrow \infty $ . See (1.6) below for a precise definition of expanding tubular domain. When the section $D$ of $\Omega _t$ is a ball, the existence of multi-bump positive solutions is shown by Dancer and Yan (Commun Partial Differ Equ, 27(1–2), 23–55, 2002) and by Ackermann et al. (Milan J Math, 79(1), 221–232, 2011) under the assumption of a non-degeneracy of a solution of a limit problem. In this paper we introduce a new local variational method which enables us to show the existence of multi-bump positive solutions without the non-degeneracy condition for the limit problem. In particular, we can show the existence for all $N\ge 2$ without the non-degeneracy condition. Moreover we can deal with more general domains, for example, a domain whose section is an annulus, for which least energy solutions of the limit problem are really degenerate.