Status of electroweak phase transition and baryogenesis

I review recent progress on the electroweak phase transition and baryogenesis, focusing on the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model as the source of new physics.     

Ion-molecule reactions of 2-methoxyethanol with some amines, carboxylic acids and amino acids under chemical ionization conditions

2-Methoxyethanol chemical ionization of amines, carboxylic acids and amino acids has been found to produce numerous adduct ions. The most intense adduct ions for amines are [M + H](+) and [M + 77](+), for carboxylic acids [M + 27](+), [M + 59](+) and [M + 77](+), and for amino acids [M + H](+), [M + 13](+), [M + 27](+) and [M + 77](+). Either the adduct ion [M + H](+) or [M + 77](+) was the most abundant ion found for amino acids. The proton affinities of amino acids are noticed to control the formation of the [M + H](+) and [M + 77](+) ions. The relative abundance of [M + 13](+) and [M + 27](+) ions varied for different amino acids being most intense for phenylalanine and aspartic acid. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Asymmetrical hippocampal connectivity in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy: evidence from resting state fMRI

Background

Recent studies have shown that the human right-hemispheric auditory cortex is particularly sensitive to reduction in sound quality, with an increase in distortion resulting in an amplification of the auditory N1m response measured in the magnetoencephalography (MEG). Here, we examined whether this sensitivity is specific to the processing of acoustic properties of speech or whether it can be observed also in the processing of sounds with a simple spectral structure. We degraded speech stimuli (vowel /a/), complex non-speech stimuli (a composite of five sinusoidals), and sinusoidal tones by decreasing the amplitude resolution of the signal waveform. The amplitude resolution was impoverished by reducing the number of bits to represent the signal samples. Auditory evoked magnetic fields (AEFs) were measured in the left and right hemisphere of sixteen healthy subjects.

Results

We found that the AEF amplitudes increased significantly with stimulus distortion for all stimulus types, which indicates that the right-hemispheric N1m sensitivity is not related exclusively to degradation of acoustic properties of speech. In addition, the P1m and P2m responses were amplified with increasing distortion similarly in both hemispheres. The AEF latencies were not systematically affected by the distortion.

Conclusions

We propose that the increased activity of AEFs reflects cortical processing of acoustic properties common to both speech and non-speech stimuli. More specifically, the enhancement is most likely caused by spectral changes brought about by the decrease of amplitude resolution, in particular the introduction of periodic, signal-dependent distortion to the original sound. Converging evidence suggests that the observed AEF amplification could reflect cortical sensitivity to periodic sounds.     

Energetics of Brownian motors: a review

We review the literature on the energetics of Brownian motors, distinguishing between forced ratchets, chemical motors – driven out of equilibrium by differences of chemical potential, and thermal motors – driven by temperature differences. The discussion is focused on the definition of efficiency and the compatibility between the models and the laws of thermodynamics. Received: 13 November 2001 / Accepted: 10 January 2002 / Published online: 22 April 2002     

连续波锁模P_r~（3＋）：YLF激光器

本文报导了采用氩离子激光器来泵浦Ｒｒ￣（３＋）：ＹＬＦ晶体，应用声光调制器实现了主动锁模；同时应用振动─高反射平面镜也实现了被动锁模，两种锁模均得到了ｐｓ光脉冲。据作者了解这是这种晶体材料的第一次锁模运转。     

Examination of the Hund rule in closed-shell systems: Investigation of spin correlation effects

The validity of the Hund rule in atomic orbitals (AO s) of the carbon atoms inside closed-shell molecules, such as acetylene, ethylene, and ethane, is examined. Electron-pair populations and contributions of the two-electron covalent structures with parallel (?) and antiparallel (↑↓) spins are calculated by multielectron population analysis of MO + CI wave functions. Such an analysis, which allows the visualization of various cooperative electronic effects in some target AO s, is extended on the basis of (strictly orthogonal) hybrid orbitals. Although the HF level shows, incorrectly, that the Hund rule is not satisfied, the CI clearly shows a preference for (?) spins to those of (↑↓): This holds for both the electron-pair populations [those of (↑↓) spins diminish with the CI more drastically than those of (?) spins], as well as for contributions of the two-electron covalent structures [those of (?) spins increase with the CI more drastically than do those of (?) spins]. The calculation of the correlation functions (or dependent functions) in AO space allows the comparison of repulsive or “attractive” behaviour of (?) and (↑↓) spins in various AO couples. Mutual dependence of the two electrons inside the sigma system increases in the series ethane < ethylene < acetylene. Also found is that parallel spins in (pure) AO s of sigma systems are preferred to the antiparallel spins when going from ethane to acetylene. The preference parallel–antiparallel spins in AO s belonging to two different atoms, including hydrogens, is also examined. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.