Low-temperature ultrafast mobility in systems with long-range repulsive interactions: Pb/Si(111)

A realization of the numerous phases predicted in systems with long-range repulsive interactions was recently found in Pb/Si(111). Surprisingly, these numerous phases can be grown at low temperatures approximately 40 K over macroscopic distances. This unusual observation can be explained from theoretical calculations of the collective diffusion coefficient D(c) in systems with long-range repulsive interactions. Instead of a gradual dependence of D(c) on coverage, it was found that D(c) has sharp maxima at low temperatures for every stable phase (i.e., for every rational value of the coverage theta=p/q) in agreement with the experiment.     

Some Isoperimetric Inequalities in Electrochemistry and Hele Shaw Flows

Isoperimetric inequalities are applied to a moving-boundaryproblem for doubly-connected domains. This problem occurs forexample in electrochemistry, in which case the domains in questionare the electrolyte of an electrolytic cell. The two electrodessurrounding the electrolyte are assumed to grow or dissolve,at different rates in general, by electrochemical reaction.We obtain optimal estimates showing, for example, that the leastchange in volume of each electrode always occurs in sphericalsymmetry.     

Surface plasmon resonance biosensor for determination of tetrodotoxin: prevalidation study

A label-free surface plasmon resonance biosensor method was applied to determine tetrodotoxin (TTX) in pufferfish matrixes using an antibody inhibition assay format. A prevalidation study was conducted to demonstrate the assay performance characteristics, such as selectivity, LOD, LOQ, repeatability, reproducibility, and accuracy. Three participating laboratories reported standard curves in buffer and pufferfish matrix. A set of blind samples with TTX spiked into buffer as well as in 10% pufferfish extract were analyzed. Additionally, three blind naturally contaminated samples were analyzed, and the results were compared to those obtained using a reference method (HPLC/electrospray ionization-selected reaction monitoring-MS). The developed method was demonstrated to be capable of detecting TTX in pufferfish matrix standard samples in a broad concentration range (2-9000 ng/mL) with an LOD of 1.5 ng/mL. Between-laboratory recovery values were in the range of 51-190% with a mean of 107%, and 64-180% with a mean of 103% for TTX-spiked samples in buffer and pufferfish matrix, respectively. Between-laboratory recoveries were in the satisfactory range of 101-119% for naturally contaminated samples. This robust, rapid, and noninvasive method may serve as an attractive alternative to established methods for detection of TTX in pufferfish extracts.     

Monte carlo simulations of growth modes of Pb nanoislands on Si(111) surface

The growth of Pb islands on a Si(111) surface exhibits many interesting properties. For example, the self-assembled process results in a homogeneous distribution of Pb islands with uniform height. The dependence of this height on coverage and temperature can be expressed as a phase diagram [1]. In this paper we develop a model of the growth process that reflects the main features of the experimental observations and determines the key processes of quantum dot formation in a Pb/Si(111) system. The growth of islands is simulated by the Monte Carlo method. With suitably chosen parameters the model is able to reconstruct the phase diagram, via the dependence of the dynamics of Pb atoms on area and height. These dependencies are attributed to stress energy and quantum size effects.     

Rapid and sensitive detection of cholera toxin using gold nanoparticle-based simple colorimetric and dynamic light scattering assay

Herein, a rapid and simple gold nanoparticle based colorimetric and dynamic light scattering (DLS) assay for the sensitive detection of cholera toxin has been developed. The developed assay is based on the distance dependent properties of gold nanoparticles which cause aggregation of antibody-conjugated gold nanoparticles in the presence of cholera toxin resulting discernible color change. This aggregation induced color change caused a red shift in the plasmon band of nanoparticles which was measured by UV–Vis spectroscopy. In addition, we employed DLS assay to monitor the extent of aggregation in the presence of different concentration of cholera toxin. Our assay can visually detect as low as 10 nM of cholera toxin which is lower than the previously reported colorimetric methods. The reported assay is very fast and showed an excellent specificity against other diarrhetic toxins. Moreover, we have demonstrated the feasibility of our method for cholera toxin detection in local lake water.