Magnetic resonance findings in sarcoidosis of the thorax.

Fifteen patients with sarcoidosis underwent thoracic MRI examinations. The T2 signal intensity of lymphadenopathy varied, with no characteristic pattern noted. Three of four patients with bright lymph nodes on T2 images had stage I sarcoidosis, but low intensity nodes were also seen in stage I patients. Coronal images were complementary to axial images and better depicted subcarinal adenopathy. MRI does not distinguish the lymphadenopathy of sarcoidosis from other entities, but is useful for defining the anatomic extent of disease and differentiating pulmonary artery enlargement from adenopathy.     

Empirical minimization

We investigate the behavior of the empirical minimization algorithm using various methods. We first analyze it by comparing the empirical, random, structure and the original one on the class, either in an additive sense, via the uniform law of large numbers, or in a multiplicative sense, using isomorphic coordinate projections. We then show that a direct analysis of the empirical minimization algorithm yields a significantly better bound, and that the estimates we obtain are essentially sharp. The method of proof we use is based on Talagrand's concentration inequality for empirical processes. Research partially supported by NSF under award DMS-0434393. Research partially supported by the Australian Research Council Discovery Porject DP0343616.     

Synthesis and characteristics of microspheres of polystyrene derivatives

Two sytrene derivatives formylstyrene and styrene sulfonylcholoride, were synthesized. Polymeric microspheres in diameters ranging from 0.1 to 2 μm were synthesized by polymerization of chlormoethylstyrene, formylstyrene, and styrene sulfonylcholoride in organic solvents, in the presence of appropriate surfactants. The kinetics of microsphere formation were studied. The molecular weight distribution of the products was determined by gel permeation chromatography. Conditions for binding various amino ligands to the microspheres were also established.     

Rearrangement of epoxynitriles: a convenient homologation of acyclic and cyclic ketones to carboxylic acids

A convenient two-step homologation of both aliphatic and aromatic ketones to the corresponding carboxylic acid has been developed. First ketones were converted to epoxynitriles with the Darzens reaction. Second, a Lewis acid mediated rearrangement of these epoxynitriles with lithium bromide was achieved to give homologated secondary alkanoic acids (as well as aryl-alkanoic) in good yields. The mechanism and the scope of the rearrangement reaction were investigated. This strategy constitutes a two-step homologation of ketones to secondary carboxylic acids.     

The synthesis and characterization of thiol-based aryl diazonium modified glassy carbon electrode for the voltammetric determination of low levels of Hg(II)

Electrochemical determination of Hg(II) in aquatic solutions on bare and modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) is reported. Optimizing the parameters used for a bare GCE, such as the electrolyte solution, the potential and time of deposition, resulted in linear response over a large range of Hg(II) concentrations (4–160 ppb) using linear sweep anodic stripping voltammetry. Modification of the electrode with 4,4′-disulfanediyldibenzenediazonium (DSBD) yielded a lowest detection limit of 1 ppb. Two procedures for DSBD synthesis are described for the first time, and the product was characterized by microanalysis, FTIR and ¹H-NMR. The electrochemical attachment of DSBD to the electrode was studied and compared with the electrochemical behaviour of DSBD analogous molecules, i.e. 4-aminophenyl disulfide, p-aminothiophenol and phenyl disulfide.     

The Proalgebraic Completion of Rigid Groups

A finitely generated group is called representation rigid (briefly, rigid) if for every n, has only finitely many classes of simple representations in dimension n. Examples include higher rank S-arithmetic groups. By Margulis super rigidity, the latter have a stronger property: they are representation super rigid; i.e., their proalgebraic completion is finite dimensional. We construct examples of nonlinear rigid groups which are not super rigid, and which exhibit every possible type of infinite dimensionality. Whether linear representation rigid groups are super rigid remains an open question.     

Observation of a quantized hall resistivity in the presence of mesoscopic fluctuations

We present an experimental study of mesoscopic, two-dimensional electronic systems at high magnetic fields. Our samples, prepared from a low-mobility InGaAs/InAlAs wafer, exhibit reproducible, sample specific, resistance fluctuations. Focusing on the lowest Landau level, we find that, while the diagonal resistivity displays strong fluctuations, the Hall resistivity is free of fluctuations and remains quantized at its nu=1 value, h/e(2). This is true also in the insulating phase that terminates the quantum Hall series. These results extend the validity of the semicircle law of conductivity in the quantum Hall effect to the mesoscopic regime.     

Chiral self-propulsion of growing bacterial macrofibers on a solid surface

Supercoiling motions that accompany the growth of bacterial macrofibers (multicellular filamentous structures formed in B. subtilis by cell division without separation) are responsible for rolling, pivoting, and walking of fibers on a surface. Fibers possess a fulcrum about which they pivot and step in a chiral manner; forces and torques associated with cell growth, when blocked by friction, result in self-propulsion. The elastic engine that drives macrofiber motions generates torques estimated as microdyn cm and femtowatts of power; optical trapping studies yield a first direct measurement of the Young's modulus of the bacterial cell wall, the engine's "working fluid," of ca. 0.05 GPa.     

Parallel magnetic field induced transition in transport in the dilute two-dimensional hole system in GaAs

A magnetic field applied parallel to the two-dimensional hole system in the GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure, which is metallic in the absence of an external magnetic field, can drive the system into insulating at a finite field through a well-defined transition. The value of resistivity at the transition is found to depend strongly on density.