Formation and hydrogenation of p(2 × 2)-N on Pt(1 1 1)

The formation of a well-ordered p(2 × 2) overlayer of atomic nitrogen on the Pt(1 1 1) surface and its reaction with hydrogen were characterized with reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS), temperature programmed desorption (TPD), low energy electron diffraction (LEED), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The p(2 × 2)-N overlayer is formed by exposure of ammonia to a surface at 85 K that is covered with 0.44 monolayer (ML) of molecular oxygen and then heating to 400 K. The reaction between ammonia and oxygen produces water, which desorbs below 400 K. The only desorption product observed above 400 K is molecular nitrogen, which has a peak desorption temperature of 453 K. The absence of oxygen after the 400 K anneal is confirmed with AES. Although atomic nitrogen can also be produced on the surface through the reaction of ammonia with an atomic, rather than molecular, oxygen overlayer at a saturation coverage of 0.25 ML, the yield of surface nitrogen is significantly less, as indicated by the N₂ TPD peak area. Atomic nitrogen readily reacts with hydrogen to produce the NH species, which is characterized with RAIRS by an intense and narrow (FWHM ∼ 4 cm⁻¹) peak at 3322 cm⁻¹. The areas of the H₂ TPD peak associated with NH dissociation and the XPS N 1s peak associated with the NH species indicate that not all of the surface N atoms can be converted to NH by the methods used here.     

Uniform fourth order difference scheme for a singular perturbation problem

Summary The numerical solution of a nonlinear singularly perturbed two-point boundary value problem is studied. The developed method is based on Hermitian approximation of the second derivative on special discretization mesh. Numerical examples which demonstrate the effectiveness of the method are presented.This research was partly supported by NSF and SIZ for Science of SAP Vojvodina through funds made available to the U.S.-Yugoslav Joint Board on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (grants JF 544, JF 799)     

Synthesis, binding affinity, and relaxivity of target-specific MRI contrast agents

Although magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most important imaging modalities of the central nervous system (CNS), one of the main drawbacks of MRI is its limited specificity. This can potentially be partially alleviated by target-specific contrast agents. In the present paper we describe a simple high yield synthesis of two such gadolinium-based spiperone targeted MRI contrast agents, 1a and 1b. The R₁ relaxivities of 1a and 1b were evaluated and found to be 5.94 and 8.31 mM⁻¹ s⁻¹, respectively at 9.4T, while their R₂ relaxivities at the same magnetic field were found to be 18.05 and 22.60 mM⁻¹ s⁻¹, respectively. In addition and very importantly compound 1a, which is a gadolinium-based, spiperone-targeted MRI contrast agent, was found to preserve some of the spiperone affinity toward the dopamine D2 receptor. Compounds 1a and 1b thus represent potential agents for in vitro dopamine receptor imaging using MRI in experimental models. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Viscous fingering and the shape of an electronic droplet in the quantum Hall regime

We show that the semiclassical dynamics of an electronic droplet, confined in a plane in a quantizing inhomogeneous magnetic field in the regime where the electrostatic interaction is negligible, is similar to viscous (Saffman-Taylor) fingering on the interface between two fluids with different viscosities confined in a Hele-Shaw cell. Both phenomena are described by the same equations with scales differing by a factor of up to 10(-9). We also report the quasiclassical wave function of the droplet in an inhomogeneous magnetic field.     

Fourth-order finite-difference method for boundary value problems with two small parameters

We present a finite difference scheme for a class of linear singularly perturbed boundary value problems with two small parameters. The problem is discretized using a Bakhvalov-type mesh. It is proved under certain conditions that this scheme is fourth-order accurate and that its error does not increase when the perturbation parameter tends to zero. Numerical examples are presented which demonstrate computationally the fourth order of the method.     

A preconditioning technique for a class of PDE-constrained optimization problems

We investigate the use of a preconditioning technique for solving linear systems of saddle point type arising from the application of an inexact Gauss?CNewton scheme to PDE-constrained optimization problems with a hyperbolic constraint. The preconditioner is of block triangular form and involves diagonal perturbations of the (approximate) Hessian to insure nonsingularity and an approximate Schur complement. We establish some properties of the preconditioned saddle point systems and we present the results of numerical experiments illustrating the performance of the preconditioner on a model problem motivated by image registration.     

Dynamics and stability of evolutionary optimal strategies in duopoly

Central European Journal of Operations Research - In this paper, we analyse the company behaviour in duopoly taking into account the most common strategies, including dominant, reactive,...     

On a simultaneous method of Newton-Weierstrass’ type for finding all zeros of a polynomial

Combining a suitable two-point iterative method for solving nonlinear equations and Weierstrass’ correction, a new iterative method for simultaneous finding all zeros of a polynomial is derived. It is proved that the proposed method possesses a cubic convergence locally. Numerical examples demonstrate a good convergence behavior of this method in a global sense. It is shown that its computational efficiency is higher than the existing derivative-free methods.