Kristallstrukturanalyse von Ammonium-catena-polyphosphat II mit Röntgenpulvertechniken

Crystal Structure Determination of Ammonium catena-Polyphosphate II by X-Ray Powder Techniques The first structure determination of one of the five modifications of ammonium-catena-polyphosphate was performed using X-ray powder diffraction data. (NH₄PO₃)_nII is formed by phase transformation of (NH₄PO₃)_nI which on its part is obtained by condensation of NH₄H₂PO₄ at 200°C in presence of urea. Modification II crystallizes in P2₁2₁2₁ (a = 1 207.9(1), b = 648.87(8), c = 426.20(4) pm; Z = 4; 291 observed reflections; R(p) = 0.089; R(wp) = 0.111; R(I, hkl) = 0.088). The chain-anion runs parallel to the shortest axis, the period of identity is two. The ammonium ion is surrounded by a distorted tetrahedron of oxygen atoms (N? O-distances range from 285 to 292 pm, hydrogen bonds of middle strength).     

Electrochemical and spectral studies of the reactions of aquocobalamin with nitric oxide and nitrite ion

Electrochemistry and Raman spectroscopy have shown that aquocob(III)alamin (Cbl(III)) can be reduced by nitric oxide (NO) to form Cbl(II) on an electrode surface. The Cbl(II) formed in this way can bind NO to form nitrosyl-cobalamin, Cbl(II)-NO, which is reduced to form Cbl(I) at about -1.0 V vs a KCl saturated Ag/AgCl reference electrode. In addition, nitrite was found to bind both Cbl(III) and Cbl(II) and a binding constant of 3.5 x 10(2) M(-1) was measured for (NO(2)-Cbl(II))(1-). UV-vis spectrophotometry and mass spectroscopy were used to show that Cbl(I) reduces NO to form Cbl(II)-NO and N(2)O and N(2), and this reaction is involved in the cyclic voltammetry of cobalamin in the presence of excess NO where a catalytic reduction of NO occurs involving the cycling of Cbl(II)-NO/Cbl(I). This redox couple is also involved in the electrochemical catalytic reduction of nitrite. These results can be used to explain a number of physiological effects involving NO interaction in biological systems with added cobalamin or with cobalamin in the methionine synthase enzyme.     

Development of a beam of very slow polarized muons

During the last few decades, a variety of methods has been developed which makes use of polarized positive muons as a microscopic probe of the magnetic properties of condensed matter (muon spin rotation, relaxation, resonance,SR). Until now, available beams for SR studies have delivered 100% polarized muons with energies in the MeV range, resulting in a deep penetration of the muons into the sample material under investigation. This presently limits the applications of theSR technique to the study of the bulk characteristics of matter. To be able to control the implantation depth, a very low energy beam of polarized muons is being developed at the Paul Scherrer Institute. Very slow polarized muons (kinetic energy 10 eV, polarization 90%) are obtained from the moderation of a high energy muon beam in a thin film of an appropriate condensed gas. These muons can be used as a source for a beam of tunable energy between a few tens of eV and some tens of keV. Implantation depths in the range of few to a few hundreds of nanometers can thus be achieved by varying the energy.     

Optimization of force constants with an Urey-Bradley force field avoiding normal mode crossings

We present a method that simplifies the refinement of force constants in normal mode calculations and makes the results more reliable. The method avoids normal mode crossings by constraining the force constants during refinement. It was tested with pyrrole, imidazole, benzene, pyridine, pyrimidine, aniline and adenine using a Urey-Bradley force field. The global error of the frequency fit for these molecules was 0.61%. The method reproduced with fewer parameters the accuracy of similar calculations of the single ring aromatic compounds. It improved the accuracy and isotopic shifts of previous empirical calculations of adenine by 40%. The C-C and C-N stretchings differed by less than 7% from the values of force constant-bond length empirical relations.     

Batch profiling calibration for robust NMR metabonomic data analysis

Metabonomic studies involve the analysis of large numbers of samples to identify significant changes in the metabolic fingerprints of biological systems, possibly with sufficient statistical power for analysis. While procedures related to sample preparation and spectral data acquisition generally include the use of independent sample batches, these might be sources of systematic variation whose effects should be removed to focus on phenotyping the relevant biological variability. In this work, we describe a grouped-batch profile (GBP) calibration strategy to adjust nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomic data-sets for batch effects either introduced during NMR experiments or samples work-up. We show how this method can be applied to data calibration in the context of a large-scale NMR epidemiological study where quality control samples are available. We also illustrate the efficiency of a batch profile correction for NMR metabonomic investigation of cell extracts, where GBP can significantly improve the predictive power of multivariate statistical models for discriminant analysis of the cell infection status. The method is applicable to a broad range of NMR metabolomic/metabonomic cohort studies.     

Muon Spin Rotation and Relaxation Experiments on Thin Films

The recent development at the Paul Scherrer Institute of a beam of low energy muons allows depth dependent muon spin rotation and relaxation investigations in thin samples, multilayers and near surface regions (low energy SR, LE-SR). After a brief overview of the LE-SR method, some representative experiments performed with this technique will be presented. The first direct determination of the field profile just below the surface of a high-temperature superconductor in the Meissner phase illustrates the power and sensitivity of low energy muons as near-surface probe and is an example of general application to depth profiling of magnetic fields. The evolution of the flux line lattice distribution across the surface of a YBa₂Cu₃O₇ film in the vortex phase has been investigated by implanting muons on both sides of a normal-superconducting boundary. A determination of the relaxation time and energy barrier to thermal activation in iron nanoclusters, embedded in a silver thin film matrix (500nm), demonstrates the use of slow muons to measure the properties of samples that cannot be made thick enough for the use of conventional SR. Other experiments investigated the magnetic properties of thin Cr(001) layers at thicknesses above and below the collapse of the spin density wave.     

Generation of very slow polarized muons by moderation

At the Paul Scherrer Institute very slow, nearly 100% polarized, positive muons with an energy of \sim\mbox10 eV are produced by moderating a secondary beam of surface muons in a thin film of an appropriate condensed gases. These epithermal muons can be used as a source of a tertiary beam of tunable energy between \sim\mbox10 eV and \sim\mbox20 keV. Such a beam allows the μSR technique to be extended to the study of thin films and surfaces. In order to be able to perform time differential μSR experiments we have developed an ultra‐thin detector that registers the passage of keV muons and permits to trigger the experiment. The results achieved so far demonstrate that first investigations of thin film samples can be performed with the present set‐up. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Testing strict monotonicity in nonparametric regression

A new test for strict monotonicity of the regression function is proposed which is based on a composition of an estimate of the inverse of the regression function with a common regression estimate. This composition is equal to the identity if and only if the “true” regression function is strictly monotone, and a test based on an L ²-distance is investigated. The asymptotic normality of the corresponding test statistic is established under the null hypothesis of strict monotonicity.