Time delay as a key to apoptosis induction in the p53 network

A feedback mechanism that involves the proteins p53 and mdm2, induces cell death as a controlled response to severe DNA damage. A minimal model for this mechanism demonstrates that the response may be dynamic and connected with the time needed to translate the mdm2 protein. The response takes place if the dissociation constant k between p53 and mdm2 varies from its normal value. Although it is widely believed that it is an increase in k that triggers the response, we show that the experimental behaviour is better described by a decrease in the dissociation constant. The response is quite robust upon changes in the parameters of the system, as required by any control mechanism, except for few weak points, which could be connected with the onset of cancer. Received 8 May 2002 / Received in final form 9 July 2002 Published online 17 September 2002     

Morphological and elemental characterisation with the high-energy ion-nanoprobe LIPSION

This contribution deals with the morphological and elemental characterisation with high-energy (MeV) focused ion beams (in particular protons) with special emphasis on high spatial resolution in the sub-micrometer regime and very low minimum detection limits (sub-ppm) in trace element analysis. The most important methods like particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE), Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), as well as scanning transmission ion microscopy (STIM) and STIM-tomography will be illustrated by examples from material and life sciences.     

Atomic layer deposition of PbZrO3 thin films

In this paper, we report on the preparation of lead zirconate films for the first time using atomic layer deposition in an attempt to investigate some of the film properties and also to evaluate possible use of the precursor combination to prepare more complex lead titanate zirconate. In the depositions tetraphenyl lead (Ph₄Pb) was used as the lead and zirconium 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptadionato (Zr(thd)₄) as the zirconium precursor, while ozone was used as the oxygen source. Film growth, stoichiometry and quality were studied using different pulsing ratios at deposition temperatures of 275 and 300 °C. According to X-ray diffraction, the crystalline perovskite phase was observed when films deposited on SrTiO₃(1 0 0) were annealed at 600 °C. Surface roughness was reduced for lead deficient films as well as in annealed samples.     

Oscillatory Activities in Regulatory Biological Networks and Hopf Bifurcation

Exploiting the nonlinear dynamics in the negative feedback loop, we propose a statistical signal-response model to describe the different oscillatory behaviour in a biological network motif. By choosing the delay as a bifurcation parameter, we discuss the existence of Hopf bifurcation and the stability of the periodic solutions of model equations with the centre manifold theorem and the normal form theory. It is shown that a periodic solution is born in a Hopf bifurcation beyond a critical time delay, and thus the bifurcation phenomenon may be important to elucidate the mechanism of oscillatory activities in regulatory biological networks.     

Low energy RBS and SIMS analysis of the SiGe quantum well

The Ge concentration in a MBE grown SiGe and the depth of the quantum well has been quantitatively analysed by means of low energy Rutherford backscattering (RBS) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The concentrations of Si and Ge were supposed to be constant, except for the quantum well, where the nominal germanium concentration was at 5%. Quantitative information was deduced out of raw data by comparison to SIMNRA simulated spectra. With the knowledge of the response function of the SIMS instrument (germanium delta (δ) layer) and using the model of forward convolution (point to point convolution) it is possible to determine the germanium concentration and the thickness of the analysed quantum well out of raw SIMS data.     

Aggregation-based growth of silver nanowires at room temperature

We describe an aggregation-based growth mechanism for formation of silver nanowires at room temperature. It is found that the pH of solution and the concentration of l-cysteine capping molecules have an important effect on the formation and growth of nanowires. Characterization by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and UV-vis spectroscopy recorded as time clearly shows that the silver nanowires are grown at the expense of nanoparticles.     

Optical measurements with phase-conjugate mirrors

Phase-conjugate mirrors on the basis of photorefractive crystals offer interesting possibilities of application for optical measurement systems. In this paper we report on the application of phase-conjugate mirrors (PCMs) for optical measurement techniques. We show different schemes for realizing PCMs and discuss characteristics such as reflectivity, fidelity, and time behavior. We demonstrate that two-beam interferometers with PCMs and with a suitable phase-shifting unit in the reference arm have general advantages compared with conventional systems. It is shown that self-pumped PCMs (SPPCMs) could also be successfully used for novelty filtering systems comparing a present state of a signal phase with a reference phase. It is found that SPPCMs can improve both the axial and the lateral resolution of a confocal microscope. A 30% better resolution of the PCM system is established. Received: 14 June 1999 / Revised version: 4 October 1999 / Published online: 3 November 1999     

Surface morphology and reaction at Cu/Si interface—Effect of native silicon suboxide

Copper thin films are deposited by thermal evaporation on unetched and etched monocrystalline silicon. The study by alpha particles backscattering (RBS) raises a strong diffusion of copper in silicon substrates with and without native suboxide layer. On the other hand, the X-rays diffraction shows the formation and the growth of Cu₃Si and Cu₄Si silicides. Whereas the scanning microscopy underlines large crystallites growth surrounded by black zones of silicon coming from the uncovered substrate, independently to the surface state of the substrate, after annealing at high temperature. The presence of native silicon suboxide at Cu/Si interface, influences in a drastic way the minimal temperature to which the interfacial reaction occurs. The oxygen impurities detected by microanalysis, after heat treatment under vacuum, are closely related to the growth of silicides crystallites.     

Influence of multiple elastic scattering on the shape of the elastically scattered electron peak

The influence of multiple elastic scattering on the shape of the energy distribution of elastically scattered electrons is investigated. The energy of the maximum intensity of the detected electrons differs from the probe electron beam energy due to the elastic energy loss. The experimentally observed spectrum is adequately described by a Gaussian distribution with a maximum at the elastic energy loss value. In this paper the peak-broadening mechanisms due to energy-analyzer spread function, probe beam energy distribution and atomic vibration-induced broadening are considered to be independent and of random nature. Analysis of multiple elastic scattering shows some mechanisms leading to the broadening and a shift of the elastic scattering electron energy spectrum from the value defined by single elastic scattering at the certain angle. It is revealed that the magnitude of this shift and the width of energy distribution is determined by ratio (_lin/_ltr)$(l_{\text{in}}/l_{\text{tr}})$, where _lin$l_{\text{in}}$ is inelastic mean free pass, _ltr$l_{\text{tr}}$ is the transport length.     

Hybrid Deconvolution of Adaptive Optics Retinal Images from Wavefront Sensing

Adaptive optics can be used to compensate for the wave aberration of the human eyes to achieve high-resolution imaging in real time. However the correction ＆ partial due to the limitation of hardware. We propose a kind of hybrid image post-processing method, which uses the blind deconvolution combined with the residual data in wavefront sensor to restore the partially adaptive optics corrected retinal image. This method is applied in the image restoration of the vivid human retinal images. The results show that it is effective to improve the retinal image quality.