Random partial diffuser as beam splitter in a new,common path interferometer

Use of a random partial diffuser is suggested as a beam spitter. An aberration-free reference beam coaxial with the test beam is obtained when the latter converges on the diffuser. Based on this principle, an interferometer has been realised for absolute measurements with a sensitivity equal to that of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A large variety of optical components can be tested by this simple and inexpensive interferometer which could replace the already existing ones in optical workshops.     

Temporal correlation vortices and topological dispersion

Interference measurements of a polychromatic partially coherent light source verify the existence of a temporal correlation vortex. Topological dispersion is found to destabilize this singularity.     

Properly designed modular asymmetric synthesis for enantiopure sulfinamide auxiliaries from N-sulfonyl-1,2,3-oxathiazolidine-2-oxide agents

Simple and practical asymmetric synthesis of functionally differentiated aminoindanol based endo-N-sulfonyl 1,2,3-oxathiazolidine-2-oxide as sulfinyl transfer agents are developed. The importance of these new and unique sulfinyl transfer reagents are exemplified by the expedient production of several sulfinamide ligands, including either enantiomer of (R)-tert-butanesulfinamide in excellent yields and enantiopurities.     

Trapping of Thiol Terminated Acrylate Polymers with Divinyl Sulfone to Generate Well-Defined Semi-Telechelic Michael Acceptor Polymers

Herein we report the synthesis of vinyl sulfone end functionalized PEGylated polymers by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization for conjugation to proteins. Poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate (PEGA) was polymerized in the presence of 1-phenylethyl dithiobenzoate with 2,2'-azobis(2-methylpropionitrile) as the initiator to generate well-defined polyPEGAs with number-average molecular weights (M(n)) by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of 6.7 kDa, 11.8 kDa and 16.1 kDa. Post-polymerization, the majority of polymer chains contained the dithioester functional group at the omega chain end, and the polydispersity indexes (PDI) of the polymers ranged from 1.08 to 1.24. The dithioester was subsequently reduced via aminolysis, and the resulting thiol was trapped with a divinyl sulfone in situ to produce semi-telechelic, vinyl sulfone polyPEGAs with efficiencies ranging between 85% and 99%. It was determined that the retention of vinyl sulfone was directly related to reaction time, with the maximum dithioester being transformed into a vinyl sulfone within 30 minutes. Longer reaction times resulted in slow decomposition of the vinyl sulfone end group. The resulting semi-telechelic vinyl sulfone polymers were then conjugated to a protein containing a free cysteine, bovine serum albumin (BSA). Gel electrophoresis demonstrated that the reaction was highly efficient and that conjugates of increasing size were readily prepared. After polymer attachment, the activity of the BSA was 92% of the unmodified biomolecule.     

An inverse hyper-spherical harmonics-based formulation for reconstructing 3D volumetric lung deformations

A method to estimate the deformation operator for the 3D volumetric lung dynamics of human subjects is described in this paper. For known values of air flow and volumetric displacement, the deformation operator and subsequently the elastic properties of the lung are estimated in terms of a Green's function. A Hyper-Spherical Harmonic (HSH) transformation is employed to compute the deformation operator. The hyper-spherical coordinate transformation method discussed in this paper facilitates accounting for the heterogeneity of the deformation operator using a finite number of frequency coefficients. Spirometry measurements are used to provide values for the airflow inside the lung. Using a 3D optical flow-based method, the 3D volumetric displacement of the left and right lungs, which represents the local anatomy and deformation of a human subject, was estimated from 4D-CT dataset. Results from an implementation of the method show the estimation of the deformation operator for the left and right lungs of a human subject with non-small cell lung cancer. Validation of the proposed method shows that we can estimate the Young's modulus of each voxel within a 2% error level.     

Constitution of pinastric acid

New observations in support of the revised constitution for pinastric acid based on a study of its reactions with o-phenylene diamine, dimethylaniline, and oxidation with sodium periodate.     

A reappraisal of irreversible behaviour in the intermediate state of a type-I superconductor

The nonequilibrium behaviour of the intermediate state of non-ellipsoidal specimens of type-I superconductors is well documented. We present the identification of a signal due to an octupole moment of this intermediate state in the magnetization measurements on a disc shaped Pb specimen. We can also identify a quasi-irreversibility temperature, like the HTSC materials, in the magnetization data on a Pb disc. However, its precise value at a given H depends on the orientation of the plane of the disc with respect to the applied field and it cannot be treated as a material characteristics of Pb.