TEM Imaging of Mass-selected Polymer Molecules

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules with masses below 1300amu are electrosprayed (ES) from solution, mobility-selected at high resolution in a differential mobility analyzer (DMA), collected on a grid and imaged by transmission electron microscopy (ES–DMA–TEM). The DMA resolves individual n-mers, and selects only one out of the many present in the original sample. Ion identity is established from parallel mass spectra (ES-MS). The images reveal spherical particles 1.46nm in diameter, in good agreement with the known ion mass and bulk density. The DMA-selection technique opens new paths for the study of very small particles.     

Multi-Class Cost-Constrained Random Coding for Correlated Sources over the Multiple-Access Channel

This paper studies a generalized version of multi-class cost-constrained random-coding ensemble with multiple auxiliary costs for the transmission of N correlated sources over an N-user multiple-access channel. For each user, the set of messages is partitioned into classes and codebooks are generated according to a distribution depending on the class index of the source message and under the constraint that the codewords satisfy a set of cost functions. Proper choices of the cost functions recover different coding schemes including message-dependent and message-independent versions of independent and identically distributed, independent conditionally distributed, constant-composition and conditional constant composition ensembles. The transmissibility region of the scheme is related to the Cover-El Gamal-Salehi region. A related family of correlated-source Gallager source exponent functions is also studied. The achievable exponents are compared for correlated and independent sources, both numerically and analytically.     

A study of energy transfer between electronically excited states using a picosecond laser pulse

By means of a novel picosecond polarization spectrometer we have determined that under conditions of normal pumping of organic systems a substantial annihilation of excited states occurs before the 6–8 ps duration of the pumping pulse. The effect is exposed by noting that prior to 6 ps the optical absorption of the S₁ transient produced by 353 nm pumping of 1,2-benzanthracene is caused to be depolarized at higher concentrations. In another case (xanthone) where no long range interactions can occur the depolarization of the spectra only occurred at low concentrations due to saturation effects.     

Energy band structure of TiO2 and it's dependence on uniaxial stress

The electronic band structure of titanium dioxyde is calculated. The evolution of the levels and of the optical transitions under an uniaxial stress along the c axis has also been calculated.We confirm the existence, of a first order forbidden direct optical gap, and of a maximum along the Δ direction; the theoretical pressure coefficients ?E/?P for the Γ⁺₇ → Γ⁺₆ and Δ₅ (max) → Γ⁺₆ transitions are respectively 0.600 and 0.950 meV kbar^-1 while the corresponding experimental values are 0.625 and 0.985 meV kbar^-1.     

Simultaneous estimation of Poisson means

In the simultaneous estimation of means from independent Poisson distributions, an estimator is developed which incorporates a prior mean and variance for each Poisson mean estimated. This estimator possesses substantially smaller risk than the usual estimator in a region of the parameter space and seems superior to other estimators proposed to estimate p Poisson means. It is indicated through two asymptotic results that, unlike the conjugate Bayes estimator, the risk of the estimator does not greatly exceed the risk of the usual estimator outside of the region of risk improvement.     

3D molecular imaging SIMS

Thin monolayer and bilayer films of spin cast poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA), poly(lactic) acid (PLA) and PLA doped with several pharmaceuticals have been analyzed by dynamic SIMS using SF₅⁺ polyatomic primary ion bombardment. Each of these systems exhibited minimal primary beam-induced degradation under cluster ion bombardment allowing molecular depth profiles to be obtained through the film. By combing secondary ion imaging with depth profiling, three-dimensional molecular image depth profiles have been obtained from these systems. In another approach, bevel cross-sections are cut in the samples with the SF₅⁺ primary ion beam to produce a laterally magnified cross-section of the sample that does not contain the beam-induced damage that would be induced by conventional focussed ion beam (FIB) cross-sectioning. The bevel surface can then be examined using cluster SIMS imaging or other appropriate microanalysis technique.     

Multifunctional ToF-SIMS: combinatorial mapping of gradient energy substrates

We present a simple method for chemical modification of chlorosilane self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on Si surfaces by exposure to a gradient of UV-ozone radiation to create stable substrates with a range of contact angles (θ_H2O≈5–95°) and surface energies on a single substrate. These gradient energy substrates are developed to potentially generate libraries for combinatorial studies of thin film phenomenology, where a systematic variation of interfacial surface energy represents one of the significant parameters along one axis. The graded oxidation process presents a systematic variation of surface chemical composition. We have utilized contact angle measurements and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) to investigate this variation for a series of ions, among which are SiCH₃⁺, SiOH⁺ and COOH⁻. We show that the macroscopic measurements of surface free energy/contact angle correlate with the detailed analysis of surface chemistry (as assessed by ToF-SIMS) on these test substrates.     

Convection-enhanced diffusion for random flows

We analyze the effective diffusivity of a passive scalar in a two-dimensional, steady, incompressible random flow that has mean zero and a stationary stream function. We show that in the limit of small diffusivity or large Peclet number, with convection dominating, there is substantial enhancement of the effective diffusivity. Our analysis is based on some new variational principles for convection diffusion problems and on some facts from continuum percolation theory, some of which are widely believed to be correct but have not been proved yet. We show in detail how the variational principles convert information about the geometry of the level lines of the random stream function into properties of the effective diffusivity and substantiate the result of Isichenko and Kalda that the effective diffusivity behaves likeɛ ^3/13 when the molecular diffusivityɛ is small, assuming some percolation-theoretic facts. We also analyze the effective diffusivity for a special class of convective flows, random cellular flows, where the facts from percolation theory are well established and their use in the variational principles is more direct than for general random flows.     

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the diphoton decay channel with 4.9 fb(-1) of pp collision data at √s=7 TeV with ATLAS

A search for the standard model Higgs boson is performed in the diphoton decay channel. The data used correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 fb(-1) collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of √s=7 TeV. In the diphoton mass range 110-150 GeV, the largest excess with respect to the background-only hypothesis is observed at 126.5 GeV, with a local significance of 2.8 standard deviations. Taking the look-elsewhere effect into account in the range 110-150 GeV, this significance becomes 1.5 standard deviations. The standard model Higgs boson is excluded at 95% confidence level in the mass ranges of 113-115 GeV and 134.5-136 GeV.