Children's Books Reviewed

Maps and Globes Jack Knowlton Hurricane Watch Franklyn M. Branley Sunshine Makes the Seasons Franklyn M. Branley Heart Disease America's No. 1 Killer Dr. Alvin and Virginia B. Silverstein Cuts, Breaks, Bruises and Burns Joanna Cole Auks, Rocks, and the Odd Dinosaur Inside Stories from the Smithsonian Institute by Peggy Thomson The Secret Life of Cosmetics: A Science Experiment Book Vicki Cobb A Children's Zoo Tana Hoban Milk Donald Carrick Wallaby Creek Joyce Powzyk Being a Twin, Having a Twin Maxine Rosenberg     

Ultra-thin film growth of titanium dioxide on W(1 0 0)

We have employed low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to follow the epitaxial growth of thin films of TiO₂ on W(1 0 0). The films were grown both by metal vapour deposition of titanium onto the substrate in UHV with subsequent annealing in a low partial pressure of oxygen, and by metal vapour deposition in a low partial pressure of oxygen. LEED patterns showed the characteristic patterns of (1 1 0) oriented rutile. A systematic spot splitting was observed and attributed to a stepped surface. The calculated step height was found to be in good agreement with that expected for rutile TiO₂(1 1 0), 3.3 Å. Titanium core level shifts were used to identify oxidation states as a function of film thickness allowing the interpretation in terms of a slightly sub-stoichiometric interface layer in contact with the substrate. In combination with the LEED patterns, the film structure is therefore determined to be (1 1 0) oriented rutile with a comparable level of stoichiometry to UHV prepared bulk crystals. The ordered step structure indicates considerable structural complexity of the surface.     

ContributionsThe existence of perfect Mendelsohn designs with block size 7

Necessary conditions for existence of a (v,k,λ) perfect Mendelsohn design (or PMD) are v k and λv(v − 1) ≡ 0 mod k. When k = 7, this condition is satisfied if v ≡ 0 or 1 mod 7 and v 7 when λ 0 mod 7 and for all v 7 when λ ≡ 0 mod 7. Bennett, Yin and Zhu have investigated the existence problem for k = 7, λ = 1 and λ even; here we provide several improvements on their results and also investigate the situation for λ odd. We reduce the total number of unknown (v,7,λ)-PMDs to 36,31 for λ = 1 and 5 for λ > 1. In particular, v = 294 is the largest unknown case for λ = 1, and the only unknown cases for λ > 1 are for v = 42, λ [2,3,5,9] and v = 18, λ = 7.     

Steps towards a practical synthesis of macrocyclic bisbenzylisoquinolines

There are more than 400‐reported bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids, many with interesting biological activity, but the reported syntheses are long and low yielding. As a result, there have been no systematic attempts at exploitation of the potential therapeutic applications. The concept of a sulfur ‘stitch’, restricting the conformational freedom of intermediates in the synthesis, will potentially allow analogues of the natural products to be prepared using relatively efficient routes. The synthesis of intermediate sulfur heterocycles is reported, based on 2,8‐dimethylphenoxathiin, leading via 2,8‐bis(bromomethyl)phenoxathiin‐10,10‐dioxide to a synthesis of 3,4,8,9‐tetrahydro‐13‐oxa‐6‐thia‐2,10‐diazapentacene, a key potential intermediate on the route to a variety of macrocyclic bisbenzylisoquinolines.     

System size and energy dependence of jet-induced hadron pair correlation shapes in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at square root sNN=200 and 62.4 GeV

We present azimuthal angle correlations of intermediate transverse momentum (1-4 GeV/c) hadrons from dijets in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at square root sNN=62.4 and 200 GeV. The away-side dijet induced azimuthal correlation is broadened, non-Gaussian, and peaked away from Delta phi=pi in central and semicentral collisions in all the systems. The broadening and peak location are found to depend upon the number of participants in the collision, but not on the collision energy or beam nuclei. These results are consistent with sound or shock wave models, but pose challenges to Cherenkov gluon radiation models.