The high-T c superconductor Sr0.2Lai1.8CuO4: A direct and inverse-photoemission study

We have measured ultraviolet and inverse-photoemission spectra of the novel superconductor Sr₀₂La_1.8CuO₄. Our results compare favorably with recent band-structure calculations for La₂CuO₄.A full account of this work will be published elsewhere [1]     

A NOVEL METHOD FOR FABRICATING COMPOSITE MOSAIC MEMBRANE WITH UNIQUE NF SELECTIVITY

A novel method of fabricating composite mosaic membranes was studied on the basis of interracial polymerization （IP） by coating a thin selective layer onto the surface of a micro-porous hollow-fiber membrane, in which, 2,5-diaminobenzene sulfonic acid was used as one monomer of the IP reaction, and a mixture of trimesoyl chloride （TMCI） and 4-（chloromethyl） benzoyl chloride as the other monomer. Through the IP reaction a thin selective layer with negatively charged groups could be first formed on the polyethersulfone （PES） support membrane. Then trimethylamine solution was introduced to modify the IP layer through a quaternization reaction. Thus the selective layer of this composite membrane contained both negatively charged and positively charged groups to perform the mosaic functionality. Characterization of the composite mosaic membranes was carried out through permeation experiments using different inorganic salts and dyes. The experimental results showed that the membranes could permeate both mono- and bi-valent inorganic salts, but reject larger organic molecules. Such a mosaic membrane is potentially useful for the separation of salts from water-soluble organics, especially in dye and textile industries.     

Dosimetric investigations of laser-induced phase transition of MX1-cell membranes by use of quantum dots

It is well known that laser scattered-light applicators when applied for laser-induced tumor therapy allow the precise thermal destruction of metastases. Using laser radiation in the NIR spectral range (usually, Nd:YAG laser systems λ = 1064 nm), a penetration depth of 5–10 cm (1/e is the decrease in radiation intensity) is achieved in biological tissues. The major tissue-optical parameters, i.e., absorption coefficient μ_a, scattering coefficient μ_s, and the anisotropy factor g, show biological tissues to be strongly scattering media which have a so-called optical window in the NIR. As a consequence, the therapeutic laser radiation is scattered and absorbed at a deeper level, leading to a virtual enlargement of the laser applicator. The thermal sclerotization and the thermal cell damage originate within the absorbing volume of the laser radiation and spread outward by thermal diffusion. There are three dosimetrically relevant zones of thermal and biological damage: (1) a zone of thermal coagulation; (2) a threshold of partial necrosis (destruction of all metabolic processes in the cell is the maintenance of essential parts of the cytoskeleton and the plasma membrane); this is characterized by a specific temperature range, the so-called phase transition, which refers to the transition from the gel phase of the biomembrane to the fluid phase; the determination of this temperature zone is an integral part of the following experimental investigations on MX1 cells; (3) an external zone of thermal effects made up of partial and multiple damage with a statistical chance of survival. This paper describes the investigations on heat stress in cancer cells to verify the maximum phase transition of the outer MX1 cell membranes and the related results. For this purpose, a novel method of quantum dot fluorescence dosimetry was developed. The evaluation of the measured laser-induced fluorescences yields a first approximation of the determination of the phase transition on MX1 cells.     

Adhesion studies of latex film surfaces on the meso- and nanoscale

In this paper the effects of surface roughness and annealing temperature (T) of latex coating films on adhesion are discussed for the different stages of the film formation process. The surface free energy of latex films was assessed in terms of practical work of adhesion (W) (or adherence) using a custom-built adhesion-testing device (ATD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and contact angle measurements. For preannealed latex films surface roughness averages (R_a) were determined from AFM height images and were related to the values of W obtained from ATD measurements at room temperature. The results obtained using these tests exhibiting surface behavior on different length scales indicate a dependence of the measured adhesion on surface roughness and temperature, as well as on the length scale of the measurements.First preannealed samples were studied, which were obtained by heat treatment above the respective glass transition temperatures (T_g). Increasing the temperature of preannealing resulted in a decrease of the adherence observed in ATD experiments at room temperature. However, on the nanoscale, using AFM, no significant variation of the adherence was observed. This observation can be explained by roughness arguments. Preannealing decreases roughness which results in lower adherence values measured by ATD while for essentially single asperity AFM experiments roughness has an insignificant effect. Specimens were also annealed over a constant period of time (90 min) at different temperatures. At the end of the heat treatment, adhesion was measured at the treatment temperature by ATD. The amplified effect of temperature observed in this case on adherence is attributed to the combination of roughness decrease and increasing test temperature. In a third set of experiments completely annealed samples were studied by ATD as well as by AFM as a function of temperature. With increasing T values ATD showed a decrease in adherence, which is attributed to a decreasing surface free energy of the annealed films at elevated T values. AFM, on the other hand, showed an opposite trend which is assigned to increasing penetration of the tip into the tip/wetting polymer samples versus increasing temperature. Finally, annealing isotherms as a function of time were investigated by ATD in situ at different temperatures. This last set of experiments allowed us to optimize annealing time and temperature to achieve complete curing.     

Decay Rates in Probability Metrics Towards Homogeneous Cooling States for the Inelastic Maxwell Model

We quantify the long-time behavior of solutions to the nonlinear Boltzmann equation for spatially uniform freely cooling inelastic Maxwell molecules by means of the contraction property of a suitable metric in the set of probability measures. Existence, uniqueness, and precise estimates of overpopulated high energy tails of the self-similar profile proved in ref. 9 are revisited and derived from this new Liapunov functional. For general initial conditions the solutions of the Boltzmann equation are then proved to converge with computable rate as t → ∞ to the self-similar solution in this distance, which metrizes the weak convergence of measures. Moreover, we can relate this Fourier distance to the Euclidean Wasserstein distance or Tanaka functional proving also its exponential convergence towards the homogeneous cooling states. The findings are relevant in the understanding of the conjecture formulated by Ernst and Brito in refs. 15, 16, and complement and improve recent studies on the same problem of Bobylev and Cercignani⁽⁹⁾ and Bobylev, Cercignani and one of the authors.⁽¹¹⁾     

Detection of silent temporal gaps in sinusoidal markers

Gap detection thresholds were measured by forced-choice procedure for conditions where the duration of a silent gap was varied adaptively between pairs of sinusoidal markers of the same or different frequency. Frequencies of the first sinusoid in a pair of markers ranged from F1 = 500 to 4000 Hz. Second-sinusoid marker frequencies F2 included F1 = F2, and usually frequencies 2%, 5%, 24%, and 50% higher than F1. In preliminary studies the role of presentation level (E/N0) on gap detection was considered. Preliminary data revealed confounding extraneous factors arising from gating transients and from overall stimulus (i.e., markers + gap) and/or masker duration cues. In the main experiments, the contributions of these extraneous cues were evaluated with experimental designs aimed at identifying and minimizing the confounding roles of these cues in gap detection. For conditions where extraneous gating transient cues were minimized (by presenting the sinusoidal markers in a continuous noise masker with random onset phase for the second sinusoid in every pair of markers) and overall stimulus duration cues were diminished (by randomizing the duration of each marker independently), gap detection thresholds increased from 5 to 90 ms as the frequency separation between F1 and F2 was increased by half an octave. When the gap detection thresholds were treated as filter attenuation values by normalizing and converting the data into decibels, the data were closely fit by the roex filter model. On average, the listeners' performances were modeled well by a constant-percentage (7%) bandwidth filter centered on F1.     

High-power excimer laser systems

Two-high power excimer laser systems with square (25 × 25 cm) and circular (with a diameter of 40 cm) cross sections of the output laser beam are described. The first (second) system consists of four (five) excimer lasers. The experimental results on the generation of the high-quality high-power laser pulses are presented. Laser beams with a pulse duration of 1–250 ns, a divergence of 0.01 mrad, a spectral line width of 0.01 cm⁻¹, and a pulse energy of up to 330 J are obtained. Original Text ? Astro, Ltd., 2006.