Free solution capillary electrophoresis of proteins using untreated fused-silica capillaries.

Numerous efforts have been made to separate proteins by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). The most common optimization techniques are changing the pH of the running buffer, coating the capillary surface with a hydrophilic polymer, or using additives in the sample solution. Surface coatings and solution additives can reduce the adsorption of the protein onto the capillary surface, but they diminish the separation efficiency and the resolution of CZE. This paper reports the successful separation of proteins in a untreated fused-silica capillary by raising the pH of the running buffer and washing between runs with 1.0 M sodium hydroxide. Under these conditions, model proteins and proteins in human serum have been determined by CZE. It is shown that the results from CZE are compatible with those of sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.     

A compact finite difference method for solving Burgers' equation

In this paper, a high‐order accurate compact finite difference method using the Hopf–Cole transformation is introduced for solving one‐dimensional Burgers' equation numerically. The stability and convergence analyses for the proposed method are given, and this method is shown to be unconditionally stable. To demonstrate efficiency, numerical results obtained by the proposed scheme are compared with the exact solutions and the results obtained by some other methods. The proposed method is second‐ and fourth‐order accurate in time and space, respectively. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CH3NH3PbI3/poly‐3‐hexylthiophen perovskite mesoscopic solar cells: Performance enhancement by Li‐assisted hole conduction

To address if the non‐triphenylamine derivative hole transporting materials such as P3HT (poly‐3‐hexylthiophene) could also exhibit high device efficiency in mesoscopic MAPbI₃ perovskite solar cells, we examined the effect of Li‐TFSI (Li‐bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide) and t‐BP (4‐tert‐butylpyridine) additives added in P3HT on device performance. Unlike the triphenylamine HTMs, the P3HT thiophene HTM without amine moiety was not doped by the additives but its conductivity was significantly improved by the Li‐TFSI/t‐BP mediated additional hole conduction. By inclusion of Li‐TFSI/t‐BP additive, we could fabricate more efficient mesoscopic MAPbI₃ perovskite solar cells with smaller hysteresis with respect to scan direction due to Li mediated additional hole conduction. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The improved photosensitivity of photosensitive polyimides containing o-nitrobenzyl ether groups induced by the addition of photoacid generator

In this article, photosensitive polyimides (PSPIs) with photosensitive groups, o-nitrobenzyl ether groups (Nb), were successfully synthesized based on 2,2′-dihydroxy benzophenone-3,3′,4,4′-tetracarboxylic dianhydride and on diamine containing ethylene glycol chains (ODA). Also, a series of polyimide (PI), ODA-1-PI, ODA-3-PI, and ODA-5-PI with a number of ethylene glycol chains of 1, 3, and 5 were prepared to investigate the relationship between structure and solubility. Interestingly, ODA-5-PI, which possesses a large number of ethylene glycols, exhibited the most excellent solubility. Therefore, due to the good solubility of ODA-5-PI in organic solvents and alkaline solutions, a PSPI, poly(1,4-phenyleneoxy-3,6,9,12,15-pentaoxaoctane-1,4-phenylene-2,2′-di[2-nitrobenzyloxy]benzophenone-3,3′,4,4′-tetracarboxdiimide), named ODA-5-PSPI, was synthesized by linking Nb, which is a photosensitive group. Aiming at producing positive tone patterns, the synthesized ODA-5-PSPI was exposed to UV irradiation and then to a post-exposure bake. Afterward, it was developed using a 2.38 wt% tetramethylammonium hydroxide solution. Furthermore, a photoacid generator (PAG) was additionally incorporated for a micropatterning process. Notably, in the presence of the PAG, the photocleavage of ODA-5-PSPI occurred not only by the intramolecular rearrangement of Nb but also by its hydrolysis reaction. As a result, due to the synergistic effect of photocleavage, the micropatterning of ODA-5-PSPI with PAG could be clearly obtained with less energy (2.0 J/cm²) compared with that without PAG (3.6 J/cm²). Therefore, through the addition of PAG, the photosensitivity was improved by 45%.     

Rapid acquisition strategy for functional T1ρ mapping of the brain

Functional T1ρ mapping has been proposed as a method to assess pH and metabolism dynamics in the brain with high spatial and temporal resolution. The purpose of this work is to describe and evaluate a variant of the spin-locked echo-planar imaging sequence for functional T1ρ mapping at 3 T. The proposed sequence rapidly acquires a time series of T1ρ maps with 4.0 second temporal resolution and 10 slices of volumetric coverage. Simulation, phantom, and in vivo experiments are used to evaluate many aspects of the sequence and its implementation including fidelity of measured T1ρ dynamics, potential confounds to the T1ρ response, imaging parameter tradeoffs, time series analysis approaches, and differences compared to blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging. It is shown that the high temporal resolution and volumetric coverage of the sequence are obtained with some expense including underestimation of the T1ρ response, sensitivity to T1 dynamics, and reduced signal-to-noise ratio. In vivo studies using a flashing checkerboard functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm suggest differences between T1ρ and blood oxygen level dependent activation patterns. Possible sources of the functional T1ρ response and potential sequence improvements are discussed. The capability of T1ρ to map whole-brain pH and metabolism dynamics with high temporal and spatial resolution is potentially unique and warrants further investigation and development.     

Conformation‐Specific Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy of Cold,Isolated Chiral Molecules

The CD spectroscopy of a chiral compound in solution yields an average CD value derived from all of the conformations of a chiral molecule. By contrast, CD spectroscopy of cold chiral molecules in the gas phase distinguishes specific conformers of a chiral molecule, but the weak CD effect has limited the practical application of this technique. Reported herein is the first resonant two‐photon ionization CD spectra of ephedrines in a supersonic jet using circularly polarized laser pulses, which were generated by synchronizing the oscillation of the photoelastic modulator with the laser firing. The spectra exhibited well‐resolved CD bands which were specific for the conformations and vibrational modes of each enantiomer. The CD signs and magnitudes of the jet‐cooled chiral molecules were very sensitive to their conformations and thus offered crucial information for determining the three‐dimensional structures of chiral species, as conducted in combination with quantum chemical calculations.     

Simultaneous control of haze and transmittance using a dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal cell

We propose a light shutter device using dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystals for a high-visibility see-through display. In the focal-conic state, the proposed device can perfectly block the background image through simultaneous use of light scattering and absorption effects in a single-layered structure. By switching the proposed device placed at the backside of a see-through display, we can choose transparent or high-visibility display modes in a see-through display.     

Minimal Dirac fermionic dark matter with nonzero magnetic dipole moment

A neutral Dirac fermion ψ   with a nonzero magnetic dipole moment is supplied as a singlet within the context of the standard model and is considered as a dark matter candidate near the electroweak scale (10–1000 GeV$10\text{–}1000\text{GeV}$). We discuss its dynamics with the ordinary matters through the magnetic dipole moment. The magnetic dipole moment constrained by the relic abundance may be as large as ¹⁰⁻¹⁸–¹⁰⁻¹⁷e⋅cm${10}^{-18}\text{–}{10}^{-17}e\cdot \text{cm}$. We show that the elastic scattering is due to a spin–spin interaction for the direct detections and the predictions are under experimental exclusion limits of the current direct detectors, XENON10 and CDMS II, and consider the possibility of dark matter detection in the future.     

Exploring uses of persistent homology for statistical analysis of landmark-based shape data

A method for the use of persistent homology in the statistical analysis of landmark-based shape data is given. Three-dimensional landmark configurations are used as input for separate filtrations, persistent homology is performed, and persistence diagrams are obtained. Groups of configurations are compared using distances between persistence diagrams combined with dimensionality reduction methods. A three-dimensional landmark-based data set is used from a longitudinal orthodontic study, and the persistent homology method is able to distinguish clinically relevant treatment effects. Comparisons are made with the traditional landmark-based statistical shape analysis methods of Dryden and Mardia, and Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis.