Digital self-referencing quantitative phase microscopy by wavefront folding in holographic image reconstruction

A completely numerical method, named digital self-referencing holography, is described to easily accomplish a quantitative phase microscopy for microfluidic devices by a digital holographic microscope. The approach works through an appropriate numerical manipulation of the retrieved complex wavefront. The self-referencing is obtained by folding the retrieved wavefront in the image plane. The folding operation allows us to obtain the correct phase map by subtracting from the complex region of interest a flat area outside the microfluidic channel. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, quantitative phase maps of bovine spermatozoa and in vitro cells are retrieved.     

Ultrastructural analysis of midgut cells from Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae) larvae resistant to Bacillus sphaericus

The larvicidal action of the entomopathogen Bacillus sphaericus towards Culex quinquefasciatus is due to the binary (Bin) toxin present in crystals, which are produced during bacterial sporulation. The Bin toxin needs to recognize and bind specifically to a single class of receptors, named Cqm1, which are 60-kDa α-glucosidases attached to the apical membrane of midgut cells by a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor. C. quinquefasciatus resistance to B. sphaericus has been often associated with the absence of the α-glucosidase Cqm1 in larvae midgut microvilli. In this work, we aimed to investigate, at the ultrastructural level, the midgut cells from C. quinquefasciatus larvae whose resistance relies on the lack of the Cqm1 receptor. The morphological analysis showed that midgut columnar cells from the resistant larvae are characterized by a pronounced production of lipid inclusions, throughout the 4th instar. At the end of this stage, resistant larvae had an increased size and number of these inclusions in the midgut cells, while only a small number were observed in the cells from susceptible larvae. The morphological differences in the midgut cells of resistant larvae found in this work suggested that the lack of the Cqm1 receptor, which also has a physiological role as being an α-glucosidase, can be related to changes in the cell metabolism. The ultrastructural effects of Bin toxin on midgut epithelial cells from susceptible and resistant larvae were also investigated. The cytopathological alterations observed in susceptible larvae treated with a lethal concentration of toxin included breakdown of the endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondrial swelling, microvillar disruption and vacuolization. Some effects were observed in cells from resistant larvae, although those alterations did not lead to larval death, indicating that the receptor Cqm1 is essential to mediate the larvicidal action of the toxin.This is the first ultrastructural study to show differences in the cell morphology of resistant larvae and further investigation is needed to understand the impact of the lack of expression of midgut enzymes on the physiology of resistant insects.     

Kinetics and mechanisms of gas‐phase elimination of 2,2‐diethoxyethyl amine and 2,2‐diethoxy‐N,N‐diethylethanamine

The gas‐phase elimination kinetics of 2,2‐diethoxyethyl amine and 2,2‐diethoxy‐N,N‐diethylethanamine (320–380 °C; 40–150 Torr) in a seasoned reaction vessel are homogeneous, unimolecular and obey a first‐order rate law. These elimination processes involve two parallel reactions. The first gives ethanol and the corresponding 2‐ethoxyethenamine. The latter compound further decomposes to ethylene, CO and the corresponding amine. The second parallel reaction produce ethane and the corresponding ethyl ester of an α‐amino acid. The following Arrhenius expressions are given as: For 2,2‐diethoxyethyl amine For 2,2‐diethoxy‐N,N‐diethylethanamine Comparative kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of the overall, the parallel and the consecutive reactions lead to consider two types of mechanisms in terms of a concerted polar cyclic transition state structures. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unified fields of analytic space-time-energy

An analytic gravitational fieldZ (Z ^y ) is shown to include electromagnetic phenomena. In an almost flat and almost static complex geometryds ² =zdzdz of four complex variables z=t, x, y, x the field equationsR Rz = –(U U – Z ) imply the conventional equations of motion and the conventional electromagnetic field equations to first order if =(Z ^v) and =(z ) are expressed in terms of the conventional mass density function , the conventional charge density function , and a pressurep as follows: v=const=p/c ²–10^–29 gm/cm³.     

Existence and equivalence of twisted products on a symplectic manifold

The twisted products play an important role in Quantum Mechanics [1, 2]. We introduce here a distinction between Vey *_ν-products and strong Vey *_ν-products and prove that each *_ν-product is equivalent to a Vey *_ν-product. If b ₃(W)=0, the symplectic manifold (W, F) admits strong Vey *_ν-products. If b ₂(W)=0, all *_ν-products are equivalent as well as the Vey Lie algebras. In the general case, we characterize the formal Lie algebras which are generated by a *_ν-product and we prove that the existence of a *_ν-product is equivalent to the existence of a formal Lie algebra infinitesimally equivalent to a Vey Lie algebra at the first order.     

Well posed cauchy problems for complex nonlinear equations must be semilinear

The first author was supported in part by CNPq     

Consistent Initialization for Nonlinear Index-2 Differential–Algebraic Equation: Large Sparse Systems in MATLAB

An important component of any initial-value solver for higher-index differential–algebraic equations consists in the computation of consistent initial values. In a recent paper [5], an algorithm is proposed which is applicable to a very general class of index-2 systems. Unfortunately, the computational expense is rather high. We present a modification of this approach, which gives rise to a MATLAB implementation capable of handling systems of moderate dimension (several thousands of unknowns). The algorithm is illustrated by examples.     

Analytic surface germs with minimal Pythagoras number

We determine all complete intersection surface germs whose Pythagoras number is 2, and find that they are all embedded in ³ and have the property that every positive semidefinite analytic function germ is a sum of squares of analytic function germs. In addition, we discuss completely these properties for mixed surface germs in ³. Finally, we find in higher embedding dimension three different families with these same properties. Partially supported by DGICYT, BFM2002-04797 and HPRN-CT-2001-00271 Mathematical Subject Classification (2000): 11E25, 14P15.An erratum to this article can be found at