Surface modulation of magnetic nanocrystals in the development of highly efficient magnetic resonance probes for intracellular labeling

High-quality biocompatible magnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanocrystals were developed through a ligand exchange process of hydrophobically capped nanocrystals with hydrophilic molecules. By simple modulation of the nanocrystal surface ligand charge properties, we have been able to prepare magnetic nanocrystals with excellent intracellular labeling capabilities that efficiently label a variety of cell types without the need for additional transport facilitating agents. The excellent intracellular labeling capability of the newly developed cationic WSIO has further led to successful MRI monitoring of the migration of neural stem cells in rat spinal cord. The magnetic nanocrystals developed here have great potential in applications for labeling of various cell types and also the monitoring of cell-based medical treatments and cancer metastasis.     

Asymptotic efficiency of ridge estimator in linear and semiparametric linear models

The linear model with a growing number of predictors arises in many contemporary scientific endeavor. In this article, we consider the commonly used ridge estimator in linear models. We propose analyzing the ridge estimator for a finite sample size n and a growing dimension p. The existence and asymptotic normality of the ridge estimator are established under some regularity conditions when p→∞. It also occurs that a strictly linear model is inadequate when some of the relations are believed to be of certain linear form while others are not easily parameterized, and thus a semiparametric partial linear model is considered. For these semiparametric partial linear models with p>n, we develop a procedure to estimate the linear coefficients as if the nonparametric part is not present. The asymptotic efficiency of the proposed estimator for the linear component is studied for p→∞. It is shown that the proposed estimator of the linear component asymptotically performs very well.     

A Family of Molecular Sieves Containing Framework‐Bound Organic Structure‐Directing Agents

Organic structure‐directing agents (OSDAs), such as quaternary ammonium cations and amines, used in the synthesis of zeolites and related crystalline microporous oxides usually end up entrapped inside the void spaces of the crystallized inorganic host lattice. But none of them is known to form direct chemical bonds to the framework of these industrially important catalysts and adsorbents. We demonstrate that ECR‐40, currently regarded as a typical silicoaluminophosphate molecular sieve, constitutes instead a new family of inorganic‐organic hybrid networks in which the OSDAs are covalently bonded to the inorganic framework. ECR‐40 crystallization begins with the formation of an Al–OSDA complex in the liquid phase in which the Al is octahedrally coordinated. This unit is incorporated in the crystallizing ECR‐40. Subsequent removal of framework‐bound OSDAs generates Al‐O‐Al linkages in a fully tetrahedrally coordinated framework.     

Reversible switching of high-speed air-liquid two-phase flows using electrowetting-assisted flow-pattern change

This work is the first demonstration of electrical modulation of surface energy to reversibly switch dynamic high-speed gas-liquid two-phase microfluidic flow patterns. Manipulation of dynamic two-phase systems with continuous high-speed flows is complex and interesting due to the multiple types of forces that need to be considered. Here, distinct stable flow patterns are formed through a multipronged approach: both surface tension forces generated by surface chemistry modulation as well as viscous and inertial forces produced by fluid flows are employed. The novel fluidic actuation mechanism provides insights into better understanding microscale two-phase flow dynamics and offers new opportunities for the development of two-phase biochemical microsystems that are mechanically simple and operational at high speeds.     

Optimized Aluminum Reflector for Enhancement of UVC Cathodoluminescence Based-AlGaN Materials with Carbon Nanotube Field Emitters

The far ultraviolet C (UVC) light sources based on carbon nanotube (CNT) field emitters as excitation sources have become promising light sources for sterilization, disinfection, and water purification. However, the low light extraction efficiency of UVC–CNT light sources still hinders the practical application of these structures. Herein, we report an optimized aluminum (Al) reflector to enhance the light extraction efficiency of UVC–CNT light sources. Optical analysis of UVC-CNT light sources covered by the Al reflectors with various thicknesses ranging from 30 to 150 nm was performed to realize the optimized reflector. The UVC-CNT light sources exhibit the highest light extraction efficiency when the Al reflector layer has an optimized thickness of 100 nm. For comparison, the cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra were recorded for UVC–CNT light sources with and without the optimized Al reflector. The measured light output power and the estimated power efficiency of the UVC–CNT light-source-tube with Al reflector were enhanced by about 27 times over the reference. This enhancement is mainly attributed to the outstanding reflection effect of the Al reflector.     

Diagonal quasi-Newton methods via least change updating principle with weighted Frobenius norm

Numerical Algorithms - This paper presents a class of low memory quasi-Newton methods with standard backtracking line search for large-scale unconstrained minimization. The methods are derived by...     

Adding visualization functions of DAVIS to Jasp: Mixing two Java-based statistical systems

Summary  Jasp is an experimental general purpose Java-based statistical system which adopts several new computing technologies. It has a function-based and object-oriented language, an advanced user interface, flexible extensibility and a server/client architecture with distributed computing abilities. DAVIS is, on the other hand, a stand-alone Java-based system, and is designed for providing advanced data visualization functions with easy operations by a GUI. In this paper, it is made possible to use tools of DAVIS from within Jasp, in order that the new integrated system can handle not only data filtering and statistical analysis but also data visualization. We develop a mechanism for extending the server/client system of Jasp to realize an efficient collaboration with DAVIS in the client-side. It is shown that the mechanism is straightforward and simple.     

A novel method to measure the cell gap and pretilt angle of a reflective liquid crystal display

A powerful method for the phase retardation measurement of a reflective liquid crystal cell is presented. The proposed method is based on the heterodyne interferometer theory for probing cell parameters. Due to common-path optical arrangement, a fast measurement with high accuracy and sensitivity was possible. Both theoretical analysis and experimental procedures are presented. The experimental results agree well with that obtained theoretically.     

Minimizing flow time in cyclic schedules for identical jobs with acyclic precedence: the bottleneck lower bound

This paper studies minimizing the flow time of a cyclic schedule for repeated identical jobs, where one job is started/completed in each cycle, subject to the schedule achieving maximum throughput. We propose a branch and bound method for a single machine problem, and use this method to derive an improved lower bound for the multiple machine problem.