Diagnostics of mixed van der Waals clusters

We present two complementary techniques that provide detailed diagnostics of supersonic beams involving several species. First, surface scattering, together with quadrupole mass spectrometer detection, yields the monomer percentage for each species within the beam. Second, analyses of beam profiles for different masses after scattering by a buffer gas permit determination of mixed cluster presence and, if any, of cluster sizes and compositions. The two techniques are applied to supersonic expansions of an argon-nitrogen mixture. We discuss the results that provide new insight in binary nucleation processes. Received: 6 October 1997 / Revised: 4 November 1997 / Accepted: 13 November 1997     

Detecting the traders’ strategies in minority-majority games and real stock-prices

Price dynamics is analyzed in terms of a model which includes the possibility of effective forces due to trend followers or trend adverse strategies. The method is tested on the data of a minority-majority model and indeed it is capable of reconstructing the prevailing traders’ strategies in a given time interval. Then we also analyze real (NYSE) stock-prices dynamics and it is possible to derive an indication for the “sentiment” of the market for time intervals of at least one day.     

The human brain hexacoordinated neuroglobin three-dimensional structure

Neuroglobin, mainly expressed in vertebrate brain and retina, is a recently identified member of the globin superfamily. Augmenting O2 supply, neuroglobin promotes survival of neurons upon hypoxic injury, potentially limiting brain damage. In the absence of exogenous ligands, neuroglobin displays a six-coordinated heme. O2 and CO bind to the heme-iron, displacing the endogenous HisE7 heme distal ligand. Hexacoordinated human neuroglobin displays a classical globin fold, adapted to host the reversible bis-histidyl heme complex, and an elongated protein matrix cavity, held to facilitate O2 diffusion to the heme. The structure of neuroglobin suggests that the classical globin fold is endowed with striking adaptability, indicating that hemoglobin and myoglobin are just two examples within a wide and functionally diversified protein homology superfamily.     

The Associated Variety of a Poisson Prime Ideal

It is proved that the associated variety of a Poisson primeideal of the centre of a symplectic reflection algebra at parametert = 0 is irreducible.     

Exact results for one-dimensional disordered bosons with strong repulsion

We study one-dimensional disordered bosons with strong repulsive interactions. A Bose-Fermi mapping expresses this problem in terms of noninteracting Anderson-localized fermions, whereby known results for the distribution function of the local density of states, the spectral statistics, and density-density correlations can be transferred to this new domain of applicability. We show that disorder destroys bosonic quasi-long-range order by calculating the momentum distribution, and comment on the experimental observability of these predictions in ultracold atomic gases.     

Localized impurity states in the Hartree-Fock,LCAO approximation II. The F Center in KCI

We apply the techniques of a previous paper (I) to the F center in KCl. Our purpose is to place the application of Hartree-Fock methods to the F center on a firm theoretical basis by calculating in a consistent manner the magnitude and effect of approximations commonly made in less complete treatments. It is shown that the familiar point-ion approximations and crystal-field approximations with partial consideration of exchange effects are special cases of our results. We compute wave functions and energies step by step for each of the various levels of approximation possible with our model. It is found that the functions resulting from the point-ion model are not good approximations to the final wave functions. Our results show that exchange effects with at least the first two shells of nearest neighbors should be considered since they are of the same order of magnitude as terms in the point-ion model. Overlaps of the F-center function with ion functions out to sixth neighbors are considered. The absorption energy for the F center is calculated to be 0.1619 Ry as compared with the experimentally observed energy of 0.170 Ry. The magnetic hyperfine structure contact terms are calculated for the first two shells of nearest neighbor ions, using approximate orthogonalized functions, and found to be 29.7 Mc/h for the nearest neighbor K⁺ ions and 10.9 Mc/h for the next nearest neighbor Cl^? ions. The experimentally observed values are 21.6 and 7.0, respectively. Given these differences and the excessively low values of the one-electron energies, it is concluded that electronic and ionic polarization effects in the ionized crystal states must be considered to calculate accurate F-center wave functions and absolute energy levels.     

pH optimization for a reliable quantification of brain tumor cell and tissue extracts with <Superscript>1</Superscript>H NMR: focus on choline-containing compounds and taurine

The aim of this study was to define the optimal pH for ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy analysis of perchloric acid or methanol–chloroform–water extracts from brain tumor cells and tissues. The systematic study of the proton chemical shift variations as a function of pH of 13 brain metabolites in model solutions demonstrated that recording ¹H NMR spectra at pH 10 allowed resolving resonances that are overlapped at pH 7, especially in the 3.2–3.3 ppm choline-containing-compounds region. ¹H NMR analysis of extracts at pH 7 or 10 showed that quantitative measurements of lactate, alanine, glutamate, glutamine (Gln), creatine + phosphocreatine and myo-inositol (m-Ino) can be readily performed at both pHs. The concentrations of glycerophosphocholine, phosphocholine and choline that are crucial metabolites for tumor brain malignancy grading were accurately measured at pH 10 only. Indeed, the resonances of their trimethylammonium moieties are cleared of any overlapping signal, especially those of taurine (Tau) and phosphoethanolamine. The four non-ionizable Tau protons resonating as a singlet in a non-congested spectral region permits an easier and more accurate quantitation of this apoptosis marker at pH 10 than at pH 7 where the triplet at 3.43 ppm can be overlapped with the signals of glucose or have an intensity too low to be measured. Glycine concentration was determined indirectly at both pHs after subtracting the contribution of the overlapped signals of m-Ino at pH 7 or Gln at pH 10.     

Pressure and scattering regime influence on the EDS profile resolution at a composite interface in environmental SEM

Gas impact on the EDS profile resolution at the interface of composite interface resin/Al was investigated with two gaseous environments: helium and water vapor. Two main components of the global profile at the interface were investigated: the contrast of the profile and the spatial resolution. A complementary approach was developed by comparing gas nature impact versus the pressure and versus the scattering regime. The results show that the unscattered electron beam mainly governs EDS profile spatial resolution as long as the scattering regime is single or oligo scattering. Then for plural scattering, spatial resolution is dramatically degraded. In addition, the contrast is degraded since a gas is introduced, whatever the gas, the pressure and so the scattering regime. This approach would enable to better understand the respective contributions of the unscattered beam and the skirt and the influence of the gases nature on them.     

Oxygenic polyoxometalates: a new class of molecular propellers

The oxygen evolving catalyst [Ru(4)(μ-OH)(2)(μ-O)(4)(H(2)O)(4)(γ-SiW(10)O(36))(2)](10-) effects H(2)O(2) dismutation at rates (k = 36.8 ± 1.4 M(-1) s(-1)), one/two order of magnitude higher compared to related tetra-substituted Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni and even Co polyoxometalates, thus providing localised oxygen gas bursts to power nano-propulsion of composite materials.