Limit for pulse compression by pulse splitting

We have detected a fundamental pulse-compression limit for high-nonlinear fibers in the normal dispersion regime near the zero-dispersion wavelength. The desired generation of a broadband continuum by self-phase modulation is limited by already small amounts of third-order dispersion (TOD), which results in pulse splitting above a critical pulse power. We investigate the critical fiber length in dependence on pulse- and fiber parameters.     

Acoustic Analyses of Developmental Changes and Emotional Expression in the Preverbal Vocalizations of Infants

The nonverbal vocal utterances of seven normally hearing infants were studied within their first year of life with respect to age- and emotion-related changes. Supported by a multiparametric acoustic analysis it was possible to distinguish one inspiratory and eleven expiratory call types. Most of the call types appeared within the first two months; some emerged in the majority of infants not until the 5th (“laugh”) or 7th month (“babble”). Age-related changes in acoustic structure were found in only 4 call types (“discomfort cry,” “short discomfort cry,” “wail,” “moan”). The acoustic changes were characterized mainly by an increase in harmonic-to-noise ratio and homogeneity of the call, a decrease in frequency range and a downward shift of acoustic energy from higher to lower frequencies. Emotion-related differences were found in the acoustic structure of single call types as well as in the frequency of occurrence of different call types. A change from positive to negative emotional state was accompanied by an increase in call duration, frequency range, and peak frequency (frequency with the highest amplitude within the power spectrum). Negative emotions, in addition, were characterized by a significantly higher rate of “crying,” “hic” and “ingressive vocalizations” than positive emotions, while positive emotions showed a significantly higher rate of “babble,” “laugh,” and “raspberry.”     

A Closed Formula for the Riemann Normal Coordinate Expansion

We derive an integral representation whichencodes all coefficients of the Riemann normalcoordinate expansion and also a closed formula for thosecoefficients.     

Measuring technique for thermal ionisation mass spectrometry of human tracer kinetic study with stable cerium isotopes

Thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (TIMS) method has been developed for the simultaneous detection of different cerium isotopes in biological samples (i.e., blood and urine) at very low concentrations. The work has been done in the frame of a biokinetic study, where different stable cerium isotopes have been administered orally and intravenously as tracers to the human body. In order to develop an appropriate detection method for the tracers in the biological samples, an optimum sample preparation technique has been set and adapted to the specific requirements of the analysis technique used, i.e., TIMS. For sample evaporation and ionisation, the double tantalum filament technique showed the best results. The ions produced were simultaneously collected on a secondary electron multiplier so that the isotopic ratios of the cerium isotopes in the biological samples could be measured. The technique has been optimised for the determination of cerium down to 1?ng loaded on the evaporation filament corresponding to cerium concentrations of down to 1?ng?ml(-1) in the blood or urine samples. It has been shown that the technique is reliable in application and enables studies on cerium metabolism and biokinetics in humans without employing radioactive tracers.     

Autoionization mediated by electron transfer

Electron-electron coincidence spectra of Ar-Kr clusters after photoionization have been measured. An electron with the kinetic energy range from 0 to approximately 1 eV is found in coincidence with the Ar 3s cluster photoelectron. The low kinetic energy electron can be attributed to an Ar + Kr+ + Kr+ final state which forms after electron transfer mediated decay. This autoionization mechanism results from a concerted transition involving three different atoms in a van der Waals cluster; it was predicted theoretically, but hitherto not observed.     

Dynamical model for chemically driven running droplets

We propose coupled evolution equations for the thickness of a liquid film and the density of an adsorbate layer on a partially wetting solid substrate. Therein, running droplets are studied assuming a chemical reaction underneath the droplets that induces a wettability gradient on the substrate and provides the driving force for droplet motion. Two different regimes for moving droplets--reaction-limited and saturated regime--are described. They correspond to increasing and decreasing velocities with increasing reaction rates and droplet sizes, respectively. The existence of the two regimes offers a natural explanation of prior experimental observations.     

Highly resolved fluid flows: "liquid plasmas" at the kinetic level

Fluid flow around an obstacle was observed at the kinetic (individual particle) level using "complex (dusty) plasmas" in their liquid state. These "liquid plasmas" have bulk properties similar to water (e.g., viscosity), and a comparison in terms of similarity parameters suggests that they can provide a unique tool to model classical fluids. This allows us to study "nanofluidics" at the most elementary-the particle-level, including the transition from fluid behavior to purely kinetic transport. In this (first) experimental investigation we describe the kinetic flow topology, discuss our observations in terms of fluid theories, and follow this up with numerical simulations.     

Charge transfer at F<Subscript>16</Subscript>CoPc and CoPc interfaces to Au

We analyze the electronic properties of the interfaces between cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc), as well as fluorinated cobalt phthalocyanine (F₁₆CoPc), and an Au(100) single-crystal using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and valence band ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy. Our data demonstrate that for the monolayers of both materials a charge transfer occurs from the substrate to the center of the organic molecules resulting in a central Co(I) ion. This leads to the conclusion that this effect essentially is fluorination- and ligand-independent.     

Radiolabelling of TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> nanoparticles for radiotracer studies

Industrially manufactured titanium dioxide nanoparticles have been successfully radiolabelled with ⁴⁸V by irradiation with a cyclotron-generated proton beam. Centrifugation tests showed that the ⁴⁸V radiolabels were stably bound within the nanoparticle structure in an aqueous medium, while X-ray diffraction indicated that no major structural modifications to the nanoparticles resulted from the proton irradiation. In vitro tests of the uptake of cold and radiolabelled nanoparticles using the human cell line Calu-3 showed no significant difference in the uptake between both batches of nanoparticles. The uptake was quantified by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry and high resolution γ-ray spectrometry for cold and radiolabelled nanoparticles, respectively. These preliminary results indicate that alterations to the nanoparticles’ properties introduced by proton bombardment can be controlled to a sufficient extent that their further use as radiotracers for biological investigations can be envisaged and elaborated.     

Proton-detected scalar coupling based assignment strategies in MAS solid-state NMR spectroscopy applied to perdeuterated proteins

Assignment of proteins in MAS (magic angle spinning) solid-state NMR relies so far on correlations among heteronuclei. This strategy is based on well dispersed resonances in the ¹⁵N dimension. In many complex cases like membrane proteins or amyloid fibrils, an additional frequency dimension is desirable in order to spread the amide resonances. We show here that proton detected HNCO, HNCA, and HNCACB type experiments can successfully be implemented in the solid-state. Coherences are sufficiently long lived to allow pulse schemes of a duration greater than 70 ms before incrementation of the first indirect dimension. The achieved resolution is comparable to the resolution obtained in solution-state NMR experiments. We demonstrate the experiments using a triply labeled sample of the SH3 domain of chicken α-spectrin, which was re-crystallized in H₂O/D₂O using a ratio of 1/9. We employ paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) using EDTA chelated Cu^II to enable rapid data acquisition.