Dissociative electron attachment to furan, tetrahydrofuran, and fructose

We study dissociative electron attachment to furan (FN) (C(4)H(4)O), tetrahydrofuran (THF) (C(4)H(8)O), and fructose (FRU) (C(6)H(12)O(6)) using crossed electron/molecular beams experiments with mass spectrometric detection of the anions. We find that FN and THF are weak electron scavengers and subjected to dissociative electron attachment essentially in the energy range above 5.5 eV via core excited resonances. In striking contrast to that, FRU is very sensitive towards low energy electrons generating a variety of fragment ions via a pronounced low energy feature close to 0 eV. These reactions are associated with the degradation of the ring structure and demonstrate that THF cannot be used as surrogate to model deoxyribose in DNA with respect to the attack of electrons at subexcitation energies (<3 eV). The results support the picture that in DNA the sugar moiety itself is an active part in the initial molecular processes leading to single strand breaks.     

Two-sided hyperbolic SVD

In this paper, we propose the two-sided hyperbolic SVD (2HSVD) for square matrices, i.e., A=UΣV^[∗], where U and V^[∗] are J-unitary (J=diag(±1)) and Σ is a real diagonal matrix of “double-hyperbolic” singular values. We show that, with some natural conditions, such decomposition exists without the use of hyperexchange matrices. In other words, U and V^[∗] are really J-unitary with regard to J and not some matrix which is permutationally similar to matrix J. We provide full characterization of 2HSVD and completely relate it to the semidefinite J-polar decomposition.     

Radiolytic hydrogen yields in aqueous suspensions of gold particles

The effect of high concentrations of large gold particles, in the hundreds of nanometer size regime, on the yields of molecular hydrogen, G(H(2)), produced in the radiolysis of several aqueous solutions was determined. In particular we look for direct effect of radiation absorbed by the solid particles on the yield of water products. These particles, however, are catalytically active in the conversion of reducing radicals to molecular hydrogen as well. A very small increase in G(H(2)) observed in bromide solutions upon addition of 50 wt % of gold particles indicates that the radiolysis of the solid particles does not affect the yields in the aqueous phase. Very little exchange of charge carriers or energy between the two phases occurs in these large particle suspensions. On the other hand, efficient catalytic conversion of (CH(3))(2)C(*)OH radicals to H(2) is shown to occur. The efficiency of the presently studied suspensions in the redox-catalytic process is similar to that of suspensions of small particles of similar total surface area. In the presence of radicals from hydrogen atom abstraction from tert-butyl alcohol the yield decreases significantly, again similar to the behavior in suspensions of small particles. We conclude that the redox catalysis does not depend on the size of the particles when their size exceeds a few nanometers.     

Simultaneous determination of free and EDTA-complexed copper ions by flame atomic absorption spectrometry with an ion-exchange flow-injection system

A simple method is described for the simultaneous determination of free and complexed copper ions in a flow-injection system comprising ion-exchange and flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Sampling rates for 400-μl samples were 90 h^?1. Typical relative standard deviations for the simultaneous determinations were 1.6% for the complexed metal (0.50 μg ml^?1) and 1.0% for the free metal (0.20 μg ml^?1).     

Direct synthesis of β-FeSi2 by ion beam mixing of Fe/Si bilayers

The iron di-silicide #-FeSi₂ is a promising direct band gap semiconductor but difficult to produce. Here, the successful direct synthesis of this phase by ion beam mixing of Fe/Si bilayers at temperatures in the range of 450 to 550 °C is reported. The obtained single-phase #-FeSi₂ layers and their structure are confirmed by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, X-ray diffraction and conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy.     

Randomization and the Gross–Pitaevskii Hierarchy

Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis - We study the Gross–Pitaevskii hierarchy on the spatial domain $${\mathbb{T}^3}$$ . By using an appropriate randomization of the Fourier...     

On the uniqueness of solutions to the periodic 3D Gross–Pitaevskii hierarchy

In this paper, we present a uniqueness result for solutions to the Gross–Pitaevskii hierarchy on the three-dimensional torus, under the assumption of an a priori spacetime bound. We show that this a priori bound is satisfied for factorized solutions to the hierarchy which come from solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. In this way, we obtain a periodic analogue of the uniqueness result on R³${\mathbb{R}}^3$ previously proved by Klainerman and Machedon [75], except that, in the periodic setting, we need to assume additional regularity. In particular, we need to work in the Sobolev class H^α$H^{\alpha }$ for α>1$\alpha >1$. By constructing a specific counterexample, we show that, on T³${\mathbb{T}}^3$, the existing techniques from the work of Klainerman and Machedon approach do not apply in the endpoint case α=1$\alpha =1$. This is in contrast to the known results in the non-periodic setting, where these techniques are known to hold for all α?1$\alpha ?1$. In our analysis, we give a detailed study of the crucial spacetime estimate associated to the free evolution operator. In this step of the proof, our methods rely on lattice point counting techniques based on the concept of the determinant of a lattice. This method allows us to obtain improved bounds on the number of lattice points which lie in the intersection of a plane and a set of radius R, depending on the number-theoretic properties of the normal vector to the plane. We are hence able to obtain a sharp range of admissible Sobolev exponents for which the spacetime estimate holds.     

A two‐step protocol for isolation of influenza A (H7N7) virions and their RNA for PCR diagnostics based on modified paramagnetic particles

Annual epidemics of influenza cause death of hundreds of thousands people and they also have a significant economic impact. Hence, a need for fast and cheap influenza diagnostic method is arising. The conventional methods for an isolation of the viruses are time‐consuming and require expensive instrumentation as well as trained personnel. In this study, we modified the surface of nanomaghemite (γ‐Fe₂O₃) paramagnetic core with tetraethyl orthosilicate and (3‐aminopropyl)triethoxysilane and the resulting particles were utilized for the isolation of H7N7 influenza virions. Consequently, we designed γ‐Fe₂O₃ paramagnetic core modified with calcium tripolyphosphate which was employed for the isolation of viral nucleic acid after virion's lysis. Both of these procedures can be performed rapidly in less than 10 min and, in combination with the RT‐PCR, the whole influenza detection can be shortened to few hours. Moreover, the whole protocol could be easily automated and/or miniaturized, and thus can serve as a basis for use in a lab‐on‐a‐chip device. We assume that magnetic isolation is an exceptional procedure which can significantly accelerate the diagnostic possibilities of a broad spectrum of diseases.     

Vacuum-UV and Low-Energy Electron-Induced DNA Strand Breaks – Influence of the DNA Sequence and Substrate

DNA is effectively damaged by radiation, which can on the one hand lead to cancer and is on the other hand directly exploited in the treatment of tumor tissue. DNA strand breaks are already induced by photons having an energy below the ionization energy of DNA. At high photon energies, most of the DNA strand breaks are induced by low-energy secondary electrons. In the present study we quantified photon and electron induced DNA strand breaks in four different 12mer oligonucleotides. They are irradiated directly with 8.44 eV vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photons and 8.8 eV low energy electrons (LEE). By using Si instead of VUV transparent CaF₂ as a substrate the VUV exposure leads to an additional release of LEEs, which have a maximum energy of 3.6 eV and can significantly enhance strand break cross sections. Atomic force microscopy is used to visualize strand breaks on DNA origami platforms and to determine absolute values for the strand break cross sections. Upon irradiation with 8.44 eV photons all the investigated sequences show very similar strand break cross sections in the range of 1.7–2.3×10⁻¹⁶ cm². The strand break cross sections for LEE irradiation at 8.8 eV are one to two orders of magnitude larger than the ones for VUV photons, and a slight sequence dependence is observed. The sequence dependence is even more pronounced for LEEs with energies <3.6 eV. The present results help to assess DNA damage by photons and electrons close to the ionization threshold.