Metastable phase in the quantum Hall ferromagnet

Time-dependent capacitance measurements reveal an unstable phase of electrons in gallium arsenide quantum well that occurs when two Landau levels with opposite-spin are brought close to degeneracy by applying a gate voltage. This phase emerges below a critical temperature and displays a peculiar non-equilibrium dynamical evolution. The relaxation dynamics is found to follow a stretched-exponential behaviour and correlates with hysteresis loops observed by sweeping the magnetic field. These experiments indicate that metastable randomly distributed magnetic domains with peculiar excitations are involved in the relaxation process in a way that is equivalently tunable by a change in gate voltage or temperature.     

Double transverse-spin asymmetries in Drell–Yan processes with antiprotons

We present next-to-leading order predictions for double transverse-spin asymmetries in Drell–Yan dilepton production initiated by proton–antiproton scattering. The kinematic region of the proposed PAX experiment at GSI: 30?s?200 GeV²$30?s?200{\text{GeV}}^2$ and 2?M?7 GeV$2?M?7\text{GeV}$ is examined. The Drell–Yan asymmetries turn out to be large, in the range 20–40%. Measuring these asymmetries would provide the cleanest determination of the quark transversity distributions.     

Experimental evidence of guided-resonances in photonic crystals with aperiodically ordered supercells

We report on the first experimental evidence of guided resonances (GRs) in photonic crystal slabs based on aperiodically ordered supercells. Using Ammann-Beenker (quasiperiodic, eightfold symmetric) tiling geometry, we present our study on the fabrication, experimental characterization, and full-wave numerical simulation of two representative structures (with different filling parameters) operating at near-IR wavelengths (1300-1600 nm). Our results show a fairly good agreement between measurements and numerical predictions and pave the way for the development of new strategies (based on, e.g., the lattice symmetry breaking) for GR engineering.     

MRI characterization of residual mediastinal masses in Hodgkin's disease: long-term follow-up

Our purpose was to evaluate the role of MRI in distinguishing fibrous from active residual masses in treated Hodgkin's disease. Forty patients with residual mediastinal mass larger than 1.5 cm underwent MRI 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after the end of cycles of prescribed chemotherapy or combined chemoradiotherapy. The MRI examinations were performed on a 0.5 and a 1.5 T systems, using T(1) before and after gadolinium injection and T(2)-weighted sequences. Each time the residual mass was evaluated in size and signal intensity on spin echo (SE) T(2)-weighted images and on SE T(1)-weighted images after contrast medium. Low signal intensity and low contrast enhancement were considered signs of inactive residues; homogeneous high signal intensity and high contrast enhancement were indicative of active residual disease; heterogeneous signal intensity and heterogeneous contrast enhancement were indicative of partial remission or necrotic/inflammatory phenomena. MR showed high diagnostic accuracy in the evaluation of Hodgkin's mediastinal residues after treatment, if performed at least 6 months after the end of therapy, reaching the highest sensitivity and specificity values at 12 month follow-up (considering the three parameters-T(2) signal intensity, contrast-enhancement, and size-all together). If we consider the single parameters individually, we can observe that size variation remains the more valuable parameter to predict or to exclude a relapse. MR diagnostic accuracy at the 6-month follow-up was lower due to the higher incidence of inhomogeneous pattern. The accuracy of MR performed at 1 and at 3 months after the end of therapy was not satisfying. This represents a clinical problem because the most important clinical decisions have to be taken just in this early post-treatment phase.     

Dielectric properties of high-kappa oxides: theory and experiment for Lu2O3

We present a combined experimental and theoretical analysis of the dielectric and vibrational properties of crystalline lutetium oxide in its ground-state bixbyite structure. The vibrational dielectric function of Lu2O3 thin films grown by atomic-layer deposition was studied by infrared transmission and reflection-absorption spectroscopies, selectively accessing transverse and longitudinal optical frequencies. The static dielectric constant is extracted analyzing the infrared response. We also present first-principles density-functional linear-response calculations, which are in close agreement with experiment, and provide insight into the microscopic nature of vibrational spectra and dielectric properties.     

Vertical link solutions for multilayer optical-networks-on-chip topologies

This paper presents two different approaches that may allow the optical interconnection between superposed levels of multilayer photonic circuits as, for example, in optical-networks-on-chip. The first configuration is based on multi-mode interference devices, while the second one exploits multiple stacked directional couplers. The issues concerning the analytical and numerical design of such devices are discussed, together with a performance analysis in terms of efficiency and footprint.     

Mass spectrometry in the proteome analysis of mature cereal kernels

In the last decade, the improved performance and versatility of the mass spectrometers together with the increasing availability of gene and genomic sequence database, led the mass spectrometry to become an indispensable tool for either protein and proteome analyses in cereals. Mass spectrometric works on prolamins have rapidly evolved from the determination of the molecular masses of proteins to the proteomic approaches aimed to a large-scale protein identification and study of functional and regulatory aspects of proteins. Mass spectrometry coupled with electrophoresis, chromatographic methods, and bioinformatics tools is currently making significant contributions to a better knowledge of the composition and structure of the cereal proteins and their structure-function relationships. Results obtained using mass spectrometry, including characterization of prolamins, investigation of the gluten toxicity for coeliac patients, identification of proteins responsible of cereal allergies, determination of the protein pattern and its modification under environmental or stress effects, investigation of genetically modified varieties by proteomic approaches, are summarized here, to illustrate current trends, analytical troubles and challenges, and suggest possible future perspectives.     

Double Vivaldi antenna for wireless optical networks on chip

In this paper we present a double plasmonic Vivaldi antenna for on-chip optical wireless communication. The proposed antenna is a two-element broadside array fed by a silicon waveguide. The designs of the power splitter and of the hybrid Si-plasmonic coupler used for antenna excitation are described in detail. The array radiation characteristics are optimized through Finite Difference Time Domain simulations and the performance of a point-to-point link is evaluated. The proposed double Vivaldi array increases the gain of 3 dB with respect to a single antenna, improving the received power on a link of 6 dB when the double antenna is used for both transmitting and receiving sections.     

Sextic centrifugal distortion constants: interplay of density functional and basis set for accurate yet feasible computations

Quantum-chemical calculations assist the analysis of laboratory spectra, and often provide the only means to determine spectroscopic data that cannot be accessed experimentally. Accurate predictions of vibrational and rotational spectroscopic parameters are required for applications in the field of high-resolution molecular spectroscopy. While the accuracy issue of the quantum-chemical calculation of vibrational properties and of equilibrium structures has been addressed in the literature, the same is not true for centrifugal distortion constants that however play an essential role for the interpretation of remote sensing data. In this work, the performance of several model chemistries, rooted mainly in density functional theory, in computing sextic centrifugal distortion constants is assessed employing a benchmark set of molecules of both atmospheric and astrochemical relevance. The Jensen’s (aug-)pcs-n basis sets, different flavours of Dunning’s triple-ζ basis sets and the SNSD basis set, are employed in conjunction with different functionals, and their predictions are benchmarked against experimental and theoretical data at the coupled cluster level of theory. This study also demonstrates the reliability of the calculation of sextic centrifugal distortion constants within the Gaussian16 rev. B.01 program package. Reliable predictions of the sextic centrifugal distortion constants for the gauche- and trans-conformers of ethyl-mercaptan are also presented.