Variable temperature STM study of Co deposition on a dodecanethiol self assembled monolayer

The present scanning tunneling microscopy study reports on the growth processes of Co vapor-deposited on a dodecanethiol (DDT) self-assembled monolayer (SAM)/Au(111). We observe strongly modified surface and depth diffusions of Co adatoms depending on the growth temperature. Co deposited at 300 K shows an extremely incomplete regime of condensation on the organic layer. Besides, Co penetrates the DDT monolayer and resides at the DDT/Au(111) interface as 2D clusters. This phenomenon takes place through defects in the SAM which are transient channels. In contrast, Co deposited at 50 K shows a complete condensation and nucleates on defects of the SAM layer as 3D islands sitting most likely on top of the DDTs. These results are of interest in the growing field of organic spintronics where the quality of the organic/ferromagnetic interface is a key issue.     

Mueller matrix polarimetry for improved liver fibrosis diagnosis

An experimental Mueller matrix polarimeter is used to quantify human liver fibrosis by measuring retardance and depolarization of thin biopsies. The former parameter is sensitive to fibrillar collagen, the latter is specifically sensitive to fibrillar collagen around blood vessels, which is not significant for liver fibrosis diagnosis. By using depolarization like a filter, retardance distribution enables distinguishing between disease stages and limits the high degree of observer discrepancy.     

Relating the CMSSM and SUGRA models with GUT-scale and super-GUT-scale supersymmetry breaking

While the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model (CMSSM) with universal gaugino masses, m _1/2, scalar masses, m ₀, and A-terms, A ₀, defined at some high energy scale (usually taken to be the GUT scale) is motivated by general features of supergravity models, it does not carry all of the constraints imposed by minimal supergravity (mSUGRA). In particular, the CMSSM does not impose a relation between the trilinear and bilinear soft supersymmetry breaking terms, B ₀=A ₀?m ₀, nor does it impose the relation between the soft scalar masses and the gravitino mass, m ₀=m _3/2. As a consequence, tanβ is computed given values of the other CMSSM input parameters. By considering a Giudice–Masiero (GM) extension to mSUGRA, one can introduce new parameters to the Kähler potential which are associated with the Higgs sector and recover many of the standard CMSSM predictions. However, depending on the value of A ₀, one may have a gravitino or a neutralino dark matter candidate. We also consider the consequences of imposing the universality conditions above the GUT scale. This GM extension provides a natural UV completion for the CMSSM.     

Lateral Deprotometallation-Trapping Reactions on Methylated Pyridines,Quinolines and Quinoxalines Using Lithium Diethylamide

The functionalization of methylated azines and diazines has aroused the interest of chemists given the structural diversity that it affords. Hindered lithium dialkylamides have been used to deprotometallate these substrates chemoselectively. In contrast, it can be observed that, despite some promising work, lithium diethylamide has been used very little for this purpose. Our objective here is on the one hand to make an inventory of what reagents have been used to deprotometallate methylpyridines, -quinolines and -quinoxalines, and on the other hand to describe the results obtained by seeking to functionalize a series of substrates with lithium diethylamide (picolines, 2,4-lutidine, methylquinolines and 2-methylquinoxaline). Our efforts to take advantage of the use of an in-situ trap (a zinc chloride chelate) in these reactions are also described.     

An exponential lower bound for Zadeh’s pivot rule

Mathematical Programming - The question whether the Simplex Algorithm admits an efficient pivot rule remains one of the most important open questions in discrete optimization. While many natural,...