The μSR facilities at PSI

TheSR Facility Instruments presently available at PSI and the envisaged medium- and long-term developments are presented. The plans focus on further upgrades of the existing instruments and the development of new techniques using the very high fluxes becoming available at PSI, in particular the setup of a beamline with a fast kicker for muons on request (MORE) and the development of very low energy muon beams.     

Development of a very low energy μ+ beam at PSI

At PSI we are investigating the technique of decelerating an existing very intense secondary beam of surface ⁺ (4 MeV) to an energy of 10 eV using appropriate moderators. These ⁺ can then be used as a source of a tertiary beam of low energy muons with tunable kinetic energy between 10 eV and 10 keV.With a 1000 A layer of solid Argon deposited on an Al substrate we obtain a moderation efficiency (with respect to the number of incoming surface ⁺) of the order of 10^–4.Results of our investigations and the present status of the project are presented together with future plans and possibilities.     

Ferroelastic domain freezing and low-frequency elastic behaviour of [Formula: see text] (ALHS)

In this work elastic measurements on [Formula: see text] (ALHS) which were carried out in the low-frequency range between 1 and 50 Hz are presented. The temperature dependence of the inverse elastic compliance [Formula: see text] has been determined between 90 K and 420 K. Distinct anomalies have been found in the temperature dependence of [Formula: see text], which are connected to the motion of domain walls in the ferroelastic phase below [Formula: see text]. Around [Formula: see text] a (partial) ferroelastic `domain freezing' phenomenon has been observed. To the knowledge of the authors this is the first time that pure ferroelastic domain freezing has been reported. However, below [Formula: see text] the domain walls seem to retain a certain vibrational degree of freedom which could be responsible for an additional anomaly of the loss modulus which was observed. The elastic behaviour of a crystal of ALHS is dependent on the `history' of the given sample. During temperature cycling [Formula: see text] shows differences between the first run of heating and cooling and later runs. Finally, some basic insights concerning the domain wall motion were obtained; it was found that the domain wall mobility decreases by three orders of magnitude in the temperature region 170 - 230 K.     

Continuous flow in open microfluidics using controlled evaporation

This paper presents a method for programming the flow rate of liquids inside open microfluidic networks (MFNs). A MFN comprises a number of independent flow paths, each of which starts with an open filling port, has a sealed microchannel in which assays can be performed, and an open capillary pump (CP). The MFN is placed over Peltier elements and its flow paths initially fill owing to capillary forces when liquids are added to the filling ports. A cooling Peltier element underneath the filling ports dynamically prevents evaporation in all filling ports using the ambient temperature and relative humidity as inputs. Another Peltier element underneath the CPs heats the pumps thereby inducing evaporation in the CPs and setting the flow rate in the microchannels. This method achieves flow rates in the microchannels ranging from approximately 1.2 nL s(-1) to approximately 30 pL s(-1), and is able to keep 90% of a 0.6 microL solution placed in an open filling port for 60 min. This simple and efficient method should be applicable to numerous assays or chemical reactions that require small and precise flow of liquids and reagents inside microfluidics.     

Nonlinear one-parametric bottleneck linear programming

We consider the one-parametric linear bottleneck problem min {c (x, t) ¦ x P (t)} where the bottleneck objectivec (x, t):=max {c_j (t) ¦ x_j>0} is minimized subject to linear constraints, i.e. P(t):={x ¦A (t) ·x=b (t), x0}. All coefficients are assumed to be continuous functions of one real parametert which varies in a real intervalS. A method is developed for constructing a partition ofS into subintervals on which either a basis stays optimal or the problem stays infeasible. Finiteness of the partition is due to certain finiteness assumptions on the zeroes of particular combinations of the coefficient functions. Using a lexicographic refinement of the objective function a characterization of the optimality interval of a fixed basis is derived which is independent on explicit information about other bases.

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Zusammenfassung Es werden einparametrische lineare Engpaßprobleme min {c (x, t) ¦x P (t)} betrachtet, wobei die Engpaßzielfunktionc (x, t):=max {c_j (t) ¦ x_j >0} unter linearen Nebenbedingungen, die durch P(t):={x ¦A (t) ·x=b (t), x0} gegeben sind, minimiert wird. Dabei wird angenommen, daß alle Koeffizienten stetige Funktionen eines reellen Parameterst aus einem IntervallS R sind. Es wird eine Methode entwickelt,S derart in Teilintervalle zu zerlegen, daß entweder eine Basis in solch einem Teilintervall optimal oder das Problem unzulässig bleibt. Die Endlichkeit dieser Partition vonS ergibt sich aus Endlichkeitsvoraussetzungen für die Nullstellen von Funktionen, die sich als gewisse Kombinationen der Koeffizientenfunktionen schreiben lassen. Durch eine lexikographische Verfeinerung der Zielfunktion gelingt es, das Intervall zu charakterisieren, in dem eine feste Basis optimal ist. Diese Charakterisierung ist unabhängig von expliziten Informationen über andere Basen.

     

Determination of TNT and its metabolites in water samples by voltammetric techniques

Square-wave voltammetry with the hanging drop mercury electrode as the working electrode was used for the determination of ultratraces of explosives in aqueous solution. It was shown that the strong pressure dependence of the pneumatically controlled multimode electrode system of a conventional Metrohm apparatus could be compensated by an additional pressure regulation, through which the pressure variations could be decreased when switching from deaeration to the static measurements. By using square-wave voltammetry with this electrode system after this modification the limits of detection for 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and other TNT-metabolites could be decreased down to 0.2 μg L⁻¹ when using a measurement time of 6 min. Also a simultaneous determination of TNT and hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) was shown to be possible over a wide linear range and the detection limits then were 2.2 μg L⁻¹ for TNT and 25 μg L⁻¹ for RDX. By applying the highly stable and adjustable pressure as mentioned before, the calibrations could be kept stable over a period of up to 1 week.     

Physicochemical and Cytochemical Investigations on the Binding of Ethidium and Acridine Dyes to DNA and to Organelles in Living Cells

Ethidium and acridine dyes are classical model substances for studying the binding of small, pharmacologically active molecules to DNA. Intercalation between the DNA base pairs is nearly always proposed as the most important type of binding. According to our investigations, however, there is a second type of binding, which also occurs when the concentration of the bound molecules is low and will be referred to here as external or preintercalative binding. The experimental binding isotherms show that the binding constant for intercalation K_S1 is considerably smaller than that for external binding K_S2 (K_S1 > K_S2). This surprising result is not due to the binding enthalpy (ΔH ≈ ΔH) but to the binding entropy (ΔS > ΔS). Electrostatic interactions between the dye and the DNA represent the most important contribution to both types of binding; they are supplemented by hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions. The behavior of a substance in living cells, however, cannot be reliably predicted from its in vitro binding to DNA. Very few substances are bound to the DNA of the nuclear chromatin in cell culture; for example, dyes often accumulate instead in the lysosomes. In some cases the dye binds specifically and very efficiently to the mitochondria of the living cell, especially to the mitochondrial membranes, the sites of oxidative phosphorylation.     

Small angle X-ray scattering investigations of thermodynamic properties of fluid mixtures

Absolute small angle X-ray studies of concentration fluctuations were performed in order to determine thermodynamic properties of a model blend, consisting ofn-hexane and perfluoro-n-hexane. The quantities which we determined were the second derivate of the Gibbs free energy of mixing with respect to the concentration of the components, the location of the spinodal, interaction and solubility parameters, the energy gradient density coefficient as well as the correlation length of the fluctuations at various compositions and temperatures, particularly in the neighbourhood of the spinodal and the critical point. The data obtained were compared with those obtainable from the well known location of the binodal, to test the reliability of the scattering method.     

Glucuronide conjugates of Soraprazan (BY359), a new potassium-competitive acid blocker (P-CAB) for the treatment of acid-related diseases

Glucuronide conjugates of Soraprazan (BY359), a potent novel anti-secretory drug (currently in Phase II clinical trials), were not directly accessible synthetically. This was due to the relative instability of Soraprazan under the harsh Lewis acid conditions employed in popular glucuronidation methodologies and a lack of reactivity under alternative, Koenigs-Knorr, coupling conditions. We have now devised a successful synthesis using the novel N-acetylated Soraprazan to access the required glucuronide metabolites on gram scale. Coupling of this novel aglycone with methyl 1-O-trichloroacetimidoyl-2,3,5-tri-O-isobutyryl-α-d-glucopyran-uronate in the presence of trimethylsilyl trifluoromethanesulfonate (TMSOTf) gave the protected glucuronide intermediates. A one-pot two-step deprotection involving hydrolysis of the ester functionalities and removal of the N-acetyl group with alkaline hydrazine delivered the title compounds in satisfactory yield.     

Caesium

Ohne Zusammenfassung Peltzer, J.: Mitt.-Blatt GDCh-Fachgr. Lebensmittelchemie u. gerichtl. Chemie 11, 31 (1957); vgl. diese Z. 158, 445 (1957).