Observation of power-Law scaling for phase transitions in linear trapped ion crystals

We report an experimental confirmation of the power-law relationship between the critical anisotropy parameter and ion number for the linear-to-zigzag phase transition in an ionic crystal. Our experiment uses laser cooled calcium ions confined in a linear radio-frequency trap. Measurements for up to ten ions are in good agreement with theoretical and numeric predictions. Implications on an upper limit to the size of data registers in ion trap quantum computers are discussed.     

External quality assurance of test requesting and test interpretation

The ultimate product of the clinical laboratory is not a number, but an advice. To what quality standards should this advice live up to? In external quality assurance for primary health care in Norway, case histories are mailed together with the analytical quality control material. The analytical result of the control material is used in the case history. The feedback reports discuss clinical guidelines as well as the influence of analytical variation on clinical decision-making.     

Zement

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Numerical analysis of tonal airfoil self-noise and acoustic feedback-loops

In this study the role of acoustic feedback instabilities in the tonal airfoil self-noise phenomenon is investigated. First, direct numerical simulations are conducted of the flow around a NACA-0012 airfoil at Re=1×10⁵ and four angles of attack. At the two lowest angles of attack considered the airfoil self-noise exhibits a clear tonal contribution, whereas at the two higher angles of attack the tonal contribution becomes less significant in comparison to the broadband noise. Classical linear stability analysis of time-averaged boundary layer profiles shows that the tonal noise occurs at a frequency significantly lower than that of the most convectively amplified instability wave. Two-dimensional linear stability analysis of the time-averaged flowfield is then performed, illustrating the presence of an acoustic feedback loop involving the airfoil trailing edge. The feedback loop is found to be unstable only for the cases where tonal self-noise is prominent, and is found to self-select a frequency almost identical to that of the tonal self-noise. The constituent mechanisms of the acoustic feedback loop are considered, which appear to explain why the preferred frequency is lower than that of the most convectively amplified instability wave.     

ERYTHROPOIETIC PROTOPORPHYRIA: PHOTODYNAMIC TRANSFER OF PROTOPORPHYRIN FROM INTACT ERYTHROCYTES TO OTHER CELLS

Erythrocytes in patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) contain large amounts of protoporphyrin and are regarded as the main source of protoporphyrin in this disease. Cells in the skin of EPP patients accumulate protoporphyrin released from the erythrocytes and upon sun exposure endothelial cells are photodamaged. In the present study a light-induced transfer of protoporphyrin directly from EPP erythrocytes to cultured cells is demonstrated. Erythrocytes were layered upon cultured cells and irradiated. The nearness of erythrocyte and cultured cell membranes potentiated the transfer of protoporphyrin between these cells. This transfer was rapid and preceded the release of protoporphyrin to proteins in the medium. Further irradiation of the protoporphyrin-enriched cultured cells, after removal of the erythrocytes, caused severe photodamage to the cells and survival was dependent on both the amount of protoporphyrin transferred and on the light fluence. Clinical observations and the results of this study indicate that light energy may be involved in two steps in the pathophysiology of EPP: (A) light-induced release of protoporphyrin from erythrocytes to endothelial cells and (B) photodynamic damage to protoporphyrin-enriched endothelial cells.     

Operators with smooth functional calculi

We introduce a class of (tuples of commuting) unbounded operators on a Banach space, admitting smooth functional calculi, which contains all operators of Helffer-Sjöstrand type and is closed under the action of smooth proper mappings. Moreover, the class is closed under tensor product of commuting operators. In general, and operator in this class has no resolvent in the usual sense, so the spectrum must be defined in terms of the functional calculus. We also consider invariant subspaces and spectral decompositions.     

Fully printed flexible audio system on the basis of low‐voltage polymeric organic field effect transistors with three layer dielectric

Fully mass printed, flexible and truly polymeric organic field effect transistors consisting of a three layer dielectric made of CYTOP (low‐k), PVA (intermediate) and P(VDF‐TrFE‐CTFE)(high‐k) are introduced. Gravure‐, flexo‐and screen printing were selected as highly productive manufacturing technologies. These OFETs work at strongly reduced voltages and show high field effect mobility (µ = 0.2 cm²/Vs) and remarkable good bias stress stability at very high current density (50 µA/mm). Fully printed OFETs are used for the realization of ring oscillators working in the kHz regime at reduced supply voltage (10 V). In combination with printed fully polymeric piezoelectric loudspeakers, this work shows for the first time fully printed flexible audio systems. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 1409–1415     

Characterization of γ-carboxylated tryptic peptides by collision-induced dissociation and electron transfer dissociation mass spectrometry

Vitamin K-dependent carboxylation of glutamic acid (Glu) residues into γ-carboxyglutamic acid (Gla) is a post-translational modification essential for normal protein activity of, for example, proteins involved in the blood coagulation system. These proteins may contain as many as 12 sites for γ-carboxylation within a protein sequence of 45 amino acid residues. In the biopharmaceutical industry, powerful analytical techniques are required for identification and localization of modified sites. We here present comparatively easy and rapid methods for studies of Gla-containing proteins using recent technology. The performances of two mass spectrometric fragmentation techniques, collision-induced dissociation (CID) and electron transfer dissociation (ETD), were evaluated with respect to γ-carboxylated peptides, applying on-line LC-ion trap MS. ETD MS has so far not been reported for Gla-containing peptides and the applicability of CID for heavily γ-carboxylated proteins has not been evaluated. The anticoagulant protein, protein C, containing nine Gla-sites, was chosen as a model protein. After tryptic digestion, three peptides containing Gla-residues were detected by MS; a 1.2 kDa fragment containing two Gla-residues, a 4.5 kDa peptide containing seven residues and also the 5.6 kDa tryptic peptides containing all nine Gla-residues. Regarding the shortest peptide, both CID and ETD provided extensive peptide sequencing. For the larger peptides, fragmentation by CID resulted in loss of the 44 Da CO(2)-group, while little additional fragmentation of the peptide chain was observed. In contrast, ETD resulted in comprehensive fragmentation of the peptide backbone. The study demonstrates that the combination of both techniques would be beneficial and complementary for investigation of γ-carboxylated proteins and peptides.     

MicroSAMPO — Personal computer based advanced gamma spectrum analysis system

The widely used SAMPO Ge(Li) and HPGe gamma spectrum analysis program has been adapted to IBM Personal Computers in a thoroughly revised version MicroSAMPO. The program is intended for peak search, peak fitting, nuclide identification and activity calculations. The use of calibrated peak shape functions for peak area determination makes it possible to resolve complex multiplets with strongly overlapping peaks. Menu-driven user interface, colour graphics diplays, semi-automatic calibrations and interactive options have been designed to make the program more user-friendly. It is well suited for both spectroscopic research and routine analysis.     

Light-induced redistribution and photobleaching of protoporphyrin in erythrocytes from patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria: an explanation of the rapid fading of fluorocytes

Erythrocytes from patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) contain large amounts of protoporphyrin. By fluorescence microscopy it has been found that the erythrocytes show red fluorescence which fades very rapidly. During irradiation of erythrocytes from patients with EPP, a decrease in the fluorescence intensity and a red shift in the fluorescence emission maximum is observed. Since the human eye has a diminishing sensitivity in the red part of the spectrum, the red shift will augment the fluorescence decrease observed in the microscope. The decrease in fluorescence intensity is greater than what would be expected by photobleaching of protoporphyrin alone. We suggest that the rapid fading of fluorocytes observed in a fluorescence microscope can be explained both by photoinduced detachment of protoporphyrin from hemoglobin followed by a redistribution to the erythrocyte membrane and by protoporphyrin photobleaching.