Molecular imprinting of the endogenous neuropeptide Leu5-enkephalin and some derivatives thereof

We have undertaken the molecular imprinting of Leu⁵-enkephalin, and derivatives related to this endogenous neuropeptide, in highly cross-linked methacrylic acid/ethylene dimethacrylate copolymers. The underivatized enkephalin peptide yielded polymers with poor recognition abilities, since the imprinting of this compound had to be performed using dimethyl sulfoxide, which was found to interfere with the imprint inducement, as the solvent of polymerisation. In order to circumvent this problem, the amino- and carboxy-protected derivatives Boc-Leu⁵-enkephalin and Leu⁵-enkephalin anilide, which are soluble in apolar solvents, were investigated as alternative imprint molecules. Both compounds led to polymers which are highly specific for the imprint species. The anilide derivative was shown to be a good substitute for the free peptide since the resultant polymers showed efficient recognition of the parent enkephalin structure.     

HILITE—A tool to investigate interactions of matter and light

Detailed investigations of laser–ion interactions require well-defined ion targets and detection techniques for high-sensitivity measurements of reaction educts and products. To this end, we have designed and built the High-Intensity Laser-Ion Trap Experiment Penning trap setup, which features various ion-target preparation techniques including selection, cooling, compression, and positioning as well as destructive and non-destructive measurement techniques to determine the number of stored ions for all charge states individually and simultaneously. We have recently performed first commissioning experiments of ion deceleration and dynamic ion capture with highly charged ion bunches from an electron beam ion source. We have characterized our single-pass non-destructive ion counter in detail and were able to determine the ion velocity as well as the number of ions from the signals acquired.     

Improvements to air mass calculations for ground-based infrared measurements

High-resolution ground-based infrared solar spectra are routinely recorded at the Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change (NDSC) stations. These data sets play a key role in providing a long-term record of atmospheric composition and their links to climate change. The analysis of observed infrared spectra involves comparison to a computer-modeled atmosphere where knowledge of the air mass distribution is an essential component. This note summarises improvements made to an existing and widely used computer code (FSCATM) to perform refractive ray-tracing and calculation of the air mass distribution. Changes were made towards higher vertical resolution in the troposphere and increased numerical precision. The revised FSCATM improves the analysis of infrared spectra mostly through the more accurate representation of the temperature profile. Air mass differences with respect to earlier versions are documented and are typically <0.7%, exceptions being extreme cases of inversion layers. The current version provides ray tracing and air mass calculations for any terrestrial observation site. The output files are reported in a format compatible with the SFIT and SFIT2 retrieval algorithms, which are widely used for NDSC infrared atmospheric studies. The improved computer code, documentation, reference profiles, and test cases are available electronically.     

Inhomogeneous quantum groups and their quantized universal enveloping algebras

The quantum group IGL _q (N), the inhomogenization of GL _q (N), is formulated with -matrices. Theq-deformed universal enveloping algebra is constructed as the algebra of regular functionals in this formulation and contains the partial derivatives of the covariant differential calculus on the quantum space.     

Influence of vehicle color on loudness judgments

This experiment investigates the effect of images of differently colored sports cars on the loudness of a simultaneously perceived car sound. Still images of a sports car, colored in red, light green, blue, and dark green, were displayed to subjects during a magnitude estimation task. The sound of an accelerating sports car was used as a stimulus. Statistical analysis suggests that the color of the visual stimulus may have a small influence on loudness judgments. The observed loudness differences are generally equivalent to a change in sound level of about 1 dB, with maximum individual differences of up to 3 dB.