Charge transfer from ammonia physisorbed on nanotubes

We report the use of nanotube field-effect transistor devices for chemical sensing in a conducting liquid environment. Detection of ammonia occurs through the shift of the gate voltage dependence of the source-drain current. We attribute this shift to charge transfer from adsorbed ammonia molecules, with the amount of charge estimated to be as small as 40 electrons for the smallest shift detected. Using the concentration dependence of the response as an adsorption isotherm, we are able to measure the amount of charge transfer to be 0.04 electron per ammonia molecule.     

On certain spaces of lattice diagram determinants

The aim of this work is to study some lattice diagram determinants Δ_L(X,Y) as defined in (Adv. Math. 142 (1999) 244) and to extend results of Aval et al. (J. Combin. Theory Ser. A, to appear). We recall that M_L denotes the space of all partial derivatives of Δ_L. In this paper, we want to study the space M_i,j^k(X,Y) which is defined as the sum of M_L spaces where the lattice diagrams L are obtained by removing k cells from a given partition, these cells being in the “shadow” of a given cell (i,j) in a fixed Ferrers diagram. We obtain an upper bound for the dimension of the resulting space M_i,j^k(X,Y), that we conjecture to be optimal. This dimension is a multiple of n! and thus we obtain a generalization of the n! conjecture. Moreover, these upper bounds associated to nice properties of some special symmetric differential operators (the “shift” operators) allow us to construct explicit bases in the case of one set of variables, i.e. for the subspace M_i,j^k(X) consisting of elements of 0 Y-degree.     

Contribution of heterogeneous strain field measurements and boundary conditions modelling in inverse identification of material parameters

The present paper aims at applying the Finite Element Updating inverse method to several sample geometries by the means of Digital Image Correlation. The full-field data are experimentally obtained from three geometries exhibiting increasing strain fields heterogeneities. For each test, a Finite Element model is built and boundary conditions are duplicated from the measured displacements at the sample borders. Field comparisons are performed at several time steps until fracture occurs and a Levenberg–Marquardt method is used to solve the optimization problem. Six parameters of an anisotropic elastic–plastic constitutive model are identified and validated through the simulation of a deep-drawing forming operation. Results show that identification quality is improved when heterogeneous strain fields are used.     

Unusual sum rule for Clebsch–Gordan coefficients

Letters in Mathematical Physics - We present a new sum rule for Clebsch–Gordan coefficients using generalized characters of irreducible representations of the rotation group. The identity is...     

Numerical discrimination of intrachannel cross-phase modulation and intrachannel four-wave mixing and their respective effect on 40 Gbit/s transmissions

We propose a numerical method to accurately discriminate the influence of the different intrachannel nonlinear effects occurring in 40 Gbit/s optical transmissions, following an analogy with methods used to discriminate WDM interchannel effects. In contrast to other studies showing the predominance of intrachannel cross-phase modulation when low-dispersion fibers are used, in our study intrachannel four-wave mixing is the most penalizing effect in all investigated cases.     

Subpicosecond pulse generation from a 1.56 μm mode-locked VECSEL

Near-transform-limited subpicosecond pulses at 1.56 μm were generated from an optically pumped InP-based vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) passively mode-locked at 2 GHz repetition rate with a fast InGaAsNSb/GaAs semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). The SESAM microcavity resonance was adjusted via a selective etching of phase layers specifically designed to control the magnitude of both the modulation depth and the intracavity group delay dispersion of the SESAM. Using the same VECSEL chip, we observed that the mode-locked pulse duration could be reduced from several picoseconds to less than 1 ps with a detuned resonant SESAM.     

Effects of the dispersion methods in Pluronic F108 on the size and the surface composition of MWCNTs and their implications in toxicology assessment

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were dispersed in water and in a Pluronic F108 solution by four different dispersion methods (stirring, bath sonication, stirring followed by bath sonication, and sonication probe). The effect of the dispersion methods were evaluated in terms of the particle size distribution, the agglomerates size, and the exfoliated fraction produced, as well as in terms of the surface and bulk chemical composition. Energy dispersive X-ray, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and centrifugal liquid sedimentation techniques were used to characterize pristine MWCNTs and their dispersion. It is shown that, irrespective of the dispersion methods used, the MWCNTs are strongly wrapped with the biocompatible surfactant Pluronic F108, thereby modifying the external surface of the MWCNTs. Some shortening of MWCNTs and more wrapping are also observed when sonication methods are used. These observations raise questions as to the validity of results obtained in toxicology tests, in vitro and in vivo, were such methods of dispersion procedures are used.     

Synthesis of a mesoporous composite material prepared by the self-assembly of mineral liquid crystals

Here we describe the synthesis of a mesoporous composite material using the self-assembly of well defined tubular building blocks obtained from the exfoliation of [Nb6O17(4-)]n sheets.     

Deracemization by enantioselective protonation IV an improved method for the enantiomeric enrichment of α-aminoacids using metalation by means of chiral amides

Optically active α-aminoesters are obtained by metalation of the corresponding Schiff bases by chiral lithium amide followed by protonation by an achiral or a chiral acid. 70 % e.e. can be obtained.     

Charmed-meson decay constants in three-flavor lattice QCD

We present the first lattice QCD calculation with realistic sea quark content of the D+-meson decay constant f(D+). We use the MILC Collaboration's publicly available ensembles of lattice gauge fields, which have a quark sea with two flavors (up and down) much lighter than a third (strange). We obtain f(D+)=201+/-3+/-17 MeV, where the errors are statistical and a combination of systematic errors. We also obtain f(Ds)=249+/-3+/-16 MeV for the Ds meson.