Spectroscopic properties of the molecular ions BeX+ (X=Na,K, Rb): forming cold molecular ions from an ion–atom mixture by stimulated Raman adiabatic process

In this theoretical work, we calculate potential energy curves, spectroscopic parameters and transition dipole moments of molecular ions BeX⁺ (X=Na, K, Rb) composed of alkaline ion Be and alkali atom X with a quantum chemistry approach based on the pseudopotential model, Gaussian basis sets, effective core polarisation potentials and full configuration interaction. We study in detail collisions of the alkaline ion and alkali atom in quantum regime. Besides, we study the possibility of the formation of molecular ions from the ion–atom colliding systems by stimulated Raman adiabatic process and discuss the parameters regime under which the population transfer is feasible. Our results are important for ion–atom cold collisions and experimental realisation of cold molecular ion formation.     

MCNP Dose Calculations in a CT Phantom for Therapeutic External Photon Beam

In this paper, we have addressed the problem of the radiation transport with the Monte Carlo N particle(MCNP) code. This is a general purpose Monte Carlo tool designed to transport neutron, photon and electron in three dimensional geometries. To examine the performance of MCNP5 code in the field of external radiotherapy, we performed the modeling of an Electron Density phantom (EDP) irradiated by photons from 60Co source. The model was used to calculate the Percent Depth Dose (PDD) at different depths in an EDP. One field size for PDD has been examined. A 60Co photons source placed at 80 cm source to surface distance (SSD). The results of calculations were compared to TPS data obtained at National Institute of Oncology of Rabat.     

A nonlocal Levinson beam model for free vibration analysis of zigzag single-walled carbon nanotubes including thermal effects

A nonlocal Levinson beam model is developed to study the free vibrations of a zigzag single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) in thermal environments. The equivalent Young’s modulus and shear modulus for a zigzag SWCNT are derived using an energy-equivalent model. The present study illustrates that the vibration characteristics of an SWCNT are strongly dependent on the temperature change and on the chirality of a zigzag carbon nanotube. The investigation of the chirality and temperature effects on free vibration of carbon nanotubes may be used as a useful reference for the application and the design of nanoelectronic and nanodrive devices, nano-oscillators, and nanosensors, in which carbon nanotubes act as basic elements.     

Unsupervised MRI segmentation of brain tissues using a local linear model and level set

Real-world magnetic resonance imaging of the brain is affected by intensity nonuniformity (INU) phenomena which makes it difficult to fully automate the segmentation process. This difficult task is accomplished in this work by using a new method with two original features: (1) each brain tissue class is locally modeled using a local linear region representative, which allows us to account for the INU in an implicit way and to more accurately position the region's boundaries; and (2) the region models are embedded in the level set framework, so that the spatial coherence of the segmentation can be controlled in a natural way. Our new method has been tested on the ground-truthed Internet Brain Segmentation Repository (IBSR) database and gave promising results, with Tanimoto indexes ranging from 0.61 to 0.79 for the classification of the white matter and from 0.72 to 0.84 for the gray matter. To our knowledge, this is the first time a region-based level set model has been used to perform the segmentation of real-world MRI brain scans with convincing results.     

AC conductivity and dielectric studies of (C5H10N)2BiCl5 compound

The bis (3-dimethylammonium-1-propyne) pentachlorobismuthate (III) exhibits a structural phase transition at T₁?=?(337?±?2?K), which has been characterized by differential scanning calorimetric, X-ray powder analysis, AC conductivity and dielectric measurements. The dielectric dispersion yielded the real and imaginary parts of impedance of (C₅H₁₀N)₂BiCl₅ in the form of a semicircle in a complex plane. Besides, a Cole?CCole plot was observed at frequencies ranging from 209?Hz to 5?MHz, whose result was found to fit the theoretical resistor?Ccapacitor parallel circuit model. The temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity in the different phases follows the Arrhenius law. The frequency-dependent conductivity data were fitted in the modified power law: $ \sigma = {\sigma_{dc}} + {B_1}(T){\omega^{{s_1}}} + {B_2}(T){\omega^{{s_2}}} $ . The imaginary part of the permittivity constant is analyzed with the Cole?CCole formalism. With regard to the modulus plot, it can be characterized by full width at half height or in terms of a non-exponential decay function $ \phi (t) = \exp {\left( {\frac{{ - t}}{{{\tau_\sigma }}}} \right)^\beta } $ . Besides, the activation energy responsible for relaxation has been evaluated and found to be close the DC conductivity.     

Observation of large Zeeman splitting in GaGdN/AlGaN ferromagnetic semiconductor double quantum well superlattices

Symmetric GaGdN/AlGaN (Gd concentration: 2%) and GaN/AlGaN double quantum well superlattices (DQW-SLs) were grown by radio-frequency plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy on GaN (0001) templates. Atomic steps were observed on all the sample surfaces by atomic force microscope. X-ray diffraction θ/2θ scan curves exhibited well-defined satellite structures. Room temperature ferromagnetism was confirmed for the GaGdN/AlGaN DQW-SL samples by using alternating gradient magnetometer. Strong photoluminescence was observed from both GaGdN and GaN QWs at higher energy side of GaN excitonic peak. Magneto-photoluminescence spectra for GaGdN/AlGaN DQW-SL samples showed a large magnetic field dependence of the excitonic energy by applying a magnetic field up to 7 T. The observed strong redshift of excitonic PL indicated an enhancement of Zeeman splitting of the free carrier energy levels in magnetic GaGdN/AlGaN DQW-SL. Enhanced g-factor was estimated to be about 60 for GaGdN/AlGaN DQW-SL sample with QW thickness of 1 nm.     

Effect of shape and interstice on surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of molecules adsorbed on gold nanoparticles in the near‐dipole and quadrupole regions

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of adsorbed molecule on colloidal gold nanoparticles of different shapes, namely nanospheres (NSs), nanorods (NRs), and nanoprisms (NPs) as well as the three NPs arrays of different interstice prepared by NS lithography, are studied with incident wavenumbers in the near‐dipole and near‐quadrpole regions of the nanoparticles. In the colloidal gold nanoparticles, the SERS enhancement is the largest for the sharp tip followed by the truncated tip NPs, then the NRs and least enhancement for the NSs. This decreasing order of enhancement occurs although the incident wavenumber was near the dipole resonance of NSs and the quadrupole resonance for the NPs. These varied enhancements are explained in part as due to the binding energies of the nanocrystal facets, but the larger contribution results from the plasmon electromagnetic fields. A parallel finite difference time domain (FDTD) calculations were carried out, which corporate the experimental results and show agreement with ratios of the SERS enhancement for the different shapes. The normalized SERS intensity for NPs of different interstice distances show a sharp rise with the decrease of the interstice distances because of interparticle dipolar and quadrupolar coupling as evidenced also by FDTD calculations. Furthermore, these calculations show that the enhancement is polarization independent for an incident wavelength near quadrupole resonance but polarization dependent for an incident wavelength near the plasmon dipole transition. In the last case, the enhancement is larger by an order of magnitude for a polarization parallel to the NPs bisector than for polarization normal to the bisector with no hot spots for the relatively large interstice dimensions used. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dual-channel spectral subtraction algorithms based speech enhancement dedicated to a bilateral cochlear implant

In this paper, two speech enhancement algorithms (SEAs) based on spectral subtraction (SS) principle have been evaluated for bilateral cochlear implant (BCI) users. Specifically, dual-channel noise power spectral estimation algorithm using power spectral densities (PSD) and cross power spectral density (CPSD) of the observed signals was studied. The enhanced speech signals were obtained using either Dual Channel Non Linear Spectral Subtraction ‘DC-NLSS’ or Dual-Channel Multi-Band Spectral Subtraction ‘DC-MBSS’ algorithms. For performance evaluation, some objective speech assessment tests relying on Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) score and speech Itakura-Saito (IS) distortion measurement were performed to fix the optimal number of frequency band needed in DC-MBSS algorithm. In order to evaluate the speech intelligibility, subjective listening tests were assessed with 50 normal hearing listeners using a specific BCI simulator and with three deafened BCI patients. Experimental results, obtained using French Lafon database corrupted by an additive babble noise at different Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNR), showed that DC-MBSS algorithm improves speech understanding better than DC-NLSS algorithm for single and multiple interfering noise sources.     

Spectral Properties of Probes Containing Benzothioxanthene Chromophore Linked with Hindered Amine in Solution and in Polymer Matrices

Absorption and emission spectroscopy as well as laser flash photolysis was employed in order to characterize the spectral properties of novel probes based on benzothioxantheneimide chromophore covalently linked with different types of sterically hindered amines. These were chosen as 2-(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl)-thioxantheno[2,1,9-dej]isoquinoline-1,3-dione (BTXINH), the equivalent stable nitroxyl radical, i.e. 2-(1-oxo-2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl)thioxantheno[2,1,9dej]isoquinoline 1,3-dione (BTXINO) and the alkoxy derivative 2-(1-(1′-phenylethoxy)-2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl)-thioxantheno[2,1,9-dej]isoquinoline-1,3-dione (BTXINOR). Spectral properties, in solutions and in various polymer matrices such as polystyrene, polymethyl methacrylate, polyvinyl chloride and polypropylene, were compared with the compound 2-(1-dodecyl)-thioxantheno[2,1,9-dej]isoquinoline-1,3-dione (BTXID) taken in the present study as a reference compound. By means of the fluorescence decay and in the contrary to three other probes, BTXINO probe clearly showed a biexponential decay while the three other probes led to monoexponential decay. Two different singlet excited states with lifetimes of about 0.4 and 5 ns were proposed. They correspond to two dispositions of the nitroxyl radical chain above and along the fluorescent moiety of the molecule. Such behaviour depends on the surrounding media. Moreover, an efficient intramolecular quenching of the fluorescence emission was only observed with the short lived singlet excited state. The ratio BTXID/BTXINO was found equal to about 4 and 9 in solutions and polymer matrices respectively. Laser flash photolysis indicated that the novel probes as well as the model compound yielded transient absorption with maximum at 530 nm, corresponding to the triplet states. The intermolecular quenching of such species by molecular oxygen and by free N-oxyl, such as 1-oxy-2,2,6,6-teramethylpiperidine (TEMPO) and 1-oxy-2,2,6,6-teramethyl-4-hydroxypiperidine (TEMPOL), and the intramolecular quenching was not efficient.