Photochemical generation of ketenes. An ultra-violet and infrared spectroscopic study of 1− and 2-diazonaphthalenones at 77K.

Direct photolysis of 1? or 2-diazonaphthalenone and 2-diazonaphthalenone -5-sulfonyl chloride at 77K yields the respective indeno- ketenes which were identified by ultra-violet and infra-red spectroscopy.     

Atomic and electronic structure of mixed and partial dislocations in GaN

Here we present a detailed study of mixed dislocations in GaN, in which the complexities of the atomic arrangement in the cores have been imaged directly for the first time using an aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscope. In addition to being present as a full-core structure, the mixed dislocation is observed to dissociate into partial dislocations separated by a stacking fault only a few unit cells in length. The generation of this stacking fault appears to be impurity driven and its presence is consistent with theoretical predictions for dislocation dissociation in materials with hexagonal crystal symmetry.     

Information and Entropy Flow in the Kalman–Bucy Filter

We investigate the information theoretic properties of Kalman–Bucy filters in continuous time, developing notions of information supply, storage and dissipation. Introducing a concept of energy, we develop a physical analogy in which the unobserved signal describes a statistical mechanical system interacting with a heat bath. The abstract universe comprising the signal and the heat bath obeys a non-increase law of entropy; however, with the introduction of partial observations, this law can be violated. The Kalman–Bucy filter behaves like a Maxwellian demon in this analogy, returning signal energy to the heat bath without causing entropy increase. This is made possible by the steady supply of new information. In a second analogy the signal and filter interact, setting up a stationary non-equilibrium state, in which energy flows between the heat bath, the signal and the filter without causing any overall entropy increase. We introduce a rate of interactive entropy flow that isolates the statistical mechanics of this flow from marginal effects. Both analogies provide quantitative examples of Landauers Principle.     

Dissipation and tunneling in quantum Hall bilayers

We discuss the interplay between transport and intrinsic dissipation in quantum Hall bilayers, within the framework of a simple thought experiment. We compute, for the first time, quantum corrections to the semiclassical dynamics of this system. This allows us to reinterpret tunneling measurements on these systems. We find a strong peak in the zero-temperature tunneling current that arises from the decay of Josephson-like oscillations into incoherent charge fluctuations. In the presence of an in-plane field, resonances in the tunneling current develop an asymmetric line shape.     

Micromachined array tip for multifocus fiber-based optical coherence tomography

High-resolution optical coherence tomography demands a large detector bandwidth and a high numerical aperture for real-time imaging, which is difficult to achieve over a large imaging depth. To resolve these conflicting requirements we propose a novel multifocus fiber-based optical coherence tomography system with a micromachined array tip. We demonstrate the fabrication of a prototype four-channel tip that maintains a 9-14-microm spot diameter with more than 500 microm of imaging depth. Images of a resolution target and a human tooth were obtained with this tip by use of a four-channel cascaded Michelson fiber-optic interferometer, scanned simultaneously at 8 kHz with geometric power distribution across the four channels.     

Source motion mitigation for adaptive matched field processing

Application of adaptive matched field processing to the problem of detecting quiet targets in shallow water is complicated by source motion, both the motion of the target and the motion of discrete interferers. Target motion causes spreading of the target peak, thereby reducing output signal power. Interferer motion increases the dimensionality of the interference subspace, reducing adaptive interference suppression. This paper presents three techniques that mitigate source motion problems in adaptive matched field processing. The first involves rank reduction, which enables adaptive weight computation over short observation intervals where motion effects are less pronounced. The other two techniques specifically compensate for source motion. Explicit target motion compensation reduces target motion mismatch by focusing snapshots according to a target velocity hypothesis. And time-varying interference filtering places time-varying nulls on moving interferers not otherwise suppressed by adaptive weights. The three techniques are applied to volumetric array data from the Santa Barbara Channel Experiment and are shown to improve output signal-to-background-plus-noise ratio by more than 3 dB over the standard minimum-variance, distortionless response adaptive beam-former. Application of the techniques in some cases proves to be the difference between detecting and not detecting the target.     

Medium ring synthesis by radical ipso-substitution

A new approach to eight and nine membered ring synthesis is described in which a radical ipso-substitution reaction features as a key step.     

Inert site in a protein zinc cluster: isotope exchange by high resolution mass spectrometry

Using electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, we show that one Zn2+ ion in the Zn4 cluster of cyanobacterial metallothionein is inert to exchange with 67Zn2+. We suggest that this is zinc in site A, which together with the surrounding alpha and beta secondary structure forms a zinc-finger fold.     

Single nucleotide polymorphism analysis by allele-specific primer extension with real-time bioluminescence detection in a microfluidic device

A microfluidic approach for rapid bioluminescent real-time detection of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is presented. The method is based on single-step primer extension using pyrosequencing chemistry to monitor nucleotide incorporations in real-time. The method takes advantage of the fact that the reaction kinetics differ between matched and mismatched primer-template configurations. We show here that monitoring the initial reaction in real time accurately scores SNPs by comparing the initial reaction kinetics between matched and mismatched configurations. Thus, no additional treatment is required to improve the sequence specificity of the extension, which has been the case for many allele-specific extension assays. The microfluidic approach was evaluated using four SNPs. Three of the SNPs included primer-template configurations that have been previously reported to be difficult to resolve by allele-specific primer extension. All SNPs investigated were successfully scored. Using the microfluidic device, the volume for the bioluminescent assay was reduced dramatically, thus offering a cost-effective and fast SNP analysis method.