Supershell structure in alkali metal nanowires

Nanowires are formed by indenting and subsequently retracting two pieces of sodium metal. Their cross section gradually reduces upon retraction and the diameters can be obtained from the conductance. In previous work we have demonstrated that when one constructs a histogram of diameters from large numbers of indentation-retraction cycles such histograms show a periodic pattern of stable nanowire diameters due to shell structure in the conductance modes. Here, we report the observation of a modulation of this periodic pattern, in agreement with predictions of a supershell structure.     

Quantum mechanics: cleaning up metaphysical baggage

The dynamic electronic structure of atoms and molecules can be directly observed by means of the (e, 2e) reaction, which measures the distribution of energies and momenta of two electrons in coincidence after a knockout reaction initiated by an electron beam of known momentum incident on a molecular gas target. The molecular state for each event is identified by the electron separation energy. The recoil momentum for each event is known from the difference of measured initial and final momenta. It has been verified that values of this momentum are equal under suitable conditions to the momentum of the electron in the target immediately before knockout. Thus the spherically-averaged electron momentum distribution for each molecular orbital is measured. This is directly related to molecular orbitals calculated by the methods of quantum chemistry. Properties obtained by this method for different types of molecules are discussed.     

Inclusive ηp and ηn charged-current neutrino reactions below 6 GeV

Results are presented of a study of inclusive ηp and ηn interactions from threshold to 6 GeV. The data show a rapid approach to the distributions expected in the naive quark-parton model. The charged-current η deuteron total cross section is fit by the expression σ_T(ηd) = (0.76 ± 0.03) × 10^?38E_η cm² per GeV per nucleon. For E_η > 1.5 GeV, we measure σ_T(ηn)/σ_T(ηp) = (2.02 ± 0.23). The distributions in the scaling variables x and y are given and discussed.     

A general formula for free-free absorption on highly-polarizable neutral atoms

A formula is given for the Maxwell-averaged, free-free absorption cross section for the case of highly- polarizable target atoms. The approximation is valid in the infrared and at temperatures of several thousand degrees Kelvin.     

Identification of a set of genes showing regionally enriched expression in the mouse brain

Background

We have recorded responses from single neurons in murine visual cortex to determine the effectiveness of the input from the two murine cone photoreceptor mechanisms and whether there is any unique selectivity for cone inputs at this higher region of the visual system that would support the possibility of colour vision in mice. Each eye was stimulated by diffuse light, either 370 (strong stimulus for the ultra-violet (UV) cone opsin) or 505 nm (exclusively stimulating the middle wavelength sensitive (M) cone opsin), obtained from light emitting diodes (LEDs) in the presence of a strong adapting light that suppressed the responses of rods.

Results

Single cells responded to these diffuse stimuli in all areas of striate cortex. Two types of responsive cells were encountered. One type (135/323 – 42%) had little to no spontaneous activity and responded at either the on and/or the off phase of the light stimulus with a few impulses often of relatively large amplitude. A second type (166/323 – 51%) had spontaneous activity and responded tonically to light stimuli with impulses often of small amplitude. Most of the cells responded similarly to both spectral stimuli. A few (18/323 – 6%) responded strongly or exclusively to one or the other spectral stimulus and rarely in a spectrally opponent manner.

Conclusion

Most cells in murine striate cortex receive excitatory inputs from both UV- and M-cones. A small fraction shows either strong selectivity for one or the other cone mechanism and occasionally cone opponent responses. Cells that could underlie chromatic contrast detection are present but extremely rare in murine striate cortex.     

MaxSynBio: Avenues Towards Creating Cells from the Bottom Up

A large German research consortium mainly within the Max Planck Society (“MaxSynBio”) was formed to investigate living systems from a fundamental perspective. The research program of MaxSynBio relies solely on the bottom‐up approach to synthetic biology. MaxSynBio focuses on the detailed analysis and understanding of essential processes of life through modular reconstitution in minimal synthetic systems. The ultimate goal is to construct a basic living unit entirely from non‐living components. The fundamental insights gained from the activities in MaxSynBio could eventually be utilized for establishing a new generation of biotechnological processes, which would be based on synthetic cell constructs that replace the natural cells currently used in conventional biotechnology.     

Isobaric metabolite interferences and the requirement for close examination of raw data in addition to stringent chromatographic separations in liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometric analysis of drugs in biological matrix

In addition to matrix effects, common interferences observed in liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) analyses can be caused by the response of drug-related metabolites to the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) channel of a given drug, as a result of in-source reactions or decomposition of either phase I or II metabolites. However, it has been largely ignored that, for some drugs, metabolism can lead to the formation of isobaric or isomeric metabolites that exhibit the same MRM transitions as parent drugs. The present study describes two examples demonstrating that interference caused by isobaric or isomeric metabolites is a practical issue in analyzing biological samples by LC/MS/MS. In the first case, two sequential metabolic reactions, demethylation followed by oxidation of a primary alcohol moiety to a carboxylic acid, produced an isobaric metabolite that exhibits a MRM transition identical to the parent drug. Because the drug compound was rapidly metabolized in rats and completely disappeared in plasma samples, the isobaric metabolite appeared as a single peak in the total ion current (TIC) trace and could easily be quantified as the drug since it was eluted at a retention time very close to that of the drug in a 12-min LC run. In the second example, metabolism via the ring-opening of a substituted isoxazole moiety led to the formation of an isomeric product that showed an almost identical collision-induced dissociation (CID) MS spectrum as the original drug. Because two components were co-eluted, the isomeric product could be mistakenly quantified and reported by data processing software as the parent drug if the TIC trace was not carefully inspected. Nowadays, all LC/MS data are processed by computer software in a highly automated fashion, and some analysts may spend much less time to visually examine raw TIC traces than they used to do. Two examples described in this article remind us that quality data require both adequate chromatographic separations and close examination of raw data in LC/MS/MS analyses of drugs in biological matrix.     

Phase modulation using different orientations of a chiral nematic in liquid crystal over silicon devices

Modulation of the intensity of light by high quality reflective micro-displays is predominantly carried out by liquid crystal over silicon (LCoS) spatial light modulator (SLM) technology for applications such as pico-projectors. Wider use of these devices, in applications such as computer-generated holography and optical correlation, is limited by their phase modulation ability and illumination polarisation state dependence. These devices rely on planar or twisted nematic liquid crystals to modulate the light, but due to their viscoelastic properties they are inherently slow. Research into the use of the polymer stabilised blue phase has already shown that it can offer high speed phase modulation. However, other chiral nematic orientations are yet to be compared in LCoS devices. In this article, we demonstrate that polymer-stabilised chiral nematic liquid crystal electro-optical effects can offer phase modulation in silicon backplane devices. The uniform standing helix and focal conic textures are shown to be independent of the input light polarisation state and the uniform lying helix is shown to be polarisation dependent. These optical responses are then compared with that of the blue phase to identify a suitable orientation for further development in LCoS technology in order to find a high-speed, full phase modulating material.