Cryopreservation of cold-acclimated mint (Mentha spp.) shoot tips using a simple vitrification protocol

Accessions of Mentha x piperita, M. x villosa, and M. spicata were evaluated for regrowth after cooling in liquid nitrogen using shoot tips from in-vitro grown plantlets and a simple vitrification protocol with aluminium foil as a carrier. The influences of plant preculture, loading solution and loading time and of the effects of the cryoprotectant PVS 2 on plant re-growth after re-warming were investigated. Nodal segments were cultivated at constant temperatures of 20 or 25 degree C or in alternating temperature regimes (25/15C or 25/-1C). The illumination was always 16 h per day. The re-growth levels after re-warming were significantly higher in plants pre-cultured at 25/-1C regime than in plants cultivated at 20C or 25C or at 25/15C regime for all nine tested accessions. The mean re-growth levels increased from 36 percent at 20C to 69percent at alternating temperatures, respectively. The maximum of plant re-growth after re-warming was 89 percent. A pre-culture at alternating temperatures of 25/15C did not increase the recovery of plants. Loading in sucrose solutions with different dehydration capacities did not alter the plant re-growth. Differences in the loading time between 20 min and 2 h were not important for re-growth either. No significant differences were found between freezing without and with PVS 2 droplets on the aluminium foil. Re-grown shoots rooted easily on the re-growth medium and plantlets were successfully transferred to soil.     

Kaon production from 1 to 40 AGeV

Kaon production is studied within the Giessen Boltzmann–Uehling–Uhlenbeck (GiBUU) model. Results are compared with experiment and with other models. The influence of the kaon potential on the kaon azimuthal distributions at SIS energies is considered. We also discuss the role of the many-body collisions at high-density phase of reaction.     

Aberration correction and its automatic control in scanning electron microscopes

An automatic aberration correction method has been implemented in scanning electron microscopes (SEM). Necessity of the automatic aberration correction is discussed. The procedure of the automatic aberration correction is explained in detail, where deconvolution techniques are used in order to extract probe information from SEM images. Due to the precise digitization and the usage of proper combinations of correction fields, linearity has been found between the amplitude of each aberration and the corresponding field strength. Experimental results are shown which demonstrate that the aberrations are corrected automatically by a linear feedback control method. After the automatic aberration correction, the image quality has been improved drastically.     

Confinement of the field electron emission to atomic sites on ultra sharp tips

The spatially controlled field assisted etching method for sharpening metallic tips, in a field ion microscope (FIM), is used to study the evolution of the field emission when the tip apex radius is decreased below 1 nm. Unlike the conventional image formation in a field emission microscope (FEM), we demonstrate that at this scale the field emission is rather confined to atomic sites. A single atom apex fabricated at the end of such tips exhibits an outstanding brightness compared to other atomic tips. The measurements have been repeated for two double atom tips, with different atom-atom separations, and images of atomic field emission localization have also been obtained. We have found that the field emission intensity alternates between adjacent atoms when the applied voltage is gradually increased beyond a threshold value.     

Influence of the Particle Morphology on the Activity of Nanometer Platinum Aerosol Catalysts

For nanoparticle agglomerates, the catalytic activity may depend strongly on their structure. The influence of different parameters such as agglomerate structure, primary particle temperature history and surface preconditioning on the catalytic activity of nanoparticles was investigated. The fraction of agglomerate surface contributing to the reaction depends on the agglomerate structure and on the velocity of the reaction under investigation. For extremely fast reactions such as the oxidation of hydrogen on Pt nanoparticles, only the outermost surface (exposed surface) contributes substantially to the formation of water. For the system investigated here, the inner surface not substantially contributing to the reaction accounted for at least 70% of the total particle surface as determined from oxygen presaturation experiments of the agglomerate surface. A considerable activity loss of the platinum particles was observed on preheating the nanoparticle agglomerates. The preheating leads to an increase in the nanoparticle size by an order of magnitude due to sintering. It is unclear if this activity reduction is due to changes in the particle surface state or to a real size effect of the nanoparticles.     

Lower bounds on the localisation length of balanced random quantum walks

Letters in Mathematical Physics - We consider the dynamical properties of Quantum Walks defined on the d-dimensional cubic lattice, or the homogeneous tree of coordination number 2d, with...     

Vibrational Spectrum of a Platinum Complex of Piroxicam

The infrared and Raman spectra of a platinum complex of the antiinflammatory drug piroxicam (Pir) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) of composition [PtCl₂Pir(DMSO)] were recorded and briefly discussed on the basis of its structural characteristics. The metal-to-ligand vibrations are analyzed in detail.     

Untersuchungen von Mischvorgängen bei der Herstellung technischer Kohleprodukte unter Anwendung der Methode der radioaktiven Markierung

Es werden die Ergebnisse von Mischverfahren für Kohlepulver, Pech und andere Komponenten mitgeteilt, die unter Markierungen mit ²⁴Na-Benzoat im Laboratorium (Mischvolumen etwa 1 Liter) und im Betrieb (Mischvolumen etwa 100 Liter) durchgführt wurden. Die Experimente dienten dem Vergleich der Vergleich der Wirksamkeit verschiedener Mischmaschinen, der Ermittlung optimaler Mischzeiten und der Bestimmung des Verhaltens einzelner Komponenten beim Mischprozeβ. Dis mittels Szintillationszählung gewonnenen Meβwerte werden dabei mit einem Ergebnisdrucker registriert und mit Hilfa einer Rechenanlage mathematisch ausfewertet.     

Exclusive measurement of the pp --> pppi(+)pi(-) reaction near threshold

The pp-->pp pi(+) pi(-) reaction has been measured exclusively near threshold at CELSIUS. The total cross sections are nearly an order of magnitude lower than expected from previous inclusive measurements. The differential cross sections reveal pp-->pp(*)(1440)-->pp sigma = pp(pi(+)pi(-))(I = l = 0) as the dominant process as well as significant contributions from p(*)-->Delta(++)pi(-)-->psigma. The observed anisotropy in the proton angular dependence is consistent with heavy-meson exchange. In the invariant mass spectra, no narrow structures of statistical relevance (3sigma) are found.     

Production of charged pions, kaons and antikaons in relativistic C + C and C + Au collisions

Production cross-sections of charged pions, kaons and antikaons have been measured in C+C and C+Au collisions at beam energies of 1.0 and 1.8 AGeV for different polar emission angles. The kaon and antikaon energy spectra can be described by Boltzmann distributions whereas the pion spectra exhibit an additional enhancement at low energies. The pion multiplicity per participating nucleon M(π⁺)/<A _part> is a factor of about 3 smaller in C+Au than in C+C collisions at 1.0 AGeV whereas it differs only little for the C and the Au target at a beam energy of 1.8 AGeV. The K⁺ multiplicities per participating nucleon M(K⁺)/ <A _part> are independent of the target size at 1 AGeV and at 1.8 AGeV. The K^- multiplicity per participating nucleon M(K^-)/ <A _part> is reduced by a factor of about 2 in C+Au as compared to C+C collisions at 1.8 AGeV. This effect might be caused by the absorption of antikaons in the heavy target nucleus. Transport model calculations underestimate the K^-/K⁺ ratio for C+C collisions at 1.8 AGeV by a factor of about 4 if in-medium modifications of K-mesons are neglected. Received: 10 December 1999 / Accepted: 14 November 2000