Mono-layer of Ni(100-x)Fe(x) nanoparticles fabricated on a polyimide film under different curing atmospheres

A mono-layer of nano-sized metal particles was prepared on the surface of a polyimide film by simply depositing a thin film of Ni80Fe20 on top of the polyamic acid that was spin coated onto a Si wafer. During thermal imidization of the polyamic acid film, Fe was selectively etched by reacting with the carbonyl group of the polyamic acid to leave behind uniformly distributed Ni-rich metallic particles. The average diameter of the particles was 4 nm and the particles were confined into a single layer on top of the polymer film. Moreover, it was also shown that the morphology of the nanoparticles can be substantially altered by curing the precursor film in a hydrogen atmosphere, without significantly damaging the polymer film. Thus produced nanoparticles lay exposed on top of the electrically insulating and chemically stable polymer film so that it is possible that the nanoparticles can be directly used for fabricating a nonvolatile flash memory device or as a template for building functional nano-structures.     

Total syntheses of epothilones B and d

A convergent, total synthesis of epothilones B (2) and D (4) is described. The key steps are Normant coupling to establish the desired (Z)-stereochemistry at C12-C13, Wadsworth-Emmons olefination of methyl ketone 28 with the phosphonate ester 8, diastereoselective aldol condensation of aldehyde 5 with the enolate of keto acid derivatives to form the C6-C7 bond, selective deprotection of acid 52, and macrolactonization.     

Hard form factors for meson-baryon strong couplings as derived from deep inelastic lepton scattering

As stimulated by earlier attempts for obtaining theNN andN form factors from the deep inelastic lepton scattering data, we extend the analysis by taking into account effects of additional mesons including, , ,K, andK ^*, with the coupling constants fixed by the lowenergy nucleon-nucleon and hyperon-nucleon scattering data. Contrary to an earlier claim that the NN andN form factor must be very soft (e.g., with the cutoff mass less than 500 MeV in the monopole form), we find, for example, that with all form factors parametrized in the dipole form, a universal cutoff mass of 1150 MeV in the/N sector and 1400 MeV in the/ sector yields predictions in excellent agreement with recently published neutrino data on the momentum fractions carried by thes, , and¯d quarks, as well as consistent with the sea-to-valence ratio extracted from the CDHS data and the Femilab E615 experiment. Similar results can also be obtained by using exponential cutoffs for all couplings, or by using monopole forms for some vertices while retaining dipole forms for the rest. The success of the mesonexchange picture in generating the strangeness content in a proton suggests an alternative understanding of the origin of sea quarks in the proton.We wish to thank G. Garvey, K. Holinde, L.-C. Liu, M. B. Johnson, M. Strikman, A. W. Thomas and Jochen Wambach for helpful conversations. W-Y. P. Hwang wishes to acknowledge the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for a fellowship to visit Jülich for conducting research. His research works was also supported in part by the National Science Council of the Republic of China. The work of G. E. Brown is supported in part by a Humboldt award, in part by NATO Grant RG85/0093, and in part by the U.S. Department of Energy.     

Glycerolipids from a Sarcotragus species sponge

One known and two new glycerolipids have been isolated from a Sarcotragus sp. marine sponge. The gross structures were established based on NMR and MS analysis.