In-situ mechanical characterization of wurtzite InAs nanowires

High aspect ratio vertical InAs nanowires were mechanically characterized in a scanning electron microscope equipped with two micromanipulators. One, equipped with a calibrated atomic force microscope probe, was used for in-situ static bending of single nanowires along the 〈11–20〉 crystallographic direction. The other one was equipped with a tungsten tip for dynamic resonance excitation of the same nanowires. This setup enabled a direct comparison between the two techniques. The crystal structure was analyzed using transmission electron microscopy, and for InAs nanowires with a hexagonal wutzite crystal structure, the bending modulus value was found to BM=43.5 GPa. This value is significantly lower than previously reported for both cubic zinc blende InAs bulk crystals and InAs nanowires. Besides, due to their high resonance quality factor (Q>1200), the wurtzite InAs nanowires are shown to be a promising candidate for sub-femtogram mass detectors.     

Antibodies with broad specificity to azaspiracids by use of synthetic haptens

The development of general, sensitive, portable, and quantitative assays for the azaspiracid (AZA) class of marine toxins is urgently needed. Use of a synthetic hapten containing rings F-I of AZA to generate antibodies that cross-react with the AZAs via their common C28-C40 domain and use of these antibodies in ELISA and immunoaffinity columns are reported. This approach has many advantages over using intact azaspiracids (AZAs) derived from environmental samples or total synthesis as haptens for antibody development. A derivative of the levorotatory C28-C40 azaspiracid domain (1) was synthesized efficiently using a one-pot Staudinger reduction/intramolecular aza-Wittig reaction-imine capture sequence to form the H-I ring spiroaminal and a double intramolecluar hetero-Michael addition to assemble the F-G ring ketal. Conjugation of the hapten 1 to cBSA and immunization in sheep generated antibodies that recognized and bound to ovalbumin-conjugated 1 in the absence of AZA1. This binding was inhibited by 1 in a concentration-dependent manner. A mixture of AZA1, AZA2, AZA3, and AZA6 caused a degree of inhibition of antibody binding consistent with its total AZA content, rather than just its content of AZA1. This result suggests that the antibodies also have a similar affinity for AZA2, AZA3, and AZA6 as they do for AZA1 and that such antibodies are suitable for analysis of AZAs in shellfish samples.     

Broadly tunable second-harmonic generation in periodically poled silica fibers

Broadband tunability of the second-harmonic wavelength is achieved in periodically poled silica fibers. A wavelength tuning range of almost 45 nm of the fundamental wave is demonstrated through mechanical compression tuning of the quasi-phase-matched periodic structure. The uniform strain applied along the entire periodic structure enables the spectral profile and the conversion efficiency of the generated second harmonic to be preserved for the full tuning range. To our knowledge, the achieved tuning range realized through this technique is far greater than that possible with uniform periodically poled crystals.     

Dihydroquinazolinones via A3-Type Reactions of N-Carbamoyliminium Ions

A variant of the A³ coupling reaction was developed utilizing in situ generated N-carbamoyliminium ions. The tandem INCIC/A³-coupling sequence provided a facile one-pot synthesis of dihydroquinazolinone derivatives. The scope of the reaction was demonstrated in solution as well as on solid support. The reaction was further combined with peptide synthesis, S_NAr reactions, CuAAC triazole formation or bromination, providing additional opportunities for further diversification of the dihydroquinazolinone scaffolds.     

Foam Generation,Propagation and Stability in Porous Medium

Transport in Porous Media - There have been several foam field applications in recent years. Foam treatments targeting gas mobility control in injectors as well as gas blocking in production wells...     

Tailoring the dispersion properties of photonic crystal fibers

Photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) have had a substantial impact on nonlinear fiber optics and shortpulsed fiber laser systems due to their novel dispersion properties. The large normal or anomalous waveguide dispersion available in such fibers opens up a number of new opportunities not accessible with standard fiber technology. In this contribution, the fundamentals of PCF dispersion are briefly reviewed along with earlier results. In addition, some of our recent work on dispersion tailoring to facilitate nonlinear processes, and dispersion control in lasers will be presented.     

Hexagonal and square flux line lattices in CeCoIn5

Using small-angle neutron scattering, we have imaged the magnetic flux line lattice (FLL) in the d-wave heavy-fermion superconductor CeCoIn5. At low fields we find a hexagonal FLL. Around 0.6 T this undergoes what is most likely a first-order transition to square symmetry, with the nearest neighbors oriented along the gap node directions. This orientation of the square FLL is consistent with theoretical predictions based on the d-wave order parameter symmetry.     

On Approximation with Spline Generated Framelets

We characterize the approximation spaces associated with the best n-term approximation in L_p(R) by elements from a tight wavelet frame associated with a spline scaling function. The approximation spaces are shown to be interpolation spaces between L_p and classical Besov spaces, and the result coincides with the result for nonlinear approximation with an orthonormal wavelet with the same smoothness as the spline scaling function. We also show that, under certain conditions, the Besov smoothness can be measured in terms of the sparsity of expansions in the wavelet frame, just like the nonredundant wavelet case. However, the characterization now holds even for wavelet frame systems that do not have the usually required number of vanishing moments, e.g., for systems built through the Unitary Extension Principle, which can have no more than one vanishing moment. Using these results, we describe a fast algorithm that takes as input any function and provides a near sparsest expansion of it in the framelet system as well as approximants that reach the optimal rate of nonlinear approximation. Together with the existence of a fast algorithm, the absence of the need for vanishing moments may have an important qualitative impact for applications to signal compression, as high vanishing moments usually introduce a Gibbs-type phenomenon (or ringing artifacts)in the approximants.     

Discrimination of Isomers of Released <Emphasis Type="Italic">N-</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">O-</Emphasis>Glycans Using Diagnostic Product Ions in Negative Ion PGC-LC-ESI-MS/MS

Profiling cellular protein glycosylation is challenging due to the presence of highly similar glycan structures that play diverse roles in cellular physiology. As the anomericity and the exact linkage type of a single glycosidic bond can influence glycan function, there is a demand for improved and automated methods to confirm detailed structural features and to discriminate between structurally similar isomers, overcoming a significant bottleneck in the analysis of data generated by glycomics experiments. We used porous graphitized carbon-LC-ESI-MS/MS to separate and detect released N- and O-glycan isomers from mammalian model glycoproteins using negative mode resonance activation CID-MS/MS. By interrogating similar fragment spectra from closely related glycan isomers that differ only in arm position and sialyl linkage, product fragment ions for discrimination between these features were discovered. Using the Skyline software, at least two diagnostic fragment ions of high specificity were validated for automated discrimination of sialylation and arm position in N-glycan structures, and sialylation in O-glycan structures, complementing existing structural diagnostic ions. These diagnostic ions were shown to be useful for isomer discrimination using both linear and 3D ion trap mass spectrometers when analyzing complex glycan mixtures from cell lysates. Skyline was found to serve as a useful tool for automated assessment of glycan isomer discrimination. This platform-independent workflow can potentially be extended to automate the characterization and quantitation of other challenging glycan isomers.

Open image in new window

Graphical Abstract ?