Effects of deposition temperature on the structural and morphological properties of thin ZnO films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

ZnO thin films were grown on Si(1 0 0) substrates using pulsed laser deposition in O₂ gas ambient (10 Pa) and at different substrate temperatures (25, 150, 300 and 400 °C). The influence of the substrate temperature on the structural and morphological properties of the films was investigated using XRD, AFM and SEM. At substrate temperature of T=150 °C, a good quality ZnO film was fabricated that exhibits an average grain size of 15.1 nm with an average RMS roughness of 3.4 nm. The refractive index and the thickness of the thin films determined by the ellipsometry data are also presented and discussed.     

Kr2F1 and Kr12 radiative lifetime measurements

Atomic krypton was excited in presence of SF₆ by an intense electron beam. The radiation emitted by the Kr₂F¹(²B₂→ A₁) transition was studied at 430 nm using time resolved spectroscopic techniques. The radiative lifetimes of Kr₂F¹ and of Kr¹₂ were found to be 200 ns and 270 ns respectively.     

Desulphurative approaches to penem antibiotics. V. 2-(Functionalized methyl)penems from 3-methylenecepham-1-oxides

3-Methylenecepham-1-oxides are converted into 3-(functionalized methyl)-2-thiacephems, direct precursors of a group of valuable penem antibiotics.     

Ring nitrogen functionalization of 2-aminothiazol-4-acetic acid derivatives. I. Synthesis and properties of novel 2-aminothiazole N-oxides

Cyclization of thiocyanomethylketone oximes with hydroxylamine hydrochloride and oxidation of 2-aminothiazole derivatives with peracids are shown to afford the same products, which can be formulated either as 2-imino-3-hydroxy-2,3-dihydrothiazolines or 2-aminothiazole N-oxides. Compounds of this type bearing at position 4 an acetic or α-oxyiminoacetic residue are useful synthons for highly active β-lactam antibiotics; the problems connected with their preparation in a suitably protected form are examined. Scope and limitations of this previously unreported oxidation of the thiazole nucleus are discussed. All the products show limited stability in alkaline media: the 4-acetic derivatives, in addition, undergo a transposition to afford 4-methylidenethiazolidines. Possible types of isomerism and tautomerism are discussed in the light of the acquired spectral data. The uv and ir spectra of the compounds synthesized lend support to their formulation as 2-aminothiazole N-oxides.     

Characterization of winemaking yeast by cell number-size distribution analysis through flow field-flow fractionation with multi-wavelength turbidimetric detection

Yeasts are widely used in several areas of food industry, e.g. baking, beer brewing, and wine production. Interest in new analytical methods for quality control and characterization of yeast cells is thus increasing. The biophysical properties of yeast cells, among which cell size, are related to yeast cell capabilities to produce primary and secondary metabolites during the fermentation process. Biophysical properties of winemaking yeast strains can be screened by field-flow fractionation (FFF). In this work we present the use of flow FFF (FlFFF) with turbidimetric multi-wavelength detection for the number-size distribution analysis of different commercial winemaking yeast varieties. The use of a diode-array detector allows to apply to dispersed samples like yeast cells the recently developed method for number-size (or mass-size) analysis in flow-assisted separation techniques. Results for six commercial winemaking yeast strains are compared with data obtained by a standard method for cell sizing (Coulter counter). The method here proposed gives, at short analysis time, accurate information on the number of cells of a given size, and information on the total number of cells.     

Water-vapor mixing-ratio measurements in the solar-blind region

It is shown that, under clear sky conditions, water-vapor mixing-ratio measurements by solar-blind Raman lidars can be improved if the differential transmissivity is calculated by use of a single Raman signal instead of the usual Raman differential absorption lidar method, which allows one to exploit the large absorption cross section of ozone in this spectral region. We present a discussion of statistical and systematic errors in both methods and show the results of a numerical simulation.     

Isothermal elongational behavior of liquid-crystalline polymers and LCPs based blends

The rheological behavior of two flexible thermoplastics, Nylon-6 (Ny) and bisphenol-A polysulfone (PSu), and two wholly aromatic liquid crystalline polymers, Vectra-A900 (VA) and Vectra-B950 (VB), as well as that of Ny/VB and PSu/VA blends with 10% LCP, has been investigated by the use of capillary viscometers equipped with cylindrical dies having different length-to-diameter ratios. The elongational viscosity of all materials was calculated, from the results of isothermal measurements carried out at 290°C, by means of the Cogswell's analysis, based on the estimation of the pressure drop due to the converging flow at the die inlet. The behavior in elongational flow was compared with the rheological behavior in shear flow conditions. It was found that the elongational viscosities of VA and VB are very large and account for a fairly marked pressure drop at the die entrance, due to the orientation of the LCP domains taking place in the converging flow zone. For these materials, the ratio of the elongational viscosity to the Newtonian shear viscosity is up to two orders of magnitude higher than the value expected on the basis of the Trouton rule. For the flexible resins, the Trouton ratio is 3 and ca. 3–10, are common values for high molar mass linear polymers. The addition of 10% LCP into the flexible resins strongly increases their elongational viscosity and makes the blends resemble neat LCPs in their extensional flow behavior. In shear flow, on the contrary, the addition of LCP was shown to induce a marked reduction of the melt viscosity, even when, as for the Ny/VB blend, the LCP is more viscous than the matrix.     

Conformal embeddings of affine vertex algebras in minimal <Emphasis Type="Italic">W</Emphasis>-algebras II: decompositions

We present methods for computing the explicit decomposition of the minimal simple affine W-algebra \({W_k(\mathfrak{g}, \theta)}\) as a module for its maximal affine subalgebra \({\mathscr{V}_k(\mathfrak{g}^{\natural})}\) at a conformal level k, that is, whenever the Virasoro vectors of \({W_k(\mathfrak{g}, \theta)}\) and \({\mathscr{V}_k(\mathfrak{g}^\natural)}\) coincide. A particular emphasis is given on the application of affine fusion rules to the determination of branching rules. In almost all cases when \({\mathfrak{g}^{\natural}}\) is a semisimple Lie algebra, we show that, for a suitable conformal level k, \({W_k(\mathfrak{g}, \theta)}\) is isomorphic to an extension of \({\mathscr{V}_k(\mathfrak{g}^{\natural})}\) by its simple module. We are able to prove that in certain cases \({W_k(\mathfrak{g}, \theta)}\) is a simple current extension of \({\mathscr{V}_k(\mathfrak{g}^{\natural})}\). In order to analyze more complicated non simple current extensions at conformal levels, we present an explicit realization of the simple W-algebra \({W_{k}(\mathit{sl}(4), \theta)}\) at k = ?8/3. We prove, as conjectured in [3], that \({W_{k}(\mathit{sl}(4), \theta)}\) is isomorphic to the vertex algebra \({\mathscr{R}^{(3)}}\), and construct infinitely many singular vectors using screening operators. We also construct a new family of simple current modules for the vertex algebra \({V_k (\mathit{sl}(n))}\) at certain admissible levels and for \({V_k (\mathit{sl}(m \vert n)), m\ne n, m,n\geq 1}\) at arbitrary levels.     

Ultrametricity in the Edwards-Anderson model

We test the property of ultrametricity for the spin-glass three-dimensional Edwards-Anderson model in zero magnetic field with numerical simulations up to 20(3) spins. We find an excellent agreement with the prediction of the mean field theory. Since ultrametricity is not compatible with a trivial structure of the overlap distribution, our result contradicts the droplet theory.