Selective mode excitation in hollow-core photonic crystal fiber

Modes are selectively excited by launching light through the cladding from the side into a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. Measuring the total output power at the end of the fiber as a function of the angle of incidence of the exciting laser beam provides a powerful diagnostic for characterizing the cladding bandgap. Furthermore, various types of modes on either side of the bandgap are excited individually, and their nearfield images are obtained.     

Red picosecond pulses generated by frequency doubling a Raman amplified widely tunable 1.3 microm fiber ring laser

We generated 0.66 microm picosecond pulses by second-harmonic generation of the Raman amplified output of a 1.3 microm actively mode-locked fiber ring laser in a periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate (PPKTP) waveguide. The ring laser produced 9 ps pulses at a 20 GHz repetition frequency, was tunable over 1284-1330 nm, and was based on a semiconductor optical amplifier and a Mach-Zehnder amplitude modulator. The Raman amplifier served both to amplify the ring laser and to compress the pulses as solitons. The spectral flexibility of the amplifiers and the modulator should enable similar configurations to be made at other wavelengths and facilitate efficient frequency doubling in waveguides to other visible wavelengths.     

A facile synthetic method to prepare fluorescently labeled ROMP polymers

[structure: see text] To probe the activities of sperm ADAM protein (fertilinbeta), we devised a general synthetic strategy to generate fluorescently labeled fertilinbeta oligopeptide polymers. Immunofluorescence studies with these polymers demonstrated that fertilinbeta polymers bind specifically to a protein receptor on the mouse egg plasma membrane.     

Asymmetric epoxidation of some arylalkenyl sulfones using a modified Juliá-Colonna procedure

A modified procedure for performing the Juliá-Colonna epoxidation reaction effects the oxidation of some vinyl sulfones to generate the corresponding epoxides 5-8 in good to excellent optical purity.     

A general approach to detect protein expression in vivo using fluorescent puromycin conjugates

Understanding the expression of known and unknown gene products represents one of the key challenges in the post-genomic world. Here, we have developed a new class of reagents to examine protein expression in vivo that does not require transfection, radiolabeling, or the prior choice of a candidate gene. To do this, we constructed a series of puromycin conjugates bearing various fluorescent and biotin moieties. These compounds are readily incorporated into expressed protein products in cell lysates in vitro and efficiently cross cell membranes to function in protein synthesis in vivo as indicated by flow cytometry, selective enrichment studies, and Western analysis. Overall, this work demonstrates that fluorescent-puromycin conjugates offer a general means to examine protein expression in vivo.     

A route to the structure proposed for puetuberosanol and approaches to the natural products marshrin and phebalosin

Synthesis of the structure claimed for puetuberosanol 1 (using the Juliá-Colonna oxidation in a key step) showed that the natural product was a different material. The isomeric epoxy alcohols 16-18 can be discounted from the alternatives. An analogue 19 of marshrin 2 was prepared but the synthesis of the natural product was thwarted by failure of a Juliá-Colonna oxidation in the key step. The epoxy ketone 29 was prepared by Darzens condensation and was converted into (±)-phebalosin 3.     

The effect of the primary structure of the polypeptide catalyst on the enantioselectivity of the Juliá-Colonna asymmetric epoxidation of enones

Epoxidation of chalcone (1), using basic hydrogen peroxide, catalysed by polypeptides with defined primary structures demonstrates that the residues in the chain near to the N-terminus determine the stereochemical outcome of the reaction.     

Uncertainties of predictions from parton distributions I: Experimental errors

We determine the uncertainties on observables arising from the errors on the experimental data that are fitted in the global MRST2001 parton analysis. By diagonalizing the error matrix we produce sets of partons suitable for use within the framework of linear propagation of errors, which is the most convenient method for calculating the uncertainties. Despite the potential limitations of this approach we find that it can be made to work well in practice. This is confirmed by our alternative approach of using the more rigorous Lagrange multiplier method to determine the errors on physical quantities directly. As particular examples we determine the uncertainties on the predictions of the charged-current deep-inelastic structure functions, on the cross-sections for W production and for Higgs boson production via gluon-gluon fusion at the Tevatron and the LHC, on the ratio of W^- to W⁺ production at the LHC and on the moments of the non-singlet quark distributions. We discuss the corresponding uncertainties on the parton distributions in the relevant x,Q² domains. Finally, we briefly look at uncertainties related to the fit procedure, stressing their importance and using , and extractions of as examples. As a by-product of this last point we present a slightly updated set of parton distributions, MRST2002. Received: 13 November 2002 / Published online: 5 May 2003 RID="a" ID="a" Royal Society University Research Fellow     

Smooth Taboo Density for One-Dimensional Diffusions

The paper is concerned with finding sufficient smoothness conditionson the diffusion and drift coefficient of a one-dimensionalstochastic diffusion to imply the existence and smoothness ofa taboo density.     

Search for rare and forbidden eta(') decays

We have searched for rare and forbidden decays of the eta(') meson in hadronic events at the CLEO II detector. The search is conducted on 4.80 fb(-1) of e(+)e(-) collisions at 10.6 GeV center-of-mass energy at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring. We find no signals, and set 90% confidence level upper limits of their branching fractions: B(eta(')-->e(+)e(-)eta)<2.4x10(-3), B(eta(')-->e(+)e(-)pi(0))<1. 4x10(-3), B(eta(')-->e(+)e(-)gamma)<0.9x10(-3), and B(eta(')-->e&mgr;)<4.7x10(-4). We also fit the matrix element of the eta(')-->pi(+)pi(-)eta Dalitz plot with the parametrization |M|(2) = A|1+alphay|(2), where y is a linear function of the kinetic energy of the eta, and find Re (alpha) = -0.021+/-0.025.