Status of electroweak phase transition and baryogenesis

I review recent progress on the electroweak phase transition and baryogenesis, focusing on the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model as the source of new physics.     

Intramolecular energy transfer in compounds with two 1-pyrenoate groups separated by methylene spacers

Steady-state fluorescence anisotropy (r) and fluorescence lifetime () measurements have been used to study the efficiency of nonradiative singlet energy transfer as a function of alkane size in 1-pyrenecarboxylic acid alkanediyl esters (as a function ofm in Py-COO-(CH₂) _m -OOC-Py, where Py denotes pyrene substituted in the 1-position, andm=2–6). Experiments were performed in media of different viscosity, , obtained by changing the temperature (from –20 to 40°C) of dilute solutions in ethylene glycol and by examination of the compounds in a solid matrix of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) at ambient temperature. The Py-COO-(CH₂)_m-OOC-Py exhibit intramolecular excimer emission in ethylene glycol at these temperatures, but the intensity of this emission is much lower than when these compounds are placed in common solvents of lower . The values of indicate that excitation hopping or intramolecular energy transfer takes place between the chromophores attached to the ends of the alkane bridges. Values ofr obtained by the extrapolationsT/0 orT/0 in ethylene glycol, as well as the values obtained in the rigid matrix of PMMA, show very little dependence onm. A theoretical conformational analysis, using the rotational isomeric state (RIS) model, was also performed. The combination of the experimental results forr in the media of high with the theoretical (RIS) analysis produces an estimated value of 21 ±2 Å for the Förster radius in Py-COO-(CH₂)_m-OOC-Py.     

Integral resource capacity planning for inpatient care services based on bed census predictions by hour

The design and operations of inpatient care facilities are typically largely historically shaped. A better match with the changing environment is often possible, and even inevitable due to the pressure on hospital budgets. Effectively organizing inpatient care requires simultaneous consideration of several interrelated planning issues. Also, coordination with upstream departments like the operating theatre and the emergency department is much-needed. We present a generic analytical approach to predict bed census on nursing wards by hour, as a function of the Master Surgical Schedule and arrival patterns of emergency patients. Along these predictions, insight is gained on the impact of strategic (ie, case mix, care unit size, care unit partitioning), tactical (ie, allocation of operating room time, misplacement rules), and operational decisions (ie, time of admission/discharge). The method is used in the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam as a decision-support tool in a complete redesign of the inpatient care operations.     

Ion-molecule reactions of 2-methoxyethanol with some amines, carboxylic acids and amino acids under chemical ionization conditions

2-Methoxyethanol chemical ionization of amines, carboxylic acids and amino acids has been found to produce numerous adduct ions. The most intense adduct ions for amines are [M + H](+) and [M + 77](+), for carboxylic acids [M + 27](+), [M + 59](+) and [M + 77](+), and for amino acids [M + H](+), [M + 13](+), [M + 27](+) and [M + 77](+). Either the adduct ion [M + H](+) or [M + 77](+) was the most abundant ion found for amino acids. The proton affinities of amino acids are noticed to control the formation of the [M + H](+) and [M + 77](+) ions. The relative abundance of [M + 13](+) and [M + 27](+) ions varied for different amino acids being most intense for phenylalanine and aspartic acid. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rationalization of the ratio of excimer-to-monomer fluorescence emission intensity in bichromophoric diesters of 1-pyrenoic acid and mono-, di-, tri-, and tetraethylene glycols

The ratio of excimer to monomer emission intensities, denoted by I_D/I_M, was measured for Py–COO(CH₂CH₂O)_mCO ? Py, where Py denotes the 1-pyrenyl group and m = 1–4, in solvents of different viscosity, η. Three different systems were used to change the viscosity of the medium: (a) Mixtures of methanol and ethylene glycol at 25°C, (b) linear aliphatic alcohols, H(CH₂)_nOH, where n =1–6, also at 25°C, and (c) ethylene glycol over the range 6.6–35°C. The ratio I_D/I_M decreases sharply as η increases, and the rate of the decrease in I_D/I_M is a function of m. Quantitatively, the dependence of I_D/I_M on η at high viscosity, i.e., the slope [d(I_D/I_M)/d(1/η)]_∞, is larger in the present work than in another series of 1-pyrenyl diesters in which the flexible spacer is an oligomer of polyethylene, instead of an oligomer of polyoxyethylene. In the limit where η → ∞, the ratio I_D/I_M assumes its largest value in the bichromophoric compound with m = 2. However, as η decreases the compound with m = 3 becomes the one with the largest I_D/I_M. A complete rotational isomeric state analysis (for the compounds with m = 1–3) and a Monte Carlo simulation (for the compound m = 4) of the conformations of the diesters can rationalize the behavior of I_D/I_M in the high viscosity limit. ©1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.