Supravital fluorometric apoptosis detection in a single mouse embryo using lab-on-a-chip

Detection of apoptosis is one of the main criteria of preimplantation embryo growth potential assessment. Recent developments in lab-on-a-chip techniques has led to apoptosis detection and monitoring on a single cell or embryo level. However, single embryo apoptosis detection without a change in embryo developmental competence and post-examination "recovery" still remains a challenge. In this paper we present a lab-on-a-chip, co-working with miniaturized optical instrumentation, which allows supravital examination of single embryos for the presence of apoptotic blastomers with full after lab-on-a-chip study "recovery" and maintenance of their further developmental capacity.     

Application of h-adaptive,high order finite element method to solve radial Schrödinger equation

The h-adaptive, high order finite element method is applied to solve a second order one dimension eigenvalue problem. The finite element formulation for the Lobatto basis is given, for which basis functions of arbitrary order can be constructed. The adaptive algorithm is simple, yet very efficient and straightforward to implement. The algorithm is based on the observation that the expansion coefficients of Lobatto basis functions decay rapidly. It allows evaluating the smallest eigenvalues simultaneously with the comparable accuracy for all eigenvalues. The presented algorithm is applied to solve the radial Schrödinger equation with the Coulomb and the Woods–Saxon potentials. For both potentials the convergence rate is presented. After seven adaptive iterations nine-digit accuracy was obtained.     

Highly conducting solid electrolytes based on poly (ethylene oxide-co-propylene oxide)

The conducting properties of solid electrolytes comprising random poly(ethylene oxide-co-propylene oxide) (of 84 : 16 monomer units mole ratio) and lithium, sodium, potassium, cesium, and rubidium salts have been studied. The systems containing some lithium or sodium salts achieved conductivity levels as high as 10^?5–10^?4 S/cm at ambient temperature and greater than 10^?3 S/cm at 100°C. However, the systems with rubidium and cesium salts exhibit conductivities a few orders of magnitude smaller. DSC studies show that the electrolytes studied are characterized by a high content of an amorphous phase (95–100%). It is suggested that the copolymer exhibits lower complexing abilities than that of poly(ethylene oxide), which results in a higher flexibility of electrolytes containing small cations and poor dissociation of the salts having large cations. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Charging effects in biased molecular devices

The influence of charging effects on the transport characteristics of a molecular wire bridging two metallic electrodes in the limit of weak contacts is studied by the generalized Breit–Wigner formula. Molecule is modeled as a quantum dot with discrete energy levels, while the coupling to the electrodes is treated within a broad-band theory. Owing to this model we find self-consistent occupation of particular energy levels and orbital energies of the wire in the presence of transport. The nonlinear conductance and current–voltage characteristics are investigated as a function of bias voltage in the case of symmetric and asymmetric coupling to the electrodes. It is shown that the shape of those curves are determined by the combined effect of the electronic structure of the molecule and by electron–electron repulsion.     

A Unified Approach to Shifts Induced by Right Invertible Operators

In this paper, shifts for a right invertible operator D induced by an analytic function acting in a linear complete metric space are considered. The case when these shifts coincide with the operator - valued function on a set which contains the set of all D-polynomials and the set of all exponentials is studied. It is shown that in this case these shifts are R-shifts and D-shifts (cf. [1], [10]).     

Rotational spectrum of trans-trans diethyl ether in the ground and three excited vibrational states

We report the results of a comprehensive reinvestigation of the rotational spectrum of diethyl ether based on broadband millimetre-wave spectra recently recorded at The Ohio State University and in Warsaw, covering the frequency region 108-366 GHz. The data set for the ground vibrational state of trans-trans diethyl ether has been extended to over 2000 lines and improved spectroscopic constants have been determined. Rotational spectra in the first excited vibrational states of the three lowest vibrational modes of trans-trans-diethyl ether, ν₂₀, ν₃₉, and ν₁₂ have been assigned. The v₂₀ = 1 and v₃₉ = 1 states are near 100 cm⁻¹ in vibrational term value and are coupled by a strong c-axis Coriolis interaction, which gives rise to many spectacular manifestations in the rotational spectrum. All of these effects have been successfully fitted for a dataset comprising over 3000 transitions, leading to precise determination of the energy difference between these states, (ΔE/hc)=10.400222(5) cm⁻¹. A newly developed software package for assignment and analysis of broadband spectra is described and made available.     

On certain positive linear operators in polynomial weight spaces

We consider certain modified Szász-Mirakyan operators A _n (f;r) in polynomial weight spaces of functions of one variable and we study approximation properties of these operators. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.