Direct measurement of the pion valence-quark momentum distribution, the pion light-cone wave function squared

We present the first direct measurements of the pion valence-quark momentum distribution which is related to the square of the pion light-cone wave function. The measurements were carried out using data on diffractive dissociation of 500 GeV/c pi(-) into dijets from a platinum target at Fermilab experiment E791. The results show that the /q&q> light-cone asymptotic wave function describes the data well for Q2 approximately 10 (GeV/c)(2) or more. We also measured the transverse momentum distribution of the diffractive dijets.     

Cramér-Rao Bound Expressions for Parametric Estimation of Overlapping Peaks: Influence of Prior Knowledge

We have derived analytical expressions of the Cramér-Rao lower bounds on spectral parameters for singlet, doublet, and triplet peaks in noise. We considered exponential damping (Lorentzian lineshape) and white Gaussian noise. The expressions, valid if a sufficiently large number of samples is used, were derived in the time domain for algebraic convenience. They enable one to judge the precision of any unbiased estimator as a function of the spectral and experimental parameters, which is useful for quantitation objectives and experimental design. The influence of constraints (chemical prior knowledge) on parameters of the peaks of doublets and triplets is demonstrated both analytically and numerically and the inherent benefits for quantitation are shown. Our expressions also enable analysis of spectra comprising many peaks.     

Covering arrays for some equivalence classes of words

Covering arrays for words of length over a ‐letter alphabet are arrays with entries from the alphabet so that for each choice of columns, each of the ‐letter words appears at least once among the rows of the selected columns. We study two schemes in which all words are not considered to be different. In the first case known as partitioning hash families, words are equivalent if they induce the same partition of a element set. In the second case, words of the same weight are equivalent. In both cases, we produce logarithmic upper bounds on the minimum size of a covering array. Definitive results for , as well as general results, are provided.     

High-throughput biomarker segmentation on ovarian cancer tissue microarrays via hierarchical normalized cuts

We present a system for accurately quantifying the presence and extent of stain on account of a vascular biomarker on tissue microarrays. We demonstrate our flexible, robust, accurate, and high-throughput minimally supervised segmentation algorithm, termed hierarchical normalized cuts (HNCuts) for the specific problem of quantifying extent of vascular staining on ovarian cancer tissue microarrays. The high-throughput aspect of HNCut is driven by the use of a hierarchically represented data structure that allows us to merge two powerful image segmentation algorithms-a frequency weighted mean shift and the normalized cuts algorithm. HNCuts rapidly traverses a hierarchical pyramid, generated from the input image at various color resolutions, enabling the rapid analysis of large images (e.g., a 1500 × 1500 sized image under 6 s on a standard 2.8-GHz desktop PC). HNCut is easily generalizable to other problem domains and only requires specification of a few representative pixels (swatch) from the object of interest in order to segment the target class. Across ten runs, the HNCut algorithm was found to have average true positive, false positive, and false negative rates (on a per pixel basis) of 82%, 34%, and 18%, in terms of overlap, when evaluated with respect to a pathologist annotated ground truth of the target region of interest. By comparison, a popular supervised classifier (probabilistic boosting trees) was only able to marginally improve on the true positive and false negative rates (84% and 14%) at the expense of a higher false positive rate (73%), with an additional computation time of 62% compared to HNCut. We also compared our scheme against a k-means clustering approach, which both the HNCut and PBT schemes were able to outperform. Our success in accurately quantifying the extent of vascular stain on ovarian cancer TMAs suggests that HNCut could be a very powerful tool in digital pathology and bioinformatics applications where it could be used to facilitate computer-assisted prognostic predictions of disease outcome.     

A 4-stage 60-GHz low-noise amplifier in 65-nm CMOS with body biasing to control gain, linearity, and input matching

A 4-stage 60-GHz low-noise amplifier is designed and laid out in a 65?nm CMOS technology. Transmission lines are used to realize the power matching networks at the input, output, and between the stages. Based on foundry-provided models, extensive electromagnetic simulations with Momentum^? (a 2.5D simulator by Agilent) are performed on transmission lines, capacitors and I/O pads to model the behavior of the circuit at mm-wave frequencies. Furthermore, body biasing is used as a technique to control gain variability, linearity performance, and input matching of the designed LNA. Post-layout simulation results show that the LNA achieves a maximum gain of 21.3?dB at 60?GHz while consuming 20?mW from a 1.2?V supply. By changing the body bias voltage of the transistors in the two intermediate stages, the overall gain varies from 14 to 21.3?dB providing more than 7?dB of gain range. Adjusting the body biasing of the transistors in the last stage, results in a maximum IIP3 of more than 2?dBm for the overall amplifier. Also, the input return loss of the LNA is controlled by changing the bulk voltage of the input transistor in the first stage.     

A dual mode 2.4-GHz CMOS low noise amplifier employing body biasing

This paper presents a dual mode CMOS low noise amplifier (LNA) suitable for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access applications, at 2.4?GHz. The design concept is based on body biasing. An off chip Digital to Analog Converter is used to generate the proper body bias voltage to control the LNA gain and linearity. Measurement results show that in the high gain mode, for V _BS?=?0.3?V, the cascode LNA, implemented in a 0.13???m CMOS standard process, exhibits a 14?dB power gain, a 3.6?dB noise figure (NF) and ?4.6?dBm of third order intercept point (IIP3) for a 4?mA current consumption under 1?V supply. Tuning V _BS to ?0.55?V, switches the LNA into the low gain mode. It achieves 8.6?dB power gain, 6.2?dB NF and 6?dBm IIP3 under a constrained power consumption of 1.7?mW.     

Bis(imidate)palladium(II) complexes with labile ligands. Mimics of classical precursors?

A novel synthetic route to prepare palladium(II) precursor analogous of classical [Pd(Cl)(2)(solvent)(2)] has been developed. Just stirring Pd(3)(AcO)(6) in dimethyl sulfide at room temperature, in the stoichiometric presence of protic imidate ligands, resulted in the precipitation of the desired complexes [Pd(imidate)(2)(SMe(2))(2)] (imidate = succinimidate (succ) 1, phthalimidate (phthal) 2, maleimidate (mal) 3, saccharinate (sac) 4 or glutarimidate (glut) 5). The new complexes are very soluble in common solvents and have been fully characterized, including an X-ray diffraction analysis of 2. Analogous reactions with succinimide in acetonitrile or dimethylsulfoxide produced [Pd(succinimidate)(2)(solvent)(2)] (6 and 7, respectively) as off-white powders. Thermal decomposition of 6 produces a new species 6* with bridging imidate ligands that can be formulated as a trimer similar to Pd(3)(AcO)(6). The usefulness of 1-5 as precursors has been tested by reactions against monodentated neutral donor ligands, PPh(3) (a compounds), or pyridine (py, b compounds), to produce ten new derivatives of the general formula trans-[Pd(imidate)(2)(L)(2)]. The single-crystal structures of compounds 2a, 3a, 4a, 4a', 5a and 4b have also been established, allowing an interesting molecular and supramolecular structural discussion. A cis-conformation was induced when the bidentate chelate ligand 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)benzene (dppb, c compounds) was made to react with 1-5. Structural characterization by X-ray diffraction of complex 2c confirmed the proposed formula. Catalytic activity in Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of aryl bromides and benzyl bromides with aryl boronic acids has been tested.     

Targeted highly sensitive detection of multi-drug resistant Salmonella DT104 using gold nanoparticles

Monoclonal antibody-conjugated popcorn-shape gold nanotechnology-driven approach to selectively detect multiple drug resistant (MDRB) Salmonella typhimurium DT104 bacteria has been developed. We demonstrate that the gold nanotechnology based assay is capable of measuring the amount of MDRB in food samples.     

Ultrasensitive electrochemical detection of nucleic acid based on the isothermal strand-displacement polymerase reaction and enzyme dual amplification

We describe an ultrasensitive electrochemical detection of DNA protocol based on the isothermal strand-displacement polymerase reaction (ISDPR) and enzyme dual amplifications. Target DNA triggered an ISDPR to produce numerous bi-functionalized duplex DNA complexes. Following an immuno-magnetic collection via an immunoreaction between the attached digoxin on the duplex DNA and the anti-digoxin antibody on the magnetic bead, horseradish (HRP) tracers were bound to the duplex DNA through a biotin–streptavidin interaction. The quantification of DNA was realized by square wave voltammetric detection of the enzymatic products with a screen-printed gold electrode. The voltammetric response was proportional to the concentration of DNA in the range of 0.1 fM–0.5 pM, and the limit of detection was estimated to be 0.06 fM. The new protocol showed great promise for simple, cost-effective, and quantitative gene analysis.