Kinetics and mechanism of electron transfer from phenolate anion to hexacyanoferrate (III) in aqueous alkaline media

A kinetic reinvestigation of the title redox system in aqueous alkaline media at 35°C and an ionic strength of 0.5 mol dm^?3 shows that the reaction follows a pseudosecond-order Fe(CN) disappearance. While varying [phenol]₀ and [OH^?] exhibit a linear influence on the pseudo-second-order rate constant, varying[Fe(CN)]₀ and [Fe(CN)]₀, initially taken, have a complicated inhibitory effect on the same. The major phenoloxidation products isolated under a chosen condition are 2,2′- and 4,4′- dihydroxydiphenyl. Results are interpreted in terms of a probable mechanism which envisages a reversible formation, by the first one-electron transfer, of a reactive phenoxy radical (PhO^˙) which on the second one-electron transfer forms a less reactive ion-pair intermediate (stabilized by the Fe(CN) produced) to decompose rate-determiningly to phenoxonium cation (PhO⁺) and Fe(CN), the product-formation steps being very rapid and kinetically indistinguishable.     

Recent progress in analytical instrumentation for glycemic control in diabetic and critically ill patients

Implementing strict glycemic control can reduce the risk of serious complications in both diabetic and critically ill patients. For this reason, many different analytical, mainly electrochemical and optical sensor approaches for glucose measurements have been developed. Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) has been recognised as being an indispensable tool for intensive diabetes therapy. Recent progress in analytical instrumentation, allowing submicroliter samples of blood, alternative site testing, reduced test time, autocalibration, and improved precision, is comprehensively described in this review. Continuous blood glucose monitoring techniques and insulin infusion strategies, developmental steps towards the realization of the dream of an artificial pancreas under closed loop control, are presented. Progress in glucose sensing and glycemic control for both patient groups is discussed by assessing recent published literature (up to 2006). The state-of-the-art and trends in analytical techniques (either episodic, intermittent or continuous, minimal-invasive, or noninvasive) detailed in this review will provide researchers, health professionals and the diabetic community with a comprehensive overview of the potential of next-generation instrumentation suited to either short- and long-term implantation or ex vivo measurement in combination with appropriate body interfaces such as microdialysis catheters.     

A Multidisciplinary Approach for Teaching Statistics and Probability∗

It is interesting to apply methods devised for solving one class of problems to a second class to which the methods might at first appear alien. Two examples which illustrate this approach are given below.     

Supervoxel-based segmentation of mitochondria in em image stacks with learned shape features

It is becoming increasingly clear that mitochondria play an important role in neural function. Recent studies show mitochondrial morphology to be crucial to cellular physiology and synaptic function and a link between mitochondrial defects and neuro-degenerative diseases is strongly suspected. Electron microscopy (EM), with its very high resolution in all three directions, is one of the key tools to look more closely into these issues but the huge amounts of data it produces make automated analysis necessary. State-of-the-art computer vision algorithms designed to operate on natural 2-D images tend to perform poorly when applied to EM data for a number of reasons. First, the sheer size of a typical EM volume renders most modern segmentation schemes intractable. Furthermore, most approaches ignore important shape cues, relying only on local statistics that easily become confused when confronted with noise and textures inherent in the data. Finally, the conventional assumption that strong image gradients always correspond to object boundaries is violated by the clutter of distracting membranes. In this work, we propose an automated graph partitioning scheme that addresses these issues. It reduces the computational complexity by operating on supervoxels instead of voxels, incorporates shape features capable of describing the 3-D shape of the target objects, and learns to recognize the distinctive appearance of true boundaries. Our experiments demonstrate that our approach is able to segment mitochondria at a performance level close to that of a human annotator, and outperforms a state-of-the-art 3-D segmentation technique.     

Neutron scattering study of spin waves in an antiferromagnet FePt3

Spin wave dispersion relations in an antiferromagnetic ordered alloy of FePt₃ were determined along three crystallographical axes by neutron scattering. Well defined magnon groups could be observed up to the magnetic zone boundary. The dispersion relation could be interpreted in terms of the Heisenberg model using more than four exchange parameters.     

Generalized inverses of partitioned matrices useful in statistical applications

Generalized inverses of a partitioned matrix are characterized under some rank conditions on the block matrices in the partitions.