Investigation of the Doughnut Effect in Cy3-Labeled Protein Microarrays using Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscope

We demonstrate the fluorescence mapping of protein microarrays by the technique of scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) and confocal microscopy. Micron sized spots (300 μm) of human Immunoglobulin G (hIgG) protein with and without a Cy3 dye labeling have been fabricated on glass substrates by an immobilization method which makes use of calixcrown derivatives termed Prolinker. We have also tried to probe into the well-known “doughnut effect” observed in fluorescence images of proteins using the SNOM technique. The topographic and fluorescence SNOM images revealed that the number of proteins at the boundary of the spot were more than at the center in the case of the microarray spot which showed brighter luminescence at the edge than at the center in the confocal image.     

Corrigendum to the paper ``Adjoining an Order Unit to a Matrix Ordered Space'

An error has been detected (and also corrected) in Theorem 2.8 of the paper entitled “Adjoining an Order Unit to a Matrix Ordered Space” (Positivity, (2005)9: 207–223; DOI ). Accordingly, some of the results of the paper have been modified. Also, a notion of C*-matricially, Riesz normed spaces has been introduced.     

A pair of orthogonal frames

We start with a characterization of a pair of frames to be orthogonal in a shift-invariant space and then give a simple construction of a pair of orthogonal shift-invariant frames. This is applied to obtain a construction of a pair of Gabor orthogonal frames as an example. This is also developed further to obtain constructions of a pair of orthogonal wavelet frames.     

Moments of claims in a Markovian environment

This paper considers discounted aggregate claims when the claim rates and sizes fluctuate according to the state of the risk business. We provide a system of differential equations for the Laplace–Stieltjes transform of the distribution of discounted aggregate claims under this assumption. Using the differential equations, we present the first two moments of discounted aggregate claims in a Markovian environment. We also derive simple expressions for the moments of discounted aggregate claims when the Markovian environment has two states. Numerical examples are illustrated when the claim sizes are specified.     

Vertical bridgman techniques to homogenize zinc composition of CdZnTe substrates

In order to improve the Zn homogeneity along the axial direction of CdZnTe boule, we have employed a modified Bridgman technique using a (Cd, Zn) alloy source in communication with the melt, whose temperature has been gradually changed from 800 to 840°C during growth. Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) measurements of Zn composition in the boule shows an excellent homogeneity of Zn along the axis of the CdZnTe boule compared with results in a boule grown by using a fixed source temperature. We have performed a numerical simulation to obtain the approximate temperatures of additional heating and cooling needed to improve the radial Zn homogeneity. CdZnTe boule has been grown by seeded vertical Bridgman furnace with two zones of heater and cooler. Ultraviolet/visible spectroscopic measurements of Zn composition over the length of the boule indicate that the radial distribution of Zn composition is very homogeneous in the body region of the boule, where the radial variation of Zn composition is ±0.0005.     

Design of a performance enhanced traceback algorithm for theViterbi decoder

The authors propose an efficient traceback scheme for the parallel hardware implementation of the Viterbi algorithm. Compared to the conventional Viterbi algorithm, where output is selected arbitrarily when multiple survivor paths exist, the proposed algorithm decides decoding output by analysing the survivor paths of consecutive tracebacks. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm exhibits improved error-correction capability compared to the existing algorithms     

Recurrent solar wind streams

A new approach to investigating the statistical relationship between certain solar features and recurrent wind streams is presented. This approach is based, on a comparative analysis of the distributions of lifetimes of a set of solar features, recurrent geomagnetic disturbances, and geomagnetic “calms.” Correlation coefficients of 0.81, 0.85, 0.79, and 0.77 are found for the distributions of several solar features—filaments, large-scale magnetic fields, coronal features, and coronal holes, respectively—and recurrent geomagnetic disturbances. A correlation factor of 0.97 between the distributions of geomagnetic “calms” and active regions is found. The combined evidence indicates that no specific type of solar feature is responsible for the recurrent stream activity. Rather, the configuration of the large-scale magnetic field of the Sun appears to control the permanently existing corpuscular activity. Since prominences trace polarity division lines of the large-scale magnetic field structure of the Sun, they have been checked as a possible general predictor of recurrent corpuscular activity; their parameters could present the most reliable indices that relate closely with trends in geomagnetic disturbances. A comparative analysis of cyclic variations of sunspot numbers, the total number of prominences, the relative number of low-height (<-20″) prominences, and recurrent geomagnetic storms is made for solar cycle N16. The relative number of low-height prominences is found to correlate broadly (0.83) with recurrent wind streams. P. K. Shternberg State Astronomical Institute, Moscow, Russia; National Solar Observatory, Sacramento Peak, U.S. Published in Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 145–151, February, 1998.     

Saturation intensity and time response of InGaAs-InGaP MQW opticalmodulators

We report modulation saturation and time response measurements on InGaAs-InGaP MQW modulators. The measurements yield a saturation intensity of (3.7±0.1) kW/cm² for a 0-10 V swing and switching times between 10 and 90 ns, depending on the bias voltage and incident light intensity. The observed dependence indicates that field screening due to carrier build-up is the dominant physical mechanism determining both the speed and the saturation intensity. This conclusion is supported by results of theoretical calculations     

Hyperfunctional Weights for Orthogonal Polynomials

The Chebychev polynomials associated to any given moments μ_{n ∞} ⁰ are formally orthogonal with respect to the formal δ-series $$w(x)= {\sum^\infty_0}(- 1)^{n}\mu_{{n}}\delta^{(n)}(x)/n!.$$ We show that this formal weight can be a true hyperfunctional weight if its Fourier transform is a slowly increasing holomorphic function in some tubular neighborhood of the real line. It provides a unifying treatment of real and complex orthogonality of Chebychev polynomials including all classical examples and characterizes Chebychev polynomials having Bessel type orthogonality.