New poly(p‐phenylene vinylene) derivatives with two oxadiazole rings per repeat unit: Synthesis,photophysical properties,electroluminescence, and metal ion recognition

Two new poly(p‐phenylene vinylene) derivatives OX1‐PPV and OX2‐PPV bearing two 1,3,4‐oxadiazole rings per repeat unit and a fully conjugated backbone with solubilizing dodecyloxy side groups were synthesized and investigated. The amorphous conjugated polymers had glass‐transition temperature values of 60–75 °C and emitted intense blue or greenish‐blue light in solution with photoluminescence (PL) emission maxima at 379–492 nm and PL quantum yields of 0.41–0.52. In the solid state they emitted yellowish‐green light with PL emission maxima at 533–555 nm. Cyclic voltammetry showed that both conjugated polymers had reversible reduction and irreversible oxidation, making them n‐type materials. The electron affinity of OX2‐PPV was estimated as 2.85 eV whereas that of OX1‐PPV was 2.75 eV. Yellow electroluminescence (EL) was achieved from single‐layer light‐emitting diodes of OX2‐PPV with an EL emission maximum at 555 nm and a brightness of 70 cd/m². Polymer OX2‐PPV, which was functionalized with 2,6‐bis(1,3,4‐oxadiazole‐2‐yl)pyridine, demonstrated sensitivity to various metal ions as a fluorescence‐mode chemosensor. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 2112–2123, 2004     

Voice changes in women treated for endometriosis and related conditions: The need for comprehensive vocal assessment

Hormonal treatments which have an androgenic effect have the potential to cause vocal changes. The changes in vocal fold structure and voice quality are considered to be irreversible. To date, studies have documented subjective vocal changes or documented single cases without detailed, baseline voice assessments. The impact on laryngeal function of women taking these androgenic treatments requires further detailed, objective assessment. The need for increased awareness of the actions of androgenic hormones on womns' voices, and the benefits of a thorough voice assessment are discussed.     

Performance of wireless multihop communications systems with cooperative diversity over fading channels

We present closed‐form bounds for the performance of wireless multihop communications systems with cooperative diversity over Nakagami‐m fading channels. The end‐to‐end signal‐to‐noise ratio is formulated and upper bounded by using the inequality between harmonic and geometric means of positive random variables. Closed‐form expression is derived for the moment‐generating function and is used to obtain lower bounds for the average error probability. Numerical results are compared with computer simulations showing the tightness of the proposed bounds. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dielectric waveguides of arbitrary cross sectional shape

Numerical guided mode solutions of arbitrary cross sectional shaped waveguides are obtained using a finite difference (FD) technique. The standard FD scheme is appropriately modified to capture all discontinuities, due to the change of the refractive index, across the waveguides’ interfaces taking into account the shape of each interface at the same time. The method is applied to the vector Helmholtz equation formulated to describe the electric or magnetic fields in the waveguide (one field is retrieved from the other through Maxwell’s equations). Computational cost is kept to a minimum by exploiting sparse matrix algebra. The waveguides under study have arbitrary cross sectional shape and arbitrary refractive index profile.     

Minimal surfaces,Hopf differentials and the Ricci condition

We deal with minimal surfaces in a sphere and investigate certain invariants of geometric significance, the Hopf differentials, which are defined in terms of the complex structure and the higher fundamental forms. We discuss the holomorphicity of Hopf differentials and provide a geometric interpretation for it in terms of the higher curvature ellipses. This motivates the study of a class of minimal surfaces, which we call exceptional. We show that exceptional minimal surfaces are related to Lawson’s conjecture regarding the Ricci condition. Indeed, we prove that, under certain conditions, compact minimal surfaces in spheres which satisfy the Ricci condition are exceptional. Thus, under these conditions, the proof of Lawson’s conjecture is reduced to its confirmation for exceptional minimal surfaces. In fact, we provide an affirmative answer to Lawson’s conjecture for exceptional minimal surfaces in odd dimensional spheres or in S ^4m .     

Analysis of carbonyl compounds via headspace solid-phase microextraction with on-fiber derivatization and gas chromatographic-ion trap tandem mass spectrometric determination of their O-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl)oxime derivatives

An improved method for the analysis of carbonyls is described utilizing a headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) step and on-fiber derivatization with O-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl)hydroxylamine (PFBHA) hydrochloride. Thermal desorption of the oxime derivatives formed on the fiber is followed by gas chromatographic separation coupled to an ion trap tandem mass spectrometer (GC-ITMS). Selecting specific fragment ions within the electron ionization (EI(+)) mass spectra of these oxime derivatives as precursor ions for MS-MS fragmentation provides a suitable method for the target analysis of individual carbonyl classes, such as alkanals, (E)-2-alkenals, (E,E)-2,4-alkadienals, and others. Retention indices on polar as well as on apolar stationary phases along with EI(+) mass spectra patterns are presented for a large set of oxime derivatives, giving valuable information needed for unambiguous assignment of substances in complex sample matrices. The fast sample preparation and derivatization step via HS-SPME can be automated and is applicable to a variety of biological samples and foodstuffs, allowing rapid and sensitive screening analyses of important aldehydic biomarkers and aroma active compounds.     

Modal analysis of circular Bragg fibers with arbitrary index profiles

A finite-difference approach based upon the immersed interface method is used to analyze the mode structure of Bragg fibers with arbitrary index profiles. The method allows general propagation constants and eigenmodes to be calculated to a high degree of accuracy, while computation times are kept to a minimum by exploiting sparse matrix algebra. The method is well suited to handle complicated structures comprised of a large number of thin layers with high-index contrast and simultaneously determines multiple eigenmodes without modification.     

A polarization-/angle-insensitive, bandwidth-optimized, metamaterial absorber in the microwave regime

An enhanced metamaterial absorber based on the circumscribed-cross resonator is introduced in this paper. The new structure is polarization-independent, due to the symmetry of its unit cell, and is proven efficient for the attenuation of obliquely incident waves. The absorption mechanism is thoroughly investigated and is found to be mainly related to the losses of the dielectric substrate. Furthermore, by exploiting the scalability property of metamaterials, the operational bandwidth of our design can be drastically improved by placing unit cells with properly scaled resonators adjacent to each other. In this context, various combinations of three, four, and nine unit cells that can increase the full width at half maximum up to as much as 11.18?%, are developed. The overall performance of the proposed configurations is deemed promising for the realization of microwave metamaterial absorbers for several practical applications.