Asymptotic Expansions of Posterior Distributions in Nonregular Cases

We study the asymptotic behaviour of the posterior distributions for a one-parameter family of discontinuous densities. It is shown that a suitably centered and normalized posterior converges almost surely to an exponential limit in the total variation norm. Further, asymptotic expansions for the density, distribution function, moments and quantiles of the posterior are also obtained. It is to be noted that, in view of the results of Ghosh et al. (1994, Statistical Decision Theory and Related Topics V, 183-199, Springer, New York) and Ghosal et al. (1995, Ann. Statist., 23, 2145-2152), the nonregular cases considered here are essentially the only ones for which the posterior distributions converge. The results obtained here are also supported by a simulation experiment.     

Electrical characterization of low temperature deposited TiO2 films on strained-SiGe layers

Thin films of titanium dioxide have been deposited on strained Si_0.82Ge_0.18 epitaxial layers using titanium tetrakis-isopropoxide [TTIP, Ti(O-i-C₃H₇)₄] and oxygen by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Dielectric constant, equivalent oxide thickness (EOT), interface state density (D_it), fixed oxide charge density (Q_f/q) and flat-band voltage (V_FB) of as-deposited films were found to be 13.2, 40.6 Å, 6×10¹¹ eV⁻¹ cm⁻², 3.1×10¹¹ cm⁻² and −1.4 V, respectively. The capacitance–voltage (C–V), current–voltage (I–V) characteristics and charge trapping behavior of the films under constant current stressing exhibit an excellent interface quality and high dielectric reliability making the films suitable for microelectronic applications.     

Studies on metal — protein interactions: Inter-comparison among various approaches

Binding ability of mercury, thallium, lead and bismuth with Erythrina variegata seed protein have been investigated using tracer packet technique. Due to the lack of standard methods, inter-comparisons have been made among three different approaches, like trichloroacetic acid (TCA) precipitation, isoelectric precipitation and dialysis of protein after incubation with the metals. Good agreement was observed for all the cases except that of lead.     

Fluorescence signalling of the transition metal ions: Design strategy based on the choice of the fluorophore component

Transition metal ions are notorious for their fluorescence quenching abilities. In this paper, we discuss the design strategies for the development of efficientoff-on fluorescence signalling systems for the transition metal ions. It is shown that even simplefluorophore-spacer-receptor systems can display excellentoff-on fluorescence signalling towards the quenching metal ions when the fluorophore component is chosen judiciously.     

Oxovanadium(IV) and -(V) complexes of dithiocarbazate-based tridentate Schiff base ligands: syntheses,structure, and photochemical reactivity of compounds involving imidazole derivatives as coligands

The tridentate dithiocarbazate-based Schiff base ligands H(2)L (S-methyl-3-((5-R-2-hydroxyphenyl)methyl)dithiocarbazate, R = NO(2), L = L(2); R = Br, L = L(3)) react with [VO(acac)(2)] in the presence of imidazole derivatives as coligands to form oxovanadium(IV) and cis-dioxovanadium(V) complexes. With benzimidazole and N-methylimidazole, the products are oxovanadium(IV) complexes, viz. [VOL(3)(BzIm)].0.5CH(3)CN (1a) and [VOL(N-MeIm)(2)] (L = L(3), 1b; L = L(2), 1c), respectively. In both 1a,b, the O and S donor atoms of the tridentate ligand are cis to the terminal oxo group (in the "equatorial" plane) and mutually trans, but the N donor atom is respectively cis and trans to the oxo atom, as revealed from X-ray crystallography. When imidazole or 4-methylimidazole is used as the ancillary ligand, the products obtained are water-soluble cis-dioxovanadium(V) complexes [VO(2)L(R'-ImH)] (L = L(3) and L(2), R' = H and Me, 2a-d). These compounds have zigzag chain structures in the solid state as confirmed by X-ray crystallographic investigations of 2a,d, involving an alternating array of LVO(2)(-) species and the imidazolium counterions held together by Coulombic interactions and strong hydrogen bonding. Complexes 2a-d are stable in water or methanol. In aprotic solvents, viz. CH(3)CN, DMF, or DMSO, however, they undergo photochemical transformation when exposed to visible light. The putative product is a mixed-oxidation divanadium(IV/V) species obtained by photoinduced reduction as established by EPR, electronic spectroscopy, and dynamic (1)H NMR experiments.     

Selective glucose sensing in complex media using a biomimetic receptor

Glucose is a key biomedical analyte, especially relevant to the management of diabetes. Current methods for glucose determination rely on the enzyme glucose oxidase, requiring specialist instrumentation and suffering from redox-active interferents. In a new approach, a powerful and highly selective achiral glucose receptor is mixed with a sample, l-glucose is added, and the induced CD spectrum is measured. The CD signal results from competition between the enantiomers, and is used to determine the d-glucose content. The involvement of l-glucose doubles the signal range from the CD spectrometer and allows sensitivity to be adjusted over a wide dynamic range. It also negates medium effects, which must be equal for both enantiomers. The method has been demonstrated with human serum, pre-filtered to remove proteins, giving results which closely match the standard biochemical procedures, as well as a cell culture medium and a beer sample containing high (70 mM) and low (0.4 mM) glucose concentrations respectively.

A highly selective receptor, circular dichroism and chiral competition are combined in this versatile method for d-glucose analysis.     

基于非线性材料二次谐波与混频特性非逻辑门运算的全光实现

Optics has already been proved as a successful candidate for conducting parallel logic, arithmetic and algebraic operations. Several all-optical data processors were proposed since last few decades. To implement these systems, different data encoding decoding techniques such as polarization encoding, tristate, quartenary state, multivalued state, symbolic substitution technique etc. have already been proposed. All these are done to use optics in a suitable platform. We propose here a new concept of encoding data by adopting frequencies variation technique for conducting a inversion operation successfully.     

On the optical properties of the imidazolium ionic liquids

Room-temperature ionic liquids, particularly those based on substituted imidazolium cations, are currently being extensively studied for a variety of applications. Herein, we explore the suitability of several imidazolium salts in optical applications by carefully examining the electronic absorption and fluorescence behavior of these substances, generally believed to be transparent in most of the UV region and fully transparent in the visible region. It is shown that all imidazolium ionic liquids are characterized by significant absorption in the entire UV region and a long absorption tail that extends into the visible region. These absorption characteristics are attributed to the imidazolium moiety and its various associated structures. When excited in the UV or early part of the visible region, these liquids exhibit fluorescence, which covers a large part of the visible region and shows dramatic excitation wavelength dependence. The excitation wavelength dependent shift of the fluorescence maximum has been rationalized taking into consideration the existence of the various associated structures of the ionic liquids and the inefficiency of the excitation energy-transfer process between them. The results imply that these liquids may have serious drawbacks in some of the optical studies.     

Characterisation and cryomagnetic study of a hydrothermally synthesised hydrogen bonded L–M–L type co-ordination polymer

A ligand–metal–ligand type co-ordination polymer [Ni (C₆H₁₂N₄)(NCS)₂(H₂O)₂] _n has been synthesised under controlled hydrothermal conditions. Here 1,3,5,7-tetraazatricyclo[3.3.1]decane [or hexamethylenetetramine (hmt)] has been used as a μ-(N,N′) bidentate spacer molecule. The prepared polymeric complex has been characterised by elemental and spectral analyses. The structure has been confirmed by a single crystal X-ray diffraction study. Magneto-structural correlation has been drawn from cryomagnetic susceptibility measurements (2–300 K) which unequivocally reflects very weak magnetic spin interactions among the long distant octahedral Ni(II) metal centres mediated by hmt and weak hydrogen bonding interactions between the adjacent zigzag one-dimensional polymeric chains carrying into a two-dimensional infinite polymeric framework.     

Twist‐dependent stacking energy of base‐pair steps in B‐DNA geometry: A density functional theory approach

Stacking energy of all the 10 unique DNA base‐pair steps (bp step) are calculated using density functional theory within the ultrasoft pseudopotential plane wave method and local density approximation for the exchange‐correlation functional. We have studied the dependence of stacking energy on twist angle, an aspect found difficult to explain using classical theory. We have found that the twist angle for different bp steps at stacking energy minimum matches extremely well with the values of average twist obtained from B‐DNA crystal structure data. This indicates that the use of a proper quantum chemical method to calculate the π‐π electronic interactions may explain stacking energy without incorporating hydrophobic interaction through solvent or effect of backbone through pseudobond. From the twist angle‐dependent stacking energy profile, we have also generated the probability distributions of twist for all the bp steps and calculated the variance of the distribution. Our calculated variances show similar trend to that of the experimental data for which sufficient numbers of data are available. The TA, AT, and CG doublets show large variances among the 10 possible bp steps, indicating their maximum flexibility. This might be the case of unusual deformation observed at the TATA‐box while binding to TBP protein. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2008