Heterogeneous photobleaching in confocal microscopy

Photobleaching was studied during recording of confocal scanning laser microscopy. Studies on fluorescent gels of FITC-labeled dextran were used to evaluate differential bleaching along thez-axis. Differential bleaching along the z-axis was observed and it was seen that this was related to the numerical aperture of the objective in use. This points to the conclusion that photon energy flux density is an important parameter in photobleaching. To check if photon energy flux density heterogeneity is affected by local variation in the refractive index of the sample, photobleaching rates were calculated for different fluorescent objects (sections of seeds, animal cells stained with nuclear stains, immunocytochemistry preparations) and a pronounced similarity was found between photobleaching rates and DIC images.     

Estimating a reduced rank regression model for non-normal variables

A method using third order moments for estimating the regression coefficients as well as the latent state scores of the reduced-rank regression model when the latent variable(s) are non-normally distributed is presented in this paper. It is shown that the factor analysis type indeterminacy of the regression coefficient matrices is eliminated. A real life example of the proposed method is presented. Differences of this solution with the reduced-rank regression eigen solution are discussed.     

Bulk and microprobe analysis for trace elements with synchrotron radiation

Blood serum samples were irradiated by monochromatic synchrotron radiation (15 keV) and by 2.4-MeV protons to compare their performance for the detection of trace elements by x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry. Absolute concentration assignment was based on the addition of an internal standard and on a method which uses the incoherent and coherent radiation as a flux monitor of the incoming beam. Preliminary experiments with a synchrotron XRF microprobe are reported.     

Effect of ion impinging on the microstructure and field emission of carbon nanotubes

Effects of ion impinging on the microstructure and field electron emission properties of screen-printed carbon nanotube films were investigated. We observed that the plasma treatment modified the microstructure of CNTs along with the remarkable increase of emission site density. With the prolongation of ion impinging time, the emission current falls down first, and then rises up to higher than that of the untreated films. It is proposed that the change of emission characteristics is due to the different emission mechanisms. After the treatment, electrons are emitted predominantly from the nano-nodes on the tube wall instead from the nanotube tips.     

Multilinear interpolation between adjoint operators

Multilinear interpolation is a powerful tool used in obtaining strong-type boundedness for a variety of operators assuming only a finite set of restricted weak-type estimates. A typical situation occurs when one knows that a multilinear operator satisfies a weak L^q estimate for a single index q (which may be less than one) and that all the adjoints of the multilinear operator are of similar nature, and thus they also satisfy the same weak L^q estimate. Under this assumption, in this note we give a general multilinear interpolation theorem which allows one to obtain strong-type boundedness for the operator (and all of its adjoints) for a large set of exponents. The key point in the applications we discuss is that the interpolation theorem can handle the case q?1. When q>1, weak L^q has a predual, and such strong-type boundedness can be easily obtained by duality and multilinear interpolation (cf. Interpolation Spaces, An Introduction, Springer, New York, 1976; Math. Ann. 319 (2001) 151; in: Function Spaces and Applications (Lund, 1986), Lecture Notes in Mathematics, Vol. 1302, Springer, Berlin, New York, 1988; J. Amer. Math. Soc. 15 (2002) 469; Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 21 (1969) 441).     

含氟碳菁染料聚集行为的研究

本文对五种不同结构的含氟碳菁染料的甲醇溶液及吸附在碘溴化银T 颗粒表面的聚集行为进行了研究 ,测定了照相性能 ,计算了增感倍率。Dye1 ,Dye2 ,Dye3在甲醇溶液中测得的单分子态吸收曲线 ,当取代基从C2 H5→CH3→无取代基时 ,最大吸收峰对应的波长向短波方向移动 ;乙基取代基的增感染料 (Dye1 )吸附在碘溴化银表面形成的J 聚集态峰值较高 ,对应的增感倍率也高。没有取代基的增感染料 (Dye3)不形成J 聚集 ,增感倍率低 ,有减感作用。Dye4与Dye5相比 ,Dye4具有尖而窄的J 聚集反射光谱 ,增感倍率高。结果表明 :不同结构的增感染料吸附在卤化银颗粒上形成的J 聚集态不同 ,吸收谱带窄的J 聚集态增感染料具有较高的增感倍率。     

新型菲涅尔线聚光太阳电池组件特性分析

以PMMA为材料,采用热压成型工艺加工线聚焦菲涅尔聚光棱镜,对在其聚光条件下不同入射角度情况下太阳电池的电流电压特性进行测试,结果表明:该菲涅尔线聚焦棱镜能有效提高太阳电池的单位输出功率,而且具有比较宽泛的集光角的特性,基本满足实际应用的要求.     

Status of heavy element research using a gas-filled recoil separator at RIKEN

A gas-filled type of recoil separator for heavy element research was installed at an experimental hall of RIKEN Linear Accelerator facility to realize getting higher intensity of primary beam and long beam time. Performance of the separator was studied using target recoils and various nuclear reactions. The results show the high performance of the separator for heave element research. As an application of the GARIS, production and identification of an isotope of the 110th element ²⁷¹[110] have been performed using the ²⁰⁸Pb(⁶⁴Ni,1n)²⁷¹[110] reaction. Three decay chains coincide well both in decay times and energies with the ones reported by the group of SHIP experiment at GSI, Germany. Our results provide a confirmation of the synthesis of an isotope ²⁷¹[110] of element 110.     

Metallo‐supramolecular block copolymer micelles: Improved preparation and characterization

Micelles prepared from amphiphilic block copolymers in which a poly(styrene) segment is connected to a poly(ethylene oxide) block via a bis‐(2,2′:6′,2″‐terpyridine‐ruthenium) complex have been intensely studied. In most cases, the micelle populations were found to be strongly heterogeneous in size because of massive micelle/micelle aggregation. In the study reported in this article we tried to improve the homogeneity of the micelle population. The variant preparation procedure developed, which is described here, was used to prepare two “protomer”‐type micelles: PS₂₀‐[Ru]‐PEO₇₀ and PS₂₀‐[Ru]‐PEO₃₇₅. The dropwise addition of water to a solution of the compounds in dimethylformamide was replaced by the controlled addition of water by a syringe pump. The resulting micelles were characterized by sedimentation velocity and sedimentation equilibrium analyses in an analytical ultracentrifuge and by transmission electron microscopy of negatively stained samples. Sedimentation analysis showed virtually unimodal size distributions, in contrast to the findings on micelles prepared previously. PS₂₀‐[Ru]‐PEO₇₀ micelles were found to have an average molar mass of 318,000 g/mol (corresponding to 53 protomers per micelle, which is distinctly less than after micelle preparation by the standard method) and an average hydrodynamic diameter (d_h) of 18 nm. For PS₂₀‐[Ru]‐PEO₃₇₅ micelles, the corresponding values were M = 603,000 g/mol (31 protomers per micelle) and d_h = 34 nm. The latter particles were found to be identical to the “equilibrium” micelles prepared in pure water. Both micelle types had a very narrow molar mass distribution but a much broader distribution of s values and thus of hydrodynamic diameters. This indicates a conformational heterogeneity that is stable on the time scale of sedimentation velocity analysis. The findings from electron microscopy were in disagreement with those from the sedimentation analysis both in average micelle diameter and in the width of the distributions, apparently because of imperfections in the staining procedure. The preparation procedure described also may be useful in micelle formation from other types of protomers. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 4458–4465, 2004