Observation of the nonlinear effect in relativistic Thomson scattering of electron and laser beams

Thomson scattering of high-power laser and electron beams is a good test of electrodynamics in the high-field region. We demonstrated production of high-intensity X-rays in the head-on collision of a CO₂ laser and 60-MeV electron beams at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Accelerator Test Facility. The energy of an X-ray photon was limited at 6.5 keV in the linear (lowest order) Thomson scattering, but the nonlinear (higher order) process produces higher energy X-rays. We measured the angular distribution of the high-energy X-rays and confirmed that it agrees with theoretical predictions.     

Vascular morphology by three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging

A three-dimensional examination of blood vessels is provided using MR data from seven cases. The vascular surfaces are constructed with an algorithm that automatically follows the selected artery or vein and generates a projected three-dimensional gradient shaded image. Fast 3DFT pulse sequences were optimized to enhance the time-of-flight contrast of the intravascular region. By increasing the surface threshold value in a three-dimensional head study, the flesh of a patient's face was peeled away to demonstrate the superfacial temporal artery. Gated cardiac images show the great vessels and cardiac chambers. A three-dimensional view of the aorta shows an irregular surface in the vicinity of an adrenal tumor. 3D MR exams provide a non-invasive technique for assessing vascular morphology in a clinical setting.     

Regular variation of order 1 nonlinear AR-ARCH models

We prove both geometric ergodicity and regular variation of the stationary distribution for a class of nonlinear stochastic recursions that includes nonlinear AR-ARCH models of order 1. The Lyapounov exponent for the model, the index of regular variation and the spectral measure for the regular variation all are characterized by a simple two-state Markov chain.     

Mobile phase versus stationary phase approaches to the direct injection of biological fluids in liquid chromatography

The liquid chromatographic analysis of drugs in urine through direct injection without any sample pretreatment was extended to micellar chromatography with nonionic surfactants, the Pinkerton ISRP column and the shielded hydrophobic phase (Hisep) column. The feasibility of using each was demonstrated through the determination of the diuretic, hydrochlorothiazide, in urine. Good separation, recovery, precision and linearity, and adequate limits of detection were obtained for this analysis with all three techniques. The advantages and limitations of the mobile phase approach of micellar chromatography and the two stationary phase approaches are discussed for the direct injection of urine as well as other biological fluids.     

Discrete and Continuous Time Modulated Random Walks with Heavy-Tailed Increments

We consider a modulated process S which, conditional on a background process X, has independent increments. Assuming that S drifts to −∞ and that its increments (jumps) are heavy-tailed (in a sense made precise in the paper), we exhibit natural conditions under which the asymptotics of the tail distribution of the overall maximum of S can be computed. We present results in discrete and in continuous time. In particular, in the absence of modulation, the process S in continuous time reduces to a Lévy process with heavy-tailed Lévy measure. A central point of the paper is that we make full use of the so-called “principle of a single big jump” in order to obtain both upper and lower bounds. Thus, the proofs are entirely probabilistic. The paper is motivated by queueing and Lévy stochastic networks.     

A chemoselective reduction of alkynes to (E)-alkenes

The trans reduction of all types of alkynes to give (E)-olefins is achieved through a two-stage trans hydrosilylation and protodesilylation. Reaction of an alkyne and a silane with the ruthenium catalyst [Cp*Ru(MeCN)3]PF6 results in clean hydrosilylation to give only the (Z)-trans addition product at ambient temperature with catalyst loadings of 1-5 mol %. The crude vinylsilane products are then protodesilylated by the action of cuprous iodide and TBAF at rt-35 degrees C. The reaction is compatible with many sensitive functional groups and provides a general trans-alkyne reduction not possible by other means.     

H2/CO2 separations in multicomponent metal-adeninate MOFs with multiple chemically distinct pore environments

Metal–organic frameworks constructed from multiple (≥3) components often exhibit dramatically increased structural complexity compared to their 2 component (1 metal, 1 linker) counterparts, such as multiple chemically unique pore environments and a plurality of diverse molecular diffusion pathways. This inherent complexity can be advantageous for gas separation applications. Here, we report two isoreticular multicomponent MOFs, bMOF-200 (4 components; Cu, Zn, adeninate, pyrazolate) and bMOF-201 (3 components; Zn, adeninate, pyrazolate). We describe their structures, which contain 3 unique interconnected pore environments, and we use Kohn–Sham density functional theory (DFT) along with the climbing image nudged elastic band (CI-NEB) method to predict potential H₂/CO₂ separation ability of bMOF-200. We examine the H₂/CO₂ separation performance using both column breakthrough and membrane permeation studies. bMOF-200 membranes exhibit a H₂/CO₂ separation factor of 7.9. The pore space of bMOF-201 is significantly different than bMOF-200, and one molecular diffusion pathway is occluded by coordinating charge-balancing formate and acetate anions. A consequence of this structural difference is reduced permeability to both H₂ and CO₂ and a significantly improved H₂/CO₂ separation factor of 22.2 compared to bMOF-200, which makes bMOF-201 membranes competitive with some of the best performing MOF membranes in terms of H₂/CO₂ separations.

Tailorable multicomponent MOFs and MOF membranes for efficient H₂/CO₂ separation.