A photoelectron diffraction investigation of vanadyl phthalocyanine on Au(1 1 1)

Scanned-energy mode photoelectron diffraction using the O 1s and V 2p emission perpendicular to the surface has been used to investigate the orientation and internal conformation of vanadyl phthalocyanine (VOPc) adsorbed on Au(1 1 1). The results confirm earlier indications from scanning tunnelling microscopy that the Vdouble bond; length as m-dashO vanadyl bond points out of, and not into, the surface. The Vdouble bond; length as m-dashO bondlength is 1.60 ± 0.04 Å, not significantly different from its value in bulk crystalline VOPc. However, the V atom in the adsorbed molecule is almost coplanar with the surrounding N atoms and is thus pulled down into the approximately planar region defined by the N and C atoms by 0.52 (+0.14/−0.10) Å, relative to its location in crystalline VOPc. This change must be attributed to the bonding interaction between the molecule and the underlying metal surface

Adsorption structure of glycine on TiO2(1 1 0): a photoelectron diffraction determination

High-resolution core-level photoemission and scanned-energy mode photoelectron diffraction (PhD) of the O 1s and N 1s states have been used to investigate the interaction of glycine with the rutile TiO2(1 1 0) surface. Whilst there is clear evidence for the presence of the zwitterion View the MathML sourceCH2COO− with multilayer deposition, at low coverage only the deprotonated glycinate species, NH2CH2COO is present. Multiple-scattering simulations of the O 1s PhD data show the glycinate is bonded to the surface through the two carboxylate O atoms which occupy near-atop sites above the five-fold-coordinated surface Ti atoms, with a Ti–O bondlength of 2.12 ± 0.06 Å. Atomic hydrogen arising from the deprotonation is coadsorbed to form hydroxyl species at the bridging oxygen sites with an associated Ti–O bondlength of 2.01 ± 0.03 Å. Absence of any significant PhD modulations of the N 1s emission is consistent with the amino N atom not being involved in the surface bonding, unlike the case of glycinate on Cu(1 1 0) and Cu(1 0 0)

Quantitative adsorbate structure determination under catalytic reaction conditions

Current methods allow quantitative local structure determination of adsorbate geometries on surfaces in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) but are incompatible with the higher pressures required for a steady-state catalytic reactions. Here we show that photoelectron diffraction can be used to determine the structure of the methoxy and formate reaction intermediates during the steady-state oxidation of methanol over Cu(110) by taking advantage of recent instrumental developments to allow near-ambient pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The local methoxy site differs from that under static UHV conditions, attributed to the increased surface mobility and dynamic nature of the surface under reaction conditions

Making SENSE--Sustained Effort Network for treatment of Status Epilepticus as a multicenter prospective registry.

BACKGROUND: Evidence regarding the different treatment options of status epilepticus (SE) in adults is scarce. Large randomized trials cover only one treatment at early stage and suggest the superiority of benzodiazepines over placebo, of intravenous lorazepam over intravenous diazepam or over intravenous phenytoin alone, and of intramuscular midazolam over intravenous lorazepam. However, many patients will not be treated successfully with the first treatment step. A large randomized trial covering the treatment of established status (ESETT) has just been funded recently by the NIH and will not start before 2015, with expected results in 2018; a trial on the treatment of refractory status with general anesthetics was terminated early due to insufficient recruitment. Therefore, a prospective multicenter observational registry was set up; this may help in clinical decision-making until results from randomized trials are available. METHODS/DESIGN: SENSE is a prospective, multicenter registry for patients treated for SE. The primary objective is to document patient characteristics, treatment modalities and in-house outcome of consecutive adults admitted for SE treatment in each of the participating centres and to identify predictors of outcome. Pre-treatment, treatment-related and outcome variables are documented systematically. To allow for meaningful multivariate analysis in the patient subgroups with refractory SE, a cohort size of 1000 patients is targeted. DISCUSSION: The results of the study will provide information about risks and benefits of specific treatment steps in different patient groups with SE at different points of time. Thus, it will support clinical decision-making and, furthermore, it will be helpful in the planning of treatment trials. TRIAL REGISTRATION: DRKS00000725

Photoelectron diffraction investigation of the structure of the clean TiO2(110)(1×1) surface

The surface relaxations of the rutile TiO2(110)(1×1) clean surface have been determined by O 1 s and Ti 2p3∕2 scanned-energy mode photoelectron diffraction. The results are in excellent agreement with recent low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) and medium energy ion scattering (MEIS) results, but in conflict with the results of some earlier investigations including one by surface x-ray diffraction. In particular, the bridging O atoms at the surface are found to relax outward, rather than inward, relative to the underlying bulk. Combined with the recent LEED and MEIS results, a consistent picture of the structure of this surface is provided. While the results of the most recent theoretical total-energy calculations are qualitatively consistent with this experimental consensus, significant quantitative differences remain

H\"older-continuous rough paths by Fourier normal ordering

We construct in this article an explicit geometric rough path over arbitrary $d$-dimensional paths with finite $1/\alpha$-variation for any $\alpha\in(0,1)$. The method may be coined as 'Fourier normal ordering', since it consists in a regularization obtained after permuting the order of integration in iterated integrals so that innermost integrals have highest Fourier frequencies. In doing so, there appear non-trivial tree combinatorics, which are best understood by using the structure of the Hopf algebra of decorated rooted trees (in connection with the Chen or multiplicative property) and of the Hopf shuffle algebra (in connection with the shuffle or geometric property). H\"older continuity is proved by using Besov norms. The method is well-suited in particular in view of applications to probability theory (see the companion article \cite{Unt09} for the construction of a rough path over multidimensional fractional Brownian motion with Hurst index $\alpha<1/4$, or \cite{Unt09ter} for a short survey in that case).Comment: 50 pages, 6 figure

Promoter-Wide Hypermethylation of the Ribosomal RNA Gene Promoter in the Suicide Brain

BACKGROUND: Alterations in gene expression in the suicide brain have been reported and for several genes DNA methylation as an epigenetic regulator is thought to play a role. rRNA genes, that encode ribosomal RNA, are the backbone of the protein synthesis machinery and levels of rRNA gene promoter methylation determine rRNA transcription. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We test here by sodium bisulfite mapping of the rRNA promoter and quantitative real-time PCR of rRNA expression the hypothesis that epigenetic differences in critical loci in the brain are involved in the pathophysiology of suicide. Suicide subjects in this study were selected for a history of early childhood neglect/abuse, which is associated with decreased hippocampal volume and cognitive impairments. rRNA was significantly hypermethylated throughout the promoter and 5' regulatory region in the brain of suicide subjects, consistent with reduced rRNA expression in the hippocampus. This difference in rRNA methylation was not evident in the cerebellum and occurred in the absence of genome-wide changes in methylation, as assessed by nearest neighbor. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first study to show aberrant regulation of the protein synthesis machinery in the suicide brain. The data implicate the epigenetic modulation of rRNA in the pathophysiology of suicide

Staged treatment response in status epilepticus: Lessons from the SENSE registry.

Although in epilepsy patients the likelihood of becoming seizure-free decreases substantially with each unsuccessful treatment, to our knowledge this has been poorly investigated in status epilepticus (SE). We aimed to evaluate the proportion of SE cessation and functional outcome after successive treatment steps. We conducted a post hoc analysis of a prospective, observational, multicenter cohort (Sustained Effort Network for treatment of Status Epilepticus [SENSE]), in which 1049 incident adult SE episodes were prospectively recorded at nine European centers. We analyzed 996 SE episodes without coma induction before the third treatment step. Rates of SE cessation, mortality (in ongoing SE or after SE control), and favorable functional outcome (assessed with modified Rankin scale) were evaluated after each step. SE was treated successfully in 838 patients (84.1%), 147 (14.8%) had a fatal outcome (36% of them died while still in SE), and 11 patients were transferred to palliative care while still in SE. Patients were treated with a median of three treatment steps (range 1-13), with 540 (54.2%) receiving more than two steps (refractory SE [RSE]) and 95 (9.5%) more than five steps. SE was controlled after the first two steps in 45%, with an additional 21% treated after the third, and 14% after the fourth step. Likelihood of SE cessation (p &lt; 0.001), survival (p = 0.003), and reaching good functional outcome (p &lt; 0.001) decreased significantly between the first two treatment lines and the third, especially in patients not experiencing generalized convulsive SE, but remained relatively stable afterwards. The significant worsening of SE prognosis after the second step clinically supports the concept of RSE. However, and differing from findings in human epilepsy, RSE remains treatable in about one third of patients, even after several failed treatment steps. Clinical judgment remains essential to determine the aggressiveness and duration of SE treatment, and to avoid premature treatment cessation in patients with SE

An explicit formula for the Berezin star product

We prove an explicit formula of the Berezin star product on Kaehler manifolds. The formula is expressed as a summation over certain strongly connected digraphs. The proof relies on a combinatorial interpretation of Englis' work on the asymptotic expansion of the Laplace integral.Comment: 19 pages, to appear in Lett. Math. Phy

Ageing in the critical contact process: a Monte Carlo study

The long-time dynamics of the critical contact process which is brought suddenly out of an uncorrelated initial state undergoes ageing in close analogy with quenched magnetic systems. In particular, we show through Monte Carlo simulations in one and two dimensions and through mean-field theory that time-translation invariance is broken and that dynamical scaling holds. We find that the autocorrelation and autoresponse exponents lambda_{Gamma} and lambda_R are equal but, in contrast to systems relaxing to equilibrium, the ageing exponents a and b are distinct. A recent proposal to define a non-equilibrium temperature through the short-time limit of the fluctuation-dissipation ratio is therefore not applicable.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, Latex2e with IOP macros; final for