26,970 research outputs found
Water activity in lamellar stacks of lipid bilayers: "Hydration forces" revisited
Water activity and its relationship with interactions stabilising lamellar
stacks of mixed lipid bilayers in their fluid state are investigated by means
of osmotic pressure measurements coupled with small-angle x-ray scattering. The
(electrically-neutral) bilayers are composed of a mixture in various
proportions of lecithin, a zwitterionic phospholipid, and Simulsol, a non-ionic
cosurfactant with an ethoxylated polar head. For highly dehydrated samples the
osmotic pressure profile always exhibits the "classical" exponential decay as
hydration increases but, depending on Simulsol to lecithin ratio, it becomes
either of the "bound" or "unbound" types for more water-swollen systems. A
simple thermodynamic model is used for interpreting the results without
resorting to the celebrated but elusive "hydration forces"Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in The European
Physical Journal
Novel techniques in VUV high-resolution spectroscopy
Novel VUV sources and techniques for VUV spectroscopy are reviewed.
Laser-based VUV sources have been developed via non-linear upconversion of
laser pulses in the nanosecond (ns), the picosecond (ps), and femtosecond (fs)
domain, and are applied in high-resolution gas phase spectroscopic studies.
While the ns and ps pulsed laser sources, at Fourier-transform limited
bandwidths, are used in wavelength scanning spectroscopy, the fs laser source
is used in a two-pulse time delayed mode. In addition a Fourier-transform
spectrometer for high resolution gas-phase spectroscopic studies in the VUV is
described, exhibiting the multiplex advantage to measure many resonances
simultaneously.Comment: 17 Pages, 8 figures, Conference proceedings of the VUV/X-ray 2013 at
Hefei, Chin
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