1,174 research outputs found
Theory and Application of Dissociative Electron Capture in Molecular Identification
The coupling of an electron monochromator (EM) to a mass spectrometer (MS)
has created a new analytical technique, EM-MS, for the investigation of
electrophilic compounds. This method provides a powerful tool for molecular
identification of compounds contained in complex matrices, such as
environmental samples. EM-MS expands the application and selectivity of
traditional MS through the inclusion of a new dimension in the space of
molecular characteristics--the electron resonance energy spectrum. However,
before this tool can realize its full potential, it will be necessary to create
a library of resonance energy scans from standards of the molecules for which
EM-MS offers a practical means of detection. Here, an approach supplementing
direct measurement with chemical inference and quantum scattering theory is
presented to demonstrate the feasibility of directly calculating resonance
energy spectra. This approach makes use of the symmetry of the
transition-matrix element of the captured electron to discriminate between the
spectra of isomers. As a way of validating this approach, the resonance values
for twenty-five nitrated aromatic compounds were measured along with their
relative abundance. Subsequently, the spectra for the isomers of nitrotoluene
were shown to be consistent with the symmetry-based model. The initial success
of this treatment suggests that it might be possible to predict negative ion
resonances and thus create a library of EM-MS standards.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure
Adaptive intelligence applied to numerical optimisation
The article presents modification strategies theoretical comparison and experimental results achieved by adaptive heuristics applied to numerical optimisation of several non-constraint test functions. The aims of the study are to identify and compare how adaptive search heuristics behave within heterogeneous search space without retuning of the search parameters. The achieved results are summarised and analysed, which could be used for comparison to other methods and further investigation
An Efficient Algorithm for Optimizing Adaptive Quantum Metrology Processes
Quantum-enhanced metrology infers an unknown quantity with accuracy beyond
the standard quantum limit (SQL). Feedback-based metrological techniques are
promising for beating the SQL but devising the feedback procedures is difficult
and inefficient. Here we introduce an efficient self-learning
swarm-intelligence algorithm for devising feedback-based quantum metrological
procedures. Our algorithm can be trained with simulated or real-world trials
and accommodates experimental imperfections, losses, and decoherence
Revealing common artifacts due to ferromagnetic inclusions in highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite
We report on an extensive investigation to figure out the origin of
room-temperature ferromagnetism that is commonly observed by SQUID magnetometry
in highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). Electron backscattering and X-ray
microanalysis revealed the presence of micron-size magnetic clusters
(predominantly Fe) that are rare and would be difficult to detect without
careful search in a scanning electron microscope in the backscattering mode.
The clusters pin to crystal boundaries and their quantities match the amplitude
of typical ferromagnetic signals. No ferromagnetic response is detected in
samples where we could not find such magnetic inclusions. Our experiments show
that the frequently reported ferromagnetism in pristine HOPG is most likely to
originate from contamination with Fe-rich inclusions introduced presumably
during crystal growth.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
The continuity of the inversion and the structure of maximal subgroups in countably compact topological semigroups
In this paper we search for conditions on a countably compact
(pseudo-compact) topological semigroup under which: (i) each maximal subgroup
in is a (closed) topological subgroup in ; (ii) the Clifford part
(i.e. the union of all maximal subgroups) of the semigroup is a
closed subset in ; (iii) the inversion is continuous; and (iv) the projection ,
, onto the subset of idempotents of ,
is continuous
Roma e la storia del Canada francese sino alla guerra dei Sette Anni
Presentation of the documents concerning New France and Canada in the Vatican Archive
Effect of a Novel Nonviral Gene Delivery of BMP-2 on Bone Healing
Background. Gene therapeutic drug delivery approaches have been introduced to improve the efficiency of growth factors at the site of interest. This study investigated the efficacy and safety of a new nonviral copolymer-protected gene vector (COPROG) for the stimulation of bone healing. Methods. In vitro, rat osteoblasts were transfected with COPROG + luciferase plasmid or COPROG + hBMP-2 plasmid. In vivo, rat tibial fractures were intramedullary stabilized with uncoated versus COPROG+hBMP-2-plasmid-coated titanium K-wires. The tibiae were prepared for biomechanical and histological analyses at days 28 and 42 and for transfection/safety study at days 2, 4, 7, 28, and 42. Results. In vitro results showed luciferase expression until day 21, and hBMP-2-protein was measured from day 2 â day 10. In vivo, the local application of hBMP-2-plasmid showed a significantly higher maximum load after 42 days compared to that in the control. The histomorphometric analysis revealed a significantly less mineralized periosteal callus area in the BMP-2 group compared to the control at day 28. The rt-PCR showed no systemic biodistribution of luciferase RNA. Conclusion. A positive effect on fracture healing by nonviral BMP-2 plasmid application from COPROG-coated implants could be shown in this study; however, the effect of the vector may be improved with higher plasmid concentrations. Transfection showed no biodistribution to distant organs and was considered to be safe
Preserving genetic resources
The mission of the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) is to effectively
collect, document, preserve, evaluate, enhance, and distribute plant genetic resources
for continued improvement in the quality and production of economic crops important
to U.S. and world agriculture. Plant genetic resources in the NPGS are made freely
available to all bona fide users fo r the benefit of humankind. The active collection is
maintained and distributed by 19 national repositories, and the base collection is
preserved at the National Seed Storage Laboratory (NSSL), U.S. Department o f Agriculture,
Fort Collins, Colorado. The NPGS collections include 40,477 sorghum and
1,507pearl millet accessions. Of the 20,169 sorghum accessions in the base collection
at NSSL, 80% are in conventional storage at about -18°C and 20% are in cryostorage
in vapor phase above liquid nitrogen at about -16(fC; the pearl millet collection is in
conventional storage. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICR1SAT)
located at Patancheru, near Hyderabad, India, has assembled a collection o f35,643
sorghum and 21,195 pearl millet accessions, both ICRISAT mandate crops. All these
accessions are maintained andpreserved in aluminum cans in the medium-term storage
facility at about 4°C and 20% relative humidity. Freshly rejuvenated accessions with
at least 90% viability and about 5% seed moisture content are being placed in moisture
proof aluminum foil packets that are vacuum sealed and stored in long-term storage at
-20°C. For these crops, 17% o f the sorghum collection and 23% o f the pearl millet
collection have been transferred to long-term storage
State Transition Algorithm
In terms of the concepts of state and state transition, a new heuristic
random search algorithm named state transition algorithm is proposed. For
continuous function optimization problems, four special transformation
operators called rotation, translation, expansion and axesion are designed.
Adjusting measures of the transformations are mainly studied to keep the
balance of exploration and exploitation. Convergence analysis is also discussed
about the algorithm based on random search theory. In the meanwhile, to
strengthen the search ability in high dimensional space, communication strategy
is introduced into the basic algorithm and intermittent exchange is presented
to prevent premature convergence. Finally, experiments are carried out for the
algorithms. With 10 common benchmark unconstrained continuous functions used to
test the performance, the results show that state transition algorithms are
promising algorithms due to their good global search capability and convergence
property when compared with some popular algorithms.Comment: 18 pages, 28 figure
Cosmic-ray strangelets in the Earth's atmosphere
If strange quark matter is stable in small lumps, we expect to find such
lumps, called ``strangelets'', on Earth due to a steady flux in cosmic rays.
Following recent astrophysical models, we predict the strangelet flux at the
top of the atmosphere, and trace the strangelets' behavior in atmospheric
chemistry and circulation. We show that several strangelet species may have
large abundances in the atmosphere; that they should respond favorably to
laboratory-scale preconcentration techniques; and that they present promising
targets for mass spectroscopy experiments.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, revtex
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