The springtail cuticle as a blueprint for omniphobic surfaces

Omniphobic surfaces found in nature have great potential for enabling novel and emerging products and technologies to facilitate the daily life of human societies. One example is the water and even oil-repellent cuticle of springtails (Collembola). The wingless arthropods evolved a highly textured, hierarchically arranged surface pattern that affords mechanical robustness and wetting resistance even at elevated hydrostatic pressures. Springtail cuticle-derived surfaces therefore promise to overcome limitations of lotus-inspired surfaces (low durability, insufficient repellence of low surface tension liquids). In this review, we report on the liquid-repellent natural surfaces of arthropods living in aqueous or temporarily flooded habitats including water-walking insects or water spiders. In particular, we focus on springtails presenting an overview on the cuticular morphology and chemistry and their biological relevance. Based on the obtained liquid repellence of a variety of liquids with remarkable efficiency, the review provides general design criteria for robust omniphobic surfaces. In particular, the resistance against complete wetting and the mechanical stability strongly both depend on the topographical features of the nano- and micropatterned surface. The current understanding of the underlying principles and approaches to their technological implementation are summarized and discussed

Measurement of the pp-bar→WZ+X cross section at s√=1.96 TeV and limits on WWZ trilinear gauge couplings

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.76.111104

Combined D0 measurements constraining the CP-violating phase and width difference in the B(0)(s) system

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.76.057101

Simultaneous Measurement of the Ratio R=B(t→Wb)/B(t→Wq) and the Top-Quark Pair Production Cross Section with the D0 Detector at s√=1.96 TeV

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.192003

In Situ Experiments To Reveal the Role of Surface Feature Sidewalls in the Cassie–Wenzel Transition

Waterproof and self-cleaning surfaces continue to attract much attention as they can be instrumental in various different technologies. Such surfaces are typically rough, allowing liquids to contact only the outermost tops of their asperities, with air being entrapped underneath. The formed solid–liquid–air interface is metastable and, hence, can be forced into a completely wetted solid surface. A detailed understanding of the wetting barrier and the dynamics of this transition is critically important for the practical use of the related surfaces. Toward this aim, wetting transitions were studied in situ at a set of patterned perfluoropolyether dimethacrylate (PFPEdma) polymer surfaces exhibiting surface features with different types of sidewall profiles. PFPEdma is intrinsically hydrophobic and exhibits a refractive index very similar to water. Upon immersion of the patterned surfaces into water, incident light was differently scattered at the solid–liquid–air and solid–liquid interface, which allows for distinguishing between both wetting states by dark-field microscopy. The wetting transition observed with this methodology was found to be determined by the sidewall profiles of the patterned structures. Partial recovery of the wetting was demonstrated to be induced by abrupt and continuous pressure reductions. A theoretical model based on Laplace’s law was developed and applied, allowing for the analytical calculation of the transition barrier and the potential to revert the wetting upon pressure reduction

Direct Limits on the B(0)(s) Oscillation Frequency

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.021802.We report results of a study of the B(0)(s) oscillation frequency using a large sample of B(0)(s) semileptonic decays corresponding to approximately 1  fb(−1) of integrated luminosity collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider in 2002–2006. The amplitude method gives a lower limit on the B(0)(s) oscillation frequency at 14.8  ps(−1) at the 95% C.L. At Δms=19  ps(−1), the amplitude deviates from the hypothesis A=0 (1) by 2.5 (1.6) standard deviations, corresponding to a two-sided C.L. of 1% (10%). A likelihood scan over the oscillation frequency, Δms, gives a most probable value of 19  ps(−1) and a range of 17<Δms<21  ps(−1) at the 90% C.L., assuming Gaussian uncertainties. This is the first direct two-sided bound measured by a single experiment. If Δms lies above 22  ps(−1), then the probability that it would produce a likelihood minimum similar to the one observed in the interval 16–22  ps(−1) is (5.0±0.3)%

Search for a heavy resonance decaying into a Z+jet final state in pp-bar collisions at s√=1.96 TeV using the D0 detector

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.74.011104.We have searched for a heavy resonance decaying into a Z+jet final state in pp-bar collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96  TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron collider using the D0 detector. No indication for such a resonance was found in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 370  pb(−1). We set upper limits on the cross section times branching fraction for heavy resonance production at the 95% C.L. as a function of the resonance mass and width. The limits are interpreted within the framework of a specific model of excited quark production

Search for right-handed W bosons in top quark decay

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.72.011104.We present a measurement of the fraction f(+) of right-handed W bosons produced in top quark decays, based on a candidate sample of tt-bar events in the lepton+jets decay mode. These data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 230  pb(−1), collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron pp-bar Collider at s√=1.96  TeV. We use a constrained fit to reconstruct the kinematics of the tt-bar and decay products, which allows for the measurement of the leptonic decay angle θ∗ for each event. By comparing the cosθ∗ distribution from the data with those for the expected background and signal for various values of f(+), we find f(+(=0.00±0.13(stat)±0.07(syst). This measurement is consistent with the standard model prediction of f(+)=3.6×10(−4)