Matthias Henze. Mind the Gap: How the Jewish Writings between the Old and New Testament Help Us Understand Jesus

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Stabilizing an atom laser using spatially selective pumping and feedback

We perform a comprehensive study of stability of a pumped atom laser in the presence of pumping, damping and outcoupling. We also introduce a realistic feedback scheme to improve stability by extracting energy from the condensate and determine its effectiveness. We find that while the feedback scheme is highly efficient in reducing condensate fluctuations, it usually does not alter the stability class of a particular set of pumping, damping and outcoupling parameters.Comment: 7 figure

Zinc calixarene complexes for the ring opening polymerization of cyclic esters

Reaction of Zn(C₆F₅)₂·toluene (two equivalents) with 1,3-dipropoxy-p-tert-butyl-calix[4]arene (L¹H₂) led to the isolation of the complex [{Zn(C₆F₅)}₂L¹] (1), whilst similar use of Zn(Me)₂ resulted in the known complex [{Zn(Me)}₂L¹] (2). Treatment of L¹H₂ with in situ prepared Zn{N(SiMe₃)₂}₂ in refluxing toluene led to the isolation of the compound [(Na)ZnN(SiMe₃)₂L¹] (3). The stepwise reaction of L¹H₂ and sodium hydride, followed by ZnCl₂ and finally NaN(SiMe₃)₂ yielded the compound [Zn{N(SiMe₃)₂}₂L¹] (4). The reaction between three equivalents of Zn(C₆F₅)₂·toluene and oxacalix[3]arene (L²H₃) at room temperature formed the compound {[Zn(C₆F₅)]₃L²} (5); heating of 5 in acetonitrile caused the ring opening of the parent oxacalix[3]arene and rearrangement to afford the complex [(L²)Zn₆(C₆F₅)(R)(RH)OH]·5MeCN R = C₆F₅CH₂-(p-ᵗBuPhenolate-CH₂OCH₂–)₂–p-ᵗBuPhenolate-CH₂O⁻)³⁻ (6). The molecular structures of the new complexes 1, 3 and 6, together with that of the known complex 2, whose solid state structure has not previously been reported, have been determined. Compounds 1, 3–5 have been screened for the ring opening polymerization (ROP) of ε-caprolactone (ε-CL) and rac-lactide. Compounds featuring a Zn–C₆F₅ fragment were found to be poor ROP pre-catalysts as they did not react with benzyl alcohol to form an alkoxide. By contrast, compound 4, which contains a zinc silylamide linkage, was the most active of the zinc-based calix[4]arene compounds screened and was capable of ROP at ambient temperature with 65% conversion over 4 h

Toroidal Perturbations of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universes

Explicit expressions are found for the axisymmetric metric perturbations of the closed, flat and open FRW universes caused by toroidal motions of the cosmic fluid. The perturbations are decomposed in vector spherical harmonics on 2-spheres, but the radial dependence is left general. Solutions for general odd-parity $l$-pole perturbations are given for either angular velocities or angular momenta prescribed. In particular, in case of closed universes the solutions require a special treatment of the Legendre equation.Comment: 13 page

Atmospheric sulphur dioxide pollution in Malta : a preliminary study

The results of a preliminary survey of the air quality in Malta during May-December 1990 with respect to sulphur dioxide are presented. One-hour-average S02 concentrations as high as 320 ug m-3 have been measured from areas proximate to the Marsa power station. The concentration of S02 in ambient air was found to be strongly dependent on atmospheric conditions and especially on wind direction. At Paola, measured concentrations varied from below the detection limit of 25 ug m-3 to about 160 ug m-3. These preliminary results suggest that specific areas in Malta which are close to the Marsa power station may have an air pollution problem which is significantly more pronounced than that in other areas. The results also indicate the need for a thorough air monitoring programme which would allow the pollution problem to be assessed more accurately and to be followed continually.peer-reviewe

Activation of the phosphosignaling protein CheY. I. Analysis of the phosphorylated conformation by 19F NMR and protein engineering

CheY, the 14-kDa response regulator protein of the Escherichia coli chemotaxis pathway, is activated by phosphorylation of Asp57. In order to probe the structural changes associated with activation, an approach which combines 19F NMR, protein engineering, and the known crystal structure of one conformer has been utilized. This first of two papers examines the effects of Mg(II) binding and phosphorylation on the conformation of CheY. The molecule was selectively labeled at its six phenylalanine positions by incorporation of 4-fluorophenylalanine, which yielded no significant effect on activity. One of these 19F probe positions monitored the vicinity of Lys109, which forms a salt bridge to Asp57 in the apoprotein and has been proposed to act as a structural "switch" in activation. 19F NMR chemical shift studies of the labeled protein revealed that the binding of the cofactor Mg(II) triggered local structural changes in the activation site, but did not perturb the probe of the Lys109 region. The structural changes associated with phosphorylation were then examined, utilizing acetyl phosphate to chemically generate phsopho-CheY during NMR acquisition. Phosphorylation triggered a long-range conformational change extending from the activation site to a cluster of 4 phenylalanine residues at the other end of the molecule. However, phosphorylation did not perturb the probe of Lys109. The observed phosphorylated conformer is proposed to be the first step in the activation of CheY; later steps appear to perturb Lys109, as evidenced in the following paper. Together these results may give insight into the activation of other prokaryotic response regulators

Uv Multiphoton Induced Chemistry of Nitrobenzene in Solution

The technique of Multiphoton Induced Chemistry (MPIC) has been employed to initiate ion-molecule chemistry of organic molecules in solution. We report one of the first examples of the use of liquid phase multiphoton ionization (MPI) to prepare organic cations, which then react with the solvent in ionmolecule processes. The products obtained in this chemical sequence are significantly different from those observed in conventional or multiphoton-induced neutral chemistry in the same solvent. The particular example explored in this work is the reactivity of the nitrobenzene cation in methanol solvent. Products of the ion-molecule chemistry, detected by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, are phenol and benzyl alcohol. These products depend upon the square of the laser intensity. It is shown by ionization current measurements in a conductance cell, that ionic species are produced as precursors to the observed products. The implications of this application of MPI are briefly discussed. A preliminary report on the unimolecular chemistry of the highly excited neutral molecule is also included. The product of this channel is nitrosobenzene. It is shown, in this case, that the reactive state is most likely a highly vibrationally excited ground state molecule, not the lowest triplet level invoked in conventional photochemistry

Ensemble based quantum metrology

The field of quantum metrology promises measurement devices that are fundamentally superior to conventional technologies. Specifically, when quantum entanglement is harnessed the precision achieved is supposed to scale more favourably with the resources employed, such as system size and the time required. Here we consider measurement of magnetic field strength using an ensemble of spins, and we identify a third essential resource: the initial system polarisation, i.e. the low entropy of the original state. We find that performance depends crucially on the form of decoherence present; for a plausible dephasing model, we describe a quantum strategy which can indeed beat the standard quantum limit