Protein molecular weight computation from sedimentation velocity data

In ultracentrifugation, the concentration gradient of mono-disperse samples obtained by sedimentation velocity experiments is described by Gehatia's equation which holds several parameters including the sedimentation and diffusion constants. Once these two constants are known, the molecular weight follows from the Svedberg equation. A least squares method has been developed to derive the transport constants from the refractive index gradient curves. The method employs a mathematical model based on Gehatia's theory. A main feature of the model is the application of two sets of intermediate parameters via which the transport coefficients are much casier calculated than along a direct way. Furthermore some difficult to observe quantities cancel out. The square residues are minimised numerically. The potential errors introduced by this numerical minimalisation are shown to be unimportant compared to the unavoidable experimental errors

The structural and electrical properties of thermally grown TiO2 thin films

We studied the structural and electrical properties of TiO2 thin films grown by thermal oxidation of e-beam evaporated Ti layers on Si substrates. Time of flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (TOF-SIMS) was used to analyse the interfacial and chemical composition of the TiO2 thin films. Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) capacitors with Pt or Al as the top electrode were fabricated to analyse electrical properties of the TiO2 thin films. We show that the reactivity of the Al top contact affects electrical properties of the oxide layers. The current transport mechanism in the TiO2 thin films is shown to be Poole–Frenkel (P–F) emission at room temperature. At 84 K, Fowler– Nordheim (F–N) tunnelling and trap-assisted tunnelling are observed. By comparing the electrical characteristics of thermally grown TiO2 thin films with the properties of those grown by other techniques reported in the literature, we suggest that, irrespective of the deposition technique, annealing of as-deposited TiO2 in O2 is a similar process to thermal oxidation of Ti thin films

Heavy quark damping rate in hot viscous QCD plasma

We derive an expression for the heavy quark damping rate in hot quark gluon plasma in presence of flow. Here all the bath particles here are out of equilibrium due to the existence of non-zero velocity gradient. The magnetic sector shows similar infrared divergences even after hard thermal loop corrections as one encounters in case of non-viscous plasma. We estimate the first order correction in ($\eta/s$) for heavy quark damping rate due to the non-zero viscosity of the QCD plasma.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in PR

Absolute frequency measurement of the 7s2^2 1^1S0_0 −- 7s7p 1^{1}P1_1 transition in 225^{225}Ra

Transition frequencies were determined for transitions in Ra in an atomic beam and for reference lines in Te$_2$ molecules in a vapor cell. The absolute frequencies were calibrated against a GPS stabilized Rb-clock by means of an optical frequency comb. The 7s^2\,^1S$_0$(F = 1/2)-7s7p\,^1P$_1$(F = 3/2) transition in $^{225}$Ra was determined to be $621\,042\,124(2)\,$MHz. The measurements provide input for designing efficient and robust laser cooling of Ra atoms in preparation of a search for a permanent electric dipole moment in Ra isotopes.Comment: Accepted for publication in the rapid communication of Physical review

Atomistic models of hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride from first principles

We present a theoretical study of hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride (a-SiNx:H), with equal concentrations of Si and N atoms (x=1), for two considerably different densities (2.0 and 3.0 g/cm3). Densities and hydrogen concentration were chosen according to experimental data. Using first-principles molecular-dynamics within density-functional theory the models were generated by cooling from the liquid. Where both models have a short-range order resembling that of crystalline Si3N4 because of their different densities and hydrogen concentrations they show marked differences at longer length scales. The low-density nitride forms a percolating network of voids with the internal surfaces passivated by hydrogen. Although some voids are still present for the high-density nitride, this material has a much denser and uniform space filling. The structure factors reveal some tendency for the nonstoichiometric high-density nitride to phase separate into nitrogen rich and poor areas. For our slowest cooling rate (0.023 K/fs) we obtain models with a modest number of defect states, where the low (high) density nitride favors undercoordinated (overcoordinated) defects. Analysis of the structural defects and electronic density of states shows that there is no direct one-to-one correspondence between the structural defects and states in the gap. There are several structural defects that do not contribute to in-gap states and there are in-gap states that do only have little to no contributions from (atoms in) structural defects. Finally an estimation of the size and cooling rate effects on the amorphous network is reported.

Thermal bulk polymerization of cholesteryl acrylate

The thermal bulk polymerization of cholesteryl acrylate was carried out in the solid phase, the mesomorphic phase, and the liquid phase to study the effect of monomer ordering on polymerization rate and polymer properties. The rate increased with decreasing ordering (or enhanced mobility) of the monomer. Formation of inhibitive by-products during the polymerization limited conversions to 35%. The sedimentation constant S0 = 6.2 S was the same for the polymers obtained in the three phases. The weight-average molecular weight (w) was 480,000 as determined by ultracentrifugation. Poly-(cholesteryl acrylate) formed in bulk is randomly coiled when dissolved in tetrahydrofuran. The thermal properties of the monomer are given

Infinite number of MSSMs from heterotic line bundles?

We consider heterotic E8xE8 supergravity compactified on smooth Calabi-Yau manifolds with line bundle gauge backgrounds. Infinite sets of models that satisfy the Bianchi identities and flux quantization conditions can be constructed by letting their background flux quanta grow without bound. Even though we do not have a general proof, we find that all examples are at the boundary of the theory's validity: the Donaldson-Uhlenbeck-Yau equations, which can be thought of as vanishing D-term conditions, cannot be satisfied inside the Kaehler cone unless a growing number of scalar Vacuum Expectation Values (VEVs) is switched on. As they are charged under various line bundles simultaneously, the gauge background gets deformed by these VEVs to a non-Abelian bundle. In general, our physical expectation is that such infinite sets of models should be impossible, since they never seem to occur in exact CFT constructions.Comment: LaTeX, 8 pages, 4 tables, some references and comments adde