Aggregation Behavior And Chromonic Liquid Crystal Properties Of An Anionic Monoazo Dye

X-ray scattering and various optical techniques are utilized to study the aggregation process and chromonic liquid crystal phase of the anionic monoazo dye Sunset Yellow FCF. The x-ray results demonstrate that aggregation involves pi-pi stacking of the molecules into columns, with the columns undergoing a phase transition to an orientationally ordered chromonic liquid crystal phase at high dye concentration. Optical absorption measurements on dilute solutions reveal that the aggregation takes place at all concentrations, with the average aggregation number increasing with concentration. A simple theory based on the law of mass action and an isodesmic aggregation process is in excellent agreement with the experimental data and yields a value for the bond energy between molecules in an aggregate. Measurements of the birefringence and order parameter are also performed as a function of temperature in the chromonic liquid crystal phase. The agreement between these results and a more complicated theory of aggregation is quite reasonable. Overall, these results both confirm that the aggregation process for some dyes is isodesmic and provide a second example of a well-characterized chromonic system

Strong spin triplet contribution of the first removal state in the insulating regime of Bi2Sr2Ca1-xYxCu2O8+delta

The experimental dispersion of the first removal state in the insulating regime of Bi2Sr2Ca1-xYxCu2O8+delta is found to differ significantly from that of other parent materials: oxyclorides and La2CuO4 . For Y-contents of 0.92 > x > 0.55 due to nonstoichiometric effects in the Bi-O layers, the hole concentration in the CuO2 -layers is almost constant and on the contrary the crystal lattice parameters a,b,c change very strongly. This (a,b) parameter increase and c parameter decrease results in an unconventional three peak structure at (0,0);(pi/2, pi/2);(pi,pi) for x=0.92. We can describe the experimental data only beyond the framework of the 3-band pd-model involving the representations of a new triplet counterpart for the Zhang-Rice singlet state.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

A Molecular and Preclinical Comparison of the PD-1 targeted T cell Checkpoint Inhibitors Nivolumab and Pembrolizumab

T cell checkpoint inhibition has a profound impact on cancer care and the two Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) targeted antibodies nivolumab and pembrolizumab have been leading this therapeutic revolution. Their clinical comparability is a highly relevant topic of discussion, but to a significant degree is a consequence of their molecular properties. Here we provide a molecular, preclinical, and early clinical comparison of the two antibodies, based on the available data and recent literature. We acknowledge the limitations of such comparisons, but suggest that based on the available data, differences in clinical trial outcomes between nivolumab and pembrolizumab are more likely drug-independent than drug-dependent.Wellcome Trust Translational Medicine and Therapeutics Grant RJAG/07

Spectroscopic signatures of spin-charge separation in the quasi-one-dimensional organic conductor TTF-TCNQ

The electronic structure of the quasi-one-dimensional organic conductor TTF-TCNQ is studied by angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES). The experimental spectra reveal significant discrepancies to band theory. We demonstrate that the measured dispersions can be consistently mapped onto the one-dimensional Hubbard model at finite doping. This interpretation is further supported by a remarkable transfer of spectral weight as function of temperature. The ARPES data thus show spectroscopic signatures of spin-charge separation on an energy scale of the conduction band width.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; to appear in PR

Fast, Linear Time Hierarchical Clustering using the Baire Metric

The Baire metric induces an ultrametric on a dataset and is of linear computational complexity, contrasted with the standard quadratic time agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm. In this work we evaluate empirically this new approach to hierarchical clustering. We compare hierarchical clustering based on the Baire metric with (i) agglomerative hierarchical clustering, in terms of algorithm properties; (ii) generalized ultrametrics, in terms of definition; and (iii) fast clustering through k-means partititioning, in terms of quality of results. For the latter, we carry out an in depth astronomical study. We apply the Baire distance to spectrometric and photometric redshifts from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using, in this work, about half a million astronomical objects. We want to know how well the (more costly to determine) spectrometric redshifts can predict the (more easily obtained) photometric redshifts, i.e. we seek to regress the spectrometric on the photometric redshifts, and we use clusterwise regression for this.Comment: 27 pages, 6 tables, 10 figure

Novel Fine-Structure in the Low-Energy Excitation Spectrum of a High-Tc Superconductor by Polarization Dependent Photoemission

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy is performed on single crystals of the single-layer high-Tc superconductor Bi(2)Sr(2-x)La(x)CuO(6+d) at optimal doping (x=0.4) in order to study in great detail the Zhang-Rice (ZR) singlet band at the Fermi level. Besides the high crystal quality the advantages of a single-layer material are the absence of bilayer effects and the distinct reduction of thermal broadening. Due to the high energy and angle resolution and, most important, due to the controlled variation of the polarization vector of the synchrotron radiation the emission from the ZR singlet band reveals a distinct fine-structure. It consists of two maxima, the first showing only weak and the second at EF extremely strong polarization dependence. However, our observation has enormous consequences for line shape analyses and the determination of pseudo gaps by photoemission.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. to appear in PRB (Rapid Comm.

Luttinger liquid phenomenology and angle resolved photoemission for single layer \chem{Bi_2Sr_{2-x}La_xCuO_{6+\delta}} high--temperature superconductor

Recently observed splitting in angular resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) on \chem{Bi_2Sr_{2-x}La_xCuO_{6+\delta}} high--temperature superconductor (Janowitz C. {\it et al.}, {\it Europhys. Lett.}, {\bf 60} (2002) 615) is interpreted within the phenomenological Luttinger--liquid framework, in which both the non--Fermi liquid scaling exponent of the spectral function and the spin--charge separation are introduced. The anomalous Green function with adjustable parameters fits very well to the Fermi edge and the low--energy part of ARPES along the $\Gamma-M$ line in the Brillouin zone. In contrast to one--dimensional models with Luttinger--liquid behavior we find that both the anomalous scaling $\alpha$ and the parameter $\delta$ describing the spin--charge separation are momentum dependent. The higher--energy part of the spectra is not accounted for by this simple Luttinger--liquid form of the Green function. In this energy regime additional scattering processes are plausible to produce the experimentally observed wide incoherent background, which diminishes as the inverse of the energy.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, EPL styl