Heparin-containing block copolymers, Part I: Surface characterization

Newly synthesized heparin-containing block copolymers, consisting of a hydrophobic block of polystyrene (PS), a hydrophilic spacer-block of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and covalently bound heparin (Hep) as bioactive block, were coated on aluminium, glass, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), PS or Biomer substrates. Surfaces of coated materials were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), contact angle measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (XPS). It was demonstrated by TEM that thin films of PS-PEO and PS-PEO-Hep block copolymers consisted of heterogeneous microphase separated structures. Using sessile-drop and Wilhelmy plate dynamic contact angle measurements, insight was provided into the hydrophilicity of the surfaces of the coatings. Measurements with hydrated coatings of PS-PEO and PS-PEO-Hep block copolymers revealed that the surfaces became more hydrophilic during immersion in water, due to relaxation/reorientation, or swelling of PEO or PEO-Hep domains, respectively. XPS results for PS, PEO, heparin and PS-PEO as powder agreed well with qualitative and quantitative predictions. XPS results for films of PS-PEO and PS-PEO-Hep block copolymers showed enrichments of PEO in the top layers of the coatings. This effect was more pronounced for hydrated surfaces. Only small amounts of heparin were detected at the surface of coatings of PS-PEO-Hep block copolymers

Microstates of a Neutral Black Hole in M Theory

We consider vacuum solutions in M theory of the form of a five-dimensional Kaluza-Klein black hole cross T^6. In a certain limit, these include the five-dimensional neutral rotating black hole (cross T^6). From a IIA standpoint, these solutions carry D0 and D6 charges. We show that there is a weakly coupled D-brane description which precisely reproduces the Hawking-Bekenstein entropy in the extremal limit, even though supersymmetry is completely broken.Comment: 11 pages. v2: microstate counting extended to generic angular moment

A Detailed Analysis of the Dust Formation Zone of IRC+10216 Derived from Mid-IR Bands of C2H2 and HCN

A spectral survey of IRC+10216 has been carried out in the range 11 to 14 um with a spectral resolution of about 4 km s^-1. We have identified a forest of lines in six bands of C2H2 involving the vibrational states from the ground to 3nu5 and in two bands of HCN, involving the vibrational states from the ground up to 2nu2. Some of these transitions are observed also in H13CCH and H13CN. We have estimated the kinetic, vibrational, and rotational temperatures, and the abundances and column densities of C2H2 and HCN between 1 and 300 R* (1.5E16 cm) by fitting about 300 of these ro-vibrational lines. The envelope can be divided into three regions with approximate boundaries at 0.019 arcsec (the stellar photosphere), 0.1 arcsec (the inner dust formation zone), and 0.4 arcsec (outer dust formation zone). Most of the lines might require a large microturbulence broadening. The derived abundances of C2H2 and HCN increase by factors of 10 and 4, respectively, from the innermost envelope outwards. The derived column densities for both C2H2 and HCN are 1.6E19 cm^-2. Vibrational states up to 3000 K above ground are populated, suggesting pumping by near-infrared radiation from the star and innermost envelope. Low rotational levels can be considered under LTE while those with J>20-30 are not thermalized. A few lines require special analysis to deal with effects like overlap with lines of other molecules.Comment: 8 pages, 16 figures, 2 machine-readable tables, accepted in the Astrophysical Journa

Reduction of carrier mobility in semiconductors caused by charge-charge interactions

Euan Hendry, M. Koeberg, J. Pijpers, and M. Bonn, Physical Review B, Vol. 75, article 233202 (2007). "Copyright © 2007 by the American Physical Society."We investigate the effect of charge-charge interactions on carrier mobility in titanium dioxide (TiO2) and silicon (Si) using terahertz spectroscopy. Charge scattering times and plasma frequencies are directly determined as a function of charge density. In Si, a linear increase in scattering rate for densities exceeding 1021 m−3 is attributed to electron-hole scattering. In contrast, in TiO2, charge-charge interactions are suppressed due to dielectric screening, highlighting the vastly different dielectric properties for these two materials

10,000 Standard Solar Models: a Monte Carlo Simulation

We have evolved 10,000 solar models using 21 input parameters that are randomly drawn for each model from separate probability distributions for every parameter. We use the results of these models to determine the theoretical uncertainties in the predicted surface helium abundance, the profile of the sound speed versus radius, the profile of the density versus radius, the depth of the solar convective zone, the eight principal solar neutrino fluxes, and the fractions of nuclear reactions that occur in the CNO cycle or in the three branches of the p-p chains. We also determine the correlation coefficients of the neutrino fluxes for use in analysis of solar neutrino oscillations. Our calculations include the most accurate available input parameters, including radiative opacity, equation of state, and nuclear cross sections. We incorporate both the recently determined heavy element abundances recommended by Asplund, Grevesse & Sauval (2005) and the older (higher) heavy element abundances recommended by Grevesse & Sauval (1998). We present best-estimates of many characteristics of the standard solar model for both sets of recommended heavy element compositions.Comment: ** John N. Bahcall passed away on August 17, 2005. Manuscript has 60 pages including 10 figure

Estimating stellar mean density through seismic inversions

Determining the mass of stars is crucial both to improving stellar evolution theory and to characterising exoplanetary systems. Asteroseismology offers a promising way to estimate stellar mean density. When combined with accurate radii determinations, such as is expected from GAIA, this yields accurate stellar masses. The main difficulty is finding the best way to extract the mean density from a set of observed frequencies. We seek to establish a new method for estimating stellar mean density, which combines the simplicity of a scaling law while providing the accuracy of an inversion technique. We provide a framework in which to construct and evaluate kernel-based linear inversions which yield directly the mean density of a star. We then describe three different inversion techniques (SOLA and two scaling laws) and apply them to the sun, several test cases and three stars. The SOLA approach and the scaling law based on the surface correcting technique described by Kjeldsen et al. (2008) yield comparable results which can reach an accuracy of 0.5 % and are better than scaling the large frequency separation. The reason for this is that the averaging kernels from the two first methods are comparable in quality and are better than what is obtained with the large frequency separation. It is also shown that scaling the large frequency separation is more sensitive to near-surface effects, but is much less affected by an incorrect mode identification. As a result, one can identify pulsation modes by looking for an l and n assignment which provides the best agreement between the results from the large frequency separation and those from one of the two other methods. Non-linear effects are also discussed as is the effects of mixed modes. In particular, it is shown that mixed modes bring little improvement as a result of their poorly adapted kernels.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 20 pages, 19 figure

A novel approach for extracting time-delays from lightcurves of lensed quasar images

We present a new method to estimate time delays from light curves of lensed quasars. The method is based on chi^2 minimization between the data and a numerical model light curve. A linear variation can be included in order to correct for slow long-term microlensing effects in one of the lensed images. An iterative version of the method can be applied in order to correct for higher order microlensing effects. The method is tested on simulated light curves. When higher order microlensing effects are present the time delay is best constrained with the iterative method. Analysis of a published data set for the lensed double Q0957+561 yields results in agreement with other published estimates.Comment: 6 pages, accepted for publication in A&

An optical time-delay estimate for the double gravitational lens system B1600+434

We present optical I-band light curves of the gravitationally lensed double QSO B1600+434 from observations obtained at the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) between April 1998 and November 1999. The photometry has been performed by simultaneous deconvolution of all the data frames, involving a numerical lens galaxy model. Four methods have been applied to determine the time delay between the two QSO components, giving a mean estimate of \Delta_t = 51+/-4 days (95% confidence level). This is the fourth optical time delay ever measured. Adopting a Omega=0.3, Lambda=0 Universe and using the mass model of Maller et al. (2000), this time-delay estimate yields a Hubble parameter of H_0=52 (+14, -8) km s^-1 Mpc^-1 (95% confidence level) where the errors include time-delay as well as model uncertainties. There are time-dependent offsets between the two (appropriately shifted) light curves that indicate the presence of external variations due to microlensing.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Helioseismological Implications of Recent Solar Abundance Determinations

We show that standard solar models are in good agreement with the helioseismologically determined sound speed and density as a function of solar radius, the depth of the convective zone, and the surface helium abundance, as long as those models do not incorporate the most recent heavy element abundance determinations. However, sophisticated new analyses of the solar atmosphere infer lower abundances of the lighter metals (like C, N, O, Ne, and Ar) than the previously widely used surface abundances. We show that solar models that include the lower heavy element abundances disagree with the solar profiles of sound speed and density as well as the depth of the convective zone and the helium abundance. The disagreements for models with the new abundances range from factors of several to many times the quoted uncertainties in the helioseismological measurements. The disagreements are at temperatures below what is required for solar interior fusion reactions and therefore do not significantly affect solar neutrino emission. If errors in thecalculated OPAL opacities are solely responsible for the disagreements, then the corrections in the opacity must extend from 2 times 10^6 K (R = 0.7R_Sun)to 5 times 10^6 K (R = 0.4 R_Sun), with opacity increases of order 10%.Comment: ApJ in press; clarified Figure