Reversible low-light induced photoswitching of crowned spiropyran-DO3A complexed with gadolinium(III) ions.

Photoswitchable spiropyran has been conjugated to the crowned ring system DO3A, which improves its solubility in dipolar and polar media and stabilizes the merocyanine isomer. Adding the lanthanide ion gadolinium(III) to the macrocyclic ring system leads to a photoresponsive magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent that displays an increased spin-lattice relaxation time (T₁) upon visible light stimulation. In this work, the photoresponse of this photochromic molecule to weak light illumination using blue and green light emitting diodes was investigated, simulating the emission spectra from bioluminescent enzymes. Photon emission rate of the light emitting diodes was changed, from 1.75 × 10¹⁶ photons·s⁻¹ to 2.37 × 10¹² photons·s⁻¹. We observed a consistent visible light-induced isomerization of the merocyanine to the spiropyran form with photon fluxes as low as 2.37 × 10¹² photons·s⁻¹ resulting in a relaxivity change of the compound. This demonstrates the potential for use of the described imaging probes in low light level applications such as sensing bioluminescence enzyme activity. The isomerization behavior of gadolinium(III)-ion complexed and non-complexed spiropyran-DO3A was analyzed in water and ethanol solution in response to low light illumination and compared to the emitted photon emission rate from over-expressed Gaussia princeps luciferase

Front Stability in Mean Field Models of Diffusion Limited Growth

We present calculations of the stability of planar fronts in two mean field models of diffusion limited growth. The steady state solution for the front can exist for a continuous family of velocities, we show that the selected velocity is given by marginal stability theory. We find that naive mean field theory has no instability to transverse perturbations, while a threshold mean field theory has such a Mullins-Sekerka instability. These results place on firm theoretical ground the observed lack of the dendritic morphology in naive mean field theory and its presence in threshold models. The existence of a Mullins-Sekerka instability is related to the behavior of the mean field theories in the zero-undercooling limit.Comment: 26 pp. revtex, 7 uuencoded ps figures. submitted to PR

Efficiency at maximum power of minimally nonlinear irreversible heat engines

We propose the minimally nonlinear irreversible heat engine as a new general theoretical model to study the efficiency at the maximum power $\eta^*$ of heat engines operating between the hot heat reservoir at the temperature $T_h$ and the cold one at $T_c$ ($T_c \le T_h$). Our model is based on the extended Onsager relations with a new nonlinear term meaning the power dissipation. In this model, we show that $\eta^*$ is bounded from the upper side by a function of the Carnot efficiency $\eta_C\equiv 1-T_c/T_h$ as $\eta^*\le \eta_C/(2-\eta_C)$. We demonstrate the validity of our theory by showing that the low-dissipation Carnot engine can easily be described by our theory.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Efficacy of preharvest spraying with Pichia guilliermondii on postharvest decay and quality of cherry tomato fruit during storage

This study investigated the effects of preharvest spraying with Pichia guilliermondii on postharvest natural decay of cherry tomato fruit, and evaluated the quality attributes during storage. Preharvest spraying with P. guilliermondii significantly decreased the decay index. Moreover, the efficacy of this biological control was positively correlated with spraying frequency. However, preharvest spraying with P. guilliermondii and spraying frequency did not significantly affect fruit quality attributes regardless of whether the cherry tomato fruit was grown or stored after harvest. This observation indicates that preharvest spraying with P. guilliermondii does not influence the quality attributes of the fruit. In addition, the activities of peroxidase (POD), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), and β-1,3-glucanase increased in all P. guilliermondii treatments, suggesting a positive correlation with spraying frequency. The results suggest that cherry tomato fruit is capable of responding to preharvest spraying with P. guilliermondii, which can activate its defensive enzymes and thus induce host disease resistance.Key words: Preharvest, Pichia guilliermondii, cherry tomato fruit, decay, quality

Pulsed THz radiation due to phonon-polariton effect in [110] ZnTe crystal

Pulsed terahertz (THz) radiation, generated through optical rectification (OR) by exciting [110] ZnTe crystal with ultrafast optical pulses, typically consists of only a few cycles of electromagnetic field oscillations with a duration about a couple of picoseconds. However, it is possible, under appropriate conditions, to generate a long damped oscillation tail (LDOT) following the main cycles. The LDOT can last tens of picoseconds and its Fourier transform shows a higher and narrower frequency peak than that of the main pulse. We have demonstrated that the generation of the LDOT depends on both the duration of the optical pulse and its central wavelength. Furthermore, we have also performed theoretical calculations based upon the OR effect coupled with the phonon-polariton mode of ZnTe and obtained theoretical THz waveforms in good agreement with our experimental observation.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Filtering data streams for entity-based continuous queries

The idea of allowing query users to relax their correctness requirements in order to improve performance of a data stream management system (e.g., location-based services and sensor networks) has been recently studied. By exploiting the maximum error (or tolerance) allowed in query answers, algorithms for reducing the use of system resources have been developed. In most of these works, however, query tolerance is expressed as a numerical value, which may be difficult to specify. We observe that in many situations, users may not be concerned with the actual value of an answer, but rather which object satisfies a query (e.g., "who is my nearest neighbor?). In particular, an entity-based query returns only the names of objects that satisfy the query. For these queries, it is possible to specify a tolerance that is "nonvalue-based. In this paper, we study fraction-based tolerance, a type of nonvalue-based tolerance, where a user specifies the maximum fractions of a query answer that can be false positives and false negatives. We develop fraction-based tolerance for two major classes of entity-based queries: 1) nonrank-based query (e.g., range queries) and 2) rank-based query (e.g., k-nearest-neighbor queries). These definitions provide users with an alternative to specify the maximum tolerance allowed in their answers. We further investigate how these definitions can be exploited in a distributed stream environment. We design adaptive filter algorithms that allow updates be dropped conditionally at the data stream sources without affecting the overall query correctness. Extensive experimental results show that our protocols reduce the use of network and energy resources significantly. © 2006 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Comment on: Role of Intermittency in Urban Development: A Model of Large-Scale City Formation

Comment to D.H. Zanette and S.C. Manrubia, Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 523 (1997).Comment: 1 page no figure

Hydrodynamic fluctuations and instabilities in ordered suspensions of self-propelled particles

We construct the hydrodynamic equations for {\em suspensions} of self-propelled particles (SPPs) with spontaneous orientational order, and make a number of striking, testable predictions:(i) SPP suspensions with the symmetry of a true {\em nematic} are {\em always} absolutely unstable at long wavelengths.(ii) SPP suspensions with {\em polar}, i.e., head-tail {\em asymmetric}, order support novel propagating modes at long wavelengths, coupling orientation, flow, and concentration. (iii) In a wavenumber regime accessible only in low Reynolds number systems such as bacteria, polar-ordered suspensions are invariably convectively unstable.(iv) The variance in the number N of particles, divided by the mean , diverges as $^{2/3}$ in polar-ordered SPP suspensions.Comment: submitted to Phys Rev Let