Structure Determination of Disordered Metallic Sub-Monolayers by Helium Scattering: A Theoretical and Experimental Study

An approach based on He scattering is used to develop an atomic-level structural model for an epitaxially grown disordered sub-monolayer of Ag on Pt(111) at 38K. Quantum scattering calculations are used to fit structural models to the measured angular intensity distribution of He atoms scattered from this system. The structure obtained corresponds to narrowly size-dispersed compact clusters with modest translational disorder, and not to fractals which might be expected due to the low surface temperature. The clusters have up to two layers in height, the lower one having few defects only. The relations between specific features of the angular scattering distribution, and properties such as the cluster sizes and shapes, the inter-cluster distance distribution etc., are discussed. The results demonstrate the usefulness of He scattering as a tool for unraveling new complex surface phases.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Surf. Sci. Lett. Related papers available at http://neon.cchem.berkeley.edu/~dani/He-papers.htm

He Scattering from Random Adsorbates, Disordered Compact Islands and Fractal Submonolayers: Intensity Manifestations of Surface Disorder

A theoretical study is made on He scattering from three fundamental classes of disordered ad-layers: (a) Translationally random adsorbates, (b) disordered compact islands and (c) fractal submonolayers. The implications of the results to experimental studies of He scattering from disordered surfaces are discussed, and a combined experimental-theoretical study is made for Ag submonolayers on Pt(111). Some of the main theoretical findings are: (1) Structural aspects of the calculated intensities from translationally random clusters were found to be strongly correlated with those of individual clusters. (2) Low intensity Bragg interference peaks appear even for scattering from very small ad-islands, and contain information on the ad-island local electron structure. (3) For fractal islands, just as for islands with a different structure, the off-specular intensity depends on the parameters of the He/Ag interaction, and does not follow a universal power law as previously proposed in the literature. In the experimental-theoretical study of Ag on Pt(111), we use first experimental He scattering data from low-coverage (single adsorbate) systems to determine an empirical He/Ag-Pt potential of good quality. Then, we carry out He scattering calculations for high coverage and compare with experiments. The conclusions are that the actual experimental phase corresponds to small compact Ag clusters of narrow size distribution, translationally disordered on the surface.Comment: 36 double-spaced pages, 10 figures; accepted by J. Chem. Phys., scheduled to appear March 8. More info available at http://www.fh.huji.ac.il/~dani

Inversion of Randomly Corrugated Surfaces Structure from Atom Scattering Data

The Sudden Approximation is applied to invert structural data on randomly corrugated surfaces from inert atom scattering intensities. Several expressions relating experimental observables to surface statistical features are derived. The results suggest that atom (and in particular He) scattering can be used profitably to study hitherto unexplored forms of complex surface disorder.Comment: 10 pages, no figures. Related papers available at http://neon.cchem.berkeley.edu/~dan

Ultra high diluted arsenic reduces spore germination of Alternaria brassicicola and dark leaf spot in cauliflower

ABSTRACT A major problem in cauliflower crop is the fungus Alternaria brassicicola, which causes dark leaf spot on Brassicaceae family. The current use of copper salts in agriculture is questioned. In fact, these products present some disadvantages, connected mainly with their deposits in the soil and toxicity on plants. This work investigated the effects of arsenic treatments, in ultra high diluted form (UHD), prepared by a process of repeated dilution and succussion (shaking), through: 1) in vitro germination experiments, where spores of A. brassicicola were suspended in the treatments; 2) in planta experiments and 3) a field trial, where cauliflower plants infected by the fungus were sprayed with treatments. The results showed that ultra high dilutions of arsenic (where no more molecules of this substance are present) were effective in all the experiments, inhibiting spore germination by 60.0%, controlling fungal disease in in planta experiments (relative efficacy of 42.1%), and, in field trial, decreasing the mean infection level in cauliflower heads by 45.7% and 41.6% in artificially inoculated and naturally infected plants, respectively. This is the first study to demonstrate that ultra high dilutions effectively reduce in vitro spore germination and infection of A. brassicicola in cauliflower plants, both under controlled conditions and in the field. Our research is still very experimental, however, in light of the significant results obtained with ultra-diluted arsenic, and given that its extreme high dilution level precludes any toxicity or accumulation in the environment, the use of UHDs could be considered a potential and reliable approach for sustainable agriculture

Kinase Activity Profiling of Pneumococcal Pneumonia

Background: Pneumonia represents a major health burden. Previous work demonstrated that although the induction of inflammation is important for adequate host defense against pneumonia, an inability to regulate the host's inflammatory response within the lung later during infection can be detrimental. Intracellular signaling pathways commonly rely on activation of kinases, and kinases play an essential role in the regulation of the inflammatory response of immune cells. Methodology/Principal Findings: Pneumonia was induced in mice via intranasal instillation of Streptococcus (S.) pneumoniae. Kinomics peptide arrays, exhibiting 1024 specific consensus sequences for protein kinases, were used to produce a systems biology analysis of cellular kinase activity during the course of pneumonia. Several differences in kinase activity revealed by the arrays were validated in lung homogenates of individual mice using western blot. We identified cascades of activated kinases showing that chemotoxic stress and a T helper 1 response were induced during the course of pneumococcal pneumonia. In addition, our data point to a reduction in WNT activity in lungs of S. pneumoniae infected mice. Moreover, this study demonstrated a reduction in overall CDK activity implying alterations in cell cycle biology. Conclusions/Significance: This s

DNA and the chiral water superstructure

A few months after the publication of our paper Chiral micron-sized H2O aggregates in water: Circular dichroism of supramolecular H2O architectures created by perturbing pure water, WATER, 8, 1–29 (2017) submitted on June 6, 2016 and published on March 2, 2017, the paper DNA's Chiral Spine of Hydration by M. L. McDermott, H. Vanselous, S. A. Corcelli, and P. B. Petersen, was published in ACS Central Science, on May 24, 2017. The paper reports the first observation of a chiral water superstructure surrounding DNA at ambient conditions. Second-order nonlinear optical spectroscopy revealed the structure. These experimental findings validate the significance for DNA of our results obtained by circular dichroism (CD) measurement

Water perturbed by cellophane: comparison of its physicochemical properties with those of water perturbed with cotton wool or Nafion

We present experimental data on water repetitively brought in contact with cellophane. Although this hydrophilic polymer is insoluble in water, repetitively immersing it in water changes the liquid’s properties. We compare the physicochemical properties of the water left over after removing the cellophane to those of previously published data on water repetitively brought in contact with other in water insoluble polymers (cotton wool or Nafion). Some of the properties are similar. All the properties considerably differ from those of the Milli-Q® water used. On lyophilizing these waters, solid residues remain. The residues are soluble in water. The chemical nature of the residues differs from that of the perturbing polymers