Sensitivity of bandpass filters using recirculating delay-line structures

Recirculating delay lines have value notably as sensors and optical signal processors. Most useful applications depend on a high-finesse response from a network. A proof that, with given response parameters, more complex systems can produce behavior that is more stable to the effects of nonidealities than a single recirculating loop is presented.     

Flow cytometric quantitation of yeast a novel technique for use in animal model work and in vitro immunologic assays

Animal models of fungal and other infectious diseases often require that the number of organisms in tissue be quantified, traditionally by grinding organs, plating them on agar and counting colony forming units (CFU). This method is labor intensive, slow as some fungi require two weeks of culture and limited in reliability by poor plating efficiency. To circumvent these problems, we developed a flow cytometric method to quantify yeast. In vitro cultured Blastomyces dermatitidis, Cryptococcus neoformans, Candida albicans and Histoplasma capsulatum yeast were labelled with specific monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies to stain surface determinants or with Calcofluor to stain cell-wall chitin. A defined number of fluorescently labelled beads were added prior to acquisition by flow cytometry as a reference standard for quantitation. Beads were readily distinguished from yeast by forward scatter, side scatter and intensity of fluorescence. Cultured yeast were enumerated by both standard CFU determination and flow cytometry in a range of 10(2) to 10(7) cells. Only flow cytometry enabled discrimination of live and dead yeast by using appropriate fluorescent dyes. The flow cytometric method was applied to murine models of histoplasmosis and blastomycosis to quantify the burden of fungi in the lungs of infected mice. Labelling yeast with Calcofluor alone resulted in unacceptably high levels of nonspecific binding to mouse cell debris. In contrast, labelling H. capsulatum with a rabbit polyclonal antiserum and B. dermatitidis with a monoclonal antibody to the surface protein WI-1 permitted accurate quantitation. We conclude that this flow cytometry technique is rapid, efficient and reliable for quantifying the burden of infection in animal models of fungal disease. The technique also should lend itself to performing cytotoxicity assays that require discrimination of live and dead fungi, or phagocytosis assays that require discrimination of intracellular and extracellular organisms.     

Zur statistik des einbaus einer als regler in polyamid 12 verwendeten aliphatischen dicarbonsäure

As hard blocks in polyether block amides, polyamides are used whose length is intensively regulated by dicarboxylic acids. Since, with regard to melting and crystallization behaviour, this acid constitutes an interfering structural unit in the chain, and in the case of a completely converted product each chain contains one acid molecule, it is essential to know where in the chain incorporation will occur. As opposed to monofunctional chain regulators which always form a chain end, a bifunctional chain regulator can a priori also be randomly incorporated into the inner part of the chain. This leads to a far greater interference than occurs if the chain regulator molecule and the chain end, which acts as an interfering unit in any case, coincide with each other. By means of adipic acid-regulated oligoamides based on lauryl lactam, the incorporation of the chain regulator was examined by NMR spectroscopy and compared with model calculations. This resulted in a close match only if it was presupposed that the incorporation was carried out randomly with the same degree of probability at any point whatsoever between two lauryl lactam structural units or at the chain end. Further calculations illustrate the effects of the incorporation of the chain regulator on the size of the amorphous portion.     

An ideal point method for the design of compromise experiments to simultaneously estimate the parameters of rival mathematical models

When several rival mathematical models are proposed for one and the same process, experimental design techniques are available to design optimal discriminatory experiments. Because these techniques are model-based, it is important that the model predictions are not too uncertain. Therefore, model discrimination may become more efficient and effective if this uncertainty is reduced first. This can be achieved by performing experiments designed to increase the accuracy of the parameter estimates and, thus, the model predictions. However, performing such an additional experiment for each rival model may undermine the overall goal of optimal experimental design, which is to minimize the experimental effort. This paper deals with the design of a so-called compromise experiment, which is an experiment that is not optimal for each of the rival models, but sufficiently informative to improve the overall accuracy of the parameters of all rival models. For this purpose, the problem is approached as a multi-objective optimization problem and the ideal point method is proposed to design the compromise experiment. This method searches for the experiment that is as close as possible to the optimal experiments of the individual rival models. The method is applied to a case study where nine rival models are competing to describe the kinetics of an enzymatic reaction, and the obtained results show that the ideal method is capable of designing a compromise experiment.     

Variational density matrix optimization using semidefinite programming

We discuss how semidefinite programming can be used to determine the second-order density matrix directly through a variational optimization. We show how the problem of characterizing a physical or N-representable density matrix leads to matrix-positivity constraints on the density matrix. We then formulate this in a standard semidefinite programming form, after which two interior point methods are discussed to solve the SDP. As an example we show the results of an application of the method on the isoelectronic series of Beryllium.