[en] 5-Methoxy-1-[4-(trifluoromethyl)-phenyl]-1-pentanone-0-(2-amin oethyl)oxime (fluvoxamine), a potent clinically used antidepressant, was labelled with carbon-11 (t_1/2 = 20.4 min) as a potential radioligand for the non-invasive assessment of serotonin uptake sites in the human brain with positron emission tomography (PET). The two-step radiochemical synthesis consisted of 0-methylation of an amino-protected desmethyl precursor with [¹¹C]methyl iodide under mild conditions in the presence of tetrabutylammonium hydroxide in acetonitrile, followed by deprotection with trifluoroacetic acid. 5-[¹¹C]Methoxy-1-[4-(trifluoromethyl)-phenyl]-1-pentanone-0-(2-a minoethyl)oxime was obtained in > 98% radiochemical purity in 40 min with a radiochemical yield of 4 ± 2% (non-decay corrected) and a specific radioactivity of 1 ± 0.5 Ci/μmol. 5-Hydroxy-1-[4-(trifluoromethyl)-phenyl]-1-pentanone-0-[2-(tert-bu toxycarbonylamino)ethyl]oxime, the precursor for the radiosynthesis of [¹¹C]fluvoxamine, was prepared by a convenient three-set synthesis from the pharmaceutical form of fluvoxamine maleate by converting it into the free base, demethylation by trimethyliodosilane and introduction of the BOC-protective group with di-tert-butyl dicarbonate. (author)

[en] In this paper, the new data acquisition for the GA.SP detector is presented. It is a distributed system based on a network of 40 T800 and T222 transputers linked to a VME system used for histogram storage. A 100 MBit/s FDDI ring connects the system to UNIX workstations used for the experiment control, histogram display and second level data analysis

[en] The current flowing in a homogeneous low-dimensional conductor is shown to be rectified by a gate-controlled asymmetric barrier resembling a Schottky barrier. The barrier shape is set by varying the potential along a nanofabricated nonequipotential gate which allows simple external control over the device function independent of material properties. A forward-to-reverse current ratio of more than 10⁴ is obtained. The merits of diodes fabricated in this way with respect to conventional diodes are discussed

[en] Through analysis of the ¹³C NMR spectra of (25S)-[27-²H]campesterol (1) and (25R)-[26-²H]dihydrobrassicasterol (2), the C-26 and C-27 resonances have been unambiguously assigned; the biosynthetic applications are discussed. (author)

[en] A detailed spectroscopic and morphological study of GaAs epitaxial layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Ge buffer layers deposited by low energy plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition on Si is presented. The aim is to understand the nature of thermal strain relaxation induced by crack formation in the epilayers. The comparison of the experimental data on the spatial strain relaxation pattern with the theoretical prediction from a purely elastic model indicates that strain relaxation around cracks arises from two contributions. At short distances the main contribution is essentially plastic, due to the presence of extended defects. At large distances, on the contrary, elastic relaxation seems to dominate. It is also shown that GaAs grown on Ge/Si substrates is in a state of metastable strain as a consequence of the fact that cracks relax the thermal tensile strain only locally

[en] The present work focuses on a new numerical model for the fully coupled hydro-mechanical analysis of groundwater flows through palustric saturated media. In particular, the presence and eventual propagation of fluid-driven fractures is accounted for within a non regularized cohesive zone model. In this paper, the fracture propagation is considered as a reactivation process: the fracture already exists and evolves (i.e. opens or closes) on a pre-defined path initially constrained. The Talon-Curnier constitutive law is considered for the fracture interfaces and its expression has been adapted to the hydro-mechanical coupling related to the fracture evolution. The fluid pressure inside the fracture is governed by the lubrication equation. The momentum-stress balance equations involving fluid flow and deformation of the solid porous matrix are derived within the framework of the generalized Biot theory. The extended finite element method (XFEM) is preferred to a standard finite element spatial discretization in order to easily handle the presence and evolution of discontinuities in the porous medium. A set of four Lagrange multipliers is introduced to prevent spurious oscillations of the numerical solution at the interface. Comparisons between numerical results and theoretical solution assess the validity of the model presented in this paper. In addition, the hydro-mechanical interactions between neighboring fractures and the effects of the permeability of the porous medium are investigated. We also demonstrate the capability of our model to handle non-planar fracture paths. (authors)

[en] A detailed analysis of the thermal strain relaxation in GaAs/Ge/Si structures by means of crack formation is presented. The study was performed through optical microscopy and photoluminescence measurements. The as grown epilayers were found to be in a metastable state with respect to crack formation. Repeated thermal cycling increased the crack density up to an asymptotic limit. The thermal strain is not fully relaxed even near to the asymptotic crack density

[en] We present a molecular line scan in the Hubble Deep Field North (HDF-N) that covers the entire 3 mm window (79-115 GHz) using the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer. Our CO redshift coverage spans z ≲ 0.45, 1 ≲ z ≲ 1.9 and all z ≳ 2. We reach a CO detection limit that is deep enough to detect essentially all z > 1 CO lines reported in the literature so far. We have developed and applied different line-searching algorithms, resulting in the discovery of 17 line candidates. We estimate that the rate of false positive line detections is ∼2/17. We identify optical/NIR counterparts from the deep ancillary database of the HDF-N for seven of these candidates and investigate their available spectral energy distributions. Two secure CO detections in our scan are identified with star-forming galaxies at z = 1.784 and at z = 2.047. These galaxies have colors consistent with the 'BzK' color selection and they show relatively bright CO emission compared with galaxies of similar dust continuum luminosity. We also detect two spectral lines in the submillimeter galaxy HDF 850.1 at z = 5.183. We consider an additional nine line candidates as high quality. Our observations also provide a deep 3 mm continuum map (1σ noise level = 8.6 μJy beam^–1). Via a stacking approach, we find that optical/MIR bright galaxies contribute only to <50% of the star formation rate density at 1 < z < 3, unless high dust temperatures are invoked. The present study represents a first, fundamental step toward an unbiased census of molecular gas in 'normal' galaxies at high-z, a crucial goal of extragalactic astronomy in the ALMA era.