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In high-resolution scanning probe microscopy, it is becoming increasingly common to simultaneously record multiple channels representing different tip-sample interactions to collect complementary information about the sample surface. A popular choice involves simultaneous scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and noncontact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) measurements, which are thought to reflect the chemical and electronic properties of the sample surface. With surface-oxidized Cu(100) as an example, we investigate whether atomic-scale information on chemical interactions can be reliably extracted from frequency shift maps obtained while using the tunneling current as the feedback parameter. Ab initio calculations of interaction forces between specific tip apexes and the surface are utilized to compare experiments with theoretical expectations. The examination reveals that constant-current operation may induce a noticeable influence of topography-feedback-induced cross-talk on the frequency shift data, resulting in misleading interpretations of local chemical interactions on the surface. Consequently, the need to apply methods such as 3D-AFM is emphasized when accurate conclusions about both the local charge density near the Fermi level, as provided by the STM channel, and the site-specific strength of tip-sample interactions (NC-AFM channel) are desired. We conclude by generalizing to the case where multiple atomic-scale interactions are being probed while only one of them is kept constant. © 2015 American Chemical Society.

The extent to which point defects affect the local chemical reactivity and electronic properties of an oxide surface was evaluated with picometer resolution in all three spatial dimensions using simultaneous atomic force/scanning tunneling microscopy measurements performed on the (110) face of rutile TiO2. Oxygen atoms were imaged as protrusions in both data channels, corresponding to a rarely observed imaging mode for this prototypical metal oxide surface. Three-dimensional spectroscopy of interaction forces and tunneling currents was performed on individual surface and subsurface defects as a function of tip-sample distance. An interstitial defect assigned to a subsurface hydrogen atom is found to have a distinct effect on the local density of electronic states on the surface, but no detectable influence on the tip-sample interaction force. Meanwhile, spectroscopic data acquired on an oxygen vacancy highlight the role of the probe tip in chemical reactivity measurements. © 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.

Pancreatic islet dysfunction leading to insufficient glucose-stimulated insulin secretion triggers the clinical onset of diabetes. How islet dysfunction develops is not well understood at the cellular level, partly owing to the lack of approaches to study single islets longitudinally in vivo. Here, we present a noninvasive, high-resolution system to quantitatively image real-time glucose metabolism from single islets in vivo, currently not available with any other method. In addition, this multifunctional system simultaneously reports islet function, proliferation, vasculature and macrophage infiltration in vivo from the same set of images. Applying our method to a longitudinal high-fat diet study revealed changes in islet function as well as alternations in islet microenvironment. More importantly, this label-free system enabled us to image real-time glucose metabolism directly from single human islets in vivo for the first time, opening the door to noninvasive longitudinal in vivo studies of healthy and diabetic human islets. © 2016. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

The STAR Collaboration reports on the photoproduction of π+π- pairs in gold-gold collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV/nucleon-pair. These pion pairs are produced when a nearly real photon emitted by one ion scatters from the other ion. We fit the π+π- invariant-mass spectrum with a combination of ρ0 and ω resonances and a direct π+π- continuum. This is the first observation of the ω in ultraperipheral collisions, and the first measurement of ρ-ω interference at energies where photoproduction is dominated by Pomeron exchange. The ω amplitude is consistent with the measured γp→ωp cross section, a classical Glauber calculation, and the ω→π+π- branching ratio. The ω phase angle is similar to that observed at much lower energies, showing that the ρ-ω phase difference does not depend significantly on photon energy. The ρ0 differential cross section dσ/dt exhibits a clear diffraction pattern, compatible with scattering from a gold nucleus, with two minima visible. The positions of the diffractive minima agree better with the predictions of a quantum Glauber calculation that does not include nuclear shadowing than with a calculation that does include shadowing. © 2017 American Physical Society.

We present measurements of elliptic flow (v2) of electrons from the decays of heavy-flavor hadrons (eHF) by the STAR experiment. For Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV we report v2, for transverse momentum (pT) between 0.2 and 7 GeV/c, using three methods: the event plane method (v2{EP}), two-particle correlations (v2{2}), and four-particle correlations (v2{4}). For Au+Au collisions at sNN=62.4 and 39 GeV we report v2{2} for pT<2GeV/c. v2{2} and v2{4} are nonzero at low and intermediate pT at 200 GeV, and v2{2} is consistent with zero at low pT at other energies. The v2{2} at the two lower beam energies is systematically lower than at sNN=200 GeV for pT<1GeV/c. This difference may suggest that charm quarks interact less strongly with the surrounding nuclear matter at those two lower energies compared to sNN=200 GeV. © 2017 American Physical Society.

We report the first measurement of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry ALL for midrapidity dijet production in polarized pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of s=200 GeV. The dijet cross section was measured and is shown to be consistent with next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD predictions. ALL results are presented for two distinct topologies, defined by the jet pseudorapidities, and are compared to predictions from several recent NLO global analyses. The measured asymmetries, the first such correlation measurements, support those analyses that find positive gluon polarization at the level of roughly 0.2 over the region of Bjorken-x>0.05. © 2017 American Physical Society.

The STAR Collaboration reports the measurement of semi-inclusive distributions of charged-particle jets recoiling from a high transverse momentum hadron trigger, in central and peripheral Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV. Charged jets are reconstructed with the anti-kT algorithm for jet radii R between 0.2 and 0.5 and with low infrared cutoff of track constituents (pT>0.2 GeV/c). A novel mixed-event technique is used to correct the large uncorrelated background present in heavy ion collisions. Corrected recoil jet distributions are reported at midrapidity, for charged-jet transverse momentum pT,jetch<30 GeV/c. Comparison is made to similar measurements for Pb+Pb collisions at s=2.76 TeV, to calculations for p+p collisions at s=200 GeV based on the pythia Monte Carlo generator and on a next-to-leading order perturbative QCD approach, and to theoretical calculations incorporating jet quenching. The recoil jet yield is suppressed in central relative to peripheral collisions, with the magnitude of the suppression corresponding to medium-induced charged energy transport out of the jet cone of 2.8±0.2(stat)±1.5(sys) GeV/c, for 10<pT,jetch<20 GeV/c and R=0.5. No medium-induced change in jet shape is observed for R<0.5. The azimuthal distribution of low-pT,jetch recoil jets may be enhanced at large azimuthal angles to the trigger axis, due to scattering off quasiparticles in the hot QCD medium. Measurement of this distribution gives a 90% statistical confidence upper limit to the yield enhancement at large deflection angles in central Au+Au collisions of 50±30(sys)% of the large-angle yield in p+p collisions predicted by pythia. © 2017 American Physical Society.

Resonance Raman spectroscopy is used for rapid detection of skin BCC cancer. The cross-validated classification accuracy is achieved to be as high as 98% using nonnegative matrix factorization along with support vector machine statistical method. © OSA 2017.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper. © 2018, The Author(s).

Speckle imaging is a well known method to achieve diffraction-limited (DL) imaging from ground-based telescopes. The traditional observing method for speckle has been to observe a single, unresolved, source per telescope pointing over a relatively small field of view (FOV). The need for large DL surveys of targets with high sky density motivates a desire for simultaneous speckle imaging over large FOVs, however it is currently impractical to attain this by covering the entire focal plane with fast readout detectors. An alternative approach is to connect a relatively small number of detector pixels to multiple interesting targets spanning a large FOV through the use of optical fibers, a technique employed in spectroscopy for decades. However, for imaging we require the use of coherent fiber bundles (CFBs). We discuss various design considerations for coherent fiber speckle imaging with an eye toward a multiplexed system using numerous configurable CFBs, and we test its viability with a prototype instrument that uses a single CFB to transport speckle images from the telescope focal plane to a traditionally designed, fast readout speckle camera. Using this device on University of Virginia's Fan Mountain Observatory 40-inch telescope we have for the first time successfully demonstrated speckle imaging through a CFB, using both optical and NIR detectors. Results are presented of DL speckle imaging of well-known close (including subarcsecond) binary stars resolved with this fiber-fed speckle system and compared to both literature results and traditional speckle imaging taken with the same camera directly, with no intervening CFB. © 2018 SPIE.

Lowell Observatory and Southern Connecticut State University are currently involved in a joint project to determine the stellar multiplicity rates and the fundamental stellar parameters of M dwarf stars using the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI) at Lowell's Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT). DSSI observes speckle patterns simultaneously at two separate wavelengths, allowing color measurements of the components of a binary system to be made in a single observation. This paper will describe the initial data gathering process, which began in 2016. Since then, over 1000 stars have been observed. We summarize the analysis on these objects so far, and discuss the relevance of these observations for existing and future space missions such as TESS, JWST, and Gaia. © 2018 SPIE.

The azimuthal anisotropic flow of identified and unidentified charged particles has been systematically studied in Cu+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV for harmonics n=1-4 in the pseudorapidity range |η|<1. The directed flow in Cu+Au collisions is compared with the rapidity-odd and, for the first time, the rapidity-even components of charged particle directed flow in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV. The slope of the directed flow pseudorapidity dependence in Cu+Au collisions is found to be similar to that in Au+Au collisions, with the intercept shifted toward positive pseudorapidity values, i.e., the Cu-going direction. The mean transverse momentum projected onto the spectator plane (px) in Cu+Au collision also exhibits approximately linear dependence on pseudorapidity with the intercept at about η≈-0.4 (shifted from zero in the Au-going direction), closer to the rapidity of the Cu+Au system center of mass. The observed dependencies find a natural explanation in a picture of the directed flow originating partly due the "tilted source" and partly due to the asymmetry in the initial density distribution. A charge dependence of (px) was also observed in Cu+Au collisions, consistent with an effect of the initial electric field created by charge difference of the spectator protons in two colliding nuclei. The rapidity-even component of directed flow in Au+Au collisions is close to that in Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV, indicating a similar magnitude of dipolelike fluctuations in the initial-state density distribution. Higher harmonic flow in Cu+Au collisions exhibits similar trends to those observed in Au+Au and Pb+Pb collisions and is qualitatively reproduced by a viscous hydrodynamic model and a multiphase transport model. For all harmonics with n≥2 we observe an approximate scaling of vn with the number of constituent quarks; this scaling works as well in Cu+Au collisions as it does in Au+Au collisions. © 2018 American Physical Society.

Global polarization of Λ hyperons has been measured to be of the order of a few tenths of a percentage in Au+Au collisions at sNN = 200 GeV, with no significant difference between Λ and Λ. These new results reveal the collision energy dependence of the global polarization together with the results previously observed at sNN = 7.7-62.4 GeV and indicate noticeable vorticity of the medium created in noncentral heavy-ion collisions at the highest Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider collision energy. The signal is in rough quantitative agreement with the theoretical predictions from a hydrodynamic model and from a multi-phase transport model. The polarization is larger in more peripheral collisions, and depends weakly on the hyperon's transverse momentum and pseudorapidity ηH within |ηH|<1. An indication of the polarization dependence on the event-by-event charge asymmetry is observed at the 2σ level, suggesting a possible contribution to the polarization from the axial current induced by the initial magnetic field. © 2018 American Physical Society.

The longitudinal spin transfer DLL to Λ and Λ hyperons produced in high-energy polarized proton-proton collisions is expected to be sensitive to the helicity distribution functions of strange quarks and antiquarks of the proton, and to longitudinally polarized fragmentation functions. We report an improved measurement of DLL from data obtained at a center-of-mass energy of s=200 GeV with the STAR detector at RHIC. The data have an approximately twelve times larger figure of merit than prior results and cover |η|<1.2 in pseudorapidity with transverse momenta pT up to 6 GeV/c. In the forward scattering hemisphere at largest pT, the longitudinal spin transfer is found to be DLL=-0.036±0.048(stat)±0.013(sys) for Λ hyperons and DLL=0.032±0.043(stat)±0.013(sys) for Λ antihyperons. The dependences on η and pT are presented and compared with model evaluations. © 2018 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.

We report first measurements of e+e- pair production in the mass region 0.4<Mee<2.6 GeV/c2 at low transverse momentum (pT<0.15 GeV/c) in noncentral Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV and U+U collisions at sNN=193 GeV. Significant enhancement factors, expressed as ratios of data over known hadronic contributions, are observed in the 40%-80% centrality of these collisions. The excess yields peak distinctly at low pT with a width (âpT2â ©) between 40 and 60 MeV/c. The absolute cross section of the excess depends weakly on centrality, while those from a theoretical model calculation incorporating an in-medium broadened ρ spectral function and radiation from a quark gluon plasma or hadronic cocktail contributions increase dramatically with an increasing number of participant nucleons. Model calculations of photon-photon interactions generated by the initial projectile and target nuclei describe the observed excess yields but fail to reproduce the pT2 distributions. © 2018 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the »https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/» Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

The transverse spin transfer from polarized protons to Λ and Λ hyperons is expected to provide sensitivity to the transversity distribution of the nucleon and to the transversely polarized fragmentation functions. We report the first measurement of the transverse spin transfer to Λ and Λ along the polarization direction of the fragmenting quark, DTT, in transversely polarized proton-proton collisions at s=200 GeV with the STAR detector at RHIC. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 18 pb-1 and cover the pseudorapidity range |η|<1.2 and transverse momenta pT up to 8 GeV/c. The dependence on pT and η are presented. The DTT results are found to be comparable with a model prediction and are also consistent with zero within uncertainties. © 2018 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.

Binary star systems where one of the stars is an exoplanet host appear to be more common than expected prior to the Kepler mission. The Kepler mission and subsequent ground-based follow-up work have revealed a number of Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) that have nearby stellar companions (within ∼1 arcsec). KOIs with stellar companions and at least one suspected exoplanet were selected for this work. Recent work on these stars has mainly focused on placing the companions on the H-R diagram and inferring if they are likely to be gravitationally bound based on whether their locations are consistent with a common isochrone. However, we have been observing these KOI double stars with speckle imaging over several years and are now in a position to assess whether these systems have components with a common proper motion, and can be seen as physically associated on that basis. We will give sample results of KOI double stars that are in fact common proper motion pairs. We compare our results with estimates of the multiplicity rate of exoplanet hosts from other methods and comment on the use of our data for constraining orbital parameters at this point, particularly the inclination angle. For transit observations, the inclination of the planetary orbit is already known, and the relationship between planetary and stellar orbital planes could have implications for star and planet formation. © 2018 SPIE.