We report the fabrication of long-period gratings (LPGs) in wavelength-scale microfibers with diameters from 1.5 to 3 microm. The LPGs were fabricated by use of a femtosecond IR laser to periodically modify the surface of the fibers. These LPGs have grating periods of a few tens of micrometers, much smaller than those in conventional optical fibers. A compact 10-period LPG with a device length ...

We study the spin Coulomb drag in a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas of finite transverse width, including local field corrections beyond the random phase approximation (RPA). We find that the finite transverse width of the electron gas causes a significant reduction of the spin Coulomb drag. This reduction, however, is largely compensated by the enhancement coming from the inclusion of many-...

The introduction into Brucella suis 1330 of a plasmid allowing the heterologous expression of a hybrid cytolysin containing listeriolysin from Listeria monocytogenes, and its export via the Escherichia coli hemolysin secretion pathway, resulted in secretion of active listeriolysin monitored by erythrocyte lysis. In contrast to observations with the nonhemolytic control strain, the phagosomes of...

The FASD study gathered 1330 answers about fun and software development from open source developers as well as 114 answers from programmers working in commercial software projects. The analysis of these data proves that fun plays an important role when software developers decide to get engaged in an open source project. Moreover, the comparison of the answers gives evidence for the hypothesis t...

The HIV-1 protease is responsible for the cleavage of Gag, Gag-Pol and Nef precursor polyproteins. The process, occurring late in viral cycle, is highly specific, temporally regulated and essential for the production of infectious viral particles (Jacks et al., 1988; Krausslich et al., 1989; Swanstrom et al., 1997). For the generation of a mature and viable virion, separate twelve proteolytic r...