A 62-minute orbital period black widow binary in a wide hierarchical triple.

Over a dozen millisecond pulsars are ablating low-mass companions in close binary systems. In the original 'black widow', the eight-hour orbital period eclipsing pulsar PSR J1959+2048 (PSR B1957+20), high-energy emission originating from the pulsar is irradiating and may eventually destroy a low-mass companion. These systems are not only physical laboratories that reveal the interesting results of exposing a close companion star to the relativistic energy output of a pulsar, but are also believed to harbour some of the most massive neutron stars, allowing for robust tests of the neutron star equation of state.

Honouring Wishes of Patients: An Islamic View on the Implementation of the Advance Medical Directive in Malaysia.

An Advance Medical Directive (AMD) is a document in which competent patients express their wishes regarding their preferred choice of future medical plans in the event they become incompetent. AMD is important in relation to the patient's right to refuse treatment. However, they must also consider cultural and religious values of different communities.

Enhanced x-ray emission coinciding with giant radio pulses from the Crab Pulsar.

Giant radio pulses (GRPs) are sporadic bursts emitted by some pulsars that last a few microseconds and are hundreds to thousands of times brighter than regular pulses from these sources. The only GRP-associated emission outside of radio wavelengths is from the Crab Pulsar, where optical emission is enhanced by a few percentage points during GRPs. We observed the Crab Pulsar simultaneously at x-ray and radio wavelengths, finding enhancement of the x-ray emission by 3.

The sunshine under our skin: public knowledge and practices about vitamin D deficiency in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.

Unlabelled: This cross-sectional study among members of public showed that people generally had good knowledge and awareness about vitamin D. However, inconsistencies between awareness and attitudes were observed. Our findings reinforce the need of educating people to improve attitude and practices toward vitamin D consumption.

Solution-Processable Vertical Organic Light-Emitting Transistors (VOLETs) with Directly Deposited Silver Nanowires Intermediate Source Electrode.

A simple spin-coating process for fabricating vertical organic light-emitting transistors (VOLETs) is realized by utilizing silver nanowire (AgNW) as a source electrode. The optical, electrical and morphological properties of the AgNW formation was initially optimized, prior VOFET fabrication. A high molecular weight of poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] MEH-PPV was used as an organic semiconductor layer in the VOFET in forming a multilayer structure by solution process.

Sonochemical synthesis of hierarchical ZnO nanostructures.

This work is about fabrication of ZnO nanostructures (ZnO-NS) via a simple sonochemical method. The chemicals used for the synthesis of various shaped ZnO are Zn salt, sodium hydroxide and ammonia solution without other structure directing agent or surfactant needed. This method is feasible and green, as it does not require high temperature and/or highly toxic chemicals.

Electrical characterization of gold-DNA-gold structures in presence of an external magnetic field by means of I-V curve analysis.

This work presents an experimental study of gold-DNA-gold structures in the presence and absence of external magnetic fields with strengths less than 1,200.00 mT. The DNA strands, extracted by standard method were used to fabricate a Metal-DNA-Metal (MDM) structure.

DNA strand patterns on aluminium thin films.

A new patterning method using Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid (DNA) strands capable of producing nanogaps of less than 100 nm is proposed and investigated in this work. DNA strands from Bosenbergia rotunda were used as the fundamental element in patterning DNA on thin films of aluminium (Al) metal without the need for any lithographic techniques. The DNA strands were applied in buffer solutions onto thin films of Al on silicon (Si) and the chemical interactions between the DNA strands and Al creates nanometer scale arbitrary patterning by direct transfer of the DNA strands onto the substrate.

Synthesis and characterization of a narrow size distribution of zinc oxide nanoparticles.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) were synthesized via a solvothermal method in triethanolamine (TEA) media. TEA was utilized as a polymer agent to terminate the growth of ZnO-NPs. The ZnO-NPs were characterized by a number of techniques, including X-ray diffraction analysis, transition electron microscopy, and field emission electron microscopy.

Limits on gravitational-wave emission from selected pulsars using LIGO data.

We place direct upper limits on the amplitude of gravitational waves from 28 isolated radio pulsars by a coherent multidetector analysis of the data collected during the second science run of the LIGO interferometric detectors. These are the first direct upper limits for 26 of the 28 pulsars. We use coordinated radio observations for the first time to build radio-guided phase templates for the expected gravitational-wave signals.

High statistics measurement of the K+-->pi0e+nu (K+e3) branching ratio.

E865 at the Brookhaven National Laboratory AGS collected about 70 000 K(+)(e3) events to measure the K(+)(e3) branching ratio relative to the observed K+-->pi(+)pi(0), K+-->pi(0)micro(+)nu, and K+-->pi(+)pi(0)pi(0) decays. The pi(0) in all the decays was detected using the e(+)e(-) pair from pi(0)-->e(+)e(-)gamma decay and no photons were required. Using the 2002 Particle Data Group branching ratios for the normalization decays, we obtain BR(K(+)(e3(gamma)))=(5.

Experimental study of the radiative decays K+-->mu(+)nue(+)e(-) and K+-->e(+)nue(+)e(-).

Experiment 865 at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron obtained 410 K+-->e(+)nue(+)e(-) and 2679 K+-->mu(+)nue(+)e(-) events including 10% and 19% background. The branching ratios were measured to be [2.48+/-0.

New measurement of K(+)(e4) decay and the s-pave pi pi-scattering length a(0)(0).

A sample of 4 x 10(5) events from the decay K(+)-->pi(+)pi(-)e(+)nu(e) (K(e4)) has been collected in experiment E865 at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron. The analysis of these data yields new measurements of the K(e4) branching ratio [(4.11+/-0.

New measurement of the rare decay K+ --> pi(+)&mgr;(+)&mgr;(-).

More than 400 K+-->pi(+)&mgr;(+)&mgr;(-) events were observed in a rare K+ decay experiment at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron. Normalized to the K+-->pi(+)pi(+)pi(-) decay, the branching ratio is determined to be [9.22+/-0.

Search for lepton flavor violation in K+ decays into a charged pion and two leptons.

A search for lepton flavor violating decays, K+ --> mu+ mu+ pi-, K+ --> e+ e+ pi-, K+ --> pi+ e+ mu-, K+ --> mu+ e+ pi-, and pi0 --> e+ mu-, was performed using the data collected in Experiment E865 at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron. No signal was found in any of the decay modes. At the 90% confidence level, the branching ratios are less than 3.

Improved limit on the rate of the decay K+ --> pi(+)&mgr;(+)e(-).

We report results of a search for the lepton-family number violating decay K+-->pi(+)&mgr;(+)e(-) from data collected by experiment E865 in 1996 at the Alternating Gradient Synchroton of Brookhaven National Laboratory. We place an upper limit on the branching ratio at 3.9x10(-11) ( 90% C.