Selective multiplex advantage with an electro-optic Hadamard transform spectrometer for multielemental atomic emission

A liquid-crystal spatial light-modulator Hadamard transform spectrometer is adapted for multielemental atomic spectrochemical analysis. The flame emissions of alkali metals are studied as a preliminary example. The multiplex disadvantage normally plaguing application of Hadamard and Fourier transform methods to atomic analysis is circumvented. Permanent electro-optic "closure" of certain Hadamard mask slits (corresponding to intense major element emissions) improves the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the remaining trace element emissions. This approach to SNR enhancement of weaker spectral features by blocking known intense features is called the selective multiplex advantage. A problem with the contrast ratio (relative transmissions of the transparent and opaque states) of the liquid-crystal Hadamard mask has been identified in terms of "optical leakage". This produces an offset in the Hadamard encodegram, and leads to concentration-dependent baseline-offset effects in the transformed spectrum. A mathematical correction procedure was devised and evaluated experimentally.     

Temperaturabhängigkeit der Gleichgewichtsspreitungsdrucke homologer Lezithine an der Grenzfläche n-Heptan/0,1 M NaCl

Ohne ZusammenfassungMit 1 Abbildung und 1 Tabelle     

A unified analysis for a class of long-step primal-dual path-following interior-point algorithms for semidefinite programming

We present a unified analysis for a class of long-step primal-dual path-following algorithms for semidefinite programming whose search directions are obtained through linearization of the symmetrized equation of the central pathH _P (XS) [PXSP ^–1 + (PXSP ^–1) ^T ]/2 = I, introduced by Zhang. At an iterate (X,S), we choose a scaling matrixP from the class of nonsingular matricesP such thatPXSP ^–1 is symmetric. This class of matrices includes the three well-known choices, namely:P = S ^1/2 andP = X ^–1/2 proposed by Monteiro, and the matrixP corresponding to the Nesterov—Todd direction. We show that within the class of algorithms studied in this paper, the one based on the Nesterov—Todd direction has the lowest possible iteration-complexity bound that can provably be derived from our analysis. More specifically, its iteration-complexity bound is of the same order as that of the corresponding long-step primal-dual path-following algorithm for linear programming introduced by Kojima, Mizuno and Yoshise. © 1998 The Mathematical Programming Society, Inc. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.Corresponding author.This author's research is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grants INT-9600343 and CCR-9700448 and the Office of Naval Research under grant N00014-94-1-0340.This author's research was supported in part by DOE DE-FG02-93ER25171-A001.     

Detection of alcohols in gas chromatographic effluent by laser-light scattering

A laser-light-scattering detector that is sensitive to alcohols has been developed for gas chromatography. The detector consists of a miniature concentric nebulizer that uses a cold atomization gas and an Ar⁺ laser. Calibration curves for the alcohols exhibit characteristic sigmoidal shapes. Signal-to-noise ratios were optimized by examining the photomultiplier tube temperature, collection wavelength and detection scheme (i.e., photon counting vs. direct current detection). Limits of detection for five test alcohols were in the 2–8 μg/s range.     

Theoretical multiplex gain in a UV/VIS Hadamard transform spectrometer utilizing a uniformly imperfect encoding mask

The effect of a uniformly imperfect (non-ideal) encoding mask on the signal-to-noise ratio improvement in a Hadamard transform spectrometer utilizing photon detection is theoretically studied. General equations are developed for the calculation of the multiplex gain (the Fellgett advantage) under conditions of limitation by shot noise and source-fluctuation noise. It is shown that for both cases, the multiplex gain depends on the transmission properties of the encoding mask, the UV/VIS spectrum impinging upon the mask, and the multiplex size, N. It is demonstrated that a uniformly imperfect encoding mask allows sufficient multiplex gain, and that photon-detection in Hadamard transform spectrometry can have advantages in some spectroscopic applications. In addition, comparisons are made between the multiplex gain advantages present in UV/VIS FTS and those present in UV/VIS HTS.     

Determination of total petroleum hydrocarbons in soil by dynamic on-line supercritical fluid extraction with infrared photometric detection

Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) in soil are determined by on-line dynamic supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) using infrared filter photometry detection. The filter photometer was constructed in the laboratory using a tungsten lamp, an optical notch filter that selects the C-H stretching vibration of the extracted organics, an optical chopper with demodulation electronics, and a PbSe detector. A modified high-pressure fiber optic flow cell was used to couple the SFE system to the photometer. Quantitation of TPHs was accomplished through the construction of calibration curves of integrated absorbance of C-H stretching (over time) versus concentration. Our studies show that the sensitivity of this system is affected by both the optical path length in the high-pressure cell and the SFE fluid flow-rate, and detection limits for TPHs are in the mid part-per-million range. The results of the application of this on-line SFE-IR instrument to the determination of TPHs in real-world samples show good agreement with those obtained from standard Soxhlet extraction-IR methods.