Spectroscopically determined electronegativity values for heavy elements

A new scale of electronegativity based on X-ray spectroscopic data was earlier presented by Mande and others for the elements₃Li to₅₄Xe. The present paper reports an extension of this scale carried out for most of the heavier elements lying between₅₅Cs and₉₂U. The present approach is based on the physical interpretation of electronegativity of an atom as the attractive electrostatic force it exerts at a distance equal to its covalent radius. To estimate this force, experimental spectroscopic data have been employed. The merits of such an approach have been pointed out recently by Mullay and may be of interest in the context of the intimate relation found between electronegativity and superconducting transition temperature.     

Photoionization of some closed shell atoms and ions

Dipole-allowed single photoionization of some closed shell atoms and ions has been investigated in the relativistic random-phase approximation (RRPA). Application of relativisticmultichannel quantum defect theory (RMQDT) is made together with RRPA to analyse autoionizing resonances. Analysis points to the importance of interchannel coupling in high energy photoionization and reveals various degeneracies in relativistic atomic spectra to influence the low energy dynamics. Interesting threshold behavior in photoelectron spin polarization has been seen. Prospective future studies have been indicated.     

Calibration transfer between electronic nose systems for rapid In situ measurement of pulp and paper industry emissions

Electronic nose systems when deployed in network mesh can effectively provide a low budget and onsite solution for the industrial obnoxious gaseous measurement. For accurate and identical prediction capability by all the electronic nose systems, a reliable calibration transfer model needs to be implemented in order to overcome the inherent sensor array variability. In this work, robust regression (RR) is used for calibration transfer between two electronic nose systems using a Box–Behnken (BB) design. Out of the two electronic nose systems, one was trained using industrial gas samples by four artificial neural network models, for the measurement of obnoxious odours emitted from pulp and paper industries. The emissions constitute mainly of hydrogen sulphide (H₂S), methyl mercaptan (MM), dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS) in different proportions. A Box–Behnken design consisting of 27 experiment sets based on synthetic gas combinations of H₂S, MM, DMS and DMDS, were conducted for calibration transfer between two identical electronic nose systems. Identical sensors on both the systems were mapped and the prediction models developed using ANN were then transferred to the second system using BB–RR methodology. The results showed successful transmission of prediction models developed for one system to other system, with the mean absolute error between the actual and predicted concentration of analytes in mg L⁻¹ after calibration transfer (on second system) being 0.076, 0.1801, 0.0329, 0.427 for DMS, DMDS, MM, H₂S respectively.     

Production, Purification, and Biochemical Characterization of a Fibrinolytic Enzyme from Thermophilic Streptomyces sp. MCMB-379

Production of the fibrinolytic enzyme was carried out using 2.5-L glass fermentor, culture of thermophilic Streptomyces sp., and glucose yeast extract peptone medium of pH 8.0. Five successive batches were carried out under controlled fermentation conditions viz., agitation 140 rpm, aeration 0.5 vvm, 55 °C, and 18 h. The total protein extracellularly produced in the cell-free broth was ~300-500 mg/L. The enzyme belongs to serine endopeptidase type. Studies on the fibrin degradation indicate that the enzyme degrades the fibrin into small molecular weight products as seen from HPLC profile. Phase-contrast microscopic structure of fibrin showed that enzyme cleaves the fibrin filaments. The ex vivo activity of the actinokinase was compared with 500 IU of urokinase and 350 IU of streptokinase. The ex vivo clot lysis was found to be faster as compared to the commercial available enzymes.     

P.M.R. relaxation time studies in some binary liquid systems

Proton magnetic resonance relaxation time measurements have been carried out in mixtures of water with formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid and n-butyric acid. On account of molecular association, the results reveal strong deviation of these mixtures from the ideal behaviour. The molecular association effect is discussed in some detail. The molecular association ratios determined from the present studies are in excellent agreement with those obtained by the ultrasonic absorption technique. It is further shown that N.M.R. relaxation time studies reveal more information about molecular interactions in liquids than the ultrasonic absorption studies.     

Inverse heat conduction problem in a thin circular plate and its thermal deflection

An inverse problem of transient heat conduction in a thin finite circular plate with the given temperature distribution on the interior surface of a thin circular plate being a function of both time and position has been solved with the help of integral transform technique and also determine the thermal deflection on the outer curved surface of a thin circular plate defined as 0 ? r ? a, 0 ? z ? h. The results, obtained in the series form in terms of Bessel’s functions, are illustrated numerically.     

High-power multibeam CO2 laser for industrial applications

Multibeam CO₂ lasers consist of a large number of closely packed parallel glass discharge tubes, all sharing a common plane parallel resonator. This paper describes construction and operation of a CW multibeam CO₂ laser consisting 20 discharge tubes and cooled length of 1500 mm, delivering 1 kW power. A high-frequency pulser is used for producing preionization in all discharge sections for initiating the main DC discharge simultaneously in all discharge tubes. Plane parallel resonator consists of a plane ZnSe mirror of 90 mm diameter having 60% reflectivity and a gold-coated copper mirror of same diameter. This laser operates in waveguide regime and laser power is not critically sensitive to mirror misalignment.     

Dislocation nucleation and precipitation of impurity in calcium-doped NaCl-KCl crystals

In calcium-doped mixed NaCl-KCl crystals, Ca²⁺ ion sites were selectively sensed by a suitable etchant. Different impurity substructures, viz. arrays, close-networks, unevenly distributed clusters were formed by the dopant ions in the lattice. Non-uniform distributions of the impurity ions in the lattice does not nucleate dislocations. Non-structural impurities like precipitates were found to take different forms, viz. elongated rods, rectangular forms, with different orientations. Dislocations showed strong preference for the nucleation of the precipitates. The nucleation of the precipitates at sites other than those of dislocations is discussed.