Influence of composition and annealing on the criteria of superparamagnetism and the interaction of particles in granular electrolytically deposited films of CuCo

Films of nonuniform Cu_100−xCo_x alloys with x = 6, 11, 20, and 35 at. %, obtained by electrolytic deposition, are investigated using quantum magnetometry in fields of up to 5.5 T and temperatures of 2–300 K. In all the compositions a characteristic feature is the deviation from pure superparamagnetic behavior, which increases as the annealing of the films and their cobalt content increase. Institute of Solid State and Semiconductor Physics. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 3, pp. 60–62, March, 1998.     

JenPep: a novel computational information resource for immunobiology and vaccinology

JenPep is a relational database containing a compendium of thermodynamic binding data for the interaction of peptides with a range of important immunological molecules: the major histocompatibility complex, TAP transporter, and T cell receptor. The database also includes annotated lists of B cell and T cell epitopes. Version 2.0 of the database is implemented in a bespoke postgreSQL database system and is fully searchable online via a perl/HTML interface (URL: http://www.jenner.ac.uk/JenPep).     

Investigation of dielectric after-effects in poly- and single crystalline BaTiO3

Dielectric relaxation occurring in single- and polycrystalline BaTiO₃, following different polarization treatments of the specimens has been investigated in the temperature range 10 K<T<450 K. The observed relaxation phenomena are discussed in terms of polarization induced growth of extra-domains which, via corresponding enhancement of the total domain wall area, may account for the time dependence of the dielectric constant. On the basis of this relaxation model the activation parameters of the different processes are determined and discussed in terms of variations of the wall mobility within the different crystallographic phases occurring in BaTiO₃.     

Determination of trace concentrations of bromophenols in water using purge-and-trap after in situ acetylation

An analytical method that enables detection and quantification of bromophenols (BPs) at taste threshold concentrations (2,6-DBP: 0.5 ng/L) was developed. This method involves conversion of the BPs to their acetates, followed by isolation of the acetates by a modified purge-and-trap procedure, and analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. Bromophenyl acetates were synthesized so that each of the two steps in the method could be developed and optimised in isolation to the other. Deuterated BPs (phenol-d5, 2-BP-d4, 4-BP-d2, 2,6-DBP-d3, 2,4-DBP-d3 and 2,4,6-TBP-d2) were synthesized to enable quantification of analytes using the deuterated analogues of analytes as internal standards. This method allowed quantification of BPs at concentrations ranging from the detection limits (3 ng/L for phenol and 0.1-0.5 ng/L for each of the BPs) to 1000 ng/L for each analyte, with repeatabilities of < or =14% (RSD) for concentrations of 1 ng/L and < or =9% (RSD) for concentrations of 10-1000 ng/L, with recoveries ranging from 91 to 97%.     

Dielectric relaxation in amorphous polyepichlorhydrin and polyepibromhydrin

The variation of the dielectric permittivity and loss factor with frequency and temperature has been measured for two polyethers with polar side groups, polyepichlorhydrin and polyepibromhydrin. Both polymers showed two distinct relaxation processes. The high-temperature relaxations correlate with the glass-to-rubber transition temperatures in accord with the WLF equation. For the low-temperature relaxations, attributed to rotational motion of the side groups, the activation energy for the bulkier—CH₂Br case is smaller than—CH₂Cl. This effect and the extreme broadness of these relaxations are explained by considering dipole-dipole interactions. Calculations for selected model conformations show that intramolecular dipole-dipole interactions are weak, but that inter-molecular dipole-dipole interactions can account for the observed order of activation energies.     

Electrical resistivity measurements of polymer materials

Basic methods of measuring volume and surface resistivities are reviewed in relation to the wide range of values encountered in plastics and rubbers, including antistatic grades, conducting composites and intrinsically conductive polymers. The application of conventional electrode configurations of 2, 3 and 4 terminal types is considered first. Then the performance and reliability of various probe techniques are analysed. Finally, the observation of charge decay rates is discussed as a means of determining resistivities, and its limitations are defined.