Conductivity as a Sensor for Monitoring Relative Magnesium Corrosion Rates in Real‐time,in Serum‐containing Media under Cell Culture Conditions

Because controlling the corrosion rate of magnesium metal will be crucial to the success of biomedical implants containing pure magnesium or magnesium alloys, many ways have been sought to improve in vitro tests to analyze corrosion rates, and also to identify new methods of preparing or post‐processing magnesium. In this work, for an in vitro assay, we explored the use of a commercially available conductivity sensor to study magnesium corrosion under cell culture conditions that duplicate many physiologically appropriate parameters. With this sensor, we studied the corrosion of two previously untested magnesium single crystal samples that differed in surface treatments that could alter corrosion rates. The results show that the relative conductivity changes in (mS/cm) over the total time of immersion were proportional to the corrosion rates in (mm/y) and also to the total magnesium released, as detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS).     

Permutation-symmetric multicritical points in random antiferromagnetic spin chains

We present a general theory of a class of multicritical points in the phase diagrams of random antiferromagnetic spin chains. We show that low-energy properties of these points are almost completely determined by a permutation symmetry of the effective theory not shared by the microscopic Hamiltonian. One case provides an analytic theory of the quantum critical point in the random spin-3/2 chain, studied in a recent work by Refael, Kehrein, and Fisher.     

Fractional spin textures in the frustrated magnet SrCr(9p)Ga(12-9p)O₁₉

We consider the archetypal frustrated antiferromagnet SrCr(9p)Ga(12-9p)O?? in its well-known spin-liquid state, and demonstrate that a Cr(3+) spin S=3/2 ion in direct proximity to a pair of vacancies (in disordered p<1 samples) is cloaked by a spatially extended spin texture that encodes the correlations of the parent spin liquid. In this spin-liquid regime, our analytic theory predicts that the combined object has a magnetic response identical to a classical spin of length S/2=3/4, which dominates over the small intrinsic susceptibility of the pure system. This fractional-spin texture leaves an unmistakable imprint on the measured ?1Ga nuclear magnetic resonance line shapes, which we compute using Monte Carlo simulations and compare with experimental data.     

DLTS and in situ C–V analysis of trap parameters in swift 50 MeV Li3+ ion-irradiated Ni/SiO2/Si MOS capacitors

Ni/SiO₂/Si MOS structures were fabricated on n-type Si wafers and were irradiated with 50 MeV Li³⁺ ions with fluences ranging from 1×10¹⁰ to 1×10¹² ions/cm². High frequency C–V characteristics are studied in situ to estimate the build-up of fixed and oxide charges. The nature of the charge build-up with ion fluence is analyzed. Defect levels in bulk Si and its properties such as activation energy, capture cross-section, trap concentration and carrier lifetimes are studied using deep-level transient spectroscopy. Electron traps with energies ranging from 0.069 to 0.523 eV are observed in Li ion-irradiated devices. The dependence of series resistance, substrate doping and accumulation capacitance on Li ion fluence are clearly explained. The study of dielectric properties (tan δ and quality factor) confirms the degradation of the oxide layer to a greater extent due to ion irradiation.     

Electrochemical Signal‐triggered Release of Biomolecules Functionalized with His‐tag Units

His‐tagged molecular species, a ferrocene derivative and Protein A, were immobilized on electrode surfaces (Au and graphite) through formation of a chelated complex in the presence of Cu²⁺ cations used as bridging units. The complex was cleaved and the attached molecules were released from the electrode surface by applying reductive potential to the electrodes resulting in Cu²⁺ reduction, thus decomposing the chelate complex. The molecule release process was followed by cyclic voltammetry in case of the ferrocene derivative. His‐tagged Protein A was additionally labeled with a fluorescent tag and its release was followed by fluorescence measurements in the solution and by impedance spectroscopy at the electrode. The studied release of the His‐tagged redox species and biomolecules was considered as a new generic approach to the signal‐controlled molecule release applicable in various biotechnological and biomedical applications.     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H and <Superscript>19</Superscript>F NMR relaxation time studies in (NH<Subscript>4</Subscript>)<Subscript>2</Subscript>ZrF<Subscript>6</Subscript> superionic conductor

¹H and ¹⁹F spin-lattice relaxation times in polycrystalline diammonium hexafluorozirconate have been measured in the temperature range of 10–400 K to elucidate the molecular motion of both cation and anion. Interesting features such as translational diffusion at higher temperatures, molecular reorientational motion of both cation and anion groups at intermediate temperatures and quantum rotational tunneling of the ammonium group at lower temperatures have been observed. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation time results correlate well with the NMR second moment and conductivity studies reported earlier.     

Spin-polarized surface states on Fe-deposited Au(111) surface: A theoretical study

We have studied electronic structure of Fe-deposited Au(111) by performing ab initio density functional theory calculations. We find that the magnetic moment on the deposited Fe layer is enhanced as compared to that in bulk iron. We observe a large number of new states on the Fe-deposited surface — one of which is in the majority spin channel having similar dispersion to that on the clean surface, and others in the minority spin channel. The effective mass of electrons in surface states near the Fermi level increases on Fe deposition. The electronic properties are found to be insensitive to the stacking of near-surface layers. We need to use very thick slabs in our calculations to avoid splitting of surface states due to spurious interactions between the two surfaces of the slab. Using the local density of states profiles for different surface states, we conclude that in scanning tunneling microscope experiments one can detect two of the surface states — one in the majority channel below the Fermi level, and another in the minority channel appearing just above the Fermi energy. We compare our results to those from scanning tunneling spectroscopy experiments.     

Fixed points indices and period-doubling cascades

Period-doubling cascades are among the most prominent features of many smooth one-parameter families of maps, \({F : \mathbb{R}\times\mathfrak{M} \rightarrow \mathfrak{M},}\) where \({\mathfrak{M}}\) is a locally compact manifold without boundary, typically \({\mathbb{R}^N}\). In particular, we investigate F(μ, ·) for \({\mu \in J = [\mu_{1}, \mu_{2}]}\), when F(μ ₁, ·) has only finitely many periodic orbits while F(μ ₂, ·) has exponential growth of the number of periodic orbits as a function of the period. For generic F, under additional hypotheses, we use a fixed point index argument to show that there are infinitely many “regular” periodic orbits at μ ₂. Furthermore, all but finitely many of these regular orbits at μ ₂ are tethered to their own period-doubling cascade. Specifically, each orbit ρ at μ ₂ lies in a connected component C(ρ) of regular orbits in \({J \times \mathfrak{M}}\); different regular orbits typically are contained in different components, and each component contains a period-doubling cascade. These components are one-manifolds of orbits, meaning that we can reasonably say that an orbit ρ is “tethered” or “tied” to a unique cascade. When F(μ ₂) has horseshoe dynamics, we show how to count the number of regular orbits of each period, and hence the number of cascades in \({J \times \mathfrak{M}}\).As corollaries of our main results, we give several examples, we prove that the map in each example has infinitely many cascades, and we count the cascades.     

Simultaneous Determination of Diclofenac Sodium and Rabeprazole Sodium in Bulk and Pharmaceutical Dosage Form by LC

A simple, selective, rapid, precise and accurate reverse phase high pressure liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the simultaneous estimation of diclofenac sodium and rabeprazole sodium from pharmaceutical formulations. The method was developed using a HiQ SiL C18 (250 mm × 4.6 mm i.d.) column with a mobile phase consisting of methanol:water, (80:20 v/v), at a flow rate of 1.25 mL min⁻¹. Detection was carried out at 284 nm. Indapamide was used as an internal standard. The developed method was validated for linearity, accuracy, precision, limit of detection and limit of quantitation. The proposed method can be used for the estimation of these drugs in combined dosage forms.