Nitro-oxidized carboxycellulose nanofibers from moringa plant: effective bioadsorbent for mercury removal

Cellulose - Mercury contamination in drinking water is a worldwide problem due to its severely harming effects on the human body. A nanostructured natural bioadsorbent, carboxycellulose nanofiber...     

Synthesis and characterization of thermoresponsive amphiphilic block copolymers incorporating a poly(ethylene oxide‐stat‐propylene oxide) block

Amphiphilic BuO‐(PEO‐stat‐PPO)‐block‐PLA‐OH diblock and MeO‐PEO‐block‐(PEO‐stat‐PPO)‐block‐PLA‐OH triblock copolymers incorporating thermoresponsive poly(ethylene oxide‐stat‐propylene oxide) (PEO‐stat‐PPO) blocks were prepared by ring‐opening polymerization of lactide (LA) initiated by macroinitiators formed from treating BuO‐(PEO‐stat‐PPO)‐OH and MeO‐PEO‐block‐(PEO‐stat‐PPO)‐OH with AlEt₃. MeO‐PEO‐block‐(PEO‐stat‐PPO)‐OH was prepared by coupling MeO‐PEO‐OH and HO‐(PEO‐stat‐PPO)‐OH, followed by chromatographic purification. The cloud points of 0.2% aqueous solutions are between 36 and 46 °C for the diblock copolymers that contain a 50 wt % EO thermoresponsive block and 78 °C for the triblock copolymer that contains a 75 wt % EO thermoresponsive block. Variable temperature ¹H NMR spectra recorded on D₂O solutions of the diblock copolymers display no PLA resonances below the cloud point and fairly sharp PLA resonances above the cloud point, suggesting that desolvation of the thermoresponsive block increases the miscibility of the two blocks. Preliminary characterization of the micelles formed in aqueous solutions of BuO‐(PEO‐stat‐PPO)‐block‐PLA‐OH conducted using laser scanning confocal microscopy and pulsed gradient spin echo NMR point to significant changes in the size of the micellar aggregates as a function of temperature. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 5156–5167, 2005     

Nonlinear theory of acoustic wave interaction with laser discharge

The problem of gas laser modulation by acoustic wave is studied theoretically. Theoretical treatment is based on the semiclassical theory of laser and on the theory of acoustic wave propagation in the positive column of d.c. glow discharge. The solution of basic equations is found and the analysis of obtained results is carried out.     

Low frequency waves in a positive column of discharge

The propagation of longitudinal low frequency waves in the plasma of the positive column of a d.c. glow discharge is studied theoretically. The dispersion characteristics are obtained for conduction, ion acoustic and neutral acoustic waves. Equations are solved numerically and the results are compared with other theories and measurements.     

Self-swept erbium fiber laser around 1.56 μm

Self-swept erbium fiber laser emitting around 1.56?μm is reported in detail. Both sweep directions were registered: pointing toward longer and shorter wavelengths, redshift and blueshift sweeping, respectively. We describe method of determining the direction of the wavelength drift using the monochromator based optical spectrum analyzer. Possible root for this sweeping regime, i.e., the gain modulation along active fiber, is discussed with the help of a simple model calculating the overall cavity gain that can predict the direction of the laser wavelength sweeping.     

Light scattering from a waveguide structure with a sinusoidally corrugated boundary modulated by a weak roughness

Results are reported of the analysis of light scattering from a waveguide structure with a periodically and randomly distorted boundary. The method is based on the assumption of single scattering. The field inside the waveguide is analyzed within the framework of the geometrical optics approach. Results of a computer simulation are presented.     

Realistic quark masses and mixing angles without scalars?

A model in which the three family quark mass matricesa M^U and M^D is related to the extended technicolor vector boson mass matrix is presented. A phenomenological mass matrix is consistent with the model when the u-quark mass is about 50 MeV.     

Thermally induced changes in amphiphilicity drive reversible restructuring of assemblies of ABC triblock copolymers with statistical polyether blocks

ABC triblock copolymers in which a block with stimulus-dependent solvophilicity resides between solvophilic and solvophobic end blocks can undergo reversible transitions between different thermodynamically stable assemblies in the presence or absence of stimulus. As a new example of such a copolymer system, thermoresponsive poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(ethylene oxide-stat-butylene oxide)-b-poly(isoprene) (E-BE-I) triblock copolymers with narrow molecular weight distributions (M(w)/M(n): 1.05-1.18) were prepared by sequential living anionic and nitroxide-mediated radical polymerizations. The specific copolymers examined (9.0 ≤ M(n) ≤ 14.4 kg/mol, 14% ≤ wt % isoprene ≤35%) form near-spherical aggregates with narrow size distributions at 25 °C. The thermoresponsive behavior of these polymers was studied by applying cloud point, DLS, and TEM measurements to a representative polymer, E(2.3)BE(5.3)I(2.3). The transformation of polymer aggregates from spherical micelles to vesicles (polymersomes) at elevated temperatures was detected by DLS and TEM studies, both with and without cross-linking of polymer assemblies. The rate of transformation with E-BE-I systems is more rapid than that observed for poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-b-poly(isoprene) assemblies, suggesting that interchain hydrogen bonding of responsive blocks after dehydration plays an important role in the kinetics of aggregate rearrangement.     

Pion charge radius from current algebra sum rule and short range correlation model

Starting from the Fubini-Dashen-Gell-Mann sum rule, we relate the slope of the pion electromagnetic form factor at t = 0 to the rotational properties of the photopion production amplitudes. When the pion's charge radius is calculated with a simple short range correlation model for the production amplitudes (diffractive processes being forbidden), the result is $\text{〈r}{}_{\mathrm{\pi }}{}^2\text{〉}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{= 0.8}\text{fm}$.     

Contribution to the theory of single-mode laser modulation II. Conduction modulation

The problem of conduction modulation of laser radiation is considered. It is shown that acoustic wave interacting with photon field in active medium causes a periodic modulation of the number of quanta in the single-mode gas laser. The problem of modulation is solved quantum mechanically and it is shown that dielectric and conduction modulation give similar results.