Laboratory simulation of Hg<Superscript>0</Superscript> emissions from a snowpack

Snow surfaces play an important role in the biogeochemical cycle of mercury in high-latitude regions. Snowpacks act both as sources and sinks for gaseous compounds. Surprisingly, the roles of each environmental parameter that can govern the air–surface exchange over snow are not well understood owing to the lack of systematic studies. A laboratory system called the laboratory flux measurement system was used to study the emission of gaseous elemental mercury from a natural snowpack under controlled conditions. The first results from three snowpacks originating from alpine, urban and polar areas are presented. Consistent with observations in the field, we were able to reproduce gaseous mercury emissions and showed that they are mainly driven by solar radiation and especially UV-B radiation. From these laboratory experiments, we derived kinetic constants which show that divalent mercury can have a short natural lifetime of about 4–6 h in snow.     

Radiatively coupled waveguide polarization splitter simulated by wave-matching-based coupled mode theory

Coupled mode theory is applied to an arrangement of three raised strip waveguides with a multimode central strip. We use semivectorial numerically computed modes of the three single isolated waveguides as a basis for propagating supermode analysis of the entire structure. The pronounced polarization dependence of the raised strip guides allows for the design of a conveniently short polarization splitter. We discuss design guidelines and estimate the fabrication tolerances. The accuracy of the coupled mode approach is assessed by comparison with rigorously computed supermodes for comparable two waveguide couplers. Both types of structures indicate the limits in the applicability of the coupled mode model.     

Monitoring carbamazepine in surface and wastewaters by an immunoassay based on a monoclonal antibody

The pharmaceutical compound carbamazepine (CBZ) is an emerging pollutant in the aquatic environment and may potentially be used as a wastewater marker. In this work, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of carbamazepine in surface and sewage waters has been developed. The heterogeneous immunoassay is based on a commercially available monoclonal antibody and a novel enzyme conjugate (tracer) that links the hapten via a hydrophilic peptide (triglycine) spacer to horseradish peroxidase. The assay achieves a limit of detection of 24 ng/L and a quantitation range of 0.05–50 μg/L. The analytical performance and figure of merits were compared to liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry after solid-phase extraction. For nine Berlin surface water samples and one wastewater sample, a close correlation of results was observed. A constant overestimation relative to the CBZ concentration of approximately 30% by ELISA is probably caused by the presence of 10,11-epoxy-CBZ and 2-hydroxy-CBZ in the samples. The ELISA displayed cross-reactivities for these compounds of 83% and 14%, respectively. In a first screening of 27 surface water samples, CBZ was detected in every sample with concentrations between 0.05 and 3.2 μg/L. Since no sample cleanup is required, the assay allowed for the determination of carbamazepine with high sensitivity at low costs and with much higher throughput than with conventional methods.      

Analysis of nonreciprocal light propagation in multimode imaging devices

We investigate a structure consisting of a magneto-optic multimode waveguide and two monomode waveguides serving as in- and outlets. The geometrical dimensions of the multimode waveguide can be adjusted such that the guided modes interfere constructively in forward direction and destructively for backward propagation. In this paper we present concepts for a circulator and two isolators based on multimode imaging.     

An improved design of an integrated optical isolator based on non-reciprocalMach–Zehnder interferometry

Non-reciprocal rib waveguide structures can be used to realize integrated optical isolators. In this paper, we propose a concrete design for a Mach–Zehnder interferometer type isolator for TM modes. Just one of the arms, which are of equal length, is a non-reciprocal magneto-optic waveguide. The rest of the interferometer is reciprocal. Required fabrication tolerances are estimated, and the entire isolator is simulated by applying a finite difference beam propagation method.     

Cetirizine as pH-dependent cross-reactant in a carbamazepine-specific immunoassay

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was hyphenated with a previously reported carbamazepine-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) as a screening approach to water analysis in order to identify possible interferences from transformation products. Treated wastewater was analysed and three substances were recognized by the antibody besides carbamazepine: the metabolites 10,11-dihydro-10,11-epoxycarbamazepine and 2-hydroxycarbamazepine plus the structurally not obviously related antihistamine cetirizine. The molar cross-reactivity against cetirizine was found to be pH-dependent and assessed to be 400% at pH 4.5 and 22% at pH 10.5. Performing the ELISA at pH 10.5 greatly improved the accuracy when carbamazepine was determined in surface and wastewater samples.     

A fast solver for the first biharmonic boundary value problem

Summary This paper provides a fast and storage-saving method for the solution of the first biharmonic boundary value problem (b.v.p.). The b.v.p. is approximated via a special variational finite difference technique suggested earlier by V.G. Korneev. It is shown theoretically that our method produces an approximate solution to the finite difference equations inO(NlnNln^–1) arithmetical operations, whereN is the number of unknowns and (0<<1) denotes the relative accuracy required. The numerical results obtained by our computer code CGMFC decisively substantiate the theoretical estimates given.