Recent developments in zinc oxide target chemistry

Zinc oxide targets irradiated with high energy protons at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF) contain a number of radioactive spallation products in quantities large enough to warrant recovery. This paper describes methods for recovering⁷Be,⁴⁶Sc, and⁴⁸V from such targets and offers suggestions on possible ways to recover additional isotopes. The proposed methods are based on traditional precipitation and ion exchange techniques, are readily adaptable to hot cell use, and produce no hazardous waste components. The products are obtained in moderate to high yields and have excellent radionuclidic purity.     

Automatic absolute determination of total sulfur by combustion and coulometric titration

An automatic method for the absolute determination of total sulfur, which overcomes the tendency of previous methods to give low sulfur recoveries on samples with high oxygen demand, is described. The technique combusts the sample in oxygen and sweeps the combustion gases through a hydrogen peroxide trap to remove the sulfur oxides from the gas stream. The trap contents are volatilized and swept with nitrogen through reduced copper heated to 890 °C. Sulfur oxides are quantitatively converted to sulfur dioxide and titrated coulometrically with iodine. Halogens are held by the copper and do not interfere with the sulfur determination. Analysis time is 12 min and automation of the method allows unattended operation. Sample size is 0.5 to 20 mg. Sulfur levels of 0.05 to 100% can be determined.     

The behavior of the form factor in two dimensions for linear polymers in different regimes

Off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations employing the PIVOT algorithm are used to generate ideal and excluded volume linear polymers in two dimensions. The form factor at small and large wave vectors is calculated from the resulting configurations and compared to the exact equation for ideal chains and to both scaling and renormalization group predictions for excluded volume chains. It is found that using the des Cloizeaux form for the distance distribution function in an analytic calculation of the form factor leads to close agreement with the Monte Carlo data and that simple expressions for both the small and large wave vector expansions reproduce the essential features of the form factor.     

New relationship of displacement signal at quadrant photodiode: Control signal analysis and simulation of a laser tracker

New relationship of displacement signal using opposite sectors on a quadrant photodiode is derived. Standard and new displacement signals are analyzed in details. Through MATLAB^® laser tracking simulation models, based on common and suggested approaches, detailed analysis is performed, and it is shown that better results for the new relationship signal processing are obtained. Within new relationship of displacement signal, the sensitivity of the system to the displacement of the spot increases and, hence, provides better accuracy in positioning up to 30%.     

Ten-membered rings as key interaction motifs in folding of desmuramyl di-, tri-, and tetrapeptides

Structural Chemistry - Muropeptides are fragments of polymeric peptidoglycan, unique constituent of bacterial cell walls, acting as immunostimulators (adjuvants). The smallest biologically active...     

Binary,ternary and microencapsulated celecoxib complexes with β-cyclodextrin formulated via hydrophilic polymers

Cyclodextrins are cyclic oligosaccharides, capable of forming inclusion complexes with many active substances. This way, the aqueous solubility and rate of dissolution of active substances can be changed. For this research we have selected celecoxib as the model active substance, due to its low water solubility, high lipophilicity, and high intestinal permeability. Usually, the amount of cyclodextrin complex that can be incorporated into a pharmaceutical dosage form is limited. The usage of hydrophilic polymers can overcome this problem. In this study, we wanted to point out the potential of various types of hydrophilic polymers for enhancing the complex formation efficiencies, and to highlight the possible use of alginate as a solubility stabilizer/enhancer and as a microsphere matrix polymer. The phase solubility investigation showed greater stability constants (> 250 M^?1) in ternary complexes than in the binary complex, which is a good indicator of the complex formation enhancer properties of these hydrophilic polymers. The relative solubilizing efficiency decreased in the next order: PVP K25 (6.49) > Sodium alginate (6.26) > PEG 6000 (5.72) > without polymer (4.81). The DSC curves showed that all samples that were prepared with β-cyclodextrin (both complexes and physical mixtures) had lower melting endotherms at 160 °C than pure celecoxib. XRD confirmed the complex formation by partial celecoxib amorphisation. The dissolution studies of the prepared microspheres revealed that all samples had different release rates (shown by the similarity factor f₂, which was 36.37, 42.46 and 38.11 % respectively) and that the use of β-cyclodextrin increased the dissolution rate of celecoxib from alginate microspheres in a controlled manner. We concluded that sodium alginate could act as a complex stabilizing/enhancing agent and as a microsphere matrix polymer, at the same time.     

Optical trapping of nanoparticles and microparticles by a Gaussian standing wave

The optical trapping of nanoparticles and microparticles by a Gaussian standing wave is experimentally demonstrated for the first time to the authors' knowledge. The standing wave is obtained under a microscope objective as a result of the interference of an incoming laser beam and a beam reflected on a microscope slide that has been coated with a system of reflective dielectric layers. Experimental results show that three-dimensional trapping of nanoparticles (100-nm polystyrene spheres) and one or more vertically aligned micro-objects (5-mum polystyrene spheres, yeast cells) can easily be achieved by use of even highly aberrated beams or objectives with low numerical apertures.     

Locally strong endomorphisms of paths

We determine the number of locally strong endomorphisms of directed and undirected paths—direction here is in the sense of a bipartite graph from one partition set to the other. This is done by the investigation of congruence classes, leading to the concept of a complete folding, which is used to characterize locally strong endomorphisms of paths. A congruence belongs to a locally strong endomorphism if and only if the number l of congruence classes divides the length of the original path and the points of the path are folded completely into the l classes, starting from 0 to l and then back to 0, then again back to l and so on. It turns out that for paths locally strong endomorphisms form a monoid if and only if the length of the path is prime or equal to 4 in the undirected case and in the directed case also if the length is 8. Finally some algebraic properties of these monoids are described.