Development of high-temperature pulsed slit nozzle and its application to supersonic jet absorption spectrometry

A high-temperature pulsed slit nozzle, consisting of a circular pulsed nozzle and an interface to convert a circular flow into a slit flow has been constructed. The absorption spectrum is measured by scanning the wavelength of the monochromator equipped with a xenon arc lamp and by detecting the transmitted light through a jet with a photomultiplier. A rotationally cooled spectrum is clearly observed for aniline only when a long slit nozzle is employed. The absorptivity increases proportionally to the slit length at least up to 6 cm. The time for recording a spectrum is 3.5 min, which is reduced to several seconds by transmitting a white light through a jet and by measuring the spectrum with an optical multichannel analyzer. The detection limit is estimated to a partial vapor pressure of 0.4 torr for aniline. The present system can be conveniently used in routine analysis, because of a wide spectral coverage of the lamp source.     

On-line reaction monitoring by extractive electrospray ionisation

The design and development of a novel extractive electrospray ionisation (EESI) device for on-line reaction monitoring is described. The EESI apparatus uses a secondary, grounded nebuliser to produce an analyte aerosol and a Venturi pump is then used to transfer a sample of the aerosol to an electrospray source where it is ionised. The EESI apparatus was then tested with a variety of small, organic molecules to assess sensitivity, linearity and dynamic range. The performance of the technique will depend on the mass spectrometer used for the experiments; in the configurations used here it has a usable dynamic range of around 3.5 orders of magnitude with a linear range of around 2.5 orders of magnitude and is capable of analysing species present down to low μg/mL with signal-to-noise ratio greater than 2.5. The use of EESI for reaction monitoring was validated using a series of mock reaction mixtures and then used to monitor the base hydrolysis of ethyl salicylate to salicylic acid.     

Dominant representations and a markaracter table for a group of finite order

Summary The concept of markaracter is proposed to discuss marks and characters for a group of finite order on a common basis. Thus, we consider a non-redundant set of dominant subgroups and a non-redundant set of dominant representations (SDR), where coset representations concerning cyclic subgroups are named dominant representations (DRs). The numbers of fixed points corresponding to each DR are collected to form a row vecter called a dominant markaracter (mark-character). Such dominant markaracters for the SDR are collected as a markaracter table. The markaracter table is related to a subdominant markaracter table of its subgroup so that the corresponding row of the former table is constructed from the latter. The data of the markaracter table are in turn used to construct a character table of the group, after each character is regarded as a markaracter and transformed into a multiplicity vector. The concept of orbit index is proposed to classify multiplicity vectors; thus, the orbit index of each DR is proved to be equal to one, while that corresonding to an irreducible representation is equal to zero.     

Finite temperature application of the corrected propagator method to reactive dynamics in a condensed-phase environment

The recently proposed mixed quantum-classical method is extended to applications at finite temperatures. The method is designed to treat complex systems consisting of a low-dimensional quantum part (the primary system) coupled to a dissipative bath described classically. The method is based on a formalism showing how to systematically correct the approximate zeroth-order evolution rule. The corrections are defined in terms of the total quantum Hamiltonian and are taken to the classical limit by introducing the frozen Gaussian approximation for the bath degrees of freedom. The evolution of the primary system is governed by the corrected propagator yielding the exact quantum dynamics. The method has been tested on a standard model system describing proton transfer in a condensed-phase environment: a symmetric double-well potential bilinearly coupled to a bath of harmonic oscillators. Flux correlation functions and thermal rate constants have been calculated at two different temperatures for a range of coupling strengths. The results have been compared to the fully quantum simulations of Topaler and Makri [J. Chem. Phys. 101, 7500 (1994)] with the real path integral method.     

Monte Carlo simulations of a coarse grained model for an athermal all-polystyrene nanocomposite system

The structure of a polystyrene matrix filled with tightly cross-linked polystyrene nanoparticles, forming an athermal nanocomposite system, is investigated by means of a Monte Carlo sampling formalism. The polymer chains are represented as random walks and the system is described through a coarse grained Hamiltonian. This approach is related to self-consistent-field theory but does not invoke a saddle point approximation and is suitable for treating large three-dimensional systems. The local structure of the polymer matrix in the vicinity of the nanoparticles is found to be different in many ways from that of the corresponding bulk, both at the segment and the chain level. The local polymer density profile near to the particle displays a maximum and the bonds develop considerable orientation parallel to the nanoparticle surface. The depletion layer thickness is also analyzed. The chains orient with their longest dimension parallel to the surface of the particles. Their intrinsic shape, as characterized by spans and principal moments of inertia, is found to be a strong function of position relative to the interface. The dispersion of many nanoparticles in the polymeric matrix leads to extension of the chains when their size is similar to the radius of the dispersed particles.     

Measuring the electrophoretic mobility of concentrated suspensions in nonaqueous media

We present a new method of measuring the electrophoretic mobility of a particle in a concentrated suspension. The method is used to measure the electrophoretic mobility of PMMA particles (diameter 10 microm) suspended in a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons. The particle volume fraction of the suspension is varied from 0 up to 0.30 and the resulting variation of the electrophoretic mobility is discussed. The suspending liquid is such that its refractive index is very close to that of the particles. Thus the suspension is almost transparent and it is possible to follow through a microscope the motion of one particle. The suspension is subjected to a low-frequency electric field (0.5 Hz). The cell containing the suspension is mounted on a piezoelectric crystal. The displacement that compensates for the particle motion (when the particle image is steady) is determined.     

Design of a portable gas chromatography with a conducting polymer nanocomposite detector device and a method to analyze a gas mixture

A portable chromatography device and a method were developed to analyze a gas mixture. The device comprises a chromatographic column for separating components of a sample of the gas mixture. It has an air pump coupled to the inlet of a chromatographic column for pumping air and an injector coupled to the inlet of chromatographic column for feeding the sample using the air as a carrier gas. A detector is arranged downstream from and coupled to the outlet of the chromatographic column. The detector is a nanostructure semiconductive microfiber. The device further comprises an evaluation unit arranged and configured to evaluate each detected component to determine the concentration. The designed portable system was used for simultaneous detection of amines. The possibility of applying dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction for the determination of analytes in trace levels is demonstrated. The reproducibility of this method is acceptable, and good standard deviations were obtained. The relative standard deviation value is less than 6% for all analytes. Finally, the method was successfully applied to the extraction and determination of analytes in water samples.     

Oriented Nickel Nanonetworks and Their Submicron Fibres as a Basis for a Transparent Electrically Conductive Coating

The paper demonstrates a technique for applying an oriented nickel network to a glass surface. The method is based on the chemical reduction of nickel salt. The shaping and orientation of the resulting system are carried out using a micellar template of a surfactant and a magnetic field. Submicron nickel fibres are used to impart unity to the plurality of individual-oriented nickel nanonetworks. The result is a single conductive coating on the surface of the glass, which has a transparency in the optical range. Investigations of the structure, chemical composition, morphology and electrical conductivity of the coating were performed.     

Direct coupling of polymer-based microchip electrophoresis to online MALDI-MS using a rotating ball inlet

We report on the coupling of a polymer-based microfluidic chip to a MALDI-TOF MS using a rotating ball interface. The microfluidic chips were fabricated by micromilling a mold insert into a brass plate, which was then used for replicating polymer microparts via hot embossing. Assembly of the chip was accomplished by thermally annealing a cover slip to the embossed substrate to enclose the channels. The linear separation channel was 50 microm wide, 100 microm deep, and possessed an 8 cm effective length separation channel with a double-T injector (V(inj) = 10 nL). The exit of the separation channel was machined to allow direct contact deposition of effluent onto a specially constructed rotating ball inlet to the mass spectrometer. Matrix addition was accomplished in-line on the surface of the ball. The coupling utilized the ball as the cathode transfer electrode to transport sample into the vacuum for desorption with a 355 nm Nd:YAG laser and analyzed on a TOF mass spectrometer. The ball was cleaned online after every rotation. The ability to couple poly(methylmethacrylate) microchip electrophoresis devices for the separation of peptides and peptide fragments produced from a protein digest with subsequent online MALDI MS detection was demonstrated.     

An age-related model derived from ICRP 67 for plutonium dose calculation: Application to an updated case of contamination

The main innovative features of a new model developed for plutonium dose assessments are presented. The physiological assumptions and the improvement of model predictions for plutonium activity in biological samples are discussed. Preliminary results relating to dose calculations and sensitivity analysis are also presented. The model has been applied to a well documented case of contamination. This was the first opportunity to test the new features of the model in a practical case and to show how to apply sensitivity techniques to a complex data set of a contamination case.     

Probing the hydroxyl radical-mediated reactivity of peroxynitrite by a spin-labeling fluorophore.

The decomposition of peroxynitrite at physiological pH yielded a hydroxyl radical, which reacted rapidly with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) to produce a methyl radical (*CH3), which was then trapped by a spin-label fluorophore nitroxide-linked naphthalene (NTEMPO), a carbon-centered radical probe with a low fluorescence intensity, and transformed to a stable diamagnetic O-alkoxyamine, a high-fluorescence compound. The fluorescence increment was proportional to the concentration of the hydroxyl radical, and then to the concentration of peroxynitrite. NTEMPO therefore was demonstrated to be capable of detecting hydroxyl radicals generated from peroxynitrite, and the method was proved to be simple and sensitive. The hydroxyl radical-mediated reactivities of peroxynitrite to several amino acids, such as tyrosine, phenylalanine and histidine, were then evaluated by the spin-labeling fluorophore NTEMPO at pH 7.4 and, 37 degrees C. The obtained data were in good agreement with the reference values, respectively.     

碳化钨与蒙脱石纳米复合材料的制备与电催化活性

具有类铂催化性能的碳化钨(WC)催化材料是当前研究的热点与难点. 本文以六氯化钨为钨源, 用剥离后的蒙脱石片层为载体, 将化学浸渍法与原位还原碳化法技术相结合制备了碳化钨与蒙脱石纳米复合材料; 复合材料由碳化钨、碳化二钨(W₂C)和蒙脱石(MMT)组成, 碳化钨呈颗粒状分散或呈层状负载于MMT外表面; 样品的晶相组成与其还原碳化时间有关; 样品的微结构特征与前驱体中钨与蒙脱石的比例有关. 采用三电极体系和循环伏安法测试了样品在酸性溶液中对甲醇的电催化氧化性能, 结果表明, 碳化钨与蒙脱石复合之后对甲醇的电催化性能明显提升, 并具有类铂电催化活性; 当钨与蒙脱石质量比为4 的前驱体经5 h 还原碳化后, 样品中WC占绝对主导, WC和W₂C的质量分数分别为82%和18%, 两者的比值为4.556, 且在MMT外表面形成均匀的负载层. 此时样品的电催化活性最高. 这为制备具有类铂催化活性的高性能碳化钨催化材料奠定了坚实基础.     

Enzyme-encapsulated silica monolayers for rapid functionalization of a gold surface

We report a simple and rapid method for the deposition of amorphous silica onto a gold surface. The method is based on the ability of lysozyme to mediate the formation of silica nanoparticles. A monolayer of lysozyme is deposited via non-specific binding to gold. The lysozyme then mediates the self-assembled formation of a silica monolayer. The silica formation described herein occurs on a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) gold surface and is characterized by SPR spectroscopy. The silica layer significantly increases the surface area compared to the gold substrate and is directly compatible with a detection system. The maximum surface concentration of lysozyme was found to be a monolayer of 2.6 ng/mm(2) which allowed the deposition of a silica layer of a further 2 ng/mm(2). For additional surface functionalization, the silica was also demonstrated to be a suitable matrix for immobilization of biomolecules. The encapsulation of organophosphate hydrolase (OPH) was demonstrated as a model system. The silica forms at ambient conditions in a reaction that allows the encapsulation of enzymes directly during silica formation. OPH was successfully encapsulated within the silica particles and a detection limit for the substrate, paraoxon, using the surface-encapsulated enzyme was found to be 20 microM.     

UV dosimeters based on neotetrazolium chloride

A novel UV dosimeter is described comprising a tetrazolium dye, neotetrazolium chloride (NTC), dissolved in a film of polymer, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The dosimeter is pale yellow/colourless in the absence of UV light, and turns red upon exposure to UV light. The spectral characteristics of a typical UV dosimeter film and the mechanism through which the colour change occurs are detailed. The NTC UV dosimeter films exhibit a response to UV light that is related to the intensity and duration of UV exposure, the level of dye present in the films and the thickness of the films themselves. The response of the dosimeter is temperature independent over the range 20–40 °C and, like most UV dosimeters, exhibits a cosine-like response dependence upon irradiance angle. The introduction of a layer of a UV-screening compound which slows the rate at which the dosimeter responds to UVR enables the dosimeter response to be tailored to different UV doses. The possible use of these novel dosimeters to measure solar UV exposure dose is discussed.     

Simulation of the flow of polymer blends in convergent channels

The method for the simulation of various cases of collisions between spherical solid particles in suspensions or emulsions (for example, in mixtures of polymers) moving in convergent flows is proposed. These flows arise in many technological schemes for the processing of polymers. The derived formulas make it possible to relate interparticle distances with the dimensions of particles and their volume fraction. The effect of the distribution of particles with respect to their dimensions and distances between them is considered. The flow lines are proposed to be described by two functions: (i) a parabolic dependence for a reservoir and (ii) a logarithmic dependence at a capillary inlet. The height of the conjugation of the above dependences appears to be similar for both flow lines. Under similar conditions, the number of collisions between particles and their rate dramatically increase after passage from a reservoir to a capillary as well as with a decrease in the radius of the particles (at a constant volume fraction). The experiment on microimaging of the frozen emulsion of PMMA in PS at different regions of convergent flow shows a fair qualitative correlation between experimental and calculated data.     

Concise Approach to 1,4-Dioxygenated Xanthones via Novel Application of the Moore Rearrangement

The rapid synthesis of 1,4-dioxygenated xanthones and related natural products employing the Moore rearrangement as a key transformation has been developed. The approach features an acetylide stitching step to unite a substituted squaric acid with a protected hydroxy benzaldehyde derivative to provide a key intermediate that undergoes facile Moore rearrangement to deliver a hydroxymethyl aryl quinone. Subsequent oxidation, hydroxy group deprotection and cyclization then affords highly functionalized xanthones. The utility of the approach was demonstrated by its application to a concise and efficient synthesis of the naturally-occurring xanthone 1. The structure of a natural product that had been named dulcisxanthone C was also corrected to that of the xanthone 1.     

Experimental investigation of contact angle, curvature, and contact line motion in dropwise condensation and evaporation

Image-analyzing interferometry is used to measure the apparent contact angle and the curvature of a drop and a meniscus during condensation and evaporation processes in a constrained vapor bubble (CVB) cell. The apparent contact angle is found to be a function of the interfacial mass flux. The interfacial velocity for the drop during condensation and evaporation is a function of the apparent contact angle and the rate of change of radius of curvature. The dependence of velocity on the apparent contact angle is consistent with Tanner's scaling equation. The results support the hypothesis that evaporation/condensation is an important factor in contact line motion. The main purpose of this article is to present the experimental technique and the data. The equilibrium contact angle for the drop is found experimentally to be higher than that for the corner meniscus. The contact angle is a function of the stress field in the fluid. The equilibrium contact angle is related to the thickness of the thin adsorbed film in the microscopic region and depends on the characteristics of the microscopic region. The excess interfacial free energy and temperature jump were used to calculate the equilibrium thickness of the thin adsorbed film in the microscopic region.     

Numerical Simulation of Mixing in a Micro-well Scale Bioreactor by Computational Fluid Dynamics

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＳｈａｋｅｆｌａｓｋｓａｒｅｕｓｅｄｒｏｕｔｉｎｅｌｙｉｎｔｈｅｐｈａｒｍａｃｅｕ ｔｉｃａｌ,ｂｉｏｃｈｅｍｉｃａｌａｎｄｍｅｄｉｃａｌｆｉｅｌｄｓｆｏｒｃｅｌｌｇｒｏｗｔｈｃｕｌｔｕｒｅ ,ｍｅｄｉａｓｃｒｅｅｎｉｎｇａｎｄｆｏｒｃｅｌｌｅｘｐａｎｓｉｏｎ .Ｓｈａｋｅｆｌａｓｋｆｅｒｍｅｎｔａｔｉｏｎｒｅｑｕｉｒｅｓｒｅｌａｔｉｖｅｌｙｓｍａｌｌａｍｏｕｎｔｓｏｆｍａｔｅｒｉａｌ,ｔｙｐｉｃａｌｌｙｂｅｔｗｅｅｎ 5 0ａｎｄ 5 0 0ｍＬ ,ａｎｄｒｅｌｉｅｓｏｎａｈｏｒｉｚｏｎ…     

Critical behaviour of nematic liquid crystals in oblique magnetic fields

The static critical behaviour of a bulk nematic liquid crystal sample in an oblique magnetic field is analysed. When a magnetic field is applied at a suitable angle alpha with respect to the initially homogeneous nematic director, a spatially inhomogeneous director pattern can be formed. The transition to the deformed state and the formation of walls between the domains resulting from the two equally stable configurations above the transition are studied. The width of the walls is found to diverge at the transition. The critical exponents corresponding to the transition and wall formation are shown to be characteristic of a mean field second order phase transition.     

Long-term lens organ culture system with a method for monitoring lens optical quality

The Scan Tox System is a method for monitoring lens optical quality (focus or lack of focus) in culture conditions, which mimic conditions inside the eye. The ocular lens is an ideal organ for long-term culture experiments because it has no direct blood supply and no connection to the nervous system. The Scan Tox System makes it possible to keep lenses for long-term studies of up to a few weeks. The use of cultured lenses, mainly bovine, replaces the need for testing the effects of potentially damaging agents on live animals. This optical monitoring apparatus uses a computer-operated scanning laser beam, a video-camera system and a video frame analyzer to record the focal length and transmittance of the cultured lens. The scanner is designed to measure the focal length at points across the diameter of the lens. The lens container permits the lens to be exposed to a vertical laser beam from below. The laser source projects its light onto a plain mirror, which is mounted at 45 degrees C on a carriage assembly. The mirror reflects the laser beam directly up through the test lens. The mirror carriage is connected to a positioning motor, which moves the laser beam across the lens. The camera sees the cross section of the beams and, by examining the image at each position of the mirror, Scan Tox software is able to measure the quality of the lens by calculating the back vertex distance for each beam position. The cultured lenses continue to maintain their original refractive function. When foreign substances are introduced to a cultured lens, the Scan Tox System measures the resulting optical response. This provides a very sensitive means to follow early damage to the eye lens. Because the lens is maintained in an intact state in solutions that are similar to those inside the eye, the lens retains its normal recuperative powers. So in addition to measuring early damage, this system allows measurement of recovery from damage.