Explosion hazards of ion exchange resin mixed with perchloric acid

On January 21, 2003, an explosion occurred while ion exchange resin (IER) was being used to separate impurities from uranium solution. To clarify the cause of the accident and go/no-go criteria of the explosion, elemental analysis of the IER, DSC analysis, and SIKAREX analysis (a screening tool for runaway reactions) were performed. Finally, experiments on the same scale as the accident were conducted in an explosion chamber. When HClO₄ was added to IER-NO₃, the IER violently exploded without any heating nor metal ions such as uranium. It was confirmed that the accident was caused by an incorrect procedure in the chemical process. From the standpoint of explosion safety, IER-NO₃ in particular should be kept away from perchloric acid in the laboratory.     

Effects of physiological factors on the bioavailability of ethyl 2-chloro-3-[4-(2-methyl-2-phenylpropyloxy)phenyl]propionate in an emulsion in rats

The main absorption site of ethyl 2-chloro-3-[4-(2-methyl-2-phenylpropyloxy)phenyl]propionate (AL-294) in rats was the upper portion of the small intestine. Both AL-294 and AL-294 acid (2-chloro-3-[4-(2-methyl-2-phenylpropyloxy)phenyl]propionic acid), a hydrolyzed form of AL-294, were absorbed in a smaller quantity under the bile fistula condition (pancreatic juice and bile were excluded). Compared with the absorption of AL-294 as an emulsion under the sham operation condition, the absorption of AL-294 as the emulsion decreased under the condition where only pancreatic juice was excluded. The bioavailability under this condition was very similar to that under the bile fistula condition, whereas the absorption of AL-294 acid did not decrease when the pancreatic juice was excluded. From these results, the absorption mechanism of AL-294 is considered as follows: AL-294 was hydrolyzed to AL-294 acid by lipase in pancreatic juice, then AL-294 acid was solubilized with bile salts to form mixed micelles in the intestinal lumen. AL-294 acid from this form was easily absorbed into the systemic circulation. Absorption of AL-294 increased when the particle size of the emulsion was smaller. The reason was assumed to be that the smaller particle size offered the greater oil-water interface for lipase activity against AL-294.     

Finiteness of polyhedral decompositions of cusped hyperbolic manifolds obtained by the Epstein-Penner's method

Epstein and Penner give a canonical method of decomposing a cusped hyperbolic manifold into ideal polyhedra. The decomposition depends on arbitrarily specified weights for the cusps. From the construction, it is rather obvious that there appear at most a finite number of decompositions if the given weights are slightly changed. However, since the space of weights is not compact, it is not clear whether the total number of such decompositions is finite. In this paper we prove that the number of polyhedral decompositions of a cusped hyperbolic manifold obtained by the Epstein-Penner's method is finite.

     

Local crack tip strain behavior during fatigue crack initiation and propagation in polycarbonate

To investigate whether the two fatigue processes of crack initiation and propagation can be combined, the change of local notch root strain and its history, as well as the change of local crack tip strain and the local strain history, of a fatigued element ahead of the propagating crack tip up to failure in a polycarbonate subjected to low-cycle fatigue tests are measured by the fine grid method. As a result, the existence of a unified local strain field in which the two fatigue processes can be substantially combined is experimentally confirmed. Therefore, the local crack tip strain may be examined by a simpler, one-parameter approach for fatigue life estimation.     

Isolation of ethanol from its aqueous solution by liquid phase adsorption and gas phase desorption using molecular sieving carbon

A novel bioethanol separation process was proposed in this study employing molecular sieving carbon (MSC) as an adsorbent, whose pore diameter is close to molecular size of ethanol. In the proposed process, fermentation broth is first introduced to the adsorption bed packed with MSC. In this step, ethanol is selectively adsorbed onto MSC, with highly enriching ethanol in the micropore of MSC. Subsequently, the concentrated ethanol is desorbed from MSC to gaseous phase, resulting in further purification of ethanol owing to a considerable difference in desorption rate between water and ethanol; Because of molecular sieving effect of MSC, the desorption rate of ethanol is much smaller than that of water. To establish this process, adsorption equilibrium and kinetics of ethanol on various MSCs were investigated in aqueous phase as the first step. Also, desorption kinetics of ethanol and water in gaseous phase were investigated. As a result, it was suggested that highly concentrated ethanol could be obtained with high recovery ratio through these simple operations, meaning the proposed process is quite promising.     

Towards single cell heat shock response by accurate control on thermal confinement with an on-chip microwire electrode

Metal electrodes with micron scale width enable the heating of less than a dozen cells in a confluent layer at predictable temperatures up to 85 °C with an accuracy of ±2 °C. Those performances were obtained by a preliminary robust temperature calibration based on biotin-rhodamine fluorescence and by controlling the temperature map on the substrate through thermal modeling. The temperature accuracy was proved by inducing the expression of heat shock proteins (HSP) in a few NIH-3T3 cells through a confined and precise temperature rise. Our device is therefore effective to locally induce a heat shock response with almost single-cell resolution. Furthermore, we show that cells heated at a higher temperature than the one of heat shock remain alive without producing HSP. Electrode deposition being one of the most common engineering processes, the fabrication of electrode arrays with a simple control circuit is clearly within reach for parallel testing. This should enable the study of several key mechanisms such as cell heat shock, death or signaling. In nanomedicine, controlled drug release by external stimuli such as for example temperature has attracted much attention. Our device could allow fast and efficient testing of thermoactivable drug delivery systems.     

Inelastic scattering on 12Be and disappearance of the N = 8 magic number

Experimental studies on in-beam γ-ray spectroscopy using a ¹²Be radioactive beam are presented. Inelastic scattering of the neutron-rich ¹²Be nucleus on ²⁰⁸Pb, ¹²C, and (CH₂)_n targets has been studied by measuring de-excitation γ-rays in coincidence with scattered particles. The level schemes and transition probabilities are determined for low-lying excited states in ¹²Be. The present paper presents a brief review of the spectroscopic results, which may be associated with the N = 8 shell quenching near the drip line. Received: 1 May 2001 / Accepted: 4 December 2001     

Comment on an anomalous mean free path of heed for plasmon excitation

Several possibilities to interpret an anomalous mean free path of HEED for plasmon excitation are discussed. It is pointed out that more detail analysis in experiments should be necessary to conclude such anomaly.     

Correction method for X-ray fluorescent determination of chromium in high-alloy steels and nickel-base alloys

Summary A new interelement correction method has been developed for the X-ray fluorescent determination of chromium in high-alloy steels and nickel-base alloys. The calibration equation which was derived from the JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) model is applicable over wide ranges of compositions by preparation of only Fe-Cr binary standards.The new approach gave better accuracy than that based on Rasberry-Heinrich correction model. The accuracies (_d) were 0.08% for high-alloy steels and 0.14% for nickel-base alloys.

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Korrekturmethode für die röntgenfluorescenzspektrometrische Bestimmung von Chrom in hochlegierten Stählen und Nickellegierungen

Zusammenfassung Die Eich-Gleichung für das neue Korrekturverfahren wurde vom JIS-Modell (Japanese Industrial Standards) abgeleitet und ist über einen weiten Bereich von Zusammensetzungen durch Herstellung von lediglich binären Fe-Cr-Standards einsetzbar. Das beschriebene Verfahren bietet eine bessere Genauigkeit als die Methode nach dem Korrekturmodell von Rasberry-Heinrich. Sie betrug 0,08% für hochlegierte Stähle und 0,14% für Nickellegierungen.