Optimization of the liquid scintillation counting technique for the European interlaboratory comparison on gross α/β activity concentrations in water

A liquid scintillation counting (LSC) measurement method optimization for the gross α/β activity analysis in drinking waters with different chemical and radionuclide composition was performed. The optimized method was suitable to provide gross radioactivity results in drinking waters with the levels of the accuracy and precision similar to those obtained using other radioactivity screening techniques. Robust LSC results contributed to the calculation of gross α/β activity reference values of EC-JRC interlaboratory comparison water samples in 2012. Some of the most common errors in the determination of the gross radioactivity using the LSC are presented.

     

Intramolecular noncovalent interactions: Bis(toluene)chromium(0) conformers

The structure of trans- and cis-conformers of bis(toluene)chromium(0) and the intramolecular interactions in them are studied by means of MP2 and density functional theory along with topological and NBO analyses. It was concluded for the first time that the locations of two hydrogen atoms of each methyl group between the phenyl ring planes in the most stable cis-conformer of bis(toluene)chromium(0) are largely determined by the stabilizing interactions of methyl C-H bonds and their hydrogen atoms with the metal atom and chromium-carbon bonds. It was concluded from the obtained data that the C-H...Cr contacts in the studied conformers should be considered as hydrogen bonds rather than agostic interactions. Contrary to the existing conception of the quantum theory of atoms in molecules, repulsive interaction is shown to occur between the pairs of hydrogen atoms of the two methyl groups in bis(toluene)chromium(0) cis-conformers rather than the stabilizing hydrogen-hydrogen interactions.     

Electronic structure and properties of isoelectronic magic clusters: Al13X (X=H,Au,Li,Na,K,Rb,Cs)

The equilibrium structure, stability, and electronic properties of the Al(13)X (X=H,Au,Li,Na,K,Rb,Cs) clusters have been studied using a combination of photoelectron spectroscopy experiment and density functional theory. All these clusters constitute 40 electron systems with 39 electrons contributed by the 13 Al atoms and 1 electron contributed by each of the X (X=H,Au,Li,Na,K,Rb,Cs) atom. A systematic study allows us to investigate whether all electrons contributed by the X atoms are alike and whether the structure, stability, and properties of all the magic clusters are similar. Furthermore, quantitative agreement between the calculated and the measured electron affinities and vertical detachment energies enable us to identify the ground state geometries of these clusters both in neutral and anionic configurations.     

Identification and relative quantification of specific glycation sites in human serum albumin

Glycation (or non-enzymatic glycosylation) is a common non-enzymatic covalent modification of human proteins. Glucose, the highest concentrated monosaccharide in blood, can reversibly react with amino groups of proteins to form Schiff bases that can rearrange to form relatively stable Amadori products. These can be further oxidized to advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Here, we analyzed the glycation patterns of human serum albumin (HSA) in plasma samples obtained from five patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Therefore, glycated peptides from a tryptic digest of plasma were enriched with m-aminophenylboronic acid (mAPBA) affinity chromatography. The glycated peptides were then further separated in the second dimension by RP-HPLC coupled on-line to an electrospray ionization (ESI) tandem mass spectrometer (MS/MS). Altogether, 18 Amadori peptides, encompassing 40% of the HSA sequence, were identified. The majority of the peptides were detected and relatively quantified in all five samples with a high reproducibility among the replicas. Eleven Lys-residues were glycated at similar quantities in all samples, with glycation site Lys₅₄₉ (K_Am(Glc)QTALVELVK) being the most abundant. In conclusion, the established mAPBA/nanoRP-HPLC-ESI-MS/MS approach could reproducibly identify and quantify glycation sites in plasma samples, potentially useful in diagnosis and therapeutic control.     

Topographical distance matrices for porous arrays

The topographical Wiener index is calculated for two-dimensional graphs describing porous arrays, including bee honeycomb. For tiling in the plane, we model hexagonal, triangular, and square arrays and compare with topological formulas for the Wiener index derived from the distance matrix. The normalized Wiener indices of C₄, T₁₃, and O(4), for hexagonal, triangular, and square arrays are 0.993, 0.995, and 0.985, respectively, indicating that the arrays have smaller bond lengths near the center of the array, since these contribute more to the Wiener index. The normalized Perron root (the first eigenvalue, λ ₁), calculated from distance/distance matrices describes an order parameter, f = l₁/n{\phi=\lambda_1/n} , where f = 1{\phi= 1} for a linear graph and n is the order of the matrix. This parameter correlates with the convexity of the tessellations. The distributions of the normalized distances for nearest neighbor coordinates are determined from the porous arrays. The distributions range from normal to skewed to multimodal depending on the array. These results introduce some new calculations for 2D graphs of porous arrays.     

Change in the crystal structure of germanium-containing lithiophosphate upon heating

The crystal structure of lithiophosphate with phosphorus atoms partially replaced by germanium, Li_3.17(P_0.69Ge_0.24Mo_0.07)O₄, at temperatures of 25, 150, 300, 450, and 600°C has been refined by the Rietveld method using powder data. New additional Bragg reflections are observed at T = 600°C, which indicate a change in the crystal structure of this compound.     

AC susceptibility of thin Pb films in intermediate and mixed state

Thin films of type I superconductors of a thickness comparable or less than a flux penetration length behave like type II superconductors in a mixed state. With decreasing film thickness normal domains carrying a magnetic flux get smaller with smaller number of flux quanta per domain and finally transform into single quantum flux lines, i.e. quantum vortices similar to those found in type II superconductors. We give an evidence of this behavior from the measurements of the nonlinear response of a total magnetic moment to an applied AC magnetic field, directly from the temperature dependence of an AC susceptibility.     

Seismic rays as Finsler geodesics

We prove that, in general, for anisotropic nonuniform continua, seismic rays are geodesics in Finsler geometry. In particular, for separable velocity functions, the geometry is Wagnerian. We provide concrete examples with theoretical discussions and introduce the seismic Finsler metric.     

Calibration relations for <Emphasis Type="Italic">B</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">φ</Emphasis></Subscript>-splines of fourth order

We study necessary and sufficient conditions for the smoothness of (not necessarily polynomial) splines of fourth order. We establish the uniqueness of a space of splines of maximal smoothness and prove embeddings on refined grids. We also obtain the corresponding calibration relations. Bibliography: 12 titles.