Swelling Kinetics of PAAm–κ-Carrageenan Composites: A Fluorescence Technique

The steady-state fluorescence (SSF) technique was introduced for studying swelling of disc-shaped polyacrylamide (PAAm) gels containing various amount of κ?carrageenan (κC). They were prepared by free-radical cross-linking copolymerization. N,N^′-methylenebisacrylamide (BIS) and ammonium persulfate (APS) were added as a cross-linker and an initiator, respectively. Composite gels were prepared at 80°C with pyranine as a fluorescence probe. After drying of these gels, swelling kinetics were performed in water at 60°C by real-time monitoring of the pyranine fluorescence intensity, I, which decreased as swelling proceeded. The Li–Tanaka equation was used to determine the swelling time constants, τ ₁, and cooperative diffusion coefficients, D ₀, from fluorescence intensity, weight, and volume variations of the gels during the swelling processes in all cases. It was observed that τ ₁ decreased and D ₀ increased as the κC concentrations in the composites were increased indicating that high κC gels swell faster than low κC gels.     

SiN自由基X2∑+, A2Π和B2∑+ 电子态的光谱常数研究

采用内收缩多参考组态相互作用(MRCI)方法, 结合价态范围内的最大相关一致基aug-cc-pV6Z, 计算了SiN自由基X²∑⁺, A²Π 和B²∑⁺电子态的势能曲线. 采用Davidson修正来避免由于MRCI方法本身的大小一致性缺陷产生的误差. 为了提高计算精度, 进一步考虑了相对论修正和核价相关修正对势能曲线的影响. 本文的相对论修正是利用二阶Douglas-Kroll 哈密顿近似在cc-pV5Z基组水平进行的; 同时核价相关修正是在cc-pCV5Z基组水平进行的. 对这些势能曲线进行拟合, 得到各种水平下三个电子态的光谱常数(T_e, R_e, ω_e, ω_ex_e, α_e和B_e), 并详细分析了Davidson修正、相对论修正和核价相关修正对光谱常数的影响. 与其他理论结果和实验数据进行比较, 可知本文的结果更精确、更完整.     

Sensitivity enhancement in natural-abundance solid-state 33S MAS NMR spectroscopy employing adiabatic inversion pulses to the satellite transitions

The WURST (wideband uniform rate smooth truncation) and hyperbolic secant (HS) pulse elements have each been employed as pairs of inversion pulses to induce population transfer (PT) between the four energy levels in natural abundance solid-state (33)S (spin I=3/2) MAS NMR, thereby leading to a significant gain in intensity for the central transition (CT). The pair of inversion pulses are applied to the satellite transitions for a series of inorganic sulfates, the sulfate ions in the two cementitious materials ettringite and thaumasite, and the two tetrathiometallates (NH(4))(2)WS(4) and (NH(4))(2)MoS(4). These materials all exhibit (33)S quadrupole coupling constants (C(Q)) in the range 0.1-1.0 MHz, with precise C(Q) values being determined from analysis of the PT enhanced (33)S MAS NMR spectra. The enhancement factors for the WURST and HS elements are quite similar and are all in the range 1.74-2.25 for the studied samples, in excellent agreement with earlier reports on HS enhancement factors (1.6-2.4) observed for other spin I=3/2 nuclei with similar C(Q) values (0.3-1.2 MHz). Thus, a time saving in instrument time by a factor up to five has been achieved in natural abundance (33)S MAS NMR, a time saving which is extremely welcome for this important low-gamma nucleus.     

转镜式高速扫描相机时间分辨率的测定

 介绍了产生时间分辨率的原因，测量时间分辨率在高速摄影中的作用，前人曾做过的工作，时间分辨率测定的难点；着重介绍了新的测量方法，给出了实际测定的结果。结果表明，对于GSJ型相机，时间分辨率可达8.6 ns，测量的均方根误差为1.1 ns。     

Kinetics of oxygen exchange in strontium titanate

The kinetics of oxygen exchange are of primary importance for the application of titanates as fast resistive oxygen sensors. The sensor’s conductivity is correlated with the oxygen partial pressure pO₂ of the surrounding atmosphere: Due to oxygen surface transfer and subsequent diffusion of oxygen vacancies V _O ^·· , a pO₂ change gives rise to a conductivity change of the sample. While bulk diffusion usually occurs very fast, the surface transfer reaction becomes the rate determining step for thin samples and for low temperatures. We have shown that in the case of acceptor doped SrTiO₃ the kinetics of the surface transfer reaction can be strongly influenced through stoichiometric changes brought about by thin coatings of alkaline earth metal oxides (e.g. SrO). In contrast to the commonly used jump method (conductivity response to a sudden pO₂ change in the time domain), a model is presented which is based on the frequency-domain analysis of amplitude and phase shift of the response signal obtained from a pO₂ modulation in a fast kinetic measurement set-up. This method allows not only for measuring response times in the sub-millisecond range but also for distinguishing between behaviour either controlled by volume diffusion or by surface transfer reaction. Paper presented at the 9th EuroConference on Ionics, Ixia, Rhodes, Greece, Sept. 15 – 21, 2002.     

Growth atomic mechanisms of pulsed laser deposited La modified- $\mathsf{PbTiO_3}$ perovskites

The microstructure and morphology of 100/001-oriented La modified-PbTiO₃ (PLT) films grown by pulsed laser deposition have been analyzed and elucidated within the framework of morphology evolution models, such as the Dynamic Scaling Theory and Structure Zone Model. The experimental results were obtained from X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and cross-section scanning electron microscopy. PLT grows with a compact columnar microstructure. The columns are formed by coherently grouped grains and show oblique walls and rounded tops. Connecting the experimental results with the morphology evolution models, the growth mechanisms involved in the deposition process were identified. While inside each column, the existing Pb vacancies govern the coarsening and coalescence of the grains, a non-local effect of geometric shadowing of the incident particle flux during growth controls competition between columns and their coarsening.Received: 18 June 2003, Published online: 22 September 2003PACS: 68.55.-a Thin film structure and morphology - 81.15.Fg Laser deposition - 77.84.Dy Niobates, titanates, tantalates, PZT ceramics, etc.E. Vasco: Current address: Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, GermanyC. Polop: Current address: I. Physikalisches Institut, RWTH-Aachen, 52056 Aachen, Germany     

Cold valleys of superheavy elements with deformed targets and projectiles

The dependence of the cold driving potential on the deformation of the incoming target and projectile is investigated in the case of the synthesis of the superheavy nuclei ²⁵⁶No, ²⁸⁶112, ²⁹²114, ²⁹⁶116, and ³⁰⁶122. The occurrence of valleys in the driving potential as a function on the interfragment distance and the mass asymmetry is studied for different fixed orientations of the colliding nuclei such as the pole-pole, pole-equator, equator-equator, and equator-equator-crossed and compared to the case when the nuclei are assumed to be spherical or when the potential is averaged over the orientation.     

Search for neutral, long-lived particles decaying into two muons in pp[over] collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV

We present a search for a neutral particle, pair produced in pp[over] collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV, which decays into two muons and lives long enough to travel at least 5 cm before decaying. The analysis uses approximately 380 pb(-1) of data recorded with the D0 detector. The background is estimated to be about one event. No candidates are observed, and limits are set on the pair-production cross section times branching fraction into dimuons + X for such particles. For a mass of 10 GeV and lifetime of 4x10(-11) s, we exclude values greater than 0.14 pb (95% C.L.). These results are used to limit the interpretation of NuTeV's excess of dimuon events.     

Dynamics and nonlinearities of the BOLD response at very short stimulus durations

In designing a functional imaging experiment or analyzing data, it is typically assumed that task duration and hemodynamic response are linearly related to each other. However, numerous human and animal studies have previously reported a deviation from linearity for short stimulus durations (<4 s). Here, we investigated nonlinearities of blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signals following visual stimulation of 5 to 1000 ms duration at two different luminance levels in human subjects. It was found that (a) a BOLD response to stimulus durations as short as 5 ms can be reliably detected; this stimulus duration is shorter than employed in any previous study investigating BOLD signal time courses; (b) the responses are more nonlinear than in any other previous study: the BOLD response to 1000 ms stimulation is only twice as large as the BOLD response to 5 ms stimulation although 200 times more photons were projected onto the retina; (c) the degree of nonlinearity depends on stimulus intensity; that is, nonlinearities have to be characterized not only by stimulus duration but also by stimulus features like luminance. These findings are especially of most practical importance in rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experimental designs. In addition, an 'initial dip' response--thought to be generated by a rapid increase in cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen metabolism (CMRO2) relative to cerebral blood flow--was observed and shown to colocalize well with the positive BOLD response. Highly intense stimulation, better tolerated by human subjects for short stimulus durations, causes early CMRO2 increase, and thus, the experimental design utilized in this study is better for detecting the initial dip than standard fMRI designs. These results and those from other groups suggest that short stimulation combined with appropriate experimental designs allows neuronal events and interactions to be examined by BOLD signal analysis, despite its slow evolution.     

On the role of the colloidal stability of mesoporous silica nanoparticles as gene delivery vectors

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles have been synthesized and functionalized with four different types of molecules containing amino groups, i.e., with primary amines only, with quaternary amines, with quaternized cyclic amines, or with polyethylenimine (PEI), which is formed by primary, secondary, and tertiary amines. These nanoparticles were then incubated with reporter plasmids and the ability of the resulting complexes to transfect human cells was studied. Only nanoparticles functionalized with PEI were efficient for transfection. The agglomeration behavior and the electrokinetic potential of the nanoparticle–plasmid complexes have been studied, as well as their cell internalization behavior using a fluorescent-labeled plasmid that allows its monitorization by confocal microscopy. The results indicate that the efficiency of PEI-functionalized nanoparticles for transfection resides to some extent in the different characteristics imparted to the nanoparticles regarding agglomeration and surface charge behavior.