Winter transport of Chernobyl radionuclides from a montane catchment to an ice-covered lake.

The amounts of 137Cs and 90Sr have been determined in the inflows and outflows of the Norwegian sub-alpine lake, Ovre Heimdalsvatn, in March/April during the period of ice-cover, when discharge is extremely stable. The lake is situated in an area contaminated by Chernobyl fallout. The transported course particulate plant material has been collected in traps; the particles and colloids have been removed from water samples by cross-flow ultrafiltration. On the basis of radionuclide inputs and outputs, lake budget calculations have been made for 137Cs and 90Sr during the period of ice-cover. Daily transport of radionuclides is considerably less than that observed during the spring snowmelt period when discharges are high. Size distribution patterns of Cs and Sr observed during winter are compared with previously published data from the same lake during the spring spate. The retention of 137Cs is similar in winter and spring, but retention of 90Sr is greater in winter.     

Olefin oxygenation by the hydroperoxide adduct of a nonheme manganese(IV) complex: epoxidations by a metallo-peracid produces gentle selective oxidations

The reactive intermediates and mechanisms of oxygenation of olefins by manganese complexes were investigated by treating olefins with newly synthesized [MnIV(Me2EBC)(OH)2](PF6)2 in the presence and absence of peroxide and by studying its catalytic epoxidation reaction in normal aqueous solution and, individually, with isotopically labeled H218O, 18O2, and H218O2. The manganese oxo species is not the reactive intermediate for the oxygen transfer process mediated by this manganese complex. A novel manganese(IV) peroxide intermediate, MnIV(Me2EBC)(O)(OOH)+, was captured by mass spectrometry and is proposed as the intermediate that oxygenates olefins in this catalytic system.     

Evidence for the direct isomerization of a platinocyclobutane to an olefin complex

Dichloro-2,3,3-trimethyl-1-platinocyclobutane,

, prepared by the metathetical reaction of Zeise's dimer and 1,1,2-trimethylcyclopropane, reacts with pyridine in chloroform to produce a platinum complex of 2,3-dimethyl-1-butene

. Reaction of I with pyridine at low temperatures (ca. ?40° C) leads to a pyridine addition compound (III) in which the platinocyclobutane ring remains intact. The thermal isomerization of III, which may be conveniently studied using NMR, produces a mixture of II and the free olefin.     

Preconcentration and Separation Procedures for the Spectrochemical Determination of Platinum and Palladium

Low concentrations of Pt and Pd in industrial (µgg^–1 level) and environmental samples (ngg^–1 level) together with the complexity of the matrix causing many interferences during the determination of noble metals often require elaboration and application of pre-concentration/matrix separation procedures before detection of the analyte. Different pre-concentration/matrix separation procedures applied prior to the determination of Pt and Pd by atomic spectrometric techniques are reviewed and critically compared taking into account potential interferences. The methods studied are divided into 5 groups including precipitation and coprecipitation, liquid–liquid extraction, solid phase extraction, electrochemical pre-concentration and biosorption. The main analytical problems occuring during sample preparation and storage are discussed.     

Hydrophilic Treatment of the Dyed Nylon-6 Fabric using High-density and Extensible Antenna-coupling Microwave Plasma System

High density and well surface-distributed oxygen microwave plasma with an extensible antenna-coupling design was utilized to modify a densely weaved and large-surface-area Nylon-6 fabric within a short treatment time. Plasma pretreatment and subsequent acrylic acid (AAc) or 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) grafting process were studied and optimized at the stage after dyed and finished procedure. The monomer-grafted dyed Nylon-6 fabrics evolved lasting hydrophilic properties and thereafter created or improved surface properties such as water diffusion, drainage, moisture regain and water absorbency, in different degrees. The pHEMA-grafted sample exhibited minor effect in color perception, which was also much hydrophilic than the pAAc-grafted one. Based upon surface analyses and wetting assessment, the penetration of HEMA monomer into the plasma-treated fabric matrix contributed to the facilitation of wetting properties. This work accordingly ensures such plasma-induced system to incorporate with the pattern of hydrophilic properties on the analogous textiles without interrupting their finishing process.     

Ultraviolet protection factors for clothing: an intercomparison of measurement systems

In recent years the need to standardize measurement protocols for quantifying the degree of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) protection provided by clothing has led to the introduction of a number of standards around the world. To date, these standards have specified spectral measurements of UVR transmission by clothing and fabrics. Development of a standard test method has become an important part of the testing process, and this article presents results from an intercomparison involving 10 independent testing laboratories and 11 different UVR transmission measurement instruments. In addition to comparing the measured ultraviolet protection factors (UPF), this intercomparison also incorporates detailed scan results from all 10 laboratories and highlights differences in performance of the various instruments in different wavelength regions. Careful examination of these differences can indicate where changes to the systems could be made to allow improvements both in equipment performance and in agreement of the final results. The variability in the measurements of UPF in this study suggest that the protection categories in standards may need to be broadened.     

Lanczos cluster expansion for non-extensive systems

A cluster expansion of the Lanczos recursion for non-extensive systems is developed based on the plaquette expansion for extensive systems, in which an auxiliary scaling parameter, Ω, plays the role of volume and introduces extensivity into the problem. Connected Hamiltonian moments of the non-extensive system are computed and introduced into the plaquette expansion in the usual way with Ω. The extensive energy is calculated for increasing orders of the expansion in 1/Ω and the ground state and mass gap of the finite few body problem recovered in the limit Ω → ∞. This new non-perturbative method is applied to the case of N bosons interacting harmonically in one dimension and the ground state energy and mass gap in the vacuum sector are calculated exactly.     

Structural refinements of praseodymium and neodymium orthophosphate

The crystal structures of PrPO₄ and NdPO₄ have been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. The structures are isostructural with CePO₄ and LaPO₄, and are monoclinic in space group $\text{P2}{}_1\text{n}$. The cell constants are a = 6.741(3), b = 6.961(4), c = 6.416(3) Å, and β = 103.63(3)° for PrPO₄ and a = 6.722(1), b = 6.933(1), c = 6.390(2) Å, and β = 103.72(2)° for NdPO₄. The least-squares structural refinements of PrPO₄ and NdPO₄ yielded R values of 0.034 and 0.038 based on 810 and 947 unique reflections, respectively. The lanthanide metal atoms are coordinated with nine oxygens and are linked together by very slightly distorted tetrahedral phosphate groups. The nine oxygen atoms ligating the lanthanide atoms form a polyhedron that is best described as a pentagonal interpenetrating tetrahedron.     

The kinetics of oxidative coupling of 2,6-dimethylphenol with a copper-diamine catalyst system

Reaction rate measurements show that a Michaelis-Menten model proposed earlier is inadequate to describe the full course of the polymerization of 2,6-dimethylphenol to poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide). Modification of this model to include the effects of catalyst deactivation during the reaction and difference in reactivity between the monomer and other oligomers resulted in much greater accuracy. The kinetic constants in the modified model were influenced by reaction temperature, system composition, and method of catalyst component addition.     

On the modelling of solid state reactions.Synthesis of YAG

There is a model of yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG) synthesis presented in this article. The developed model is based on nonlinear reaction–diffusion partial differential equations. The solution was carried out numerically using finite difference techniques. We got dependability curves for diffusion and reaction rates and offered possible method to localize values of diffusion and reaction rate constants precisely enough.AMS subject classification: 35K57, 65M06