Emulsion stability and potassium leakage in emulsion liquid membrane systems

Potassium leakage was studied in liquid membrane systems containing various emulsifiers and compared with emulsion, stability in the storage test. The effects of various parameters upon emulsion stability and the leakage of standard traces are discussed. The transfer of cations can be caused by emulsion breaking, by transport with the specific carrier and/or with surfactants used as emulsifiers. The latter case becomes especially important when hydrophilic surfactants, e.g. ones containing polyoxyethylene chains, are present in liquid membranes. In systems containing hydrophobic emulsifiers the transfer of potassium is relatively low. In each case considered the effect of emulsifiers upon the transfer of the standard tracer should be checked prior to using the leakage test to characterize emulsion stability.     

Compact,wide aperture X-ray preionized XeCl laser with high specific optical power

An X-ray preionized, discharge-pumped XeCl laser with a variable beam cross-section of up to 6×6 cm² is described. It uses flat electrodes and the beam width is determined by X-ray collimation. Its operation characteristics concerning reduced electric field strength (E/p) and X-ray dose are discussed in detail. The inductance of the discharge loop is minimized using a water capacitor arrangement. A very high specific optical power (90 MW/l) is achieved in an active volume of 1.2 l. The pulse energy exceeds 5 J in a 45 ns pulse (FWHM). Komatsu Ltd., Manda 1200, Hiratsuka-shi, Kanagawa 254, Japan Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Department of Plasma Physics, Academia Sinica, Shanghai, P.R. China     

Ozone production in oxygen by means of F2-laser irradiation at λ=157.6 nm

Ozone is generated in pure oxygen (p5 kPa), synthetic air (p7 kPa) and oxygen-argon mixtures (p3 kPa) by irradiation of these gases with the VUV light of a repetitively pulsed (f _L15 Hz) F₂-laser at =157.6 nm with maximum about 4 mJ/pulse. An absorption photometer measurement operating at 253.7 nm (Hg line) determines the ozone concentration as a function of oxygen and/or additive gas pressure, the repetition frequency of the laser and the wall temperature of the reaction chamber. The temporal development of the ozone concentration as a function of these parameters is calculated by means of rate equations for the species O(³ P), O₂(X ³ _g ^– ), O₃(¹ A ₁), O(¹ D), O₂(a ¹_g), O₂(b ¹ _g ⁺ ) and vibrationally excited O ₃ ^* (¹ A ₁) and the photon distribution. The maximum concentration of O₃ in the sealed-off chamber reaches 1.6% in pure O₂, 4.1% in air and 1.2% in a 1:5 O₂-Ar mixture at 3 kPa. The annihilation of O₃ by the wall and temperature dependent volume processes (300 KT395 K) is studied and the experimental and theoretical results are compared.     

XPS investigations of ink‐jet printed paper

Different ink‐jet printed paper materials were investigated using X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) yielding the elemental composition of the near‐surface region of the papers. We found significant differences with respect to the detected elements and their atomic concentrations in the different inks studied here. Two different groups of inks could be identified by means of a lower ratio of the O and C atomic concentrations and lower concentrations in specific trace elements like Mg, Na and Si. High‐resolution spectra of C 1s and O 1s core levels allowed a detailed determination of the chemical state of the respective elements. On the basis of a detailed deconvolution of these XPS signals, significant differences between all the investigated ink‐jet printed papers were found, thereby allowing their discrimination. The applicability of the measurements and, more generally, the XPS technique for forensic investigations of paper are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enhancing calibration models for non-invasive near-infrared spectroscopical blood glucose determination

Partial least-squares regression (PLS) and radial basis function (RBF) networks are used to compute calibration models for non-invasive blood glucose determination by NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. A model computation shows that even extremely small deviations of the spectra induce increased prediction errors. Since the spectral contribution of blood glucose is much smaller than deviations resulting from the non-invasive measuring process a method based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient can be used for evaluating the quality of the recorded spectra during the prediction step. Another method is based on the leverage values from the hat matrix of the RBF network. Both methods lead to a significant decrease in prediction error.     

Many-cluster-systems: models of inhomogeneous matter

First, some general remarks concerning macroscopic “cluster matter” are given. In the second part, three recent, mainly optically and electron-microscopically performed investigations are discussed which deal with special properties of noble metal cluster systems forming the building units of this kind of matter:(1) dressed Au-55 clusters,(2) electromagnetic coupling effects among coagulated clusters,(3) the transition towards compact inhomogeneous matter caused by coalescence of clusters.     

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