Etude par effet Mössbauer des composés de type “bronzes fluorés” MxFeF3 (M = K,Rb, Cs,NH4)

The hexagonal, tetragonal and pyrochlore-type nonstoichiometric iron fluorides M_xFeF₃ (M = K, Rb, Cs, NH₄) have been studied by Mössbauer spectroscopy over the temperature range 4.2 to 295 K. The magnetic transition temperatures have been determined. The ferrous and ferric ions remain in discrete oxidation states indicating the absence of charge hopping. The broadened lines of the spectra of the hexagonal and tetragonal phases are consistent with the disordering of Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ in the structure. By contrast, the narrow linewidths of the spectra of the pyrochlore-type phases characterize a structural ordering between the ferrous and ferric ions.     

Construction of a shallow underground low-background detector for a CTBT radionuclide laboratory

The International Monitoring System is a verification component of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, and in addition to a series of radionuclide monitoring stations, contains 16 radionuclide laboratories capable of verification of radionuclide station measurements. This paper presents an overview of a new commercially obtained low-background detector system for radionuclide aerosol measurements recently installed in a shallow (>30 meters water equivalent) underground clean-room facility at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Specifics such as low-background shielding materials and active shielding methods will be covered.     

Surface Roughness and Contact: An Apology

The Greenwood and Williamson theory of contact has been widely accepted, and perhaps does contain the essential feature needed: that asperities should have a height distribution which approximates to a simple exponential in the relevant range of heights. The Gaussian height distribution often found experimentally does indeed approximate to an exponential as required. It appears that Greenwood and Williamson's second assumption, that asperities may be treated as having spherical caps and as being identical except for their heights, is also useful: little is gained by treating the asperities as ellipsoids, or by introducing a distribution of asperity sizes. But a third, tacit, assumption, that 'peaks' on a surface profile – points higher than their immediate neighbours at the sampling interval used – correspond to asperities is quite wrong, and gives a false idea of both the number and the radius of curvature of the asperities. Instead we need to return to the earlier Archard concept that roughness consists of 'protuberances on protuberances on protuberances', and perhaps also to another Archard idea, the paradox that contact may be plastic at light loads but become elastic at heavier loads!     

A Pyridine–Pyridine Cross‐Coupling Reaction via Dearomatized Radical Intermediates

A pyridine–pyridine coupling reaction has been developed between pyridyl phosphonium salts and cyanopyridines using B₂pin₂ as an electron‐transfer reagent. Complete regio‐ and cross‐selectivity are observed when forming a range of valuable 2,4′‐bipyridines. Phosphonium salts were found to be the only viable radical precursors in this process, and mechanistic studies indicate that the process does not proceed through a Minisci‐type coupling involving a pyridyl radical. Instead, a radical–radical coupling process between a boryl phosphonium pyridyl radical and a boryl‐stabilized cyanopyridine radical explains the C?C bond‐forming step.     

Quantum: Einstein,Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality,by Manjit Kumar

The history of absolute measurements of gravity is mentioned and the reasons for making absolute measurements are indicated. The principles and main advantages and difficulties of the main method—reversible pendulum, free fall, symmetrical free motion—are discussed and examples of each method are described. Problems of comparison of different determinations and of estimating systematic errors are considered.     

A cochlear frequency-position function for several species--29 years later

Accurate cochlear frequency-position functions based on physiological data would facilitate the interpretation of physiological and psychoacoustic data within and across species. Such functions might aid in developing cochlear models, and cochlear coordinates could provide potentially useful spectral transforms of speech and other acoustic signals. In 1961, an almost-exponential function was developed (Greenwood, 1961b, 1974) by integrating an exponential function fitted to a subset of frequency resolution-integration estimates (critical bandwidths). The resulting frequency-position function was found to fit cochlear observations on human cadaver ears quite well and, with changes of constants, those on elephant, cow, guinea pig, rat, mouse, and chicken (Békésy, 1960), as well as in vivo (behavioral-anatomical) data on cats (Schucknecht, 1953). Since 1961, new mechanical and other physiological data have appeared on the human, cat, guinea pig, chinchilla, monkey, and gerbil. It is shown here that the newer extended data on human cadaver ears and from living animal preparations are quite well fit by the same basic function. The function essentially requires only empirical adjustment of a single parameter to set an upper frequency limit, while a "slope" parameter can be left constant if cochlear partition length is normalized to 1 or scaled if distance is specified in physical units. Constancy of slope and form in dead and living ears and across species increases the probability that the function fitting human cadaver data may apply as well to the living human ear. This prospect increases the function's value in plotting auditory data and in modeling concerned with speech and other bioacoustic signals, since it fits the available physiological data well and, consequently (if those data are correct), remains independent of, and an appropriate means to examine, psychoacoustic data and assumptions.     

Estimating the inter-arrival time density of Markov renewal processes under structural assumptions on the transition distribution

We consider a stationary Markov renewal process whose inter-arrival time density depends multiplicatively on the distance between the past and present state of the embedded chain. This is appropriate when the jump size is governed by influences that accumulate over time. Then we can construct an estimator for the inter-arrival time density that has the parametric rate of convergence. The estimator is a local von Mises statistic. The result carries over to the corresponding semi-Markov process.     

The electronic spectrum of gaseous SnS

Observations of the spectrum of SnS excited in chemiluminescence have led to the characterization of two low-lying excited states of SnS, $\text{a}\text{Ω}\text{1(}{}^3\text{Σ}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{)}$, with T_e = 18 143.9 cm^?1, and $\text{A0}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{(}{}^3\text{Π}\text{)}$, with T_e = 22 021.3 cm^?1. Extended rotational analyses of the perturbed bands observed in the absorption spectrum enable assignments to be suggested for the components $\text{Ω}\text{0}{}^{\mathrm{+}}$ and 1 of ³Σ^? and $\text{Ω}\text{1}$ of ³Π.     

Modelling mutagenicity using properties calculated by computational chemistry

The recent advances in combinatorial chemistry and high throughput screening technologies have led to an explosion in the numbers of possible therapeutic candidates being produced at the early stages of drug discovery. This rapid increase in the number of chemicals to be classified results in a greater need for alternative methods for the prediction of toxicity. Most QSAR models for mutagenicity have been constructed for congeneric series. The prediction requirements of the pharmaceutical industry, however, cover quite diverse chemical structures. This paper reports a study of mutagenicity data for a diverse set of 90 compounds. Good discriminant models have been built for this data set using properties calculated by the techniques of computational chemistry. Jack-knifed (leave one out) predictions for these models are of the order of 85%.