Gamma-ray spectra and sensitivities for 2.8 MeV neutron activation analysis

The use of 2.8 MeV neutrons produced by the D(d, n)³He reaction should be taken into consideration in some applications of radioactivation analysis. The low number of elements activable by these neutrons makes possible to minimize the matrix interference and the background below the characteristic photopeaks. The very low dead-time of the spectrometric measurements permits the use of the maximum neutron flux available now and in the future. The purpose of this paper is to define experimentally the sensitivity of determination for the 16 main elements activable with a 400 keV Van de Graaff accelerator at a 2.8 MeV neutron flux of 2·10⁶ n·cm⁻²·sec⁻¹ on the sample.     

Dynamics of traveling waves in the transverse section of a laser

We analyze the general features of the formation and interaction of transverse traveling waves and the appearance of filamentation in broad area semiconductor lasers with current profiling. For small apertures, the emitted profile is symmetric consisting of two counterpropagating transverse traveling waves, both emanating from the center of the device. For larger apertures, the emission becomes asymmetric as one of the traveling waves expands to occupy an increased area while the other occupies the remaining, smaller spatial region. In both devices, the pattern becomes unstable at higher injection currents due to optical filamentation, although an intermediate state is present in the wider device whereby the dominant wave undergoes a Hopf bifurcation before filamentation occurs.     

Optical spin hall effect

A remarkable analogy is established between the well-known spin Hall effect and the polarization dependence of Rayleigh scattering of light in microcavities. This dependence results from the strong spin effect in elastic scattering of exciton polaritons: if the initial polariton state has a zero spin and is characterized by some linear polarization, the scattered polaritons become strongly spin polarized. The polarization in the scattered state can be positive or negative dependent on the orientation of the linear polarization of the initial state and on the direction of scattering. Very surprisingly, spin polarizations of the polaritons scattered clockwise and anticlockwise have different signs. The optical spin Hall effect is possible due to strong longitudinal-transverse splitting and finite lifetime of exciton polaritons in microcavities.     

Three-dimensional recomposition of the absorption field inside a nonbuoyant sooting flame

A remote scanning retrieval method was developed to investigate the soot layer produced by a laminar diffusion flame established over a flat plate burner in microgravity. Experiments were conducted during parabolic flights. This original application of an inverse problem leads to the three-dimensional recomposition by layers of the absorption field inside the flame. This technique provides a well-defined flame length that substitutes for other subjective definitions associated with emissions.     

Detection of acoustic waves by NMR using a radiofrequency field gradient

A B(1) field gradient-based method previously described for the detection of mechanical vibrations has been applied to detect oscillatory motions in condensed matter originated from acoustic waves. A ladder-shaped coil generating a quasi-constant RF-field gradient was associated with a motion-encoding NMR sequence consisting in a repetitive binomial 13;31; RF pulse train (stroboscopic acquisition). The NMR response of a gel phantom subject to acoustic wave excitation in the 20-200 Hz range was investigated. Results showed a linear relationship between the NMR signal and the wave amplitude and a spectroscopic selectivity of the NMR sequence with respect to the input acoustic frequency. Spin displacements as short as a few tens of nanometers were able to be detected with this method.     

Concentration of sodium ion as the determining factor for the association of dansyl amino acids with the teicoplanin molecule in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

The mechanism of the binding of D,L dansyl amino acids to teicoplanin was investigated. Na+ was used as an indicator of the interactions between the solutes and teicoplanin. The number (n) of sodium ions, Na+, excluded from the solute-teicoplanin interface when analyte transfer occurred was determined. A thermodynamic study and enthalpy-entropy compensation were performed to further explore the interaction mechanism. From these results, it was shown that teicoplanin was balanced between 2 conformational states characterized by distinct enantioselective properties. This approach indicates that liquid chromatography (LC) is a useful tool to extract physicochemical and molecular information from retention data. Thus, LC can be used as a complementary technique with the conventional techniques of molecular interaction analysis.     

N-3 alkylation of uracils with unprotected amino alcohols using the Mitsunobu reaction

During our search for novel CGRP antagonists, we had great difficulty in accessing one of our key motifs. Herein, we communicate how we solved the problem by an unprecedented Mitsunobu alkylation using unprotected amino alcohols.     

Site-specific ligation of anthracene-1,8-dicarboxylates to an Mn12 core: a route to the controlled functionalisation of single-molecule magnets

A novel single-molecule magnet of the Mn12 family, [Mn12O12(O2CC6H5)8(L)4(H2O)4].8CH2Cl2, has been synthesised by site-specific ligand exchange using a tailor-made dicarboxylate (L2-), which leads to selective occupation of axial binding sites.     

Synthesis, structure and magnetic properties of chiral and nonchiral transition-metal malates

Carboxylate-bridged complexes of transition metals, M(II)=Mn(II), Fe(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Zn(II), were synthesised by reaction of M(II) salts with dl-malate and L-malate under hydrothermal conditions. These complexes form four series of compounds, which have been fully characterised structurally, thermally and magnetically. The crystal structures of the new chiral compounds, [Mn(L-mal)(H(2)O)] (1), [Fe(L-mal)(H(2)O)] (2), [Co(L-mal)(H(2)O)] (3) and [Zn(L-mal)(H(2)O)] (4) as well as those of the bimetallic analogues [Mn(0.63)Co(0.37)(L-mal)(H(2)O)] (5) and [Mn(0.79)Ni(0.21)(L-mal)(H(2)O)] (6) have been solved by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The six L-malate monohydrates crystallise in the chiral space group P2(1)2(1)2(1) and consist in a three-dimensional network of metal(II) centres in octahedral sites formed by oxygen atoms. These structures were compared to those of the chiral trihydrate compounds [Co(L-mal)(H(2)O)]2 H(2)O (7), [Ni(L-mal)(H(2)O)]2 H(2)O (8) and [Co(0.52)Ni(0.48)(L-mal)(H(2)O)]2 H(2)O (9), which exhibit helical chains of M(II) centres, and those of dl-malate dihydrates [Co(dl-mal)(H(2)O)]H(2)O (10) and [Ni(dl-mal)(H(2)O)H(2)O (11) and trihydrate [Mn(L-mal)(H(2)O)]2 H(2)O (12) highlighting the great flexibility of the coordination by the malate ligand. UV/Vis spectroscopic results are consistent with octahedral coordination geometry of high-spin transition-metal centres. Extensive magnetic characterisation of each homologous series indicates rather weak coupling interaction between paramagnetic centres linked through carboxylate bridges. Curie-like paramagnetic, antiferromagnetic, ferromagnetic or weak ferromagnetic behaviour is observed and discussed on the basis of the structural features. The bimetallic compounds 5 and 6 represent new examples of chiral magnets.     

Deterministic solution of the kinetic theory model of colloidal suspensions of structureless particles

A direct modeling of colloidal suspensions consists of calculating trajectories of all suspended objects. Due to the large time computing and the large cost involved in such calculations, we consider in this paper another route. Colloidal suspensions are described on a mesoscopic level by a distribution function whose time evolution is governed by a Fokker–Planck-like equation. The difficulty encountered on this route is the high dimensionality of the space in which the distribution function is defined. A novel strategy is used to solve numerically the Fokker–Planck equation circumventing the curse of dimensionality issue. Rheological and morphological predictions of the model that includes both direct and hydrodynamic interactions are presented in different flows.