Separation of screw-sensed particles in a homogeneous shear field

The Stokes motions of three-dimensional screw-sensed slender particles in a homogeneous shear field are investigated, including the effects of buoyancy. Conclusions are drawn about the possibility of achieving a separation of mixtures of right- and left-handed particles. The linearity of the Stokes equations allows complex flows to be solved by adding the effects of the several terms which describe the flow in which the particle is immersed. The homogeneous shear flow considered here consists of three such terms; solutions for a series of 12 unit motions are sufficient to determine the hydrodynamic resistance tensors. The forces and torques experienced by screw-sensed particles are calculated from these 51 resistance tensors, using slender-filament theory. The results allow an estimate of the range of buoyancy parameters for which gravitational sedimentation can be neglected. The fundamental component of the particle motion is a rotation, at approximately the same angular velocity as that of the fluid. Superimposed on this are variations, of large period, in the particle orientation. A phase plane analysis is used to find the terminal orientations. Very long calculation times are required for the phase portrait. An approximate method based on azimuthally-averaged equations is developed to avoid the requirements for long time integration.     

Analysis of barbiturates in human serum and urine by high-performance capillary electrophoresis-micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography with on-column multi-wavelength detection

The analysis of barbiturates in human serum (or plasma) and urine by high-performance capillary electrophoresis-electrokinetic capillary chromatography with on-column fast-scanning multi-wavelength detection is discussed. The use of a buffer of ca. pH 8 and containing sodium dodecyl sulphate provides a medium suitable for fast and high-resolution separations of barbiturates. Seven barbiturates are characterized by their retention and absorption spectra between 195 and 320 nm. Comparison of these computer-stored data with those of unknown samples is shown to allow the identification of barbiturates in samples of patients undergoing pharmacotherapy and in toxicological urine and serum specimens. Three-dimensional electropherograms provide reliable information on the requirement and suitability of sample pretreatment procedures. With urine, extraction of barbiturates prior to analysis is necessary. With human serum several barbiturates, including phenobarbital, are shown to elute in an interference-free window in front of uric acid and the proteins, allowing these substances to be determined by direct sample injection. The need for multi-wavelength detection over a relatively wide wavelength range as a means of peak confirmation in electrokinetic capillary analyses is demonstrated and limitations of this technique for compounds with similar retention behaviour and absorption spectra are discussed.     

The inclusion of electrostatic and dispersion interactions into potentials of mean torque for solutes dissolved in uniaxial liquid crystal solvents

A potential of mean torque is derived for a solute at infinite dilution in a uniaxial liquid crystal solvent, which contains terms originating from the dispersion interaction, and the electrostatic interaction between quadrupole moments on both molecules. It is shown that the electrostatic term is non-zero only if the solute-solvent vectors are distributed with lower than spherical symmetry. If this distribution has cylindrical symmetry then both the electrostatic and dispersion terms in the potential of mean torque are shown to depend on order parameters for the orientational distribution of the solute-solvent vectors, as well as on the order parameters of the solvent molecules.     

Dielectric relaxation of a short molecule in a liquid-crystalline solvent

Dielectric relaxation measurements of 5 mole % 4-n-hexyloxycyanobenzene (I) dissolved in 4-n-pentyloxyphenyl-trans-4-n-octylcyclohexylcarboxylate (II) were carried out from 1 kHz to 10 MHz in the nematic, smectic A and smectic B phases. The relaxation frequency of I parallel to the director is about 05 MHz in the S_Bphase and increases rapidly at the transition from S_B to S_A.     

Capabilities and limits of ICP-MS for direct determination of element traces in saline solutions

An ICP-MS method for the determination of ultra-traces of 24 Elements (Li, Be, Mg, Al, Cr, Mn, Co, Zn, Cu, Ga, As, Se, Rb, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sn, Sb, Ba, Tl, Pb, Bi, U) at ng/L to μg/L levels in highly saline solutions (up to 30 g/L NaCl) was developed. Calculated to the salt content of the samples, limits of detection at the sub-μg/kg level were obtained. This allows the measurement of samples like sea water, or clinical samples like urine, serum and whole blood, with few or without sample preparation and a drastic improvement to the limits of detection. Compared to the determination in solutions of 1 g/L NaCl the limits of detection in the original sample were improved by one order of magnitude. Improvements in instrumental stability are achieved by the use of an additional gas, that is introduced to the aerosol stream and avoids salt deposition in the aerosol tube of the torch, the use of High Matrix Content (HMC) cones, that show no clogging even at NaCl-concentrations up to 50 g/L. With this setup the long term stability for measurements with changing matrix concentrations is < 10% without and < 5% with use of an internal standard for the individual samples. Cleaning up is necessary after 2 days of operation. The direct analysis of the Nearshore Seawater Reference Material NRC-CNRC CASS3 showed a good agreement with the certified and measured concentrations. Elements, that do not suffer from an isobaric overlap of matrix compounds can be determined clearly at ng/L levels. Measurement of different matrix concentrations showed, that acceptable results can be achieved with a single calibration for concentrations from 5 g/L NaCl to 30 g/L NaCl, though matrix matching shows the best results.     

Hamiltonian circle actions on symplectic manifolds and the signature

Let M be a symplectic manifold with a Hamiltonian circle action with isolated fixed points. We prove that σ (M) = b₀(M) − b₂(M) + b₄(M) − b₆(M) + … where σ (M) is the signature of M and b_i(M) is the ith Betti number of M.     

Electronic phase separation in a low-temperature tetragonal phase of lanthanum-strontium cuprates according to 139La NQR data

A nonuniform electron density distribution is observed in La_{1−x− y} Nd_ySr_xCuO₄ and La_1−x−y Eu_ySr_xCuO₄, and long-lived magnetic fluctuations in these compounds are studied. The dynamics of the magnetic fluctuations depends strongly on the magnetic properties of the rare-earth ions, which stabilize the low-temperature tetragonal phase. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 67, No. 5, 344–349 (10 March 1998)     

Energy transfer between the flavin chromophores of electron-transferring flavoprotein fromMegasphaera elsdenii as inferred from time-resolved red-edge and blue-edge fluorescence spectroscopy

Both a mode-locked argon-ion laser and synchrotron radiation were used as excitation sources to obtain time-resolved polarized fluorescence of the two FAD cofactors in electron transferring flavoprotein fromMegasphaera elsdenii. Red-edge excited and blue-edge detected fluorescence anisotropy decay curves did not contain a fast relaxation process which was observed upon mainband excitation and detection. This relaxation was assigned to homo-energy transfer between the two FAD cofactors. Failure of energy transfer as observed with edge spectroscopy on this protein excludes restricted reorientational motion of the flavins as a possible mechanism of depolarization. From the global analysis of the fluorescence anisotropy decay surface obtained at multiple excitation and detection wavelengths, the distance between and the relative orientation of the flavins could be estimated. The methodology described has general applicability in other multichromophoric biopolymers and has the potential to acquire accurate geometrical parameters in these systems.