LAXS investigation of finger phantoms

Osteoporosis is a bone condition that is caused mainly by the degradation of trabecular and cortical bone resulting in the decrease of bone strength and eventually leads to bone fracture. A low angle X-ray scattering (LAXS) system that uses mainly the coherent scattering process for the characterisation of materials was constructed to study such bone conditions. Several finger phantoms were fabricated to simulate bone of varying densities. The LAXS method was able to identify the changes in bone density quite well by comparing energy dispersive X-ray diffraction patterns as well as the angular patterns. Quantitative information can be extracted from such patterns that relate to bone loss. Signature patterns at low exposure times were produced in order to reduce the dose received with reasonable identification power but at slightly higher statistical errors compared with long exposure patterns. Use of other parameters to increase the sensitivity was attempted.     

Synthesis and characterization of polystyrene‐graphite nanocomposites via surface RAFT‐mediated miniemulsion polymerization

Graphite oxide (GO) was prepared and immobilized with dodecyl isobutyric acid trithiocarbonate (DIBTC) reversible addition‐fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) agent. The hydroxyl groups of GO were attached to the DIBTC RAFT agent through an esterification process. The resultant modified GO was used for the preparation of polystyrene (PS)/graphite nanocomposites in miniemulsion polymerization. The RAFT‐grafted GO (GO‐DIBTC) at various loadings was dispersed in styrene monomer, and the resultant mixtures were sonicated in the presence of a surfactant (sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate) and a hydrophobe (hexadecane) to form miniemulsions. The stable miniemulsions thus obtained were polymerized using azobisisobutyronitrile as the initiator to yield encapsulated PS‐GO nanocomposites. The molar mass and polydispersity index of PS in the nanocomposites depended on the amount of RAFT‐grafted GO in the system, in accordance with the features of the RAFT polymerization method. The PS‐GO nanocomposites were of exfoliated morphology, as confirmed by X‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy measurements. The thermal stability and mechanical properties of the PS‐GO nanocomposites were better than those of the neat PS polymer. Furthermore, the mechanical properties were dependent on the modified GO content (i.e., the amount of RAFT‐grafted GO). © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011     

Pore growth in heavy ion-irradiated PET foils using a constructed ECE unit

A well performance Electrolytic Controlled Etching (ECE) unit has been designed and constructed in our laboratory. Low electric field strength of few volts and a 2 kHz wave signals has been applied across the electrodes that confined the 9 and 12 μm thick PET foils in the ECE unit. PET foils were exposed to fission fragments (FF_S) using ²⁵²Cf source. The dependence of different measurable parameters such as FF_S fluence (Φ), applied voltage (V), etching temperature (T) and etching concentration (C) on both track etch rate (V _T) and breakthrough time (T _B) have extensively been studied using the FF_S-irradiated PET foils. Various empirical relationships connecting the results of the present work have been extracted. Moreover, the constructed ECE technique has proven to be an encouraged time saving method in the development of trusting measurements comparing with others that might involve expensive sophisticated tools.     

High Energy Nucleus–Nucleus Collisions in View of the Multi-Peripheral Model

The hypothesis of the ulti-peripheral odel is extended to the hadron –nucleus interactions and then generalized to the nucleus –nucleus case. The processing of the odel depends on input parameters that are extracted fro the features of the experiments in this .eld.The number of encountered nucleons from both target and projectile are estimated according to the eikonal scattering approach.The screening effect due to the interaction of the projectile nucleons in successive manner with the target nucleus is considered.The rapidity distributions of fast particles are reproduced for the successive collisions in p –S and 32 S –32 S interactions at 200 A GeV.A global fair agreement is found in comparison with data of the experi ent CERN-NA-035.     

Structural,optical and electrical properties of undoped and Si-doped AlxGa1−xN thin films on Si (1 1 1) substrate grown by PA-MBE

We have studied the structural properties of undoped and Si-doped Al_xGa_1?xN/GaN/AlN on Si (1 1 1) substrate prepared by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE) using high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). In comparison with undoped AlGaN, the roughness and dislocation density on the surface of the AlGaN layer decrease with Si doping. Full width half maximum (FWHM) of the undoped and Si-doped samples were equal to 0.69° and 0.52°, respectively. This indicates that the Si doping improves the crystalline quality of the Al_xGa_1?xN layer compared with the undoped one. Raman scattering measurement reveals that the optical phonon modes of A₁(LO) and E₂(H) of the AlGaN show a one-mode and two-modes behavior, respectively. The Fourier-transform infrared reflectance (FTIR) investigation confirms the one-mode (two-mode) behavior of the LO (TO) phonon in our samples. This is in good agreement with Raman measurement. Finally, the barrier height (Φ_B) of undoped and Si-doped Al_xGa_1?xN samples was found to be 0.86 and 0.74 eV, respectively.     

Discrete Valuations Extend to Certain Algebras of Quantum Type

So-called “quantized” algebras are popular objects of study in non-commutative algebra. Usually such algebras are either positively graded Ore domains R with R ₀ = K a field and R = K[R ₁], R ₁ being a finite dimensional K vectorspace, or else filtered rings having a ring of forementioned type for its associated graded ring. We show that every discrete valuation of K extends to a valuation, in the sence of O. Schilling (cf. [S]), of the skewfield of fractions, Δ = Q_cl (R), of the Ore domain R (Proposition 2.3. and Corollary 2.8.). Such extension property has long been known to fail for finite dimensional skewfields over K; its validity in the case of several quantized algebras may be viewed as a consequence of the rigidity of their defining relations. Our result opens the door for a more arithmetical study of Δ e.g. in case K is a numberfield or an algebraic function field of a curve; for an application in this direction we refer to a first version of some divisor calculus started in [VW].     

Thermal,electrical and electrochemical properties of ionic liquid-doped poly(ethylene oxide)–LiTDI polymer electrolytes for Li-ion batteries

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - In the present study, we report the synthesis and characterisation of solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) based on polymer poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), salt...