A 480 ms isomeric 29/2−-state of the(p_{1/2}^{ - 2} )_{0^ + } f_{5/2}^{ - 1} (i_{13/2}^{ - 2} )_{12^ + } configuration in203Pb

A new, 480 ms, 29/2^? isomeric level has been found in²⁰³Pb at an excitation energy of 2950.1 keV by bombarding²⁰⁴Hg with α-particles in the energy range 45–55 MeV using the Stockholm 225-cm cyclotron. This 29/2^? state is suggested to be mainly due to the configuration (p ₁ ^2/?2 f ₅ ^2/?1 i ₁₃ ^2/?2 )₁₂. The 29/2^? state decays predominantly by a 153.4 keV M2 transition to a 23/2^? level and by a 1027.5 keV M4 transition to a 21/2⁺ level, followed by two E2 transitions of energies 258.6 keV and 838.7 keV, respectively, to the previously known 13/2⁺, 6.4 s isomeric level. The decay scheme of the 29/2^? isomeric state is based on experimental information obtained from total and delayedγ-ray intensities,γγ-coincidences, excitation functions, lifetime and delayed conversion electron measurements. The presence of the 29/2^? level confirms an essential and expected feature of the shell model for five neutron holes added to the²⁰⁸Pb-core.     

The Chemistry of α-Carbonyl Azo Compounds

α-Carbonyl azo compounds such as diesters of azodicarboxylic acids, diacylazo compounds, and esters of arylazocarboxylic acids are highly reactive. They add e.g. to amines, aromatic compounds, olefins, CH acids, Grignard and diazo compounds, aldehydes, ketones, and ketenes. These reactions can be used for the preparation of triazanes, hydrazones, oxa-diazoline, azomethinimine, and diazetidine derivatives, etc. α,α′-Dicarbonyl azo compounds are among the strongest dienophiles known.     

Preparation and characterization of prototypes for multi-modal separation aimed for capture of positively charged biomolecules at high-salt conditions

Several prototypes of aromatic (Ar) and non-aromatic (NoAr) cation-exchange ligands suitable for capture of proteins from high conductivity (ca. 30 mS/cm) mobile phases were coupled to Sepharose 6 Fast Flow. These new prototypes of multi-modal cation-exchangers were found by screening a diverse library of multi-modal ligands and selecting cation-exchangers resulting in elution of test proteins at high ionic-strength. Candidates were then tested with respect to breakthrough capacity of bovine serum albumin (BSA), human IgG and lysozyme in buffers adjusted to a high conductivity. By applying a salt-step or a pH-step the recoveries were also tested. We have found that aromatic multi-modal cation-exchanger ligands based on carboxylic acids seem to be optimal for the capture of proteins at high-salt conditions. Experimental evidence on the importance of the relative position of the aromatic group in order to improve the breakthrough capacity at high-salt conditions has been found. It was also found that an amide group on the alpha-carbon was essential for capture of proteins at high-salt conditions. Compared to a strong cation-exchanger such as SP Sepharose Fast Flow the best new multi-modal weak cation-exchangers have breakthrough capacities of BSA, human IgG and lysozyme that are 10-30 times higher at high-salt conditions. The new multi-modal cation-exchangers can also be used at normal cation-exchange conditions and with either a salt-step or a pH-step (to pH-values where the proteins are negatively charged) to accomplish elution of proteins. In addition, the functional performance of the new cation-exchangers was found to be intact after treatment in 1.0 M sodium hydroxide solution for 10 days. For BSA it was also possible to design cation-exchangers based on non-aromatic carboxyl acid ligands with high capacities at high-salt conditions. A common feature of these ligands is that they contain hydrogen acceptor groups close to the carboxylic group. Furthermore, it was also possible to obtain high breakthrough capacities for lysozyme and BSA of a strong cation-exchanger (SP Sepharose Fast Flow) if phenyl groups were attached to the beads. Varying the ligand ratio (SP/Phenyl) could be used for optimizing the function of mixed-ligand ion-exchange media.     

Organic soil as a radionuclide sink in a High Arctic environment

Summary The role of organic soil as a sink for radioactive contaminants in a High Arctic environment was studied. Samples were obtained from an area of organic soil located on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard (79° N) and from a non-organic control site in the same region. Samples were differentiated into organic layers and the underlying material and measured for a suite of anthropogenic and natural radionuclides and for a variety of soil chemistry parameters. Results indicated that the organic components of the soil constitute a sink term for a number of radionuclides. Values for Pu isotopes, ¹³⁷Cs and ²³⁸U were appreciably higher at the study site than at the control site, by up to a factor of 40 for Pu and 20 for ¹³⁷Cs and ²³⁸U. The source of ²³⁸U to the site appeared to be enrichment of this isotope from surface or melt water via adsorption to to either iron hydroxides or organic matter although the situation pertaining to Pu and ¹³⁷Cs remains less clear.     

Modeling slow deformation of polygonal particles using DEM

We introduce two improvements in the numerical scheme to simulate collision and slow shearing of irregular particles. First, we propose an alternative approach based on simple relations to compute the frictional contact forces. The approach improves efficiency and accuracy of the Discrete Element Method （DEM） when modeling the dynamics of the granular packing. We determine the proper upper limit for the integration step in the standard numerical scheme using a wide range of material parameters. To this end, we study the kinetic energy decay in a stress controlled test between two particles. Second, we show that the usual way of defining the contact plane between two polygonal particles is, in general, not unique which leads to discontinuities in the direction of the contact plane while particles move. To solve this drawback, we introduce an accurate definition for the contact plane based on the shape of the overlap area between touching particles, which evolves continuously in time.     

Shear-free,twisting Einstein-Maxwell metrics in the Newman-Penrose formalism

The problem of finding algebraically special solutions of the vacuum Einstein-Maxwell equations is investigated using the spin coefficient formalism of Newman and Penrose. The general case, in which the degenerate null vectors are not hypersurface orthogonal, is reduced to a problem of solving five coupled differential equations that are no longer dependent on the affine parameter along the degenerate null directions. It is shown that the most general regular, shearfree, nonradiating solution of these equations is the Kerr-Newman metric.Based in part on a doctoral thesis submitted to the University of Pittsburgh (1970) while the author was NASA Predoctoral Trainee. Research also supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant GP-19378.     

Continuous allocation problems

Some mathematical aspects are studied for a wide class of problems called continuous allocation problems: Find a mapping, from one given continuous set onto another, to minimize a given function on these sets. Many problems of assortments, catalogs, scheduling, location-allocation, search, etc., fall in this class. Theorems on existence, uniqueness, and continuity of solution are given. A solution technique is given for then-dimensional generalized location-allocation problem, and it is shown to converge on a solution. Finally, an expression is found for the facility density in multiple-facility location-allocation problems when the range of the mapping is continuous (as the number of facilities tends to infinity).The work reported in this paper is part of a study sponsored by the National Research Council of Canada.     

The structure of skew products with ergodic group automorphisms

We prove that ergodic automorphisms of compact groups are Bernoulli shifts, and that skew products with such automorphisms are isomorphic to direct products. We give a simple geometric demonstration of Yuzvinskii’s basic result in the calculation of entropy for group automorphisms, and show that the set of possible values for entropy is one of two alternatives, depending on the answer to an open problem in algebraic number theory. We also classify those algebraic factors of a group automorphism that are complemented.