Determination of low-level tritium concentrations in surface water and precipitation in the Czech Republic

Past tests of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, nuclear energy facilities and tritium of natural origin are main sources of tritium in the environment. Thanks to its presence in environment and its favourable properties, tritium is used as a radiotracer. Since stopping of atmospheric nuclear tests, tritium in precipitation has been decreasing towards natural levels below 1 Bq l^?1 and precise analyses of low level tritium activities are necessary. This paper focuses on tritium development at sites not influenced by any technogenic release of tritium in Elbe River basin (Bohemia) in the Czech Republic using liquid scintillation measurement with electrolytic enrichment.     

From caloric to stathmograph and polarography

Present contribution briefly describes some historical features, which are focused back to the history of the Middle European learning as promoted by the foundation of the Charles University in Prague 1348. Physics and its neighboring areas are mentioned discussing some crucial scientific contributions and stressing out some prominent scholars, such as Tycho de Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Tadeáš Hájek, Marcus Marci, Jan A. Commenius (caloric), Prokop Diviš, Bernard Bolzano, Christian Doppler, Ernst Mach, Albert Einstein, Václav Šimerka, František Záviška, Čeněk Strouhal, Reinhold Fürst or Stanislav Škramovsky (statmograph) and Jaroslav Heyrovsky (polarography), the latter being already the representative of modern age.     

Voltammetric determination of nitrate,perchlorate and iodide at a hanging electrolyte drop electrode

The use of a hanging electrolyte drop electrode is examined for the determination of nitrate, perchlorate and iodide. A three-electrode system was used with a polarographic analyzer. Crystal violet dicarbollylcobaltate(III) electrolyte in the nitrobenzene phase and magnesium sulphate in the aqueous phase with a Pb/PbSO₄ reference electrode made it possible to increase the viable potential range. For nitrate, the peak current/concentration relation was linear over the range 0–5 × 10^?5 M, and nitrate in potable water was easily determined.     

On extrema of functionals on vector spaces

A functional on a vector space is constructed which does not attain a minimum at the origin although its first derivative vanishes and its second derivative is strictly positive definite at 0.     

Polymerizations with hydrido and alkyl transition metal complexes in aqueous media

Hydrido pentacyanocobaltate(III) and alkyl pentacyanocobaltate(III) have been studied as initiators for the polymerization of isoprene and butadiene in aqueous emulsion systems. The microstructure of the polymers is consistent with a free radical process. Other transition metal hydrides are relatively ineffective as polymerization initiators or act as inhibitors for the radical polymerization of the same dienes.     

Temperature and solvent variation of the 13C and 1H NMR spectra of r-1,t-2,c-3,t-4-tetrachlorotetralin

Vicinal coupling constants in the ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectra of r-1,t-2,c-3,t-4-tetrachlorotetralin change with temperature and solvent in a manner better explained by conformational equilibration than by intramolecular or solvent-determined distortions.     

Real loci of based loop groups

Let (G, K) be a Riemannian symmetric pair of maximal rank, where G is a compact simply connected Lie group and K is the fixed point set of an involutive automorphism σ. This induces an involutive automorphism τ of the based loop space Ω(G). There exists a maximal torus T ⊂ G such that the canonical action of T × S ¹ on Ω(G) is compatible with τ (in the sense of Duistermaat). This allows us to formulate and prove a version of Duistermaat’s convexity theorem. Namely, the images of Ω(G) and Ω(G) ^τ (fixed point set of τ) under the T × S ¹ moment map on Ω(G) are equal. The space Ω(G) ^τ is homotopy equivalent to the loop space Ω(G/K) of the Riemannian symmetric space G/K. We prove a stronger form of a result of Bott and Samelson which relates the cohomology rings with coefficients in \mathbbZ₂ {\mathbb{Z}_2} of Ω(G) and Ω(G/K). Namely, the two cohomology rings are isomorphic, by a degree-halving isomorphism (Bott and Samelson [BS] had proved that the Betti numbers are equal). A version of this theorem involving equivariant cohomology is also proved. The proof uses the notion of conjugation space in the sense of Hausmann, Holm, and Puppe [HHP].     

Electrochemical study of the anomalous salt extraction from water to a polar organic solvent

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry -     

Luminescent properties of Eu2+ ions in AlN at low and high intensity of excitation

Luminescent properties of powder AlN∶Eu²⁺ phosphors were studied by excitation of 2-nd harmonic of ruby laser (hv=3·56 eV). It was shown that emission spectra of AlN∶Eu²⁺ phosphors consist of five or two overlapping bands according to the concentration of europium and the intensity of excitation. Decay times of luminescence of Eu²⁺ centres in different peaks lie between 0·9 and 1·5 μsec which is in agreement with the value of decay time of 4f⁶ 5d→47⁷ transition of Eu²⁺ ions. It is evident from the decomposition of emission spectra of Eu²⁺ centres that there exist several types of Eu²⁺ centres in AlN as was already demonstrated in the case of oxygen centres in AlN.     

On-capillary fluorescent labeling of saccharides for capillary electrophoresis

The feasibility of on-capillary derivatization of saccharides by aromatic amine-based fluorescent labeling agents was tested. To avoid the problematic evolution of gaseous hydrogen cyanide, the Schiff base reduction by sodium cyanoborohydride, as the second step of the standard reductive amination protocol, was omitted. Glucose was used as a model analyte and 7-amino-1,3-naphthalenedisulfonic acid as the labeling agent. Our experiments showed that the direct reaction of the saccharide with the labeling agent in 2.5-M acetic acid yields a labeled product that is sufficiently stable to be separated from the labeling agent in 20-mM phosphate buffer, pH 3.5, and detected using UV detection. The glucose and label zones were introduced separately into the capillary and mixed using a negative voltage. Mixing voltage, its duration, the concentration of acetic acid in the reaction zone, and the waiting time between mixing and separation were optimized. To show the applicability of the procedure to a broader range of analytes, a mixture of different types of saccharides, that is, xylose (pentose), fucose (hexose), glucose (hexose), N-acetylglucosamine (N-acetylaminosaccharide), and lactose (disaccharide), was subjected to derivatization and analysis under the optimal conditions. The linearity and repeatability of the process were evaluated as critical parameters for its analytical applications. Six-point calibration dependences in the 1–50 mM range showed excellent determination coefficients of 0.9992 or higher for all five saccharides tested. The repeatability of the labeled saccharide peak areas was between 2.2% and 4.3%.