Quantification of trace elements in human serum fractions by liquid chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

On‐line coupling of LC and ICP‐MS has been used for fractionation and detection of species of Cu, Fe, I, Se and Zn in human serum. It has been shown that anion exchange chromatography provided better separation capability (both intra‐ and inter‐element) than size‐exclusion chromatography. The mobile phases for ion exchange chromatography consisted of Tris–HNO₃ buffer and ammonium salt (nitrate, acetate or formate). Formate was found to be the best mobile phase counter ion, enabling good chromatographic separation, and is acceptable for mass spectrometry too. The quantitative evaluation of element concentrations adhering to individual fractions was performed by the peak area normalization method. The repeatability of results ranged from 3 to 15% (depending on the element concentration level) and represented the main part of the result uncertainty. The accuracy of Cu and Zn fraction determinations was confirmed by comparison with the isotope dilution technique. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Complex backflow dynamics in nematic liquid crystals

Received December 31, 2001 / Published online May 21, 2002     

Material tensor parameters of LiNbO3 relevant for electro- and elasto-optics

The complete set of self-consistent parameters of nominally undoped LiNbO₃ crystals of congruent composition that describe the electro-optic, piezoelectric, elasto-optic, elastic, and dielectric response has been determined by numerically evaluating available measurements. The parameters were determined at room temperature and consist of the low-frequency clamped dielectric constants ε^S _ij, elastic stiffness constants at constant electric field C^E _ijkl, piezoelectric stress coefficients e_ijk, elasto-optic constants at constant electric field p^E _ijkl, and clamped electro-optic coefficients r^S _ijk. It is shown that the complete set is required for calculating the effective electro-optic coefficients and dielectric constants in photorefractive applications of LiNbO₃. Received: 4 January 2002 / Revised version: 1 February 2002 / Published online: 14 March 2002     

The treatment of nonhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions by thep-version of the finite element method

Summary The paper addresses the problem of the implementation of nonhomogeneous essential Dirichlet type boundary conditions in thep-version of the finite element method.Partially supported by the Office of Naval Research under Grant N-00014-85-K-0169Research partially supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Systems Command, USAF, under Grant Number AFOSR 85-0322     

Students' Verification Strategies for Combinatorial Problems

We focus on a major difficulty in solving combinatorial problems, namely, on the verification of a solution. Our study aimed at identifying undergraduate students' tendencies to verify their solutions, and the verification strategies that they employ when solving these problems. In addition, an attempt was made to evaluate the level of efficiency of the students' various verification strategies in terms of their contribution to reaching a correct solution. 14 undergraduate students, who had taken at least 1 course in combinatorics, participated in the study. None of the students had prior direct learning experience with combinatorial verification strategies. Data were collected through interviews with individual or pairs of participants as they solved, 1 by 1, 10 combinatorial problems. 5 types of verification strategies were identified, 2 of which were more frequent and more helpful than others. Students' verifications proved most efficient in terms of reaching a correct solution when they were informed that their solution was incorrect. Implications for teaching and learning combinatorics are discussed.     

Hysteresis and Eddy-current Relaxation in SiFe Materials

The rate-dependent effects in metallic ferromagnetic materials with magnetization processes attributed to domain-walls motion were studied. The experimental method for eddy-current relaxation time determination was proposed. Some discrepancies between the data and theoretical predictions were observed and discussed. The origin of these discrepancies is accounted for by the decrease of viscous-type relaxation process as the rate of change of averaged magnetization is approaching zero.     

Effect of genesis on the properties and hydrogen reducibility of NiO-ZnO mixed oxides

The physico-chemical properties and reactivity tested by hydrogen reduction have been studied for two series of NiO-ZnO mixed oxides of various composition. The solid nickel oxide or zinc oxide in interaction with the solution of nitrate of the second component were used as the precursors in each series. The differences in some physico-chemical parameters of the samples in both series were correlated with their reduction behaviour, followed both in iso- and non-isothermal regime. Moreower, the influence of various factors modifying the reactivity of mixed oxides was also investigated and the results were compared with those obtained from earlier studied analogous systems of quite different origin.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.