Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for detection of explosives residues: a review of recent advances, challenges, and future prospects

In this review we discuss the application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to the problem of detection of residues of explosives. Research in this area presented in open literature is reviewed. Both laboratory and field-tested standoff LIBS instruments have been used to detect explosive materials. Recent advances in instrumentation and data analysis techniques are discussed, including the use of double-pulse LIBS to reduce air entrainment in the analytical plasma and the application of advanced chemometric techniques such as partial least-squares discriminant analysis to discriminate between residues of explosives and non-explosives on various surfaces. A number of challenges associated with detection of explosives residues using LIBS have been identified, along with their possible solutions. Several groups have investigated methods for improving the sensitivity and selectivity of LIBS for detection of explosives, including the use of femtosecond-pulse lasers, supplemental enhancement of the laser-induced plasma emission, and complementary orthogonal techniques. Despite the associated challenges, researchers have demonstrated the tremendous potential of LIBS for real-time detection of explosives residues at standoff distances. Figure This review discusses the application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to the problem of explosive residue detection. LIBS offers the capability for real-time, standoff detection of trace amounts of residue explosives on various surfaces     

Effects of repeated production on vowel distinctiveness within nonwords

In the present study acoustic distinctiveness of vowels within nonwords with repeated production was investigated. Participants were 9 males and 15 females divided into two groups. Participants repeated 6 nonwords varying in phonemic composition. The mean Euclidean distance (MED) of the vowels from each production of a nonword from the center of the F1/F2 space was calculated. The changes in MED with repeated production were analyzed using linear mixed effects regression. Results revealed an increase in MED, indicating greater vowel dispersion, for the three-syllable nonwords and a significant decrease, i.e., greater reduction, in vowel dispersion for the six-syllable nonwords. Findings support the dynamic influence of sublexical processes on phonetic realization in speech production.     

Characterization of the local temperature in space and time around a developing Drosophila embryo in a microfluidic device

This paper characterizes a microfluidic platform that differentially controls the temperature of each half of a living Drosophila melanogaster fruitfly embryo in space and time (E. M. Lucchetta, J. H. Lee, L. A. Fu, N. H. Patel and R. F. Ismagilov, Nature, 2005, 434, 1134-1138). This platform relies on laminar flow of two streams of liquid with different temperature, and on rapid prototyping in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Here, we characterized fluid flow and heat transport in this platform both experimentally and by numerical simulation, and estimated the temperature distribution around and within the embryo by numerical simulation, to identify the conditions for creating a sharper temperature difference (temperature step) over the embryo. Embryos were removed from the device and immunostained histochemically for detection of Paired protein. Biochemical processes are sensitive to small differences in environmental temperature. The microfluidic platform characterized here could prove useful in understanding dynamics of biochemical networks as they respond to changes in temperature.     

The influence of actual and imputed talker gender on fricative perception, revisited (L)

To examine the role of perceived gender on fricative identification, a study was conducted in which listeners identified /s/-/∫/ and /s/-/θ/ continua combined with vowels produced by a man and a woman. These were acoustically modified to be consistent with different-sized vocal tracts (VT), and were presented with pictures of men or women. Listeners identified more tokens of /s/ in the /s/-/∫/ and more tokens of /θ/ in the /s/-/θ/ continuum when these sounds were combined with men's vowels, with vowels consistent with a 17 cm VT, and with pictures of men. Results support the hypothesis that listeners incorporate information about talker gender during fricative perception.     

Dynamic demand lot-sizing rules for incremental quantity discounts

Numerous studies have developed and compared lot-sizing procedures for finite-horizon dynamic demand, material requirements planning (MRP), environments when either no purchase discounts exist or for the case of all-units quantity discounts. This paper examines lot-sizing rules when product price schedules follow incremental quantity discounts. The optimal (non-discount) procedure and some traditional heuristic procedures are modified to incorporate incremental quantity discounts. We further modify two heuristics with a ‘look-ahead enhancement’ that performs very well under experimentation. Numerical tests revealed the overall best-performing heuristic in this study to be a modified ‘least-unit cost’ method with a look-ahead enhancement. That procedure produced an average cost penalty vs optimal of 0.26%.     

Computing mountain passes and transition states

The mountain-pass theorem guarantees the existence of a critical point on a path that connects two points separated by a sufficiently high barrier. We propose the elastic string algorithm for computing mountain passes in finite-dimensional problems and analyze the convergence properties and numerical performance of this algorithm for benchmark problems in chemistry and discretizations of infinite-dimensional variational problems. We show that any limit point of the elastic string algorithm is a path that crosses a critical point at which the Hessian matrix is not positive definite.This work was supported by the Mathematical, Information, and Computational Sciences Division subprogram of the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy, under Contract W-31-109-Eng-38.     

Purchasing decisions under stochastic prices: Approximate solutions for order time, order quantity and supplier selection

This paper analyzes purchasing strategies for retailers regarding the best timing and amount of purchases when operating under combined timing and quantity flexibility contracts in an environment of uncertain prices. To decrease the computational complexity and make the procedure adaptable to the case of multiple suppliers, we introduce, analyze, and compare a ??time strategy?? and a ??target strategy?? and then develop a hybrid ??adaptive target strategy?? to facilitate and improve the purchasing decision for the case of option contracts with generally rising prices. The adaptive target strategy is simpler and more intuitive than the traditional binomial lattice method, while the risk of failing to meet a target profit can also easily be calculated. We then extend the solution procedure to maximize expected profits in an environment of selecting among multiple suppliers with potentially different price processes, and we further provide risk analysis to help determine a good estimate for the number of option contracts from different suppliers to generate in order to create adequate risk protection. Numerical analysis demonstrates how the number of candidate suppliers impacts the expected profit and the risk. Monte Carlo simulation results demonstrate that the developed solution procedures provide satisfying outcomes and that the calculation is fast, even for multiple-dimension and multiple-supplier cases.     

Use of Adsorbents for Recovery of Acetic Acid from Aqueous Solutions Part II—Factors Governing Selectivity

Measurements have been made of uptake of acetic acid and water from low-pH aqueous solution onto polymeric adsorbents and activated carbons. In additon to composite isotherms, isotherms were obtained for acetic acid and water individually by use of gas-chromatographic and Karl Fisher techniques for analyses of both bulk solution and the material taken up by the adsorbent. While capacities for acetic acid are determined by the surface area and the chemical nature of the adsorbent, selectivity is governed by the pore volume and the wetting and swelling tendencies of the sorbent, with the latter being particularly important for polymers. Activated carbons and pyrolyzed polymers give better selectivity than do common polymeric adsorbents.

Measurements of pore volume by immersion in various liquids were compared with pore volumes computed from nitrogen adsorption-desorption measurements and from mercury-intrusion porosimetry. The nitrogen adsorption-desorption results were interpreted to obtain micropore and mesopore volumes. The results from the different methods agree well, if allowance is made for lack of full wetting and for swelling tendencies. Higher selectivity for acetic acid over water is obtained for adsorbents having a large percentage of the pore volume as micropores.

Measurements of competitive adsorption of acetic acid and methyl ethyl ketone from aqueous solution onto different carbons and pyrolyzed polymers showed that a higher surface density of active hydrogen sites, as measured by reaction with LiAlH₄, leads to an improved selectivity for the carboxylic acid.