Energy transfer in dioxane liquid scintillators

The study of the radiation yields of free radical formation in deaerated dioxane solutions containing a fluorescent solute (PPO or PBD) or a chlorinated compound (CCl₄ or CHCl₃) shows that there are two possible mechanisms for energy transfer from superexcited states: transfer of the electronic excitation energy, and the ionc mechanism which involves the electrons formed by autoionization. We propose a kinetic scheme which agrees with experimental results.     

Groupe modulaire, fractions continues et approximation diophantienne en caractéristique p

The aim of this paper is to give a geometric interpretation of the continued fraction expansion in the field of formal Laurent series in X ^–1 over , in terms of the action of the modular group on the Bruhat–Tits tree of , and to deduce from it some corollaries for the diophantine approximation of formal Laurent series in X ^–1 by rational fractions in X.     

Determination of multiclass pesticides in river sediments via matrix solid-phase dispersion extraction and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A fast and environment-friendly analytical method was implemented to determine multiclass pesticides in river sediments. Twenty-three pesticides—organochlorine pesticides, organophosphorus pesticides, and triazines—were extracted via matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) and analyzed by gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS). Florisil demonstrated excellent analytes uptake capability as the extractant phase, with suitable selectivity for treating complex sediment samples. Under defined extraction conditions, the MSPD–GC–MS/MS method demonstrated robustness in the n inter-day analysis of sediments from different sources, providing limit of quantifications (LOQs) between 5 and 15 ng/g, linear responses in the range between LOQs and 150 ng/g, extraction recoveries of 71%–106%, and precision, assessed as relative standard deviation below 20%. The MSPD significantly reduced samples and solvents’ consumption, providing critical environmental gains compared to traditional extraction methods like Soxhlet. Finally, the method was applied to analyze sediment samples from three different collection areas of the Subachoque River (Cundinamarca, Colombia), demonstrating a fast, efficient, confident, and profitable analytical tool for pollution control and monitoring in environmental samples. The method allowed us to determine the current use in Colombia of banned pesticides under the 2001 Stockholm Convention.     

Spiraling spectra of geodesic lines in negatively curved manifolds

Given a negatively curved geodesic metric space M, we study the asymptotic penetration behaviour of geodesic lines of M in small neighbourhoods of closed geodesics and of other compact convex subsets of M. We define a spiraling spectrum which gives precise information on the asymptotic spiraling lengths of geodesic lines around these objects. We prove analogs of the theorems of Dirichlet, Hall and Cusick in this context. As a consequence, we obtain Diophantine approximation results of elements of ${\mathbb{R},\mathbb{C}}$ or the Heisenberg group by quadratic irrational ones.     

Interaction Mechanisms between guaiacols and lignin: the conjugated double bond makes the difference

Lignin is considered to be responsible for a selective sorption of phenolic compounds on wood. In order to investigate the mechanisms involved, two similar guaiacol compounds--only differing by the nature of the para side chain--were adsorbed on oak wood extracted lignin. Vapor sorption-desorption isotherms indicated that about 3.5 wt % of 4-vinylguaiacol is adsorbed near saturation whereas it is only 0.8% for 4-ethylguaiacol. For both compounds, the isotherms displayed a hysteresis though significantly greater for 4-vinylguaiacol. Analyses of the hydroxyl stretching region of FTIR spectra of the lignin/4-ethylguaiacol and lignin/4-vinylguaiacol complexes indicated that physisorption via hydrogen bonds occurs for both sorbates with lignin phenolic hydroxyl groups but which would be more condensed for the former than for the latter. According to NMR spectra, these phenolic hydroxyl groups correspond to non-etherified guaiacyl subunits. In contrast with other para substituents, the conjugated vinyl bond favors not only physisorption but also chemisorption as witnessed by the fact that upon desorption in the vapor phase, even after pumping under dynamic vacuum for several days, about 1 wt % of 4-vinylguaiacol remains adsorbed onto lignin.     

Unclouding the sky of negatively curved manifolds

Let M be a complete simply connected Riemannian manifold, with sectional curvature K ≤ −1. Under certain assumptions on the geometry of ∂M, which are satisfied for instance if M is a symmetric space, or has dimension 2, we prove that given any family of horoballs in M, and any point x₀ outside these horoballs, it is possible to shrink uniformly, by a finite amount depending only on M, these horoballs so that some geodesic ray starting from x₀ avoids the shrunk horoballs. As an application, we give a uniform upper bound on the infimum of the heights of the closed geodesics in the finite volume quotients of M.Received: January 2004 Accepted: August 2004     

Atomic force microscopy studies of twins in yttrium-doped barium titanate

Barium titanate is the main constituent of PTC materials and their electric properties are sensitive to microstructure and defects, in atomic scale, that are significantly affected by processing parameters. The microstructure of barium titanate doped with yttrium was investigated using topographic images obtained by AFM in contact mode. The AFM images of barium titanate doped with yttrium showed the effect of large grains with double twins at different (1 1 1) planes.