Mineralogical analysis of auriferous ores from the El Diamante mine, Colombia

X-ray diffraction (XRD), Mössbauer spectrometry (MS), secondary ions mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and laser-ablation microprobe–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LAM–ICP–MS) were used to study mineral samples of Colombian auriferous ores collected from the “El Diamante” mine, located in the municipality of Guachavez-Nariño, in Colombia. The samples were prepared as polished thin sections and polished sections. From XRD data, quartz, sphalerite and pyrite were detected and their respective cell parameters were estimated. From MS analyses, pyrite, arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite were identified; their respective hyperfine parameters and respective texture were deduced. Multiple regions of approximately 200 × 200 μm in each sample were analyzed with SIMS; the occurrence of “invisible gold” associated mainly with pyrite and secondarily with arsenopyrite could thus be assigned. It was also found that pyrite is of the arsenious type. Spots from 30 to 40 μm in diameter were analyzed with LAM–ICP–MS for pyrite, arsenopyrite and sphalerite; Au is “homogeneously” distributed inside the structure of the arsenious pyrite and the arsenopyrite (not as inclusions); the chemical composition indicates similarities of this “invisible gold”, forming a solid solution with arsenious pyrite and arsenopyrite. One hundred nineteen and 62 ppm of ‘invisible gold’ was quantified in 21 spots analyzed on pyrite and in 14 spots on arsenopyrite, respectively.     

Mössbauer effect phase determination in iron oxide–polyaniline nanocomposites

Mössbauer effect spectroscopy and thermal analysis techniques were applied to characterize polyaniline composites successfully synthesized by embedding Fe oxide nanoparticles (about 10–13 nm) in a polymeric matrix in the presence of dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid and HCl (dopant). Thermal techniques provided quantitative information on iron oxide content and on polyaniline stability and transformations. Mössbauer results indicated that for the whole studied composition range, 3.4 to 100 iron oxide wt.%, composites hold maghemite particles. A preliminary study of the conductivity of the nanocomposites was performed. The largest conductivity was observed for a 8 wt.% maghemite composite where all particles are magnetically unblocked at room temperature within the Mössbauer time window.     

Enhancing energy harvesting by coupling monostable oscillators

The performance of a ring of linearly coupled, monostable nonlinear oscillators is optimized towards its goal of acting as energy harvester – through piezoelectric transduction – of mesoscopic fluctuations, which are modeled as Ornstein-Uhlenbeck noises. For a single oscillator, the maximum output voltage and overall efficiency are attained for a soft piecewise-linear potential (providing a weak attractive constant force) but they are still fairly large for a harmonic potential. When several harmonic springs are linearly and bidirectionally coupled to form a ring, it is found that counter-phase coupling can largely improve the performance while in-phase coupling worsens it. Moreover, it turns out that few (two or three) coupled units perform better than more.     

Higher-Order Interference in Extensions of Quantum Theory

Quantum interference, manifest in the two slit experiment, lies at the heart of several quantum computational speed-ups and provides a striking example of a quantum phenomenon with no classical counterpart. An intriguing feature of quantum interference arises in a variant of the standard two slit experiment, in which there are three, rather than two, slits. The interference pattern in this set-up can be written in terms of the two and one slit patterns obtained by blocking one, or more, of the slits. This is in stark contrast with the standard two slit experiment, where the interference pattern cannot be written as a sum of the one slit patterns. This was first noted by Rafael Sorkin, who raised the question of why quantum theory only exhibits irreducible interference in the two slit experiment. One approach to this problem is to compare the predictions of quantum theory to those of operationally-defined ‘foil’ theories, in the hope of determining whether theories that do exhibit higher-order interference suffer from pathological—or at least undesirable—features. In this paper two proposed extensions of quantum theory are considered: the theory of Density Cubes proposed by Daki?, Paterek and Brukner, which has been shown to exhibit irreducible interference in the three slit set-up, and the Quartic Quantum Theory of ?yczkowski. The theory of Density Cubes will be shown to provide an advantage over quantum theory in a certain computational task and to posses a well-defined mechanism which leads to the emergence of quantum theory—analogous to the emergence of classical physics from quantum theory via decoherence. Despite this, the axioms used to define Density Cubes will be shown to be insufficient to uniquely characterise the theory. In comparison, Quartic Quantum Theory is a well-defined theory and we demonstrate that it exhibits irreducible interference to all orders. This feature of ?yczkowski’s theory is argued not to be a genuine phenomenon, but to arise from an ambiguity in the current definition of higher-order interference in operationally-defined theories. Thus, to begin to understand why quantum theory is limited to a certain kind of interference, a new definition of higher-order interference is needed that is applicable to, and makes good operational sense in, arbitrary operationally-defined theories.     

Simultaneous velocity and temperature measurements in gaseous flow fields using the VENOM technique

We present an initial demonstration of simultaneous velocity and temperature mapping in gaseous flow fields using a new nitric oxide planar laser-induced fluorescence-based method. The vibrationally excited NO monitoring (VENOM) technique is an extension of two-component velocimetry using vibrationally excited NO generated from the photodissociation of seeded NO(2) [Appl. Opt. 48, 4414 (2009)], where the two sequential fluorescence images are obtained probing two different rotational states to provide both velocity and temperature maps. Comparisons to computational fluid dynamics simulations show that the initial VENOM measurements provide good velocity and temperature maps in the relatively high-density regions of the flow, where the rms uncertainties are approximately 5% for velocity and 9% for temperature.     

Excitation functions for 44Sc, 46Sc, and 47Sc radionuclides produced in the interaction of 45Sc with deuterons and 6He

Experimental excitation functions are presented for ⁴⁵Sc(d, p)⁴⁶Sc, ⁴⁵Sc(d, t)⁴⁴Sc, ⁴⁵Sc(⁶He, ⁵He*)⁴⁶Sc and ⁴⁵Sc(6He, α)⁴⁷Sc reactions at projectile energies near the Coulomb barrier. The obtained excitation functions for reactions ⁴⁵Sc(d, p)⁴⁶Sc and ⁴⁵Sc(⁶He, ⁵He*)⁴⁶Sc have similar behavior and have a maxima near the Coulomb barriers of these reactions. The compilation of the available experimental data, obtained at deuteron- and ⁶He-energies near the Coulomb barrier, showed that the values of the cross sections at the maxima of the excitation functions obtained in (d, p) reactions and the reactions for one-neutron pickup from the ⁶He projectiles have a different Z-dependence.     

Electron microscopy characterization of nanostructured carbon obtained from chlorination of metallocenes and metal carbides

In this work we report some new well-defined carbon nanostructures produced by direct chlorination of metallocenes (ferrocene and cobaltocene) and NbC, at temperatures from 100 to 900 degrees C. Thus, amorphous carbon nanotubes with variable dimensions depending on reaction temperature were produced from ferrocene. When cobaltocene is the carbon precursor the main product are solid amorphous nanospheres. The high refractory metal carbide NbC as carbon source favours the growth of nanospherical cabbage-like particles with a higher degree of graphene sheets order. Besides, NbC crystallites encapsulated in an amorphous carbon shell were also found at lower temperatures (T< or =700 degrees C).     

Investigation of the center intensity of first- and second-order Laguerre-Gaussian beams with linear and circular polarization

The vectorial Debye integral shows that tightly focused Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams have a residual intensity at the focal point for linear polarization, for a topological charge of m=1 and 2. We measured the shapes of linearly and circularly polarized LG beams and found that a central intensity appeared at m=1 and 2 for linear and right-handed circular polarization, however, it is completely canceled for left-handed circular polarization. In general, when the orbital angular momentum of the LG beam is parallel to the spin angular momentum of the photons, zero intensity is always achieved at the focus.     

Evaluation of the antibacterial activity of poly-(<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">d</Emphasis>,<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles containing violacein

Since violacein—an antibiotic, antiviral, and antiparasitic compound—exhibits poor solubility in water, polymeric poly-(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles containing this compound improved its solubility and biological activity. The nanoparticles were prepared by the nanoprecipitation method and characterized in terms of average diameter, zeta potential, drug loading, polymer recovery, in vitro release kinetic, and in vitro antibacterial activity. Nanoparticles with diameters between 116 and 139 nm and negative-charged outer surfaces were obtained. Drug-loading efficiency and polymer recovery were 87 and 93%, respectively. In vitro release kinetics assays showed that violacein loaded in these nanoparticles has sustained release behavior until 5 days. Both free and nanoparticles-loaded violacein exhibited in vitro antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 and ATCC 25923 strains and exhibiting around two to five times lower minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) than free violacein, respectively. The encapsulated violacein was efficient against methicilin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains. No significant activity against Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica was found.     

Blocking of coupling to the 0<Subscript>2</Subscript><Superscript>+</Superscript> excitation in <Superscript>154</Superscript>Gd by the [505]11/2<Superscript>-</Superscript> neutron in <Superscript>155</Superscript>Gd

The concept that the first excited 0⁺ states in N = 90 nuclei are not a b \beta -vibration but a second vacuum formed by the combination of the quadrupole pairing force and the low density of oblate orbitals near the Fermi surface is supported by the blocking of this collective mode in ¹⁵⁴Gd from coupling to the [505]11/2^- single-particle quasi-neutron orbital in ¹⁵⁵Gd . The coupling of this orbital to the 2⁺ g \gamma -vibration in ¹⁵⁴Gd is observed since this coupling is not Pauli-blocked.