Experimental Determination of Four-Time Stimulated Echoes in Liquids, Colloidal Suspensions, and Crystals

Four-time stimulated echo experiments have been used to monitor the temporal evolution of the reorientation rates of deuterated molecules or colloidal suspensions. We present extended phase cycles for this seven-pulse experiment. In order to test its performance three vastly different materials are chosen. These include a crystal in which the molecules carry out well-defined 180° flips and a supercooled liquid characterized by a distribution of jump angles centered around 10°. As an example for rotational diffusion, data on a concentrated suspension of polystyrene spheres in a viscous medium are presented.     

Time-harmonic response of a vertical crack in plates

A technique for the characterization of an interior crack perpendicular to the surface of the plates is presented. A time-harmonic line load is applied on the upper surface of the plate. The scattered displacement field is calculated by using the strip element method. It is found that there are additional superimposed oscillations in the curve of the absolute values of the displacement in the region between the load and the crack. The mean value of the peaks of the additional oscillations increases with the crack length, and is less dependent on the distance from the load to the crack. The crack position is determined from the displacement distribution curve and the crack length is determined from the mean value of the peaks of the additional oscillations. Approximate polynomial formula of degree four for predicting the length of interior vertical cracks in isotropic homogeneous plates is also proposed. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the present technique.     

Membrane introduction mass spectrometry

An overview of membrane introduction mass spectrometry (MIMS) is presented and comparisons are made with other direct sample introduction techniques. Special attention is given to the unique advantages and the limitations of newer variants on the MIMS technique, including affinity MIMS, reverse-phase and trap MIMS. The salient features of the interfaces used in MIMS are summarized and the various membrane materials commonly used are delineated. The applicability of MIMS is illustrated via discussion of

1. (i) bioreactor monitoring (represented by yeast fermentation),

2. (ii) environmental monitoring (illustrated by analysis of contaminated ground water samples) and

3. (iii) on-line chemical reaction monitoring (exemplified by the photolysis of aryl esters).

The applicability of MIMS to the analysis of environmental samples, including complex mixtures in water, air and soil, is noted.     

Low-temperature specific heat of crystalline and amorphous Eu2(MoO4)3

The specific heat C _total of crystalline and amorphous Eu₂(MoO₄)₃ is measured in the temperature interval 4.5–30 K. The amorphous state is obtained by applying pressure ∼7 GPa at room temperature. It is found that the specific heat of the crystal at T⩽7.5 K is described by a cubic function of temperature, while the specific heat of the amorphous sample has a strongly non-Debye character in the entire experimental temperature interval. The curve of C _total for amorphous europium molybdate is analyzed in a model of soft atomic potentials, and it is shown that it agrees well with universal low-temperature anomalies of the specific heat of classical glasses obtained by quenching from the liquid. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 68, No. 8, 623–627 (25 October 1998)     

Assignment of conformation-sensitive near-infrared bands in high-spin ferrous haemoproteins. Low-temperature magnetic circular dichroism data

An assignment of the near-infrared bands in the 600–800 nm spectral region observed in magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra of high-spin ferrous haemoproteins is presented. The assignment is based on a relative energy level scheme for iron d-electrons, a comparison of predicted and measured temperature dependences of MCD intensity, a sign of MCD bands and a group theoretical analysis of allowed transitions. The proposed assignment is consistent with the ∼15-nm red shift of the ∼760 nm band on breakage of the Fe-His bond in deoxy-myoglobin at low pH, with low-temperature photolysis experiments available for CO complexes of several haemoproteins. In accordance with the observations, the intensity of the MCD bands for proteins with a sulphur anion of cysteine as proximal haemligand (cytochrome P450 and chloroperoxidase) is predicted to be diminished by at least one order of magnitude compared to that for proteins with an imidazole of a histidine as a protein-derived haemligand (i.e. myoglobin, haemoglobin and horseradish peroxidase). Received: 4 February 1997 / Accepted: 1 May 1997     

Poincaré’s inequalities and Talagrand’s concentration phenomenon for the exponential distribution

Summary. We present a simple proof, based on modified logarithmic Sobolev inequalities, of Talagrand’s concentration inequality for the exponential distribution. We actually observe that every measure satisfying a Poincaré inequality shares the same concentration phenomenon. We also discuss exponential integrability under Poincaré inequalities and its consequence to sharp diameter upper bounds on spectral gaps. Received: 10 June 1996 / In revised form: 9 August 1996     

Time-resolved synchrotron X-ray study of crystalline phase transition in poly(aryl ether ketone ketone) containing alternated terephthalic/isophthalic moieties

Unique crystallization and melting behavior in poly(aryl ether ketone ketone) containing alternated terephthalic and isophthalic moieties were studied by time-resolved synchrotron x-ray methods. Recently, this material has been shown to exhibit three polymorphs (forms I, II, and III). In this work, we further investigated their distinctive thermal properties and found that form I is the dominating and the most thermally stable phase while form II is favored by fast nucleation conditions and is the least stable phase. On the other hand, form III represents a minor intermediate phase that usually coexists with form I and can be transferred from form II and to form I. Structural and morphological changes in form I have been followed by simultaneous wide-angle x-ray diffraction (WAXD)/small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements during cold- or melt-crystallization and subsequent melting. In all cases, a larger dimensional change was found in the crystallographic a-axis than the b-axis during heating and cooling. This may be due to the greater lateral stress variation with respect to temperature along the a direction of the primary lamellae which is induced by either the formation of secondary lamellae or the preferential chain-folding direction in poly(aryl ether ketone ketone)s. During the phase transitions of form II ← III in the cold-crystallized specimen and form III ← I in the melt-crystallized samples, lamellar variables (long period, lamellar thickness, and invariant) obtained from SAXS remain almost constant. This indicates that the density distribution in the long spacing is independent of the melting in form II or III. For melt-crystallization, the corresponding changes in unit-cell dimensions and lamellar morphology during the annealing-induced low endotherm are most consistent with the argument that these changes are due to the melting of thin lamellar population. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Selective quenching of tryptophanyl fluorescence in bovine serum albumin by the iodide ion

Modified Stern-Volmer equation is obeyed by bovine serum albumin (BSA)-iodide system showing selective quenching of tryptophanyl fluorescence of BSA. The fraction of accessible protein fluorescence is 0.56 and the effective Stern-Volmer constant is 290 M^-1 at pH 7.4 in 0.005 M phosphate buffer at 25°C. Collisional quenching is operative both in the BSA -I⁻¹ system and the model system, tryptophan-I⁻¹. It is supported by the observed relationship between the ratio of quenching rate constants (k _q ) and diffusion coefficients and alsok _q with bulk viscosity.     

Nonequilibrium Vibrational Kinetics during Hypersonic Flow of a Solid Body in Nitrogen and Its Influence on the Surface Heat Flux

Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing - Nonequilibrium nitrogen dissociation-recombination kinetics in the boundary layer and on the surface of a solid body during hypersonic flow. the subsequent...     

Barium ferrite particulates prepared by a salt-melt method

Barium ferrite particulates have been prepared by coprecipitation and calcination in a flux of NaCl-KCl. It was found that a flux containing more than 30 wt% KCl tends to seriously deteriorate the magnetic properties of resultant perticulates. The flux with 10 wt% KCl or less showed promising results. A Ba(CoZr)_0.75Fe_10.5O₁₉ particulate showed the best properties, i.e., a saturation magnetization of 68.5, a squareness ratio of 0.49, and a coercivity of 1280 Oe, when calcined in NaCl at 900°C for 4 h.