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.     

On Critical Stability of Three Quantum Charges Interacting Through Delta Potentials

We consider three one-dimensional quantum, charged and spinless particles interacting through delta potentials. We derive sufficient conditions which guarantee the existence of at least one bound state.     

Butyltins in california river and lake marina waters

Butyltins were analyzed in waters from California river and lake marinas and were detected at the part per trillion (ppt) level in most locations. The tributyltin:dibutyltin (TBT/DBT) ratios in the fresh waters were similar to those in their saline counterparts indicating like rates of degradation in the two salinity regimes.     

On the excitation of a closely spaced array by a line source

An infinite row of periodically spaced, identical rigid circularcylinders is excited by an acoustic line source which is parallelto the generators of the cylinders. A method for calculatingthe scattered field accurately and efficiently is presented.When the cylinders are sufficiently close together, Rayleigh–Blochsurface waves that propagate energy to infinity along the arrayare excited. An expression is derived which enables the amplitudesof these surface waves to be computed without requiring thesolution to the full scattering problem.     

Self-broadening in the millimeter-wave spectrum of ozone

Self broadened widths of seven lines of ozone between 75 and 120 GHz have been measured at room temperature. The variation with temperature of the self-broadening parameter for three of these lines has been studied in the range 245–292°K.     

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     

Conditional Time Before Ruin of an Insurance Company

The statistical characteristics of conditional time before ruin of an insurance company, including the distribution function of conditional time and its moments are examined.     

A Symmetric-Impulse Approximation Applied to the Faddeev Theory on the Charge Transfer Amplitude

Off-the-shell anomalous factors of the two-body Coulomb transition matrices appear in the integral form of the Faddeev second-order nuclear-electronic amplitude, for proton-hydrogen charge transfer scattering in a typical nlm → n′l′m′ transition. A symmetric-impulse approximation (SIA) is applied to eliminate these factors and an induction method is proposed to analytically calculate the remaining integrals. The nuclear-electronic amplitude is derived for the general case, and for totally symmetric collisions, in terms of generalized hypergeometric functions of two variables, F ₄, and of one variable, ₃ F ₂, respectively. The angular distribution of the second-order nuclear-electronic charge transfer amplitude shows the Thomas mechanism as a peak or a hump for symmetric and asymmetric collisions. There also exists a peak in the forward angular distribution of the second-order nuclear-electronic amplitude, which partly cancels the kinematic peak in the angular distribution of the charge transfer differential cross sections.