Ultraviolet photolysis assisted mineralization and determination of trace levels of Cr, Cd, Cu, Sn, and Pb in isosulfan blue by ICP-MS

Isosulfan blue dye is used in sentinel node mapping technique to evaluate breast cancer patients where determination of different trace elements is required. A UV-photolysis assisted mineralization of isosulfan blue is described here for the determination of trace elements (Cr, Cd, Cu, Sn and Pb) by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). In the present study advanced oxidation processes such as UV, UV/H₂O₂, and UV/H₂O₂/HNO₃ have been assessed and compared for the degradation and mineralization of isosulfan blue dye. The extent of mineralization was determined on the basis of total organic carbon (TOC) measurement. The adopted procedure (UV/HNO₃/H₂O₂) provided very low TOC content (0.5%), corresponding to a mineralization efficiency of > 99%. With the present procedure, the use of dynamic reaction cell (DRC) or collision cell was not required for chromium determination which suffers interference from the presence of carbon. Method detection limits were 0.0028, 0.0021, 0.016, 0.007, and 0.005 μg g^? 1 for Cr, Cd, Cu, Sn and Pb respectively. The values obtained by the proposed method were cross-validated by those obtained by ETAAS analysis. The expanded uncertainties in the measurement at 95% confidence level (coverage factor 2) are in the range of 13.7–25.8%.     

Synthesis and anti-HIV activities of bis-(cycloSaligenyl) pronucleotides derivatives of 3′-fluoro-3′-deoxythymidine and 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine

Anti-HIV nucleoside monophosphates have limited cellular uptake due to the presence of negatively-charged phosphate group. Bis-(cycloSaligenyl) derivatives containing two anti-HIV nucleosides, 3′-fluoro-3′-deoxythymidine (FLT) and 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine (AZT) were synthesized to increase intracellular delivery of nucleoside monophosphates. 2,5-Bis(hydroxymethylene)benzene-1,4-diol was selected as a monocyclic bidentate scaffold and synthesized by three different methods from bis(hydroxymethylene)cyclohexan-1,4-diene-1,4-diol, or diethyl 2,5-dihydroxyterephthalate. The reaction of the tetraol with diisopropylphosphoramidous dichloride in the presence of 2,6-lutidine, followed by conjugation reactions with nucleosides (i.e., FLT and AZT) and oxidation afforded symmetrical and unsymmetrical bis-(cycloSaligenyl) diphosphate triester products, AZT-AZT, FLT-FLT, and FLT-AZT conjugates, in 63-74% overall yields and modest anti-HIV activities (IC₅₀ = 2.8-69.6 μM).     

Dynamics of droplet motion under electrowetting actuation

The static shape of droplets under electrowetting actuation is well understood. The steady-state shape of the droplet is obtained on the basis of the balance of surface tension and electrowetting forces, and the change in the apparent contact angle is well characterized by the Young-Lippmann equation. However, the transient droplet shape behavior when a voltage is suddenly applied across a droplet has received less attention. Additional dynamic frictional forces are at play during this transient process. We present a model to predict this transient behavior of the droplet shape under electrowetting actuation. The droplet shape is modeled using the volume of fluid method. The electrowetting and dynamic frictional forces are included as an effective dynamic contact angle through a force balance at the contact line. The model is used to predict the transient behavior of water droplets on smooth hydrophobic surfaces under electrowetting actuation. The predictions of the transient behavior of droplet shape and contact radius are in excellent agreement with our experimental measurements. The internal fluid motion is explained, and the droplet motion is shown to initiate from the contact line. An approximate mathematical model is also developed to understand the physics of the droplet motion and to describe the overall droplet motion and the contact line velocities.     

Epitaxy‐like orientation of nanoscale Ag islands grown on air‐oxidized Si(110)‐(5 × 1) surfaces

Growth of Ag islands under ultra‐high vacuum condition on air‐oxidized Si(110)‐(5 × 1) surfaces has been investigated by in situ reflection high energy electron diffraction and ex situ scanning electron microscopy and cross‐sectional transmission electron microscopy. A thin oxide is formed on Si via exposure of the clean Si(110)‐(5 × 1) surface to air. The oxide layer has a short range order. Deposition of Ag at different thicknesses and at different substrate temperatures reveal that the crystalline qualities of the Ag film are almost independent of the thickness of the Ag layer and depend only on the substrate temperature. Ag deposition at room temperature leads to the growth of randomly oriented Ag islands while preferred orientation evolves when Ag is deposited at higher temperatures. For deposition at 550 °C sharp spots in the reflection high energy electron diffraction pattern corresponding to an epitaxial orientation with the underlying Si substrate are observed. The presence of a short range order on the oxidized surface apparently influences the crystallographic orientation of the Ag islands. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Melting from one to two to three dimensions

The transformation of a crystalline solid into a liquid, seeming to have no precursor and no intermediate states, has challenged scientists for over a century. The search for the fundamental mechanism stimulated the development of quantum mechanics, concepts of the roles of dimensionality and topological order in condensed matter, and experimental techniques to test the theories. We now understand that the transition begins at lower temperatures than the melting point of the bulk. It starts at the edges of crystal planes, progresses across the surface, evolves into the successive melting of atomic layers, and ends in bulk phase coexistence. The memory of the process remains within a few molecular distances at the crystal-melt interface.     

Heat and mass transfer of MHD convective boundary layer flow past a stretching porous wall embedded in a porous medium

The hydromagnetic convective boundary layer flow past a stretching porous wall embedded in a porous medium with heat and mass transfer in the presence of a heat source and under the influence of a uniform magnetic field is studied. Exact solutions of the basic equations of motion, heat and mass transfer are obtained after reducing them to nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The reduced equations of heat and mass transfer are solved using a confluent hypergeometric function. The effects of the flow parameters such as a suction parameter (N), magnetic parameter (M), permeability parameter (K _p ), wall temperature parameter (r), wall concentration parameter (n), and heat source/sink parameter (Q) on the dynamics are discussed. It is observed that the suction parameter appears in the boundary condition ensuring the variable suction at the surface. Transverse component of the velocity increases only when magnetic field strength exceeds certain value, but the thermal boundary layer thickness and concentration distribution increase for all values. Results presented in this paper are in good agreement with the work of the previous author and also in conformity with the established theory.     

Nonequilibrium charge susceptibility and dynamical conductance: identification of scattering processes in quantum transport

We calculate the nonequilibrium charge transport properties of nanoscale junctions in the steady state and extend the concept of charge susceptibility to the nonequilibrium conditions. We show that the nonequilibrium charge susceptibility is related to the nonlinear dynamical conductance. In spectroscopic terms, both contain the same features versus applied bias when charge fluctuation occurs in the corresponding electronic resonances. However, we show that, while the conductance exhibits features at biases corresponding to inelastic scattering with no charge fluctuations, the nonequilibrium charge susceptibility does not. We suggest that measuring both the nonequilibrium conductance and charge susceptibility in the same experiment will permit us to differentiate between different scattering processes in quantum transport.     

An improved algorithm and its parallel implementation for solving a general blood-tissue transport and metabolism model

Fast algorithms for simulating mathematical models of coupled blood-tissue transport and metabolism are critical for the analysis of data on transport and reaction in tissues. Here, by combining the method of characteristics with the standard grid discretization technique, a novel algorithm is introduced for solving a general blood-tissue transport and metabolism model governed by a large system of one-dimensional semilinear first order partial differential equations. The key part of the algorithm is to approximate the model as a group of independent ordinary differential equation (ODE) systems such that each ODE system has the same size as the model and can be integrated independently. Thus the method can be easily implemented in parallel on a large-scale multiprocessor computer. The accuracy of the algorithm is demonstrated for solving a simple blood-tissue exchange model introduced by Sangren and Sheppard [W.C. Sangren, C.W. Sheppard, A mathematical derivation of the exchange of a labeled substance between a liquid flowing in a vessel and an external compartment, Bull. Math. Biophys. 15 (1953) 387–394], which has an analytical solution. Numerical experiments made on a distributed-memory parallel computer (an HP Linux cluster) and a shared-memory parallel computer (a SGI Origin 2000) demonstrate the parallel efficiency of the algorithm.     

Surface roughness and power spectral density study of SHI irradiated ultra-thin gold films

Quantitative roughness and microstructural analysis of as-deposited and swift heavy ion (SHI) (107 MeV Ag and 58 MeV Ni) irradiated 10 and 20 nm thick Au films were performed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Power spectral density (PSD) analysis was done from the AFM images. The energies chosen for the two different ions eliminated the velocity effect of SHI in materials modification. The rms roughness estimated from the AFM data did not show either monotonic increase or decrease with ion fluences. Instead, it increased at low fluences and decreased at high fluences for 20 nm thick film. In 10 nm film, the roughness first increased with ion fluence, then decreased and again increased at higher fluences. Though the 10 and 20 nm films exhibited very different patterns of rms roughness variation with ion fluence, the pattern of variation in both cases was identical for Ni and Ag beams. The PSD analysis for both 10 and 20 nm films (pristine and irradiated) showed similar variation of low frequency roughness with ion fluence as that of the rms roughness. In the high frequency regime, PSD analysis suggests that surface morphology of the irradiated samples is governed by the combined effect of evaporation-recondensation and diffusion dominated processes.     

Observation of grain growth in swift heavy ion irradiated NiO thin films

NiO thin films grown on Si(100) substrates by electron beam evaporation, were sintered at 500 °C and 700 °C. The films were irradiated with 120 MeV Au⁹⁺ ions. Irradiation had different effects depending upon the initial microstructure of the films. Irradiation of the films at a fluence of 3 × 10¹¹ ions cm⁻² leads to grain growth for the films sintered at 500 °C and grain fragmentation for the films sintered at 700 °C. At still higher fluences of irradiation, grain size in 500 °C sintered film decreased, but the same improved in 700 °C sintered film. Associated with the grain size, texturing of the films was also shown to undergo significant modifications under irradiation.