Use of chromatographic pre-concentration for routine uranium bioassay analysis by ICP-MS

Routine monitoring of urine is an effective way to detect occupational intake of radioactive material. Historically, determinations of uranium isotopic ratios have been performed by radiochemical separation followed by alpha spectrometry. With recent advancements in technology, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has become widely available for the determination of trace metals as well as radioactive nuclides with long half-lives, such as ²³⁸U in urine. Furthermore, ICP-MS measurements of ²³⁸U do not require radiochemical separation since the number of atoms in the sample is determined instead of the number of alpha particles emitted. However, this method does not provide good sensitivity for the determination of ²³⁵U due to its shorter half-life. An improved procedure using pre-concentration of uranium and determination by ICP-MS decreases the detection limit by a factor of ten or greater with only slight increase in total analysis time. The method also has the capability of accurately determining the isotopic ratio of the sample, which is very important in cases where enriched or depleted uranium is involved.     

Reversible Control over Molecular Recognition in Surface‐Bound Photoswitchable Hydrogen‐Bonding Receptors: Towards Read–Write–Erase Molecular Printboards

The synthesis of an anthracene‐bearing photoactive barbituric acid receptor and its subsequent grafting onto azide‐terminated alkanethiol/Au self‐assembled monolayers by using an Cu^I‐catalyzed azide–alkyne reaction is reported. Monolayer characterization using contact‐angle measurements, electrochemistry, and spectroscopic ellipsometry indicate that the monolayer conversion is fast and complete. Irradiation of the receptor leads to photodimerization of the anthracenes, which induces the open‐to‐closed gating of the receptor by blocking access to the binding site. The process is thermally reversible, and polarization‐modulated IR reflection–absorption spectroscopy indicates that photochemical closure and thermal opening of the surface‐bound receptors occur in 70 and 100 % conversion, respectively. Affinity of the open and closed surface‐bound receptor was characterized by using force spectroscopy with a barbituric‐acid‐modified atomic force microscope tip.     

“The hidden power and competitive advantage of applying green chemistry metrics”

Green chemistry (GC) metrics provide insight into the relative waste, time and cost implications of pharmaceutical chemical processes and serve to guide scientists in the strategic application of resources to develop more efficient and sustainable processes. Examples of the application of GC metrics in evaluating pharmaceutical process efficiency and the subsequent development toward improvement exist in abundance from journals such as Organic Process Research and Development, Green Chemistry, or as encompassed by the winning examples from the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable's [1] Peter J. Dunn award [2] or the US EPA's Green Chemistry Challenge award [3]. By their nature, GC metrics are continuously evolving but justify the necessary, unceasing investment in understanding and application as they offer unique, opportunistic insight serving to guide scientific resource deployment when developing greener pharmaceutical, chemical processes.     

Oriented noncrystalline structure in PET fibers prepared with threadline modification process

The development of an oriented noncrystalline phase in a semicrystalline polymer filament has been studied via X-ray scattering. These unique PET fibers contain a relatively high noncrystalline content and also have high tenacity, high modulus, and low breaking elongation. Fiber properties were found to be very responsive to the oriented amorphous phase content. This phase was utilized for interpreting noncrystalline orientation in PET fibers produced by a new extrusion technique. Here, the oriented noncrystalline regions in a series of PET fibers varies from 6% to 63%, depending strongly on the production conditions. In particular, samples produced with a newly developed threadline modification process possess a high content of oriented noncrystalline polymer. Measurements such as dynamic and static mechanical properties have been performed on various samples, and these properties are related to the oriented noncrystalline phase. The results provide direct evidence for the existence of highly oriented noncrystalline material in these unique PET fibers spun with a threadline modification process. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Irreducibility, Brill-Noether loci, and Vojta's inequality

This paper deals with generalizations of Hilbert's irreducibility theorem. The classical Hilbert irreducibility theorem states that for any cover of the projective line defined over a number field , there exist infinitely many -rational points on the projective line such that the fiber of over is irreducible over . In this paper, we consider similar statements about algebraic points of higher degree on curves of any genus. We prove that Hilbert's irreducibility theorem admits a natural generalization to rational points on an elliptic curve and thus, via a theorem of Abramovich and Harris, to points of degree 3 or less on any curve. We also present examples that show that this generalization does not hold for points of degree 4 or more. These examples come from an earlier geometric construction of Debarre and Fahlaoui; some additional necessary facts about this construction can be found in the appendix provided by Debarre. We exhibit a connection between these irreducibility questions and the sharpness of Vojta's inequality for algebraic points on curves. In particular, we show that Vojta's inequality is not sharp for the algebraic points arising in our examples.

     

Photoinduced formation of a cryptand from a coronand: an unexpected switch in cation binding affinity

Aza-crown ethers 2 and 3 with anthracene-containing pendant arms have been synthesised and characterised. Both compounds bind Group 1 metal cations in solution, forming complexes of 1:1 stoichiometry. The properties of compound 2 and its complexes have been studied by a range of techniques, including NMR, UV and fluorescence spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. The pendant arms can adopt either a cis or a trans geometry, the cis geometry favoured with larger cations. The geometry of the complex affects the fluorescence properties of the system, with larger cations giving higher excimer/monomer ratios. Upon irradiation at lambda>300 nm, coronand 2 forms the cryptand 5 through a reversible intramolecular [4pi+4pi] cycloaddition reaction. The rates of the forward and reverse reactions of this photochromic process are cation dependent; in particular the rate of the thermal reverse reaction is decreased by smaller cations and increased by larger cations, especially Rb(+). The metal binding constants in methanol for 2 and 5 have been determined, revealing that the cryptand 5 binds Na(+) and Rb(+) more weakly than crown ether 2 by over two orders of magnitude.     

Characteristics and design procedure of hyperbolic dies

Nozzle profiles capable of generating constant extensional strain rates are termed hyperbolic dies. When used in polymer extrusion, they exhibit greater potential in inducing and retaining polymer molecular orientation than conventional capillary dies. Most mathematical expressions found in the literature involve several processing variables in describing and designing such nozzle profiles. This report reveals that a hyperbolic die profile, although rather complicated, can be expressed with equations in terms of two ordinary geometrical parameters—the exit diameter and the hyperbolic length. This finding greatly simplifies the design procedure of hyperbolic dies. The extensional strain rate of a hyperbolic die can be related to the length-to-diameter ratio for any given exit diameter. Examples of various types of die profiles are presented and their constant extensional strain-rate characteristics are discussed.     

电荷密度波状态下的TaS_3的某些动态特性及其可能的电子学应用

本文对处在电荷密度波(CDW''S)状态下的TaS₃的直流及交流导电特性进行了仔细的观测,揭示出准一维导体TaS₃的交流响应中滞后现象及相移的存在,演示了准一维导体TaS₃在其转换温度以下所具有的强烈非线性导电特性的各种可能的电子学应用(包括频率转换、调制、外差等),展示了一类新的体效应CDW''S电子器件的可能性。文中还提出了一个电路模型,唯象地描述了所观察到的实验现现象。