Imaging in turbid media with intensity-modulated lasers

We describe the formation of a narrow beam for intensity-modulated electromagnetic radiation propagating through highly scattering materials. We propose to use this beam to reconstruct images, similar to X-ray back-projection techniques. For sufficiently high modulation frequency, the photon density wave is primarily carried by photons that suffer small or no large-angle scattering, which gives rise to the beam’s narrow divergence. The beam-narrowing concept is supported by large-scale numerical simulations to examine the quality of the imaging.     

Determination of uranium and thorium isotopes in soil samples by coprecipitation

Summary The paper presents a procedure to prepare soil samples for U and Th isotope measurement by alpha-spectrometry after coprecipitation with LaF₃. In this procedure the reduction of U(VI) to U(IV) was performed by Zn metal in 4M HCl solution. The recoveries of chemical separation equal to e_U-chemistry = 78±4% for uranium and e_Th-chemistry = 82±4% for thorium. Canberra alpha-spectrometer was used with PIPS detectors of A-1200-37-AM Model of 1200 mm² active area. The counting efficiency of the measuring system equals to e_counting = 18% and the total efficiencies were e_U = e_counting ^.e_U-chemistry = 14.0±0.7% for uranium and e_Th = e_counting ^.e_Th-chemistry = 14.7±0.7% for thorium. The recoveries of chemical separation were rather high (about 80%), that leads to the use of a small weight of soil sample (about 0.5 g). The efficiencies were also stable, that allows analyzing the soil sample without using radiotracers. They are advantages of the sample preparation procedure of this work.     

Influence of focusing depth on the microfabrication of waveguides inside silica glass by femtosecond laser direct writing

We studied the influence of focusing depth on the index change threshold and damage threshold of silica glass irradiated by a focused 120 fs laser beam. Both thresholds increased with the focusing depth. The aspect ratio of the waveguide cross section can be selected by changing the focusing depth. A 5 mm long waveguide was written at the depth of 2100 μm, which was single mode at 632.8 nm and exhibited propagation loss of 0.56 dB/cm. The refractive index change was calculated to be ∼2.47×10^-3. The influence of the focusing depth should be considered in multi-layer devices as shown in the fabrication of a 3×3 waveguide array. PACS 42.62.-b; 42.82.Et; 81.05.Kf     

The Organization of Interaction Between Oil Refineries

The paper deals with the appropriate form of interaction between two refineries with different demand patterns. This problem can be formulated as finding a decentralized solution of linear programming problems linked by buying and selling activities. The complete problem is first solved for central values of product demands and costs and revenues. The structure of the basis then determines the organization of the interaction in terms of which unit sets quantities and which prices, or whether centralized decisions should be made. If, for expected values of product demand and costs, the structure of the basis is the same then the related organization of trading can be used for day-to-day transactions. For a well-known oil refinery model it is found that, for fairly large demand variations, decentralized interaction is effective, but that the structure of the basis changes easily with crude price variations, and that simulations did not converge for these variations.     

PEO-based composite lithium polymer electrolyte, PEO-BaTiO3-Li(C2F5SO2)2N

Polyethylene oxide (PEO) based polymer electrolytes with BaTiO₃ as filler and Li(C₂F₅SO₂)₂N as salt have been examined in lithium polymer batteries. The aluminum disolution potential in PEO-Li(C₂F₅SO₂)₂N was estimated to be 4.1 V vs. Li/Li⁺ at 80 °C, which was compared to that of 3.8 V vs. Li/Li⁺ in PEO-Li(CF₃SO₂)₂N. The electrical conductivity of the system was measured as a function of O/Li ratio. The highest conductivity was observed in O/Li=8. The conductivity was 1.65×10⁻³ S/cm at 80 °C and 1.5×10⁻⁵ S/cm at 25 °C. The interfacial resistance of Li/polymer electrolyte/Li annealed at 80 °C for 15 days was lower than 100 Ωcm². Paper presented at the 8th EuroConference on Ionics, Carvoeiro, Algarve, Portugal, Sept. 16 – 22, 2001.     

A Mössbauer spectroscopic study of an industrial catalyst for dehydrogenation of etylbenzene to styrene

Iron oxide catalyst with spinel structure used for dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene is one kind of important catalyst in petrochemical industry. In this work several series of industrial catalyst were prepared with different components and different manufacturing processes. Mössbauer Spectroscopy has been used to determine the optimal components and the better manufacturing process for spinel structure formation. The results may prove useful for producing the industrial dehydrogenation catalyst with better catalytic property.     

An efficient lasing action from pyrromethene 556 dye-doped organically modified silicates

Organically modified solid-state silicates (ORMOSILS) doped with a new laser dye 1,3,5,7,8-pentamethylpyrromethene-2,6-disulfonate-BF₂ complex (pyrromethene 556) have been synthesized by a sol-gel method and the compositional effects on pore characteristics, fluorescence and lasing properties have been investigated. It is found that the use of dimethylsulfoxide and γ-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane could greatly change the structure properties of sol-gel derived ORMOSILS cage, and thus the fluorescence and lasing properties of the materials could improve significantly. A successful laser oscillation from this dye-doped ORMOSILS sample has been achieved upon pumping with a Q-switched frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm. A slope efficiency of 54% with a useful lifetime greater than 10,000 shots has been demonstrated at a pump repetition rate of 1 Hz and a pump intensity of 1 J/cm² by using the new ORMOSILS cage on our newly designed laser system. Our results have shown that it is possible to obtain a high-efficiency with a long-lifetime for a compact new laser device by low cost dye-doped solid-state ORMOSILS.     

Enantioselective separations by capillary GC on derivatized cyclodextrins. Part 2: Determination of enantiomeric excess of some racemic 2,3-isopropylidene-1,2,3-cyclohexanetriol derivatives on permethyl α-, β-, and γ-cyclodextrins

Capillary GC on permethyl α-, β-, and γ-cyclodextrins has been applied to separate and quantify the enantiomers of some 2,3-iso-propylidene-1,2,3-cyclohexanetriol derivatives. Quantitative CGC data are compared to those obtained with chiral shift ¹H NMR.     

Determination of iphosphamide and seven metabolites in blood plasma,as stable trifluoroacetyl derivatives,by electron capture chemical ionization GC-MS

A method is described for the determination of the antitumor agent iphosphamide and seven of its metabolites in the plasma of cancer patients by multiple ion monitoring (MIM) GC-MS, mainly using the electron capture chemical ionization mode, of stable methyl and/or trifluoroacetyl derivatives. The metabolites determined were 2- and 3-dechloroethyliphosphamide, 4-ketoiphosphamide, carboxyiphosphamide, iphosphamide mustard, and two previously undetected metabolites, chloroethylamine and 1,3-oxazolidine-2-one. The isolation of the acidic and neutral metabolites was performed by solid phase extraction on to C₁₈ adsorbent at pH 4. The weakly acidic iphosphamide mustard, isolated under these conditions with a yield of ca 50%, was measured as a stable methyltrifluoroacetyl derivative, in contrast to the corresponding phosphoramide mustard of the isomer cyclophosphamide which decomposes during derivatization. Chloroethylamine and 1,3-oxazolidine-2-one were isolated with high yield by liquid extraction with ethyl acetate at pH 10. Selective measurement of several metabolite derivatives with similar retention times was performed by multiple ion monitoring MS of specific ion masses, using a methyl phenyl siloxane capillary column previously employed in the study of cyclophosphamide metabolites. Quantitation of metabolites in patient plasma samples could be performed in the concentration range 3 ng to 20 μg per ml of original plasma.