Heterogeneous ion-exchange membranes

The field of heterogeneous ion exchange membranes is reviewed briefly. Specific advantages and disadvantages of heterogeneous ion exchange membranes are discussed compared with those of homogeneous ion exchange membranes. p]The development of heterogeneous ion exchange membranes is presented in historical perspective. The electrochemistry of ion-selective membranes began with Ostwald in 1890. After the classical work of Michaelis (1925) with collodion membranes, the first fully synthetic ion exchange membranes were prepared by Zhukov (1933) and Wassenegger (1940), based on sulfonated phenol—formaldehyde resins. These initial membranes, which were of the homogeneous type found no practical uses. The era of commercially useful ion exchange membranes began with the work of Wyllie (1948), Juda (1950), Bodamer (1953) and their collaborators who prepared heterogeneous ion exchange membranes by embedding ion exchange particles into polymer matrices. p]Methods for making heterogeneous ion exchange membranes include compression-molding of polymer powders, compounding on hot rolls, latex or solvent blending in situ generation of either the matrix or the ion exchange material. Microheterogeneous ion exchange membranes can be made from block and graft copolymers, interpolymers snake-cage resins, similar techniques and materials. p]Even though the first commercial ion exchange membranes were heterogeneous, the interest in this type of membranes subsided later. As polymer science progressed, speciality monomers and polymers were being made which opened the way to the preparation of quite sophisticated homogeneous ion exchange membranes of satisfactory mechanical strength. However, the possibilities of heterogeneous ion exchange membranes are by no means exhausted and this field may warrant further exploration, applying modern methods and materials and thus progressing beyond the relatively crude heterogeneous ion exchange membranes of the pioneer times.     

On Quasi-Interpolation with Non-uniformly Distributed Centers on Domains and Manifolds

The paper studies quasi-interpolation by scaled shifts of a smooth and rapidly decaying function. The centers are images of a smooth mapping of the hZⁿ-lattice in R^s, sn, and the scaling parameters are proportional to h. We show that for a large class of generating functions the quasi-interpolants provide high order approximations up to some prescribed accuracy. Although in general the approximants do not converge as h tends to zero, the remaining saturation error is negligible in numerical computations if a scalar parameter is suitably chosen. The lack of convergence is compensated for by a greater flexibility in the choice of generating functions used in numerical methods for solving operator equations.     

Detection of a flow induced magnetic field eigenmode in the riga dynamo facility

In a closed volume of molten sodium an intense single-vortex-like helical flow has been produced by an outside powered propeller. At a flow rate of 0.67 m(3)/s a slowly growing magnetic field eigenmode was detected. For a slightly lower flow, additional measurements showed a slow decay of this mode. The measured results correspond satisfactorily with numerical predictions for the growth rates and frequencies.     

Uncertainty evaluation of the spectral UV irradiance evaluated by using the UVSPEC radiative transfer model

The radiative transfer models allow calculating the spectral UV irradiance from some set of measured input quantities linked with the surface reflectivity, the solar zenith angle, the ozone column and the characteristics of clouds and aerosols. The spectral irradiance yielded by a model is influenced by errors in the measurement of the input quantities. In this paper, the influences of these errors are characterized and compared with other systematic effects through an uncertainty analysis. We evaluated the uncertainty of the spectral UV irradiance rendered by the UVSPEC model, under cloudless sky conditions. In order to express the uncertainty of the output quantities (the global, direct and diffuse irradiances) in terms of the standard uncertainties of the input quantities, we used a Monte Carlo-based uncertainty propagation technique. We found that the uncertainty of the irradiance in the UV-B part of the spectrum was strongly influenced by the uncertainty attributed to the ozone column datum. Moreover, the uncertainities associated with the aerosol parameters accounted for most of the UV-A global irradiance uncertainty; the latter increased from about 4% under low aerosol conditions, up to about 14% in case of polluted air. We conclude that the UV irradiance evaluation through radiative transfer models requires paying special attention to the assessment of the aerosols properties.     

Completely prime L-filters,irreducible L-filters and sobriety

In this paper, for a frame L, we characterize modified sobriety in stratified L-topological spaces and strong L-topological spaces internally using certain classes of stratified L-filters. While the first characterization using completely prime L-filters is trivial and applies to all stratified L-topological spaces, the other one using irreducible L-filters generalizes an approach of R.E. Ho?mann to the lattice-valued case but is restricted to either the case that the lattice is a complete Boolean algebra or to the case of completely distributive lattices and strong L-topological spaces.     

Evaluation of contributions to the uncertainty of cholesterol determination in human serum by means of gas chromatography/(quadrupole-) mass spectrometry

 The uncertainty budget of the determination of cholesterol in a reference material (freeze-dried human serum) by isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) was evaluated. Measurements were run on a GC/quadrupole MS. A nested experimental design combined with a corresponding model for the analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed the components making up the total uncertainty of the determinations. The coefficient of variation (CV) of the sole GC/MS-step was 0.47%, while that of the sample preparation including hydrolyzation, extraction and derivatization was 0.84%. This made the in-laboratory (overall) CV 0.96%. In addition, there was a vial-to-vial effect of 1.00% probably due to both inhomogeneity of the pooled material and lack of reproducibility of the filling procedure (including freeze drying) of the supplier as well as the reconstitution prior to use in the laboratory. These contributions sum up to an overall CV of a single determination of about 1.4%. Received: 17 October 1996/Revised: 14 November 1996/Accepted: 18 November 1996     

Application of thin titanium/titanium oxide layers deposited on gold for infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy: structural studies of lipid bilayers

Ultrathin titanium layers when deposited on the surface of gold can be successfully applied for infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS) investigations. It was shown that the reflectivity, the phase shift, and the mean square electric field of the p- and s-polarized IR radiation in up to 20 nm thick titanium layers covered with a 3-4 nm thick layer of native oxide are comparable to those of the air/gold interface. The surface selection rule is fulfilled. Thus, qualitative and quantitative analysis of 1,2-dimyristoyl- sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) bilayers transferred in liquid expanded (LE) and liquid condensed (LC) states can be performed. Differences are found in the hydration state and molecular arrangement of the two investigated bilayers. In the DMPC bilayer in the LE state, the C-N bond in the positively charged choline moiety is inclined by approximately 70 degrees toward the surface of the negatively charged titanium substrate. In the phosphate moiety, the in-plane vector of the O-P-O group makes a small angle of approximately 15 degrees to the surface normal. This open structure of the lipid molecule corresponds to the B crystal structure of the DMPC molecule and provides space for strong hydration of the polar headgroup. In the DMPC bilayer in the LC state, the intermolecular distances are reduced; the C-N bond of the choline group makes a smaller angle to the surface normal, and the in-plane vector of the O-P-O group in the phosphate moiety displays a larger tilt. The degree of hydration is reduced. The arrangement of the polar headgroup region corresponds to the A crystal structure of the DMPC molecule.     

Compactness in fuzzy convergence spaces

Lowen and Lowen [Applications of category theory to fuzzy subsets (Kluwer, 1992) p. 153] and Lowen et al. [Fuzzy Sets and Systems 40 (1991) 347] recently introduced the category FCS of fuzzy convergence spaces, a topological quasitopos which is a supercategory of FTS, the category of fuzzy topological spaces. In this paper, compactness in FCS is examined. Doing so we found that to define compactness as an absolute property we had to generalize the definition of fuzzy convergence space to fuzzy subsets. All basic theorems are proved including the Tychonoff product theorem. Based on the theory developed here, in a following publication, a Richardson compactification for fuzzy convergence spaces will be given.     

Surface properties of plasma membrane vesicles isolated from melon (Cucumus melo L.) root cells differing in salinity tolerance

The hypotheses that genotypic differences in salinity tolerance may result from (i) differences in global surface charge density or (ii) from differences in global Ca²⁺ binding were tested. An attempt was made to correlate the differing salinity tolerance of four melon cultivars with surface properties of vesicles extracted from the plasma membrane (PM) of their root cells. Surface characterization involved measurements of electrophoretic mobility and sorption of ⁴⁵Ca²⁺ to the vesicles in the presence of varying concentrations of Ca²⁺, Na⁺ and Mg²⁺. Irrespective of salinity tolerance, vesicles from the four cultivars yielded similar ζ potentials under similar conditions, indicating similar global surface charge densities. Sorption studies with vesicles from two cultivars differing in salinity tolerance predicted independently this result of equal surface charge density. The estimated global binding affinities of Ca²⁺, Na⁺ and Mg²⁺ to the PM of both cultivars were the same with binding coefficients of 50, 0.8 and 9 M⁻¹, respectively. Consequently, the hypotheses enumerated above to interpret genotypic differences in salinity toxicity are rejected. However, vesicles from the salt-resistant strain sorbed 19% more Ca²⁺ per given amount of protein in the membrane, indicating the existence of a larger number of negatively charged surface sites per given amount of protein and a smaller amount of protein per given area of membrane. Genotypic differences in site-specific Ca²⁺-binding affinity (e.g. at ion channels) remain a viable hypothesis for genotypic differences in salinity tolerance.     

Magnetic field controlled floating-zone single crystal growth of intermetallic compounds

Radio-frequency (RF) floating zone single crystal growth is an important technique for the preparation of single bulk crystals. The advantage of the floating-zone method is the crucible-free growth of single crystals of reactive materials with high melting points. The strong heat diffusion on the surface, as well as the melt convection in the molten zone due to induction heating, often leads to an undesired solid-liquid interface geometry with a concave (towards the solid phase) outer rim. These concave parts aggravate the single crystal growth over the full cross-section. A two-phase stirrer was developed at IFW Dresden in order to avoid the problems connected with these concave parts. It acts as a magnetic field pump and changes the typical double vortex structure to a single roll structure, thus pushing hot melt into the regions where the concave parts may arise. The current in the secondary coil is induced by the primary coil, and the capacitor and the resistance of the secondary circuit are adjusted to get a stable 90 degree phase-shift between the coil currents. Single crystal growth of industrial relevant RuAl and TiAl intermetallic compounds was performed based on the material parameters and using the adjusted two-phase stirrer. Very recently, the magnetic system was applied to the crystal growth of biocompatible TiNb alloys and antiferromagnetic Heusler MnSi compounds.