Sn interaction with the CeO2(1 1 1) system: Bimetallic bonding and ceria reduction

A tin layer 0.8 nm thick was deposited onto the CeO₂(1 1 1) surface by molecular beam deposition at a temperature of 520 K. The interaction of tin with cerium oxide (ceria) was investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ultra-violet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and resonant photoelectron spectroscopy (RPES). The strong tin-ceria interaction led to the formation of a homogeneous bulk Ce-Sn-O mixed oxide system. The bulk compound formation is accompanied by partial Ce⁴⁺ → Ce³⁺ reduction, observed as a giant 4f resonance enhancement of the Ce³⁺ species. CeO₂ and SnO₂ oxides were formed after oxygen treatment at 520 K. The study proved the existence of strong Ce-Sn interaction and charge transfer from Sn to the Ce-O complex that lead to a weakening of the cerium-oxygen bond, and consequently, to the formation of oxygen deficient active sites on the ceria surface. This behavior can be a key for understanding the higher catalytic activity of the SnO_x/CeO_x mixed oxide catalysts as compared with the individual pure oxides.     

Modification of terminating species and band alignment at the interface between alumina films and metal single crystals

Thin epitaxial alumina films were grown on Cu(111), Cu–9 at.%Al(111), Ni(111) and NiAl(110) single crystals. The alumina films grew in such a manner that hexagonal or pseudo-hexagonal oxygen lattices were parallel to the surface of the substrates. Photoelectron spectra were obtained either with synchrotron or Al K-alpha radiation. We measured Al 2p spectra and determined the atomic species that terminated the interface between the alumina films and the substrates. The influence of Al in the substrates on the species that terminated the interface has been discussed based on thermodynamics. From valence band spectra, p-type Schottky barrier height (energy difference between the Fermi level of the metallic substrates and the valence band maximum of the alumina films, band offset) was determined. Differences in interface terminating species resulted in variations in p-type Schottky barrier height, or band alignment.     

Automatic 3D tracking of cardiac material markers using slice-following and harmonic-phase MRI

A method to track a grid of cardiac material points in three dimensions using slice-following (SF) tagged magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and harmonic-phase MRI is presented. A three-dimensional grid of material points on the lines of intersections of short-axis (SA) and long-axis (LA) planes is automatically tracked by combining two-dimensional pathlines that are computed on both SA and LA image planes. This process yields the true three-dimensional motion of points originating on the image plane intersections. Experimental data from normal volunteers, each obtained in four short breath-holds using the SF harmonic phase MRI pulse sequence, is presented. A validation of two-dimensional in-plane tracks using this pulse sequence on a moving phantom is also presented.     

Comparison of speech production in upright and supine position

Speech is usually produced in an upright sitting or standing posture. Measurements and judgments of speech may be made in conditions requiring a supine position, however. These conditions include MRI recordings, and oral procedures, such as, adjustments to dental appliances, medical and surgical procedures. It is of interest, therefore, to see whether gravity has strong or systematic effects on tongue behavior. In the present study, 13 subjects repeated several words, which contained extreme consonant and vowel tongue positions, during upright and supine condition. Ultrasound imaging provided midsagittal tongue contours, in each condition, for comparison. A neck brace was used to stabilize transducer placement and the palate was used as a physiological reference to register the data sets. Results showed a significant subject effect. In supine position the tongue was more posterior than upright for seven subjects, more anterior for two subjects and varied by phoneme for four subjects. However, there was no significant phoneme effect. The direction of change and the amount of change were not directly related. Most subjects had small upright-supine differences. The largest differences, less than 3 mm on average, were in the posterior tongue.     

The Inverse Problem of the Calculus of Variations: Separable Systems

This paper deals with the inverse problem of the calculus of variations for systems of second-order ordinary differential equations. The case of the problem which Douglas, in his classification of pairs of such equations, called the separated case is generalized to arbitrary dimension. After identifying the conditions which should specify such a case for n equations in a coordinate-free way, two proofs of its variationality are presented. The first one follows the line of approach introduced by some of the authors in previous work, and is close in spirit, though being coordinate independent, to the Riquier analysis applied by Douglas for n = 2. The second proof is more direct and leads to the discovery that belonging to the separated case has an intrinsic meaning for the given second-order differential equations: the system is separable in the sense that it can be decoupled into n pairs of first-order equations.     

Fuzzy subgroups of n-ary subgroups

We introduce a notion of t-fuzzy n-ary subgroup in an n-ary group (G, f) and have studied their related properties.     

Evaluation of the Mooney Viscosity of Natural Rubber by Near‐Infrared Spectroscopy

Abstract

The direct near‐infrared spectroscopic reflectance measurements of prevulcanized natural rubber (brown crepe) was employed for determination of its Mooney viscosity. NIR reflectance spectra were obtained for a total of 100 samples whose Mooney viscosity (VM in the range 68–95 units) have been determined by the standard reference procedure using a commercial computerized Mooney viscometer. These samples were employed as the raw material or were treated to achieve better homogenization. A Fourier transform near infrared (FT‐NIR) spectrophotometer was employed, and the reflectance spectra were obtained with resolution of 4 cm^?1 in the range 4000–10,000 cm^?1 as an average of 75 scans. The samples were split in a calibration set containing 70 samples and in an external validation set consisting of the remaining 30 samples. The calibration and validation spectra sets were treated to correct for baseline shift, further transformed by first derivative and finally modeled by partial least squares (PLS) employing four latent variables. The model was evaluated with the external sample test set, and a RMSEP of 3.6 and 3.9 units of Mooney viscosity were obtained for homogenized and nonhomogenized samples, respectively. The NIR method is capable of determining the Mooney viscosity in few minutes in the non‐pretreated sample with an error that is satisfactory for quality control of natural rubber destined for automobile tire manufacturing.