Content and Methodological Provision of the Basic Course of Analytical Chemistry

Russian standards in training conventional graduates and bachelors are considered. These standards determine the status and volume of analytical chemistry courses at different higher educational institutions. An analysis of the educational standards, standard curricula, and the aims of teaching analytical chemistry suggests the advisability of changing the content of the course, particularly at industrial (branch) higher educational institutions. The provision of the analytical chemistry course with special literature (manuals, textbooks), equipment, and computer software is considered.     

Comparative analysis of heterogeneous solid and soft materials by adsorption, NMR and thermally stimulated depolarisation current methods

Structural characterisation of such bio-objects as fibrinogen solution, yeast cells, wheat seeds and bone tissues has been done using two versions of cryoporometry based on the integral Gibbs-Thomson (IGT) equation for freezing point depression of pore liquids and the measurements by ¹H NMR spectroscopy (180-200 < T < 273 K) and the thermally stimulated depolarisation current (TSDC) method (90 < T < 273 K) of structured water. The IGT equation was solved using a self-consisting regularization procedure including the maximum entropy principle applied to the distribution function of pore size (PSD). Both methods give clear pictures of changes in the structural characteristics caused, e.g., by hydration and swelling of wheat seeds and yeast cells, coagulation and interaction of fibrinogen with solid nanoparticles in the aqueous media, and the human bone tissue disease.     

Optimization of in-vacuo template-stripped Pt surfaces via UHV STM

A recently demonstrated [1] in-vacuo template-stripping process is applied to the study of platinum films stripped from ultra-flat silicon-oxide surfaces. Template-stripped (TS) Pt surfaces, prepared with a range of post-deposition annealing times prior to being stripped from the templating surface in an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) environment, are examined by UHV scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). These studies reveal that without post-deposition annealing, TS Pt surfaces are largely made up of poorly-ordered, granular nanostructures undesirable for many applications. The post-deposition annealing treatments explored in the study result in the emergence and continuous growth of large smooth crystallites. Issues with crystallite orientation relative to the TS surface and artefacts arising as a result of the epoxy used in the template-stripping process are presented and discussed in relation to optimizing the template-stripping procedure for specific applications such as self-assembled monolayer (SAM) formation for molecular electronics. PACS 68.37.Ef; 68.47.De; 68.55.Jk; 81.05.Bx; 81.15.Ef     

Finite element modal solutions of planar photonic crystal fibers with rectangular air-holes

Modal solutions of planar photonic crystal waveguides with rectangular air-holes are presented by using a rigorous full-vectorial finite element-based approach. The effective indices, mode field profiles, spot-sizes, power confinements, modal hybridness, beat lengths and group velocity dispersions are shown for the fundamental and higher order modes of the quasi-TE and TM polarizations.     

Determination of Calcium,Magnesium, Iron,Copper, Zinc,and Phosphorus in Blood Serum by Arc Atomic Emission Spectrometry

The results of the elemental analysis of blood serum are often used for the diagnosis of different diseases associated with derangements of mineral metabolism. In this work, we studied the main sources of a systematic error in the atomic-emission spectrometric (AES) analysis of blood serum and developed a procedure for the AES determination of Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, P, and Zn in the human blood serum. The repeatability relative standard deviations of determinations varied from 10 to 24%.     

Performance evaluation of fiber Bragg grating sensors by digital holographic technique, strain gauge measurement

In view of the growing interest for non-destructive tests of materials, geodynamical monitoring and in general remote sensing, there is a great effort to bring practical optical sensors from research labs to industrial and environmental applications. In this paper, we employ digital holographic technique as an efficient tool for evaluating the strain measurement capability of fiber Bragg gratings (FBG). A cantilever beam has been employed as a test structure under loading test. The strain measurements results obtained by fiber-based sensors have been compared to those obtained by using full-field digital holographic technique and point-wise strain gauge sensors glued on the same cantilever beam. A simple theoretical model is also presented to interpret and compare the experimental results coming from different techniques.     

On the Zero-Energy-Limit Solution for the Modified Gross–Pitaevskii Equation

The modified Gross–Pitaevskii equation was derived and solved to obtain the 1D solution in the zero-energy limit. This stationary solution could account for the dominated contributions due to the kinetic effect as well as the chemical potential in inhomogeneous Bose gases.     

Unified approach to photo-and electro-production of mesons with arbitrary spins

A new approach to identify the independent amplitudes along with their partial wave multipole expansions, for photo-and electro-production is suggested, which is generally applicable to mesons with arbitrary spin-parity. These amplitudes facilitate direct identification of different resonance contributions.      

Determination of electron temperature based on a semicoronal model in Hall accelerator plasma flows

We present the results of a spectroscopic study of a nonequilibrium plasma in a Hall accelerator, in particular for such an important parameter as the electron temperature. For the studied conditions, we used the semicoronal equilibrium model, which relates the intensity ratios for two successive ionization steps for the same element. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 74, No. 1, pp. 93–96, January–February, 2007.