Bacterial biosorption and retention of thorium and uranyl cations by Mycobacterium smegmatis

Biosorption of Th⁴⁺ and UO ₂ ²⁺ ions, both separately and in mixed equimolar ratio, was carried out using nitrate-buffered solutions of the cations at pH 1 in the presence of 5%w/w non-proliferative cell suspensions of Mycobacterium smegmatis. At equilibrium following a 3 h treatment, specific adsorption for 2 mM Th and U was, respectively, 102 and 115 mol g^–1 dry biomass for individual solutions and 102 and 42 mol g^–1 for the mixed 2/2 mM solution. Desorption studies of the cation-loaded biomass preparations in aqueous media and in soilbacterial suspensions within the pH range <1 to 11 showed that leaching of throium was generally less than 1% at pH 1–11 after 7 d, whereas uranium was leached to the extent of 2% at pH 1 and up to 10% under the same conditions in Th–U mixtures.     

Reactivity of monolayer-protected gold nanoclusters at dye-sensitized liquid/liquid interfaces

Hexanethiolate monolayer-protected gold nanoclusters (MPCs) were used as redox quenchers at the polarizable water/1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) interface. Photocurrent responses originating from the heterogeneous quenching of photoexcited water soluble porphyrin complexes by MPCs dissolved in the DCE phase were observed. As MPCs can function as both electron acceptors and donors, the photocurrent results from the superposition of two simultaneous processes, which correspond to the oxidation and reduction of MPCs. The magnitude of the net photocurrent is essentially determined by the balance of the kinetics of these two processes, which can be controlled by tuning the Galvani potential difference between the two phases. We show that, within the available potential window, the apparent electron-transfer rate constants follow classical Butler-Volmer dependence on the applied potential difference.     

Bivariate Free Knot Splines

We consider the least squares approximation of gridded 2D data by tensor product splines with free knots. The smoothing functional to be minimized—a generalization of the univariate Schoenberg functional—is chosen in such a way that the solution of the bivariate problem separates into the solution of a sequence of univariate problems in case of fixed knots. The resulting optimization problem is a constrained separable least squares problem with tensor product structure. Based on some ideas developed by the authors for the univariate case, an efficient method for solving the specially structured 2D problem is proposed, analyzed and tested on hand of some examples from the literature.     

Charge-changing cross sections of the neutron-rich isotopes8,9,11Li

Total charge-changing cross sections have been measured for⁸Li on C and Pb targets, for⁹Li on C, Al, Cu, Sn and Pb targets, as well as for¹¹Li on C, Sn and Pb targets at about 80 MeV/nucleon. These data are compared to measured total reaction cross sections and Glauber-type calculations using Hartree-Fock density distributions. These comparisons allow to draw conclusions on the proton density distribution of the neutronrich lithium isotopes. The results show that even for the most exotic nucleus¹¹Li the proton distribution is only very weakly influenced by the long tail in the neutron density distribution already established in several experiments.     

Stationary turbulent closure via the Hopf functional equation

Exact closed-form solutions are exhibited for the Hopf equation for stationary incompressible 3D Navier-Stokes flow, for the cases of homogeneous forced flow (including a solution with depleted nonlinearity) and inhomogeneous flow with arbitrary boundary conditions. This provides an exact method for computing two- and higher-point moments, given the mean flow.     

Numerical study of the heat transfer and electro-thermo-convective flow patterns in dielectric liquid layer subjected to unipolar injection

In this article we study the electro-thermal convection in a dielectric liquid layer placed between two electrodes and subjected to the simultaneous action of an electric field and a thermal gradient. The full set of equations describing the electro-thermo-convective phenomena is directly solved using a finite volume method. We first heat the liquid from below at time t = 0, wait for the thermal steady state and then inject the electric charges by applying the electric potential. The development of the electro-convective motion is analysed in detail in two cases: 1) strong injection from the lower electrode, 2) strong injection from the upper one. We also study the heat transfer enhancement due to electro-convection. The evolution in time of the Nusselt number Nu for different combinations of the two usual non-dimensional parameters associated to the electro-thermo-convection phenomena (Rayleigh number Ra and the electrical parameter T) is also given and analysed.     

Relative line intensities in the argon L x-ray emission spectra produced by 0.3 to 3 keV electron impact

This note presents the first measurement of the relative intensities of the radiative processes of the L shell of argon. The partial emission cross sections are deduced. Our data show that the radiative transitions within the excited ion are very sensitive to the incident electron energy.