Comparison of standard materials for the establishment of calibration curves in solid sampling graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Direct determination of copper in powdered biological samples

Summary The selection of standard materials for the establishment of calibration curves is one of the most important problems in the direct analysis of biological samples by GFAAS. Three kinds of standard materials, NBS tomato leaves, coprecipitates with magnesium oxinate and Ni/DMG/PAN were investigated. It was found that it is possible to use both the NBS-SRM and the synthetic reference material prepared by coprecipitation with magnesium oxinate as standard materials for the direct determination of copper in several biological samples issued from NBS and NIES. However, too low results are obtained when the synthetic reference material prepared by coprecipitation with Ni/DMG/PAN is used. In order to clarify this, the effects of nickel and magnesium were examined and the role of magnesium was discussed.     

Criteria for farthest points on convex surfaces

We provide a sharp, sufficient condition to decide if a point y on a convex surface S is a farthest point (i.e., is at maximal intrinsic distance from some point) on S, involving a lower bound π on the total curvature ω_y at y, ω_y ≥ π. Further consequences are obtained when ω_y > π, and sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee that a convex cap contains at least one farthest point. A connection between simple closed quasigeodesics O of S, points y ∈ S\O with ω_y > π, and the set ?? of all farthest points on S, is also investigated (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Thermodynamic approach of spin-state excitations in LaCoO3

Magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity due to spin-state excitations in LaCoO₃ were analyzed with an irregular solution model composed of Co³⁺ ions in the low-spin ground state and in the high-spin excited state. An energy-levels diagram proposed by Ropka and Radvanskii [1] was used for the high-spin excited state. This analysis showed that the entropy of mixing is less than that of ideal solutions and the enthalpy of mixing is negative, indicating that the high-spin Co ions are arranged as far apart as possible.     

What do cylinders look like?

The farthest point mapping is bijective and involutive on any right circular cylinder of radius r and height h ≤ r(π ? 2). For any right cylinder C over a typical convex body K, most points in bd(K) are endpoints of C.     

The role of a radial ion-track distribution in semiconductors studied by numerical simulations

The effect of radial ion-track distribution on the transient current in semiconductors caused by a high-energy heavy ion strike was studied. Reasonable agreement was observed in experimental and calculated transient currents for ion energies ranging from several to several hundred MeV when the radius of the ion track used in the numerical simulations was shorter or equivalent to that of the penumbra radius.     

A travelling-wave beam deflector cleave-coupled to a diode laser

A new technique for scanning a diode laser beam is introduced where the beam is deflected in a current-injection-type travelling-wave beam deflector integrated with a diode laser. The deflector, which is formed outside the laser cavity, is cleave-coupled to the cavity. An anti-reflection coating on the deflector output facet suppresses the light returning to the laser. As a result, very smooth deflection of the radiation peak with low background intensity is realized in this device, while retaining high efficiency and low threshold current.     

Spectral variations in background light emission of surface-enhanced resonance hyper Raman scattering coupled with plasma resonance of individual silver nanoaggregates

We demonstrate the origin of spectral variations in background light emission of surface enhanced resonance hyper Raman scattering (SERHRS) from single Ag nanoaggregates. Ag nanoaggregate-by-nanoaggregate variations in background light emission spectra are related to plasma (plasmon) resonance spectra. Temporal variations in background light emission spectra with temporal blueshifts in plasma resonance spectra are also observed under continuous laser excitation. Both types of the variations in background light emission are reproduced by multiplying background light emission spectra measured from a Ag microaggregate by Lorentz function spectra derived from plasma resonance spectra. The reproduction reveals that second electromagnetic (EM) enhancement by plasma resonance is the origin of the variations. Additionally, spectral variations in background light emission of SERHRS are similar to that of surface enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS). The similarity indicates that both types of background light emission commonly obtain second EM enhancement from identical plasma resonance.