Effects of tributyltin(IV) chloride on the gametes and fertilization of Ascidia malaca (Ascidiacea: Tunicata)

Ascidia malaca gametes before fertilization incubated in 10^?5 or 10^?7 M solutions of tributyltin(IV) chloride, TBTCl, for 3 h appear highly damaged under transmission electron microscopy observation. Also, the fertilization process is affected by the compound: the damaged spermatozoa are present in the vitelline coat and the egg does not cleave. An increase of microbodies, structurally similar to peroxisomes, have been detected in the egg peripheral cytoplasm, probably in relation to their role in alleviating damage to some cellular components. The results have shown that the reproduction of ascidians under unfavourable environmental conditions is prevented. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Depth profile analysis of polyimide film treated by potassium hydroxide

The structural change in the depth direction of a polyimide (UPILEX‐S) film treated in alkaline solution, which was a representative surface treatment used to form a seed layer for plating and to improve the adhesive strength, was analyzed by means of micro Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflection (FTIR‐ATR) line analysis with gradient shaving preparation. The polyimide film was treated with KOH. The imide ring opened through the alkaline treatment, and the amide structure and carboxylic acid salt were formed. The attainment depth of this structural change was almost proportional to the treatment time, and it reached about 8 μm after a 30‐min treatment. The degree of structural change through the alkaline treatment was almost constant after it reached a considerably degraded stage, and the chemically changed region penetrated into the inner part of the film from the surface. An intermediate layer before the final degraded stage appeared in the treated layer, and its thickness increased with the treatment time. The region that was changed chemically by the alkaline treatment progressed to the inner part simultaneously and continuously as the treatment time increased. The combined use of gradient shaving preparation and micro FTIR‐ATR line analysis was found to be extremely effective for the depth profiling of organic materials. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 2071–2078, 2003     

Generalized Artin–Hasse and Iwasawa Formulas for the Hilbert Symbol in a High-Dimensional Local Field

The generalized Hilbert symbol in a cyclotomic extension of an absolutely unramified higher local field of characteristic 0 with a perfect last residue field of characteristic p > 2 is considered. Generalized Artin–Hasse and Iwasawa formulas are derived from an explicit Kummer Type Vostokov formula. Bibliography: 13 titles.     

Focusing of singular beams

The process of focusing of an inhomogeneously polarized beam passed through a system consisting of a uniaxial crystal and a polarization filter is considered. It is shown that the action of this system is equivalent to the action of a phase transparency with a complex relief of the refractive index. In particular, if the angle between the axes of the quarter-wave plate and the polarizer is equal to 45°, this transparency has a helicoidal relief. Simultaneously, two singular beams with different curvatures of their wavefronts arise in the transparency. The action of the lens consists in formation of a combined singular beam having three focal waists. The boundary wave arising upon focusing is able not only to form a new spectrum of toroidal vortices, but also to straighten the focusing region, forming a fairly extended range with a weak divergence.     

Decrease in the group velocity of a light pulse in the Bose-Einstein condensate of a dilute gas

A semiclassical theory of electromagnetically induced transparency in a Bose-Einstein condensate is considered. A nonlinear Schrödinger equation that describes the interaction of the Bose-Einstein condensate with an electromagnetic field is derived. An analysis of the obtained solutions to this equation demonstrates a decrease in the group velocity of the light pulse.     

Photoluminescence of liquid-crystal azo derivatives in nanopores

Optics and Spectroscopy - The fluorescence of the nematic liquid crystal n-butyl-n′-methoxyazoxybenzene (BMAOB) in the form of a layer and in porous glasses with pores of different diameter...     

A Two-Dimensional Operator-Difference Scheme for Fluid Dynamics in Lagrangean Coordinates on an Irregular Triangular Grid with the Property of Local Approximation near the Symmetry Axis

The projection approach is applied to construct and investigate an operator-difference scheme for fluid dynamics in Lagrangean variables which has first-order local approximation in the axisymmetric case near the symmetry axis. The scheme also has operator properties that make it suitable for rederiving and substantiating previous results, methods, and algorithms.     

Weak density of smooth maps for the Dirichlet energy between manifolds

We prove that given a simply connected compact manifold M and a closed manifold N, any map in the Sobolev space W ^1,2(M,N) can be approximated weakly by smooth maps between M and N. Submitted: September 2002, Final version: November 2002.     

Martensite Transformation in Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials

Journal of Nanoparticle Research - It was shown that the thermoelastic martensite transformation B2 ? B19 inside nanoparticles surrounded by amorphous matrix in Ni–Ti–Cu alloys as...