Extraction-spectrophotometric determination of tungsten as tungsten blue

Tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP) is used to extract tungsten(IV) from 0.5 M hydrochloric acid containing molybdenum(VI) and other metals. Tungsten(VI) in the TBP solution is reduced by tin(II) chloride and n-butyl acetate is used for dilution. The tungsten blue formed in the TBP/n-butyl acetate medium (1:1) is measured at 615 nm. The apparent molar absorptivity is about 1000 1 mol^?1 cm^?1; calibration graphs are linear in the range 0.1–1.5 mg of tungsten.     

Differential scanning calorimetry study on thermal behaviors of freeze‐dried poly(L‐lactide) from dilute solutions

Glass transition, cold crystallization, and melting of freeze‐dried poly(L‐lactide) (PLLA) prepared from dilute 1,4‐dioxane solutions were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Conventional DSC measurements of heating scans revealed that freeze‐dried PLLA prepared from a 0.07 wt % solution undergoes a two‐step cold crystallization (or reorganization) with a lower exotherm appearing at about 78 °C and with a higher broad exotherm between 110–155 °C. The peak temperature of the former exotherm is about 50 K lower than that observed for a reference bulk sample. Step‐scan mode DSC, which provides information essentially equivalent to that obtained from the temperature‐modulated DSC, revealed that the glass‐transition temperature is about 6 K lower than that of the reference bulk. These findings suggest enhanced chain mobility for freeze‐dried PLLA. Freeze‐dried PLLA that crystallized at 80 °C for 40 min was revealed to contain a rather large amount of rigid amorphous material (42%). © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 43: 115–124, 2005     

Practical method of reducing turning motion resistance of tracked vehicles

A practical method of reducing the resistance of a tracked vehicle to turning or steering motion is discussed. The torque of the sprocket shaft for driving the crawler was measured and used to evaluate how the resistance varied compared with the existing method to turning. There are two ways of reducing the turning resistance by decreasing the contact area of track; one is to decrease the width of the braked track and the other is to shorten its contact length during turning or steering motion. The former is practically impossible to control, but the latter is comparatively easy to do, even under that condition. Applying this mechanism, the resistant force (evaluated by measuring the driving torque of the sprocket shaft) could be reduced about 20% when the contact length of the braked track was shortened to form a small pivot area at its center. It was also reduced more than 50% when the contact length of both tracks was shortened to a pivot during turning motion.     

Multiple sclerosis: Benefits of q-space imaging in evaluation of normal-appearing and periplaque white matter

Introduction

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) reveals white matter pathology in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). A recent non-Gaussian diffusion imaging technique, q-space imaging (QSI), may provide several advantages over conventional MRI techniques in regard to in vivo evaluation of the disease process in patients with MS. The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of root mean square displacement (RMSD) derived from QSI data to characterize plaques, periplaque white matter (PWM), and normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) in patients with MS.

Methods

We generated apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) maps by using conventional DTI data from 21 MS patients; we generated RMSD maps by using QSI data from these patients. We used the Steel–Dwass test to compare the diffusion metrics of regions of interest in plaques, PWM, and NAWM.

Results

ADC differed (P < 0.05) between plaques and PWM and between plaques and NAWM. FA differed (P < 0.05) between plaques and NAWM. RMSD differed (P < 0.05) between plaques and PWM, plaques and NAWM, and PWM and NAWM.

Conclusion

RMSD values from QSI may reflect microstructural changes and white-matter damage in patients with MS with higher sensitivity than do conventional ADC and FA values.