Multidisciplinary cognitive content of nanoscience and nanotechnology

This article examines the cognitive evolution and disciplinary diversity of nanoscience/nanotechnology (nano research) as expressed through the terminology used in titles of nano journal articles. The analysis is based on the NanoBank bibliographic database of 287,106 nano articles published between 1981 and 2004. We perform multifaceted analyses of title words, focusing on 100 most frequent words or phrases (terms). Hierarchical clustering of title terms reveals three distinct time periods of cognitive development of nano research: formative (1981–1990), early (from 1991 to 1998), and current (after 1998). Early period is characterized by the introduction of thin film deposition techniques, while the current period is characterized by the increased focus on carbon nanotube and nanoparticle research. We introduce a method to identify disciplinary components of nanotechnology. It shows that the nano research is being carried out in a number of diverse parent disciplines. Currently, only 5% of articles are published in dedicated nano-only journals. We find that some 85% of nano research today is multidisciplinary. The case study of the diffusion of several nano-specific terms (e.g., “carbon nanotube”) shows that concepts spread from the initially few disciplinary components to the majority of them in a time span of around a decade. Hierarchical clustering of disciplinary components reveals that the cognitive content of current nanoscience can be divided into nine clusters. Some clusters account for a large fraction of nano research and are identified with such parent disciplines as the condensed matter and applied physics, materials science, and analytical chemistry. Other clusters represent much smaller parts of nano research, but are as cognitively distinct. In the decreasing order of size, these fields are: polymer science, biotechnology, general chemistry, surface science, and pharmacology. Cognitive content of research published in nano-only journals is the closest to nano research published in condensed matter and applied physics journals.     

On Spectral Polynomials of the Heun Equation. II

The well-known Heun equation has the form

Size-selected copper oxide nanoparticles synthesized by laser ablation

Size-tuned copper oxide nanoparticles with sizes of 9, 12, and 15 nm were fabricated by laser ablation and on-line size selection using a differential mobility analyzer at a gas pressure of 666 Pa. The dependence of the particle properties on the in situ annealing temperatures and selection sizes was investigated. The crystalline phases of the nanoparticles fabricated at temperatures below 973 K were assigned to monoclinic cupric oxide (CuO) which converted into cubic cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) when the annealing temperature was above 1,173 K. This indicates that the crystalline phases can be easily controlled by changing the annealing temperature. TEM images confirmed that well-crystallized and well-dispersed CuO and Cu₂O nanoparticles with narrow size distributions were obtained using this method. This fabrication process is useful and promising for the future investigation of the intrinsic size-dependent properties of CuO and Cu₂O.     

New Spectrofluorimetric Method for Determination of Cephalosporins in Pharmaceutical Formulations

Simple, accurate and sensitive spectrofluorimetric method has been proposed for the determination of three cephalosporins, namely; cefixime (cefi), cephalexine (ceph), cefotaxime sodium (cefo) in pharmaceutical formulations. The method is based on a reaction between cephalosporins with 1, 2-naphthoquinone-4-sulfonic (NQS) in alkaline medium, at pH values of 12.0 for cefi and 13.0 for ceph and cefo to give highly fluorescent derivatives extracted with chloroform and subsequently measured at 600,580 and 580 nm after excitation at 520,455 and 490 nm for cefi, ceph and cefo respectively. The optimum experimental conditions have been studied. Beer’s law is obeyed over the concentrations of 10–35 ng/mL, 10–60 ng/mL and 20–45 ng/mL for cefi,ceph and cefo, respectively. The detection limits were 2.02 ng/mL, 2.09 ng/mL and 2.30 ng/mL for cefi, ceph and cefo, respectively, with a linear regression correlation coefficient of 0.9987, 0.9995 and 0.9991 and recoveries in range from 98.5-107.04, 95.17-101.00 and 95.00-109.55% for cefi, ceph and cefo, respectively. This method is simple and can be applied for the determination of cefi, ceph and cefo in pharmaceutical formulations in quality control laboratories.     

Analysis and optimization of propagation losses in LiNbO3 optical waveguides produced by swift heavy-ion irradiation

The propagation losses (PL) of lithium niobate optical planar waveguides fabricated by swift heavy-ion irradiation (SHI), an alternative to conventional ion implantation, have been investigated and optimized. For waveguide fabrication, congruently melting LiNbO₃ substrates were irradiated with F ions at 20 MeV or 30 MeV and fluences in the range 10¹³–10¹⁴ cm⁻². The influence of the temperature and time of post-irradiation annealing treatments has been systematically studied. Optimum propagation losses lower than 0.5 dB/cm have been obtained for both TE and TM modes, after a two-stage annealing treatment at 350 and 375^∘C. Possible loss mechanisms are discussed.     

Discrete exact solutions to some nonlinear differential-difference equations via the (G′/G)-expansion method

We extended the (G′/G)-expansion method to two well-known nonlinear differential-difference equations, the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation and the Toda lattice equation, for constructing traveling wave solutions. Discrete soliton and periodic wave solutions with more arbitrary parameters, as well as discrete rational wave solutions, are revealed. It seems that the utilized method can provide highly accurate discrete exact solutions to NDDEs arising in applied mathematical and physical sciences.     

Non-existence of a massive scalar field for the Marder universe in Lyra and Riemannian geometries

In this paper, we have studied a massive scalar field for a Marder type universe in the context of Lyra and Riemannian geometries. From the exact solutions obtained we show that the massive scalar field does not survive in Lyra and Riemannian geometries for an anisotropic Marder type universe. Therefore we have solved the massless scalar field problem in Lyra and Riemann geometries for two cases. Also we have obtained vacuum solutions for homogeneous and anisotropic Marder space-time in Lyra geometry and the solutions obtained are compared by considering Lyra and Riemann geometries. Finally, some physical and kinematical properties are discussed by using graphics.     

On the irrationality of factorial series III

In this paper we derive some irrationality and linear independence results for series of the form where is either a non-negative integer sequence with υ_n = o(log n/log log n) or a non-decreasing integer sequence with .     

Remote Preparation of a Six-Particle Entangled Cluster-Type State

We consider the remote preparation of a six-particle cluster-type state using two four-particle GHZ states as the quantum channel in this paper. For the entangled six-particle cluster-type state with real coefficients, a deterministic remote state preparation scheme is proposed. It is shown that, conditioned on the outcome of Alice’s measurement, Bob can successfully prepare the target state by performing an appropriate unitary operation. With regard to the more general six-particle cluster-type state, we give another scheme which can successfully prepare the entangled state with probability 25%. And the probability of success can reach up to 50% or even 1 in some special cases. Furthermore, the classical communication costs in different cases are discussed.