Reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy and temperature-programmed desorption studies of the adsorption and desorption of amorphous and crystalline water on a graphite surface

Reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) have been used to perform a detailed investigation of the adsorption of water on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) at 90 K. RAIRS shows that water is physisorbed on HOPG at all coverages, as expected. Experiments at higher surface temperatures show marked changes in the O-H stretching region of the spectrum which can be assigned to the observation of the amorphous to crystalline ice phase transition. The infrared signature of both phases of solid water has been determined on HOPG and can be used to identify the phase of the ice. TPD spectra show the desorption of multilayers of crystalline ice. At high exposures a small bump appears in the TPD spectrum, on the low temperature side of the main peak, which is attributed to the amorphous to crystalline phase transition. At very low exposures of water, it is possible to distinguish the desorption of water from two- and three-dimensional islands and hence to determine the growth mode of water on the HOPG surface. Isothermal TPD studies have also been performed and show that the desorption of water does not obey perfect zero-order kinetics. Desorption orders, derived directly from the TPD spectra, confirm this observation. Desorption energies and preexponential factors have also been determined for this adsorption system.     

Aggregation behavior of tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin in AOT/water/decane microemulsions

AOT/water/decane microemulsions have been used to entrap the water-soluble 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (TPPS4). Quasi-elastic light scattering technique has confirmed the confinement of the porphyrin and its various aggregates into the inner water pool. Various species have been detected as function of the size of the microemulsions, concentration of the porphyrin, pH, and aging of the solutions by using a combination of UV-vis absorption, steady fluorescence emission, fluorescence lifetime measurements, and time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy. Under neutral pH conditions, the porphyrin is present as the free base monomer (S414) in the inner water compartment, and it is free to rotate when the size of the droplet is large enough and the porphyrin concentration is low. On increasing the concentration and/or decreasing the microemulsion size, a H-dimer of the free base (S406) is prevalently formed. Aging both the S414 and S406 species leads to the formation of a new species (S424), which has been postulated as a H-type dimer of the diacid porphyrin. On decreasing the pH, the species S414 and S406 almost instantaneously convert into the diacid porphyrin, which is monomeric (S434). This latter is an intermediate in the eventual formation of J-aggregated TPPS4 (S490). A marked stability has been observed for the S424 species, which do not interconvert on changing the pH of the bulk aqueous phase.     

Comparison of measurements of phase velocity in human calcaneus to Biot theory

Biot's theory for elastic propagation in porous media has previously been shown to be useful for modeling the dependence of phase velocity on porosity in bovine cancellous bone in vitro. In the present study, Biot's theory is applied to measurements of porosity-dependent phase velocity in 53 human calcanea in vitro. Porosity was measured using microcomputed tomography for some samples (n = 23) and estimated based on bone mineral densitometry for the remaining samples (n = 30). The phase velocity at 500 kHz was measured in a water tank using a through-transmission technique. Biot's theory performed well for the prediction of the dependence of sound speed on porosity. The trend was quasilinear, but both the theory and experiment show similar slight curvature. The root mean square error (RMSE) of predicted versus measured sound speed was 15.8 m/s.     

Mapping phosphorylation sites: a new strategy based on the use of isotopically labelled DTT and mass spectrometry

Phosphoproteomics, nowadays, represents a front line in functional proteomics as testified by the number of papers recently appearing in the literature. In an attempt to improve and simplify the methods so far suggested we have set up a simple isotope-coded approach to label and quantitate phospho-Ser/-Thr residues in protein mixtures. First of all, after appropriate oxidation of cysteine/cystine residues followed by tryptic hydrolysis, we have optimised and simplified the beta-elimination reaction to get the corresponding alkene moiety from the phosphate esters. This was achieved by (a) separating the elimination reaction from the addition reaction, (b) the use of Ba(OH)(2) as alkali reagent and (c) its further elimination by the simple addition of solid CO(2) to the peptide mixture. The Michael reaction was then performed, after the removal of BaCO(3) by centrifugation, by adding dithiothreitol (DTT) to the peptide mixture. Finally, the direct purification of the modified phosphopeptides was performed on a thiol-sepharose column. The availability of fully deuterated DTT, introducing a 6 Da difference with respect to the non-deuterated species, allows quantitation of the differential extent of signalling modification when analysed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. The entire procedure has been set up by using bovine alpha-casein, and resulted in the identification of all the phosphorylated tryptic peptides, including the tetraphosphorylated peptides, which escaped all previously reported procedures     

Steady-State and Time-Resolved Spectroscopic Characteristics of Mesoionic Oxazolones Solutions

Three new mesoionic oxazolo[3,2-b]pyridazin-2-one derivatives, in different solutions have been investigated by UV-Vis absorption, steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence methods. The effect of substituents on the extension of conjugation of the pi-electrons from mesoionic oxazolone has been evidenced by bathochromic shifts of the absorption and fluorescence maxima positions. The fluorescence decay data could be fitted to single-exponential or double-exponential function. The lifetime values are much higher in aprotic polar solvents and in the case of the derivatives that present an extension of the conjugation of pi-electrons. The properties of the compounds present a solvent dependence, being tested in micellar solutions as potential molecular probe "sensitive" to the environment polarity.     

Truncation of the correlation consistent basis sets: an effective approach to the reduction of computational cost?

The systematic reduction of commonly used basis sets as a means to reduce computational cost is examined for a small test set of molecules, which includes H(2), CH(4), NH(3), H(2)O, HF, and HCN. Coupled cluster with single, double, and quasiperturbative triple excitations calculations were performed using both the correlation consistent basis sets, and a set of systematically reduced basis sets to examine both the impact of the reduction upon the accuracy of the structures and energies, and the computational cost savings achieved. The effect of several truncation scenarios upon basis set convergence is also examined. Overall, for the systems studied, a reduction can occur which preserves the well-established systematic convergence behavior of the correlation consistent basis sets.     

The relation of lung volume initiation to selected acoustic properties of speech

This study examined the relationship of speech breathing to other elements of speech production. It was hypothesized that initiating speech from different lung volumes would have an effect on different elements of the acoustic output. It was postulated that effects may be brought about by mechanical interaction as well as a dispersion of effort to mechanically unlinked elements of speech production, such as articulatory behavior. To this end, selected acoustic variables were studied in eight young healthy women who initiated speech from low, typical, and high lung volume levels. The acoustic variables studied were selected because they have been shown to be sensitive indicators of speech production performance. It was found that with increasing lung volume initiation levels, average sound pressure level, average fundamental frequency, and declination rate of fundamental frequency increased. It was also observed that vowel space was significantly smaller during low lung volume initiation levels relative to typical lung volume initiation levels. Vowel space reduction is discussed relative to "gaining down."     

Wavelet stabilization and preconditioning for domain decomposition

The aim of this paper is to propose a stabilization technique in order to circumvent the two inf–sup conditions neededfor stability of the discretization of the three fields formulationfor domain decomposition methods (following the work of Brezzi& Marini (1993) Optimisation et Controle 89–96). Realization of this technique in terms of wavelets is presented. Furthermore, the resulting discrete problem is shown to admitan asymptotically optimal preconditioner also based on wavelets. Received 24 February, 1999. Revised 7 October, 1999. ^* aivlis@ian.pv.cnr.it; http://www.ian.pv.cnr.it/~aivlis kunoth@iam.un-bonn.de; http://www.iam.uni-bonn.de/~kunoth     

SR XRF and micro-PIXE studies on ancient metallurgy of thirteen Dacian gold bracelets

A thorough microscopic investigation by SR XRF and micro-PIXE brings insight into the probable techniques used in the manufacture of thirteen Dacian gold bracelets, one of the most spectacular archaeological finds ever on the territory of Romania.