A study of the atmospheric lead pollution in Seville, Spain. Influence of meteorology and traffic, and relationship with other traffic-generated pollutants

A study of the atmospheric pollution by suspended particulate lead in the city of Seville, Spain, was carried out during the period between March 1983 and February 1984. The results obtained from seven sampling stations allowed us to study the site to site variations; there are two locations with average annual concentrations higher than 2 micrograms X m-3. In one station, the meteorological and traffic effects and relationship with other traffic-related pollutants, were investigated. The regression analyses performed on the average monthly data have shown an inverse correlation with wind speed and temperature and a direct correlation with carbon monoxide and smoke concentrations, but no significant correlation was found with the lead deposition levels.     

Homogeneous renewal equation

Let F be a non-arithmetic distribution on the line , and W be the class of bounded functions w without discontinuity of the second kind such that

.In this paper, we show that the solution of the homogeneous renewal equation w = w F in the class W is a constant-function.     

Kinetics of Hydrogen Peroxide Decomposition in Guaiacol Solution, Catalyzed by Hexacyanoferrate(II)

The kinetics of hydrogen peroxide decomposition in a guaiacol solution, catalyzed by potassium hexacyanoferrate(II), were studied. The reaction mainly follows the pathway of guaiacol hydroxylation. The reaction order is 1 with respect to H₂O₂, 0.5 with respect to hexacyanoferrate, and from 0.4 to 0 with respect to guaiacol (the latter parameter decreases with increasing guaiacol concentration). The apparent activation energy is 105 kJ mol^{- 1}. A kinetic scheme of the process was proposed. An expression consistent with the experiment was obtained for the rate of hydrogen peroxide decomposition in the presence of guaiacol, catalyzed by hexacyanoferrate(II).     

Interference inspection of the aspherical components of an objective for nanolithography

Methods and schemes to inspect the EUV mirror shape are developed on the basis of a point diffraction interferometer with computer processing of interferograms. A measurement accuracy to within 0.001 of a wavelength in the visual range is achieved.     

Kinetics and mechanism of the formation of poly[(1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxanyl)ethylene] and poly(methyldecylsiloxane) by hydrosilylation

The kinetics of the formation of poly(carbosiloxane), as well as of alkyl-substituted poly(siloxane), by Karstedt's catalyst catalyzed hydrosilylation were investigated. Linear poly(carbosiloxane), poly[(1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxanyl)ethylene], (PTMDSE), was obtained by hydrosilylation of 1,3-divinyltetramethyldisiloxane (DVTMDS) and 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane (TMDS), while alkyl-substituted poly(siloxane), poly(methyldecylsiloxane), (PMDS), was synthesized by hydrosilylation of poly(methylhydrosiloxane) (PMHS) and 1-decene. To investigate the kinetics of PTMDSE formation, two series of experiments were performed at reaction temperatures ranging from 25 to 56 °C and with catalyst concentrations ranging from 7.0 × 10⁻⁶ to 3.1 × 10⁻⁵ mol Pt/mol CHCH₂. A series of experiments was performed at reaction temperatures ranging from 28 to 48 °C, with catalyst concentrations of 7.0 ×10⁻⁶ mol of Pt per mol of CHCH₂, when kinetics of PMDS formation was investigated. All reactions were carried out in bulk, with equimolar amounts of the reacting Si H and CHCH₂ groups. The course of the reactions was monitored by following the disappearance of the Si H bands using quantitative infrared spectroscopy. The results obtained showed typical first order kinetics for the PTMDSE formation, consistent with the proposed reaction mechanism. In the case of PMDS an induction period occurred at lower reaction temperatures, but disappeared at 44 °C and the rate of Si H conversion also started to follow the first-order kinetics. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 2246–2258, 2007     

Hydrophilic and hydrophobic copolymer systems based on acrylic derivatives of pyrrolidone and pyrrolidine

This article deals with the synthesis of hydrophilic methacrylic monomers derived from ethyl pyrrolidone [2‐ethyl‐(2‐pyrrolidone) methacrylate (EPM)] and ethyl pyrrolidine [2‐ethyl‐(2‐pyrrolidine) methacrylate (EPyM)] and their respective homopolymers. For the determination of their reactivity in radical copolymerization reactions, both monomers were copolymerized with methyl methacrylate (MMA), the reactivity ratios being calculated by the application of linear and nonlinear mathematical methods. EPM and MMA had ratios of r_EPM = 1.11 and r_MMA = 0.76, and this indicated that EPM with MMA had a higher reactivity in radical copolymerization processes than vinyl pyrrolidone (VP; r_VP = 0.005 and r_MMA = 4.7). EPyM and MMA had reactivity ratios of r_EPyM = 1.31 and r_MMA = 0.92, and this implied, as for the EPM–MMA copolymers, a tendency to form random or Bernoullian copolymers. The glass‐transition temperatures of the prepared copolymers were determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and were found to adjust to the Fox equation. Total‐conversion copolymers were prepared, and their behavior in aqueous media was found to be dependent on the copolymer composition. The swelling kinetics of the copolymers followed water transport mechanism case II, which is the most desirable kinetic behavior for a swelling controlled‐release material. Finally, the different states of water in the hydrogels—nonfreezing water, freezing bound water, and unbound freezing water—were determined by DSC and found to be dependent on the hydrophilic and hydrophobic units of the copolymers. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 395–407, 2003     

Microstructural assessment of InN-on-GaN films grown by plasma-assisted MBE

The structural properties of InN thin films, grown by rf plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on Ga-face GaN/Al₂O₃(0001) substrates, were investigated by means of conventional and high resolution electron microscopy. Our observations showed that a uniform InN film of total thickness up to 1 μm could be readily grown on GaN without any indication of columnar growth. A clear epitaxial orientation relationship of , was determined. The quality of the InN film was rather good, having threading dislocations as the dominant structural defect with a density in the range of 10⁹–10¹⁰ cm⁻². The crystal lattice parameters of wurtzite InN were estimated by electron diffraction analysis to be a=0.354 nm and c=0.569 nm, using Al₂O₃ as the reference crystal. Heteroepitaxial growth of InN on GaN was accomplished by the introduction of a network of three regularly spaced misfit dislocation arrays at the atomically flat interface plane. The experimentally measured distance of misfit dislocations was 2.72 nm. This is in good agreement with the theoretical value derived from the in-plane lattice mismatch of InN and GaN, which indicated that nearly full relaxation of the interfacial strain between the two crystal lattices was achieved.     

Molecular Complexes of Crown Ethers in Crystals and Solutions

A review of the experimental and theoretical studies of the crown ether complexes with polar molecules in their crystals, solutions, and in a gas phase is given. The type of the molecular bonds in the complexes, their stoichiometry, and the change in the macrocycle conformation during complex formation are considered, as well as the effect of the macrocycle structure and the nature of the medium on the efficiency of the molecular bonding. New data are given on the enthalpies of transfer of the crown ethers from tetrachloromethane into solvents capable of forming hydrogen bonds. The enthalpies of specific interactions of macrocycles with the molecules of the solvents in the medium of the same solvents are characterized. The conformations of the crown ethers in the media under study are discussed.