Preparation and analysis of heart and skeletal muscle specimens with LAMMA

Summary A technique is described to obtain shockfrozen tissue specimens from a beating heart in situ using liquid propane as cooling agent. The method allows to take up to 8 samples from the ischemic area of the left ventricle of a pig heart following acute coronary artery occlusion.A freeze-drying apparatus was developed in which, under a vacuum of 10^–6 mm Hg, the specimens remain for 10 days with the temperature slowly rising from initially –100 C to room temperature. Freezing damages in the tissues samples due to the formation of ice crystals either during shock-freezing or freeze-drying are usually below the spatial resolution of the microscope system employed in the LAMMA instrument. Already after a few minutes of ischemia, a considerable decrease of the intracellular K/Na relation was measured. LAMMA spectra from skeletal muscle were taken to check for possible ion redistribution which had eventually occurred during the various steps of the preparation procedure employed.Supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB 68, A 10     

Force between metallic films at small separation

An exact expression for the force between two dissimilar metal films in the limit of vanishing separation is derived in terms of bulk properties of the metals. This force is compared with the results of an approximate numerical treatment of Ferrante and Smith for finite separations between the films.     

Determination of lead in geological and biological materials by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

Summary Serious systematic errors inherent in the determination of lead in geological and biological samples by flameless atomic-absorption spectrometry are demonstrated. The reduced absorption of lead is due to partial interaction with alkaline, alkaline-earth and iron chlorides during the atomization stage. Incomplete dissociation of the volatile monochloride of lead in the gaseous phase reduces the absorption signal. An addition of 20% hydrogen to nitrogen (purge gas) diminishes signal suppression by removing the chlorine in form of volatile HCl. The detection limit is about 0.6 ppm in rocks and about 0.3 ppm in plant materials. Depending on the content in the samples the relative standard deviation is between 1 and 12%. The accuracy of the method was tested on 39 international standard reference samples.

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Bestimmung von Blei in geologischen und biologischen Materialien durch AAS mit der Graphitrohrküvette

Zusammenfassung Schwerwiegende systematische Fehler bei der Bestimmung von Blei in geologischen und biologischen Materialien mit der Graphitrohrküvette werden aufgezeigt. Die Reaktion von Blei mit Alkali-, Erdalkali- und Eisenchloriden während der Atomisierungsphase führt zur Bildung von Bleimonochlorid, das nur unvollständig dissoziiert und eine Signalunterdrückung zur Folge hat. Ein Zusatz von 20% Wasserstoff zu Stickstoff als Spülgas vermindert die Signalunterdrückung, indem überschüssiges Chlor als Chlorwasserstoff entfernt wird. Die Nachweisgrenze liegt bei ca. 0,6 ppm für Gesteine und bei ca. 0,3 ppm für Pflanzenmaterialien. Je nach der Konzentration beträgt die relative Standardabweichung 1–12%. Die Genauigkeit der Methode wurde an 39 internationalen Standardreferenzproben überprüft.

     

Os(VIII)-catalysed oxidation of sulfides by sodium salt of N-chlorobenzenesulfonamide

Catalytic activity of Os(VIII) in the oxidation of some twenty organic sulfides with sodium salt of N-chlorobenzenesulfonamide (CAB) has been investigated in alkaline (pH8.7) t-butanol–water (1:1 v/v) medium. Significant retarding influence of [OH⁻] on the reactivity is exhibited. The catalysed reaction is strongly accelerated in the presence of Hg(II). Imperfections are observed in the linear Hammett relationship in the case of –NO₂ substituents.     

Static and Time Dependent Density Functional Theory with Internal Degrees of Freedom: Merits and Limitations Demonstrated for the Potts Model

We present an extension of the density-functional theory (DFT) formalism for lattice gases to systems with internal degrees of freedom. In order to test approximations commonly used in DFT approaches, we investigate the statics and dynamics of occupation (density) profiles in the one-dimensional Potts model. In particular, by taking the exact functional for this model we can directly evaluate the quality of the local equilibrium approximation used in time-dependent density-functional theory (TDFT). Excellent agreement is found in comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, principal limitations of TDFT are demonstrated.     

Konvergenzaussagen für Kollokationsverfahren bei elliptischen Randwertaufgaben

Summary We examine the convergence of collocation with polynomials for elliptic problems. The general theory is imbedded in theL ^p -theory from which known results of existence and regularity are adopted. Convergence results are deduced in the cases of periodic, Dirichlet and mixed boundary conditions. It becomes obvious that the order of convergence essentially depends on the smoothness of the solution.

Dieser Aufsatz enthält Ergebnisse aufbauend auf der Dissertation des Verfassers, die von Prof. Dr. K. Witsch, Universität Düsseldorf, angeregt und unterstützt wurde     

Acid acting as redispersing agent to form stable colloids from photoactive crystalline aqueous sol–gel TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> powder

In this work, the redispersion of three nanocrystalline TiO₂ colloids is studied: one pure and two Fe-doped titania. These three colloids are produced by an easy aqueous sol–gel synthesis using precipitation-acidic peptization of Ti precursor. For the two Fe-doped TiO₂, one is doped during synthesis (primary doping) and the other is doped after the synthesis (secondary doping). The initial colloids are composed of crystalline TiO₂ particles around 7?nm with good photocatalytic properties, tested on PNP degradation under visible light (wavelength >390?nm). The powders obtained by air drying of these three colloids are redispersed in water to produce colloids, which are compared to the initial colloid produced. For each colloid, five cycles of drying redispersion are achieved. The colloids are characterized by dynamic light scattering, zeta potential measurements, inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements, Mössbauer spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and photocatalytic tests. The results show that similar products are obtained between the cycles, maintaining homologous properties of colloids. This property of redispersion is mainly due to the acid (HNO₃, HCl, or H₂SO₄) which protonates the surface of the TiO₂ nanoparticle leading to high-surface charges and electrostatic repulsions between aggregates. This property can be very useful for industrial applications of this synthesis, especially as it allows the volume and weight to be reduced for transportation and storage. Moreover, results show that the pure TiO₂ powder can be doped during its redispersion step. The redispersion of the TiO₂ developed here is possible without surface functionalization or multiple step processes, contrary to commercial Degussa P25. A 2-year stability study of all the produced colloids has been performed by following the evolution of the macroscopic aspect and the physicochemical properties of these sols. This study showed high stability of the produced colloids.

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Continuum tight binding models and quantum transport in the presence of dynamical disorder

Continuum limits of various tight binding linear chain lattices used in the author's recent study of quantum transport in the presence of dynamical disorder, are analyzed from the point of view of their energy level spectra when disorder is absent. These spectra show a linear dispersion similar to that in the Luttinger model, and describe the energy levels of the corresponding discrete systems in the range of midband wavevectors. Next, the more conventional longwavelength continuum limit, which describes the energy levels of the actual discrete systems near the bottom of the bands is discussed. On the basis of these properties it is argued that the applicability of the continuum models to the study of dynamical properties is restricted to low frequencies in the range of low lying excitations, near the midband Fermi level in half-filled band situations in the case of the midband models, and near the bottom of a nearly empty band for the longwavelength models. Finally, it is shown that in the presence of dynamic disorder the longwavelength continuum limit of a single-band tight-binding model leads to nondiffusive motion, with a mean squared displacement <x ²(t)>t ³, fort.