Combined supercritical-fluid chromatography/mass spectrometry in the analysis of diuron in plasma using on-line phase-system switching

On-line sample pretreatment by means of the phase-system switching approach is an interesting technique for the analysis of aqueous samples, e.g., plasma, by means of supercritical-fluid chromatography. In order to analyse plasma samples the following analytical procedure is used. The plasma sample is injected on to a short precolumn, which is washed with water and subsequently dried with nitrogen. Next, the solutes are desorbed with the supercritical mobile phase, analysed with packed-column supercritical-fluid chromatography and detected with either a UV detector or a mass spectrometer, equipped with a moving-belt interface. The herbicide diuron is selected as a test compound to study the feasibility of this approach. Using a selective detector the procedure is sufficiently sensitive to detect diuron in plasma, but not appropriate to detect the diuron metabolites in a post-mortem plasma sample. These have been identified with liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. The detection limit of diuron in plasma using the procedure described is about 30 ng/mL.     

Characterization of thermal diffusion in polymer solutions by thermal field-flow fractionation: Dependence on polymer and solvent parameters

The thermal diffusion coefficient D_T has been obtained for 17 polymer-solvent combinations, each of them spanning a range of polymer molecular weights, using thermal field-flow fractionation. The polymers examined include polystyrene, poly(alpha-methyl)styrene, polymethylmethacrylate, and polysioprene. The solvents include benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, tetrahydrofuran, methylethylketone, ethylacetate, and cyclohexane. Although D_T was confirmed as essentially independent of polymer molecular weight, it was found to vary substantially with the chemical composition of polymer and solvent. The results were used to evaluate several thermal diffusion theories; the agreement with theory was generally found to be unsatisfactory. Attempts were then made to correlate the measured thermal diffusion coefficients with various physicochemical parameters of the polymers and solvent. A good correlation was found in which D_T increases with the thermal conductivity difference of the polymer and solvent and varies inversely with the activation energy of viscous flow of the solvent.     

Photonic switches and switch arrays on LiNbO3

In recent years there has been tremendous progress in lithium niobate-based photonic switches. The various switch configurations proposed and implemented, and their characteristics, are reviewed. A summary of the device technology is given. Performance analysis based on different architecture and the size of arrays that can be relalized are discussed.Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India     

Time structure of iodine laser pulse in the free running mode of operation

Time structure of iodine laser pulse in the free running mode of operation was studied using the power amplifier of laser system PERUN as the laser oscillator. Two characteristic shapes of laser pulse correspond to different regimes of laser operation, the existence of which is ascribed to the critical concentration of I₂ molecules. Simultaneously an additional chemical pumping was proved at least in the initial phase of photodissociation and in a late-time lasing after the end of flashlamps pumping light.     

Workstage repair policies for sequential manufacturing systems

Dynamic stage repair policies where the stage repair probabilities are determined by the number of items in the buffer are examined through a model of a manufacturing system with two unreliable workstages connected by a minimal intermediate storage buffer. Definitions for workstage availability and line balance are extended for sequential manufacturing systems with dynamic repair policies. A measure for stage repair inputs and a general form of dynamic stage repair policies are presented. The steady-state probabilities of the resultant state-inhomogeneous Markov chain are computed by an efficient solution procedure. Insights obtained from extensive numerical studies are illustrated and discussed.     

Vibrations of a magnet levitated over a flat superconductor

Based on a dipole-dipole interaction model, we discuss the levitation force and related vibration problems to understand the effects of flux pinning in type-II superconductors, and the applications of levitation in superconducting systems.     

Rotational spectra of isotopic species of SO2F2: experimental and ab initio structures

The rotational spectra of ³⁴SO₂F₂ and S¹⁸O¹⁶OF₂ have been measured in their ground vibrational state between 9 and 110 GHz. Accurate rotational constants have been derived. Various experimental structures including the average structure have been determined. The ab initio structure has been calculated at the CCSD(T) level of theory. The different structures are compared and the best equilibrium structure is the ab initio structure: r_e(SO)=1.401 (3) Å, r_e(SF)=1.532 (3) Å, ∠_e(OSO)=124.91(20)°, ∠_e(FSF)=95.53 (20)°.     

Low Cost, High Efficiency, Gain Flattened L Band EDFA Using FBGs as C Band Seed Generators

A low cost, coolerless 980nm diode pumped, gain flattened L band EDFA with fast transient control, high pump efficiency and gain clamping effect was realized by using FBGs as C band seed generators.     

Pattern formation on a nonlinear periodic electrical network

It is observed experimentally that a periodic array of resistively coupled LC-oscillators with ans-shaped nonlinearity exhibits stable non-uniform voltage and current distributions. The dependence of the resulting structure on the coupling resistance and the boundary conditions is investigated. The structure is rather insensitive to variations of the boundary values. The experiments are well described by a two-variable reaction-diffusion equation.