拉曼光谱法定量分析焦磷酸根离子的含量

应用拉曼光谱技术研究了焦磷酸钾、硝酸钾、磷酸二氢钾、乙二胺四乙酸钠等十余种可溶性盐水溶液以及它们的混合物溶液的拉曼光谱特征,考察了共存组分对焦磷酸根拉曼光谱特征峰的影响;建立了基于拉曼光谱技术定量分析溶液中焦磷酸根离子含量的方法。结果表明,以硝酸钾为内标物,保持被测溶液pH 11,焦磷酸根离子拉曼光谱特征峰强度与硝酸根离子拉曼光谱特征峰强度之比值对焦磷酸根浓度呈良好的线性关系,所得线性回归方程为y=1.2110x+0.1515,相关系数R2=0.9996;已经研究过的十余种可溶性盐共存物几乎不干扰焦磷酸根离子的定量分析。     

Mode splitting in an optical slab waveguide filled with nematic liquid crystals

Mode splitting was observed when a He-Ne laser beam was reflected through a prism-coupled liquid-crystal slab waveguide under an applied electric field. The splitting manifests itself as the imposed voltage reaches a critical level, and diminishes when the voltage increases above a critical high value. If the applied voltage increases even further, mode splitting vanishes, attributing to the result that almost all the directors of the liquid crystal turn upright to the surface. The multi-layer matrix simulation can satisfactorily account for this phenomenon by exploiting the property of the anisotropic optical birefringence of a liquid crystal under applied voltages. Received: 2 December 2002 / Revised version: 24 January 2003 / Published online: 23 May 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +886/3572-3052, E-mail: jtlue@phys.nthu.edu.tw     

Hydroxydibenzoylmethane induces apoptosis through repressing ornithine decarboxylase in human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) is the rate-limiting enzyme in polyamine biosynthesis and a target for chemoprevention. Hydroxydibenzoylmethane (HDB), a derivative of dibenzoylmethane of licorice, is a promising chemopreventive agent. In this paper, we investigated whether HDB would inhibit the ODC pathway to enhance apoptosis in human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells. We found ODC enzyme activity was reduced during HDB treatment. Overexpression of ODC in HL-60 parental cells could reduce HDB-induced apoptosis, which leads to loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψ(m)), through lessening intracellular ROS. Furthermore, ODC overexpression protected cytochrome c release and the activation of caspase-3 following HDB treatment. The results demonstrated HDB-induced apoptosis was through a mechanism of down-regulation of ODC and occurred along a ROS-dependent mitochondria-mediated pathway.     

Monte Carlo simulation and optical transmission studies of lattice-tunable column arrays composed of ferrofluids

The aggregation and rearrangement of nanoparticles embedded in a thin cell of ferrofluid at various applied magnetic fields was studied by Monte Carlo simulation. Regular microcolumns with the axis parallel to the magnetic field were observed with column size and spacing depending on the ramp speed of the applied field. Our model successfully simulated the reported experimental results that the column size decreases as the ramp speed increases, which is attributed to the diminishing time to achieve the final assembled state at a given final magnetic field. Column arrays of tunable lattice constants characterizing various spectroscopic dispersions are elucidated. The hexagonal structure of the aggregation of magnetic nanoparticles and optical dispersion were observed through an optical microscope. The transmission diffraction spectra depending on column spacings and sizes of the column array are simulated to yield results comparable to the experiment.     

Macroion solutions in the cell model studied by field theory and Monte Carlo simulations

Aqueous solutions of charged spherical macroions with variable dielectric permittivity and their associated counterions are examined within the cell model using a field theory and Monte Carlo simulations. The field theory is based on separation of fields into short- and long-wavelength terms, which are subjected to different statistical-mechanical treatments. The simulations were performed by using a new, accurate, and fast algorithm for numerical evaluation of the electrostatic polarization interaction. The field theory provides counterion distributions outside a macroion in good agreement with the simulation results over the full range from weak to strong electrostatic coupling. A low-dielectric macroion leads to a displacement of the counterions away from the macroion.     

Sorption of Organic Solvents in Poly(Dimethyl Siloxane) Membrane. I. Permeant States Quantification using Differential Scanning Calorimetry

The permeant states of various solvents in poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) film were evaluated using low temperature differential scanning calorirnetry (DSC) on both vapor and liquid penetrants. Water, cyclohexane, benzene, toluene, and m‐xylene may be present in the freezable and nonfreezable state. At low sorption levels, solvents sorbed in PDMS were in the nonfreezable state until a threshold value was reached. Beyond that, the increased solvent sorption values all occurred in a freezable state. The partition pattern between the freezable and nonfreezable states for a vapor penetrant showed an identical trend with that for the liquid penetrant. The maximum nonfreezable amount of solvent in PDMS depended on the solvent's chemical compatibility with the membrane but not on the sorption temperature. Compared with that at 10°C, the higher solvent solubility at 25°C was due to the increase in the freezable solvent content without any change in the maximum nonfreezable content. The permeant states for equilibrium and nonequilibrium samples did not differ from one another.     

Electrical resistivity due to electron scattering with magnetic domain walls and magnetic properties of Ni-Fe alloy thin films

The physical properties of magnetic domain walls and electrical conductivity of permalloy thin films under external magnetic fields were studied. Using a magnetic force microscope (MFM), we observed the variation of domain configurations with the change of applied magnetic field for different film thicknesses of 245, 320, and 415 nm. A superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) was exploited to measure the magnetization loop for the applied magnetic field either parallel or perpendicular to the normal direction of the surface. We also found that the resistivity increases significantly as the electrical current conduction changed from parallel to perpendicular to the domain walls.