Carrier-free estimation of106Ru in urine

A simple carrier-free method has been developed for estimating 0.1 to 1.1 Bq of¹⁰⁶Ru in urine. The organic matter present in urine samples was completely destroyed by wet ashing using nitric acid-peroxide mixture in presence of sulfuric acid. Ruthenium was oxidized to tetroxide using potassium periodate and allowed to react in-situ with polyethylene powder. The powder was separated, washed, pelletized and its -activity was counted. Recovery of¹⁰⁶Ru is found to be better than 80% with a minimum detection limit of 0.2 Bq/dm³ which is less than the DRL value specified by International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).     

Measurement of(n,α)and(n,2n)reaction cross sections at a neutron energy of 14.92±0.02 MeV for potassium and copper with uncertainty propagation

Experimentally measured neutron activation cross sections are presented for the ⁶⁵Cu(n,0)^62mCu,⁴¹ K(n,a)^38Cl,and ⁶⁵Cu(n.2n)⁶⁴Cu reactions with detailed uncertainty propagation.The neutron cross secions were measured at an incident energy of 14.92±0.02 MeV,and the neutrons were based on the(d,n)a fusion reaction.The ²⁷ Al(n,a)²⁴Na reaction was used as a reference reaction for the normalization of the neutron flux.The pre-calib-rated lead-shielded HPGe detector was used to detect the residues'γ-ray spetra.The data from the measured cross sections are compared to the previously measured cross sections from the EXFOR database,theoretically calculated cross sections using the TALYS and EMPIRE codes,and evaluated nuclear data.     

Multilevel Monte Carlo simulation for Lévy processes based on the Wiener–Hopf factorisation

In Kuznetsov et al. (2011) a new Monte Carlo simulation technique was introduced for a large family of Lévy processes that is based on the Wiener–Hopf decomposition. We pursue this idea further by combining their technique with the recently introduced multilevel Monte Carlo methodology. Moreover, we provide here for the first time a theoretical analysis of the new Monte Carlo simulation technique in Kuznetsov et al. (2011) and of its multilevel variant for computing expectations of functions depending on the historical trajectory of a Lévy process. We derive rates of convergence for both methods and show that they are uniform with respect to the “jump activity” (e.g. characterised by the Blumenthal–Getoor index). We also present a modified version of the algorithm in Kuznetsov et al. (2011) which combined with the multilevel methodology obtains the optimal rate of convergence for general Lévy processes and Lipschitz functionals. This final result is only a theoretical one at present, since it requires independent sampling from a triple of distributions which is currently only possible for a limited number of processes.     

Closure theorems without seminormality conditions

The authors give a variety of conditions under which there is no need to explicity require seminormality conditions in closure and lower closure theorems, and corresponding lower semicontinuity theorems. Both Lipschitz-type conditions and growth-type conditions are taken into consideration in classesL _p andL _∞ .     

Near Ultraviolet Absorption Spectrum of Ethylpyrazine

Abstract

Vibrational analysis of the electronic absorption spectrum of ethylpyrazine observed around 320 nm is carried out. The bands are ascribed to the longest wavelength one of the four possible π? ← n systems. A “vibronic” interaction between the excited state of this system and another excited state of the molecule is observed. A π? ← π system with practically no vibrational structure is also observed and discussed.     

Strength and stiffness of sandwich beams in bending

This investigation is concerned with the experimental versus analytical correlation of the mechanical properties of sandwich-beam specimens. Such sandwich structures are commonly employed in the aircraft industry. Four-point and three-point load tests were conducted on a large number of sandwich-beam specimens, fabricated by using fiber-glass reinforced plastics (both unidirectional and woven-glass cloth) and DTD 685 aluminum alloy for the facings with aluminum honeycomb core and polyurethane foam cores and the indigenously available Araldite as the bonding medium between the core and the facings.The flexural stiffness of the composite sandwich specimens used in this investigation compared favorably with theoretical predictions. The shear stiffness was found to be about 55 percent and 45 percent of the theoretically predicted values for FRP (fiberglass-reinforced-plastic) cloth and FRP unidirectional laminates with aluminum honeycomb core sandwich, respectively. The failure load as determined by experiments was less than the theoretically predicted safe load. There was a loss of strength as well as a steep decrease in the failure load in the case of low density foam core.It was concluded that FRP facing plates with aluminum honeycomb core sandwich structure may be preferred to similar aluminum-alloy facing sandwich construction if high flexural stiffness and shear stiffness properties are required at less cost and weight. Indigenously available Araldite was quite satisfactory for bonding the core to the facings.This investigation has confirmed the importance of experiments in the field of sandwich structures which can effectively replace other conventional uneconomical structural or machine members which are currently in use.     

A mesh-free convex approximation scheme for Kohn–Sham density functional theory

Density functional theory developed by Hohenberg, Kohn and Sham is a widely accepted, reliable ab initio method. We present a non-periodic, real space, mesh-free convex approximation scheme for Kohn–Sham density functional theory. We rewrite the original variational problem as a saddle point problem and discretize it using basis functions which form the Pareto optimum between competing objectives of maximizing entropy and minimizing the total width of the approximation scheme. We show the utility of the approximation scheme in performing both all-electron and pseudopotential calculations, the results of which are in good agreement with literature.