Observation of dielectronic satellites in the K-spectrum of argon ions in plasma produced by femtosecond laser pulses

The satellite structure of 1s2p ^1,3 P ₁-1s ²¹ S ₀ lines of the He-like argon ion in plasma produced by a 45-fs laser pulse in a gas-jet cluster target is measured with a high spectral resolution. Radiation transitions 2p → 1s from autoionizing states (AISs) are detected for ions ranging from Li-like to F-like. The spectrum observed is theoretically simulated with the use of the spectroscopic data for the AISs of multicharged ions obtained within the multiconfiguration relativistic Hartree-Fock method. Good agreement with experimental data is obtained when the main population channels of these states are taken into account for typical values of cluster-target plasma parameters.     

Structures and stability of Al<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Bold">7</Emphasis></Subscript>C and Al<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Bold">7</Emphasis></Subscript>N clusters

We report results of the atomic and electronic structures of Al₇C cluster using ab initio molecular dynamics with ultrasoft pseudopotentials and generalized gradient approximation. The lowest energy structure is found to be the one in which carbon atom occupies an interstitial position in Al₇ cluster. The electronic structure shows that the recent observation [Chem. Phys. Lett. 316, 31 (2000)] of magic behavior of Al₇C^- cluster is due to a large highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO-LUMO) gap which makes Al₇C^- chemically inert. These results have further led us to the finding of a new neutral magic cluster Al₇N which has the same number of valence electrons as in Al₇C^- and a large HOMO-LUMO gap of 1.99 eV. Further, calculations have been carried out on (Al₇N)₂ to study interaction between magic clusters. Received 28 July 2001     

On the Determination of the Absolute Intensities of Vibrational-Rotational Lines of XY3 Molecules with C 3v Symmetry

Analytical formulas are derived that describe the dependences of the transition probabilities in vibrational-rotational spectra of XY₃-type molecules with C _3v symmetry on the rotational quantum numbers.     

Determination of trace levels of diosmin in a pharmaceutical preparation by adsorptive stripping voltammetry at a glassy carbon electrode.

A systematic study on the electrochemical behavior of diosmin in Britton-Robinson buffer (pH 2.0-10.0) at a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was made. The oxidation process of the drug was found to be quasi-reversible with an adsorption-controlled step. The adsorption stripping response was evaluated with respect to various experimental conditions, such as the pH of the supporting electrolyte, the accumulation potential and the accumulation time. The observed anodic peak current at +0.73 V vs. Ag/AgCl reference electrode increased linearly over two orders of magnitude from 5.0x10(-8) M to 9.0x10(-6) M. A limit of detection down to 3.5x10(-8) M of diosmin at the GCE was achieved with a mean recovery of 97+/-2.1%. Based on the electrochemical data, an open-circuit accumulation step in a stirred sample solution of BR at pH 3.0 was developed. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of the drug in pharmaceutical formulations. The results compared favorably with the data obtained via spectrophotometric and HPLC methods.     

Isolation of mitogenic substance from sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum IFO 9395 extracted with phosphate buffer.

The buffer extracts (3S) of sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum IFO 9395 contained mitogenic substance(s) to murine splenocytes (Shinohara et al. Chem. Pharm. Bull., 38, 2219 (1990)). Although the native 3S was slightly mitogenic, heating of 3S induced significant mitogenic activity. To isolate the mitogen, we separated 3S by ion-exchange and gel filtration chromatographies. The isolated mitogen, named sclerogen, has a molecular mass of 32 kilodaltons (kDa) on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and the isoelectric point (pI) of 5.9 by chromatofocusing. Sclerogen was significantly mitogenic in vitro against murine splenocytes after heat denaturation, and also showed the augmentation of the primary mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) in vitro. However, sclerogen did not show the activation of an alternative pathway of complement and hemagglutination activity. These results suggest that sclerogen is a unique mitogen which differs from lectins and shows mitogenicity after heat denaturation.     

Exact soliton solutions of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We study matter-wave solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates of ultracold gaseous atoms with spin degrees of freedom and present a class of exact solutions based on the inverse scattering method. The one-soliton solutions are classified with respect to the spin states. We analyze collisional effects between solitons in the same or different spin state(s), which reveals a very interesting possibility: we can manipulate the spin dynamics by controlling the parameters of colliding solitons.     

3D-TOFSIMS characterization of black spots in polymer light emitting diodes

The occurrence and formation of black spots areas in PolyLED devices has been studied by time-of-flight SIMS (TOFSIMS). The composition, shape and position of the black spots is visualised by three-dimensional (3D)-TOFSIMS depth-profiling. It has been established that the formation of non-emissive spots is due to the growth of aluminium oxide clusters at the AlBa/polymer interface. Electron injection in the black spots is lost by the resulting local increase of the resistivity of the cathode.