Working Methods Paper: Critical considerations with respect to the identification of tin species in the environment

Biogeochemical pathways of tin species in the environment are still controversial, e.g. with regard to methylation and transmethylation phenomena, owing to the fact that the identification of methylated tin-compounds is often difficult. The previous tentative identification of a mixed methylbutyltin compound in sediment and biological samples by GC/AAS after hydride generation gave an illustration of this problem. This compound was previously identified in sediments by other authors and also suspected to occur in a contaminated sediment sample from the Boyardville Marina, France. The retention time obtained by GC/AAS corresponded to the actual retention time of a mixed methylbutyltin calibrant. However, additional checks demonstrated that the compound detected was actually monophenyltin. This evidence was produced by a thorough analysis of a selected sediment sample by alternative techniques such as GC/AAS and GC/AES after pentylation, GC/FPD and GC/MS. The results presented highlight the need for a full identification of compounds to avoid mis-interpretation.     

General base catalysis in the decomposition of N-Cl-Valine in aqueous solution

This article analyzes the kinetics of the decomposition of N-Cl-Valine in aqueous solution, which is formed rapidly by chlorination of Valine with sodium hypochlorite. A general-base catalyzed process not yet described is reported. The experimental evidence shows two competitive decomposition paths: an unimolecular concerted fragmentation process (k = (1.8 ± 0.1) · 10^?4 s^?1 at 298 K) and the other one is an E2 elimination process whose importance increases with pH and depends on the nature and the concentration of the bases present in the medium. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Large Sample Properties of Mixture Models with Covariates for Competing Risks

We study the large-sample properties of a class of parametric mixture models with covariates for competing risks. The models allow general distributions for the survival times and incorporate the idea of long-term survivors. Asymptotic results are obtained under a commonly assumed independent censoring mechanism and some modest regularity conditions on the survival distributions. The existence, consistency, and asymptotic normality of maximum likelihood estimators for the parameters of the model are rigorously derived under general sufficient conditions. Specific conditions for particular models can be derived from the general conditions for ready check. In addition, a likelihood-ratio statistic is proposed to test various hypotheses of practical interest, and its asymptotic distribution is provided.     

电热泵用于蔬菜温室供热的经济性分析

现代化蔬菜温室是我国都市农业发展中的一个重要组成部分，目前这类温室的冬季加热均以燃煤方式为主．伴随着越加严重的城市环境污染，温室供热系统也面临着改造问题，需要引入清洁供热方式，热泵供热是其中的一种．本文以上海地区现代化蔬菜温室为研究对象，分析了蔬菜温室中使用电热泵供热的运行成本，并与燃煤供热方式进行了对比．就热泵供热系统在温室中的应用前景及可行性、经济性进行了分析，为热泵在温室供热系统中的应用提供了可参考依据．     

An efficient lasing action from pyrromethene 556 dye-doped organically modified silicates

Organically modified solid-state silicates (ORMOSILS) doped with a new laser dye 1,3,5,7,8-pentamethylpyrromethene-2,6-disulfonate-BF₂ complex (pyrromethene 556) have been synthesized by a sol-gel method and the compositional effects on pore characteristics, fluorescence and lasing properties have been investigated. It is found that the use of dimethylsulfoxide and γ-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane could greatly change the structure properties of sol-gel derived ORMOSILS cage, and thus the fluorescence and lasing properties of the materials could improve significantly. A successful laser oscillation from this dye-doped ORMOSILS sample has been achieved upon pumping with a Q-switched frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm. A slope efficiency of 54% with a useful lifetime greater than 10,000 shots has been demonstrated at a pump repetition rate of 1 Hz and a pump intensity of 1 J/cm² by using the new ORMOSILS cage on our newly designed laser system. Our results have shown that it is possible to obtain a high-efficiency with a long-lifetime for a compact new laser device by low cost dye-doped solid-state ORMOSILS.     

Temperature dependence of excitonic luminescence from nanocrystalline ZnO films

The properties of the excitonic luminescence for nanocrystalline ZnO thin films are investigated by using the dependence of excitonic photoluminescence (PL) spectra on temperature. The ZnO thin films are prepared by thermal oxidation of ZnS films prepared by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD) technique. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicates that ZnO thin films have a polycrystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure with a preferred (0 0 2) orientation. A strong ultraviolet (UV) emission peak at 3.26 eV is observed, while the deep-level emission band is barely observable at room temperature. The strength of the exciton-longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon coupling is deduced from the temperature dependence of the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the fundamental excitonic peak, decrease in exciton-longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon coupling strength is due to the quantum confinement effect.     

采用热处理方法提高MEH-PPV单层聚合物有机发光二极管发光性能的研究

对以MEH－PPV为发光层的单层聚合物有机发光二极管（OLED）器件在最佳条件下进行真空热处理，并用金相显微镜观察施加电压后器件的阴极表面形貌。发现处理后的器件阴极表面的气泡及黑斑明显减少。器件的发光性能显著提高。与未经处理的器件相比，最大相对发光强度提高了一个数量级、启亮电压降低了2．0V，半寿命提高了12．7倍。初步分析表明热处理方法提高器件发光性能的主要原因在于有效地减少了器件在工作过程中由于焦耳热产生的某些气体，从而减少阴极表面气泡及黑斑的出现，另一方面，热处理方法也增强了有机发光层与阴极接触界面的结合力，提高电子注入水平。     

分形维数与城市规模分布评析

本在分形概念的基础上，指出城市规模分布是基于统计意义上的一种分形分布，并计算了安徽省1978～1998年城市规模分布的分维值，评析了安徽省城市规模分布变化的特征。     

Influence of preparation method on SrMoO4 impurity content and magnetotransport properties of double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6 polycrystals

The magnetic and electric properties of the Sr₂FeMoO₆ compound produced under different preparation conditions were studied. Depending on the preparation condition, a strong variation in the nonmagnetic SrMoO₄ impurity content was found, which in turn determined the metallic or semiconducting behavior of the resistivity of the Sr₂FeMoO₆ compound. There was also evidence that SrMoO₄ played a crucial role in modifying the low magnetic field intergrain tunneling magnetoresistance in Sr₂FeMoO₆. In addition, we have established a simple method to prepare the single phase Sr₂FeMoO₆ polycrystals.