Enhancement of band-edge emission induced by defect transition in the composite of ZnO nanorods and CdSe/ZnS quantum dots

A new and general approach to enhance band-edge emission at the expense of defect emission in a semiconductor nanocomposite is proposed. The underlying mechanism is based on the resonance effect between defect transition and band-to-band excitation and transfer of excited electrons between conduction band edges. With our approach, it is possible to convert defect loss into bandgap emission. As an example, we demonstrate that the bandgap emission of ZnO nanorods can be enhanced by as much as 30 times when they are compounded with CdSe/ZnS nanoparticles.     

Determination of urinary lead, cadmium and nickel in steel production workers

The determination of toxic metals in urine is an important clinical screening procedure. In this study, the aim of our investigation was to determine the concentrations of Pb, Cd, and Ni in urine samples under routine clinical laboratory conditions. To assess the reliability of these methods, critical factors such as detection limit(s), calibration range(s), cost, accuracy and precision were studied. The method was employed for the quantitative determination of lead, cadmium and nickel in urine samples from steel production and quality control (QC) workers and healthy unexposed controls. After pre-treatment with acids, the samples were digested via a microwave oven and the samples were determined by a graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS). Quality control for these procedures was established with the concurrent analysis of Standard Trace Metals 7879 Level II and NIST SRM 2670 (Toxic Elements in Freeze Dried Urine). The results indicate that urinary lead, cadmium and nickel levels of the exposed workers are significantly higher those of the controls. The possible connection of these elements with the etiology of disease is discussed. The results also show the need for immediate improvements in workplace ventilation and industrial hygiene practices.     

Polymer solution-filled column for the analysis of antisense phosphorothioates by capillary electrophoresis

A capillary electrophoresis (CE) column filled with 13% poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) solution is demonstrated to resolve different lengths of antisense phosphorothioates in 100 mM Tris-borate (pH 9.0) buffer containing 30% formamide at 50 degrees C. Two sets of mixtures composed of 15-20 mers of either antisense phosphorothioate or phosphodiester oligonucleotides were synthesized based on a sequence of the antisense orientation directed against DNA-methyltransferase (denoted as MT-AS) and were used as model compounds. It was found that column coating reduced electroosmotic flow, as well as wall adsorption, and led to the separation of both phosphorothioate and phosphodiester molecules. Substantial peak broadening, however, specifically occurred to the phosphorothioates and was reduced statisfactorily by the addition of formamide into the buffer solution, raising the temperature, and raising the pH value. Under experimental conditions, a linear relationship between the migration time and the base number was observed, indicating that no peak compression artifacts existed. Without tedious pretreatment, antisense phosphorothioates were spiked into human serum, followed by water dilution, and then directly injected into the column. Separation of different lengths of phosphorothioates was observed using pressure injection, which did not suffer from injection bias.     

Multi-objective design and extended optimization for developing a miniature light emitting diode pocket-sized projection display

This research proposes a new extended optimization method for a miniature light emitting diode (LED) pocket-sized projection display, introducing integration of the Taguchi method and principal component analysis in order to optimize the multiple quality characteristics of an LED pocket-sized projection display. With the aid of interactive optimization, control factors with three different levels are carefully selected in the complicated preliminary experiments. A set of optimal design parameters is well selected for best results on the combined effects of the total luminous flux, illumination uniformity, and the packing size of the system. The selected control factors are inclusive of major lens and system specifications, such as lens overall length, X-CUB semi-aperture, length of light integrator, width of integrator, total internal reflection (TIR) prism entering semi-diameter for the TIR prism, air-gap of the TIR prism, and digital micromirror device (DMD) position; an L18 orthogonal array is applied and implemented in the experiments. According to experimental results, the optimal design parameters for the projection display can be determined as A1 (lens specifications: type I), B3 (lens length: overall length), C1 (X-CUB semi-aperture: 8 mm), D3 (integrator length: 36.6 mm), E2 (integrator width: 3.5 mm), F2 (TIR prism entering semi-diameter: 11 mm), G1 (TIR prism air-gap: 1.0024 mm), and H1 (DMD location: −0:5 mm). In addition, analysis of variance (ANOVA) is also employed to identify the factor A (lens specifications), factor D (integrator length), factor F (TIR prism entering semi-diameter), and factor G (TIR prism air-gap) as key parameters, which account for 71.82% of the total variance. The other factors when compared are found to have relatively weaker impacts on the process design. Furthermore, a confirmation experiment of the optimal design parameters shows that the aforesaid multiple performance characteristics are optimized to achieve the best levels. It is concluded that Taguchi method and principal component analysis (PCA) combine to optimize and then minimize the LED pocket-sized projection display system, which not only yields a sufficient understanding of the effects of control factors, but also produces an optimized design to ensure that the LED pocket-sized projection display system exhibits the best multiple performance characteristics.     

A hybrid WDM transport system based on mutually injection-locked Fabry-Perot laser diodes

A hybrid wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) transport system based on mutually injection-locked Fabry-Perot laser diodes (FP LDs) for CATV, 256-QAM and OC-48 transmission is proposed and demonstrated. Mutually injection-locked FP LDs as broadband light source could be relatively simple and cost-effective compared with other demonstrated light source schemes. The proposed hybrid WDM transport system employs four filtered wavelengths (modes) to transmit 111 AM-VSB channels, four 256-QAM digital passband channels, and one OC-48 digital baseband channel simultaneously. Since our proposed system does not use multiple distributed feedback (DFB) LDs, it reveals a prominent one with simpler and more economic advantages.     

New limit on the T-violating transverse muon polarization in K+-->pi0mu+nu decays

A search for T-violating transverse muon polarization (P(T)) in the K+-->pi(0)mu(+)nu decay was performed using kaon decays at rest. A new improved value P(T)=-0.0017+/-0.0023(stat)+/-0.0011(syst) was obtained giving an upper limit |P(T)|<0.0050. The T-violation parameter was determined to be Imxi=-0.0053+/-0.0071(stat)+/-0.0036(syst) giving an upper limit |Imxi|<0.016.     

An efficient one-pot method for the large-quantitative production of radiopharmaceutical ligand: diazadioximes

An efficient one-pot procedure for the preparation of diazadioxime was described. Treatment of ketooximes with alkyldiamine followed by NaBH4 in dry ethanol afforded the corresponding d,l-diazadioximes in 56--74% yield without isolation of the intermediates.     

The Effects of a Trace Amount of Manganese and the Homogenization on the Recrystallization of Al–7Mg–0.15Ti Alloys

The aim of this study is to explore the effects of Manganese addition and homogenization treatment on the microstructures and mechanical properties of the Al–7Mg–0.15Ti (B535.0) alloy. The optical microscopy, electrical conductivity measurements, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM + EBSD), as well as Rockwell hardness and tensile tests, were exploited for this purpose. The main objectives are to refine the grain size, inhibit grain growth in the annealed state, and enhance the mechanical strength of the alloy. The results show that the addition of manganese to the Al–7Mg–0.15Ti alloys refined the as-cast and recrystallized grains of the alloys. During the homogenization process, Al₄Mn high-temperature stable dispersoids were precipitated in the aluminum matrix. After annealing, the Al₄Mn particles blocked the movement of grain boundaries during the growth of the recrystallized grains and inhibited grain growth. Consequently, the annealed alloys showed grain refinement and dispersion strengthening. The Al₄Mn dispersoids of the alloys with manganese added were smaller and denser after a two-stage homogenization process compared to those that underwent a one-stage homogenization process. By contrast, for the alloys without the addition of manganese, the recrystallized grains showed normal growth after annealing, and different homogenization processes had no significantly different effects.     

Super Oxygen and Improved Water Vapor Barrier of Polypropylene Film with Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Nanocoatings

Biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) is widely used in packaging. Although its orientation increases mechanical strength and clarity, BOPP suffers from a high oxygen transmission rate (OTR). Multilayer thin films are deposited from water using layer‐by‐layer (LbL) assembly. Polyethylenimine (PEI) is combined with either poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) or vermiculite (VMT) clay to impart high oxygen barrier. A 30‐bilayer PEI/VMT nanocoating (226 nm thick) improves the OTR of 17.8 μm thick BOPP by more than 30X, rivaling most inorganic coatings. PEI/PAA multilayers achieve comparable barrier with only 12 bilayers due to greater thickness, but these films exhibit increased oxygen permeability at high humidity. The PEI/VMT coatings actually exhibit improved oxygen barrier at high humidity (and also improve moisture barrier by more than 40%). This high barrier BOPP meets the criteria for sensitive food and some electronics packaging applications. Additionally, this water‐based coating technology is cost effective and provides an opportunity to produce high barrier polypropylene film on an industrial scale.

     

Competition between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in the electron-doped cuprates triggered by oxygen reduction

We have performed a systematic angle-resolved photoemission study of as-grown and oxygen-reduced Pr(2-x)CexCuO4 and Pr(1-x)LaCexCuO4 electron-doped cuprates. In contrast with the common belief, neither the band filling nor the band parameters are significantly affected by the oxygen reduction process. Instead, we show that the main electronic role of the reduction process is to remove an anisotropic leading edge gap around the Fermi surface. While the nodal leading edge gap is induced by long-range antiferomagnetic order, the origin of the antinodal one remains unclear.