A mass spectrometric line for tritium analysis of water and noble gas measurements from different water amounts in the range of microlitres and millilitres

This paper describes the procedure followed for noble gas measurements for litres, millilitres and microlitres of water samples in our laboratory, including sample preparation, mass spectrometric measurement procedure, and the complete calibrations. The preparation line extracts dissolved gases from water samples of volumes of 0.2 μ l to 3 l and it separates them as noble and other chemically active gases. Our compact system handles the following measurements: (i) determination of tritium concentration of environmental water samples by the ³He ingrowth method; (ii) noble gas measurements from surface water and groundwater; and (iii) noble gas measurements from fluid inclusions of solid geological archives (e.g. speleothems). As a result, the tritium measurements have a detection limit of 0.012 TU, and the expectation value (between 1 and 20 TU) is within 0.2 % of the real concentrations with a standard deviation of 2.4 %. The reproducibility of noble gas measurements for water samples of 20–40 ml allows us to determine solubility temperatures by an uncertainty better than 0.5 °C. Moreover, noble gas measurements for tiny water amounts (in the microlitre range) show that the results of the performed calibration measurements for most noble gas isotopes occur with a deviation of less than 2 %. Theoretically, these precisions for noble gas concentrations obtained from measurements of waters samples of a few microlitres allow us to determine noble gas temperatures by an uncertainty of less than 1 °C. Here, we present the first noble gas measurements of tiny amounts of artificial water samples prepared under laboratory conditions.     

Quantum Ergodic Restriction Theorems: Manifolds Without Boundary

We prove that if (M, g) is a compact Riemannian manifold with ergodic geodesic flow, and if ${H \subset M}$ is a smooth hypersurface satisfying a generic microlocal asymmetry condition, then restrictions ${\varphi_j |_H}$ of an orthonormal basis ${\{\varphi_j\}}$ of Δ-eigenfunctions of (M, g) to H are quantum ergodic on H. The condition on H is satisfied by geodesic circles, closed horocycles and generic closed geodesics on a hyperbolic surface. A key step in the proof is that matrix elements ${\langle{F}\varphi_j, \varphi_{j}\rangle}$ of Fourier integral operators F whose canonical relation almost nowhere commutes with the geodesic flow must tend to zero.     

Exact approaches for solving robust prize-collecting Steiner tree problems

In the Prize-Collecting Steiner Tree Problem (PCStT) we are given a set of customers with potential revenues and a set of possible links connecting these customers with fixed installation costs. The goal is to decide which customers to connect into a tree structure so that the sum of the link costs plus the revenues of the customers that are left out is minimized. The problem, as well as some of its variants, is used to model a wide range of applications in telecommunications, gas distribution networks, protein–protein interaction networks, or image segmentation.     

Spectroscopic database of CO2 line parameters: 4300-7000 cm

A new spectroscopic database for carbon dioxide in the near infrared is presented to support remote sensing of the terrestrial planets (Mars, Venus and the Earth). The compilation contains over 28,500 transitions of 210 bands from 4300 to 7000 cm⁻¹ and involves nine isotopologues: ¹⁶O¹²C¹⁶O (626), ¹⁶O¹³C¹⁶O (636), ¹⁶O¹²C¹⁸O (628), ¹⁶O¹²C¹⁷O (627), ¹⁶O¹³C¹⁸O (638), ¹⁶O¹³C¹⁷O (637), ¹⁸O¹²C¹⁸O (828), ¹⁷O¹²C¹⁸O (728) and ¹⁸O¹³C¹⁸O (838). Calculated line positions, line intensities, Lorentz half-width and pressure-induced shift coefficients for self- and air-broadening are taken from our recent measurements and are presented for the Voigt molecular line shape. The database includes line intensities for 108 bands measured using the McMath-Pierce Fourier transform spectrometer located on Kitt Peak, Arizona. The available broadening parameters (half-widths and pressure-induced shifts) of ¹⁶O¹²C¹⁶O are applied to all isotopologues. Broadening coefficients are computed using empirical expressions that have been fitted to the experimental data. There are limited data for the temperature dependence of widths and so no improvement has been made for those parameters. The line intensities included in the catalog vary from 4×10⁻³⁰ to 1.29×10⁻²¹ cm⁻¹/(molecule cm⁻²) at 296 K. The total integrated intensity for this spectral interval is 5.9559×10⁻²⁰ cm⁻¹/(molecule cm⁻²) at 296 K.     

The GEISA spectroscopic database: Current and future archive for Earth and planetary atmosphere studies

The development of Gestion et Etude des Informations Spectroscopiques Atmosphériques (GEISA: Management and Study of Spectroscopic Information) was started over three decades at Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD) in France. GEISA is a computer accessible spectroscopic database, designed to facilitate accurate forward radiative transfer calculations using a line-by-line and layer-by-layer approach. More than 350 users have been registered for on-line use of the GEISA facilities. The current 2003 edition of GEISA (GEISA-03) is a system comprising three independent sub-databases devoted respectively to: line transition parameters, infrared and ultraviolet/visible absorption cross-sections, microphysical and optical properties of atmospheric aerosols.Currently, GEISA is involved in activities related to the assessment of the capabilities of IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer on board of the METOP European satellite) through the GEISA/IASI database derived from GEISA.The GEISA-03 content is presented, placing emphasis on molecular species of interest for Earth and planetary atmosphere studies, with details on the updated 2008 archive underway. A critical assessment on the needs, in terms of molecular parameters archive, related with recent satellite astrophysical missions is made. Detailed information on free on-line GEISA and GEISA/IASI access is given at http://ara.lmd.polytechnique.fr and http://ether.ipsl.jussieu.fr.     

Local Central Limit Theorem for Multi-group Curie–Weiss Models

Journal of Theoretical Probability - We study a multi-group version of the mean-field Ising model, also called Curie–Weiss model. It is known that, in the high-temperature regime of this...     

Advances in gas-mediated electron beam-induced etching and related material processing techniques

Electron beam-induced etching (EBIE) has traditionally been used for top-down, direct-write, chemical dry etching, and iterative editing of materials. The present article reviews recent advances in EBIE modeling and emerging applications, with an emphasis on use cases in which the approaches that have conventionally been used to realize EBIE are instead used for material analysis, surface functionalization, or bottom-up growth of nanostructured materials. Such applications are used to highlight the shortcomings of existing quantitative EBIE models and to identify physicochemical phenomena that must be accounted for in order to enable full exploitation and predictive modeling of EBIE and related electron beam fabrication techniques.     

Improving the visible-light photocatalytic activity of SnO<Subscript>x</Subscript>·SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> glass systems by introducing SnO<Subscript>x</Subscript> nanoparticles

Tin silicate glass without SnO_x nanoparticles (SiO₂·SnO_x), a silica glass containing only SnO_x nanoparticles (SiO₂·SnO_xNP) and the improved product, which combines the tin silicate glass with SnO_x nanoparticles (SiO₂·SnO_x·SnO_xNP) was prepared. For the structural analysis ¹¹⁹Sn Mössbauer spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction were applied. The ¹¹⁹Sn Mössbauer spectra showed that the SiO₂·SnO_x·SnO_xNP sample had the largest Sn^II content (12.0%). It also had an outstanding methylene blue degradation with the first-order rate value with (18?±?2) × 10^?3 min^?1 with visible light irradiation.     

Contribution of individual flavonoids in Lysimachia species to the antioxidant capacity based on HPLC-DPPH assay

Quantitative phytochemical characterisation of the chief flavonoid aglycones in the hydrolysed Lysimachia extracts revealed the dominance of kaempferol, quercetin and myricetin in L. vulgaris, L. nummularia, L. punctata, L. christinae, L. ciliata and L. clethroides, respectively. Due to the significant radical scavenging capacity of the samples, the contribution of the individual aglycones to the total antioxidant activity became of interest. Therefore, a HPLC method coupled to pre-column DPPH scavenging assay was developed. Differences in the six Lysimachia species’ phenolic composition regarding their participation to the antioxidant activity were revealed. The participation of the three investigated flavonoids to the radical quenching activity was the highest (91.2%) in the L. vulgaris sample, the lowest in L. christinae sample with 29.6%. In L. vulgaris sample, the 76.3% contribution of quercetin to the scavenger capacity was the highest peak area decrement ratio among the investigated samples.