THE COMPARISON OF LANZHOU LOESS PROFILE WITH VOSTOK ICE CORE IN ANTARCTICA OVER THE LAST GLACIATION CYCLE

Loess near Lanzhou in the late Pleistocene is very sensitive to climatic fluctuations. The Beiyuan terrace profile in Linxia City, of which the curve of susceptibility tallies with the trend of isotopic curves of Vostok 2083 m ice core in Antarctica, is 35m thick. There are five layers of paleosols under Malan loess(L_1). Upper three layers (S_(1-a),S(1-b)and S_(1-c) correspond to three warm stages in last interglaciation, Interstadial of Last Glacial (C stage in Antarctic ice core)was clearly recorded in the Beiyuan profile, in which three layers of paleosols and two of loess were formed. The lowest section of the profile belongs to penultimate glaciation, in which fossils of cold-drought-resistant mammal and mollusc have been discovered.     

Analyzing electrochemical noise with Chebyshev’s discrete polynomials

The principles underlying a novel method intended for analyzing experimental data obtained when studying fluctuation processes are considered. The method in question is Chebyshev’s spectroscopy. The application of this method allows one to determine statistic characteristics of steady-state electrochemical noise against the background of severe deterministic interference without invoking the procedure of the fitting of the initial data. The potentialities of this novel method, which is intended for treating noise experiment, are demonstrated by examining model examples and analyzing the electrochemical noise generated by a lithium electrode placed in an aprotic organic electrolyte.     

Approximation of titration curves and other sigmoidal functions by proportionally spaced cubic B-splines

Proportionally spaced cubicB-splines are an appropriate function system for the approximation of titration curves and other sigmoidal functions. They give a smooth weighted leastsquares fit without instability problems. The degree of smoothing depends only on the number of spline function which can be chosen by the user. The equivalence points of titration curves can be estimated with high accuracy from the zeros of the second derivative.The method gives good approximation curves even in the case of empty data regions, i. e. there are no artefacts in subranges where no data points exist. The routine has been tested successfully with large series of simulated and experimental data.     

Error estimation in peak‐shape analysis of XPS core‐level spectra using UNIFIT 2003: how significant are the results of peak fits?

An error analysis for numerically evaluating random uncertainties in x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been implemented in version 2003 of the spectra treatment and analysis software UNIFIT in order to improve the understanding of the statistical basis and the reliability of the model parameters for photoelectron spectra. The theoretical basis as well as two approaches to obtain error limits of the fit parameters have been considered. Several test spectra have been analysed and discussed. A representative example has been chosen to demonstrate the relevance of the error estimation for practical surface analysis. Suggestions for the minimization of errors in the peak‐fitting procedures are presented. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differences in the electrorheological response of a particle suspension under direct current and alternating current electric fields

We have observed an unusual reduction of shear stress with increasing shear rate under direct current electric fields, for an electrorheological fluid composed of sulfonated poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) particles dispersed in silicone oil. At all shear rates, the shear stress under the electric field is larger than that in the absence of the field, indicating that there is still some field-induced agglomeration of the particles. In contrast, the behavior under alternating current electric fields is the Bingham-fluid-type response commonly observed with electrorheological fluids. It is suggested that the conventional dipole–dipole interaction approach based on simplified microstructural models would be unable to explain these phenomena. Received: 27 November 2000 Accepted: 22 May 2001     

倒数示波计时电位滴定新技术

倒数交流示波极谱具有抑制充电电流、突出电解电流的优点,利用(dE/dt)~(-1)-E曲线上去极剂峰的突然消失或出现指示滴定终点的方法称作倒数示波计时电位滴定法.由运算放大器组装的模拟电子线路可以对(dE/dt)~(-1)-E曲线进行反馈、反对数及微分处理,从而获得各种类型的倒数示波计时电位曲线(图1),以进一步提高滴定的灵敏度。     

Flexible matching of test ligands to a 3D pharmacophore using a molecular superposition force field: Comparison of predicted and experimental conformations of inhibitors of three enzymes

Summary A computer procedure TFIT, which uses a molecular superposition force field to flexibly match test compounds to a 3D pharmacophore, was evaluated to find out whether it could reliably predict the bioactive conformations of flexible ligands. The program superposition force field optimizes the overlap of those atoms of the test ligand and template that are of similar chemical type, by applying an attractive force between atoms of the test ligand and template which are close together and of similar type (hydrogen bonding, charge, hydrophobicity). A procedure involving Monte Carlo torsion perturbations, followed by torsional energy minimization, is used to find conformations of the test ligand which cominimize the internal energy of the ligand and the superposition energy of ligand and template. The procedure was tested by applying it to a series of flexible ligands for which the bioactive conformation was known experimentally. The 15 molecules tested were inhibitors of thermolysin, HIV-1 protease or endothiapepsin for which X-ray structures of the bioactive conformation were available. For each enzyme, one of the molecules served as a template and the others, after being conformationally randomized, were fitted. The fitted conformation was then compared to the known binding geometry. The matching procedure was successful in predicting the bioactive conformations of many of the structures tested. Significant deviation from experimental results was found only for parts of molecules where it was readily apparent that the template did not contain sufficient information to accurately determine the bioactive conformation.     

Effect of the Electrode Potential on the Oxygen Reaction Rate in the Electrode System O2, Au/La0.88Sr0.12Ga0.82Mg0.18O2.85

The polarization dependences of a porous gold electrode in contact with a solid electrolyte of the composition La_0.88Sr_0.12Ga_0.82Mg_0.18O_2.85 are studied at 600–800°C and oxygen pressures of 2 × 10⁻²-1 atm. It is shown that the rate of cathodic reduction of oxygen out of the gas phase depends on the preliminary treatment of the sample. The activation energy is equal to 110–135 kJ mol⁻¹ at a low polarization. After increasing the polarization, the activation energy for the cathodic reduction of oxygen equals 75–85 kJ mol⁻¹ and depends on the oxygen pressure as a power function with a power index of 1/4. The rate of the anodic evolution of oxygen is dependent neither on the preliminary treatment of the sample nor on the oxygen pressure in the gas phase and the polarization curve has a characteristic segment, which corresponds to a limiting overvoltage.__________Translated from Elektrokhimiya, Vol. 41, No. 8, 2005, pp. 954–962.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Shkerin, Sokolova, Beresnev.     

Nonlinear Current-Voltage Curves for Thin-Film Gas-Sensitive Structures

Current-voltage curves for sensor structures based on thin tin oxide films are examined in various gases. Conditions favoring symmetrical nonlinear curves in the voltage range −30 to 30 V are found.__________Translated from Elektrokhimiya, Vol. 41, No. 6, 2005, pp. 735–737.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Simakov.Published on the basis of a report delivered at the VII Meeting on Fundamental Problems in Solid-State Ionics (Chernogolovka-2004).     

新型微填充柱－毛细管柱二维色谱系统过程的动力学研究

从色谱动力学角度对新型微填充柱－毛细管柱二维色谱系统过程中双柱条件与流出曲线及柱效之间的依赖关系加以系统研究。结果表明：由于双柱条件之间存在关联，双柱系统流出曲线特征与单柱系统存在一定的差异，流出曲线一阶矩和二、三阶中心矩以及双柱系统的柱效皆由预柱和主柱条件综合确定。