An HPLC method for the determination of selected amino acids in human embryo culture medium

A method for the determination of selected amino acids in culture medium using HPLC with fluorescence detection is described. Twenty hours after intra‐cytoplasmic sperm injection, one randomly selected zygote was transferred to the culture medium. After incubation (72 h after fertilization), the culture medium in which the embryo was incubated and blank medium was immediately stored at −80°C. Filtered medium samples were derivatized with ortho ‐phthalaldehyde (naphthalene‐2,3‐dicarboxaldehyde), forming highly fluorescent amino acids derivatives. Reverse‐phase columns (LichroCART, Purospher STAR RP_18e or Ascentis Express C₁₈) were used for the separation. The derivatives were analyzed by gradient elution with a mobile phase containing ethanol and sodium dihydrogen phosphate. The analytical performance of this method is satisfactory for all amino acids; the intra‐assay coefficients of variation were <10% and quantitative recoveries were between 95.5 and 104.4%. Changes in the levels of selected amino acids before and after human embryo cultivation were observed. After embryo incubation, the levels of all amino acids in the medium were increased, apart from aspartate and asparagine. After the cultivation of some embryos, amino acids which were not part of the medium were detected. Low amino acids turnover was observed in some embryos.     

Dispersibility dependence of thermal conductivity of carbon nanotube based nanofluids

A differential effective medium theory together with Brownian motion is used to predict Effective Thermal Conductivity (ETC) of CNT nanofluids. ETC was influenced significantly by Brownian motion and enhancement was higher in dilute nanofluids. A theoretical model employing an effective volume fraction with dispersibility factor agrees well with experimental data.     

Paraxial propagation in disclinated amorphous media

We study paraxial beam propagation along the wedge axis of a disclinated amorphous medium. The defect-induced inhomogeneity results in Berry phase and curvature that are affected by the induced uniaxial anisotropy. The Berry phase manifests itself as a precession of the polarization vector. The Berry curvature is responsible for the optical spin Hall effect in the disclinated medium, where beam deflection varies sinusoidally along the paraxial direction. Its application in determining the birefringence and the magnitude of the Frank vector is explained.     

Compressed exponential form for disordered domain wall motion in ultra-thin Au/Co/Au ferromagnetic films

Magnetization reversal in ultra-thin Au/Co/Au films deposited on single crystal silicon (1 0 0) was investigated using Kerr microscopy. In the considered ultra-thin Co films, with a thickness between 0.7 and 1 nm, the coercivity and magnetic anisotropy decrease with decrease in cobalt layer thickness and the magnetization reversal dynamics is dominated by disordered domain wall motion. An analysis of the observed magnetization reversal dynamics is proposed, starting from the Fatuzzo-Labrune model. We show that the relaxation curves of these samples are well described by a function obtained by a technical transformation of Fatuzzo-Labrune model in the regime dominated by domain wall motion.     

Magnetization reversal of Fe ultrathin film on Cu(100)

The magnetization reversal of Fe/Cu(100) ultrathin films grown at room temperature is investigated by using an in situ magneto-optical Kerr effect polarimeter with a magnet that can rotate in a plane of incidence. There occur spin reorientation transitions from out-of-plane to in-plane magnetizations in 8 and 12 monolayers (ML) thick iron films. The coercive fields are observed to be proportional to the reciprocal of the cosine with respect to the easy axis, suggesting that the domain-wall displacement plays a main role in the magnetization reversal process.     

Tunnelling effect of the non-stationary Kerr black hole

Extending Parikh and Wilczek＇s work to the non-stationary black hole, we study the Hawking radiation of the non-stationary Kerr black hole by the Hamilto-Jacobi method. The result shows that the radiation spectrum is not purely thermal and the tunnelling probability is related to the change of Bekenstein Hawking entropy, which gives a correction to the Hawking thermal radiation of the black hole.     

Acoustic Waves in Channels with Porous and Permeable Walls

The propagation of acoustic disturbances in a porous medium crossed by numerous cracks (double porosity medium) is a complex problem that we here simplify by investigating the acoustics of a permeable channel. We consider a fluidfilled channel in two possible geometries, a slit or a cylindric pipe. The channel is surrounded by a porous medium (saturated with the same fluid) and is itself surrounded by an external medium. To simulate the average properties of the cracked rock, the external medium is either nonpermeable (few connections between cracks) or highly permeable (numerous connections). We present analytical and numerical results concerning acoustic disturbances of small amplitude generated in the channel, such as harmonic waves, step disturbanses and pulses.     

Hysteresis phenomena in the light self-diffraction in a dense resonant medium

On the basis of the modified Bloch equations a theory is developed of the light self-diffraction in a thin film of a dense resonant medium with allowance for the dipole-dipole interactions of atoms. It is shown that for certain values of intensity of an external field, there occurs in the film the light-induced first-kind phase transition which causes the emergence of regions (domains) with the high excitation of atoms. The switching effects of the system dense resonant medium + periodically-modulated field under consideration result in a hysteresis behaviour in the dependence of the diffraction efficiency on the adiabatically changing intensity of the external field. The predicted hysteresis offers additional potentialities in the investigation of the dynamics of the first-kind phase transition in dense media and outlook for usage of the film as a switching logical element.     

Resonance frequencies and threshold gains of distributed feedback lasers with strong modulations

In this paper the calculation of resonance frequencies and threshold gains of distributed feedback (DFB) lasers with strong modulations is discussed. The theory is based on the Floquet solutions of a complex Hill differential equation. The dispersion relation of the above solutions is shown to be of importance for the behaviour of the resonances of the DFB laser.     

A Barbier type reaction promoted by in situ formed active metal bismuth from NaBH_4 and BiCl_3 in aqueous media

In the presence of active metal bismuth (Bi) which was prepared from the combination of bismuth trichloride and sodium borohydride,aldehydes have been found to react with allyl bromide in aqueous media,and the corresponding homoallylic alcohols were obtained in excellent yields with high chemo-and stereoselectivity.