Perovskite-type oxide films combined with gratings for reduction of material consumption and improvement of thermochromism property

Combination of thermochromism of perovskite-type materials and gratings can result in some interesting variations of the spectral properties of structured surfaces. This paper aims at investigating thermal absorptive/radiative characteristics of structured thermochromic material La_0.825Sr_0.175MnO₃ (LSMO) with metallic and/or dielectric gratings. Numerical computation is conducted to obtain the distribution of the spectral absorptance of such structured surfaces with different structural parameters. The directional and temperature dependence of absorptance are also analyzed. The results reveal that compared with bulk LSMO material, the structured surface of LSMO achieves an improved thermochromic performance and much thinner layer of a structured LSMO film by combining the film with one-dimensional Al and SiO₂ gratings. Therefore, the other advantage of such structured surface is that the reduction of material consumption and weight is achieved due to the smaller LSMO layer thickness, which may be vital for thermal management of space vehicles.     

Electron magnetic resonance and magnetooptical studies of nanoparticle-containing borate glasses

We report electron magnetic resonance (EMR) and magnetooptical studies of borate glasses of molar composition 22.5K₂O-22.5Al₂O₃-55B₂O₃ co-doped with low concentrations of Fe₂O₃ and MnO. In as-prepared samples the paramagnetic ions, as a rule, are in diluted state. However, in the case where the ratio of the iron and manganese oxides in the charge is 3/2, magnetic nanoparticles with characteristics close to those of manganese ferrite are formed already at the first stage of the glass preparation, as evidenced by both magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) and EMR. After thermal treatment all glasses show characteristic MCD and EMR spectra, attesting to the presence of magnetic nanoparticles, predominantly including iron ions. Preliminary EXAFS measurements at the Fe K-absorption edge show an emergence of nanoparticles with a structure close to MnFe₂O₄ after annealing the glasses at 560 °C.By computer simulating the EMR spectra at variable temperatures, a superparamagnetic nature of relatively broad size and shape distribution with the average diameter of ca. 3-4 nm. The characteristic temperature-dependent shift of the apparent resonance field is explained by a strong temperature dependence of the magnetic anisotropy in the nanoparticles.The formation of magnetic nanoparticles confers to the potassium-alumina-borate glasses magnetic and magneto-optical properties typical of magnetically ordered substances. At the same time, they remain transparent in a part of the visible and near infrared spectral range and display a high Faraday rotation value.     

IS THERE UNIT ROOT IN THE NITROGEN OXIDES EMISSIONS: A MONTE CARLO INVESTIGATION?

Abstract Use of the time‐series econometric techniques to investigate issues about environmental regulation requires knowing whether air pollution emissions are trend stationary or difference stationary. It has been shown that results regarding trend stationarity of the pollution data are sensitive to the methods used. I conduct a Monte Carlo experiment to study the size and power of two unit root tests that allow for a structural change in the trend at a known time using the data‐generating process calibrated to the actual pollution series. I find that finite sample properties of the Perron test are better than the Park and Sung Phillips‐Perron (PP) type test. Severe size distortions in the Park and Sung PP type test can explain the rejection of a unit root in air pollution emissions reported in some environmental regulation analyses.     

Fragmentation study of iridoid glycosides and phenylpropanoid glycosides in Radix Scrophulariae by rapid resolution liquid chromatography with diode‐array detection and electrospray ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

Rapid resolution liquid chromatography (RRLC) coupled with diode array detection (DAD) and electrospray ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (ESI‐TOF MS) method was applied to the mass spectral study of a series of naturally occurring iridoid glycosides and phenylpropanoid glycosides in Radix Scrophulariae, which provides higher speed and increased sensitivity without loss of resolution. With dynamic adjustment as the key role of the fragmentor voltage and confirmed with authentic standards, valuable structural information regarding the nature of both the glycoside skeletons was thus obtained. Most compositions were found to possess organic acid moiety such as cinnamoyl, caffeoyl and ferulyol. Besides extensive fragmentation of the carbohydrate moiety, losses of the hydroxyl and glucose residue units showed in the spectra, permitting the exploration of the skeleton and the identity of substituents in the molecule. Ten major iridoid glycosides and 10 phenylpropanoid glycosides were identified or tentatively characterized based on their retention times, UV and TOF MS data. The major fragmentation pathways of PGs in Radix Scrophulariae obtained through the MS data was schemed systematically for the first time, which provides a reference for other PGs derivatives. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of TEMED and EDTA on the structural and mechanical properties of NIPAAm/Na+MMT composite hydrogels

N‐isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAAm) hydrogels are known as thermosensitive crosslinked polymer networks. In this work, the network parameters of their composites, i.e., NIPAAm/sodium montmorillonite (NIPAAm/Na⁺MMT) hydrogels synthesized by free radical solution polymerization in the presence of two different types of accelerator (tetramethyl ethylenediamine (TEMED) and ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA)) and initiator (potassium persulphate (K₂S₂O₈) and cerium ammonium nitrate ((NH₄)₂Ce(NO₃)₆), Ce(IV)) using five different clay content (in the range of 1.0–5.0 wt % of total monomer concentration) at 25 °C were presented and discussed. FTIR spectra, XRD patterns, SEM photographs, and network parameters of the samples indicated that the presence of COOH groups on EDTA molecules was resulted in the formation of exfoliated structures and the activity of EDTA/KPS redox pair was higher than those of TEMED/KPS and EDTA/Ce (IV) pairs. The compression moduli (G) of the hydrogels initiated with EDTA/Ce(IV) redox pair showed smooth and continual changings with increase in Na⁺MMT content (for swelling equilibrium at 25 °C) on the contrary of EDTA/KPS and TEMED/KPS pairs. It might be related to low initiator efficiency of cerium ammonium nitrate than KPS molecules, having higher effective crosslinking density with increasing clay content. On the other hand, the G moduli of NIPAAm/Na⁺MMT hydrogels (above their phase transition temperature) initiated with TEMED/KPS redox pair were higher than the others because of the more hydrophobic nature of TEMED molecules. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 48: 1256–1264, 2010     

Two-Parameter Stochastic Resonance in a Model of Electrodissolution of Fe in H_2SO_4

IntroductionStochastic resonance (SR) is a nonlinear effect which describes the optimal detection of a weak periodic signal by the action of external noise in nonlinear systems. SR was originally proposed to account for periodicity in the Earth's ice ages1, and it has been observed in a wide range of biological2-4 , physical5 and chemical6 systems. The systems mentioned above which may give rise to SR have a denominator despite many examples of SR in different scientific areas. It is noted…     

稳定受迫振动中的能量转换

将强迫分解成超前位移π／２和位移相同或反相的两个分量，通过对两分力作功的定量计算，可以方便地讨论受迫振动中的能量转换，并能对共振作出较的物理解释。     

Wireless retrospective gating: Application to cine cardiac imaging

A new “wireless” method of cardiac imaging is introduced, which, unlike ECG triggering, allows imaging the heart at end-diastole, and greatly reduces smearing artifacts in the phase-encoding direction. It is an improvement over ECG-driven retrospective gating, in that patients with poor ECGs can be imaged. This method extends the applicability of cardiac imaging, and since it requires no physiological monitoring hardware, can be implemented easily on any MR imager. The images produced by this method are superior to those from ECG triggering, especially when viewed in a “cine” loop. The technique described herein is, furthermore, extendable to any area where periodic or quasi-periodic motion is a problem.