(e, 3e) test on e-e correlations in helium

The angular variations of the five-fold differential cross section obtained by using different wave functions of helium are compared with experimental data. It is found that in the coplanar geometry two kinematical arrangements, (i) equal energy sharing between the two ejected electrons with one of them ejected along the momentum transfer direction and the other along varying direction and (ii) the Bethe ridge condition with fixed sum of ejected electron energies and varying angle between them, are very sensitive to e-e correlations contained in the target wave function. This comparison has been used to show that open-shell class of wave functions better incorporate e-e correlations than the closed-shell class.     

Theory of sheath in a collisional multi-component plasma

The aim of this brief report is to study the behaviour of sheath structure in a multi-component plasma with dust-neutral collisions. The plasma consists of electrons, ions, micron size negatively charged dust particles and neutrals. The sheath-edge potential and sheath width are calculated for collisionally dominated sheath. Comparison of collisionless and collisionally dominated sheath are made.     

Gas permeability in rubbery polyphosphazene membranes

The synthesis, characterization, and gas permeability of 10 new polyphosphazenes has been studied. Additionally, the first gas permeation data has been collected on hydrolytically unstable poly[bis-(chloro)phosphazene]. Gases used in this study include CO₂, CH₄, O₂, N₂, H₂, and Ar. CO₂ was the most permeable gas through any of the phosphazenes and a direct correlation between the T_g of the polymer and CO₂ transport was noted with permeability increasing with decreasing polymer T_g. To a lesser degree, permeability of all the other gases studied also yielded increases with decreasing polymer T_g. The trend observed for these new polymers was further supported by published data for other phosphazenes. Furthermore, permeability data for all gases were found to correlate to the gas condensability and the gas critical pressures, except for hydrogen, suggesting that the nature of the gas is also a significant factor for permeation through rubbery phosphazene membranes. Ideal separation factors () for the CO₂/H₂ and CO₂/CH₄ gas pairs were calculated. For CO₂/CH₄, no increase in was observed with decreasing T_g, however increases in were noted for the CO₂/H₂ pair.     

Fast iterative methods for symmetric sinc-Galerkin systems

The symmetric sinc-Galerkin method developed by Lund, when appliedto the second-order self-adjoint boundary value problem, givesrise to a symmetric coefficient matrix has a special structureso that it can be advantageously used in solving the discretesystem. In this paper, we employ the preconditioned conjugategradient method with banded matrices as preconditioners. Weprove that the condition number of the preconditioned matrixis uniformly bounded by a constant independent of the size ofthe matrix. In particular, we show that the solution of an n-by-ndiscrete symmetric sinc-Galerkin system can be obtained in O(nlog n) operations. We also extend our method to the self-adjointelliptic partial differential equation. Numerical results aregiven to illustrate the effectiveness of our fast iterativesolvers.     

(e, 3e) Differential cross section of He (21 S) and He (23 S)

The angular distribution of the five-fold differential cross section for the electron impact double ionization of He (2¹ S) and He (2³ S) has been studied. The kinematical conditions for maxima/minima in the angular distribution for the two cases have been compared. The two-step process for the double ionization is found to contribute very little in the triplet case.     

Microwave absorption studies of MgB2 superconductor

Microwave absorption studies have been carried out on MgB₂ superconductor using a standard X-band EPR spectrometer. The modulated low-field microwave absorption signals recorded for polycrystalline (grain size ∼ 10 μm) samples suggested the absence of weak-link character. The field dependent direct microwave absorption has been found to obey a ✓H dependence with two different slopes, which indicated a transition from strongly pinned lattice to flux flow regime.     

Polymer/silicate composites: new materials for subsurface permeable reactive barriers

Investigations were performed into the suitability of novel composites to serve as materials for subsurface permeable reactive barriers (PRBs). These new materials are Type I composites—they are preformed organic polymers embedded in an inorganic matrix without significant covalent bonding between the components. The required properties for these materials to function efficiently are: (1) a tunable water passing rate to approximate the hydraulic conductivity of the subsurface environment where the PRB will be placed, (2) sufficient mechanical strength (both wet and dry) to maintain barrier integrity, (3) the ability to incorporate selective metal sequestration agents so that they remain active—yet do not leach from the barrier, and (4) to be deployable through direct injection methods such that trenching is not needed. Additionally, there is a need to keep the technology as low cost as possible, while remaining reliable. Results recently obtained in our laboratory show that our materials, remarkably, exhibit all of these properties and show great promise as vadose zone deployable PRBs.     

Selective separation of minor actinides and lanthanides using aromatic dithiophosphinic and phosphinic acid derivatives

A new extractant for the separation of actinide(III) and lanthanide(III) cations, bis(o-trifluoromethylphenyl) phosphinic acid (2) was synthesized. The synthetic route employed mirrors one that was employed to produce the sulfur containing analog bis(o-trifluoromethylphenyl) dithiophosphinic acid (1). Classic radiochemical methods and absorbance spectroscopy were used to study the coordination chemistry of the Am-dithiophosphinic acid and Am-phosphinic acid complexes.     

Effects of lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation on expression of growth-associated genes by corticospinal neurons

Background  

Inflammation around cell bodies of primary sensory neurons and retinal ganglion cells enhances expression of neuronal growth-associated genes and stimulates axonal regeneration. We have asked if inflammation would have similar effects on corticospinal neurons, which normally show little response to spinal cord injury. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was applied onto the pial surface of the motor cortex of adult rats with or without concomitant injury of the corticospinal tract at C4. Inflammation around corticospinal tract cell bodies in the motor cortex was assessed by immunohistochemistry for OX42 (a microglia and macrophage marker). Expression of growth-associated genes c-jun, ATF3, SCG10 and GAP-43 was investigated by immunohistochemistry or in situ hybridisation.     

Determination of the latent heat of fusion and solid fraction evolution of metals and alloys by an improved cooling curve analysis method

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this work, a new computer-aided cooling curve analysis method (CA-CCA) called metal/mold energy balance method (MEB) is presented. Its originality...