Low-power RF plasma sources for technological applications: II. plasma sources under anomalous skin effect conditions

A theory of a planar disk-shaped RF plasma source under anomalous skin effect conditions is developed. In the absence of an external magnetic field, such conditions are satisfied for transverse electromagnetic waves with phase velocities below the electron thermal velocity, and, in the presence of this field, they are satisfied for electron cyclotron waves with frequencies corresponding to the resonant absorption line. For each of these cases, the RF field power deposited in a plasma with given parameters is determined and the equivalent plasma resistance is calculated.     

A Pilot Survey of Vocal Health in Young Singers

The objective of this study was to determine the incidence of vocal problems in young choir singers and to correlate vocal problems with demographic and behavioral information. A questionnaire addressing vocal habits and hygiene was offered to 571 young choir singers, up to 25 years of age, who sing at least weekly; 129 (22.6%) responded. More than one-half of the respondents had experienced vocal difficulty, particularly older adolescents. Detrimental behaviors and circumstances surveyed were not reflective of the incidence of vocal difficulty, except for morning hoarseness, chronic fatigue, insomnia, and female gender after puberty. Voice care professionals should be aware that self-reported voice difficulties are common among young choral singers, especially postpubescent girls, and children with symptoms consistent with reflux (morning hoarseness) and emotional stress (insomnia). Laryngologists should communicate with choral conductors and singing teachers to enhance early identification and treatment of children with voice complaints, and to develop choral educational strategies that help decrease their incidence.     

Stereoselective decomposition of alanine under homogeneous conditions employing optically active catalysts based on isatin

Russian Chemical Bulletin -     

ESR spectra of copper compounds of α-thiopicoline anilides

ESR spectra are reported for numerous chelates with a Cu-2(N, S) center; the covalent Cu-N bond is found to produce additional hyperfine splitting in solutions and glasses. MOLCAO methods are applied for D_2h symmetry to estimate the degree of covalency of the bonds to N and S, and also the effective degree of covalency of the bonds. Substituents in the pyridine ring do not affect the covalency of the bonds, but they probably affect the covalency of the out-of-plane bonds from the copper to the addends. The steric hindrance produced by the substituents sometimes leads to reduction of the copper, as does the chelation. Substituents in the benzene ring do not affect the copper-addend bonds but do determine the molecular packing.The triaxial anisotropy of the g factor is discussed in relation to details of the crystal structure, including lack of equivalence of the Cu-N and Cu-S bonds.     

Characterization of the Reaction of Chloroacetaldehyde with Single and Double Stranded DNA

Chloroacetaldehyde reacts with viral M13mp18 single and double stranded DNA to form the highly fluorescent adducts, etheno-AMP and etheno-CMP.

Absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy can be used to monitor and characterize these reactions. Both single and double stranded DNA showed increases in the absorbance following reaction with the aldehyde. The fluorescence also increased in these two groups and continued to rise with increasing time of incubation until a point of saturation was reached. The fluorescence of the double stranded moiety was considerably enhanced following reaction with the aldehyde while that of the single stranded population was not, making this method appropriate for the separation of small quantities of the two populations of DNA.     

Application of the single comparator method to instrumental photon activation analysis

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - Instrumental photon activation analysis (IPAA) is nondestructive and multi-elemental analysis method like instrumental neutron activation...     

Twist-Bend Nematic Glasses: The Synthesis and Characterisation of Pyrene-based Nonsymmetric Dimers

A selection of pyrene-based liquid crystal dimers have been prepared, containing either methylene-ether or diether linked spacers of varying length and parity. All the diether linked materials, CBOnO.Py (n=5, 6, 11, 12), exhibit conventional nematic and smectic A phases, with the exception of CBO11O.Py which is exclusively nematic. The methylene-ether linked dimer, CBnO.Py, with an even-membered spacer (n=5) was solely nematogenic, but odd-members (n=6, 8, 10) exhibited both nematic and twist-bend nematic phases. Replacement of the cyanobiphenyl fragment by cyanoterphenyl giving CT6O.Py, gave elevated melting and nematic-isotropic transition temperatures, and SmA and SmC_A phases were observed on cooling the nematic phase. Intermolecular face-to-face associations of the pyrene moieties drive glass formation, and all these materials have a glass transition temperature at or above room temperature. The stability of the glassy twist-bend nematic phase allowed for its study using AFM, and the helical pitch length, P_TB, was measured as 6.3 and 6.7 nm for CB6O.Py and CB8O.Py, respectively. These values are comparable to the shortest pitch of a twist-bend nematic phase measured to date.