Measuring trihalomethane concentrations in water using supported capillary membrane sampling-gas chromatography

The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a supported capillary membrane sampling-gas chromatography method for the analysis of trihalomethanes (THMs) in drinking water. The effects of experimental parameters, such as flow rate of carrier gas, water temperature, ionic strengths of solutions and transfer line temperature on the system performance were investigated. The results of method detection limit and accuracy and precision studies are reported.     

Theoretical analysis of the porphyrin-porphyrin exciton interaction in circular dichroism spectra of dimeric tetraarylporphyrins

Chiral bis-porphyrins are currently the subject of intense interest as chiral receptors and as probes in the determination of structure and stereochemistry. To provide an improved framework for interpreting the circular dichroism (CD) spectra of bis-porphyrins, we have calculated the CD spectra of chiral bis-porphyrins from three classes: I, where porphyrins can adopt a relatively wide range of orientations relative to each other; II, porphyrins have a fixed relative orientation; III, porphyrins undergo pi-stacking. The calculations primarily utilized the classical polarizability theory of DeVoe, but were supplemented by the quantum mechanical matrix method. Class I was represented by three isomers of the diester of 5alpha-cholestane-3,17-diol with 5-(4'-carboxyphenyl)-10,15,20-triphenylporphin (2-alphabeta, 2-betaalpha, 2-betabeta). Careful analysis of the torsional degrees of freedom led to two to four minimum-energy conformers for each isomer, in each of which the phenyl-porphyrin bonds had torsional angles near 90 degrees. Libration about these bonds is relatively unrestricted over a range of +/-45 degrees. CD spectra in the Soret region were calculated as Boltzmann-weighted averages over the low-energy conformers for each isomer. Three models were used: the effective transition moment model, in which only one of the degenerate Soret components is considered, along the 5-15 direction; the circular oscillator model, in which both Soret components are given equal weight; and the hybrid model, in which the 10-20 oscillator is given half the weight of the 5-15 oscillator, to mimic the effect of extensive librational averaging about the 5-15 direction. All three models predict Soret exciton couplets with signs in agreement with experiment. Quantitatively, the best results are given by the hybrid and circular oscillator models. These results validate the widely used effective transition moment model for qualitative assignments of bis-porphyrin chirality and thus permit application of the exciton chirality model. However, for quantitative studies, the circular oscillator or hybrid models should be used. The simplified effective transition moment and hybrid models are justified by the librational averaging in the class I bis-porphyrins and should only be used with such systems. Two class II bis-porphyrins were also studied by DeVoe method calculations in the circular oscillator model, which yielded good agreement with experiment. Class III bis-porphyrins were represented by 2-alphaalpha, for which the calculations gave qualitative agreement. However, limitations in the conformational analysis with the close contacts and dynamic effects in these pi-stacked systems preclude quantitative results.     

Search for the ρρ enhancement near 1700 MeV/c in the reaction at 8.3 GeV/c

Results are presented from a search for a ρ⁰ρ⁰ enhancement in antiproton annihilations. A ρ⁰ρ⁰ resonance was recently observed in radiative ψ decays, and its existence has been supported by the results of an antiproton experiment at 5.7 GeV/c. No indication of this ρ⁰ρ⁰ enhancement is seen is our data, in direct contradiction with the earlier, lower statistics experiment.     

Hadronization of excited nucleons in nuclear collisions at ISR energies

Calorimeters downstream of the intersection of pα and αα beams in the ISR have been used to study the hadronization of excited nucleons. These data extend and support the conclusions from previous studies of the A-dependence of particle multiplicities in ultrarelativistic p-nucleus collisions, which provided evidence that the proton hadronizes outside the nuclear volume.     

Qualitative behavior of special functions on compact symmetric spaces

For a symmetric space $\text{G}\text{K}$ of compact type, the highest-weight vectors for representations of G occurring in $\text{L}{}^2\text{(G}\text{K)}$ become heavily concentrated near certain submanifolds of $\text{G}\text{K}$ as the highest weight goes to infinity. This fact is applied to obtain estimates for the spectral measures of the operators qλ = P_λqP_λ, where $\text{P}{}_{\mathrm{\lambda }}\text{: L}{}^2\text{(}\text{G}\text{K}\text{) → V}{}_{\mathrm{\lambda }}$ is an orthogonal projection onto a G-irreducible summand, and q: G/K → $\text{R}$ is a continuous function acting on $\text{L}{}^2\text{(G}\text{K)}$ by multiplication.     

The (p, 2p) reaction on 2H, 3He and 4He

The (p, 2p) cross sections on ²H, ³He and ⁴He were measured at 65, 85 and 100 MeV. The experimental data show rather strong energy and target mass dependence, particularly for ⁴He.     

International inter-comparison exercise on $${}^{153}\hbox {Sm}$$

Samarium-153 (\({}^{153}\hbox {Sm}\)) is a short-lived radionuclide that decays to stable europium-153 via beta emission, with subsequent de-excitation via gamma emission and internal conversion. Historical measurements of \({}^{153}\hbox {Sm}\) by gamma spectrometry and beta liquid scintillation counting have shown a low bias compared to beta proportional counting. In order to investigate this, four national laboratories jointly conducted an experimental inter-comparison exercise on a certified \({}^{153}\hbox {Sm}\) sample, created from neutron activation of samarium-152. Radiometric measurements were conducted using gamma spectrometry, liquid scintillation counting, gas proportional counting, and passivated implanted planar silicon detectors and compared across the four institutions against the certified value. The results from this experiment are presented together with a number of conclusions which suggest that the current published cumulative fission yield for \({}^{153}\hbox {Sm}\), as used by many laboratories, is approximately 15% high and is the likely cause of the previously observed bias.     

Influence of interparticle interactions on the kinetics of self-assembly and mechanical strength of nanoparticulate aggregates

Computer simulations based on Discrete Element Method have been performed in order to investigate the influence of interparticle interactions on the kinetics of self-assembly and the mechanical strength of nanoparticle aggregates.Three different systems have been considered.In the first system the interaction between particles has been simulated using the JKR (Johnson,Kendall and Roberts) contact theory,while in the second and third systems the interaction between particles has been simulated using van der Waals and electrostatic forces respectively.In order to compare the mechanical behaviour of the three systems,the magnitude of the maximum attractive force between particles has been kept the same in all cases.However,the relationship between force and separation distance differs from case to case and thus,the range of the interparticle force.The results clearly indicate that as the range of the interparticle force increases,the self-assembly process is faster and the work required to produce the mechanical failure of the assemblies increases by more than one order of magnitude.