Lattice parameter and luminescence properties of europium activated yttrium oxide

Samples of yttrium oxide doped with trivalent europium have been prepared by ceramic techniques, under different synthesis conditions; barium chloride (BaCl₂) and sodium tetraborate (Na₂B₄O₇) were tested as flux. The improvement of luminescence properties in dependence on substitution of Eu³⁺ for Y³⁺ in the host lattice, under electron and UV excitations is demonstrated. The lattice parameter as a quantitative assessment of activator incorporation degree is proposed. The obtained results are discussed with respect to the employed processing method.     

Estimation effective de la perte de positivité dans la régularisation des courants

Let (X,ω) be a compact complex Hermitian manifold, and let T?γ be a d-closed (1,1) almost positive current on X. A variant of Demailly's regularization-of-currents theorem states that T is the weak limit of a sequence of (1,1)-currents T_m with analytic singularities of coefficient 1/m, lying in the same cohomology class as T, whose Lelong numbers converge to those of T, and with a loss of positivity decaying to zero. We prove that if the (1,1)-form γ is assumed to be closed and C^∞, the regularizing currents T_m can be chosen such that $\text{T}{}_{\mathrm{m}}\text{?γ?}\text{C}\text{m}$ for a constant C>0 independent of m. To cite this article: D. Popovici, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 338 (2004).     

Novel nanocomposite membranes from cellulose acetate and clay‐silica nanowires

In this study, a new class of heterogeneous membranes based on cellulose acetate (CA) polymer and a complex filler clay‐silica nanowires (SiO₂NWs) was investigated for potential biomedical applications. SiO₂NWs were synthesized using natural clay through a facile sol–gel method and were dispersed in the polymer solution by sonication in the 1.25, 2.5, and 5% weight ratio to the CA acetate polymer. Membranes were subsequently prepared via phase inversion by precipitation of the CA polymer in water. The pristine CA membrane and SiO₂NWs based nanocomposites membranes were characterized using different characterization techniques. The presence of the SiO₂NWs in the CA membrane was found to significantly enhance the protein retention, water wettability and thermal as well as mechanical properties in comparison to the pristine CA membrane. Water flows studies at different temperatures and the retention of bovine serum albumin have been studied and the nanocomposite membranes were found to exhibit superior performances compared with the pristine CA membranes. SiO₂NWs‐CA membranes showed a much higher stability to the water temperature change during separation than CA membranes. Morphological changes clearly revealed that the composite membrane were much more compact than the pristine CA membranes. The rabbit dermal fibroblasts cell viability in cultures after 72 hr of incubation was found to be greater than 80%. These newly synthesized composite membranes exhibit a high potential to be used for various medical applications because of their non‐cytotoxic characteristics. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sol–gel preparation and structural characterization of Ba2TiSi2O8 powder

Fresnoite (Ba₂TiSi₂O₈, BTS) nano-particles were successfully synthesized at a low temperature of 900?°C by a modified Pechini sol?Cgel process with starting materials of Ba(NO₃)₂, Si(OC₂H₅)₄ and Ti(OC₃H₇)₄. The structural characterization of the precursors and derived synthesized oxide powders is done by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal analysis (TG-DTG) and electron microscopy (SEM, EDX and TEM) studies. The effect of heat-treating temperature on the crystallinity of the fresnoite was investigated. Combined the XRD data and the strong FTIR peaks assigned to Ti?CO and Si?CO vibration, indicate the formation of fresnoite phase at a temperature of 900?°C. Also the nano-crystals size distribution was studied and the main diameter of nanoparticles was about 47?nm.     

Investigation of mass attenuation coefficients of water, concrete and bakelite at different energies using the FLUKA Monte Carlo code

The mass attenuation coefficients of water, bakelite and concrete sample defined in the simulation package were obtained using the FLUKA Monte Carlo code at 59.5, 80.9, 140.5, 356.5, 661.6, 1173.2 and 1332.5 keV photon energies. The results for the mass attenuation coefficients obtained by simulation have been compared with experimental and the theoretical ones and good agreement has been observed. The results indicate that this process can be followed to determine the data on the attenuation of gamma-rays with the several energies in other materials. Also, the deposited energy by 661.6 keV photons at several thicknesses of each media was determined as being an important data for radiation shielding studies.     

Dynamics of the thermocline in the equatorial region of the Pacific ocean

This paper is devoted to the subsurface current dynamics in equatorial regions, where the hallmark of a strong stratification is a sharp interface (thermocline), separating two layers of different density, and whose depth is dependent upon the strength of the winds above the ocean's surface. We give here a few monotonicity results concerning the dynamics of the thermocline in the equatorial region. The most important one asserts that the level of the thermocline decreases as the strength of the wind at ten meters above the ocean surface, denoted |U_w|, increases. Moreover, the strength of the current at the thermocline decreases as |U_w| increases.     

Phase growth control in low temperature PLD Co: TiO2 films by pressure

This paper reports on the structural and optical properties of Co-doped TiO₂ thin films grown onto (0001)Al₂O₃ substrates by non-reactive pulsed laser deposition (PLD) using argon as buffer gas. It is shown that by keeping constant the substrate temperature at as low as 310 °C and varying only the background gas pressure between 7 Pa and 70 Pa, it is possible to grow either epitaxial rutile or pure anatase thin films, as well as films with a mixture of both polymorphs. The optical band gaps of the films are red shifted in comparison with the values usually reported for undoped TiO₂, which is consistent with n-type doping of the TiO₂ matrix. Such band gap red shift brings the absorption edge of the Co-doped TiO₂ films into the visible region, which might favour their photocatalytic activity. Furthermore, the band gap red shift depends on the films’ phase composition, increasing with the increase of the Urbach energy for increasing rutile content.     

X‐ray absorption study of the local structure at the NiO/oxide interfaces

This work reports an X‐ray absorption near‐edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy study at the Ni K‐edge in the early stages of growth of NiO on non‐ordered SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and MgO thin films substrates. Two different coverages of NiO on the substrates have been studied. The analysis of the XANES region shows that for high coverages (80 Eq‐ML) the spectra are similar to that of bulk NiO, being identical for all substrates. In contrast, for low coverages (1 Eq‐ML) the spectra differ from that of large coverages indicating that the local order around Ni is limited to the first two coordination shells. In addition, the results also suggest the formation of cross‐linking bonds Ni—O—M (M = Si, Al, Mg) at the interface.     

Existence of capillary-gravity water waves with piecewise constant vorticity

In this paper we construct small-amplitude periodic capillary-gravity water waves with a piecewise constant vorticity distribution. They describe water waves traveling on superposed linearly sheared currents that have different vorticities. This is achieved by associating to the height function formulation of the water wave problem a diffraction problem where we impose suitable transmission conditions on each line where the vorticity function has a jump. The solutions of the diffraction problem, found by using local bifurcation theory, are the desired solutions of the hydrodynamical problem.     

In-beam γ spectroscopy using DIC with a radioactive Ne beam

A study of deep-inelastic and multi-nucleon transfer reactions to populate neutron-rich O, Ne and F nuclei is here presented. The reaction under analysis employed a beam of radioactive ²⁴Ne at 7.9 AMeV, provided by the SPIRAL facility at Ganil, impingin on a ²⁰⁸Pb target. The reaction products have been detected in the VAMOS spectrometer in coincidence with gamma rays measured by the EXOGAM array. Preliminary results here presented show a selectivity in the population of states of different nature.