Measurement of 5-day biochemical oxygen demand without sample dilution or bacterial and nutrient enhancement

A direct method for measuring the 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BODS) of aquaculture samples that does not require sample dilution or bacterial and nutrient enrichment was evaluated. The regression coefficient (R-2) between the direct method and the standard method for the analyses of 32 samples from catfish ponds was 0.996. The slope of the regression line did not differ from 1.0 or the Y-intercept from 0.0 at P = 0.05. Thus, there was almost perfect agreement between the two methods. The control limits (three standard deviations of the mean) for a standard solution containing 15 mg/L each of glutamic acid and glucose were 17.4 and 20.4 mg/L. The precision of the two methods, based on eight replicate analyses of four pond water samples did not differ at P = 0.05. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Reactive oxygen species and antioxidant enzymes activity of Anabaena sp PCC 7120 (Cyanobacterium) under simulated microgravity

It was found that reactive oxygen species in Anabaena cells increased under simulated microgravity provided by clinostat. Activities of intracellular antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase, catalase were higher than those in the controlled samples during the 7 days' experiment. However, the contents of gluathione, an intracellular antioxidant, decreased in comparison with the controlled samples. The results suggested that microgravity provided by clinostat might break the oxidative/antioxidative balance. It indicated a protective mechanism in algal cells, that the total antioxidant system activity increased, which might play an important role for algal cells to adapt the environmental stress of microgravity. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Determination of some reactive oxygen species scavengers based on the peroxidase-oxidase oscillator

This paper reports a new method for detection of ROS scavengers including superoxide dismutase, ascorbic acid and glutathione based on a 'probe' of peroxidase-oxidase biochemical oscillator. The oscillation period and amplitude change with different concentrations of scavengers. The linear ranges of superoxide dismutase, ascorbic acid and glutathione are respectively 1.56 x 10(-4)-1.56 x 10(-3) mg mL(-1), 1.75 x 10(-7) -1.75 x 10(-5) mol L-1 and 9.38 x 10(-7) -7.5 x 10(-5) mol L-1. The selectivity, linearity and precision for superoxide dismutase, ascorbic acid, and glutathione are presented and discussed. The results compared well with other standard methods for determination of superoxide dismutase, ascorbic acid and glutathione. Some possible steps in the overall reaction mechanisms are discussed.

Codoping of magnesium with oxygen in gallium nitride nanowires

Codoping of p-type GaN nanowires with Mg and oxygen was investigated using first-principles calculations. The Mg becomes a deep acceptor in GaN nanowires with high ionization energy due to the quantum confinement. The ionization energy of Mg doped GaN nanowires containing passivated Mg-O complex decreases with increasing the diameter, and reduces to 300 meV as the diameter of the GaN nanowire is larger than 2.01 nm, which indicates that Mg-O codoping is suitable for achieving p-type GaN nanowires with larger diameters. The codoping method to reduce the ionization energy can be effectively used in other semiconductor nanostructures. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics.

Origin of insulating behavior of the p-type LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface: Polarization-induced asymmetric distribution of oxygen vacancies

It is revealed from first-principles calculations that polarization-induced asymmetric distribution of oxygen vacancies plays an important role in the insulating behavior at p-type LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface. The formation energy of the oxygen vacancy (V-O) is much smaller than that at the surface of the LaAlO3 overlayer, causing all the carriers to be compensated by the spontaneously formed V-O's at the interface. In contrast, at an n-type interface, the formation energy of V-O is much higher than that at the surface, and the V-O's formed at the surface enhance the carrier density at the interface. This explains the puzzling behavior of why the p-type interface is always insulating but the n-type interface can be conducting.

Oxygen pressure dependences of structure and properties of ZnO films deposited on amorphous glass substrates by pulsed laser deposition

ZnO films are prepared on glass substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at different oxygen pressures, and the effects of oxygen pressure on the structure and optoelectrical properties of as-grown ZnO films are investigated. The results show that the crystallite size and surface roughness of the films increase, but the carrier concentration and optical energy gap E-g decrease with increasing oxygen pressure. Only UV emission is found in the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of all the samples, and its intensity increases with oxygen pressure. Furthermore, there are marked differences in structure and properties between the films grown at low oxygen pressures (0.003 and 0.2 Pa) and the films grown at high oxygen pressures (24 and 150 Pa), which is confirmed by the fact that the crystallite size and UV emission intensity markedly increase, but the carrier concentration markedly decreases as oxygen pressure increases from 0.2 to 24 Pa. These results show that the crystal quality, including the microstructural quality and stoichiometry proportion, of the prepared ZnO films improves as oxygen pressure increases, particularly from 0.2 to 24 Pa.

Formation of total-dose-radiation hardened materials by sequential oxygen and nitrogen implantation and multi-step annealing

Separation by implantation of oxygen and nitrogen (SIMON) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) materials were fabricated by sequential oxygen and nitrogen implantation with annealing after each implantation. Analyses of SIMS, XTEM and HRTEM were performed. The results show that superior buried insulating multi-layers were well formed and the possible mechanism is discussed. The remarkable total-dose irradiation tolerance of SIMON materials was confirmed by few shifts of drain leakage current-gate source voltage (I-V) curves of PMOS transistors fabricated on SIMON materials before and after irradiation.

Effect of the oxygen concentration on the properties of Gd2O3 thin films

Gd2O3 thin films were deposited on Si (100) substrates at 650degreesC by a magnetron sputtering system under different Ar/O-2 ratios of 6:1, 4:1 and 2:1. The effect of the oxygen concentration on the properties of oxide thin films was investigated by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and capacitance-voltage (C-V)measurement. X-ray diffraction shows that the structure of oxide films changed from the monoclinic Gd2O3 phase to cubic Gd2O3 phase when the oxygen concentration increased. According to C-V measurement, the dielectric constant value of the samples deposited at different Ar/O-2 ratios is about 12. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Radiation hardness improvement of separation-by-implantation-of-oxygen/silicon-on-insulator material by nitrogen ion implantation

In our work, nitrogen ions were implanted into separation-by-implantation-of-oxygen (SIMOX) wafers to improve the radiation hardness of the SIMOX material. The experiments of secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis showed that some nitrogen ions were distributed in the buried oxide layers and some others were collected at the Si/SiO2 interface after annealing. The results of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) suggested the density of the defects in the nitrided samples changed with different nitrogen ion implantation energies. Semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor (SIS) capacitors were made on the materials, and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements were carried out to confirm the results. The super total dose radiation tolerance of the materials was verified by the small increase of the drain leakage current of the metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor with n-channel (NMOSFETs) fabricated on the materials before and after total dose irradiation. The optimum implantation energy was also determined.

Structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films on glass substrate grown by laser-ablating Zn target in oxygen atmosphere

C-axis-orientated ZnO thin films were prepared on glass substrates by pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) technique in an oxygen-reactive atmosphere, using a metallic Zn target. The effects of growth condition such as laser energy and substrate temperature on the structural and optical properties of ZnO films had been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission spectra and room-temperature (RT) photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The results showed that the thickness, crystallite size, and compactness of ZnO films increased with the laser energy and substrate temperature. Both the absorption edges and the UV emission peaks of the films exhibited redshift, and UV emission intensity gradually increased as the laser energy and substrate temperature increased. From these results, it was concluded that crystalline quality of ZnO films was improved with increasing laser energy and substrate temperature. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.N. All rights reserved.

Investigation of oxygen vacancy and interstitial oxygen defects in ZnO films by photoluminescence and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

ZnO films prepared at different temperatures and annealed at 900 degrees C in oxygen are studied by photoluminescence (PL) and x-ray photoelection spectroscopy (XPS). It is observed that in the PL of the as-grown films the green luminescence (GL) and the yellow luminescence (YL) are related, and after annealing the GL is restrained and the YL is enhanced. The O 1s XPS results also show the coexistence of oxygen vacancy (Vo) and interstitial oxygen (O-i) before annealing and the quenching of the V-o after annealing. By combining the two results it is deduced that the GL and YL are related to the V-o and O-i defects, respectively.

Dependence of intrinsic defects in ZnO films on oxygen fraction studied by positron annihilation

Defects in ZnO films grown by radio-frequency reactive magnetron sputtering under variable ratios between oxygen and argon gas have been investigated by using the monoenergetic positron beam technique. The dominate intrinsic defects in these ZnO samples are O vacancies (V-O) and Zn interstitials (Zn-i) when the oxygen fraction in the O-2/Ar feed gas does not exceed 70% in the processing chamber. On the other hand, zinc vacancies are preponderant in the ZnO Elms fabricated in richer oxygen environment. The concentration of zinc vacancies increases with the increasing (2) fraction. For the oxygen fraction 85%, the number of zinc vacancies that could trap positrons will be smaller. It is speculated that some unknown defects could shield zinc vacancies. The concentration of zinc vacancies in the ZnO films varies with the oxygen fraction in the growth chamber, which is in agreement with the results of photoluminescence spectra.

Effects and numerical analysis of argon gas flow on the oxygen concentration in Czochralski silicon single crystal growth

Argon gas, as a protective environment and carrier of latent heat, has an important effect on the temperature distribution in crystals and melts. Numeric simulation is a potent tool for solving engineering problems. In this paper, the relationship between argon gas flow and oxygen concentration in silicon crystals was studied systematically. A flowing stream of argon gas is described by numeric simulation for the first time. Therefore, the results of experiments can be explained, and the optimum argon flow with the lowest oxygen concentration can be achieved. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Raman-forbidden mode and oxygen ordering in Bi2Sr2-xLaxCuO6+gamma single crystals annealed in oxygen

A Raman-forbidden phonon mode at about 840 cm(-1) is observed popularly on the surface of pun and La-doped Bi2Sr2-xLaxCuO6+y (0 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 0.8) single crystals annealed in oxygen. A remarkable excitation dependence of this additional line is found. Based on the properties of the structure of the Bi-O layer with excess oxygen atoms and the similarity in the appearance of the Raman-forbidden modes between RBa2Cu3Ox (R = Y, Nd, Gd, Pr) and Bi2Sr2-xLaxCuO6+y systems, we attribute the manifestation of this additional line to the ordering of the interstitial oxygen in the Bi-O layers. Our results provide Raman evidences for confirming that the ordering of the movable oxygen may exist universally in high-temperature superconductors.

Neutron irradiation-infrared based measurement method for interstitial oxygen in heavily boron-doped silicon

A novel method, based on an infrared absorption and neutron irradiation technique, has been developed for the determination of interstitial oxygen in heavily boron-doped silicon. The new procedure utilizes fast neutron irradiated silicon wafer specimens. On fast neutron irradiation, the free carriers of high concentration in silicon can be trapped by the irradiated defects and the resistivity increased. The resulting calibration curve for the measurement of interstitial oxygen in boron-doped silicon has been established on the basis of the annealing behaviour of irradiated boron-doped CZ silicon.