Hydrolysis of triasulfuron, metsulfuron-methyl and chlorsulfuron in alkaline soil and aqueous solutions

The hydrolysis of triasulfuron, metsulfuron-methyl and chlorsulfuron in aqueous buffer solutions and in soil suspensions at pH values ranging from 5.2 to 11.2 was investigated. Hydrolysis of all three compounds in both aqueous buffer and soil suspensions was highly pH-sensitive. The rate of hydrolysis was much faster in the acidic pH range (5.2-6.2) than under neutral and moderately alkaline conditions (8.2-9.4), but it increased rapidly as the pH exceeded 10.2. All three compounds degraded faster at pH 5.2 than at pH 11.2. Hydrolysis rates of all three compounds could be described well with pseudo-first-order kinetics. There were no significant differences (P =0.05) in the rate constants (k, day-1) of the three compounds in soil suspensions from those in buffer solutions within the pH ranges studied. A functional relationship based on the propensity of nonionic and anionic species of the herbicides to hydrolyse was used to describe the dependence of the 'rate constant' on pH. The hydrolysis involving attack by neutral water was at least 100-fold faster when the sulfonylurea herbicides were undissociated (acidic conditions) than when they were present as the anion at near neutral pH. In aqueous buffer solution at pH > 11, a prominent degradation pathway involved O-demethylation of metsulfuron-methyl to yield a highly polar degradate, and hydrolytic opening of the triazine ring. It is concluded that these herbicides are not likely to degrade substantially through hydrolysis in most agricultural (C) 2000 Society of Chemical Industry.

Non-linear principal components analysis : an alternative method for finding patterns in environmental data

The main purpose of this article is to gain an insight into the relationships between variables describing the environmental conditions of the Far Northern section of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Several of the variables describing these conditions had different measurement levels and often they had non-linear relationships. Using non-linear principal component analysis, it was possible to acquire an insight into these relationships. Furthermore, three geographical areas with unique environmental characteristics could be identified.

Entrepreneurship education in non-business schools : best practice for Australian contexts of knowledge and innovation communities (Final Report)

In the current era of global economic instability, business and industry have already identified a widening gap between graduate skills and employability. An important element of this is the lack of entrepreneurial skills in graduates. This Teaching Fellowship investigated two sides of a story about entrepreneurial skills and their teaching. Senior players in the innovation commercialisation industry, a high profile entrepreneurial sector, were surveyed to gauge their needs and experiences of graduates they employ. International contexts of entrepreneurship education were investigated to explore how their teaching programs impart the skills of entrepreneurship. Such knowledge is an essential for the design of education programs that can deliver the entrepreneurial skills deemed important by industry for future sustainability. Two programs of entrepreneurship education are being implemented at QUT that draw on the best practice exemplars investigated during this Fellowship. The QUT Innovation Space (QIS) focuses on capturing the innovation and creativity of students, staff and others. The QIS is a physical and virtual meeting and networking space; a connected community enhancing the engagement of participants. The Q_Hatchery is still embryonic; but it is intended to be an innovation community that brings together nascent entrepreneurial businesses to collaborate, train and support each other. There is a niche between concept product and business incubator where an experiential learning environment for otherwise isolated ‘garage-at-home’ businesses could improve success rates. The QIS and the Q_Hatchery serve as living research laboratories to trial the concepts emerging from the skills survey. The survey of skills requirements of the innovation commercialisation industry has produced a large and high quality data set still being explored. Work experience as an employability factor has already emerged as an industry requirement that provides employee maturity. Exploratory factor analysis of the skills topics surveyed has led to a process-based conceptual model for teaching and learning higher-order entrepreneurial skills. Two foundational skills domains (Knowledge, Awareness) are proposed as prerequisites which allow individuals with a suite of early stage entrepreneurial and behavioural skills (Pre-leadership) to further leverage their careers into a leadership role in industry with development of skills around higher order elements of entrepreneurship, management in new business ventures and progressing winning technologies to market. The next stage of the analysis is to test the proposed model through structured equation modelling. Another factor that emerged quickly from the survey analysis broadens the generic concept of team skills currently voiced in Australian policy documents discussing the employability agenda. While there was recognition of the role of sharing, creating and using knowledge in a team-based interdisciplinary context, the adoption and adaptation of behaviours and attitudes of other team members of different disciplinary backgrounds (interprofessionalism) featured as an issue. Most undergraduates are taught and undertake teamwork in silos and, thus, seldom experience a true real-world interdisciplinary environment. Enhancing the entrepreneurial capacity of Australian industry is essential for the economic health of the country and can only be achieved by addressing the lack of entrepreneurial skills in graduates from the higher education system. This Fellowship has attempted to address this deficiency by identifying the skills requirements and providing frameworks for their teaching.

Removal of methyl orange from aqueous solutions through adsorption by calcium aluminate hydrates

Methyl orange (MO) is a kind of anionic dye and widely used in industry. In this study, tricalcium aluminate hydrates (Ca-Al-LDHs) are used as an adsorbent to remove methyl orange (MO) from aqueous solutions. The resulting products were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (MIR), thermal analysis (TG-DTA) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The XRD results indicated that the MO molecules were successfully intercalated into the tricalcium aluminate hydrates, with the basal spacing of Ca-Al-LDH expanding to 2.48 nm. The MIR spectrum for CaAl-MO-LDH shows obvious bands assigned to the N@N, N@H stretching vibrations and S@O, SO_ 3 group respectively, which are considered as marks to assess MO_ ion intercalation into the interlayers of LDH. The overall morphology of CaAl-MOLDH displayed a ‘‘honey-comb’’ like structure, with the adjacent layers expanded.

Satisfaction with emergency department service among non-English-speaking background patients

Objective: The present study aims to investigate non-English-speaking background (NESB) patients’ satisfaction with hospital ED service and compare it with that of English-speaking background (ESB) patients. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at the ED of an adult tertiary referral hospital in Queensland, Australia. Patients assigned an Australasian Triage Scale score of 3, 4 or 5 were surveyed in the ED, before and after their ED service. Pearson χ2- test and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the differences between the ESB and NESB groups in terms of patient-reported satisfaction. Results: In total, 828 patients participated in the present study. Although the overall satisfaction with the service was high – 95.1% (ESB) and 90.5% (NESB) – the NESB patients who did not use an interpreter were less satisfied with their ED service than the ESB patients (odds ratio 0.5, 95% confidence interval 0.3–0.8, P = 0.013). The promptness of service received the lowest satisfaction rates (ESB 85.4% [82.4–88.0], NESB 74.5% [68.5– 79.7], P < 0.001), whereas courtesy and friendliness received the highest satisfaction rates (ESB 98.8 [97.6–99.4], NESB 97.0 [93.9–98.5], P = 0.063). All participants reported the promptness of service (33.5%), quality and professional care (18.5%) and communication (17.6%) as the most important elements of ED service. Conclusion: The NESB patients were significantly less satisfied than the ESB patients with the ED service. Use of an interpreter improved the NESB patients’ level of satisfaction. Further research is required to examine what NESB patients’ expectations of ED service are.

Party to litigation insolvent company - costs order against non-party liquidator

In Kimtran Pty Ltd v Downie [2003] QDC 043 the court allowed in part an appeal from the refusal by the Queensland Building Tribunal to order the respondent liquidators pay the appellants' costs of proceedings in the Tribunal. The decision involved an examination of authorities which have considered the circumstances in which it is in the interests of justice to make an order for costs against a non-party.

Security analysis of the non-aggressive challenge response of the DNP3 Protocol using a CPN Model

Distributed Network Protocol Version 3 (DNP3) is the de-facto communication protocol for power grids. Standard-based interoperability among devices has made the protocol useful to other infrastructures such as water, sewage, oil and gas. DNP3 is designed to facilitate interaction between master stations and outstations. In this paper, we apply a formal modelling methodology called Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) to create an executable model representation of DNP3 protocol. The model facilitates the analysis of the protocol to ensure that the protocol will behave as expected. Also, we illustrate how to verify and validate the behaviour of the protocol, using the CPN model and the corresponding state space tool to determine if there are insecure states. With this approach, we were able to identify a Denial of Service (DoS) attack against the DNP3 protocol.

Irradiation, cisplatin, and 5-azacytidine upregulate cytomegalovirus promoter in tumors and muscles: Implementation of non-invasive fluorescence imaging

Purpose: The cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter is one of the most commonly used promoters for expression of transgenes in mammalian cells. The aim of our study was to evaluate the role of methylation and upregulation of the CMV promoter by irradiation and the chemotherapeutic agent cisplatin in vivo using non-invasive fluorescence in vivo imaging. Procedures: Murine fibrosarcoma LPB and mammary carcinoma TS/A cells were stably transfected with plasmids encoding CMV and p21 promoter-driven green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene. Solid TS/A tumors were induced by subcutaneous injection of fluorescent tumor cells, while leg muscles were transiently transfected with plasmid encoding GFP under the control of the CMV promoter. Cells, tumors, and legs were treated either by DNA methylation inhibitor 5-azacytidine, irradiation, or cisplatin. GFP expression was determined using a fluorescence microplate reader in vitro and by non-invasive fluorescence imaging in vivo. Results: Treatment of cells, tumors, and legs with 5-azacytidine (re)activated the CMV promoter. Furthermore, treatment with irradiation or cisplatin resulted in significant upregulation of GFP expression both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions: Observed alterations in the activity of the CMV promoter limit the usefulness of this widely used promoter as a constitutive promoter. On the other hand, inducibility of CMV promoters can be beneficially used in gene therapy when combined with standard cancer treatment, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy. © 2010 The Author(s).

Crystalline Si nanoparticles below crystallization threshold : effects of collisional heating in non-thermal atmospheric-pressure microplasmas

Nucleation and growth of highly crystalline silicon nanoparticles in atmospheric-pressure low-temperature microplasmas at gas temperatures well below the Si crystallization threshold and within a short (100 μs) period of time are demonstrated and explained. The modeling reveals that collision-enhanced ion fluxes can effectively increase the heat flux on the nanoparticle surface and this heating is controlled by the ion density. It is shown that nanoparticles can be heated to temperatures above the crystallization threshold. These combined experimental and theoretical results confirm the effective heating and structure control of Si nanoparticles at atmospheric pressure and low gas temperatures.

Lanthanum oxide nanostructured films synthesized using hot dense and extremely non-equilibrium plasma for nanoelectronic device applications

Lanthanum oxide (La2O3) nanostructured films are synthesized on a p-type silicon wafer by ablation of La2O3 pellet due to interaction with hot dense argon plasmas in a modified dense plasma focus (DPF) device. The nanostructured films are investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra. SEM study shows the formation of nano-films having nano-size structures with the average nanostructures size ~25, ~53, and ~45 nm for one, two, and three DPF shots, respectively. The nanostructures sizes and morphology of nano-films are consistent between the AFM and SEM analyses. XRD spectra confirms nano-sized La2O3 with an average grain size ~34, ~51, and ~42 nm for one, two, and three DPF shots, respectively. The electrical properties such as current-voltage and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of the Al-La2O3-Si metal-oxide- semiconductor (MOS) capacitor structure are measured. The current conduction mechanism of the MOS capacitors is also demonstrated. The C-V characteristics are further used to obtain the electrical parameters such as the dielectric constant, oxide thickness, flat-band capacitance, and flat-band voltage of the MOS capacitors. These measurements demonstrate significantly lower leakage currents without any commonly used annealing or doping, thereby revealing a significant improvement of the MOS nanoelectronic device performance due to the incorporation of the DPF-produced La2O3 nano-films.

Plasma-enabled, catalyst-free growth of carbon nanotubes on mechanically-written Si features with arbitrary shape

Simple, rapid, catalyst-free synthesis of complex patterns of long, vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes, strictly confined within mechanically-written features on a Si(1 0 0) surface is reported. It is shown that dense arrays of the nanotubes can nucleate and fully fill the features when the low-temperature microwave plasma is in a direct contact with the surface. This eliminates additional nanofabrication steps and inevitable contact losses in applications associated with carbon nanotube patterns. Using metal catalyst has long been considered essential for the nucleation and growth of surface-supported carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [1] and [2]. Only very recently, the possibility of CNT growth using non-metallic (e.g., oxide [3] and SiC [4]) catalysts or artificially created carbon-enriched surface layers [5] has been demonstrated. However, successful integration of carbon nanostructures into Si-based nanodevice platforms requires catalyst-free growth, as the catalyst nanoparticles introduce contact losses, and their catalytic activity is very difficult to control during the growth [6]. Furthermore, in many applications in microfluidics, biological and molecular filters, electronic, sensor, and energy conversion nanodevices, the CNTs need to be arranged in specific complex patterns [7] and [8]. These patterns need to contain the basic features (e.g., lines and dots) written using simple procedures and fully filled with dense arrays of high-quality, straight, yet separated nanotubes. In this paper, we report on a completely metal or oxide catalyst-free plasma-based approach for the direct and rapid growth of dense arrays of long vertically-aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes arranged into complex patterns made of various combinations of basic features on a Si(1 0 0) surface written using simple mechanical techniques. The process was conducted in a plasma environment [9] and [10] produced by a microwave discharge which typically generates the low-temperature plasmas at the discharge power below 1 kW [11]. Our process starts from mechanical writing (scribing) a pattern of arbitrary features on pre-treated Si(1 0 0) wafers. Before and after the mechanical feature writing, the Si(1 0 0) substrates were cleaned in an aqueous solution of hydrofluoric acid for 2 min to remove any possible contaminations (such as oil traces which could decompose to free carbon at elevated temperatures) from the substrate surface. A piece of another silicon wafer cleaned in the same way as the substrate, or a diamond scriber were used to produce the growth patterns by a simple arbitrary mechanical writing, i.e., by making linear scratches or dot punctures on the Si wafer surface. The results were the same in both cases, i.e., when scratching the surface by Si or a diamond scriber. The procedure for preparation of the substrates did not involve any possibility of external metallic contaminations on the substrate surface. After the preparation, the substrates were loaded into an ASTeX model 5200 chemical vapour deposition (CVD) reactor, which was very carefully conditioned to remove any residue contamination. The samples were heated to at least 800 °C to remove any oxide that could have formed during the sample loading [12]. After loading the substrates into the reactor chamber, N2 gas was supplied into the chamber at the pressure of 7 Torr to ignite and sustain the discharge at the total power of 200 W. Then, a mixture of CH4 and 60% of N2 gases were supplied at 20 Torr, and the discharge power was increased to 700 W (power density of approximately 1.49 W/cm3). During the process, the microwave plasma was in a direct contact with the substrate. During the plasma exposure, no external heating source was used, and the substrate temperature (∼850 °C) was maintained merely due to the plasma heating. The features were exposed to a microwave plasma for 3–5 min. A photograph of the reactor and the plasma discharge is shown in Fig. 1a and b.

Non-square-well potential profile and suppression of blinking in compositionally graded Cd1−xZnxSe/CdxZn1−xSe nanocrystals

Random blinking is a major problem on the way to successful applications of semiconducting nanocrystals in optoelectronics and photonics, which until recently had neither a practical solution nor a theoretical interpretation. An experimental breakthrough has recently been made by fabricating non-blinking Cd1-xZnxSe/ZnSe graded nanocrystals [Wang et al., Nature, 2009, 459, 686]. Here, we (1) report an unequivocal and detailed theoretical investigation to understand the properties (e.g., profile) of the potential-well and the distribution of Zn content with respect to the nanocrystal radius and (2) develop a strategy to find the relationship between the photoluminescence (PL) energy peaks and the potential-well due to Zn distribution in nanocrystals. It is demonstrated that the non-square-well potential can be varied in such a way that one can indeed control the PL intensity and the energy-level difference (PL energy peaks) accurately. This implies that one can either suppress the blinking altogether, or alternatively, manipulate the PL energy peaks and intensities systematically to achieve a controlled non-random intermittent luminescence. The approach developed here is based on the ionization energy approximation and as such is generic and can be applied to any non-free-electron nanocrystals.

Si quantum dots embedded in an amorphous SiC matrix : nanophase control by non-equilibrium plasma hydrogenation

Nanophase nc-Si/a-SiC films that contain Si quantum dots (QDs) embedded in an amorphous SiC matrix were deposited on single-crystal silicon substrates using inductively coupled plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition from the reactive silane and methane precursor gases diluted with hydrogen at a substrate temperature of 200 °C. The effect of the hydrogen dilution ratio X (X is defined as the flow rate ratio of hydrogen-to-silane plus methane gases), ranging from 0 to 10.0, on the morphological, structural, and compositional properties of the deposited films, is extensively and systematically studied by scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared absorption spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Effective nanophase segregation at a low hydrogen dilution ratio of 4.0 leads to the formation of highly uniform Si QDs embedded in the amorphous SiC matrix. It is also shown that with the increase of X, the crystallinity degree and the crystallite size increase while the carbon content and the growth rate decrease. The obtained experimental results are explained in terms of the effect of hydrogen dilution on the nucleation and growth processes of the Si QDs in the high-density plasmas. These results are highly relevant to the development of next-generation photovoltaic solar cells, light-emitting diodes, thin-film transistors, and other applications.

Extremely non-equilibrium synthesis of luminescent zinc oxide nanoparticles through energetic ion condensation in a dense plasma focus device

Luminescent ZnO nanoparticles have been synthesized on silicon and quartz substrates under extremely non-equilibrium conditions of energetic ion condensation during the post-focus phase in a dense plasma focus (DPF) device. Ar+, O+, Zn+ and ZnO+ ions are generated as a result of interaction of hot and dense argon plasma focus with the surfaces of ZnO pellets placed at the anode. It is found that the sizes, structural and photoluminescence (PL) properties of the ZnO nanoparticles appear to be quite different on Si(1 0 0) and quartz substrates. The results of x-ray diffractometry and atomic force microscopy show that the ZnO nanoparticles are crystalline and range in size from 5-7 nm on Si(1 0 0) substrates to 10-38 nm on quartz substrates. Room-temperature PL studies reveal strong peaks related to excitonic bands and defects for the ZnO nanoparticles deposited on Si (1 0 0), whereas the excitonic bands are not excited in the quartz substrate case. Raman studies indicate the presence of E2 (high) mode for ZnO nanoparticles deposited on Si(1 0 0).

Rapid, low-temperature synthesis of nc-Si in high-density, non-equilibrium plasmas : enabling nanocrystallinity at very low hydrogen dilution

Nanocrystalline silicon thin films were deposited on single-crystal silicon and glass substrates simultaneously by inductively coupled plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition from the reactive silane reactant gas diluted with hydrogen at a substrate temperature of 200 °C. The effect of hydrogen dilution ratio X (X is defined as the flow rate ratio of hydrogen to silane gas), ranging from 1 to 20, on the structural and optical properties of the deposited films, is extensively investigated by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy, UV/VIS spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Our experimental results reveal that, with the increase of the hydrogen dilution ratio X, the deposition rate Rd and hydrogen content CH are reduced while the crystalline fraction Fc, mean grain size δ and optical bandgap ETauc are increased. In comparison with other plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition methods of nanocrystalline silicon films where a very high hydrogen dilution ratio X is routinely required (e.g. X > 16), we have achieved nanocrystalline silicon films at a very low hydrogen dilution ratio of 1, featuring a high deposition rate of 1.57 nm/s, a high crystalline fraction of 67.1%, a very low hydrogen content of 4.4 at.%, an optical bandgap of 1.89 eV, and an almost vertically aligned columnar structure with a mean grain size of approximately 19 nm. We have also shown that a sufficient amount of atomic hydrogen on the growth surface essential for the formation of nanocrystalline silicon is obtained through highly-effective dissociation of silane and hydrogen molecules in the high-density inductively coupled plasmas. © 2009 The Royal Society of Chemistry.