Electrochemical synthesis of polyaniline nanoparticles

Polyaniline nanoparticles were prepared on a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface from dilute polyaniline acidic solution (1 mM aniline + 1 M HClO4) using a pulsed potentiostatic method. Electrochemistry, Fourier transform infrared external reflection spectroscopy (FT-IR-ERS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and tapping-mode atomic force microscopy (TMAFM) were: used to characterize the composition and structure of the polyaniline nanoparticles. FT-IR-ERS and XPS results revealed that the polyaniline was in its emeraldine form. TMAFM measurement showed that the electropolymerized polyaniline nanoparticles dispersed on the:HOPG surface with a coverage of about 10(10) cm(-2). These nanoparticles were disk-shaped having a height of 10(-30) Angstrom and an apparent diameter varying from 200 to 600 Angstrom. The particle dimensions increased with the electropolymerization charge (Q) over the interval from 5.7 to 19.3 mu C cm(-2) (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Observation of autoionization levels in uranium I

A number of Rydberg and autoionization levels of U I have been studied using three-step resonant ionization methods with three pulsed tunable dye lasers. Energy levels of uranium atom have been measured,which were located in the 49 898-50 880 cm(-1) energy interval.

Separation and determination of organogermanium compounds by ion chromatography

For nearly three decades, organogermanium compounds have become increasingly of interest owing to their extensive physiological and pharmaceutical activity. In this paper, two new high performance ion chromatographic methods for separation and determination of three kinds of organogermanium compounds beta-carboxyethylgermanium sesquioxide (I), beta-(alpha-methyl)-carboxyethylgermanium sesquioxide (II) and d-(beta-carboxyethyl)germanium hydroxide (III) were proposed. A Dionex DX-300 ion chromatograph equipped with a Dionex FED-II pulsed electrochemical detector (conductivity mode), and a Dionex AI-450 chromatography workstation was employed. The separation was achieved by using ion-exchange or ion-exclusion mechanism. The detection limits(S/N=3, expressed as germanium) for the three compounds were all below sub- mu g/mL level. The methods have been applied to the analysis of tonic oral drinks, and the average recoveries for the three compounds range from 95 - 108%. The results obtained were in agreement with those of hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HG-AFS).

LIFETIME MEASUREMENTS OF SOME TMI ODD PARITY LEVELS

Eleven new lifetimes of odd parity excited energy levels in four configurations: 4f12 5d 6s 6p, 4f12 6S2 6p, 4f13 5d 6s and 4f13 6s 7s of atomic thulium have been mesured with atomic-beam laser spectrocopy. Two pulsed dye lasers are used for stepwise excitation and the time-resolved fluorescence decay was used to determine lifetime values. The accuracy of the measurements is about 10%.

NATURAL RADIATIVE LIFETIMES OF THE EXCITED-LEVELS OF THULIUM

The radiative lifetimes of eight excited levels of thulium have been measured with the method of stepwise excitation from the 4f13(F-degrees-7/2)6s2(1S0)\7/2\ ground state to the states studied using two pulsed dye lasers. Optical transients were recorded through observing fluorescences and evaluated with regard to the decay time. The accuracy of the measured lifetime values is about 10%.

Programmed cell death in Laminaria japonica (Phaeophyta) tissues infected with alginic acid decomposing bacterium

TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) is a sensitive and valid method for detecting DNA cleavage in programmed cell death (PCD). Using this method, DNA cleavage was observed in Laminaria japonica sporophytic tissues, which were infected with alginic acid decomposing bacterium. It was found that DNA cleavage occurred 5 min after the infection, the fragments with 3'-OH groups of cleaved nuclear DNA increased with time of infection and spread from the infection site. Although no typical DNA ladder (200 bp/ 180 bp) was detected by routine agarose gel electrophoresis, the cleavage of nuclear DNA fragments of 97 similar to 48.5 kb could be detected by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). By using CaspGLOW(TM) fluorescein active caspase-3 staining method, caspase-3 activity has been detected in response to the infection of alginic acid decomposing bacterium. Our results are similar to the observations in hypersensitive response (HR) of higher plant, suggesting that the rapid cell death of L. japonica infected by alginic acid decomposing bacterium might be involved in PCD, and indicating that the occurrence of PCD is an active defense process against the pathogen's infection.

Benthic foraminifera and bottom water evolution in the middle-southern Okinawa Trough during the last 18 ka

A piston sediment core E017 from the middle-southern Okinawa Trough was investigated. A preliminary study of the deep-water evolution since 18 cal. ka BP was performed based on the quantitative census data of benthic foraminiferal fauna, together with planktonic foraminiferal oxygen and carbon isotope, AMS(14)C dating, and the previous results achieved in the southern Okinawa Trough. The result shows that the benthic fauna was dominated by Bulimina aculeata (d'Orbigny), Uvigerina peregrina (Cushman), Hispid Uvigerina and Uvigerina dirupta (Todd) during the glaciation-deglaciation before 9.2 cal. ka BP, while Epistominella exigua (Brady), Pullenia bulloides (d'Orbigny), Cibicidoides hyalina (Hofker), Sphaeroidina bulloides (d'Orbigny) and Globocassidulina subglobosa (Brady) predominated the fauna in the post-glacial period after 9.2 cal. ka BP. The benthic foraminifera accumulation rate (BFAR), paleoproductivity estimates and benthic foraminiferal assemblage conformably indicate that surface water paleoproductivity and organic matter flux during the glaciation-deglaciation were higher than those of the post-glacial period in the middle-southern Okinawa Trough, and gradually enhanced from the southern to the central Okinawa Trough during the glaciation-deglaciation, which could be caused by the discrepancy of the terrigenous nutrients supply. High abundances of E exigua, an indicator of pulsed organic matter input, after 9.2 cal. ka. BP may indicate that the intensity of seasonally riverine pulsed flux during the post-glacial period was stronger than that of the glaciation-deglaciation period, and the seasonal influx in the central trough might be stronger than in the south. The temporal distributions of the typical species indicating bottom water oxygen content and ventilation condition show that the ventilation of the bottom water during the post-glacial period is more active than the glaciation-deglaciation, which reflects that the evolution of the intermediate and deep waters of the northwestern Pacific during the last glaciation has no evident influence on the deep-water of the middle-southern Okinawa Trough. Additionally, the variations in agglutinated benthic foraminiferal abundance and other carbonate dissolution proxies indicate that carbonate dissolution gradually increased since the last 18 ka in the Okinawa Trough and rapidly enhanced at 9.2 cal. ka BP. The modern shallow carbonate lysocline could form at 3 cal. ka BP.

Flocculation and removal of the brown tide organism, Aureococcus anophagefferens (Chrysophyceae), using clays

Previous attempts to remove the brown tide organism, Aureococcus anophagefferens, through flocculation with clays have been unsuccessful, in spite of adopting concentrations and dispersal protocols that yielded excellent cell removal efficiency (RE>90%) with other species, so a study was planned to improve cell removal. Four modifications in clay preparation and dispersal were explored: 1) varying the salinity of the clay suspension; 2) mixing of the clay-cell suspension after clay addition; 3) varying of concentration of the initial clay stock; 4) pulsed loading of the clay slurry. The effect of salinity was dependent on the clay mineral type: phosphatic clay (IMC-P2) had a higher RE than kaolinite (H-DP) when seawater was used to disperse the clay, but H-DP removed cells more efficiently when suspended in distilled water prior to application. Mixing after dispersal approximately doubled RE for both clays compared to when the slurry was layered over the culture surface. Lowering the concentration of clay stock and pulsing the clay loading increased RE, regardless of mineral type. However, this increase was more apparent for clays dispersed in seawater than in distilled water. In general, application procedures that decrease the rate of self-aggregation among the clay particles and increase the collision frequency between clay particles and A. anophagefferens achieve higher cell removal efficiency. These empirical studies demonstrated that clays might be an important control option for the brown tide organism, given the proper attention to preparation, dispersal methods, environmental impacts, and the hydrodynamic properties of the system being treated. Implications for the treatment of brown tides in the field are discussed.

Studies on two coordination polymers [M(mu(4)-pz25dc)](n) (M = Cd or Zn, pz25dc=pyrazine-2,5-dicarboxylato) with three-dimensional pillared-layer three-nodal framework: Synthesis, structural characterization, strong optical non-linearities and optical limiting properties

Two isomorphous new candidates [M(mu(4)-pz25dc)](n) (M = Cd, 1; Zn, 2; pz25dc = pyrazine-2,5-dicarboxylato)for nonlinear optical (NLO) materials have been synthesized hydrothermally and characterized crystallographically as pillared-layer three-nodal frameworks with one four-connected metal nodes and two crystallographically different four-connected ligand nodes. Their optical non-linearities are measured by the Z-Scan technique with an 8 ns pulsed laser at 532 nm. These two coordination polymers both exhibit strong NLO absorptive abilities [alpha(2) = (63 +/- 6) x 10 (12) mW (1) 1, ( 46 +/- 6) x 10 (11) mW (1) 2] and effective self-focusing performance [n(2) = (67 +/- 5) x 10 (18) 1, (13 +/- 3) x 10 (18) m(2) W (1) 2] in 1.02 x 10 (4) 1 and 1.05 x 10 (4) mol dm (3) 2 DMF solution separately. The values of the limiting threshold are also measured from the optical limiting experimental data. The heavy atom effect plays important role in the enhancement of optical non-linearities and optical limiting properties. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

利用激光诱导击穿光谱对铝合金成分进行多元素同时定量分析

利用激光诱导击穿光谱定量分析了铝合金中多种元素的成分。采用Nd∶YAG脉冲激光器,在空气环境下烧蚀铝合金固体样品获得等离子体。利用多通道光栅光谱仪和CCD检测器对200～980nm波长范围的光谱进行同时检测。研究了检测时延、激光脉冲能量、元素深度分布对光谱强度的影响,考虑这些因素之后对实验参数进行了优化。在优化的实验参数下对国家标准铝合金样品中的八种元素Si,Fe,Cu,Mn,Mg,Zn,Sn及Ni进行了定标,并利用定标曲线对一种铝合金样品进行了定量分析。实验结果表明,测量结果的相对标准偏差(RSD)最大为5.89%,相对误差在-20.99%～15%范围内,说明对铝合金样品成分进行定量分析,激光诱导击穿光谱是一种有效的光谱分析工具,但是分析结果的准确度仍需要提高。

强流脉冲离子束辐照45钢表面热效应的模拟

以Fourier瞬态传热方程为基础,确定了强流脉冲离子束(HIPIB)热效应的基本传热方程,对靶材45钢进行不同能量参数的HIPIB辐照热效应的模拟计算.针对离子注入金属内部的情况,在模拟束流加载方式上分别采用体加载和面加载,比较了两种加载计算结果之间的差距.本算法的另一个改进就是在高能量辐照下,用单元死活法对蚀坑部分材料的消失进行模拟.结果表明,用单元死活法模拟单元的失效,更能符合HIPIB辐照金属表面热效应的蚀坑机制;单元死活法对靶材的升温过程没有明显影响,但对冷却阶段,可以显著提高模拟的精度.

Cluster-assistant generation of multiply charged atomic ions in nanosecond laser ionization of seeded methyl iodide beam

The photoionization of methyl iodide beam seeded in argon and helium is studied by time-of-flight mass spectrometry using a 25 ns, 532 nm Nd-YAG laser with intensities in the range of 2 x 10(10)-2 x 10(11) W/cm(2). Multiply charged ions Of Iq+ (q = 2-3) and C2+ with tens of eV kinetic energies have been observed when laser interacts with the middle part of the pulsed molecular beam, whose peak profiles are independent on the laser polarization directions. Strong evidences show that these ions are coming from the Coulomb explosion of multiply charged CH3I clusters, and laser induced inverse bremsstrahlung absorption of caged electrons plays a key role in the formation of multiply charged ions. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cluster-assisted multiple ionization of xenon and krypton by a nanosecond laser

Multicharged xenon and krypton ions with charge states up to Xe11+ and Kr11+ have been observed in laser ionization of a pulsed xenon or krypton beam by a 25 ns Nd-YAG laser with laser intensity of 10(10)-10(11) W cm(-2) at 532 nm. There is strong evidence to support that those multicharged ions come from cluster-assisted electron recolliding ionizations inside the cluster after multiphoton ionization of atoms in the cluster, the electron can gain its kinetic energy by inverse bremsstrahlung absorption from a laser field quickly.

Properties and applications of injection locking in 1.55 μm quantum-dash mode-locked semiconductor lasers

Mode-locked semiconductor lasers are compact pulsed sources with ultra-narrow pulse widths and high repetition-rates. In order to use these sources in real applications, their performance needs to be optimised in several aspects, usually by external control. We experimentally investigate the behaviour of recently-developed quantum-dash mode-locked lasers (QDMLLs) emitting at 1.55 μm under external optical injection. Single-section and two-section lasers with different repetition frequencies and active-region structures are studied. Particularly, we are interested in a regime which the laser remains mode-locked and the individual modes are simultaneously phase-locked to the external laser. Injection-locked self-mode-locked lasers demonstrate tunable microwave generation at first or second harmonic of the free-running repetition frequency with sub-MHz RF linewidth. For two-section mode-locked lasers, using dual-mode optical injection (injection of two coherent CW lines), narrowing the RF linewidth close to that of the electrical source, narrowing the optical linewidths and reduction in the time-bandwidth product is achieved. Under optimised bias conditions of the slave laser, a repetition frequency tuning ratio >2% is achieved, a record for a monolithic semiconductor mode-locked laser. In addition, we demonstrate a novel all-optical stabilisation technique for mode-locked semiconductor lasers by combination of CW optical injection and optical feedback to simultaneously improve the time-bandwidth product and timing-jitter of the laser. This scheme does not need an RF source and no optical to electrical conversion is required and thus is ideal for photonic integration. Finally, an application of injection-locked mode-locked lasers is introduced in a multichannel phase-sensitive amplifier (PSA). We show that with dual-mode injection-locking, simultaneous phase-synchronisation of two channels to local pump sources is realised through one injection-locking stage. An experimental proof of concept is demonstrated for two 10 Gbps phase-encoded (DPSK) channels showing more than 7 dB phase-sensitive gain and less than 1 dB penalty of the receiver sensitivity.

CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells control T helper cell type 1 responses to foreign antigens induced by mature dendritic cells in vivo.

Recent evidence suggests that in addition to their well known stimulatory properties, dendritic cells (DCs) may play a major role in peripheral tolerance. It is still unclear whether a distinct subtype or activation status of DC exists that promotes the differentiation of suppressor rather than effector T cells from naive precursors. In this work, we tested whether the naturally occurring CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells (Treg) may control immune responses induced by DCs in vivo. We characterized the immune response induced by adoptive transfer of antigen-pulsed mature DCs into mice depleted or not of CD25+ cells. We found that the development of major histocompatibility complex class I and II-restricted interferon gamma-producing cells was consistently enhanced in the absence of Treg. By contrast, T helper cell (Th)2 priming was down-regulated in the same conditions. This regulation was independent of interleukin 10 production by DCs. Of note, splenic DCs incubated in vitro with Toll-like receptor ligands (lipopolysaccharide or CpG) activated immune responses that remained sensitive to Treg function. Our data further show that mature DCs induced higher cytotoxic activity in CD25-depleted recipients as compared with untreated hosts. We conclude that Treg naturally exert a negative feedback mechanism on Th1-type responses induced by mature DCs in vivo.