Gas entrainment inception at the border of a flow-swollen liquid surface

A rapid liquid flow into a tank may impinge on the free surface, making it swell partially. The returning flow branches off from the free surface and re-submerges at the border of the swollen surface. If the flow velocity along the swollen surface is high enough, gas bubbles are formed at the border and entrained by the liquid flow. The conditions necessary for gas entrainment in a simple system are examined experimentally, using water and air as working fluids. The effect of surface tension is examined by adding a surface active agent to the water. The results show that gas entrainment inception is determined by the flow pattern in the system and the product of the Froude and Weber numbers based on the local velocity at the bubble formation point.     

Photoluminescence of Rare-Earth-Doped Ca-α-SiAlON Phosphors: Composition and Concentration Dependence

Rare-earth-doped Ca-α-SiAlON phosphors, with the compositions of (Ca_{1−3/2 x} RE _x ) _{m /2}Si_{12− m − n} Al _m+n O _n N_{16− n} (RE=Ce, Sm, and Dy, 0.5≤ m =2 n ≤3.0), were prepared by sintering at 1700°C for 2 h under 10 atm N₂. The concentration of rare earths varied from 3 to 30 at.% with respect to Ca. The photoluminescence (PL) properties were investigated as functions of the composition of the host matrix (i.e., m ) and the concentration of rare earths (i.e., x ). The results show that the emission properties can be optimized by tailoring m and x . The Ce³⁺ luminescence originating from the 4 f –5 d interconfigurational transitions is greatly affected by the environment surrounding the Ce³⁺ ions, which differs from the Sm³⁺ or Dy³⁺ luminescence arising from the 4 f –4 f intraconfigurational transitions. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were used to explain the composition and concentration dependence of PL properties.     

Morphology control of goethite acicular particles during aging by nitrogen bubbling and subsequent reactive aeration

Conditions for synthesizing acicular fine particles of goethite with high aspect ratio were devised by oxidizing mixed slurry comprising ferrous carbonate and hydroxide after neutralizing by alkali carbonate. By bubbling N₂ after neutralization into the slurry containing FeCO₃ and Fe(OH)₂, dissolved CO₂ is ejected. As a consequence, the relative concentration of CO₃²⁻ decreases and that of hydroxide increases. These favor the increase of the aspect ratio of the goethite particles via two factors, i.e., (1) decrease in the critical size of the nuclei and (2) suppression of growth inhibition at the tip of needle-like particles due to CO₃²⁻ adsorption. We propose a reaction scheme for the entire processing.     

Optimal periodic maintenance strategy under an intermittently used environment

In this paper, the optimal periodic replacement-like strategy with minimal repairs is considered under an intermittently used environment. Suppose that transactions or jobs with exponential service times arrive at a system according to a homogeneous Poisson process and the system is alternatively in either a busy or an idle period subject to demand for use. We derive approximately the optimal preventive maintenance schedule which minimizes the relevant expected cost criterion for the system which behaves intermittently on an M/M/1 queueing process, and compare it with the usual maintenance schedule for the continuously used system.     

Iridium‐Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Tosylamido‐Substituted Pyrazines for Constructing Chiral Tetrahydropyrazines with an Amidine Skelton

Dinuclear triply chloro‐bridged iridium(III) complexes bearing chiral diphosphine ligands catalyze the asymmetric hydrogenation of tosylamido‐substituted pyrazines to give the corresponding chiral tetrahydropyrazines with an amidine skeleton in high yield and with high enantioselectivity. Addition of N,N‐dimethylanilinium bromide enhanced the catalytic activity of the iridium complexes and also increased the enantioselectivity of the products by trapping the hydrogenated amine products with HBr from N,N‐dimethylanilinium bromide. The amidine skeleton of the products could be transformed to give chiral piperazinones and piperazines without loss of enantioselectivity.

     

Highly Stable Au Nanoparticles with Tunable Spacing and Their Potential Application in Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensors

Colloidal Au‐amplified surface plasmon resonance (SPR), like traditional SPR, is typically used to detect binding events on a thin noble metal film. The two major concerns in developing colloidal Au‐amplified SPR lie in 1) the instability, manifested as a change in morphology following immersion in organic solvents and aqueous solutions, and 2) the uncontrollable interparticle distance, determining probe spacing and inducing steric hindrance between neighboring probe molecules. This may introduce uncertainties into such detecting techniques, degrade the sensitivity, and become the barricade hampering colloidal Au‐based transducers from applications in sensing. In this paper, colloidal Au‐amplified SPR transducers are produced by using ultrathin Au/Al₂O₃ nanocomposite films via a radio frequency magnetron co‐sputtering method. Deposited Au/Al₂O₃ nanocomposite films exhibit superior stability, and average interparticle distances between Au nanoparticles with similar average sizes can be tuned by changing surface coverage. These characteristics are ascribed to the spacer function and rim confinement of dielectric Al₂O₃ and highlight their advantages for application in optimal nanoparticle‐amplified SPR, especially when the probe size is smaller than the target molecule size. This importance is demonstrated here for the binding of protein (streptavidin) targets to the probe (biotin) surface. In this case, the dielectric matrix Al₂O₃ is a main contributor, behaving as a spacer, tuning the concentration of Au nanoparticles, and manipulating the average interparticle distance, and thus guaranteeing an appropriate number of biotin molecules and expected near‐field coupling to obtain optimal sensing performance.     

Correction: patil, a. Et Al. Hub promiscuity in protein-protein interaction networks. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2010, 11, 1930-1943

[This corrects the article on p. 1930 in vol. 11, PMID: 20480050.].