Correlation functions for a strongly coupled boson system and plane partitions

A quantum phase model is introduced as a limit for very strong interactions of a strongly correlated q-boson hopping model. The exact solution of the phase model is reviewed, and solutions are also provided for two correlation functions of the model. Explicit expressions, including both amplitude and scaling exponent, are derived for these correlation functions in the low temperature limit. The amplitudes were found to be related to the number of plane partitions contained in boxes of finite size.     

Enhanced photocatalytic activity of TiO2 nanofibers and their flexible composite films: Decomposition of organic dyes and efficient H2 generation from ethanol-water mixtures

TiO₂ nanofibers decorated with Pt and Pd nanoparticles have been synthesized and studied in various photocatalytic processes. Excellent photocatalytic behavior in the decomposition of organic dyes in water, degradation of organic stains on the surface of flexible freestanding cellulose/catalyst composite films and in generation of hydrogen from ethanol using both suspended and immobilized catalysts are demonstrated. The performance of the nanofiber-based TiO₂ materials is competitive with??and in some cases outperforms??their conventional nanoparticle-based counterparts. In all cases, Pd-decorated TiO₂ nanoparticles and nanofibers proved to be more efficient than their Pt-based counterparts, which could be explained on the basis of the formation of nano-sized Schottky interfaces at the contacts between TiO₂ and metal nanoparticles. The feasibility of forming cellulose/catalyst composites provides a novel way of utilizing photocatalyst materials in large-area coatings and freestanding films.      

Photostability and toxicity of pentachlorophenol and phenanthrene

Fate of organic contaminants under UV irradiation as environmental variable was studied. Aqueous solutions of pentachlorophenol and phenanthrene were subjected to simulated solar radiation and monitored during ≤ 93 h. Immobilization tests were conducted using Daphnia magna neonates in pre-irradiated water for the assessment of photoproduct-mediated toxicity. We observed a time-dependent decrease in exposure concentrations following irradiation, which correlated positively with reduced immobilization of the animals. A complete disappearance of the lowest and highest concentrations of pentachlorophenol was noted after 25 h and 75 h, respectively. Survivorship of the animals increased until 100% and correlated positively with irradiation time. However, phenanthrene was rather persistent under irradiation, with less than 25% decline in exposure concentrations after 93 h. Neonates were not immobilized at maximum aqueous solubility of phenanthrene. Rate constants (k) for the photodegradation of pentachlorophenol at 0.41, 0.59, 1.1, and 2.1 mg l(-1) were in the range of 7.2 × 10(-2) and 4.9 × 10(-2)h(-1), showing a slight decrease with increasing initial pentachlorophenol concentration. Nonetheless, pentachlorophenol degradation in the studied concentration range could still be described by the pseudo-first-order kinetics. K values for phenanthrene at 0.12 and 0.22 mg l(-1) were 2.9 × 10(-3)h(-1) and 4.2 × 10(-3)h(-1), respectively.     

Indigenous dadih lactic acid bacteria: cell-surface properties and interactions with pathogens

ABSTRACT:  Cell surface properties of dadih lactic acid bacteria strains were studied for adhesion to hydrocarbons (BATH) and aggregation abilities. Autoaggregation correlates with adhesion, which is a prerequisite for colonization and infection of the gastrointestinal tract by many pathogens, whereas coaggregation has been related to the ability to interact closely with pathogens. The results demonstrated significant differences in cell surface properties among the tested natural lactic acid bacteria food strains. Hydrophobicity increased when the cells were heat inactivated. All strains showed aggregation abilities with the pathogen strains tested, but the coaggregation properties were strain-specific. Our results indicate that the ability to autoaggregate, together with cell surface hydrophobicity and coaggregation abilities with pathogen strains, can be used for preliminary screening in order to identify potentially probiotic bacteria suitable for human or animal use. This study suggest the importance to identify and characterize bacterial cell-wall properties to understand their role in adhesion to hydrocarbons, autoaggregation and relation to coaggregation mechanisms, and also the relevance to future probiotic food development from natural strains.     

Altered developmental timing in early life stages of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) exposed to p,p'-DDE

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are persistent, toxic and bioaccumulative anthropogenic organic chemicals, capable of undergoing long range environmental transport to remote areas including the Antarctic. p,p′-dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene (p,p′-DDE) has been identified as a dominant POP accumulating in Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), which is a key Southern Ocean species. This study examined the developmental toxicity of p,p′-DDE via aqueous exposure to Antarctic krill larvae. p,p′-DDE exposure was found to stimulate developmental timing in the first three larval stages of Antarctic krill, while extended monitoring of larvae after a five day exposure period had ended, revealed delayed inhibitory responses during development to the fourth larval stage. Stimulatory responses were observed from the lowest p,p′-DDE body residue tested of 10.1 ± 3.0 μmol/kg (3.2 ± 0.95 mg/kg) preserved wet weight, which is comparable to findings for temperate species and an order of magnitude lower than the exposure level found to cause sublethal behavioural effects in Antarctic krill. The delayed responses included increased mortality, which had doubled in the highest p,p′-DDE treatment (95 ± 8.9% mortality at 20 μg/L p,p′-DDE) compared to the solvent control (44 ± 11% mortality) 2 weeks after end of exposure. Development of surviving metanauplius larvae to calyptopis 1 larvae was delayed by 2 days in p,p′-DDE exposed larvae compared with untreated larvae. Finally, the developmental success of surviving p,p′-DDE exposed larvae was reduced by 50 to 75% compared to the solvent control (100% developmental success). The lowest observed effect concentration for all delayed effects was 1 μg/L, the lowest exposure concentration tested. These findings demonstrate the importance of delayed and indirect effects of toxicant exposure. Further, the findings of this study are important for environmental risk assessment of POPs in the Southern Ocean ecosystem and strongly highlight the significance of developmental endpoints for ecotoxicological testing.     

Thermal Cycling Reliability of Sn-Ag-Cu Solder Interconnections—Part 2: Failure Mechanisms

Part 1 of this study focused on identifying the effects of (i) temperature difference (ΔT), (ii) lower dwell temperature and shorter dwell time, (iii) mean temperature, (iv) dwell time, and (v) ramp rate on the lifetime of ball grid array (with 144 solder balls) component boards. Based on the characteristic lifetime, the studied thermal cycling profiles were categorized into three groups: (i) highly accelerated conditions, (ii) moderately accelerated conditions, and (iii) mildly/nonaccelerated conditions. In this work, the observed differences in component board lifetime are explained by studying the failure mechanisms and microstructural changes that take place in the three groups of loading conditions. It was observed that, under the standardized thermal cycling conditions (highly accelerated conditions), the networks of grain boundaries formed by recrystallization provided favorable paths for cracks to propagate intergranularly. It is noteworthy that the coarsening of intermetallic particles was strong in the recrystallized regions (the cellular structure had disappeared completely in the crack region). However, under real-use conditions (mildly/nonaccelerated conditions), recrystallization was not observed in the solder interconnections and cracks had propagated transgranularly in the bulk solder or between the intermetallic compound (IMC) layer and the bulk solder. The real-use conditions showed slight coarsening of the microstructure close to the crack region, but the solder bulk still included finer IMC particles and β-Sn cells characteristic of the as-solidified microstructures. These findings suggest that standardized thermal cycling tests used to assess the solder interconnection reliability of BGA144 component boards create failure mechanisms that differ from those seen in conditions representing real-use operation.     

Purification process for recovering hydroxy acids from soda black liquor

Black liquor, a side product of chemical pulping, contains hydroxy acids that have many potential applications, e.g., as polymer precursors. Currently there are no feasible separation processes available for recovery of hydroxy acids from such solutions. Neutralization is usually though to be a necessary pre-treatment, but it adds into chemical consumption and may impede the integration of the recovery process to a pulp mill. In this work, an experimental investigation of a new process concept for the recovery and purification of hydroxy acids from soda black liquor without neutralization is presented. The process consists of ultrafiltration, size-exclusion chromatography, ion-exchange, adsorption, and evaporation. Mixtures of hydroxy acids in high purity were produced from black liquor of soda pulping using the process. A reduction of 99% in lignin content of the organic acid fraction was achieved. In the chromatographic separation step, the recovery of sodium hydroxide was almost 100%. The average purities of hydroxy acids isolated from softwood and hardwood black liquors were 81% and 63% on mass basis, respectively.     

Fabrication of optical inverted-rib waveguides using UV-imprinting

In this paper we introduce a fabrication process for polymer rib waveguides that uses UV-imprint lithography. In the structure of an inverted-rib waveguide, the lower cladding of the waveguide is patterned by UV-imprinting and the waveguiding layer is subsequently spin-coated. That makes the thickness of the formed slab layer on the rib waveguide controllable by tuning the spin-coating parameters. The fabrication process utilizes two steps of UV-imprinting. The first one is to form a rigid polymer mold from positive tone photoresist. The second one is to pattern the waveguide lower cladding with the formed polymer mold. Through the two steps of UV-imprinting, rib waveguides can be fabricated without an etching procedure. We demonstrated the proposed fabrication process by fabricating 2-μm-wide waveguides operating in single mode at 1310 nm. With TE-polarized light, the fabricated waveguides show an average transmission of 58.6% in a 30 mm long waveguide, corresponding to a loss of 2.3 dB.     

Emulsion preparation with modified oat bran: Optimization of the emulsification process for microencapsulation purposes

The objective of this study was to develop an oil in water (o/w) emulsion using modified oat bran (MOB). Test emulsions containing 5% rapeseed oil were prepared by varying the content of MOB and maintaining the solid content constant (20%) by using corn syrup solids (DE34) as filler. A central composite (CC) design was applied as a tool to obtain a stable and low viscosity emulsion. The effect of concentration of MOB, homogenization pressure and homogenization time on the emulsion stability (at 25 °C for 26 h), viscosity and particle size were determined. The concentration of MOB in the recipe significantly influenced the emulsion properties whereas the homogenization pressure and the homogenization time had no statistically significant influence on the emulsion properties. Further experiments, however, showed that increasing the homogenization pressure decreased the emulsion viscosity. Emulsions prepared using a MOB concentration of 1.55% and homogenized at 60 MPa for 10 min, exhibited excellent stability, low viscosity, small enough mean particle size and narrow particle size distribution. Modified oat bran containing deamidated oat protein possesses an excellent capability to form stable emulsions which might be suitable for microencapsulation.