Testing a fiber-optic ionizing-radiation detector

A fiber-optic ionizing-radiation detector is composed of a scintillation sensor, an optical fiber, and a photodetector. Due to the miniature size and the high radiation resistance, the detector is capable of measuring the characteristics of powerful neutron and γ-ray fields with a high spatial resolution. A prototype of the detector has been tested using a ⁶⁰Co γ-ray source with a dose rate as great as 200 R/S. The dynamic range of dose measurements is no less than 10⁵. The detector signal is linearly dependent on the radiation dose rate. The ratio of the useful signal to the background due to radioluminescence of the optical fiber is presented for different types of scintillators.     

Fluctuator Model of Memory Dip in Hopping Insulators

We show that the non-equilibrium dynamic in two-dimensional hopping insulators close to metal-dielectric transition is sensitive to electric fields confinement inside the sample, which leads to a nearly thermally activated conductance behavior and a strong non-equilibrium conductance response to the gate voltage, including a memory dip in a field dependence of conductance.     

To react or not to react? Intrinsic stochasticity of human control in virtual stick balancing

Understanding how humans control unstable systems is central to many research problems, with applications ranging from quiet standing to aircraft landing. Increasingly, much evidence appears in favour of event-driven control hypothesis: human operators only start actively controlling the system when the discrepancy between the current and desired system states becomes large enough. The event-driven models based on the concept of threshold can explain many features of the experimentally observed dynamics. However, much still remains unclear about the dynamics of human-controlled systems, which likely indicates that humans use more intricate control mechanisms. This paper argues that control activation in humans may be not threshold-driven, but instead intrinsically stochastic, noise-driven. Specifically, we suggest that control activation stems from stochastic interplay between the operator''s need to keep the controlled system near the goal state, on the one hand, and the tendency to postpone interrupting the system dynamics, on the other hand. We propose a model capturing this interplay and show that it matches the experimental data on human balancing of virtual overdamped stick. Our results illuminate that the noise-driven activation mechanism plays a crucial role at least in the considered task, and, hypothetically, in a broad range of human-controlled processes.     

“Greening Up” Cross-Coupling Chemistry

New methodologies that enable palladium catalyzed cross-coupling reactions to be performed under environmentally benign conditions (in water and/or at room temperature) have been developed. Described approaches involve in situ activation of carbon–halogen or carbon–hydrogen bonds using zinc metal, or cationic palladium, respectively.     

Silica Colloidal Membranes with Enantioselective Permeability

Robust mesoporous membranes composed of silica spheres were surface-modified with chiral selector moieties, including small molecules, macrocycles, and polymers. Diffusion rates of enantiomers of a chiral dye through the resulting asymmetrically modified colloidal membranes were measured and the corresponding permselectivities were calculated. The membranes showed enantioselectivities in the range of 1.2–1.8, which were not significantly affected by the structure of the surface-immobilized chiral electors. This selectivity is on par with most reported polymer-based solid membranes and bulk liquid membranes. The enantioselectivity results from the surface-facilitated mechanism of transport of enantiomers through the mesopores.     

Electropolymerized flavin adenine dinucleotide as an advanced NADH transducer

Electropolymerizing the prosthetic group (flavin adenine dinucleotide, FAD) responsible in the active sites of dehydrogenases for NAD(+)|NADH regeneration, we succeeded in mimicking enzyme activity. Poly(FAD) characterized by an additional polymer-type redox reaction has been discovered as a highly effective electrocatalyst for NADH oxidation: operating at the lowest potentials reported for NADH transducers (0.00 V, pH 7.4), poly(FAD) is characterized by the electrochemical rate constant of 1.8 +/- 0.6 x 10(-3) cm s(-1), which is at the level of the NADH mass-transfer constant. Flow injection analysis of NADH with the poly(FAD)-modified wall-jet electrode as a detector has been characterized by a linear calibration range prolonged down to 5 x 10(-7) M and a sensitivity of 0.08 A M(-1) cm(-2), which taking into account the dispersion coefficient ( approximately 3), is at the diffusion-limiting value. In contrast to the low molecular weight mediators able to exhibit similar electrocatalytic properties, poly(FAD)-modified electrodes are characterized by the dramatically improved stability and, thus, can be considered as the most advantageous NADH transducers for analytical chemistry.     

Few-Layer Graphene Modified by Bridge-Like Defects as Li-Storing Cells

The paper presents some results of computer simulations and density functional theory calculations of the energetic and structural characteristics of few-layer graphene nanostructures as storing cells for Li. Modeling and calculations allow to reveal some peculiarities in such systems, which can be considered as causes of known dimension instabilities and shortening of the life-time of Li- based electrical power devices. Results of the computational study and calculations predict, that all these problems can be in significant measure solved by modifying of few-layer graphene nanostructures by bridge -like defects, which make them much more stiffer and stable against the deformation.