Measurement of K-S(0) and K*(0) in p plus p, d plus Au, and Cu plus Cu collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV

The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has performed a systematic study of K-S(0) and K*(0) meson production at midrapidity in p + p, d + Au, and Cu + Cu collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. The K-S(0) and K*(0) mesons are reconstructed via their K-S(0) -\u3e pi(0)(-\u3e gamma gamma) pi(0)(-\u3e gamma gamma) and K*(0) -\u3e K-+/-pi(-/+) decay modes, respectively. The measured transverse-momentum spectra are used to determine the nuclear modification factor of K-S(0) and K*(0) mesons in d + Au and Cu + Cu collisions at different centralities. In the d + Au collisions, the nuclear modification factor of K-S(0) and K*(0) mesons is almost constant as a function of transverse momentum and is consistent with unity, showing that cold-nuclear-matter effects do not play a significant role in the measured kinematic range. In Cu + Cu collisions, within the uncertainties no nuclear modification is registered in peripheral collisions. In central collisions, both mesons show suppression relative to the expectations from the p + p yield scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions in the Cu + Cu system. In the p(T) range 2-5 GeV/c, the strange mesons (K-S(0), K*(0)) similarly to the phi meson with hidden strangeness, show an intermediate suppression between the more suppressed light quark mesons (pi(0)) and the nonsuppressed baryons (p, (p) over bar). At higher transverse momentum, p(T) \u3e 5 GeV/c, production of all particles is similarly suppressed by a factor of approximate to 2

Corotational formulation for nonlinear analysis of flexible beam structures

Flexible beam structures are popular in civil and mechanical engineering. Many of these structures undergo large displacements and finite rotations, but with small deformations. Their dynamic behaviors are usually investigated using finite beam elements. A well known method to derive such beam elements is the corotational approach. This method has been extensively used in nonlinear static analysis. However, its application in nonlinear dynamics is rather limited. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the nonlinear dynamic behavior of flexible beam structures using the corotational method. For the 2D case, a new dynamic corotational beam formulation is presented. The idea is to adopt the same corotational kinetic description in static and dynamic parts. The main novelty is to use cubic interpolations to derive both inertia terms and internal terms in order to capture correctly all inertia effects. This new formulation is compared with two classic formulations using constant Timoshenko and constant lumped mass matrices. This work is presented in the first appended journal paper. For the 3D case, update procedures of finite rotations, which are central issues in development of nonlinear beam elements in dynamic analysis, are discussed. Three classic and one new formulations of beam elements based on the three different parameterizations of the finite rotations are presented. In these formulations, the corotational method is used to develop expressions of the internal forces and the tangent stiffness matrices, while the dynamic terms are formulated into a total Lagrangian context. Many aspects of the four formulations are investigated. First, theoretical derivations as well as practical implementations are given in details. The similarities and differences between the formulations are pointed out. Second, numerical accuracy and computational efficiency of these four formulations are compared. Regarding efficiency, the choice of the predictor at each time step and the possibility to simplify the tangent inertia matrix are carefully investigated. This work is presented in the second appended journal paper. To make this thesis self-contained, two chapters concerning the parametrization of the finite rotations and the derivation of the 3D corotational beam element in statics are added.QC 2012052

Cu (II) ion-selective electrodes based on Cu (II) complex with cyclized salophen

Several versions of Cu (II) ion selective electrodes (ISE), based on cyclized N, N!-bis (salicylidene)-o-phenylenediamine (salophen) complexes with Cu (II), were fabricated for determination of Cu (II) in aqueous solutions. The response of the ISE was optimized by variation of membrane composition and evaluation of various experimental conditions. Near Nernstian slopes (~ 28–32 mV/decade) were obtained for some preparations. The linear range of the ISE ranged from 5• 10–5 to 1• 10–2 m Cu (II). Coated-wire and coated disc ISE resulted practically in a similar response as screen printed electrodes (SPE). The potentiometric selectivity coefficients (Kij) for all electrodes were determined for Na+, NH4+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Ni2+, Pb2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Co2+, Fe3+, Hg2+, CO3 2–, H2PO4–, HPO4 2–, SO4 2–, CH3COO–, Br–, I–, NO3–, and SCN–. The selectivity coefficients were in the range from 10–2 to 10–3 for all ions

Coated-wire and coated-disc Cu (II) ion-selective electrodes based on Cu (II) complex with cyclized salophen

Coated-wire and coated-disc ion selective electrodes (ISE) based on cyclized N,N ′-bis(salicylidene)-o-phenylenediamine (salophen) complex with Cu(II) were fabricated for determination of Cu(II) in aqueous solutions. The response of the ISE was optimized by variation of membrane composition and evaluation of the various experimental conditions. Near Nernstian slopes (˜28 mV/decade) were obtained. The linear range of the ISE ranged from 5 × 10−5 to 1 × 10−2 M Cu(II).The potentiometric selectivity coefficients (K ij ) were determined for , Ca2+, Mg2+, Ni2+, Pb2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Co2+, Fe3+, Hg2+, , CH3COO−, Br−, I−, , and SCN−. The selectivity coefficients were in the range from 10−2 to 10−3 for all ions tested except Hg2+, I−, and to less extent Fe3+. The fabricated ISE using the Cu(II)-salophen complex are reliable and stable

Development of a novel solid-state pH sensor based on tin oxide thin film

A solid-state pH sensor was fabricated using a transparent conductive tin oxide film on a glass substrate. The coating of the glass substrate was achieved by a novel simple chemical vapor deposition (CVD) procedure. The response time of the pH sensor was substantially reduced when a thin graphite film was deposited onto the tin oxide conductive film. The sensor slope was found to increase as the temperature of the solution was increased. The performance of the sensor was investigated in the pH range from 0.3 to 11.0. A straight-line calibration graph was achieved throughout the whole range tested, especially when the solution temperature was 80℃. The working pH range was found to decrease on the expense of the lower range as the temperature was decreased. Results obtained by the suggested sensor compares very well with conventional pH electrodes where the square of the correlation coefficient

Formation of ortho-cyano-aminothiophenolate ligands with versatile binding modes via facile carbon-sulfur bond cleavage of 2-aminobenzothiazoles at mercury(II) centres

Mercuric acetate and 2-aminobenzothiazoles react to give novel ortho-cyano-aminothiophenolate complexes via sulfur–carbon bond cleavage and H2 loss.</p

pH measurement as quality control on human post mortem brain tissue: a study of the BrainNet Europe consortium

AIMS: Most brain diseases are complex entities. Although animal models or cell culture experiments mimic some disease aspects, human post mortem brain tissue remains essential to advance our understanding of brain diseases using biochemical and molecular techniques. Post mortem artefacts must be properly understood, standardized, and either eliminated or factored into such experiments. Here we examine the influence of several premortem and post mortem factors on pH, and discuss the role of pH as a biochemical marker for brain tissue quality. METHODS: We assessed brain tissue pH in 339 samples from 116 brains provided by 8 different European and 2 Australian brain bank centres. We correlated brain pH with tissue source, post mortem delay, age, gender, freezing method, storage duration, agonal state and brain ischaemia. RESULTS: Our results revealed that only prolonged agonal state and ischaemic brain damage influenced brain tissue pH next to repeated freeze/thaw cycles. CONCLUSIONS: pH measurement in brain tissue is a good indicator of premortem events in brain tissue and it signals limitations for post mortem investigations