New GC-MS Assay for Amphetamine and Methamphetamine

Amphetamine and Methamphetamine are central nervous system stimulants and schedule II controlled substances at the federal level. The analysis of of these drugs in crime labs represents about 30% of all drug exhibits in the US. Confirmatory and quantitative analysis is typically performed by gas chromatographic (GC) analysis. The highly polar nature of the drugs in both the salt and free base forms cause strong interactions with surfaces such as the inlet and stationary phase in the GC; these interactions are problematic, especially for quantitation. Our laboratory recently developed a method to attenuate this surface interaction that resulted in improved chromatographic behavior and detector response by mass spectrometry (MS). We have established that derivatization of the basic nitrogen with alkanoic anhydrides enhances the sensitivity of the assay significantly

A tunable narrowband entangled photon pair source for resonant single-photon single-atom interaction

We present a tunable, frequency-stabilized, narrow-bandwidth source of frequency-degenerate, entangled photon pairs. The source is based on spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) in periodically-poled KTiOPO4 (PPKTP). Its wavelength can be stabilized to 850 or 854 nm, thus allowing to address two D-P transitions in 40Ca+ ions. Its output bandwidth of 22 MHz coincides with the absorption bandwidth of the calcium ions. Its spectral power density is 1.0 generated pairs/(s MHz mW).Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Primarily neutral effects of river restoration on macroinvertebrates, macrophytes, and fishes after a decade of monitoring

Restoring river habitat heterogeneity is expensive and time consuming, yet often has little effect on aquatic biota. Such poor restoration outcomes could be partly caused by the predominance of short‐term studies, which do not account for natural temporal fluctuations nor changes in the effects of restoration through time. Consequently, research that examines the longer‐term dynamics of river restoration is crucial for providing a temporal perspective of restoration outcomes and for informing the effectiveness of restoration methods. We used the Nidda River in Germany as a case study of the temporal effects of river hydromorphological restoration on different aquatic taxa. We surveyed macroinvertebrate, macrophyte, and fish communities across three sites prerestoration (2008) and then monitored changes in one control versus two restored sites across 10 years (2010–2019). Overall, we found few effects of restoration on the macroinvertebrate and macrophyte communities, with no effects whatsoever on fishes. Restoration improved some components of the macroinvertebrate and macrophyte communities; however, these positive effects were temporally inconsistent and did not translate to improvements in river ecosystem health (based on an index of ecological quality). Our findings illustrate how allowing for more time for community development will not necessarily alter the fact that local‐scale river habitat restoration can elicit little to no change in aquatic communities. Combining local‐ with broad‐scale restoration efforts that address the primary drivers of hydroecological decline, in addition to long‐term monitoring, may therefore be required to ensure that river restorations successfully meet their ecological goals

Model Development Using Data from Germany and a Mixed-Methods Research Strategy

A pattern found in many marketing systems, “male breadwinning,” is contingent upon overlapping and shared ideologies, which influence the economic organization and thus the type and number of relationships in those systems. Implementing a mixed-methods research methodology, this article continues and extends previous work in macromarketing on the interplay of markets, ideology, socio-economic organization, and family. A qualitative study illuminated the main ideologies behind male breadwinning and a model was developed to advance the theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of male breadwinning. An experiment in the form of a vignette study was subsequently designed and administered. The qualitative study and the vignette study both show ideologies interact in the way individuals make sense of them or allow them to influence their decisions. The results have implications for the way families and markets are organized, such as the supply of labor of men and women and the offerings of care-related public and private services in a broader marketing system

Male Breadwinner Ideology and the Inclination to Establish Market Relationships: Model Development Using Data from Germany and a Mixed-Methods Research Strategy

A pattern found in many marketing systems, “male breadwinning,” is contingent upon overlapping and shared ideologies, which influence the economic organization and thus the type and number of relationships in those systems. Implementing a mixed-methods research methodology, this article continues and extends previous work in macromarketing on the interplay of markets, ideology, socio-economic organization, and family. A qualitative study illuminated the main ideologies behind male breadwinning and a model was developed to advance the theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of male breadwinning. An experiment in the form of a vignette study was subsequently designed and administered. The qualitative study and the vignette study both show ideologies interact in the way individuals make sense of them or allow them to influence their decisions. The results have implications for the way families and markets are organized, such as the supply of labor of men and women and the offerings of care-related public and private services in a broader marketing system

Landau polaritons in highly non-parabolic 2D gases in the ultra-strong coupling regime

We probe ultra-strong light matter coupling between metallic terahertz metasurfaces and Landau-level transitions in high mobility 2D electron and hole gases. We utilize heavy-hole cyclotron resonances in strained Ge and electron cyclotron resonances in InSb quantum wells, both within highly non-parabolic bands, and compare our results to well known parabolic AlGaAs/GaAs quantum well (QW) systems. Tuning the coupling strength of the system by two methods, lithographically and by optical pumping, we observe a novel behavior clearly deviating from the standard Hopfield model previously verified in cavity quantum electrodynamics: an opening of a lower polaritonic gap

Növeli, csökkenti, vagy kiegészíti az Internet a társadalmi tőkét – Társadalmi hálózatok, részvétel és közösségi elkötelezettség

E tanulmány kutatás az egyik első, 1998-ban végzett nagyszabású web felmérés eredményeit használja fel, hogy a címében feltett kérdésre választ kapjon. Megállapításai, módszerei révén a szakirodalom egyik legidézettebb opuszává vált, s az eltelt röpke négy év elegendőnek bizonyult ahhoz, hogy igazi klasszikusnak tekinthessük. Eredményeik szerint pozitív összefüggés van a különböző önkéntes szervezetekben és a politikában való online és offline részvétel között, s az Internethasználók valamiféle online közösségi érzést alakítanak ki, általánosságban és rokonaikkal. Az első komoly érvrendszert produkálták amellett, hogy az Internet nem váltja valóra sem az utópisták álmát egy nagyobb közösségi eufóriáról, sem nem tükrözi az antiutópisták lidércnyomását a fokozott elidegenedésről

Application of Reflected Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS-R) Signals in the Estimation of Sea Roughness Effects in Microwave Radiometry

In February-March 2009 NASA JPL conducted an airborne field campaign using the Passive Active L-band System (PALS) and the Ku-band Polarimetric Scatterometer (PolSCAT) collecting measurements of brightness temperature and near surface wind speeds. Flights were conducted over a region of expected high-speed winds in the Atlantic Ocean, for the purposes of algorithm development for salinity retrievals. Wind speeds encountered were in the range of 5 to 25 m/s during the two weeks deployment. The NASA-Langley GPS delay-mapping receiver (DMR) was also flown to collect GPS signals reflected from the ocean surface and generate post-correlation power vs. delay measurements. This data was used to estimate ocean surface roughness and a strong correlation with brightness temperature was found. Initial results suggest that reflected GPS signals, using small low-power instruments, will provide an additional source of data for correcting brightness temperature measurements for the purpose of sea surface salinity retrievals