Investigation of local thermodynamic equilibrium of laser induced Al2O3–TiC plasma in argon by spatially resolved optical emission spectroscopy

Plasma plume of Al2O3–TiC is generated by third harmonic Q-switched Nd:YAG nanosecond laser. It is characterized using Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) at different argon background gas pressures 10, 102, 103, 104 and 105 Pa. Spatial evolution of excitation and ionic temperatures is deduced from spectral data analysis. Temporal evolution of Ti I emission originated from different energy states is probed. The correlation between the temporal behavior and the spatial temperature evolution are investigated under LTE condition for the possibility to use the temporal profile of Ti I emission as an indicator for LTE validity in the plasma

Photodissociation Imaging of Diatomic Sulfur (S2)

Contains fulltext : 75990.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)11 p

Survey of medical students to assess their knowledge and attitudes toward organ transplantation and donation

Kidney transplantation is the most preferred treatment modality for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). This study aims at understanding the awareness, attitudes, and beliefs among the medical and nonmedical students. The study population consisted of 500 medical students and 39 nonmedical controls, who were surveyed using a reliable questionnaire that examined their knowledge and attitudes. A 24-item self-administered questionnaire, which assessed the levels of knowledge, attitude regarding organ donation with dichotomous scale and demographic data were used. Of the 500 medical students who received the questionnaire, 376 (75.2%) with a mean age of 22.1 ± 2.5 years responded; 39% were male, 43.6% were Bahraini, and 32.2% were from Saudi Arabia, 51.3% were in Grades-5 and 6 and 58.8% resided in big cities. The medical students had a highly positive attitude and great willingness toward organ donation. Majority of them (75.3%) knew the treatment of ESRD, and 70.7% recognized correctly that kidney transplantation is the optimal treatment for ESRD. However, only 10.4% knew that it is performed in Bahrain since 1995. A total of 241 participants (64.3%) reported positive attitude toward living kidney donation and 71.8% expressed their agreement to donation after death. More than half (66.8%) believed that their religion permits organ donation, although 56.6% of the participants believed that there is a danger after donating a kidney. When compared to nonmedical students, there was no statistically significant difference in the attitudes toward living kidney donation (P = 0.823) or organ donation after death (P = 0.066)

Determination of the Ground Electronic State in Transition Metal Halides: ZrF

The spectroscopy of the ZrF radical, produced by a laser ablation-molecular beam experimental setup, has been investigated for the first time using a two-color two-photon (1 + 1′) REMPI scheme and time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry detection. The region of intense bands 400-470 nm has been studied, based upon the first spectroscopic observations of the isovalent ZrCl radical by Carroll and Daly.(1)The overall spectrum observed is complex. However, simultaneous and individual ion detection of the five naturally occurring isotopologues of ZrF has provided a crucial means of identifying band origins and characterization via the isotopic shift, δ iso, of the numerous vibronic transitions recorded. Hence, five (0-0) transitions, of which only two were free of overlap with other transitions, have been identified. The most intense (0-0) transition at 23113 cm -1 presented an unambiguously characteristic RQP rotational structure. From rotational contour simulations of the observed spectra, the nature of the ground electronic state is found to be unambiguously of 2Δ symmetry, leading to the assignment of this band as (0-0) 2Δ ← X 2Δ at 23113 cm -1. A set of transitions (1-0) 2Δ ← X 2Δ at 22105 cm -1 and (2-0) 2 ← X 2Δ at 22944 cm -1 involving the X 2Δ state has also been identified and analyzed. Furthermore, a second series of transitions with lesser intensity has also been related to the long-lived metastable 4Σ - state: (3-0) 4Π -1/2 ← 4Σ - at 21801 cm -1, (2-0) 4Π -1/2 ← 4Σ - at 21285 cm -1 and (2-0) 4Σ - ← 4Σ - at 23568 cm -1. These spectroscopic assignments are supported by MRCI ab initio calculations, performed using the MOLPRO quantum chemistry package, and show that the low-lying excited states of the ZrF radical are the 4Σ - and 4 states lying at 2383 and 4179 cm -1 respectively above the ground X 2Δ state. The difference in the nature of ground state and ordering of the first electronic states with TiF (X 4)(2-4)and ZrCl,(5)respectively, is examined in terms of the ligand field theory (LFT)(7)applied to diatomic molecules. These results give a precise description of the electronic structure of the low lying electronic states of the ZrF transition metal radical. © 2011 American Chemical Society.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe