Use of tunable nanopore blockade rates to investigate colloidal dispersions

Tunable nanopores in elastomeric membranes have been used to study the dependence of ionic current blockade rate on the concentration and electrophoretic mobility of particles in aqueous suspensions. A range of nanoparticle sizes, materials and surface functionalities has been tested. Using pressure-driven flow through a pore, the blockade rate for 100 nm carboxylated polystyrene particles was found to be linearly proportional to both transmembrane pressure (controlled between 0 and 1.8 kPa) and particle concentration (between 7 x 10^8 and 4.5 x 10^10 mL^-1). This result can be accurately modelled using Nernst-Planck transport theory. Using only an applied potential across a pore, the blockade rates for carboxylic acid and amine coated 500 nm and 200 nm silica particles were found to correspond to changes in their mobility as a function of the solution pH. Scanning electron microscopy and confocal microscopy have been used to visualise changes in the tunable nanopore geometry in three dimensions as a function of applied mechanical strain. The pores observed were conical in shape, and changes in pore size were consistent with ionic current measurements. A zone of inelastic deformation adjacent to the pore has been identified as critical in the tuning process

Design of a pulse power supply unit for micro-ECM

Electrochemical micro-machining (μECM) requires a particular pulse power supply unit (PSU) to be developed in order to achieve desired machining performance. This paper summarises the development of a pulse PSU meeting the requirements of μECM. The pulse power supply provides tens of nanosecond pulse duration, positive and negative bias voltages and a polarity switching functionality. It fulfils the needs for tool preparation with reversed pulsed ECM on the machine. Moreover, the PSU is equipped with an ultrafast overcurrent protection which prevents the tool electrode from being damaged in case of short circuits. The developed pulse PSU was used to fabricate micro-tools out of 170 μm WC-Co alloy shafts via micro-electrochemical turning and drill deep holes via μECM in a disk made of 18NiCr6. The electrolyte used for both processes was a mixture of sulphuric acid and NaNO3 aqueous solutions.The research reported in this paper is supported by the European Commission within the project “Minimizing Defects in Micro-Manufacturing Applications (MIDEMMA)” (FP7-2011-NMP-ICT-FoF-285614

A Possible Constraint on Regional Precipitation Intensity Changes under Global Warming

Changes in daily precipitation versus intensity under a global warming scenario in two regional climate simulations of the United States show a well-recognized feature of more intense precipitation. More important, by resolving the precipitation intensity spectrum, the changes show a relatively simple pattern for nearly all regions and seasons examined whereby nearly all high-intensity daily precipitation contributes a larger fraction of the total precipitation, and nearly all low-intensity precipitation contributes a reduced fraction. The percentile separating relative decrease from relative increase occurs around the 70th percentile of cumulative precipitation, irrespective of the governing precipitation processes or which model produced the simulation. Changes in normalized distributions display these features much more consistently than distribution changes without normalization. Further analysis suggests that this consistent response in precipitation intensity may be a consequence of the intensity spectrum’s adherence to a gamma distribution. Under the gamma distribution, when the total precipitation or number of precipitation days changes, there is a single transition between precipitation rates that contribute relatively more to the total and rates that contribute relatively less. The behavior is roughly the same as the results of the numerical models and is insensitive to characteristics of the baseline climate, such as average precipitation, frequency of rain days, and the shape parameter of the precipitation’s gamma distribution. Changes in the normalized precipitation distribution give a more consistent constraint on how precipitation intensity may change when climate changes than do changes in the nonnormalized distribution. The analysis does not apply to extreme precipitation for which the theory of statistical extremes more likely provides the appropriate description

Dimer coverings on the Sierpinski gasket with possible vacancies on the outmost vertices

We present the number of dimers $N_d(n)$ on the Sierpinski gasket $SG_d(n)$ at stage $n$ with dimension $d$ equal to two, three, four or five, where one of the outmost vertices is not covered when the number of vertices $v(n)$ is an odd number. The entropy of absorption of diatomic molecules per site, defined as $S_{SG_d}=\lim_{n \to \infty} \ln N_d(n)/v(n)$, is calculated to be $\ln(2)/3$ exactly for $SG_2(n)$. The numbers of dimers on the generalized Sierpinski gasket $SG_{d,b}(n)$ with $d=2$ and $b=3,4,5$ are also obtained exactly. Their entropies are equal to $\ln(6)/7$, $\ln(28)/12$, $\ln(200)/18$, respectively. The upper and lower bounds for the entropy are derived in terms of the results at a certain stage for $SG_d(n)$ with $d=3,4,5$. As the difference between these bounds converges quickly to zero as the calculated stage increases, the numerical value of $S_{SG_d}$ with $d=3,4,5$ can be evaluated with more than a hundred significant figures accurate.Comment: 35 pages, 20 figures and 1 tabl

Low-energy electron-induced decomposition of 5-trifluoromethanesulfonyl-uracil: A potential radiosensitizer

Grant Nos. PD/BD/114447/2016 and PD/BD/114452/2016. researcher position No. IF-FCT IF/00380/2014. Doctoral Training Programme (RaBBiT, PD/00193/2012). S.D. acknowledges support from FWF (P30332). Polish National Science Center (NCN) under the Grant No. UMO-2014/14/A/ST4/00405 (J. R.).5-trifluoromethanesulfonyl-uracil (OTfU), a recently proposed radiosensitizer, is decomposed in the gas-phase by attachment of low-energy electrons. OTfU is a derivative of uracil with a triflate (OTf) group at the C5-position, which substantially increases its ability to undergo effective electron-induced dissociation. We report a rich assortment of fragments formed upon dissociative electron attachment (DEA), mostly by simple bond cleavages (e.g., dehydrogenation or formation of OTf-). The most favorable DEA channel corresponds to the formation of the triflate anion alongside with the reactive uracil-5-yl radical through the cleavage of the O-C5 bond, particularly at about 0 eV. Unlike for halouracils, the parent anion was not detected in our experiments. The experimental findings are accounted by a comprehensive theoretical study carried out at the M06-2X/aug-cc-pVTZ level. The latter comprises the thermodynamic thresholds for the formation of the observed anions calculated under the experimental conditions (383.15 K and 3 × 10-11 atm). The energy-resolved ion yield of the dehydrogenated parent anion, (OTfU-H)-, is discussed in terms of vibrational Feshbach resonances arising from the coupling between the dipole bound state and vibrational levels of the transient negative ion. We also report the mass spectrum of the cations obtained through ionization of OTfU by electrons with a kinetic energy of 70 eV. The current study endorses OTfU as a potential radiosensitizer agent with possible applications in radio-chemotherapy.publishersversionpublishe

Design of an electrochemical micromachining machine

Electrochemical micromachining (μECM) is a non-conventional machining process based on the phenomenon of electrolysis. μECM became an attractive area of research due to the fact that this process does not create any defective layer after machining and that there is a growing demand for better surface integrity on different micro applications including microfluidics systems, stress-free drilled holes in automotive and aerospace manufacturing with complex shapes, etc. This work presents the design of a next generation μECM machine for the automotive, aerospace, medical and metrology sectors. It has three axes of motion (X, Y, Z) and a spindle allowing the tool-electrode to rotate during machining. The linear slides for each axis use air bearings with linear DC brushless motors and 2-nm resolution encoders for ultra precise motion. The control system is based on the Power PMAC motion controller from Delta Tau. The electrolyte tank is located at the rear of the machine and allows the electrolyte to be changed quickly. This machine features two process control algorithms: fuzzy logic control and adaptive feed rate. A self-developed pulse generator has been mounted and interfaced with the machine and a wire ECM grinding device has been added. The pulse generator has the possibility to reverse the pulse polarity for on-line tool fabrication.The research reported in this paper is supported by the European Commission within the project “Minimizing Defects in Micro-Manufacturing Applications (MIDEMMA)” (FP7-2011-NMPICT- FoF-285614)

Upper Limits on a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory has performed a third science run with much improved sensitivities of all three interferometers. We present an analysis of approximately 200 hours of data acquired during this run, used to search for a stochastic background of gravitational radiation. We place upper bounds on the energy density stored as gravitational radiation for three different spectral power laws. For the flat spectrum, our limit of Ω_0<8.4×10^(-4) in the 69–156 Hz band is ~10^5 times lower than the previous result in this frequency range