592 research outputs found
Swelling of acetylated wood in organic liquids
To investigate the affinity of acetylated wood for organic liquids, Yezo
spruce wood specimens were acetylated with acetic anhydride, and their swelling
in various liquids were compared to those of untreated specimens. The
acetylated wood was rapidly and remarkably swollen in aprotic organic liquids
such as benzene and toluene in which the untreated wood was swollen only
slightly and/or very slowly. On the other hand, the swelling of wood in water,
ethylene glycol and alcohols remained unchanged or decreased by the
acetylation. Consequently the maximum volume of wood swollen in organic liquids
was always larger than that in water. The effect of acetylation on the maximum
swollen volume of wood was greater in liquids having smaller solubility
parameters. The easier penetration of aprotic organic liquids into the
acetylated wood was considered to be due to the scission of hydrogen bonds
among the amorphous wood constituents by the substitution of hydroxyl groups
with hydrophobic acetyl groups.Comment: to be published in J Wood Science (Japanese wood research society
Dopant Spatial Distributions: Sample Independent Response Function And Maximum Entropy Reconstruction
We demonstrate the use of maximum entropy based deconvolution to reconstruct
boron spatial distribution from the secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)
depth profiles on a system of variously spaced boron -layers grown in
silicon. Sample independent response functions are obtained using a new method
which reduces the danger of incorporating real sample behaviour in the
response. Although the original profiles of different primary ion energies
appear quite differently, the reconstructed distributions agree well with each
other. The depth resolution in the reconstructed data is increased
significantly and segregation of boron at the near surface side of the
-layers is clearly shown.Comment: 5 two-columne pages, 3 postscript figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
B1
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A phase II study of temozolomide vs. procarbazine in patients with glioblastoma multiforme at first relapse.
A randomized, multicentre, open-label, phase II study compared temozolomide (TMZ), an oral second-generation alkylating agent, and procarbazine (PCB) in 225 patients with glioblastoma multiforme at first relapse. Primary objectives were to determine progression-free survival (PFS) at 6 months and safety for TMZ and PCB in adult patients who failed conventional treatment. Secondary objectives were to assess overall survival and health-related quality of life (HRQL). TMZ was given orally at 200 mg/m(2)/day or 150 mg/m(2)/day (prior chemotherapy) for 5 days, repeated every 28 days. PCB was given orally at 150 mg/m(2)/day or 125 mg/m(2)/day (prior chemotherapy) for 28 days, repeated every 56 days. HRQL was assessed using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30 [+3]) and the Brain Cancer Module 20 (BCM20). The 6-month PFS rate for patients who received TMZ was 21%, which met the protocol objective. The 6-month PFS rate for those who received PCB was 8% (P = 0.008, for the comparison). Overall PFS significantly improved with TMZ, with a median PFS of 12.4 weeks in the TMZ group and 8.32 weeks in the PCB group (P = 0.0063). The 6-month overall survival rate for TMZ patients was 60% vs. 44% for PCB patients (P = 0.019). Freedom from disease progression was associated with maintenance of HRQL, regardless of treatment received. TMZ had an acceptable safety profile; most adverse events were mild or moderate in severity
Harmonics generation in electron-ion collisions in a short laser pulse
Anomalously high generation efficiency of coherent higher field-harmonics in
collisions between {\em oppositely charged particles} in the field of
femtosecond lasers is predicted. This is based on rigorous numerical solutions
of a quantum kinetic equation for dense laser plasmas which overcomes
limitations of previous investigations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps-figures include
CP and related phenomena in the context of Stellar Evolution
We review the interaction in intermediate and high mass stars between their
evolution and magnetic and chemical properties. We describe the theory of
Ap-star `fossil' fields, before touching on the expected secular diffusive
processes which give rise to evolution of the field. We then present recent
results from a spectropolarimetric survey of Herbig Ae/Be stars, showing that
magnetic fields of the kind seen on the main-sequence already exist during the
pre-main sequence phase, in agreement with fossil field theory, and that the
origin of the slow rotation of Ap/Bp stars also lies early in the pre-main
sequence evolution; we also present results confirming a lack of stars with
fields below a few hundred gauss. We then seek which macroscopic motions
compete with atomic diffusion in determining the surface abundances of AmFm
stars. While turbulent transport and mass loss, in competition with atomic
diffusion, are both able to explain observed surface abundances, the interior
abundance distribution is different enough to potentially lead to a test using
asterosismology. Finally we review progress on the turbulence-driving and
mixing processes in stellar radiative zones.Comment: Proceedings of IAU GA in Rio, JD4 on Ap stars; 10 pages, 7 figure
GreenHouse gas Observations of the Stratosphere and Troposphere (GHOST): an airborne shortwave-infrared spectrometer for remote sensing of greenhouse gases
GHOST is a novel, compact shortwave-infrared
grating spectrometer, designed for remote sensing of tropospheric
columns of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from an airborne platform. It observes
solar radiation at medium to high spectral resolution (better than 0.3 nm),
which has been reflected by the Earth's surface using similar methods to
those used by polar-orbiting satellites such as the JAXA GOSAT mission,
NASA's OCO-2, and the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor. By using an original
design comprising optical fibre inputs along with a single diffraction
grating and detector array, GHOST is able to observe CO2 absorption
bands centred around 1.61 and 2.06 µm (the same wavelength regions
used by OCO-2 and GOSAT) whilst simultaneously measuring CH4
absorption at 1.65 µm (also observed by GOSAT) and CH4
and CO at 2.30 µm (observed by Sentinel-5P). With emissions
expected to become more concentrated towards city sources as the global
population residing in urban areas increases, there emerges a clear
requirement to bridge the spatial scale gap between small-scale urban
emission sources and global-scale GHG variations. In addition to the benefits
achieved in spatial coverage through being able to remotely sense GHG
tropospheric columns from an aircraft, the overlapping spectral ranges and
comparable spectral resolutions mean that GHOST has unique potential for
providing validation opportunities for these platforms, particularly over the
ocean, where ground-based validation measurements are not available. In this
paper we provide an overview of the GHOST instrument, calibration, and data
processing, demonstrating the instrument's performance and suitability for
GHG remote sensing. We also report on the first GHG observations made by
GHOST during its maiden science flights on board the NASA Global Hawk
unmanned aerial vehicle, which took place over the eastern Pacific Ocean in
March 2015 as part of the CAST/ATTREX joint Global Hawk flight campaign.</p
Enhanced inverse bremsstrahlung heating rates in a strong laser field
Test particle studies of electron scattering on ions, in an oscillatory
electromagnetic field have shown that standard theoretical assumptions of small
angle collisions and phase independent orbits are incorrect for electron
trajectories with drift velocities smaller than quiver velocity amplitude. This
leads to significant enhancement of the electron energy gain and the inverse
bremsstrahlung heating rate in strong laser fields. Nonlinear processes such as
Coulomb focusing and correlated collisions of electrons being brought back to
the same ion by the oscillatory field are responsible for large angle, head-on
scattering processes. The statistical importance of these trajectories has been
examined for mono-energetic beam-like, Maxwellian and highly anisotropic
electron distribution functions. A new scaling of the inverse bremsstrahlung
heating rate with drift velocity and laser intensity is discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure
Phase transitions and configuration space topology
Equilibrium phase transitions may be defined as nonanalytic points of
thermodynamic functions, e.g., of the canonical free energy. Given a certain
physical system, it is of interest to understand which properties of the system
account for the presence of a phase transition, and an understanding of these
properties may lead to a deeper understanding of the physical phenomenon. One
possible approach of this issue, reviewed and discussed in the present paper,
is the study of topology changes in configuration space which, remarkably, are
found to be related to equilibrium phase transitions in classical statistical
mechanical systems. For the study of configuration space topology, one
considers the subsets M_v, consisting of all points from configuration space
with a potential energy per particle equal to or less than a given v. For
finite systems, topology changes of M_v are intimately related to nonanalytic
points of the microcanonical entropy (which, as a surprise to many, do exist).
In the thermodynamic limit, a more complex relation between nonanalytic points
of thermodynamic functions (i.e., phase transitions) and topology changes is
observed. For some class of short-range systems, a topology change of the M_v
at v=v_t was proved to be necessary for a phase transition to take place at a
potential energy v_t. In contrast, phase transitions in systems with long-range
interactions or in systems with non-confining potentials need not be
accompanied by such a topology change. Instead, for such systems the
nonanalytic point in a thermodynamic function is found to have some
maximization procedure at its origin. These results may foster insight into the
mechanisms which lead to the occurrence of a phase transition, and thus may
help to explore the origin of this physical phenomenon.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure
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