Renal function and physical fitness after 12-mo supervised training in kidney transplant recipients

To evaluate the effect of a 12-mo supervised aerobic and resistance training, on renal function and exercise capacity compared to usual care recommendations

Continuous Measurement of the Temperature of an Industrial Plant Torch

The present invention concerns an apparatus (10) for continuous measurement of the temperature of an industrial plant or refinery torch, comprising an optical coupling system (11), i.e. a system of lenses and/or mirrors and optical fiber cables, and a spectroscopic analyzer, as well as an electronic processor (14), apt to the management of the data acquisition procedures and of the storage and transmission of the same, in connection with said spectroscopic analyser to enable the passage of data. The present invention additionally concerns methods of continuous measurement of the temperature of an industrial plant or refinery torch by means of said apparatus

A Model for Pore Growth in Anodically etched Gallium Phosphide

The electrochemical etching process of porous gallium phosphide was studied by means of the characteristic current–potential sI–Vd curves. Measurements were performed in H2SO4 0.5-M aqueous solution both in the dark and by illuminating the samples with the 351-nm line of an argon laser. Raman spectroscopy was applied to investigate the surface morphology of the samples prepared under different anodizing conditions within the potentiostatic regime. Based on a few reasonable assumptions, a simple model of pore growth is proposed. The enhancing effect in current intensity due to the branching of pores and the opposite effect due to a concomitant decrease in the effective cross area available for carrier transport are accounted for to explain the main features of the recorded I–V curves

Low temperature time resolved photoluminescence of the 3.1 and 4.2 eV emission bands in Ge-doped silica

Time resolved photoluminescence (PL) has been performed on Ge-doped silica preform in the temperature range 10 to 295 K. Under pulsed KrF laser (5 eV) the well known c~ and [3 emissions have been recorded at different delays from excitation. An accurate analysis of the time resolved spectra taken at different temperatures has shown the composite property of the two PL structures. At room temperature cx components (c~ ], ~2) are peaked at 4.09 and 4.26 eV with a decay time of about 10 ns. The peak energies of [3j and 132 components are calculated at 3.03 and 3.21 eV with lifetimes of 111 and 94 ~s, respectively. As temperature is decreased, a l and o~ 2 display the normal behaviour increasing in intensity down to 125 K; on the contrary, in the same temperature range, 13 n and [32 undergo a quenching of their intensities. Taking into account their mutual spectral characteristics, ~ has been correlated to [31 and c~ 2 to [32. The two sets of emission bands are tentatively attributed to a single center stabilized in different environments of the glassy matrix

The temperature dependence of Cr3+:YAG zero-phonon lines

This paper deals with the photoluminescence temperature dependence of the zero-phonon lines of Cr3+ ions in an yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG) matrix. Experimental data were analysed in the framework of electron-phonon coupling in the quadratic approximation and it was found that Cr3+ ions in the YAG matrix are strongly coupled with lattice vibrations, with a Debye temperature of about 550 K and a value of the quadratic coupling constant of 0.65. The analysis of both homogeneous and inhomogeneous contributions to the photoluminescence linewidth is performed and the results obtained are compared with previously reported data for Fe3+:YAG and discussed with respect to the different dependences of the two transition metal ions on the crystal field

Excitation pattern of the blue emission in Ge-doped silica

The luminescence of Ge-doped glassy SiO2 has been investigated at room temperature using a deuterium lamp as the excitation source in the ultraviolet and vacuum ultraviolet energy range. Two emission bands are observed around 3 and 4 eV as the excitation increases from 4.5 to 8 eV. The peak shift and bandwidth broadening of the emission around 3 eV indicate the overlapping of several bands. We carried out a Gaussian best-fit approach of the detected spectra and extracted the excitation spectra of three distinct emission: a 2.9 eV band with two excitation channels at 4.7 and 5.3 eV and no contribution above 6 eV and the well-known composite beta-band (3.1 eV). The latter is resolved into two Gaussian components whose excitation spectra present three main excitations around 5.1, 6.5 and 7.3 eV. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Characterization of boron doped diamond electrodes during oxidation processes: relationship between electrochemical activity and ageing time

The paper presents the results on the evolution of electronic features and electrochemical activity of boron doped diamond samples during oxidative ageing tests. For 1 cm(2) of electrode surface, the resistance increases from 7 12 to about 200 12 during the first hour of work, than it decreases down to 2 Omega in 350 h. In this condition, high values of heterogeneous electron-transfer rate constants for ferro/ferricyanide are measured in the order of 10(-4) cm/s, indicating a semi-metallic behaviour of the samples. Results from Raman analyses are also presented and a possible explanation of the observed behaviour of the samples is proposed, in terms of both the intrinsic movement of the H within the structure of the film and the variation of free acceptor levels associated to the B atoms in the lattice. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved