Indoor heterogeneous photochemistry of furfural drives emissions of nitrous acid

People spend approximately 80% of their time indoor, making the understanding of the indoor chemistry an important task for safety. The high surface-area-to-volume ratio characteristic of indoor environments leads the semi-volatile organic compounds (sVOCs) to deposit on the surfaces. Using a long path absorption photometer (LOPAP), this work investigates the formation of nitrous acid (HONO) through the photochemistry of adsorbed nitrate anions and its enhancement by the presence of furfural. Using a high-resolution proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS), this work also investigates the surface emissions of VOCs from irradiated films of furfural and a mix of furfural and nitrate anions. Among the emitted VOCs, 2(5H)-furanone/2-Butenedial was observed at high concentrations, leading to maleic anhydride formation after UV irradiation. Moreover, the addition of potassium nitrate to the film formed NO_x and HONO concentrations up to 10 ppb, which scales to ca. 4 ppb for realistic indoor conditions. This work helps to understand the high levels of HONO and NO_x measured indoors.     

On the time-domain scattering by a passive classical frequency dependent wedge-shaped region in a lossy dispersive medium

The time-scattering of an electromagnetic wave by a wedge-shaped region in a lossy medium, both with frequency dependent electric characteristics, is analyzed for plane wave and line source illuminations. New exact analytical expressions, satisfying explicitely the causality and allowing useful physical decompositions of the field, are obtained in these cases, using the particularities of the harmonic response in Sommerfeld-Maliuzhinets integral, especially original properties of the spectral function attached to it.     

DynMo-TE: Dynamic simulation model of space reactor power system with thermoelectric converters

A space reactor power system (SRPS) has been developed for avoidance of single point failures in reactor cooling and energy conversion. The sectored compact reactor (SCoRe) in this system is lithium-cooled and the reactor core is divided into six equal sectors with liquid metal heat pipes dividers. These reactor sectors are neutronically, but not thermal-hydraulically, coupled. Each sector has its own primary and secondary circulating lithium loops, which are thermally coupled both in a SiGe thermoelectric (TE) power conversion assembly (PCA) and a thermoelectric conversion assembly (TAC) that powers the electromagnetic pumps in the primary and secondary loops. Each secondary loop also has a separate, segmented radiator panel that is optimized for low specific mass and low liquid lithium inventory. The primary loops transport the thermal power generated in the reactor to six PCAs that nominally supply a total of 111.5 kW_e to the load at 450 V DC. Each of the 12 primary and secondary loops has its own bellows-type accumulator that is designed to regulate the lithium pressures in the loops. A dynamic simulation model of this thermoelectric SRPS (DynMo-TE) has been developed and used to investigate the transient operation of the system during a startup from a fully-thawed condition at 600 K, to nominal steady-state operation at which the lithium coolant exits the reactor at only 1179 K. Also investigated is the load-following characteristic of the SCoRe-TE SRPS, following a change in the electrical load demand.     

Kinetics of catalyzed and non-catalyzed oxidation of soot from a diesel engine

To comply with the new regulations on particulate matter, car manufacturers more and more commonly use diesel particulate filters (DPF). The working of these systems needs to periodically burn soot that has been accumulated during the loading of the DPF. This paper describes the kinetics of the non-catalytic and catalytic oxidation of real diesel soot with oxygen. From these experiments, mechanisms for catalyzed and non-catalyzed soot oxidation have been proposed.     

Tunable blazed gratings

In this paper, we report on the design, fabrication, and characterization of blazed gratings made tunable by electrostatic actuation. We combine KOH etching and deep-reactive ion etching (DRIE) to fabricate tunable blazed gratings (TBGs) on silicon-on-insulator wafers with optical-quality mirror surfaces on {111} crystalline planes. The actuators that are used to position the individual grating elements are designed to reduce rotation to levels acceptable for spectroscopic applications. We characterize the fabricated devices mechanically, verify the rotation-reduction design, and demonstrate the functionality of TBGs as tunable filters.     

A new family of sugar-inducible expression vectors for Escherichia coli

A set of 11 expression vectors was constructed, each of themharbouring a cloning cassette under the control of the promoter.Some of these vectors enable expression of foreign proteinsin the cytoplasm, while others include a synthetic sequencecoding for a very efficient secretion signal sequence. Otherfeatures are an fl origin of replication (in plus or minus orientation)and a promoter^up mutation that enhances the already very highlevel of expression from these vectors. With such a versatilevector family, cloning, sequencing and sitedirected mutagenesiscan be performed on the same vector, and the level of expressioncan be defined according to the specific constraints of a givenprotein.     

Mlcrolasers based on silica microspheres

Light can be confined efficiently in the high-Q, small-volume whispering-gallery-modes observed in silica microspheres. By coupling these microspheres to eroded optical fibers and fiber tips, direct mapping of the whispering-gallery modes has been achieved and the mode numbers have been assessed. The properties of these modes have allowed us to obtain laser action with very low thresholds in Nd-doped silica microspheres. Further projects in the field of non-linear optics and cavity quantum electrodynamics are described.     

Linearly bounded infinite graphs

Linearly bounded Turing machines have been mainly studied as acceptors for context-sensitive languages. We define a natural class of infinite automata representing their observable computational behavior, called linearly bounded graphs. These automata naturally accept the same languages as the linearly bounded machines defining them. We present some of their structural properties as well as alternative characterizations in terms of rewriting systems and context-sensitive transductions. Finally, we compare these graphs to rational graphs, which are another class of automata accepting the context-sensitive languages, and prove that in the bounded-degree case, rational graphs are a strict sub-class of linearly bounded graphs.A preliminary version of this article appeared in MFCS 2005.     

Conformal proton therapy for prostate carcinoma

The suppression of apoptosis may contribute to the carcinogenicity of the peroxisome proliferators (PPs), a class of non-genotoxic rodent hepatocarcinogens. Our previous work demonstrated that the PP nafenopin suppressed both spontaneous and transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFbeta1)-induced hepatocyte apoptosis both in vivo and in vitro. Here, we extend these observations by demonstrating the ability of nafenopin to suppress apoptosis induced by other major candidates for the signalling of cell death in the liver. Treatment of rat or mouse hepatocyte monolayers with TGFbeta1 or the DNA damaging drugs etoposide or hydroxyurea induced high levels of apoptosis. Western blot analysis did not support a role for either p53 or p21waf1 in etoposide-induced apoptosis in rat hepatocytes. Treatment of mouse hepatocytes with an agonistic anti-Fas antibody also resulted in an induction of high levels of apoptosis. Pre-addition and continued exposure to nafenopin suppressed apoptosis induced by all three stimuli. Overall, our studies demonstrate that the ability of nafenopin to protect hepatocytes from apoptosis is not restricted to species or apoptotic stimulus. It is possible, therefore, that the PPs may suppress apoptosis by acting on diverse signalling pathways. However, it seems more likely that nafenopin suppresses hepatocyte apoptosis elicited by each death stimulus by impinging on a core apoptotic mechanism.