BACKGROUND The determination of reference intervals for the concentration of total S-nitrosothiols (RSNOs) in blood is a highly controversial topic, likely because of the inherent instability of these species. Most currently available techniques to quantify RSNOs in blood require considerable sample handling and multiple pretreatment steps during which light exposure is difficult to completely ...

Sub-micron sized airborne particulate matter (PM) is not collected well on regular quartz or glass fiber filter papers. We used a micro-orifice uniform deposit impactor (MOUDI) to fractionate PM into six size fractions and deposit it on specially designed high purity thin aluminum disks. The MOUDI separated PM into fractions 56-100 nm, 100-180 nm, 180-320 nm, 320-560 nm, 560-1000 nm, and 1000-1...

Several different joint assemblies were evaluated in support of a manufacturing technology for diffusion bonding a beryllium armor tile to a copper alloy heat sink for fusion reactor applications. Because beryllium reacts with all but a few elements to form intermetallic compounds, this study considered several different surface treatments as a means of both inhibiting these reactions and promo...

Electrochemical current and potential transients were measured during anodic oxidation of aluminum, on time scales of 0.1–100 ms after anodizing began. Aluminum foil samples were prepared by surface treatments yielding oxide films of thickness 5 nm or smaller. A mathematical model was developed for the transients based on steady-state and transient conduction phenomena established for much thic...