Laboratory measurements were performed to characterize the geometrical effects in the calibration of the NASA's cloud absorption radiometer (CAR). The measurements involved three integrating sphere sources (ISSs) operated at different light levels and experimental setups to determine radiance variability. The radiance gradients across the three ISS apertures were 0.2%-2.6% for different visible...

In order to compare and evaluate the atomization process occurring in several types of graphite furnaces for atomic absorption spectrometry, the authors estimated temporal variations in the gas temperature by using a two-line method under the assumption of a Bolzmann distribution. The atomization furnaces employed were a graphite tube, a graphite tube coated with pyrolitic carbon, a graphite tu...

This study aimed at determining blood concentrations of lead (B-Pb) and cadmium (B-Cd) in a group of 1215 healthy blood donors (895 males, 320 females) and 758 children (397 boys, 361 girls) aged 10 years, sampled in 1996-1998 in four districts of the Czech Republic. The analysis was performed using atomic absorption spectrometry. The median B-Pb values were lower in children (34 mg/L) than in ...

The aim of this work was to verify whether there are statistically significant correlation between the concentrations of lead in blood (Pb-B) and urine (Pb-U). Electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry was used in the determination of lead concentration in biological material. Venous blood and spot urine were collected from workers occupationally exposed (95), adults (130) and children up t...

In this work, methodologies to determine manganese (Mn) in urine and whole blood by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry were developed. The use of Ru, Rh, and Zr as permanent modifiers, Pd as a modifier in solution, and the condition without modifier were investigated for the direct determination of Mn in urine and whole blood samples. The best results for Mn in urine and in whole blo...

There is intense interest in developing new novel nanostructured photoanodes for water splitting. It is therefore important that methods to analyze the effect of nanostructuring on water splitting yields are developed in order to rationalize the relative merits of this approach for different materials. In this study the dependence of charge separation efficiency (η(sep)) on potential during pho...

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) techniques are used with oneor two-dimensional arrays of piezoresistive probes for parallel imaging. We present a newly designed AFM platform to drive these passivated piezoresistive cantilever arrays in air and liquid environments. Large area imaging in liquid as well as qualitative and quantitative analysis of biological cells are demonstrated by the means of pie...