The beta decay of the radioactive members of the mass-eight and -twelve triads has been studied with a spiral-orbit spectrometer having a 1.3% resolution. The end point, half-life and log-ft values respectively are: for N{sup 12}, 16.37 {+-} 0.06 MeV, 11.43 {+-} 0.05 milliseconds, and 4.17; for B{sup 12}, 13.40 {+-} 0.05 MeV, 20.6 {+-} 0.2 msec and 4.11; for B{sup 8}, 14 MeV (broad), 0.75 {+-} 0.02 sec, and 5.72; and for Li{sup 8}, 13 Mev (broad), 0.87 {+-} 0.01 sec, and 5.67. The mass excesses in millimass units are: for N{sup 12}, 22.48 {+-} 0.06; for B{sup 12}, 18.19 {+-} 0.06; for B{sup 8}, 27.08 {+-} 0.13; and for Li{sup 8}, 24.97 {+-} 0.09. The shapes of the Kurie function for the mirror pairs indicate positron and electron transitions to the same levels of the daughter nuclide, with greater percentages in the positron branches relative to the ground-state transitions because of the higher energy available. The Li{sup 8} and B{sup 8} shapes are consistent with the shape of the alpha spectrum following the decay of the Be{sup 8} daughter. Less than 1% of the Li{sup 8} transition and less than 5% of the B{sup 8} transition go to …

Samples from three time-series sediment traps deployed in the Santa Monica Basin off the California coast were analyzed to study the flux and scavenging of uranium and thorium series isotopes. Variations of uranium and thorium series isotopes fluxes in the water column were obtained by integrating these time-series deployment results. Mass and radionuclide fluxes measured from bottom sediment traps compare favorably with fluxed determined from sediment core data. This agreement suggests that the near-bottom sediment traps are capable of collecting settling particles representative of the surface sediment. The phase distributions of {sup 234}Th in the water column were calculated by an inverse method using sediment trap data, which help to study the variations of {sup 234}Th scavenging in the water column. Scavenging and radioactive decay of {sup 234}Th are the two principal processes for balancing {sup 234}Th budget in the water column. The residence times of dissolved and particulate {sup 234}Th were determined by a {sup 234}Th scavenging model.

Manganese model complexes, relevant to the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) in photosynthesis, were studied with Mn K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES), Mn Kb X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES), and vibrational spectroscopy. A more detailed understanding was obtained of the influence of nuclearity, overall structure, oxidation state, and ligand environment of the Mn atoms on the spectra from these methods. This refined understanding is necessary for improving the interpretation of spectra of the OEC. Mn XANES and Kb XES were used to study a di-(mu)-oxo and a mono-(mu)-oxo di-nuclear Mn compound in the (III,III), (III,IV), and (IV,IV) oxidation states. XANES spectra show energy shifts of 0.8 - 2.2 eV for 1-electron oxidation-state changes and 0.4 - 1.8 eV for ligand-environment changes. The shifts observed for Mn XES spectra were approximately 0.21 eV for oxidation state-changes and only approximately 0.04 eV for ligand-environment changes. This indicates that Mn Kb XES i s more sensitive to the oxidation state and less sensitive to the ligand environment of the Mn atoms than XANES. These complimentary methods provide information about the oxidation state and the ligand environment of Mn atoms in model compounds and biological systems. A versatile spectroelectrochemical apparatus was designed to aid the interpretation …