WATER TRANSFER BETWEEN WATER AND WATER+NaCl DROPLETS IN EMULSIONS

Water transfer between water droplets and water + NaCl droplets dispersed within emulsions have been pointed out by differential scanning calorimetry. Using a solution- diffusion model, water fluxes have been calculated.     

Can males contribute to the genetic improvement of a species?

In the time evolution of finite populations, the accumulation of harmful mutations in further generations might have lead to a temporal decay in the mean fitness of the whole population. This, in turn, would reduce the population size and so lead to its extinction. The production of genetically diverse offspring, through recombination, is a powerful mechanism in order to avoid this catastrophic route. From a selfish point of view, meiotic parthenogenesis can ensure the maintenance of better genomes, while sexual reproduction presents the risk of genome dilution. In this paper, by using Monte Carlo simulations of age-structured populations, through the Penna model, I compare the evolution of populations with different repoductive regimes. It is shown that sexual reproduction with male competition can produce better results than meiotic parthenogenesis. This contradicts results recently published, but agrees with the strong evidence that nature chose sexual reproduction instead of partenogenesis for most of the higher species.     

Minimal Submanifolds in Sp+3 with Constant Scalar Curvature

Let M be a compact, minimal 3-dimensional submanifold with constant scalar curvature R immersed in the standard sphere S^3+p. In codimension 1, we know from the work that has been done on Chern’s conjecture that M is isoparametric and R = 3D0, R = 3D3 or R = 3D6. In this paper we extend this result from codimension one to compact submanifolds with a flat normal bundle and give a complete classification.     

Integrated Process Production and Extraction of the Fibrinolytic Protease from Bacillus sp. UFPEDA 485

Fibrinolytic proteases are enzymes that degrade fibrin; these enzymes are a promising alternative for thrombolytic therapy, and microorganisms produce them. The aim of this study was to evaluate the optimum conditions for the integrated production and purification of fibrinolytic protease from Bacillus sp. UFPEDA 485. Extractive fermentation was carried out in a culture medium containing soybean flour and by adding polyethylene glycol (PEG) and Na₂SO₄ according to a 2³ experimental design. In all assays, the enzyme preferentially partitioned to the bottom phase (K?<?1), with an optimum activity of 835 U ml^?1 in the bottom phase (salt-rich phase). The best conditions for extractive fermentation were obtained with 18 % PEG 8000 and 13 % Na₂SO₄. Characterization showed that it is a metalloprotease, as a strong inhibition—residual activity of 3.13 %—occurred in the presence of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. It was also observed that enzymatic activity was stimulated in the presence of ions: CaCl₂ (440 %), MgCl₂ (440 %), FeSO₄ (268 %), and KCl (268 %). The obtained results indicate that the use of a low-cost substrate and the integration of fermentation with an aqueous two-phase system extraction may be an interesting alternative for the production of fibrinolytic protease.     

Synthesis of 3‐Methoxyoxetane δ‐Amino Acids with D‐lyxo,D‐ribo,and D‐arabino Configurations

Starting from 1,2‐isopropylidene‐d‐xylose (1), 3‐methoxyoxetane δ‐amino acids with d‐lyxo, d‐ribo, and d‐arabino configurations were synthesized. The early introduction of an azide function at C‐5 of 1 shortened the synthetic pathway. Ring contraction of the intermediate d‐xylono‐1,4‐lactone 6 via triflation and treatment with base led to the corresponding 3‐methoxyoxetane δ‐amino ester with d‐lyxo configuration 7. The analogous procedure for d‐ribono‐1,4‐lactone 16 furnished a mixture of d‐ribo and d‐arabino esters 17 and 18. Hydrolysis of the methyl esters 7, 17, and 18 to their corresponding δ‐amino acids was successful with LiOH in THF, in contrast to that of their 3‐hydroxy analog 11.      

Silica-immobilized N,O-prolinate ruthenium benzylidene complexes for catalytic applications

The immobilization of N,O-prolinate ruthenium benzylidene complexes as hybrid silicas is reported according to three routes: (i) co-condensation of a silylated precursor, 10, with TEOS via the sol–gel process (material M1); (ii) grafting of the same precursor on a preformed mesoporous silica M2 (material M3); entrapment of a parent non-silylated compound, 8, in the preformed mesoporous silica M2 (material M4). They have been characterized by several techniques. Solid state ²⁹Si NMR measurements ensure the anchorage of the Ru-complexed prolinate fragment in the silica matrix of M1 and M3 by the presence of T and Q sites, while only Q sites are observed as expected for M4. Elemental analyses provide the N/Si ratios and TGA experiments give the weight loss of the organics during decomposition and hence indicating the amount of organics inserted in the materials. Adsorption–desorption analyses show that these solids had surface areas ranging from 310 to 620 m²g^?1.These materials were tested as solid catalysts for two different reactions: ring-closing olefin metathesis and hydrosilylation of phenylacetylene with HSiEt₃. Their recyclability has also been investigated. While M1 is the less active for the first reaction giving low conversions and selectivity compared to M3 and M4, it is by far the most efficient catalyst for the second reaction.     

Performance of laser ablation: quadrupole-based ICP-MS coupling for the analysis of single micrometric uranium particles

In this paper we describe the application of laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) coupling to particle analysis, i.e., the determination of the isotopic composition of micrometric uranium particles. The performances of this analysis technique are compared with those of the two reference particle analysis techniques: secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and fission track-thermo-ionization mass spectrometry (FT-TIMS), based on the measurement of the isotopic ratios of ²³⁵U/²³⁸U in particles present in an inter-comparison particulate sample. The agreement of the results obtained using LA-ICP-MS with target values and with the results obtained using FT-TIMS and SIMS was good. Accuracy was equivalent to that of the other two techniques (±3 % deviation). However, relative experimental uncertainties present with LA-ICP-MS (7 %) were higher than those present with FT-TIMS (4.5 %) and SIMS (3 %). Furthermore, measurement yield of LA-ICP-MS coupling was close to that obtained with the same quadrupole ICP-MS for the measurement of a liquid sample (~10^?4), but lower than that obtained with FT-TIMS and SIMS, respectively, by a factor of 10 and 20, although the particles analyzed using LA-ICP-MS were most likely smaller (diameter ~0.6 μm, containing 4–7 fg of ²³⁵U). Nevertheless, thanks to the brevity of the signals obtained, the detection capacity for low isotopic concentrations by LA-ICP-MS coupling is equivalent to that of FT-TIMS, although it remains well below that of SIMS (×15). However, with more sensitive double focusing ICP-MS, performances equivalent to those achieved using SIMS could be obtained.     

The Ground State of Certain Coulomb Systems and Feynman-Kac Exponentials

We give a lower bound for the ground state energy of certain Coulomb Hamiltonians using the Feynman-Kac formula. We show that this bound is very precise for two electron atoms. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.