Crystal structure of monomethylammonium tribromocadmate(II)

CH₃NH₃CdBr₃ crystallizes in the space group Ccm2₁, a = 13.693(1) Å, b = 7.906(1) Å, c = 6.886(1) Å, V = 745.46(15) ų, Z = 4, D _x = 3.42 Mg m^–3. The structure of the title compound is one-dimensional consisting of infinite chains made of face sharing CdBr₆ octahedra. The methylammonium groups are situated in the space between chains. The cations and anions are joined by hydrogen bonding.     

Quantum Effect on the Energy Levels of Eu2+ Doped K2Ca2(SO4)3 Nanoparticles

Quantum confinement effect on the energy levels of Eu²⁺ doped K₂Ca₂(SO₄)₃ nanoparticles has been observed. The broad photoluminescence (PL) emission band of Eu²⁺ doped K₂Ca₂(SO₄)₃ microcrystalline sample observed at ～436 nm is found to split into two narrow well resolved bands, located at 422 and 445 nm in the nanostructure form of this material. This has been attributed to the reduction in the crystal field strength of the nanomaterials, which results in widening the energy band gap and splitting the broad 4f⁶5d energy level of Eu²⁺. Energy band gap values of the micro and nanocrystalline K₂Ca₂(SO₄)₃ samples were also determined by measuring the UV–visible absorption spectra. These values are 3.34 and 3.44 eV for the micro and nanocrystalline samples, respectively. These remarkable results suggest that activators having wide emission bands might be subjected to weak crystal strength via nanostructure materials to modify their electronic transitions. This might prove a powerful technique for producing new-advanced materials for use in the fields of solid state lasers and optoelectronic devises.     

Elastoacoustic model with uncertain mechanical properties for ultrasonic wave velocity prediction: application to cortical bone evaluation

The axial transmission technique can measure the longitudinal wave velocity of an immersed solid. An elementary model of the technique is developed with a set of source and receivers placed in a semi-infinite fluid coupled at a plane interface with a semi-infinite solid. The acoustic fluid is homogeneous. The solid is homogeneous, isotropic, and linearly elastic. The work is focused on the prediction of the measured velocity (apparent velocity) when the solid is considered to have random material properties. The probability density functions of the random variables modeling each mechanical parameter of the solid are derived following the maximum entropy principle. Specific attention is paid to the modeling of Poisson's ratio so that the second-order moments of the velocities remain finite. The stochastic solver is based on a Monte Carlo numerical simulation and uses an exact semianalytic expression of the acoustic response derived with the Cagniard-de Hoop method. Results are presented for a solid with the material properties of cortical bone. The estimated mean values and confidence regions of the apparent velocity are presented for various dispersion levels of the random parameters. A sensibility analysis with respect to the source and receivers locations is presented.     

Chemical composition and in vitro antifungal and antioxidant activity of the essential oil and methanolic extract of Teucrium sauvagei Le Houerou

The chemical composition and the in vitro antifungal and antioxidant activity of the essential oil and the methanolic leaf extracts of Teucrium sauvagei Le Houerou, an endemic medicinal plant growing in Tunisia, have been studied. More than 35 constituents having an abundance >or=0.2% were identified in the oil. beta-Eudesmol, T-cadinol, alpha-thujene, gamma-cadinene, and sabinene were the prevalent constituents. Results of the antifungal activity tests indicated that the methanolic extract inhibited the in vitro growth of seven dermatophytes, whereas the essential oil showed average inhibition against only three dermatophytes. In vitro antioxidant properties of the essential oil and the methanolic extract were determined by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and ABTS (2,2'-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid)) assays and compared to those of the synthetic antioxidant Trolox. Due to their antifungal and antioxidant properties, the essential oil and the methanolic extract of T. sauvagei may be of use as natural preservative ingredients in food and/or pharmaceutical industries.     

Flat map areal topography in Macaca mulatta based on combined MRI and histology

Flattened representations are a useful approach to represent the convoluted complex surface of the neocortex of primates and other large-brained mammals. In this study, we compared the flattened representation of neocortical areas obtained from the recently published MRI and histology atlas of the rhesus monkey brain (Saleem KS, Logothetis NK. A combined MRI and histology atlas of the rhesus monkey brain in stereotaxic coordinates. London: Academic; 2007) with other previously published maps. Our results confirm that flat map representations are advantageous due to their ease of use and that current flat maps are well comparable to each other. Some differences arise due to different distinguishing criteria and here too flat maps can help to reveal them.     

Crystal structure and electrical properties study of 4-aminopyridinium chloridobismuthate (III) (C5N2H7)4.HBi2Cl11

The crystal structure of (C₅N₂H₇)₄.HBi₂Cl₁₁ has been determined at room temperature by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The compound crystallizes in the triclinic system with Pī space group. The crystal structure consists of two asymmetric inequivalent molecules of 4-aminopyridinium and anionic HBi₂Cl₁₁ chains. The HBi₂Cl₁₁ anionic chains stacked along the a-axis are formed with Bi₂Cl₁₁ dimers connected to each other via hydrogen atoms. The crystal packing is stabilized with N–H...Cl hydrogen bonds connecting aminopyridinium units to the HBi₂Cl₁₁ anionic chains. The title compound exhibits an order–disorder phase transition at 338 K. The AC electrical conductivity properties of (C₅N₂H₇)₄.HBi₂Cl₁₁ compound have been investigated by means of impedance spectroscopy measurements over wide ranges of frequencies and temperatures, 200 Hz to 5 MHz and 303 to 418 K, respectively. Detailed analysis of the impedance spectrum suggests that the electrical properties of the material are strongly temperature dependent. The frequency-dependent conductivity data were fitted in the Jonscher's law: $ \sigma \left( \omega \right) = \sigma (0) + A{\omega^n} $ . The nature of variation of DC conductivity suggests Arrhenius type of electrical conductivity.     

Spectral Properties of <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-Quasi-<Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis>-hyponormal Operators

In this paper, we study the k-quasi-M-hyponormal operator and mainly prove that if T is a k-quasi-M-hyponormal operator, then \(\sigma _{ja}(T)\backslash \{0\}=\sigma _{a}(T)\backslash \{0\}\), and the spectrum is continuous on the class of all k-quasi-M-hyponormal operators; let \(d_{AB}\in B(B(H))\) denote either the generalized derivation \(\delta _{AB}= L_{A}-R_{B}\) or the elementary operator \(\Delta _{AB} =L_{A}R_{B}- I\), we show that if A and \(B^{*}\) are k-quasi-M-hyponormal operators, then \(d_{AB}\) is polaroid and generalized Weyl’s theorem holds for \(f(d_{AB})\), where f is an analytic function on \(\sigma (d_{AB})\) and f is not constant on each connected component of the open set U containing \(\sigma (d_{AB})\). In additon, we discuss the hyperinvariant subspace problem for k-quasi-M-hyponormal operators.