Ni(0)-CMC-Na - nickel colloids in sodium carboxymethyl-cellulose: catalytic evaluation in hydrogenation reactions

A recyclable catalyst, Ni(0)-CMC-Na, composed of nickel colloids dispersed in a water soluble bioorganic polymer, sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC-Na), was synthesized by a simple procedure from readily available reagents. The catalyst thus obtained is stable and highly active in alkene hydrogenations.     

Volatile constituents of two Hypericum species from Tunisia

The chemical composition of the essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from the aerial parts of the Tunisian Hypericum perforatum and H. ericoides ssp. roberti was elucidated by a combination of GC and GC-MS analyses. The main constituents of the oil of H. perforatum were alpha-pinene (11.8%), alpha-ylangene (10.4%), germacrene-D (9.5%), n-octane (6.5%) and alpha-selinene (5.9%). The oil of H. ericoides ssp. roberti exhibited a higher amount of aliphatic and branched hydrocarbons and the main constituents were n-octane (29.1%), alpha-pinene (10.9%), pulegone (7.7%) and acetophenone (7%). Both qualitative and quantitative differences were observed between the studied oils. This chemical variability seems likely to result from the genetic variability, since samples of both species were collected at the same location and processed under the same conditions.     

Cyclicity of the adjoint of weighted composition operators on the hilbert space of analytic functions

In this paper, we discuss the hypercyclicity, supercyclicity and cyclicity of the adjoint of a weighted composition operator on a Hilbert space of analytic functions.     

A ruled residue theorem for function fields of conics

The ruled residue theorem characterises residue field extensions for valuations on a rational function field. Under the assumption that the characteristic of the residue field is different from 2 this theorem is extended here to function fields of conics. The main result is that there is at most one extension of a valuation on the base field to the function field of a conic for which the residue field extension is transcendental but not ruled. Furthermore the situation when this valuation is present is characterised.     

Invariant measures for the horocycle flow on periodic hyperbolic surfaces

We classify the ergodic invariant Radon measures for the horocycle flow on geometrically infinite regular covers of compact hyperbolic surfaces. The method is to establish a bijection between these measures and the positive minimal eigenfunctions of the Laplacian of the surface. Two consequences arise: if the group of deck transformations G is of polynomial growth, then these measures are classified by the homomorphisms from G ₀ to ℝ where G ₀ ≤ G is a nilpotent subgroup of finite index; if the group is of exponential growth, then there may be more than one Radon measure which is invariant under the geodesic flow and the horocycle flow. We also treat regular covers of finite volume surfaces. The first author was supported by NSF grant 0500630. The second author was supported by NSF grant 0400687.     

An asymptotic formula for the voltage potential in the case of a near-surface conductivity inclusion

We rigorously derive an asymptotic expansion of the steady-state voltage potentials in the presence of a conductivity inclusion of small volume that is close to a planar surface. This new formula is motivated by the practically important inverse problem of imaging a conductivity inclusion near a planar interface. Partly supported by ACI Jeunes Chercheurs (0693) from the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, France. Partially supported by grant R02-2003-000-10012-0 from the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation. Received: December 2, 2003; revised: January 18, 2004     

YCu3Al2, an example of an AB5 structure type

Yttrium tricopper dialuminium, YCu₃Al₂, is isostructural with hexagonal CaCu₅, in which each Cu atom at the 3g(½,0,½) position in space group P6/mmm (No. 191) is partially replaced by an Al atom. The hydrogen‐uptake properties are usually enhanced in other AB₅ structures by aluminium substitution. YCu₅ does not show any hydrogen absorption, and the goal of the present work is to investigate whether aluminium substitution could expand the metal‐atom lattice enough to provide better interstitial positions for hydrogen storage. However, no enthalpy change was observed up to 773 K under 3 MPa static H₂ pressure by differential thermal analysis (DTA) for the title compound. The compound does not show any significant hydrogen absorption/desorption in the pressure‐composition isotherms (P–C–T diagrams) in the temperature range 298–673 K under 3.3 MPa H₂ pressure.     

Determination of nanomole quantities of lower aldehydes by cold-vapour atomic absorption spectrometry

A method is described for the determination of 10–100 nmole of methanal and 20–150 nmole of ethanal and propanal. The method is based on the oxidation of aldehydes to the corresponding acids by mercuric ion which in turn is reduced to elemental mercury, followed by cold-vapour atomic absorption spectrometry. Calibration plots were constructed between the concentration of each aldehyde and absorbance, while the calibration from the conventional cold vapour procedure was used for total aldehydes determination. The method is selective and can be used for aldehyde determination in the presence of ketones, acetals, alcohols, acids, esters, ethers, organic chlorides and epoxides. This simple method is characterised by 98–102% recoveries and standard deviations of 3%.     

Inclusive strange particle production in π+p interactions at 16 GeV/c

The production of $\text{K}{}_{\mathrm{S}}{}^0\text{, Λ}\text{and}\text{Λ}$ is measured in π⁺p reactions at 16 GeV/c. The total strange particle cross section is found to be 4.0 ± 0.3 mb, about 20% of the inelastic cross section. Cross sections for single strange particles and for strange particle pairs are determined, both inclusively and as functions of the charged multiplicity. Relative production rates for different strange particle combinations are compared with the prediction of the isospin statistical model. Inclusive spectra for single particles are studied and it is found the K_S⁰ are produced mostly in the forward hemisphere, most probably by fragmentation of the incident pion into $\text{K}\text{K}\text{π}$. The Λ are mostly backwards, probably deriving from fragmentation of the proton into ΛK pairs. The $\text{Λ}$ tend to be produced forwards, but evidence is found for central $\text{Λ}\text{Λ}$ production. Distributions in rapidity of the Λ particles from π⁺p interactions are compared in terms of the factorisation hypothesis. Results are given on the Λ transversal polarisation.