Entropic effect implication for change in polymer coils swelling state in the demixing enthalpy recovery of aqueous poly(vinyl methyl ether) solutions

Time‐dependent demixing enthalpy recovery behavior of aqueous poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) solutions exhibits distinct recovery characteristics in three concentration regions. The absence of recovery behavior below a water concentration of 38.3 wt % indicates that the PVME coil is in a globular state. The typically sigmoidal recovery behavior of demixing enthalpy above 38.3 wt % is ascribed to the reswelling of the collapsed polymer coils induced by the entropic effect. The increase in difference between the upper and lower limits indicates the continued swelling of the PVME coils. Above 65 wt %, a dominant diluting effect can be observed, and a much longer phase separation time is needed to reach the expected lower limit. In contrast, the recovery of demixing enthalpy in a wide range of water concentration (from 38.3 to 90 wt %) exhibits the same feature. The infrared spectroscopy results are in agreement with the above macroscopic differential scanning calorimetry results. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57, 142–151     

Supercritical superprocesses: Proper normalization and non-degenerate strong limit

Suppose that X = {X_t, t≥0; P_μ} is a supercritical superprocess in a locally compact separable metric space E. Let φ0 be a positive eigenfunction corresponding to the first eigenvalue λ_0 of the generator of the mean semigroup of X. Then Mt := e~(-λ_0t)〈φ0,X_t〉 is a positive martingale. Let M_∞ be the limit of M_t. It is known(see Liu et al.(2009)) that M_∞ is non-degenerate if and only if the L log L condition is satisfied. In this paper we are mainly interested in the case when the L log L condition is not satisfied. We prove that, under some conditions, there exist a positive function γ_t on [0,∞) and a non-degenerate random variable W such that for any finite nonzero Borel measure μ on E,lim/t→∞γ_t〈φ0,X_t〉=W, a.s.-P_μ~.We also give the almost sure limit of γ_t〈f, X_t〉for a class of general test functions f.     

Comparative pharmacokinetic study of four major bioactive components after oral administration of Zhi‐Zi‐Hou‐Po decoction in normal and corticosterone‐induced depressive rats

A highly selective and efficient LC–MS/MS method was developed to determine the plasma concentration of magnolol, hesperidin, neohesperidin and geniposide following oral administration of Zhi‐Zi‐Hou‐Po decoction in normal and depressed rats. Plasma samples were pretreated by protein precipitation with methanol. Chromatographic separation was performed on an XTerra^® MS C₁₈ column using a gradient elution with a mobile phase composed of acetonitrile–0.1% aqueous formic acid. The proposed method was validated to be specific, accurate and precise for the analytes determination in plasma samples. The calibration curves displayed good linearity over definite concentration ranges for the analytes. The intra‐ and inter‐day precision of the proposed method at three different levels were all within <11.13% and the relative errors ranged from ?8.46 to 8.93%. The recovery of the four compounds ranged from 82.72 to 89.08% and no apparent matrix effect was observed during sample analysis. After full validation, the established method was successfully applied for comparing the pharmacokinetics of four components between normal and depressed rats. The results showed that the AUC and C_max of four analytes in depressed rats were significantly different from those in normal rats and might provide helpful information to guide the clinical use of Zhi‐Zi‐Hou‐Po to treat depression.     

Properties of G-martingales with finite variation and the application to G-Sobolev spaces

As is known, if $B={\left(B_t\right)}_{t\in [0,T]}$ is a $G$-Brownian motion, a process of form ${\int }_0^t{\eta }_{s}d{〈B〉}_s?{\int }_0^{t}2G\left({\eta }_s\right)ds$, $\eta \in M_G^1(0,T)$, is a non-increasing $G$-martingale. In this paper, we shall show that a non-increasing $G$-martingale cannot be form of ${\int }_0^t{\eta }_{s}ds$ or ${\int }_0^t{\gamma }_{s}d{〈B〉}_s$, $\eta ,\gamma \in M_G^1(0,T)$, which implies that the decomposition for generalized $G$-Itô processes is unique: For arbitrary $\zeta \in H_G^1(0,T)$, $\eta \in M_G^1(0,T)$ and non-increasing $G$-martingales $K,L$, if ${\int }_0^t{\zeta }_{s}d{B}_s+{\int }_0^t{\eta }_{s}ds+K_t=L_t,t\in [0,T],$then we have $\eta \equiv 0$, $\zeta \equiv 0$ and$K_t=L_t$. As an application, we give a characterization to the $G$-Sobolev spaces introduced in Peng and Song (2015).     

On a Spanning K-tree Containing Specified Vertices in a Graph

Acta Mathematicae Applicatae Sinica, English Series - A k-tree is a tree with maximum degree at most k. In this paper, we give a sharp degree sum condition for a graph to have a spanning k-tree in...     

A rapid and sensitive UHPLC–MS/MS method for the determination of celosin A in rat plasma with application to pharmacokinetic study

Celosin A (CA), a natural compound isolated from Celosia argentea L., has been shown significant hepatoprotective effect on AHNP‐induced liver injury. This study described a rapid and sensitive ultra‐high‐pressure liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) assay for determination of CA in rat plasma. Methanol‐mediated precipitation was used for sample pretreatment. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a T3 column with gradient elution using water and acetonitrile as mobile phase. Determination was obtained using an electrospray ionization source in negative selected reaction monitoring mode at the transitions of m/z 793.3 → m/z 661.2 and m/z 955.6 → m/z 793.2 for CA and IS, respectively. The assay was linear over the concentration range 0.25–2500 ng/mL (r > 0.995) with a lowest limit of quantification (LLOQ) of 0.25 ng/mL. The intra‐ and inter‐day precisions (RSD) were 1.65–9.84 and 2.46–13.49%, respectively, while accuracy (RR) ranged from 96.21 to 99.45%, respectively. The recovery ranged from 95.09 to 102.22% and the matrix effect from 98.29 to 100.13%. The analyte was stable under the tested storage conditions. The method has been successfully applied to a preclinical pharmacokinetic study in rats after a single intravenous (2 mg/kg) or oral (50 mg/kg) administration. The oral bioavailability of CA was ~1.94%; in addition, there was no difference between male and female rats. This is the first time of the use of an UHPLC–MS/MS method for determination of CA concentration in rat plasma and for evaluation of its pharmacokinetic behavior.     

Lone-Pair Enhanced Birefringence in an Alkaline-Earth Metal Tin(II) Phosphate BaSn2(PO4)2

The first alkaline-earth metal tin(II) phosphate, BaSn₂(PO₄)₂, has been discovered, which consists of layered structures constructed from strictly alternating [SnO₃]⁴⁻ and [PO₄]³⁻ moieties. This compound is expected to have a large birefringence with Δn≈0.071 at 1064 nm, owing to the presence of stereochemically active lone pair metal cations.     

Efficient Syntheses of Traumatic Lactone and Rhizobialide

Herein, we report the total synthesis of traumatic lactone and rhizobialide by utilizing allenoic acid to construct the lactone ring. The key starting materials, allenoic acids, could be prepared by the ATA (allenation of terminal alkynes) of a terminal alkyne with an aldehyde that contained a protected hydroxyl group followed by hydrolysis. Importantly, the asymmetric synthesis could be realized just by replacing racemic diphenylprinol with (R)- or (S)-diphenylprinol to deliver the optically active allenoate.     

Mechanism of Catalytic Effect of Water Clusters on the Oxidation of Phosphine Gas

Russian Journal of Physical Chemistry A - The mechanism of PH3 oxidation is investigated at B3LYP/6-311+g (d, p) level using density functional theory calculation with n = 0–6 water molecules...     

Impact of post-injection strategy on the physicochemical properties and reactivity of diesel in-cylinder soot

Post injection has significant benefit in the reduction of diesel soot emissions. Therefore, there is a need to understand the effect of post-injection strategy on soot physicochemical properties and reactivity because they play an important role in soot oxidation process that governs the final soot emissions. This work focuses on the impact of post injection on the physicochemical properties and reactivity of diesel in-cylinder soot using a main plus post injection (M*P) and a single injection (M) strategy. The soot was sampled by a developed total cylinder sampling system, and the dividing points of soot formation-dominant and oxidation-dominant phases were used for studying the impacts of post injection on the characteristics of in-cylinder soot. The physicochemical properties of the soot samples, including primary particle size, nanostructure, carbon chemical state and surface functional groups, were characterized. The soot reactivity was evaluated in terms of peak temperature, burnout temperature and apparent activation energy. In the oxidation-dominant phase, the M*P soot initially possesses smaller primary particle size, shorter fringe length, larger tortuosity, lower sp²/sp³ hybridization ratio of carbon atoms and higher content of aliphatic CH groups than the M soot. The beneficial influence of physicochemical properties on soot reactivity when using post injection is validated by the thermogravimetric data, which shows that the M*P soot is more reactive than the M soot at the onset of the oxidation-dominant phase. In the M*P case, the soot generated from the main-injection combustion has lower reactivity than the soot from the post-injection combustion after they experience the soot formation-dominant phase. The results indicate that the use of post injection leads to in-cylinder soot with physicochemical properties that favor reactivity. The enhancement of reactivity means that the soot will be more readily oxidized in the subsequent combustion process, and consequently contributes to a reduction in final soot emissions.