Thermal behavior and kinetic modeling of (NH4)4UO2(CO3)3 decomposition under non-isothermal conditions

The thermal behavior and kinetic analysis of ammonium uranyl carbonate decomposition has been studied in inert gas, O₂, and 90%Ar–10%H₂ atmospheres under non-isothermal conditions. The results showed a dependence on specific surface area with the decomposition temperature of ammonium uranyl tri-carbonate (AUC). Specific surface area increases and reaches a maximum between 300 and 400 °C and decreases at T > 400 °C. The reaction paths of AUC decomposition under the three atmospheres were proposed. The integral methods Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO) and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS) were used for the kinetic analysis. The activation energy averages are 58.01 and 56.19 kJ/mol by KAS and FWO methods, respectively.

     

Effect of Hydrostatic Pressure on Optical Properties of TlBr and TlCl

We present first principles calculations of optical properties of binary semiconductor compounds TlBr and TlCl.Dependences of dielectric function,reflectivity and refractive index on hydrostatic pressure are calculated using self-consistent scalar relativistic full potential linear augmented plane wave method(FP-LAPW) within a generalized gradient approximation(GGA).They are compared with previous calculations and experimental measurements.Good agreements are found.     

Formation of pearl-necklace monomorphic G-quadruplexes in the human CEB25 minisatellite

CEB25 is a human minisatellite locus, composed of slightly polymorphic 52-nucleotide (nt) tandem repeats. Genetically, most if not all individuals of the human population are heterozygous, carrying alleles ranging from 0.5 to 20 kb, maintained by mendelian inheritance but also subject to germline instability. To provide insights on the biological role of CEB25, we interrogated its structural features. We report the NMR structure of the G-quadruplex formed by the conserved 26-nt G-rich fragment of the CEB25 motif. In K(+) solution, this sequence forms a propeller-type parallel-stranded G-quadruplex involving a 9-nt central double-chain-reversal loop. This long loop is anchored to the 5'-end of the sequence by an A·T Watson-Crick base pair and a potential G·A noncanonical base pair. These base pairs contribute to the stability of the overall G-quadruplexstructure, as measured by an increase of about 17 kcal/mol in enthalpy or 6 °C in melting temperature. Further, we demonstrate that such a monomorphic structure is formed within longer sequence contexts folding into a pearl-necklace structure.     

Bandgap characters in GaAs‐based ternary alloys

The existence and origins of the bowing character in the bandgap variation of GaAs‐based ternary alloys are theoretically investigated based on two different computational methods. Within the framework of the virtual crystal approximation (VCA), both the empirical sp³s * tight‐binding (TB) method with, and without, the inclusion of the spin‐orbit coupling effects, and the first‐principle full‐potential linear augmented plane wave (FP‐LAPW) technique are applied on both the common‐cation GaSb_xAs_1‐x and the common‐anion Ga_1‐xIn_xAs alloys. These methods are used to calculate the bandgap energy, the partial and total densities of states and the constituent charge ionicity versus the composition x. The results show that the bowing behavior exists in the case of common‐cation alloys (GaSb_xAs_1‐x) as a manifestation of a competition between the anion atoms (As and Sb) in trapping the made‐available‐cationic charges. The bowing parameter is found to be proportional to the electronegativity characters of the competing anions (χanion). Consistent with this in the case of common‐anion alloys (Ga_1‐xIn_xAs), as due to the lack of anion competition, the bowing is just absent and the variation of bandgap energy is found to be rather linear. The excellent agreement between our theoretical results and recent photoluminescence data has corroborated our claim. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

DOTASQ as a prototype of nature-inspired G-quadruplex ligand

DOTASQ (for DOTA-templated Synthetic G-quartet) is the first prototype of nature-inspired G-quadruplex ligand: its design, founded on a possible intramolecular G-quartet formation, enables it to interact with G-quadruplex DNA via an unprecedented nature-mimicking binding mode, based on the association between two G-quartets, one being native (quadruplex) and the other one artificial (ligand).     

Photocatalytic Degradation of Oxytetracycline in Aqueous Solutions with TiO2 in Suspension and Prediction by Artificial Neural Networks

In this study, the photocatalytic degradation of oxytetracycline (OTC) in aqueous solutions has been studied under different conditions such as initial pollutant concentrations, amount of catalyst, and pH of the solution. Experimental results showed that photocatalysis was clearly the predominant process in the pollutant degradation, since OTC adsorption on the catalyst and photolysis are negligible. The optimal TiO₂ concentration for OTC degradation was found to be 1.0 g/L. The apparent rate constant decreased, and the initial degradation rate increased with increasing initial OTC concentration with the other parameters kept unchanged. Subsequently, data obtained from photocatalytic degradation were used for training the artificial neural networks (ANN). The Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm, log sigmoid function in the hidden layer, and the linear activation function in the output layer were used. The optimized ANN structure was four neurons at the input layer, eighteen neurons at the hidden layer, and one neuron at the output layer. The application of 18 hidden neurons allowed to obtain the best values for R² and the mean squared error, 0.99751 and 7.504e–04, respectively, showing the relevance of the training, and hence the network can be used for final prediction of photocatalytic degradation of OTC with suspended TiO₂.     

Cohomologie des espaces symétriques de Drinfeld et cocycles harmoniques

We show that the cohomology groups of the Drinfeld symmetric space $\text{Ω}{}^{\mathrm{(n+1)}}$ defined over a local field of any characteristic are GL_n+1-isomorphic to certain spaces of harmonic cochains on the Bruhat–Tits building. To cite this article: Y. Aït Amrane, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 338 (2004).     

Effect of acid and alkali treatments of a forest waste,Pinus brutia cones,on adsorption efficiency of methyl green

The removal of methyl green (MG) dye from aqueous solutions using acid- or alkali-treated Pinus brutia cones (PBH and PBN) waste was investigated in this work. Adsorption removal of MG was conducted at natural pH, namely, 4.5 ± 0.10 for PBH and near 4.8 ± 0.10 for PBN. The pseudo-second-order model appeared to be the most appropriate to describe the adsorption process of MG on both PBN and PBH with a correlation coefficient R² > 0.999. Among the tested isotherm models, the Langmuir isotherm was found to be the most relevant to describe MG sorption onto modified P. brutia cones with a correlation factor R² > 0.999. The ionic strength (presence of other ions: Cl^?, Na⁺, and SO₄^2?) also influences the adsorption due to the change in the surface properties; it had a negative impact on the adsorption of MG on these two supports. A reduction of 68.5% of the adsorption capacity for an equilibrium dye concentration Ce of 30 mg/L was found for the PBH; while with PBN no significant influence of the ionic strength on adsorption was observed, especially in the presence of NaCl for dye concentrations superior to 120 mg L^?1.