A convenient synthesis of 4-aminoaryl substituted cyclic imides

An efficient one-step synthesis of 4-nitro-N-aryl substituted glutarimides, succinimides and maleimides in polyphosphoric acid is described together with the subsequent reduction to the corresponding anilines. The scope and limitation of this cyclocondensation are presented.     

Numerical solution of an extended White–Metzner model for eccentric Taylor–Couette flow

In this study, we have developed a new numerical approach to solve differential-type viscoelastic fluid models for a commonly used benchmark problem, namely, the steady Taylor—Couette flow between eccentric cylinders. The proposed numerical approach is special in that the nonlinear system of discretized algebraic flow equations is solved iteratively using a Newton–Krylov method along with an inverse-based incomplete lower-upper preconditioner. The numerical approach has been validated by solving the benchmark problem for the upper-convected Maxwell model at a large Deborah number. Excellent agreement with the numerical data reported in the literature has been found. In addition, a parameter study was performed for an extended White–Metzner model. A large eccentricity ratio was chosen for the cylinder system in order to allow flow recirculation to occur. We detected several interesting phenomena caused by the large eccentricity ratio of the cylinder system and by the viscoelastic nature of the fluid. Encouraged by the results of this study, we intend to investigate other polymeric fluids having a more complex microstructure in an eccentric annular flow field.     

Student Performance on Asking Questions,Identifying Variables,and Formulating Hypotheses

The purpose of this study was to extend attempts to develop a research framework for encoding and analyzing students' responses to the tasks of asking questions, identifying variables, and formulating hypotheses, and to use the research framework to analyze and classify the responses of seventh grade students. A performance-based assessment instrument was used. The topic was heat and temperature. The responses of 364 seventh grade students were used to develop a framework for evaluating student written responses which allows researchers to classify student responses according to their general completeness and usefulness, and according to the manner in which responses were incomplete or not useful. Interrater reliability was 82%. Seventh grade students who reportedly have had instruction in the science processes did not perform well on this performance-based assessment.     

Magnetic order induced birefringence and critical behaviour of the long range order parameter in NiO

The optical linear magnetic birefringence of single-domain NiO crystals was measured at temperatures above and below the antiferromagnetic phase transition. The analysis of the experimental data yield a Néel temperature of T_N = (523.7 ± 0.2)K and a critical exponent β = 0.325^+0.01_-0.02 which determines the temperature behaviour of the magnetic long range order parameter $\text{S}\text{?}\text{～ (}\text{1?T}\text{T}{}_{\mathrm{N}}\text{)}{}^{\mathrm{\beta }}$. This critical behaviour of S? is found to be continued to temperatures well below T_N.     

Translational diffusion constants of the amino acids: measurement by NMR and their use in modeling the transport of peptides

In this work, the translational self-diffusion constants, DT's, of 12 amino acids (Ala, Arg, Asn, Asp, Cys, Glu, His, Ile, Lys, Met, Phe, and Ser) are measured by field gradient NMR and extrapolated to infinite dilution. The experiments were carried out in D2O at 298 K at pD approximately =3.5 in 50 mM sodium phosphate buffer. Of these 12 amino acids, 6 are being reported for the first time (Asp, Cys, Glu, His, Lys, and Met) and the remaining 6 (Ala, Arg, Asn, Ile, Phe, and Ser) are compared with DT's from the literature. When corrected for differences in solvent viscosity and temperature, the discrepancy between DT's measured in the present work and those reported previously is always <8%, which is reasonable given the range of values reported previously by different groups. With the present work, DT's for all of the amino acids are now available. These diffusion constants are then used in modeling studies of the diffusion and free solution electrophoretic mobility, mu, of several model peptides. For this set of peptides, it is shown that modeling using revised input parameters results in improved agreement between model and experimental mobilities.     

Atomistic simulations of shock-induced alloying reactions in Ni/Al nanolaminates

We employ molecular dynamics simulations with a first principles-based many body potential to characterize the exothermic alloying reactions of nanostructured Ni/Al multilayers induced by shock loading. We introduce a novel technique that captures both the initial shock transit as well as the subsequent longer-time-scale Ni3Al alloy formation. Initially, the softer Al layers are shock heated to a higher temperature than the harder Ni layers as a result of a series of shock reflections from the impedance-mismatched interfaces. Once initiated, the highly exothermic alloying reactions can propagate in a self-sustained manner by mass and thermal diffusion. We also characterize the role of voids on the initiation of alloying. The interaction of the shock wave with the voids leads not only to significant local heating (hot spots) but also directly aids the intermixing between Al and Ni; both of these phenomena contribute to a significant acceleration of the alloying reactions.     

Performance of cryogenic probes as a function of ionic strength and sample tube geometry

The pursuit for more sensitive NMR probes culminated with development of the cryogenic cooled NMR probe. A key factor for the sensitivity is the overall resistance of RF circuitry and sample. Lowering the coil temperature to approximately 25 K and the use of superconducting coil material has greatly reduced the resistance contribution of the hardware. However, the resistance of a salty sample remains the same and evolves as the major factor determining the signal-to-noise ratio. Several approaches have been proposed to reduce the resistance contribution of the sample. These range from encapsulating proteins in a water cavity formed by reverse micelles in low viscosity fluids to the optimal selection of low mobility, low conductivity buffer ions. Here we demonstrate that changing the sample diameter has a pronounced effect on the sample resistance and this results in dramatic improvements of the signal-to-noise ratio and shorter pi/2 pulses. We determined these parameters for common 5 mm NMR tubes under different experimental conditions and compared them to the 2, 3 and 4 mm tubes, in addition, 5mm Shigemi tubes were included since these are widely used. We demonstrate benefits and applicability of studying NMR samples with up to 4M salt concentrations in cryogenic probes. Under high salt conditions, best results in terms of short pi/2 pulses and high signal-to-noise ratios are obtained using 2 or 3mm NMR tubes, especially when limited sample is available. The 4 mm tube is preferred when sample amounts are abundant at intermediate salt conditions.     

Thin-layer chromatography and multivariate data analysis of willow bark extracts

In most cases the pharmacological activity of plant extracts is not assigned to single components and often not all active ingredients are known. Approaches other than those considering single compounds only to analyze plant material have proven helpful for a better characterization of extracts in their entirety. In this study extracts of willow bark are analyzed by high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) and two different pharmacological tests [the 2,2'-azobis (2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride reaction and the xanthine/xanthine oxidase reaction] with the help of multivariate data analysis. Described are two models using the results of the chromatographic study of 22 various extracts of willow bark and their pharmacological properties. The chromatographic data are obtained by a special TLC scanner that enables measurement of HPTLC tracks simultaneously in the range of lambda = 200-400 nm. Additionally, the developed models are used to predict the activity of another three extracts of willow bark demonstrating the quality of the model.     

The synthesis and liquid crystal transition temperatures of some weakly polar nematic methyl (E)-[trans-4-substituted-cyclohexyl]-allyl ethers

Abstract

We have introduced an oxygen atom and a carbon-carbon double bond with a trans-configuration (E) into the terminal alkyl chain of a wide variety of liquid crystalline cyclohexane derivatives to produce a variety of new methyl (E)-allyl ethers. The melting points and tendency to form smectic mesophases are often low, while nearly all of the compounds prepared exhibit a nematic phase. Thus, even two-ring derivatives can exhibit nematic phases over a wide temperature range (≤80°C), sometimes starting below room temperature (T _m≈10°C). Comparisons with the corresponding derivatives incorporating either just an oxygen atom or just a carbon-carbon double bond in the same position indicate that synergetic effects lead to broader nematic phases than would otherwise have been expected. Thus many of the new methyl (E)-allyl ethers exhibit nematic phases over a wider temperature range than the corresponding materials with an unsubstituted alkyl chain attached to the cyclohexyl ring. The new compounds are easily prepared from known starting materials. Many intermediates are themselves liquid crystalline. This allows investigation of the relationship between liquid crystal transition temperatures and the nature of the terminally substituted alkyl chain (for example, incorporating C[dbnd]C, OH, CO₂C₂H₅ and OCH₃ groups).