‘Sugaring’ carbosilane dendrimers via hydrosilylation

Two new pathways to introduce carbohydrate derivatives into dendritic carbosilane structures were explored. Pathway one utilised alcoholysis of a chlorosilane with a protected hydroxyethyl glycoside resulting in Si-O linkages. Pathway two proceeds via a hydrosilylation reaction of a protected allyl glycoside with a carbosilane containing Si-H end groups in the presence of a platinum catalyst, thus leading to Si-C linked structures.     

The reaction of aldrin,photoaldrin and isodrin with phthaloyl peroxide

The reactions of aldrin and photoaldrin with phthaloyl peroxide in carbon tetrachloride provided the respective carbon tetrachloride adducts, epoxides and cyclic phthalates of the corresponding cis-diols.Under the same conditions isodrin yielded the half-cage ketone (14), the cyclic phthalate (17) and the novel half-cage adduct (15).     

Release of ultrafine particles from three simulated building processes

Building activities are recognised to produce coarse particulate matter but less is known about the release of airborne ultrafine particles (UFPs; those below 100 nm in diameter). For the first time, this study has investigated the release of particles in the 5–560 nm range from three simulated building activities: the crushing of concrete cubes, the demolition of old concrete slabs, and the recycling of concrete debris. A fast response differential mobility spectrometer (Cambustion DMS50) was used to measure particle number concentrations (PNC) and size distributions (PNDs) at a sampling frequency of 10 Hz in a confined laboratory room providing controlled environment and near–steady background PNCs. The sampling point was intentionally kept close to the test samples so that the release of new UFPs during these simulated processes can be quantified. Tri–modal particle size distributions were recorded for all cases, demonstrating different peak diameters in fresh nuclei (<10 nm), nucleation (10–30 nm) and accumulation (30–300 nm) modes for individual activities. The measured background size distributions showed modal peaks at about 13 and 49 nm with average background PNCs ~1.47 × 10⁴ cm⁻³. These background modal peaks shifted towards the larger sizes during the work periods (i.e. actual experiments) and the total PNCs increased between 2 and 17 times over the background PNCs for different activities. After adjusting for background concentrations, the net release of PNCs during cube crushing, slab demolition, and ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ recycling events were measured as ~0.77, 19.1, 22.7 and 1.76 (×10⁴) cm⁻³, respectively. The PNDs were converted into particle mass concentrations (PMCs). While majority of new PNC release was below 100 nm (i.e. UFPs), the bulk of new PMC emissions were constituted by the particles over 100 nm; ~95, 79, 73 and 90% of total PNCs, and ~71, 92, 93 and 91% of total PMCs, for cube crushing, slab demolition, dry recycling and wet recycling, respectively. The results of this study firmly elucidate the release of UFPs and raise a need for further detailed studies and designing health and safety related exposure guidelines for laboratory workplaces and operational building sites.     

Instabilities in quantum-dot spin-VCSELs

A modified spin-flip model is used to investigate the stability of optically-pumped quantum-dot spin-vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers. in terms of pump intensity and polarization. The stability maps exhibit pronounced polarization switching in the stable regions. Periodic oscillations in unstable regions are attributed to competition between spin relaxation and birefringence.     

Short-time dynamics of partial wetting

When a liquid drop contacts a wettable surface, the liquid spreads over the solid to minimize the total surface energy. The first moments of spreading tend to be rapid. For example, a millimeter-sized water droplet will wet an area having the same diameter as the drop within a millisecond. For perfectly wetting systems, this spreading is inertially dominated. Here we identify that even in the presence of a contact line, the initial wetting is dominated by inertia rather than viscosity. We find that the spreading radius follows a power-law scaling in time where the exponent depends on the equilibrium contact angle. We propose a model, consistent with the experimental results, in which the surface spreading is regulated by the generation of capillary waves.     

A Fair Allocation of County Cricket Opponents

Each team in the English County Cricket Championship plays against some other teams twice a year, and others only once. This paper describes a case study whose aim was to overcome this inherent unfairness by producing a four-year schedule of opponents which was as fair as possible, and could be easily seen to be fair, while still allowing for traditional rivalries. The schedule also needed to be satisfactory in regard to several other constraints and objectives. Various simple heuristics were used; these are described in some detail. Of particular interest is the effectiveness of a ‘local non-worsening’ approach when the objective is to find any feasible solution. This is equivalent to simulated annealing at a constant temperature of absolute zero.     

A novel monochromator for experiments with ultrashort X‐ray pulses

Aiming at advancing storage‐ring‐based ultrafast X‐ray science, over the past few years many upgrades have been undertaken to continue improving beamline performance and photon flux at the Femtoslicing facility at BESSY II. In this article the particular design upgrade of one of the key optical components, the zone‐plate monochromator (ZPM) beamline, is reported. The beamline is devoted to optical pump/soft X‐ray probe applications with 100 fs (FWHM) X‐ray pulses in the soft X‐ray range at variable polarization. A novel approach consisting of an array of nine off‐axis reflection zone plates is used for a gapless coverage of the spectral range between 410 and 1333 eV at a designed resolution of E/ΔE = 500 and a pulse elongation of only 30 fs. With the upgrade of the ZPM the following was achieved: a smaller focus, an improved spectral resolution and bandwidth as well as excellent long‐term stability. The beamline will enable a new class of ultrafast applications with variable optical excitation wavelength and variable polarization.     

Algebraic stabilization of explicit numerical integration for extremely stiff reaction networks

In contrast to the prevailing view in the literature, it is shown that even extremely stiff sets of ordinary differential equations may be solved efficiently by explicit methods if limiting algebraic solutions are used to stabilize the numerical integration. The stabilizing algebra differs essentially for systems well-removed from equilibrium and those near equilibrium. Explicit asymptotic and quasi-steady-state methods that are appropriate when the system is only weakly equilibrated are examined first. These methods are then extended to the case of close approach to equilibrium through a new implementation of partial equilibrium approximations. Using stringent tests with astrophysical thermonuclear networks, evidence is provided that these methods can deal with the stiffest networks, even in the approach to equilibrium, with accuracy and integration timestepping comparable to that of implicit methods. Because explicit methods can execute a timestep faster and scale more favorably with network size than implicit algorithms, our results suggest that algebraically-stabilized explicit methods might enable integration of larger reaction networks coupled to fluid dynamics than has been feasible previously for a variety of disciplines.     

Generalizing the Cooper-pair instability to doped Mott insulators

Copper oxides become superconductors rapidly upon doping with electron holes, suggesting a fundamental pairing instability. The Cooper mechanism explains normal superconductivity as an instability of a fermi-liquid state, but high-temperature superconductors derive from a Mott-insulator normal state, not a fermi liquid. We show that precocity to pair condensation with doping is a natural property of competing antiferromagnetism and d-wave superconductivity on a singly-occupied lattice, thus generalizing the Cooper instability to doped Mott insulators, with significant implications for the high-temperature superconducting mechanism.