Rheological and diffusion properties of a dextran-con A polymer in the presence of Insulin and Magnesium

Previous work carried out in our laboratories has focused on the formation and investigation of a dextran and concanavalin A (con A) based gel, which has the ability to alter its conformational structure in the presence and absence of free and terminal glucoses such that a gel–sol phase transition occurs. Here we report the diffusion and rheological investigations in to the effects of the addition of insulin and varyingconcentrations of magnesium chloride hexahydrate (Mg₂Cl₂6H₂O) at 20 and 37 °C. Rheological examination of glucose-sensitive (dextran-con A) gels were conducted using a cone and plate viscometer used in continual rotation and oscillatory modes. The results are interpreted in terms of the structure of the gel network and suggest rheological assessment provides an effective method of assessing the properties of gel systems. The subsequent testing of such formulations in in-vitro diffusion experiments revealed a reduction in the rate of diffusivity in the insulin marker, poly R-478 dye. The performance of this self-regulating drug delivery system has been examined and the addition of insulin and magnesium chloride may alter the way in which the gel operates as a drug delivery device and in the delivery of insulin. This may have implications for other ligands.     

Ion Flux from the Cathode Region of a Vacuum Arc

This paper reviews the properties of the cathode ion flux generated in the vacuum arc. The structure and distribution of mass erosion from individual cathode spots and the characteristics of current carriers from the cathode region at moderate arc currents are described. An appreciable ion flux (～10% of total arc current) is emitted from the cathode of a vacuum arc. This ion flux is strongly peaked in the direction of the anode, though some ion flux may be seen even at angles below the plane of the cathode surface. The observed spatial distribution of the ion flux is expressed quite well as an exponential function of solid angle. The ion flux is quite energetic, with average ion potentials much larger than the arc voltage, and generally contains a considerable fraction of multiply-charged ions. The average ion potential and ion multiplicity increase significantly for cathode materials with higher arc voltages, but decrease with increasing arc current for a particular material. The main theories concerning ion acceleration in cathode spots are the potential hump theory (PH), which assumes that all ions are created at the same potential, and the gas dynamic theory (GD), which assumes that all ions are created with the same flow velocity. Experimental data on the potentials and energies of individual ions indicates that these theories in their original forms are not quite correct, however extensions or modifications of the PH and GD theories seem very likely to be able to predict correct values for the charge states, potentials, and energies of individual ions.     

Hydroformylation in fluorous solvents

The hydroformylation of long chain alkenes under fluorous biphase conditions and in neat perfluorocarbon solvents is reviewed. Special emphasis is placed upon the authors' evaluation of the steric and electronic influence of perfluoroalkylation on catalyst activity, regioselectivity and retention in the fluorocarbon phase.     

Evidence of shear-dependent boundary slip in newtonian liquids

The European Physical Journal E - The flow of Newtonian fluids was studied by directly measuring the hydrodynamic drainage force acting on a sphere approaching a flat surface. Our force...     

Axial anomaly and index of the overlap hypercube operator

The overlap hypercube fermion is constructed by inserting a lattice fermion with hypercubic couplings into the overlap formula. One obtains an exact Ginsparg-Wilson fermion, which is more complicated than the standard overlap fermion, but which has improved practical properties and is of current interest for use in numerical simulations. Here we deal with conceptual aspects of the overlap hypercube Dirac operator. Specifically, we evaluate the axial anomaly and the index, demonstrating that the correct classical continuum limit is recovered. Our derivation is non-perturbative and therefore valid in all topological sectors. At the non-perturbative level this result had previously only been shown for the standard overlap Dirac operator with Wilson kernel. The new techniques which we develop to accomplish this also for hypercubic kernels are of a general nature and have the potential to be extended to overlap Dirac operators with even more general kernels.Received: 27 October 2003, Published online: 25 February 2004     

Rod–coil block copolymers: An iterative synthetic approach via living free-radical procedures

A modular approach has been developed for the synthesis of rod–coil block copolymers involving the initial preparation of a macroinitiator based on the rod block followed by the growth of the coil segment with living free-radical procedures. The key feature of this strategy is the utilization of an alkoxyamine group from the beginning of the synthesis, which serves as a solubilizing group and ensures that each rod block contains a single initiating fragment. Using this approach permits block copolymers based on insoluble biphenyl ester oligomers to be conveniently prepared with coil segments that range from styrenes to acrylates to 1,3-dienes. The tendency of the rod segments to crystallize is strongly dependent on the weight fraction of the rod segment and the chemical nature of the coil segment. Rod–coil molecules containing at least 25–35 wt % polystyrene or poly(n-butyl acrylate) coil segments show a two-dimensional hexagonal arrangement of rod aggregates, as characterized by transmission electron microscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering. Polyisoprene block copolymers exhibit a lamellar microstructure with short rigid domains in which the rod units lie in an interdigitated smectic C arrangement. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 3640–3656, 2003     

Stability of muon-oxygen bond sites in RBa2Cu3O7

Relative energies of muon probe sites in the chain region of RBa₂Cu₃O₇ (RBCO) are investigated using a molecular quantum chemistry calculation for (Oμ)⁻ embedded in a cluster of point charges to simulate local charge distributions in RBCO. Partial Cu−O chain covalency results in a O-μ...O muon site between the chain and bridging oxygens. However, Cu-μ “hydride”-like sites are suggested by results for nominally ionic clusters.