Microchemical characterization of paintings — A case study

Summary The fundamental importance of scientific research for the preservation and restoration of works of art is uncontestable. The methods described in this paper, such as light microscopy, microchemical tests, emission spectroscopy, chromatography, scanning electron analysis, electron microprobe analysis and infrared spectroscopy, are of special significance in this filed. Nevertheless a better understanding of the problems that arise out of new special questions of art history can be obtained only by the right interpretation of the data obtained by scientific methods.

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Mikrochemische Charakterisierung von Gemälden

Zusammenfassung Die grundlegende Bedeutung wissenschaftlicher Forschung für die Erhaltung und Restaurierung von Kunstwerken ist unbestritten. Die hier beschriebenen Methoden (Lichtmikroskopie, mikrochemische Reaktionen, Emissionsspektroskopie, Chromatographie, Rasterelektronen-Analyse und Infrarotspektroskopie) sind hierfür von zunehmender Bedeutung. Sie ermöglichen ein besseres Verständnis neuerer kunsthistorischer Probleme nur durch die richtige Interpretation der Ergebnisse wissenschaftlicher Methoden.

     

Kinetics and mechanism of the acid-catalysed decarboxylation of thecis-α- andcis-β-carbonato(3,6-dimethyl-1,8-diamino-3,6-diazaoctane)-cobalt(III) ions

Summary The acid-catalysed decarboxylation of thecis-- andcis--[CoL(CO₃)]⁺ complexes (L = 3,6-dimethyl-1,8-diamino-3,6-diazaoctane) have been studied over a range of HClO₄ concentrations and the temperatures 25, 35 and 45° at I = 1.0 mol dm^–3 (NaClO₄). The rate expression takes the form k_obs = k₀ + k₁[H⁺] where k_obs is the observed first order rate constant at constant hydrogen ion concentration. The k₀ term makes only a minor contribution to the overall reaction. Both complexes display solvent deuterium isotope effects ofca. 2.6 for the acid-catalysed decarboxylation, consistent with a rapid proton pre-equilibrium mechanism. Activation parameters have been determined and the mechanism of the reaction discussed. The magnitude of the solvent isotope effect is consistent with an A-1 type mechanism involving formation of a 5-coordinate intermediate.     

Synthesis and structural characterisation of [(Ph3P)AuCo(CO)3(PPh3)]

Summary [(Ph₃P)AuCo(CO)₃(PPh₃)] has been synthesised from [(Ph₃P)AuCo(CO)₄], PPh₃v and Me₃NO in acetonitrile. Its molecular structure, determined by single-crystal x-ray crystallography, consists of an almost linear P-Au-Co-P arrangement in which the Co atom is in a slightly distorted trigonalbipyramidal geometry, with the Au and P atoms occupying the apical sites. The Au-Co bond length of 2.450(1) ? is shorter than that reported for [(Ph₃P)AuCo(CO)₄]. The carbonyl ligands are bent towards the Au atom and the mean Au-Co-C angle is 81(1)°.     

A criterion for the uniform distribution of sequences in compact metric spaces

LetX be a compact metric space, le μ be a non-negative normalized Borel measure onX and letf be a measurable bounded real-valued function defined onX such thatf is μ-almost everywhere continuous and different from zero. It is proved that a sequence (x _n ),n=1,2, … of points inX is μ-uniformly distributed if and only if for every Borel setE?X with μ(Bd(E))=0 we have \(\mathop {\lim }\limits_{N \to \infty } \frac{1}{N}\sum\limits_{n = 1}^N {f(x_n )} 1_E (x_n ) = \int\limits_E {f(x)d\mu (x)} ,\) where 1 _E denotes the characteristic function ofE andbdE the boundary ofE. Furthermore some quantitative aspects and generalizations of this theorem are discussed.     

Comparison of Boolean algebras

In this work, some results related to superatomic Boolean interval algebras are presented, and proved in a topological way. Let x be an uncountable cardinal. To each I x, we can associate a superatomic interval Boolean algebra B _I of cardinality x in such a way that the following properties are equivalent: (i) I I x, (ii) B _I is a quotient algebra of B _J, and (iii) there is an homomorphism f from B _J into B _I such that for every atom b of B _I, there is an atom a of B _J satisfying f(a)=b. As a corollary, there are 2 ^x isomorphism types of superatomic interval Boolean algebras of cardinality x. This case is quite different from the countable one.     

The physical properties of linear and action-angle coordinates in classical and quantum mechanics

The quantum harmonic oscillator is described in terms of two basic sets of coordinates: linear coordinates x, p_x and angular coordinates eⁱ, P (action-angle variables). The angular coordinate eⁱ is assumed unitary, the conjugate momentum p is assumed Hermitian, and eⁱ and p are assumed to be a canonical pair. Two transformations are defined connecting the angular coordinates to the linear coordinates. It is found that x, p_x can be physical, i.e., Hermitian and canonical, only under constraints on the p eigenvalue spectrum. The conclusion is that eⁱ can be a unitary operator. A parallel analysis of the classical harmonic oscillator is done with equivalent results.     

A priori-Schranken für diskrete Lösungen monotoner Operatorgleichungen und Anwendungen

Summary Operator equationsTu=f are approximated by Galerkin's method, whereT is a monotone operator in the sense of Browder and Minty, so that existence results are available in a reflexive Banach spaceX. In a normed spaceY error estimates are established, which require a priori bounds for the discrete solutionsu _h in the norm of a suitable space . Sufficient conditions for the uniform boundedness u _{h Z} =O(1) ash0 are proved. Well-known error estimates in [3] for the special caseX=Y=Z are generalized by this. The theory is applied to quasilinear elliptic boundary value problems of order 2m in a bounded domain . The approximating subspaces are finite element spaces. Especially the caseX=W ₀ ^{m, p} (), 1<p<,Y=W ₀ ^{m. 2} (),Z=W ₀ ^{m. max (2,p)} ()W^m, () is treated. Some examples for 1<p<2 are considered. Forp2 a refined technique is introduced in the author's paper [7].

     

Photochemistry of molecules relevant to the atmosphere: photodissociation of nitric acid in the gas phase.

This Minireview gives an account of the photochemical decay of nitric acid HNO3 in the gas phase, which has been well investigated under bulk and molecular-beam conditions. Due to the importance of this molecule in atmospheric chemistry, attention was paid to the irradiation regions around 300 and 200 nm, where solar photolysis of HNO3 is expected to be particularly efficient. While the low-energy region is characterized by the products OH and NO2, the high-energy region gives rise to a variety of photochemical decay pathways, dominated by channels which lead to the products HONO + O in different electronic states.