Schwarzschild Interior in Conformally Flat Form

A unified conformally flat form of the static Schwarzschild interior space–times is provided. A new parameter that allows us to analyze the symmetry (spherical, plane or hyperbolic) of the three well known classes of metrics is introduced. In the spherically symmetric case, this parameter is related to the historical limit value of the mass to radius ratio found by Schwarzschild for a sphere of incompressible fluid.     

W ± Z 0 signals from the strongly interacting symmetry breaking sector

We study the possibilities of unraveling the underlying dynamics of the symmetry breaking sector through the scattering of longitudinal weak bosons inpp collisions.W ^± Z ⁰ channels are considered in the context of a general approach based on chiral perturbation theory, supplemented by a unitarization procedure. The channels considered here are the relevant ones for symmetry breaking sector dynamics such as technicolor, where aI=J=1 resonance appears in the spectrum. DirectWZ production from quark annihilation viap _tc-W mixing is also considered and compared withWZ production from theWZ fusion mechanism.     

Low-pressure DC air plasmas. investigation of neutral and ion chemistry

The neutral and charged species present in a direct current (dc) hollow cathode, gas flow, air reactor are experimentally studied by quadrupole mass spectrometry. The degree of ionization of the plasma and the electron mean temperature with decreasing air pressure, for constant discharge current, are measured with a double Langmuir probe. The chemical composition of the plasma changes appreciably over the 3 x 10(-3) to 5 x 10(-2) mbar range investigated: at the lowest pressures studied, O2 dissociation is up to 60% and the concentration of NO is half that of N2; concerning ions, NO+ and N2+ are dominant for the whole pressure range. A kinetic model of the plasma including electrons, neutrals, and positive ions is developed to account for the experimental observations; it is consistent with energy balance and predicts that heterogeneous processes are the main source of NO and that the contribution of ions to the global chemistry of neutrals is of minor significance even for the lowest pressures.     

Stabilization of Co in layered double hydroxides (LDHs) by microwave-assisted ageing

Co-containing layered double hydroxides at different pH have been prepared, and aged following different routes. The solids prepared have been characterized by element chemical analysis, powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses (both in nitrogen and in oxygen), FT-IR and Vis-UV spectroscopies, temperature-programmed reduction and surface area assessment by nitrogen adsorption at −196 °C. The best conditions found to preserve the cobalt species in the divalent oxidation state are preparing the samples at controlled pH, and then submit them to ageing under microwave irradiation.     

Low-temperature rotational relaxation of CO in self-collisions and in collisions with Ne and He

The low-temperature rotational relaxation of CO in self-collisions and in collisions with the rare-gas atoms Ne and He has been investigated in supersonic expansions with a combination of resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) spectroscopy and time-of-flight techniques. For the REMPI detection of CO, a novel 2 + 1' scheme has been employed through the A(1)Pi state of CO. From the measured data, average cross sections for rotational relaxation have been derived as a function of temperature in the range 5-100 K. For CO-Ne and CO-He, the relaxation cross sections grow, respectively, from values of approximately 20 and 7 A(2) at 100 K to values of approximately 65-70 and approximately 20 A(2) in the 5-20 K temperature range. The cross section for the relaxation of CO-CO grows from a value close to 40 A(2) at 100 K to a maximum of 60 A(2) at 20 K and then decreases again to 40 A(2) at 5 K. These results are qualitatively similar to those obtained previously with the same technique for N(2)-N(2), N(2)-Ne, and N(2)-He collisions, although in the low-temperature range (T < 20 K) the CO relaxation cross sections are significantly larger than those for N(2). Some discrepancies have been found between the present relaxation cross sections for CO-CO and CO-He and the values derived from electron-induced fluorescence experiments.     

Determination of vitamin E acid succinate in biodegradable microspheres by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

A simple, rapid, and reproducible reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method is applied to the routine assay of vitamin E acid succinate in biodegradable microspheres. Vitamin E acid-succinate-containing poly-(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) microspheres are prepared by the solvent evaporation method. The starting drug-polymer ratio is 1:10 (w/w) and the total amount of drug and polymer processed is always 440 mg. The content of vitamin E acid succinate in the microspheres is evaluated by HPLC. Chromatography is carried out isocratically at 25 degrees C +/- 0.5 degrees C on an Extrasil ODS-2 column with a mobile phase composed of methanol-water (97:3, v/v) (pH 5.6) at a flow rate of 2 mL/min and UV detection at 284 nm. Parameters such as linearity, limits of quantitation (LOQ) and detection (LOD), precision, accuracy, recovery, specificity, and ruggedness are studied as reported in the International Conference on Harmonization guidelines. The stability of vitamin E acid succinate is also studied with satisfactory results after 48 h at 25 degrees C. The method is selective and linear for drug concentrations in the range 15-210 micro g/mL. The LOQ and LOD are 15 and 3 micro g/mL, respectively. The results for accuracy studies are good. Values for coefficient of variation for intra- and interassay are 2.08% and 2.32%, respectively. The mean percentage of vitamin E acid succinate in the recovery studies is 99.52% +/- 0.81%. The mean loading efficiency for microspheres is 96.53% +/- 1.31%.     

The influence of anions and kink structure on the enantioselective electro-oxidation of glucose

The electro-oxidation of glucose in sulfuric acid using well-defined chiral platinum single crystal electrodes has been demonstrated previously to be an enantioselective reaction with the degree of enantioselectivity being dependent on the surface density of kink sites. The chirality of the surface originates from the microstructure of the kink site whereby the sequence of the three fundamental adsorption sites [111], [100] and [110] constituting the kink may be viewed from the electrolyte phase either in a clockwise (R-enantiomer) or anti-clockwise (S-enantiomer) fashion. In the present study, this work is extended to examine the role of both kink structure and specifically adsorbed anions on the mechanism of chiral discrimination. Kinked surfaces based on [111] terraces (Pt[976],Pt[643] and Pt[531]),[100] terraces (Pt[721]) and [110] terraces (Pt[11,7,1] and Pt[841]) have been investigated and both the magnitude and potential dependence of the enantioselective electro-oxidation of glucose characterised. Additionally, the changes engendered by interchanging the character of the two steps whose confluence form the kink whilst maintaining the symmetry of the terrace has also been examined via a comparison of Pt[643] and Pt[431]. Low energy electron diffraction (LEED) was used to confirm that all surfaces when clean and thermally annealed were in their (1 x 1) state. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) confirmed this finding for flame-annealed electrodes after cooling in hydrogen. Three general points emerge from the electro-oxidation studies: (i) The highest degree of enantioselectivity is exhibited by kink sites adjacent to [111] and [110] terraces in sulfuric acid. (ii) The adsorption of specifically adsorbed anions like bisulfate/sulfate influences strongly the chiral discriminatory behaviour of all surfaces. (iii) No electro-oxidation takes place at [110] sites, as evidenced by complete overlap of the [110] step hydrogen underpotential deposition (UPD) charge in glucose and glucose-free solutions. Nonetheless it is deduced that [110] sites must play some part in the initial orienting of the glucose molecule prior to reaction. Ideas based on these findings are developed in order to rationalise in particular the influence of anion adsorption on the initial enantioselective interaction of the glucose molecule with the chiral surface.