Combining Spontaneous Polymerization and Click Reactions for the Synthesis of Polymer Brushes: A “Grafting Onto” Approach

Two novel benzofulvene monomers bearing propargyl or allyl groups have been synthesized by means of readily accessible reactions, and were found to polymerize spontaneously by solvent removal, in the apparent absence of catalysts or initiators, to give the corresponding polybenzofulvene derivatives bearing clickable propargyl or allyl moieties. The clickable propargyl and allyl groups were exploited in appropriate click reactions to develop a powerful and versatile “grafting onto” synthetic methodology for obtaining tailored polymer brushes.     

Surface bundles over surfaces: new inequalities between signature,simplicial volume and Euler characteristic

Geometriae Dedicata - Given a pants decomposition $$\mathcal {PC} = \{\sigma _1, \ldots , \sigma _{\xi }\}$$ on a hyperbolizable surface $$\Sigma $$ and a vector $${{\underline{c}}}= (c_1, \ldots ,...     

Hafnia nanoparticles – a model system for graphene growth on a dielectric

We study graphene growth on hafnia (HfO₂) nanoparticles by chemical vapour deposition using optical microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. We find that monoclinic HfO₂ nanoparticles neither reduce to a metal nor form a carbide while nucleating nanometer domain‐sized few layer graphene. Hence we regard this as an interesting non‐metallic catalyst model system with the potential to explore graphene growth directly on a (high‐k) dielectric.

     

Asymptotic analysis of a second-order singular perturbation model for phase transitions

We study the asymptotic behavior, as ${\varepsilon}$ tends to zero, of the functionals ${F^k_\varepsilon}$ introduced by Coleman and Mizel in the theory of nonlinear second-order materials; i.e., $$F^k_\varepsilon(u):=\int\limits_{I} \left(\frac{W(u)}{\varepsilon}-k\,\varepsilon\,(u')^2+\varepsilon^3(u'')^2\right)\,dx,\quad u\in W^{2,2}(I),$$ where k?>?0 and ${W:\mathbb{R}\to[0,+\infty)}$ is a double-well potential with two potential wells of level zero at ${a,b\in\mathbb{R}}$ . By proving a new nonlinear interpolation inequality, we show that there exists a positive constant k ₀ such that, for k?<?k ₀, and for a class of potentials W, ${(F^k_\varepsilon)}$ ??(L ¹)-converges to $$F^k(u):={\bf m}_k \, \#(S(u)),\quad u\in BV(I;\{a,b\}),$$ where m _k is a constant depending on W and k. Moreover, in the special case of the classical potential ${W(s)=\frac{(s^2-1)^2}{2}}$ , we provide an upper bound on the values of k such that the minimizers of ${F_\varepsilon^k}$ cannot develop oscillations on some fine scale and a lower bound on the values for which oscillations occur, the latter improving a previous estimate by Mizel, Peletier and Troy.     

On preconditioned MHSS iteration methods for complex symmetric linear systems

We propose a preconditioned variant of the modified HSS (MHSS) iteration method for solving a class of complex symmetric systems of linear equations. Under suitable conditions, we prove the convergence of the preconditioned MHSS (PMHSS) iteration method and discuss the spectral properties of the PMHSS-preconditioned matrix. Numerical implementations show that the resulting PMHSS preconditioner leads to fast convergence when it is used to precondition Krylov subspace iteration methods such as GMRES and its restarted variants. In particular, both the stationary PMHSS iteration and PMHSS-preconditioned GMRES show meshsize-independent and parameter-insensitive convergence behavior for the tested numerical examples.     

Discrimination and Provenances of Phoenician Red Slip Ware Using both the Solid State Electrochemistry and Petrographic Analyses

Solid state electrochemistry based on the voltammetry of immobilized microparticles (VIMP) methodology is applied to a series of 80 Phoenician Red Slip samples from the archaeological sites of Motya (Sicily, Italy), Mogador (Morocco), Ramat‐Rahel (Israel), Sulky (Sardinia, Italy), Tas Silg (Malta), Pantelleria (Italy), and Cádiz (Spain), dated from the 8^th to the 6^th century BC. Upon attachment of sub‐microsamples to graphite electrodes in contact with aqueous H₂SO₄ electrolyte, voltammetric features due to the reduction of Fe(III) minerals and the oxidation of Fe(II) ones, complemented with electrocatalytic effects on oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions, provide characteristic electrochemical fingerprints for pottery samples. A consistent sample grouping discriminating between different potteries from different archaelogical sites, is obtained, all results being consistent with morphological, compositional and mineralogical data. Petrographic analysis supports the grouping, defining the manufacture and firing procedure for the different archaeological context.     

Allurin and egg jelly coat impact on in-vitro fertilization success of endangered Albanian water frog,Pelophylax shqipericus

Abstract

Amphibian egg-jelly coat plays an important role in successful fertilization and development. Here, we ask whether proteins like allurin in the jelly coats of frog eggs might influence fertilization rate success. Using in vitro fertilization of Albanian water frog, Pelophylax shqipericus, we found that body cavity eggs or eggs deprived of jelly coat were not fertilized, compromising the success of in vitro fertilization procedure. When de-jellied eggs were inseminated with sperm suspension, the fertilization efficiency is dramatically decreased even inhibited, suggesting that the gel structure is one of the major factors in the achievement of fertilization in the frogs. Fertilization of de-jellied eggs with sperm pre-treated with egg jelly coat, restored the fertilization competency. Such a result suggests that egg jelly coat probably guides the sperm to the egg surface while maintaining the fertilization ability, contributing to a successful in vitro fertilization of Pelophylax shqipericus.     

A Note on Closed Degrees of Difficulty of the Medvedev Lattice

We consider some nonprincipal filters of the Medvedev lattice. We prove that the filter generated by the nonzero closed degrees of difficulty is not principal and we compare this filter, with respect to inclusion, with some other filters of the lattice. All the filters considered in this paper are disjoint from the prime ideal generated by the dense degrees of difficulty. Mathematics Subject Classification: 03D30.     

On the fractional chromatic index of a graph and its complement

Jensen and Toft conjectured that for a graph with an even number of vertices, either the minimum number of colours in a proper edge colouring is equal to the maximum vertex degree, or this is true in its complement. We prove a fractional version of this conjecture.     

Solid‐State NMR of PEGylated Proteins

PEGylated proteins are widely used in biomedicine but, in spite of their importance, no atomic‐level information is available since they are generally resistant to structural characterization approaches. PEGylated proteins are shown here to yield highly resolved solid‐state NMR spectra, which allows assessment of the structural integrity of proteins when PEGylated for therapeutic or diagnostic use.