Quassinoids from Picrasma crenata

From woods of Picrasma crenata, a new stereoisomer dihydronorneoquassin was obtained together with others well knowns dihydronorneoquassin, parain, alpha-neoquassin, beta-neoquassin and quassin. The structures were determined by spectroscopic data and chemical evidence.     

The ring-closing metathesis of vinyl ethers with Grubbs'' catalyst for the synthesis of dihydropyrans

A series of acyclic vinyl ethers have been prepared and treated with Grubbs' ruthenium catalyst ((Cy₃P)₂RuCl₂=CHPh). Contrary to previous findings, it has been shown that certain vinyl ethers are excellent substrates for the ring closing metathesis with ruthenium based catalysts.     

Determination of hydroxycarbamates in aqueous matrices by direct derivatization and GC-MS analysis in chemical ionization mode

A rapid and effective procedure, developed for the determination of polar compounds in water, has been applied to hydroxycarbamates. In few minutes, it is possible to perform a catalyzed derivatization of such compounds directly in the aqueous medium, using n-hexyl chloroformate. Extraction with n-hexane and injection into a benchtop GC-MS system are the only two further steps to complete the analysis. Chemical ionization proved to be more effective than electron impact to produce valuable mass spectra in terms of selectivity and sensitivity. Linear quantitative responses were demonstrated over a two-order-of-magnitude range. The minimum detectable concentration was 3 ppb for acetohydroxamic acid and 10 ppb for hydroxyurethane, obtained from Po river water samples spiked with the two hydroxycarbamate standards.     

Enthalpic determinations of aliphatic ester-solvent systems with correlations

Calorimetric measurements were carried out on ester-solvent systems where the esters were H(CH₂)_xCOO(CH₂)_yH, with x and y varying from 1 to 5, and the solvents were n-hexane and 1,2-dichloroethane. Calculation of the enthalpies of cavity formation enabled the enthalpies of interaction to be determined. Both enthalpies correlated with number of carbon atoms N, equal to x+y in the esters, giving for 1,2-dichloroethane

Wavy graphene sheets from electrochemical sewing of corannulene

The presence of non-hexagonal rings in the honeycomb carbon arrangement of graphene produces rippled graphene layers with valuable chemical and physical properties. In principle, a bottom-up approach to introducing distortion from planarity of a graphene sheet can be achieved by careful insertion of curved polyaromatic hydrocarbons during the growth of the lattice. Corannulene, the archetype of such non-planar polyaromatic hydrocarbons, can act as an ideal wrinkling motif in 2D carbon nanostructures. Herein we report an electrochemical bottom-up method to obtain egg-box shaped nanographene structures through a polycondensation of corannulene that produces a new conducting layered material. Characterization of this new polymeric material by electrochemistry, spectroscopy, electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), scanning probe microscopy, and laser desorption-ionization time of flight mass spectrometry provides strong evidence that the anodic polymerization of corannulene, combined with electrochemically induced oxidative cyclodehydrogenations (Scholl reactions), leads to polycorannulene with a wavy graphene-like structure.

A bottom-up synthesis of wavy graphene structures obtained through an anodic polymerization process, combined with an electrochemically triggered oxidative cyclodehydrogenation, of the bowl-shaped polyaromatic hydrocarbon corannulene.     

Mechanical properties decay and morphological behaviour of biodegradable films for agricultural mulching in real scale experiment

The use of plastic materials in agriculture causes the serious drawback of huge quantities of waste. The introduction of biodegradable materials, which can be disposed directly into the soil, can be one possible solution to this problem. Biodegradable materials are actually innovative materials; therefore, their physical properties must be evaluated in relation to their functionality during the use in field. In the present research results of experimental tests carried out on biodegradable films used in strawberries protected cultivation are presented. The decay of some relevant physical parameters of biodegradable films during the cultivation period was monitored by laboratory tests (SEM analysis, mechanical tensile tests and infrared reflectance spectroscopy). Infrared spectroscopy clearly indicated that the mechanical degradation starts from the starch component of the material. Tensile tests showed that the value of elongation at break of biodegradable materials decreased in some cases by 300% after 10 days of field application.     

The Dold-Lashof-Fuchs construction revisited

Sia dato uno spazio topologicoE con azione di un monoide topologicoH e siaE→B una funzione continue che, su ogni apertoU di una partizione dell'unità diB, sia, a meno di omotopia, la proiezioneU×H→U (ovvero una fibrazione numerabile). Un classico risultato di A. Dold e R. Lashof (1959) permette di costruire, a partire daE→B, una funzione continuaE _∞→B_∞, conE _∞ debolmente contraibile e munito di azione diH: laH-fibrazione universale associata daH. Tale funzione, in generale, non è purtroppo numerabile e quindi non si presta alla classificazione delleH-fibrazioni numerabili. Successivamente (1971), M. Fuchs ha trovato un modo di modificare la costruzione di Dold-Lashof per recuperare la numerabilità. La costruzione di Dold-Lashof-Fuchs è, da allora, uno dei principali strumenti nella teoria degli spazi classificanti di monoidi topologici, anche se vi è un uso di topologie alquanto complesse e quindi poco maneggevoli. In questo lavoro ci proponiamo di mostrare come, lavorando nella categoria conveniente deik-spazi, sia possibile descrivere la costruzione di Dold-Lashof-Fuchs in modo estremamente semplificato ed adattarla anche alla classificazione delleF-fibrazioni numerabili.

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Conferenza tenuta da R. Piccinini il 15 maggio 1995     

A goldstone mode in the Kawasaki-Ising model

The hydrodynamic regime of superfluids is dominated by a Goldstone mode corresponding to a spontaneously brokenU(1) symmetry. In this article we map the Kawasaki-Ising model for a classical lattice gas into a quantum model for a superfluid and establish a connection between the normal density fluctuations of the first and the Goldstone mode of the second. The fact that the quantum model we obtain describes a superfluid derives from an inequality by Penrose and Onsager which gives a lower bound to the Bose-Einstein condensate density. Mathematically, the Goldstone mode can be described by means of a quantum extension of the local algebra of the Ising model. The classification of its irreducible representations requires an additionalU(1) phase factor and the correspondingU(1) gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken for all finite values of the temperature and of the density.     

Multivoice Littlewood-Paley-Meyer wavelets and diagonal dominated pseudodifferential operators

Given a pseudodifferential operator (p) satisfying certain growth and smoothness conditions in momentum space, we construct a wavelet basis ofL ²( ^d ) in which the corresponding matrix is diagonal dominated with arbitrarily small prefactor.     

The adiabatic approximation for quantum spin systems with a spectral gap

Summary We estimate the accuracy of the adiabatic approximation in predicting the time evolution of local observables for an XY quantum magnet with a slowly variable external magnetic field. The system evolves according to the natural Hamiltonian dynamics and the spectral gap produced by the magnetic field is assumed to be large with respect to the term inducing quantum fluctutions. The proof is based on a finite order truncation of a time dependent cluster expansion in inverse powers of the time scale . In the analytic case, we show that the accuracy of this truncated expansion is of order for any >1. If the time dependent perturbation is suddenly switched on at time zero and switched off at time , the accuracy of the adiabatic approximation is proven to be of orderO( ^–1.