Ultrasound promoted synthesis of thioesters from 2-mercaptobenzoxa(thia)zoles

An ultrasound-enhanced method has been developed for the synthesis of a variety of thioesters from benzoyl chlorides and 2-mercaptobenzoxa(thia)zoles. Applying this methodology, 14 compounds were synthesized in excellent yields.     

Complex dynamics and configurational entropy of spatial optical solitons in nonlocal media

Intense light propagating in a nonlinear medium can generate an ensemble of interacting filaments of light, or spatial solitons. Using nematic liquid crystals, we demonstrate that the filaments exhibit collective behavior typical of complex systems, including the formation of clusters and soundlike vibrations, as well as the reduction of the configurational entropy, controlled by the degree of nonlocality of the medium.     

High-spectral-resolution coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering with interferometrically detected broadband chirped pulses

To achieve high-spectral-resolution multiplex coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS), one typically uses a narrowband pump pulse and a broadband Stokes pulse. This is to ensure a correspondence between anti-Stokes and vibrational frequencies. We obtain high-resolution CARS spectra of isopropanol, using a broadband chirped pump pulse and a broadband Stokes pulse, by detecting the anti-Stokes pulse with spectral interferometry. With the temporally resolved anti-Stokes signal, we can remove the chirp of the anti-Stokes pulse and restore high spectral resolution while also rejecting nonresonant scattering.     

The effect of composite resonances on Higgs decay into two photons

In scenarios of strongly coupled electroweak symmetry breaking, heavy composite particles of different spin and parity may arise and cause observable effects on signals that appear at loop levels. The recently observed process of Higgs to $\gamma \gamma $ at the LHC is one of such signals. We study the new constraints that are imposed on composite models from $H\rightarrow \gamma \gamma $ , together with the existing constraints from the high precision electroweak tests. We use an effective chiral Lagrangian to describe the effective theory that contains the Standard Model spectrum and the extra composites below the electroweak scale. Considering the effective theory cutoff at $\Lambda = 4\pi v \sim 3\text { TeV}$ , consistency with the $T$ and $S$ parameters and the newly observed $H\rightarrow \gamma \gamma $ can be found for a rather restricted range of masses of vector and axial-vector composites from 1.5 to 1.7 and 1.8 to 1.9 TeV, respectively, and only provided a non-standard kinetic mixing between the $W^{3}$ and $B^{0}$ fields is included.     

Linear and nonlinear optical properties of carbon nanotube-coated single-mode optical fiber gratings

Single-wall carbon nanotube deposition on the cladding of optical fibers has been carried out to fabricate an all-fiber nonlinear device. Two different nanotube deposition techniques were studied. The first consisted of repeatedly immersing the optical fiber into a nanotube supension, increasing the thickness of the coating in each step. The second deposition involved wrapping a thin film of nanotubes around the optical fiber. For both cases, interaction of transmitted light through the fiber core with the external coating was assisted by the cladding mode resonances of a tilted fiber Bragg grating. Ultrafast nonlinear effects of the nanotube-coated fiber were measured by means of a pump-probe pulses experiment.     

Assessment of clinical data of nonlinear stochastic deconvolution versus block-circulant singular value decomposition for quantitative dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging

Dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging (DSC-MRI) allows the noninvasive assessment of brain hemodynamics alterations by quantifying, via deconvolution, the cerebral blood flow (CBF) and mean transit time (MTT). Singular value decomposition (SVD) and block-circulant SVD (cSVD) are the most widely adopted deconvolution method, although they bear some limitations, including unphysiological oscillations in the residue function and bias in the presence of delay and dispersion between the tissue and the arterial input function. A nonlinear stochastic regularization (NSR) has been proposed, which performs better than SVD and cSVD on simulated data both in the presence and absence of dispersion. Moreover, NSR allows to quantify the dispersion level. Here, cSVD and NSR are compared for the first time on a group of nine patients with severe atherosclerotic unilateral stenosis of internal carotid artery before and after carotid stenting to investigate the effect of arterial dispersion. According to region of interest-based analysis, NSR characterizes the pathologic tissue more accurately than cSVD, thus improving the quality of the information provided to physicians for diagnosis. In fact, in 7 (78%) of the 9 subjects, CBF and MTT maps provided by NSR allow to correctly identify the pathologic hemisphere to the physician. Moreover, by emphasizing the difference between pathologic and healthy tissues, NSR may be successfully used to monitor the subject's recovery after the treatment and/or surgery. NSR also generates dispersion level and non-dispersed CBF and MTT maps. The dispersion level provides information on CBF and MTT estimates reliability and may also be used as a clinical indicator of pathological tissue state complementary to CBF and MTT, thus increasing the clinical information provided by DSC-MRI analysis.     

Food seeking in spite of harmful consequences is under prefrontal cortical noradrenergic control

Background  

Eating disorders are multifactorial psychiatric disorders. Chronic stressful experiences and caloric restriction are the most powerful triggers of eating disorders in human and animals. Although compulsive behavior is considered to characterize pathological excessive food intake, to our knowledge, no evidence has been reported of continued food seeking/intake despite its possible harmful consequences, an index of compulsive behavior. Brain monoamine transmission is considered to have a key role in vulnerability to eating disorders, and norepinephrine in medial prefrontal cortex has been shown to be critical for food-related motivated behavior.     

Role of surface integrals in the Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity

It is shown that if the phase space of general relativity is defined so as to contain the trajectories representing solutions of the equations of motion then, for asymptotically flat spaces, the Hamiltonian does not vanish but its value is given rather by a nonzero surface integral. If the deformations of the surface on which the state is defined are restricted so that the surface moves asymptotically parallel to itself in the time direction, then the surface integral gives directly the energy of the system, prior to fixing the coordinates or solving the constraints. Under more general conditions (when asymptotic Poincaré transformations are allowed) the surface integrals giving the total momentum and angular momentum also contribute to the Hamiltonian. These quantities are also identified without reference to a particular fixation of the coordinates. When coordinate conditions are imposed the associated reduced Hamiltonian is unambiguously obtained by introducing the solutions of the constraints into the surface integral giving the numerical value of the unreduced Hamiltonian. In the present treatment there are therefore no divergences that cease to be divergences after coordinate conditions are imposed. The procedure of reduction of the Hamiltonian is explicity carried out for two cases: (a) Maximal slicing, (b) ADM coordinate conditions.A Hamiltonian formalism which is manifestly covariant under Poincaré transformations at infinity is presented. In such a formalism the ten independent variables describing the asymptotic location of the surface are introduced, together with corresponding conjugate momenta, as new canonical variables in the same footing with the g_ij, π^ij. In this context one may fix the coordinates in the “interior” but still leave open the possibility of making asymptotic Poincaré transformations. In that case all ten generators of the Poincaré group are obtained by inserting the solution of the constraints into corresponding surface integrals.     

Su un problema di frontiera libera connesso a questioni di idraulica

Sunto Si dimostra esistenza e unicità della soluzione di un problema di frontiera libera che traduce il moto di filtrazione di liquidi attraverso mezzi porosi. Il problema è ricondotto alla minimizzazione di un funzionale quadratico su un convesso chiuso di uno spazio di Hilbert, il che fornisce anche dei procedimenti per l'approssimazione numerica del problema stesso. Entrata in Redazione il 16 dicembre 1971. Indirizzo dell'autore:C. Baiocchi, Istituto di Matematica, Università, Pavia. Questo lavoro è stato eseguito nell'ambito delle attività del Laboratorio di Analisi Numerica del C.N.R. di Pavia; i risultati qui ottenuti sono stati annunciati in una nota preventiva sui C. R. Acad. Sc. Paris, t. 273, pp. 1215–1217.     

Properties and electronic structure of tetrahalogenocuprate (II)-complexes

Several salts containing the complex anions [CuCl ₄]= or [CuBr ₄]= have heen prepared, and their spectra have been measured and interpreted in terms of ligand-field theory. They exhibit a d-d band with about 8–9000 cm^–1, and several well defined charge-transfer bands in the visible and near ultraviolet spectral range. Several experimental facts, supported by theoretical considerations, indicate that the structure of the [CuX ₄]= anions is not a truly tetrahedral, but a flattened tetrahedral one, of symmetry D _2d . Details on the course of the endothermic solvolysis reactions which occur in polar organic solvents, and on the probable nature of the solvolysis products are reported and discussed.

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Zusammenfassung Mehrere Salze der komplexen Anionen [CuCl ₄]^2– und [CuBr ₄]^2– wurden dargestellt, ihre Spektren gemessen und ligandenfeldtheoretisch interpretiert. Die Spektren zeigen eine d d-Bande mit im Gebiet von 8000 bis 9000 cm^–1 und mehrere wohldefinierte Elektronenüberführungsbanden im sichtbaren und nahen ultravioletten Spektralbereich. Mehrere experimentelle Befunde, die von theoretischen Überlegungen unterstützt werden, deuten darauf hin, daß die [CuX ₄]^2/s--Anionen nicht rein tetraedrisch gebaut sind, sondern längs einer zweizähligen Achse gestauchte Tetraeder der Symmetrie D _2d darstellen.Einzelheiten über den Verlauf der endothermen Solvolysereaktionen in polaren organischen Lösungsmitteln und über die wahrscheinlichen Solvolyseprodukte werden mitgeteilt und diskutiert.

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Résumé Plusieurs sels des anions complexes [CuCl ₄]^2– et [CuBr ₄]^2– ont été préparés et leurs spectres mesurés et interprétés dans le cadre de la théorie du champ des ligands.Ils montrent une bande d d avec dans la région de 8000 à 9000 cm^–1 et plusieurs bandes bien définies du type «transfer de charges» dans le visible et l'ultraviolet proche. Plusieurs résultats expérimentaux, soutenus par des considérations théoriques, indiquent que la structure des ions [CuX ₄]^2– n'est pas celle d'un tétraèdre véritable mais celle d'un tétraèdre déformé, de symétrie D _2d , Des détails sur le cours des réactions endothermiques de solvolyse, qui ont lieu dans les solvants organiques polaires et sur la nature probable des produits de la solvolyse sont rapportés et discutés.