Advances in positron and electron scattering*

The topical issue on Advances in Positron and Electron Scattering” combines contributionsfrom POSMOL 2015 together with others devoted to celebrate the unprecedented scientificcareers of our loyal colleagues and trusted friends Steve Buckman (Australian NationalUniversity, Australia) and Michael Allan (University of Fribourg, Switzerland) on theoccasion of their retirements. POSMOL 2015, the XVIII International Workshop on Low-EnergyPositron and Positronium Physics and the XIX International Symposium on Electron-MoleculeCollisions and Swarms, was held at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal, from17–20 July 2015. The international workshop and symposium allowed to achieve a veryprivileged forum of sharing and developing our scientific expertise on current aspects ofpositron, positronium and antiproton interactions with electrons, atoms, molecules andsolid surfaces, and related topics, as well as electron interactions with molecules inboth gaseous and condensed phases. Particular topics include studies of electroninteractions with biomolecules, electron induced surface chemistry and the study of plasmaprocesses. Recent developments in the study of swarms are also fully addressed.     

Enantiodivergence in the reduction of α-methyl and α-halomethyl enones by microorganisms

Enones (Z)-3-methyl-(Z)-3-chloromethyl- and (Z)-3-bromomethyl-4-R-3-buten-2-one (R = n-pentyl, phenyl, 2′- and 4′-chlorophenyl, 3′- and 4′-nitrophenyl, 4′-methoxyphenyl) were synthesized and subjected to reduction by the microorganisms Saccharomyces cerevisiae andGeotrichum candidum. Whereas the bioreduction of 3-methy-4-R-3-buten-2-ones afforded the corresponding (S)-4-R-3-methybutan-2-ones, the bioreduction of 3-chloromethyl- and 3-bromomethyl-4-R-3-buten-2-ones afforded the corresponding (R)-4-R-3-methybutan-2-ones.     

Kinematics of layered reinforced-concrete planar beam finite elements with embedded transversal cracking

In this work crack formation and development is addressed and implemented in a planar layered reinforced-concrete beam element. The crack initiation and growth is described using the strength criterion in conjunction with exact kinematics of the interlayer connection. In this way a novel embedded-discontinuity beam finite element is derived in which the tensile stresses in concrete at the crack position reaching the tensile strength will trigger a crack to open. Since the element is multi-layered, in this way the crack is allowed to propagate through the depth of the beam. The cracked layer(s) will involve discontinuity in the cross-sectional rotation equal to the crack-profile angle, as well as a discontinuity in the position vector of the layer’s reference line. A bond–slip relationship is superimposed onto this model in a kinematically consistent manner with reinforcement being treated as an additional layer of zero thickness with its own material parameters and a constitutive law implemented in the multi-layered beam element.     

Probing molecular environments with a fictitious isotopic dipole

A HD-like (HD: mono-deuterated hydrogen molecule) isotopic dipole moment is proposed as a sensible probe for molecular environments, in particular for electrostatic fields and polarizable (reactive) sites of molecules. Fictitious nuclear masses are chosen in order to yield a rigid dipole with a small appropriate magnitude. Upon subtracting the Born-Oppenheimer energy, the interaction is reduced to field-dipole-like and dipole-polarizability-like terms, the last one being particularly informative since connected to potentially reactive sites. Possible asymmetries of this term appear as signatures of charged sites in the molecule. The field strength and orientation are easily obtained by identifying the minimum field-dipole energy configuration and flipping the dipole from it. Tests with hydrogen, water, benzene, and chlorobenzene molecules confirm the good performance of the method. In an application to test the present models for hydrogen activation by a frustrated Lewis pair, the full potential of the method is assessed.     

CoII Cryptates Convert CO2 into CO and CH4 under Visible Light

Three Co^II octaazacryptates, with different substituents on the aromatic rings (Br, NO₂, CCH), were synthesised and characterised. These and the already published non-substituted cryptate catalysed CO₂ photoreduction to CO and CH₄ under blue visible light at room temperature. Although CO was observed after short irradiation times and a large range of catalyst concentrations, CH₄ was only observed after longer irradiation periods, such as 30 h, but with a small catalyst concentration (25 nm ). Experiments with ¹³C labelled CO₂ showed that CO is formed and reacts further when the reaction time is long. The CCH catalyst is deactivated faster than the others and the more efficient catalyst for CH₄ production is the one with Br. This reactivity trend was explained by an energy decomposition analysis based on DFT calculations.     

Babassu mesocarp (Orbignya phalerata Mart) nanoparticle-based biosensors for indirect sulfite detection in industrial juices

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - The present work proposes a new electrochemical sulfite biosensor based on babassu mesocarp nanoparticles (BMNPs) immobilized on the surface of a pyrolytic...     

A higher resolution edge‐based finite volume method for the simulation of the oil–water displacement in heterogeneous and anisotropic porous media using a modified IMPES method

In this article, we present a higher‐order finite volume method with a ‘Modified Implicit Pressure Explicit Saturation’ (MIMPES) formulation to model the 2D incompressible and immiscible two‐phase flow of oil and water in heterogeneous and anisotropic porous media. We used a median‐dual vertex‐centered finite volume method with an edge‐based data structure to discretize both, the elliptic pressure and the hyperbolic saturation equations. In the classical IMPES approach, first, the pressure equation is solved implicitly from an initial saturation distribution; then, the velocity field is computed explicitly from the pressure field, and finally, the saturation equation is solved explicitly. This saturation field is then used to re‐compute the pressure field, and the process follows until the end of the simulation is reached. Because of the explicit solution of the saturation equation, severe time restrictions are imposed on the simulation. In order to circumvent this problem, an edge‐based implementation of the MIMPES method of Hurtado and co‐workers was developed. In the MIMPES approach, the pressure equation is solved, and the velocity field is computed less frequently than the saturation field, using the fact that, usually, the velocity field varies slowly throughout the simulation. The solution of the pressure equation is performed using a modification of Crumpton's two‐step approach, which was designed to handle material discontinuity properly. The saturation equation is solved explicitly using an edge‐based implementation of a modified second‐order monotonic upstream scheme for conservation laws type method. Some examples are presented in order to validate the proposed formulation. Our results match quite well with others found in literature. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The powder X-band electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy of septet pyridyl-2,4,6-trinitrene

The first X-band EPR spectrum containing only non-overlapping signals of septet pyridyl-2,4,6-trinitrene and triplet pyridylnitrenes is reported. This spectrum was recorded after photolysis of 2,4,6-triazidopyridine in solid argon at 5 K. The zero-field splitting (ZFS) parameters of this trinitrene as well as of intermediate triplet mononitrenes and quintet dinitrenes formed at early stages of the photolysis were determined using the combination of modern computer line-shape spectral simulations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. It was found that septet pyridyl-2,4,6-trinitrene has the record negative parameter D_S = −0.1031 cm⁻¹ among all known to date septet pyridyl-2,4,6-trinitrenes and may be of interest as a model multi-qubit spin system for investigations of quantum computation processing.