Capillary electrophoretic study on the interaction between sodium dodecyl sulfate and neutral cyclodextrins

The micellization of the ionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) has been investigated in the presence of neutral cyclodextrins by means of capillary electrophoresis (CE). The measurements of electric current allowed the determination of the critical micelle concentration of SDS in the presence of α-, β- and γ-cyclodextrin, and of (2-hydroxypropyl)-β-cyclodextrin and (2,6-di-O-methyl)-β-cyclodextrin. Measurements of the CE current also yields information on the binding of SDS by cyclodextrins. The results are supported by electronic paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and suggest that the methylated cyclodextrin affects the micellization of SDS in an unconventional way compared to other considered cyclodextrins. The combination of SDS with methylated cyclodextrin can have a profound effect on the reliable application of cyclodextrin-modified micellar electrokinetic chromatography.     

Affine combination of B-spline subdivision masks and its non-stationary counterparts

A general affine combination of B-spline subdivision masks is here considered with the aim of generating new subdivision schemes with enhanced properties. This will be done using either stationary or non-stationary coefficients combining both B-splines and their non-stationary counterparts.     

Unilateral NMR, 13C CPMAS NMR spectroscopy and micro-analytical techniques for studying the materials and state of conservation of an ancient Egyptian wooden sarcophagus

A multi-technique approach was employed to study a decorated Egyptian wooden sarcophagus (XXV–XXVI dynasty, Third Intermediate Period), belonging to the Museo del Vicino Oriente of the Sapienza University of Rome. Portable non-invasive unilateral NMR was applied to evaluate the conservation state of the sarcophagus. Moreover, using unilateral NMR, a non-invasive analytical protocol was established to detect the presence of organic substances on the surface and/or embedded in the wooden matrix. This protocol allowed for an educated sampling campaign aimed at further investigating the state of degradation of the wood and the presence of organic substances by ¹³C cross polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) NMR spectroscopy. The composition of the painted layer was analysed by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM–EDS), Raman and surface enhanced (resonance) Raman spectroscopy (SERS/SERRS), infrared and GC–MS techniques, evidencing original components such as clay minerals, Egyptian green, indigo, natural gums, and also highlighting restoration pigments and alteration compounds. The identification of the wood, of great value for the reconstruction of the history of the artwork, was achieved by means of optical microscopy.     

Analysis of catechins in Theobroma cacao beans by cyclodextrin-modified micellar electrokinetic chromatography

A micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) method was developed for the quantitation of polyphenols (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin (catechin monomers) and the methylxanthine theobromine in Theobroma cacao beans. Owing to the poor stability of catechin monomers in alkaline conditions, a 50 mM Britton-Robinson buffer at a pH 2.50 was preferred as the background electrolyte. Under these conditions, the addition of hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-beta-CD) at a concentration of 12 mM to the SDS micellar solution (90 mM), resulted in a cyclodextrin-modified micellar electrokinetic chromatography (CD-MEKC) endowed with two peculiar advantages compare to the conventional MEKC: (i) strong improvement of separation of the most important phytomarkers of T. cacao and (ii) enantioselectivity toward (+/-)-catechin. In particular, separation of methylxanthines (theobromine and caffeine), procyanidin dimers B1 and B2, and catechins (epicatechin and catechin) was obtained simultaneously to the enantioseparation of racemic catechin within 10min. The enantioselectivity of the method makes it suitable in evaluation of possible epimerisation at the C-2 position of epicatechin monomer potentially occurring during heat processing and storage of T. cacao beans. The extraction procedure of the phytomarkers from the beans was approached using ultrasonic bath under mild conditions optimized by a multivariate strategy. The method was validated for robustness, selectivity, sensitivity, linearity, range, accuracy and precision and it was applied to T. cacao beans from different countries; interestingly, the native enantiomer (+)-catechin was found in the beans whereas, for the first time we reported that in chocolate, predominantly (-)-catechin is present, probably yielded by epimerisation of (-)-epicatechin occurred during the manufacture of chocolate.     

Polymerization and crosslinking characteristics of a 3-methoxybutyl acrylate

Polymers of 3-methoxybutyl acrylate (3-MBA) were prepared by máss, solution, and emulsion polymerization techniques. The 3-MBA polymers could be converted from soft, rubbery, soluble, thermoplastic films to hard, glossy, flexible, crosslinked films when exposed to air and/or transition metal catalysts at elevated temperatures. The crosslinked polymers are resistant to common organic solvents and to mineral acids. Strong alkalis degraded the crosslinked polymers. The second-order transition temperature of poly-3-MBA is ?56°C. as determined by volume dilatometry. A comparison of the crosslinking properties of poly-3-MBA and other alkyl and alkoxyalkyl polymers is discussed. An autoxidative mechanism is proposed for the crosslinking of 3-MBA polymers.     

Features of charged-pion energy spectra in antiproton-<Superscript>4</Superscript>He annihilation at rest and formation of excited hadronic blobs

New data on the pion spectra measured in selected channels following the antiproton annihilation at rest on ⁴He are presented and discussed in the light of statistical models.     

Scanning probe microscope with interchangeable AFM-FFM and STM heads

Summary A scanning probe microscope operating in air with interchangeable atomic force-friction force (AFM-FFM) and electronic-tunnelling (STM) heads is presented. Our AFM operates in the so-called contact mode and utilizes the optical-lever detection method which allows simultaneous measurement of the topography as well as the lateral force. The set-up also contains an optical microscope to control both the sample and the probe laser spot on the cantilever. The experimental method to change from AFM to STM operation is based on the use of the probe laser beam and the optical microscope. The maximum scanning area is (24×24) μm² and it is well embraced in the optical-microscope visual field. The microscope attains atomic resolution in air in both AFM and STM configuration. Its performance is demonstrated on the surface of different samples. In honour of Prof. Fausto Fumi on the occasion of his retirement from teaching.     

Adaptive frame methods for nonlinear variational problems

In this paper we develop adaptive numerical solvers for certain nonlinear variational problems. The discretization of the variational problems is done by a suitable frame decomposition of the solution, i.e., a complete, stable, and redundant expansion. The discretization yields an equivalent nonlinear problem on the space of frame coefficients. The discrete problem is then adaptively solved using approximated nested fixed point and Richardson type iterations. We investigate the convergence, stability, and optimal complexity of the scheme. A theoretical advantage, for example, with respect to adaptive finite element schemes is that convergence and complexity results for the latter are usually hard to prove. The use of frames is further motivated by their redundancy, which, at least numerically, has been shown to improve the conditioning of the discretization matrices. Also frames are usually easier to construct than Riesz bases. We present a construction of divergence-free wavelet frames suitable for applications in fluid dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics. M. Fornasier acknowledges the financial support provided through the Intra-European Individual Marie Curie Fellowship Programme, under contract MOIF-CT-2006-039438. All of the authors acknowledge the hospitality of Dipartimento di Metodi e Modelli Matematici per le Scienze Applicate, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Italy, during the early preparation of this work. The authors want to thank Daniele Boffi, Dorina Mitrea, and Karsten Urban for the helpful and fruitful discussions on divergence-free function spaces.     

Quenched noise in surface growth

The analytical continuous equations for the Tang and Leschhorn (Phys. Rev. A 45 (1992) R8309) and the Buldyrev et al. (Phys. Rev. A 45 (1992) R8313) models are derived from the microscopic rules using a regularization procedure. As was shown in a previous paper (Phys. Rev. E 62 (2000) 6970) the continuous equation for the Tang and Leschhorn model is formally different to the Kardar–Parisi–Zhang equation (Phys. Rev. Lett. 56 (1986) 889) with quenched noise (QKPZ). Nevertheless, after expanding the multiplicative noise, it is shown that we recover the usual QKPZ, demonstrating analytically that both equations belong to the same universality class.     

Zener tunneling of light waves in an optical superlattice

We report on the observation of Zener tunneling of light waves in spectral and time-resolved transmission measurements, performed on an optical superlattice made of porous silicon. The structure was designed to have two photonic minibands, spaced by a narrow frequency gap. A gradient in the refractive index was introduced to create two optical Wannier-Stark ladders and, at a critical value of the optical gradient, tunneling between energy bands was observed in the form of an enhanced transmission peak and a characteristic time dependence of the transmission.