Liquid crystal properties of some substituted pyrazines

A number of biphenyl, terphenyl analogues and ethynes which contain a pyrazine ring have been made and their liquid crystal transition temperatures, together with examples of birefringence measurements, are reported. All the 2,5-disubstituted pyrazine systems are liquid crystalline showing high birefringence values for the biphenyl and terphenyl analogues, whereas the 1,5-disubstituted systems are not liquid crystalline. The pyrazine ethyne systems exhibit very high birefringence values. X-ray diffraction has been used to identify the liquid crystal phases of 2-n-nonyloxy-5-(4'-propylbiphenyl-4-yl)pyrazine.     

Uniqueness of form factors for the reduced sine-Gordon model

Using certain asymptotic conditions, we prove the uniqueness of the form factors of the energy-momentum tensor for the reduced sine-Gordon model (2/3) (RSG(2/3)). Bibliography: 5 titles. Translated fromZapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov POMI, Vol. 199, 1992, pp. 177–181. Translated by I. A. Izergina.     

Hydrodynamical limit for a Hamiltonian system with weak noise

Starting from a general hamiltonian system with superstable pairwise potential, we construct a stochastic dynamics by adding a noise term which exchanges the momenta of nearby particles. We prolve that, in the scaling limit, the time conserved quantities, energy, momenta and density, satisfy the Euler equation of conservation laws up to a fixed timet provided that the Euler equation has a smooth solution with a given initial data up to timet. The strength of the noise term is chosen to be very small (but nonvanishing) so that it disappears in the scaling limit.Research partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grants DMS 89001682, DMS 920-1222 and a grant from ARO, DAAL03-92-G-0317Research partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grants DMS-9101196, DMS-9100383, and PHY-9019433-A01, Sloan Foundation Fellowship and David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship     

Plant polysaccharides I. Polysaccharides ofLagochilus and their biological activity

Institute of the Chemistry of Plant Substances, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, fax (3712) 89 14 75. Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 2, pp. 313–314, March–April, 1995. Original article submitted November 7, 1994.     

Quasi-Symmetric Designs with Good Blocks

The article is concerned with a characterization of quasi-symmetric (QS) designs with intersection numbers 0 and y. It uses the idea of a good block. Such a block G has the property that for any block B with |G ∩ B| = y, every point is on a block containing G ∩ B. It is proved that if a QS design II with intersection numbers 0 and y has a good block, then II must (i) be affine, symmetric, a linear space or (ii) have one of two possible exceptional parameter sets. Only one example is known in case (ii). If all blocks of II are good and II is not a linear space, then it is a projective or affine geometry or it is an extension (in a more general sense than usual) of a projective plane of order y² or y³+ y. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A high performance liquid chromatographic assay for AMP-deaminase activity in the erythrocytes of healthy subjects and patients with inherited purine disorders

A novel method for measuring AMP-deaminase activity in human erythrocytes is presented, based on the determination of the reaction product, IMP, using high performance liquid chromatography. IMP formation was found to be proportional both to the incubation time and the amount of haemolysate over a wide range. The minimal detectable AMP-deaminase activity was more than 1000 times lower than the mean activity found in healthy controls (1083 nmol/h/mg Hb). No marked difference of activity was found in the patients with the following inherited purine disorders: familial juvenile gouty nephropathy and deficiencies of adenosine deaminase, hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase or adenine phosphoribosyltransferase. The activity in the erythrocytes of patients with chronic renal failure was also similar to controls. The existence of subjects with low erythrocyte AMP-deaminase activity in the population has been confirmed.     

The influence of phonons on quantum diffusion in superconductors

The hopping motion of charged light particles coupled to superconducting electrons as well as to phonons is investigated within the framework of a two-state model. Sufficiently far below the transition temperatureT _c the hopping rate is dominated by one-phonon processes if the static energy shifts between the particle ground states are finite but smaller than twice the BCS energy gap. In the opposite limit of large energy asymmetries phonon coupling does not crucially influence the jump rates. The rôle of nonlinear lattice coupling is investigated.     

The four-loop β-function in quantum chromodynamics

We present the analytical calculation of the four-loop QCD β-function within the minimal subtraction scheme.     

Metastability of a circular o-ring due to intrinsic curvature

An o-ring takes spontaneously the shape of a chair when strong enough torsion is applied in its tangent plane. This state is metastable, since work has to be done on the o-ring to return to the circular shape. We show that this metastable state exists in a Hamiltonian where curvature and torsion are coupled via an intrinsic curvature term. If the o-ring is constrained to be planar (2d case), this metastable state displays a kink-anti-kink pair. This state is metastable if the ratio is less than , where C and A are the torsion and the bending elastic constants [#!landau!#]. In three dimensions, our variational approach shows that . This model can be generalized to the case where the bend is induced by a concentration field which follows the variations of the curvature. Received: 27 August 1997 / Revised: 23 October 1997 / Accepted: 12 November 1997     

Magnetism in electron-doped copper oxides

We report muon spin relaxation/rotation measurements on sintered powder samples of Nd_2−x Ce _x CuO_4−y and a large single crystal of Nd₂CuO_4−y . We find an electronic phase diagram which is quite similar to that of hole-doped superconductors such as La_2−x Sr _x CuO_4−y , although the doping of electrons into the system is less efficient in destroying the static moments on the copper spins. Static magnetic order in Nd₂CuO_4−y appears below about 250 K, and two spin reorientations are seen atT=75 K andT=35 K. Measurements of the magnetic field penetration depth have been unsuccessful due to the rare-earth paramagnetism of these materials.