A new family of heavy transition metal coordination compounds and its application,I. Design,synthesis and characterization of volatile organohafnium precursors

The first three representatives of a new family of volatile organohafnium compounds suitable as metallo-organic chemical vapour deposition precursors were synthesized. A combination of cyclopentadienyl and alkoxo-ligands with a bicyclo[2.2.1]heptanc framework was used. Volatility at relatively low temperatures for hafnium compounds was found and the precursors were characterized by elemental analysis and spectroscopic methods (IR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, mass spectrometry and mass-analysed ion kinetic energy spectroscopy). The outlook for use in hafnium functional materials synthesis was derived from the fragmentation data.     

Digestive process of the raptorial feeder ciliate Litonotus lamella (Rabdophora, Litostomatea) visualized by fluorescence microscopy

In this paper we present a fluorescence microscopy investigation of the digestive process of Litonotus lamella, which we used as a prototype of the raptorial feeding behaviour. The sequence of its digestive processes, from the capture of the prey (Euplotes crassus) to the formation of digestive vacuoles was evidenced using Acridine Orange, a high quantum yield fluorescent vital probe which has a great affinity with the acid vesicle compartments. Acid vesicle localization and displacement during digestion consisted of the following phases: in starved Litonotus vesicles were localized in the neck of the ciliate; after the capture, they were displaced around the vacoule containing the prey in early digestiion, whereas in advanced digestion tens of digestive vacuoles containing Euplotes fragments were spread over the body of the predator; 1 h after capture, the digestive process was complete, and acid vesicles reorganized in the neck of the predator. The most important feature we observed was that the digestive process occurred not in the single phagosome as in filter feeder ciliates, such as Paramecium, but in many digestive vacuoles scattered all over the predator cytoplasm, which asynchronously digest prey fragments.     

Martingale and stationary solutions for stochastic Navier-Stokes equations

Summary We prove the existence of martingale solutions and of stationary solutions of stochastic Navier-Stokes equations under very general hypotheses on the diffusion term. The stationary martingale solutions yield the existence of invariant measures, when the transition semigroup is well defined. The results are obtained by a new method of compactness.     

Polydentate phosphinoamine ligands: a class of efficient chelating agents for the stabilization of various technetium(V) and rhenium(V) cores

Transition Metal Chemistry -     

Isothermal crystallization kinetics and spherulitic morphology of poly(4‐hydroxybutyric acid‐alt‐glycolic acid)

Isothermal crystallization behavior of a new regular polyester constituted by glycolic acid and 4‐hydroxybutyric acid units is studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry and hot‐stage optical microscopy. A wide range of crystallization conditions were experimentally accessible, allowing various morphological features to be observed and accurate estimates made of characteristic growth parameters, including radial growth and nucleation rates. Three‐dimensional spherulitic growth from heterogeneous nuclei is deduced from the Avrami analysis, whereas optical micrographs reveal two different spherulitic textures that agree with the existence of two crystallization regimes. These can be well distinguished from the breaks observed in the Lauritzen and Hoffman plots when the linear crystal growth rate or the overall crystallization rate is considered. Ringed and nonringed spherulites with negative and positive birefringence, respectively, can be obtained depending on crystallization conditions and regimes. The studied polyester shows rather complex melting behavior which is interpreted in terms of a recrystallization process involving the two different kinds of spherulites. This study allows polymorphism to be discounted. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 2640–2653, 2007     

The dipole field model

We provide a rigorous discussion of the dipole field model which significantly improves previous treatments and clarifies the general mathematical properties of the model as a prototype of four-dimensional QFT with confining infrared singularity. By exploiting the Krein-Hilbert structure associated with the local and covariant quantization of the model, we can characterize, in a simple way, the possible physical interpretation, prove that the breaking of spacetime translation is inevitable in the physical space (mechanisms of confinement), identify a nontrivial physical vacuum sector, and discuss the breaking of symmetries and the existence and role of translationally invariant field operators, etc.     

Unexpected high ordering of a [60]Fullerene nitroxide in the nematic phase of 4-4'-azoxyanisole

A nitroxide [60]fullerene adduct containing a pyrrolidine-1-oxyl group has been synthesized. Its orientational order in the nematic phase of the liquid crystal solvent 4,4'-azoxyanisole (PAA) has been measured from the variation of the EPR spectral parameters on passing from the isotropic to the nematic phase. Highly resolved EPR lines allow for precise evaluation of the shifts of the g , a N and a H values. Since the g and the hyperfine tensors are known, the order matrix could be obtained. This is compared with the one calculated with a theoretical model based on short range solute-solvent interactions, which predicts a considerable degree of orientation of the molecular axes, despite the almost spherical shape of the molecule. The agreement with experimental findings is quite good and it is further improved if a bent structure of the pyrrolidine ring is taken into account.     

A Note on Relative Efficiency of Axiom Systems

We introduce a notion of relative efficiency for axiom systems. Given an axiom system A_β for a theory T consistent with S¹₂, we show that the problem of deciding whether an axiom system A_α for the same theory is more efficient than A_β is II₂-hard. Several possibilities of speed-up of proofs are examined in relation to pairs of axiom systems A_α, A_β, with A_α ? A_β, both in the case of A_α, A_β having the same language, and in the case of the language of A_α extending that of A_β: in the latter case, letting Pr_α, Pr_β denote the theories axiomatized by A_α, A_β, respectively, and assuming Pr_α to be a conservative extension of Pr_β, we show that if A_α — A_β contains no nonlogical axioms, then A_α can only be a linear speed-up of A_β; otherwise, given any recursive function g and any A_β, there exists a finite extension A_α of A_β such that A_α is a speed-up of A_β with respect to g. Mathematics Subject Classification: 03F20, 03F30.     

Rheology and processing of salad dressing emulsions

In order to study the influence that the processing parameters exert on the rheology and stability of salad dressing emulsions, both steady-state shear and oscillatory measurements, as well as droplet size distribution tests were performed. Emulsions containing a mixture of egg yolk and sucrose stearate as emulsifier were prepared using two different emulsification machines, a rotor-stator turbine and a colloidal mill. An increase both in energy input and in the temperature of processing yields higher values of the steady-state viscosity, an increase in emulsion stability and, generally, lower droplet size and lower polydispersity. Furthermore, a plateau region in the loss modulus versus frequency plots appears as the energy input and processing temperature increase. This effect has been analyzed by calculating the relaxation spectra of these emulsions. The results have been discussed taking into account the relationship between several structural parameters, such as interparticle interactions and droplet size distribution, and the rheological response of these emulsions.     

Noncoercive variational inequalities for pseudomonotone operators

Compatibility conditions for noncoercive variational inequalities are given together with applications to quasi-linear systems of elliptic equations, elliptic variational inequalities with convection terms, closedness of algebraic difference of convex sets and lower semicontinuity of the infimal-convolution. Si provano alcune condizioni di compatibilità astratte per disequazioni variazionali noncoercive. Se ne deducono: risultati di esistenza per sistemi quasi-lineari di equazioni ellittiche e disequazioni variazionali con termini di trasporto, criteri di chiusura della differenza algebrica di convessi in spazi di Banach, e di semicontinuità per la inf-convoluzione di funzionali.

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(Conferenza tenuta il 4 febbraio 1992)