Binding Three-Particles at the Edge of Stability

 The stability threshold for an Efimov state is determined as a function of the physical scales of the system. Light exotic nuclei and triatomic molecules are investigated. Scaling, universality, and renormalization-group invariance properties are discussed in this context. Received October 25, 2001; accepted for publication November 12, 2001     

Pore tuned activated carbons as supports for an enantioselective molecular catalyst

The Jacobsen catalyst was immobilized onto four activated carbons with different average pore sizes, achieved by a gasification process followed by molecular oxygen oxidation. The influence of the textural properties of the activated carbon in the immobilization process and in the catalytic performance of the Mn(III) heterogeneous catalysts was investigated in detail. Three different catalytic systems were studied: styrene epoxidation using m-chloroperoxybenzoic acid; 6-CN-2,2-diMeChromene epoxidation using NaOCl and iodosylbenzene (PhIO) as oxidants. The catalysts tested were active and enantioselective in the three systems studied. Selectivity towards the desired epoxide only decreases in the case of the material with smaller pores, remaining identical to that of the homogeneous phase in all the other materials. The enantiomeric excess values (%ee) for alkene epoxidation increase with the pore size of the heterogeneous catalysts, and these values are even higher than the homogeneous counterparts in the styrene epoxidation reaction. Total Mn(III) loadings increase with the pore size, as well as their distribution within the carbon porous matrix. Characterization of the activated carbons bearing the immobilized manganese(III) complexes by TPD and XPS point to reaction between carbon surface phenolate groups and the manganese(III) complexes through axial coordination of the metal centers to these groups.     

Improved survival of cardiac cells on surface modified electrospun nanofibers

Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a popular synthetic polymer used in the field of cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) due to its non-toxic degraded by products and low cost manufacturing method. However, hydrophobic nature of this material limits its wide spread application in different cell interaction processes. Therefore, current study aims to chemically modify PCL made random and aligned nanofibers with collagen coating mimicking the oriented matrix of the cardiac cells. Morphological and chemical properties of the electrospun PCL nanofibers were evaluated by SEM, FTIR, XRD and water contact angle measurement. Results indicated that the anisotropic characteristics of aligned nanofibers promoted cell attachment and alignment, which closely match the requirements of native cardiac cells. Thus, aligned nanofibers could be preferred for cardiac tissue regeneration and defects over random nanofibers.     

Development of a headspace solid-phase microextraction/gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method for determination of organophosphorus pesticide residues in cow milk

In the past few years, organophosphorus compounds become one of the most widely used classes of pesticides due to their acute toxicity against a wide variety of pests. In this work, a method based on solid-phase microextraction in mode headspace (HS-SPME) coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was developed and optimized through multivariate factorial design to determine residues of organophosphorus pesticides in cow's milk. Different parameters of the method were evaluated, such as fiber type, temperature, extraction and desorption times, sample volume, effect of salt addition and stirring velocities. The evaluated pesticides were dichlorvos, sulfotep, demeton-S, dimpylate, disulfoton, parathion, methyl parathion, fenitrothion, chlorpyrifos and ethion. The best results were obtained using polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene fiber and headspace mode at 90 °C for 45 min, along with stirring at 600 rpm and desorption for 5 min at 250 °C. Under the optimized conditions, the proposed methodology was able to determine all of the pesticides with variation coefficients between 6.1% and 29.5%. Detection and quantification limits ranged from 2.16 to 10.85 μg L^− 1 and from 6.5 to 32.9 μg L^− 1, respectively. To evaluate residues of these pesticides in milk, cows were exposed to the pesticides of interest and milk was collected after 24 h. The developed method was able to detect trace amounts of these pesticides in the collected milk samples.     

Alkaloids from Hippeastrum morelianum Lem. (Amaryllidaceae)

The Amaryllidaceae family has proven to be a rich source of active molecules. As part of an ongoing project, we report a phytochemical study of Hippeastrum morelianum (Amaryllidaceae), from which we have isolated two homolycorine-type alkaloids, the new 2α,7-dimethoxyhomolycorine (1) and the poorly described candimine (2), as well as six known alkaloids: tazettine, pretazettine, 3-epimacronine, haemanthamine, hamayne and trisphaeridine. For reference purposes, the NMR of the isolated compounds was unequivocally described, based on 2D NMR measurements including (1)H-(1)H COSY, (1)H-(1)H NOESY, HSQC and HMBC.     

Simulation of the transverse vibrations of a cantilever beam with an eccentric tip mass in the axial direction using integral transforms

The main purpose of the current work is to employ an integral transform approach based on eigenfunction expansion and on an implicit filter scheme in order to solve the governing equations for the transverse vibrations of a cantilever beam clamped at one end and with an eccentric tip mass in the axial direction at the other end. Numerical results are obtained for both the undamped and damped natural frequencies of the system, as well as for its transverse displacement due to arbitrarily time-varying load and imposed displacement at the clamped end. The numerical results reported in the current work are highly accurate and new in the literature. New exact results are also provided for the transient displacement and its higher-order spatial derivatives to allow computation of bending stresses and strains. The relative merits of the proposed approach are finally pointed out.     

Eletroweak Form Factors in the Light-Front for Spin-1 Particles

The contribution of the light-front valence wave function to the electromagnetic current of spin-1 composite particles is not enough to warranty the proper transformation of the current under rotations. The naive derivation of the plus component of the current in the Drell–Yan–West frame within an analytical and covariant model of the vertex leads to the violation of the rotational symmetry. Computing the form-factors in a quasi Drell–Yan–West frame q ⁺ → 0, we were able to separate out in an analytical form the contributions from Z-diagrams or zero modes using the instant-form cartesian polarization basis.     

The Solution by the Wave Curve Method of Three-Phase Flow in Virgin Reservoirs

There are two goals of this study. The first is to provide an introduction to the wave curve method for finding the analytic solution of a porous medium injection problem. Similar to fractional and chromatographic flow theory, the wave curve method is based on the method of characteristics, but it is applicable to an expanded range of physical processes in porous medium flow. The second goal is to solve injection problems for immiscible three-phase flow, as described by Corey’s model, in which a mixture of gas and water is injected into a porous medium containing oil and irreducible water. In particular we determine, for any choice of the phase viscosities, the proportion of the injected fluids that maximizes recovery around breakthrough time. Numerical simulations are performed to compare our solutions for Corey’s model with those of other models. For the injection problems we consider, solutions for Corey’s model are very similar to those for Stone’s model, despite the presence of an elliptic region in the latter; and they are very different from those for the Juanes-Patzek model, which preserves strict hyperbolicity. A nice feature of our analytical method is that it facilitates explaining both differences and similarities among the solutions for the three models considered.