Ordered mesoporous alumina-supported metal oxides

The one-pot synthesis of alumina-supported metal oxides via self-assembly of a metal precursor and aluminum isopropoxide in the presence of triblock copolymer (as a structure directing agent) is described in detail for nickel oxide. The resulting mesoporous mixed metal oxides possess p6 mm hexagonal symmetry, well-developed mesoporosity, relatively high BET surface area, large pore widths, and crystalline pore walls. In comparison to pure alumina, nickel aluminum oxide samples exhibited larger mesopores and improved thermal stability. Also, long-range ordering of the aforementioned samples was observed for nickel molar percentages as high as 20%. The generality of the recipe used for the synthesis of mesoporous nickel aluminum oxide was demonstrated by preparation of other alumina-supported metal oxides such as MgO, CaO, TiO 2, and Cr 2O 3. This method represents an important step toward the facile and reproducible synthesis of ordered mesoporous alumina-supported materials for various applications where large and accessible pores with high loading of catalytically active metal oxides are needed.     

Study of molar response of dextrans in electrochemical detection

In this work, a methodological approach is reported, aimed at assessing the electrochemical response of some model gluco-oligosaccharides (dextrans). Such strategy is based on the complementary use of both anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD) and capillary zone electrophoresis coupled with UV detection (CZE-UV). Unlike HPAEC-PAD, CZE-UV required derivatization with a chromophoric dye (i.e., 8-aminonaphtalene-1,3,6-trisulphonic acid, ANTS) to enhance UV response and separation selectivity. From the comparison between chromophore response and PAD signal, the reliability of HPAEC-PAD for quantitative evaluation of dextran mixtures containing mainly oligomers with polymerization degree (DP) up to 18 could be proved, due to the fairly constant molar response. For higher DPs (up to 41), a maximum in the trend of the molar responses was observed followed by a steep decrease for DPs higher than about 30-35; indeed, an underestimation of weight-average molecular weight of dextran mixtures containing such oligomers was noticed.     

Comparative LC Enantioseparation of Novel PPAR Agonists on Cellulose- and Amylose-Based Chiral Stationary Phases

The LC enantiomeric separation of several dual PPARα/γ agonists on the commercially available Chiralcel OD and Chiralpak AD columns has been evaluated in normal phase mode using a mobile phase consisting in a mixture of n-hexane, 2-propanol and trifluoroacetic acid at constant volume ratio. Most compounds were separated as underivatized acids without requiring time consuming analysis. Some complementary selectivity was evidenced on the two investigated chiral stationary phases related to the different accessibility of the active sites of the helical cavities. Additional information on the chiral recognition mechanism were deduced from the chromatographic behaviour of some selected methyl esters.     

Valuation of sinking-fund bonds in the Vasicek and CIR frameworks∗Financial support from Murst Fondo 40% on ‘Modelli di struttura a termine dei tassi d'interesse’ is gratefully acknowledged.

In a sinking-fund bond, the issuer is required to retire portions of the bond prior to maturity, with the option of doing so either by calling the bonds by lottery, or by buying them back at their market value. This paper discusses the valuation of a default-free sinking-fund bond issue in the Vasicek (1977) and, alternatively, the Cox, Ingersoll and Ross (CIR) (1985) frameworks. We show in particular that, calling the bond issue without the delivery option ‘corresponding serial’, and the one without the prepayment feature ‘corresponding coupon’, under no-arbitrage a sinking-fund bond can be priced either in terms of the corresponding coupon bond and a bond call option, or in terms of the corresponding serial and a bond put option. We also present a detailed comparative-statics analysis of our valuation model, where we show that a sinking-fund bond has a stochastic duration intermediate between the ones of the corresponding serial and coupon bonds. We argue that such a feature gives a further rational for the presence of the delivery option. Moreover, we compare our results with the ones of Ho (1985), who has previously discussed the valuation problem under scrutiny.     

Pointwise estimates for some kernels on compact Lie groups

Si ottengono delle stime per il nucleo di Gauss-Weierstrass su gruppi di Lie compatti e se ne indicano alcune applicazioni.     

Cosmological tests with strong gravitational lenses using Gaussian processes

Strong gravitational lenses provide source/lens distance ratios \({\mathcal {D}}_{\mathrm{obs}}\) useful in cosmological tests. Previously, a catalog of 69 such systems was used in a one-on-one comparison between the standard model, \(\varLambda \)CDM, and the \(R_{\mathrm{h}}=ct\) universe, which has thus far been favored by the application of model selection tools to many other kinds of data. But in that work, the use of model parametric fits to the observations could not easily distinguish between these two cosmologies, in part due to the limited measurement precision. Here, we instead use recently developed methods based on Gaussian Processes (GP), in which \({\mathcal {D}}_{\mathrm{obs}}\) may be reconstructed directly from the data without assuming any parametric form. This approach not only smooths out the reconstructed function representing the data, but also reduces the size of the \(1\sigma \) confidence regions, thereby providing greater power to discern between different models. With the current sample size, we show that analyzing strong lenses with a GP approach can definitely improve the model comparisons, producing probability differences in the range \(\sim \) 10–30%. These results are still marginal, however, given the relatively small sample. Nonetheless, we conclude that the probability of \(R_{\mathrm{h}}=ct\) being the correct cosmology is somewhat higher than that of \(\varLambda \)CDM, with a degree of significance that grows with the number of sources in the subsamples we consider. Future surveys will significantly grow the catalog of strong lenses and will therefore benefit considerably from the GP method we describe here. In addition, we point out that if the \(R_{\mathrm{h}}=ct\) universe is eventually shown to be the correct cosmology, the lack of free parameters in the study of strong lenses should provide a remarkably powerful tool for uncovering the mass structure in lensing galaxies.     

Hydrolysis of ureas. Kinetics and mechanism of the basic hydrolysis of indole-1-carboxamides and (5H-dibenz[b,f]azepine)-5-carboxamide

The hydroxide ion catalyzed hydrolysis of indole-1-carboxamide and indole-1-(N,N-dimethyl)carboxamide has been studied in water at 60.0° and [OH⁻] concentration between 0.3--2.4N. The rate constants of formation of the tetrahedral intermediate are strongly increased by N-substitution with a heteroaromatic ring in comparison with simple amides. Carbamazepine, (5H-dibenz[b,f]azepine)-5-carboxamide, a potent anticonvulsant drug, is particularly stable under these conditions.