Equivariant cohomology of K-contact manifolds

We investigate the equivariant cohomology of the natural torus action on a K-contact manifold and its relation to the topology of the Reeb flow. Using the contact moment map, we show that the equivariant cohomology of this action is Cohen–Macaulay, the natural substitute of equivariant formality for torus actions without fixed points. As a consequence, generic components of the contact moment map are perfect Morse-Bott functions for the basic cohomology of the orbit foliation ${{\mathcal F}}$ of the Reeb flow. Assuming that the closed Reeb orbits are isolated, we show that the basic cohomology of ${{\mathcal F}}$ vanishes in odd degrees, and that its dimension equals the number of closed Reeb orbits. We characterize K-contact manifolds with minimal number of closed Reeb orbits as real cohomology spheres. We also prove a GKM-type theorem for K-contact manifolds which allows to calculate the equivariant cohomology algebra under the nonisolated GKM condition.     

Global magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the magnetosphere

The authors demonstrate the use of a global MHD (magnetohydrodynamic) simulations to study the magnetospheric configuration by reviewing some of the results obtained from the Ogino model. The authors start by considering the steady-state configuration of the magnetosphere in the absence of an IMF (interplanetary magnetic field), and then demonstrate how that configuration is changed when a northward or southward IMF is introduced. It is noted that the magnetosphere is very dynamic and since global MHD simulations are intrinsically time-dependent, they offer the possibility of modeling the time-sequence of events in the magnetosphere. Finally results of a calculation in which a magnetospheric substorm is modeled are presented     

NMR characterization of styrene-divinylbenzene gel beads using freezing point depression of benzene

Freezing processes of benzene in the presence of styrene-divinylbenzene gel beads were investigated by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Some portion of benzene in the pore did not freeze below its freezing point, which was detected until ?80°C. Temperature dependence of the amount of unfrozen benzene was discussed in relation to the pore size and the cross-linking density of gel beads. The small pore size and high crosslinking density increased the amount of unfrozen benzene, whereas the polymer matrix concentration showed little effect on the freezing processes. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

NMR analysis of interaction between styrene-divinylbenzene gel beads and small molecules

The interaction of small molecules such as cyclohexane, tetrahydrofuran, and acetonitrile with styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer gel beads were investigated by ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy. When the gel content was 0.1–0.3 g/mL, the ¹³C-NMR spectrum of the solvent displayed two peaks. A sharp peak at lower magnetic field was assigned to the free solvent, and a broad one to the solvent affected by the gel. This signal splitting is attributed to the upfield shift caused by aromatic rings of styrene units in the polymer chain. The nitrile carbon of acetonitrile showed the largest upfield shift. The mobility of small molecules in gel beads was also investigated using the nuclear magnetic relaxation method. In the case of good solvents for gel beads, the mobility was affected by the cross-linking density, whereas poor solvents exhibited little dependence of the cross-linking density. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Determination of paclitaxel in human and rat blood samples after administration of low dose paclitaxel by HPLC-UV detection

A simple and sensitive HPLC-UV method was developed for the determination of paclitaxel (TXL) in human and rat blood samples. 4-Hydroxybenzoic acid n-hexyl ester was used as an internal standard. TXL was extracted by a liquid-liquid extraction with tert-butylmethyl ether. The disturbing peaks in the case of serum sample were removed by pre-extraction with hexane. The separation of TXL was achieved within 25 min using an ODS column with 50% acetonitrile aqueous solution as a mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The eluent was monitored at 230 nm, and the resulted retention times of TXL and IS were 11.2 and 20.4 min. The detection limits of TXL for human plasma, serum and rat plasma samples at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 were 10, 9.5 and 7.5 ng/mL, respectively. The proposed methods were applicable to the determination of TXL in human patients' plasma ranging from 15 to 27 ng/mL. Furthermore, monitoring of the time course of TXL after its single administration to rat could be demonstrated.     

Phase- and glass-transition phenomena due to the same configurational order–disorder mechanism in crystalline racemic sec-butylcyclohexane

We report molar heat capacities for racemic sec-butylcyclohexane (s-BCH) measured by the adiabatic calorimetric method within the temperature range from 14 to 200 K. In the crystalline state, we identified the presence of a second-order phase transition and a glass transition phenomenon, both originating from the same configurational degree of freedom. The phase and glass transition temperatures T _trs and T _g were determined to be (136.7 ± 1.0) and (100 ± 1) K, respectively. The entropy of phase transition was estimated to be Δ_trs S _m = 1.4 J K^?1 mol^?1 ≈ (1/4) R ln 2. The phase transition was judged to be of an order–disorder type on the basis of the fact that the glass transition occurred in the low-temperature heat-capacity tail. The entropy was interpreted to suggest that four molecules in the crystalline state constitute a unit for producing two distinct configurations in the coexistence of (d)- and (l)-s-BCH.     

Sunlight-induced efficient and selective photocatalytic benzene oxidation on TiO2-supported gold nanoparticles under CO2 atmosphere

The sunlight-induced photocatalytic oxidation of aqueous benzene on TiO(2)-supported gold nanoparticles was considerably improved when the reaction was conducted under a CO(2) atmosphere. 13% yield and 89% selectivity of phenol was obtained on P25-supported gold nanoparticles under 230 kPa of CO(2).