Towards a consistent mechanism of emulsion polymerization—new experimental details

The application of atypical experimental methods such as conductivity measurements, optical microscopy, and nonstirred polymerizations to investigations of the ‘classical’ batch ab initio emulsion polymerization of styrene revealed astonishing facts. The most important result is the discovery of spontaneous emulsification leading to monomer droplets even in the quiescent styrene in water system. These monomer droplets with a size between a few and some hundreds of nanometers, which are formed by spontaneous emulsification as soon as styrene and water are brought into contact, have a strong influence on the particle nucleation, the particle morphology, and the swelling of the particles. Experimental results confirm that micelles of low-molecular-weight surfactants are not a major locus of particle nucleation. Brownian dynamics simulations show that the capture of matter by the particles strongly depends on the polymer volume fraction and the size of the captured species (primary free radicals, oligomers, single monomer molecules, or clusters).     

The Uptake and Assembly of Alkanes within a Porous Nanocapsule in Water: New Information about Hydrophobic Confinement

In Nature, enzymes provide hydrophobic cavities and channels for sequestering small alkanes or long‐chain alkyl groups from water. Similarly, the porous metal oxide capsule [{Mo^VI₆O₂₁(H₂O)₆}₁₂{(Mo^V₂O₄)₃₀(L)₂₉(H₂O)₂}]^41? (L=propionate ligand) features distinct domains for sequestering differently sized alkanes (as in Nature) as well as internal dimensions suitable for multi‐alkane clustering. The ethyl tails of the 29 endohedrally coordinated ligands, L, form a spherical, hydrophobic “shell”, while their methyl end groups generate a hydrophobic cavity with a diameter of 11 Å at the center of the capsule. As such, C₇ to C₃ straight‐chain alkanes are tightly intercalated between the ethyl tails, giving assemblies containing 90 to 110 methyl and methylene units, whereas two or three ethane molecules reside in the central cavity of the capsule, where they are free to rotate rapidly, a phenomenon never before observed for the uptake of alkanes from water by molecular cages or containers.     

A New Proof of the Sharpness of the Phase Transition for Bernoulli Percolation and the Ising Model

We provide a new proof of the sharpness of the phase transition for Bernoulli percolation and the Ising model. The proof applies to infinite-range models on arbitrary locally finite transitive infinite graphs. For Bernoulli percolation, we prove finiteness of the susceptibility in the subcritical regime \({\beta < \beta_c}\), and the mean-field lower bound \({\mathbb{P}_\beta[0\longleftrightarrow \infty ]\ge (\beta-\beta_c)/\beta}\) for \({\beta > \beta_c}\). For finite-range models, we also prove that for any \({\beta < \beta_c}\), the probability of an open path from the origin to distance n decays exponentially fast in n. For the Ising model, we prove finiteness of the susceptibility for \({\beta < \beta_c}\), and the mean-field lower bound \({\langle \sigma_0\rangle_\beta^+\ge \sqrt{(\beta^2-\beta_c^2)/\beta^2}}\) for \({\beta > \beta_c}\). For finite-range models, we also prove that the two-point correlation functions decay exponentially fast in the distance for \({\beta < \beta_c}\).     

Photochemistry of Bacteriochlorophylls in Human Blood Plasma: 1. Pigment Stability and Light-induced Modifications of Lipoproteins

Transmetalated derivatives of bacteriochlorophyll are promising sensitizers in photodynamic therapy. Protocols using short delay times between injection and irradiation cause interest in the photochemistry of these pigments in the blood. Using near-infrared irradiation where these pigments absorb strongly, we have studied the photochemistry of Zn- and Pd-bacteriopheophorbide (WST09), and of the highly polar taurinated Pd-derivative, WST11, in isolated fractions of human blood plasma. The stability of all pigments is increased in blood plasma, compared with monomeric solutions. Pd-bacteriopheophorbide is much more stable than the other two derivatives. It also has a higher capacity for inducing reactive oxygen species, yet the consumption of oxygen is comparable. There is furthermore evidence for photobleaching under anoxic conditions. The generation of hydroperoxides (ROOH) is faster with Pd- than with Zn-complexes; the formation of endoperoxides (ROOR′), measured as thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, is comparable with the two central metals. Formation of both ROOH and ROOR′ is increased in low-density lipoproteins (LDL) compared with high-density lipoproteins (HDL), which is probably related to the higher concentration of target molecules in the former. In HDL, extensive cross-linking is induced among the apolipoproteins; judged from the electrophoretic mobility of LDL and HDL particles, there is also a gross structural change. Photosensitized cross-linking is much less pronounced with high-density proteins.     

Timing of bond investments: success with the expectational band approach

A new practical method for buying and selling decisions of bond investments which has been applied successfully by the World Bank for three years.     

Über die Existenz von freien Algebren

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Collars and partitions of hyperbolic cone-surfaces

For compact Riemann surfaces, the collar theorem and Bers’ partition theorem are major tools for working with simple closed geodesics. The main goal of this article is to prove similar theorems for hyperbolic cone-surfaces. Hyperbolic two-dimensional orbifolds are a particular case of such surfaces. We consider all cone angles to be strictly less than π to be able to consider partitions. Emily B. Dryden—partially supported by the US National Science Foundation grant DMS-0306752. Hugo Parlier—supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation grants 21-57251.99 and 20-68181.02.