Theory versus Practice in the Twentieth-Century Search for the Ideal Anaesthetic Gas

At the beginning of the twentieth century, an anaesthetist could choose between nitrous oxide, chloroform, and ether (diethyl ether) for the induction of painrelieving unconsciousness. By the end of century, the choice was between a small number of fluorinated aliphatic ethers such as Enflurane, Desflurane, and Sevoflurane, and (in some jurisdictions) the rare gas, xenon. Between these endpoints researchers had identified a surprisingly broad range of hydrocarbons, noble gases, organohalogens, and aliphatic ethers that possessed anaesthetic properties. None was entirely satisfactory, but clinicians at various times and in various places employed substances in each of these categories. Behind the search for new anaesthetic gases was a theory of action (Meyer- Overton theory) that was known to be inadequate, but as no alternative was strong enough to displace it the search continued on purely empirical grounds, while lip-service was paid to the theory. By the time a theory couched in more modern terms was proposed, a suite of modern anaesthetic gases was in place, and there have been no attempts to use that theory to drive a new search.     

Elastic and Transition Form Factors of the Δ(1232)

Predictions obtained with a confining, symmetry-preserving treatment of a vector ? vector contact interaction at leading-order in a widely used truncation of QCD’s Dyson–Schwinger equations are presented for Δ and Ω baryon elastic form factors and the γN → Δ transition form factors. This simple framework produces results that are practically indistinguishable from the best otherwise available, an outcome which highlights that the key to describing many features of baryons and unifying them with the properties of mesons is a veracious expression of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking in the hadron bound-state problem. The following specific results are of particular interest. The Δ elastic form factors are very sensitive to m _Δ. Hence, given that the parameters which define extant simulations of lattice-regularised QCD produce Δ-resonance masses that are very large, the form factors obtained therewith are a poor guide to properties of the Δ(1232). Considering the Δ-baryon’s quadrupole moment, whilst all computations produce a negative value, the conflict between theoretical predictions entails that it is currently impossible to reach a sound conclusion on the nature of the Δ-baryon’s deformation in the infinite momentum frame. Results for analogous properties of the Ω baryon are less contentious. In connection with the N → Δ transition, the Ash-convention magnetic transition form factor falls faster than the neutron’s magnetic form factor and nonzero values for the associated quadrupole ratios reveal the impact of quark orbital angular momentum within the nucleon and Δ; and, furthermore, these quadrupole ratios do slowly approach their anticipated asymptotic limits.     

An Ion-Exchangeable MOF with Reversible Dehydration and Dynamic Structural Behavior (NH4)2[Zn2(O3PCH2CH2COO)2]⋅5 H2O (BIRM-1)

(NH₄)₂[Zn₂(O₃PCH₂CH₂COO)₂]⋅5 H₂O (BIRM-1) is a new metal phosphonate material, synthesized through a simple hydrothermal reaction between zinc nitrate and 3-phosphonopropionic acid, using urea and tetraethylammonium bromide as the reaction medium. In common with other metal–organic framework materials, BIRM-1 has a large three-dimensional porous structure providing potential access to a high internal surface area. Unlike most others, it has the advantage of containing ammonium cations within the pores and has the ability to undergo cation exchange. Additionally, BIRM-1 also exhibits a reversible dehydration behavior involving an amorphization-recrystallization cycle. The ability to undergo ion exchange and dynamic structural behavior are of interest in their own right, but also increase the range of potential applications for this material. Here the crystal structure of this new metal phosphonate and its ion exchange behavior with K⁺ as an exemplar are studied in detail, and its unusual structure-reviving property reported.     

Estimation,dependence and stability of solutions of an iterative equation

Aequationes mathematicae - In this paper we study estimation, continuous dependence and Hyers–Ulam stability for continuous solutions of a second order iterative equation. First we give an...     

On the Optimal Design of Wall-to-Wall Heat Transport

We consider the problem of optimizing heat transport through an incompressible fluid layer. Modeling passive scalar transport by advection-diffusion, we maximize the mean rate of total transport by a divergence-free velocity field. Subject to various boundary conditions and intensity constraints, we prove that the maximal rate of transport scales linearly in the r.m.s. kinetic energy and, up to possible logarithmic corrections, as the one-third power of the mean enstrophy in the advective regime. This makes rigorous a previous prediction on the near optimality of convection rolls for energy-constrained transport. On the other hand, optimal designs for enstrophy-constrained transport are significantly more difficult to describe: we introduce a “branching” flow design with an unbounded number of degrees of freedom and prove it achieves nearly optimal transport. The main technical tool behind these results is a variational principle for evaluating the transport of candidate designs. The principle admits dual formulations for bounding transport from above and below. While the upper bound is closely related to the “background method,” the lower bound reveals a connection between the optimal design problems considered herein and other apparently related model problems from mathematical materials science. These connections serve to motivate designs. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.