Degradation of triphenyltin compounds in sea water by pyoverdins from Pseudomonas chlororaphis

The yellow compound species pyoverdin was isolated from Pseudomonas chlororaphis. Degradation of triphenyltin (TPT) by pyoverdin (20 mg) was carried in distilled water (30 ml) containing a 6 µg l^?1 concentration of TPT at 20 °C for 96 h in aerobic conditions. The organotins in water and sea water were analyzed by gas chromatograph–mass spectrometry in selected ion mode. TPT and diphenyltin (DPT) in sea water were degraded to monophenyltin (MPT) with pyoverdins isolated from P. ­chlororaphis. Degradation of TPT in sea water increased with increasing temperature between 4 and 37 °C. Optimum degradation of TPT in sea water was at pH 7–8.5. Degradation of TPT and DPT in distilled water can be faster than in sea water. Also, degradation of TPT in both water and sea water was faster than that of DPT. Tributyltin, dibutyltin, monobutyltin and MPT in water and sea water were not degraded by pyoverdins isolated from P. chlororaphis. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New example of infinite family of quiver gauge theories

We construct a new infinite family of quiver gauge theories which blow down to the Xp,q$X^{p,q}$ quiver gauge theories found by Hanany, Kazakopoulos and Wecht. This family includes a quiver gauge theory for the third del Pezzo surface. We show, using Z-minimization, that these theories generically have irrational R-charges. The AdS/CFT correspondence implies that the dual geometries are irregular toric Sasaki–Einstein manifolds, although we do not know the explicit metrics.     

Thermal conductivity of superconducting niobium

The phonon scattering term in the superconducting state of the electronic conduction has been obtained for niobium which is regarded as an intermediate coupling superconductor. The limiting slope for the phonon scattering term of the reduced thermal conductivity against reduced temperature has been found to be 2.8, as compared with 1.5 for weak coupling superconductors.     

Electrochemical studies of sulfonates in non-aqueous solvents: Part III. Trifluoromethanesulfonic acid as a strong acid in dipolar aprotic solvents and acetic acid

Dissociation of trifluoromethanesulfonic acid in non-aqueous solvents has been investigated mainly by conductometry and compared with that of p-toluenesulfonic, methanesulfonic, fluorosulfuric and perchloric acids. The solvents used are dimethyl sulfoxide, N,N-dimethylacetamide, N,N-dimethylformamide, n-butyronitrile, propylene carbonate, acetonitrile, nitromethane, methyl isobutyl ketone and acetic acid. Trifluoromethanesulfonic acid is completely dissociated in rather basic solvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide, dimethylacetamide and dimethylformamide, while it is associated to some extent in the other solvents, especially in methyl isobutyl ketone and acetic acid. The strength of trifluoromethanesulfonic acid is almost the same as that of perchloric acid in all the solvents. Dissociation constants of the other acids are also obtained.     

Interfilamentary coupling properties of Bi2223/Ag tapes with oxide barriers subjected to AC perpendicular magnetic field

In this paper, we fabricated Bi2223 tapes with interfilamentary oxide barriers and evaluated interfilamentary coupling properties under an AC perpendicular magnetic field at 77 K. To avoid the side effect on Bi2223 phase formation during sintering process, SrZrO₃ was selected for barrier materials. Moreover, 20 wt.% Bi2212 was mixed with SrZrO₃ to improve its ductility for cold working. Monocore Ag-sheathed rods were coated by the oxide barriers with slurry before stacking with a honeycomb structure. By twisting the filament with twist pitch length below 10 mm and introducing interfilamentary barriers, the coupling frequency (f_c) under an AC perpendicular field, which is inversely proportional to the decay time constant (τ_c) of coupling current, exceeded 100 Hz. At perpendicular field amplitude above full-penetration field, the magnetization losses of the twisted barrier tape were reduced by 30–40% around power-grid frequency, compared with analytical values for fully-coupled filaments. However, the loss values were still considerably higher than the prediction of the hysteresis loss (Q_h) for the completely decoupled filaments. From the frequency dependence of losses, it was suggested that the loss reduction of twisted barrier tape around power-grid frequency were limited by not only the contribution of coupling current loss (Q_c) but also the insufficient Q_h reduction due to the presence of physical connection among the filaments positioned near the center of a tape section.     

Social percolation in relations between activists and supporters

This article is a study of the relations between activists with a strong belief and their passive supporters. In order to achieve a fuller understanding of these relations the authors make use of bond percolation theory. The theories hold that when the size of a group's communication in a given society exceeds a critical threshold; that is, when the size of the cluster of supporters' bonds becomes practically infinite within the society by virtue of the work of activists, subsequently supporters and activists come to hold key positions in society. A graph is generated indicating the probability of activists' bonds with respect to the probability of supporters' bonds within a lattice, when the biggest cluster of supporters' bonds becomes infinite. Simulations have been undertaken, and when a case is found in which infinite clusters emerge, this value of the probability of both supporters' and activists' bonds is isolated. A graph can then be generated a graph on which to plot these values as points. After that, these results can be discussed at length and some conclusions are derived from them. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 11: 51–56, 2006     

Propagation of short-range order in the lattice gas

The lattice gas model is examined to make a comparison between the superposition approximation and one which is free from the approximation as long as the three-body distribution is concerned. The formulation is applied to the type I superionic conductor, AgI, in which Ag-ions can move like the atoms in liquid and give rise to a strongly correlated Ag-ion distribution over available lattice sites. The oscillatory behavior of the radial distribution function is found up to the seventh neighbor distances including three maxima and three minima. The degree of disordered arrangement is then examined by calculating the latent heat of transition from the ordered β-phase to disordered α-phase of the superionic conductor.     

Electrochemical studies of sulfonates in non-aqueous solvents: Part I. Polarographic reductions of alkali metal ions with sulfonate supporting electrolyte in N,N-dimethylformamide and acetonitrile

The effect of the supporting electrolytes tetraethylammonium p-toluenesulfonate, methanesulfonate and trifluoromethanesulfonate on the polarographic reduction of alkali metal ions in N,N-dimethylformamide and acetonitrile has been investigated. In tetraethylammonium trifluoromethanesulfonate supporting electrolyte, the polarographic reductions of alkali metal ions are almost the same as those in perchlorate in both solvents. In tetraethylammonium p-toluenesulfonate and methanesulfonate, the half-wave potentials shift to more negative potentials, especially in acetonitrile. These shifts can be explained in terms of ion-pair formation between the alkali metal ion and the supporting electrolyte anion.     

Generalized Kerr–NUT–de Sitter metrics in all dimensions

We classify all spacetimes with a closed rank-2 conformal Killing–Yano tensor. They give a generalization of Kerr–NUT–de Sitter spacetimes. The Einstein condition is explicitly solved and written as an indefinite integral. It is characterized by a polynomial in the integrand. We briefly discuss the smoothness conditions of the Einstein metrics over compact Riemannian manifolds.