Turing patterns in the chlorine dioxide-iodine-malonic acid reaction with square spatial periodic forcing

We use the photosensitive chlorine dioxide-iodine-malonic acid reaction-diffusion system to study wavenumber locking of Turing patterns to two-dimensional "square" spatial forcing, implemented as orthogonal sets of bright bands projected onto the reaction medium. Various resonant structures emerge in a broad range of forcing wavelengths and amplitudes, including square lattices and superlattices, one-dimensional stripe patterns and oblique rectangular patterns. Numerical simulations using a model that incorporates additive two-dimensional spatially periodic forcing reproduce well the experimental observations.     

LC/MS/MS identification of some folic acid degradation products after E-beam irradiation

Folates belong to the B vitamin group based on the parental compound folic acid (FA). They are involved in important biochemical processes like DNA synthesis and repair. FA is composed of a pteridine ring, p-aminobenzoic acid and glutamate moieties. The human metabolism is not able to synthesize folates and therefore obtain them from diet. FA, a synthetic vitamin, is used as a food fortificant because of its low price, relative stability and increased bioavailability compared to natural folate forms. FA is known to be a sensitive compound easily degradable in aqueous solution by ultraviolet and visible light towards various by-products. Irradiation is a process for preservation of foods that uses accelerated electrons, gamma rays or X-rays. Irradiation is proposed for the treatment of various food products, eliminating or reducing pathogens and insects, increasing the storage time and replacing chemical fumigants. This study concerns the identification of degradation products of FA after E-beam irradiation. FA aqueous solutions were irradiated with a Van de Graaff electrons beam accelerator (2 MeV, 100 μA current, 20 cm scan width, dose rate about 2 kGy/s). Applied doses were between 0 (control) and 10.0 kGy. Absorbed doses were monitored with FWT 60.00 radiochromic dosimeters.     

Jean van Heijenoort’s Contributions to Proof Theory and Its History

Jean van Heijenoort was best known for his editorial work in the history of mathematical logic. I survey his contributions to model-theoretic proof theory, and in particular to the falsifiability tree method. This work of van Heijenoort??s is not widely known, and much of it remains unpublished. A complete list of van Heijenoort??s unpublished writings on tableaux methods and related work in proof theory is appended.     

An efficient algorithm for the “stable roommates” problem

The stable marriage problem is that of matching n men and n women, each of whom has ranked the members of the opposite sex in order of preference, so that no unmatched couple both prefer each other to their partners under the matching. At least one stable matching exists for every stable marriage instance, and efficient algorithms for finding such a matching are well known. The stable roommates problem involves a single set of even cardinality n, each member of which ranks all the others in order of preference. A stable matching is now a partition of this single set into n/2 pairs so that no two unmatched members both prefer each other to their partners under the matching. In this case, there are problem instances for which no stable matching exists. However, the present paper describes an O(n²) algorithm that will determine, for any instance of the problem, whether a stable matching exists, and if so, will find such a matching.     

A valence-bond diatomics-in-molecules model for the formation of Na+ and Na2+ ions from the interaction of excited sodium atoms with a tungsten surface

Potential energy surfaces for Na(²S, ²P) interacting with a partially covered tungsten surface are computed within the framework of the method of diatomics-in-molecules (DIM). Only two sodium atoms are considered explicitly but the effect of all of the adsorbed sodium is taken into account through its influence on the fragment matrix elements in the DIM formulation. Na₂⁺ wavefunctions are approximated by valence-bond calculations for the ²Σ_g⁺ and ²Σ_u⁺ manifolds. The three lowest potential energy surfaces of the polyatomic system suggest plausible pathways for the production of Na⁺ and Na₂⁺ ions from the interaction of Na(²P) atoms with the metal surface as observed by Auschwitz and Lacmann.