Acetylenic and diacetylenic liquid-crystalline monomers: towards ordered conjugated polymers

Abstract

Acetylenic and diacetylenic mesomorphic monomers have been prepared in order to obtain long conjugated polymers able to give high non-linear optical hyperpolarizabilities. Here we report the synthesis of such monomers incorporating cholesteryl and methoxybiphenyl groups; their structural and thermal behaviour are described. The occurrence of mesophases in the acetylenic and diacetylenic derivatives is discussed as a function of the spacer length and of the size of the mesogen moiety. The diacetylenic derivatives containing the methoxybiphenyl groups do not exhibit any liquid-crystalline behaviour but are able to polymerize under U.V. radiation.     

Investigation of NH–π (Ph) interaction in the 1:1[α:α-N-amino]mers using 1H NMR and FTIR absorption spectroscopy

¹H NMR and FTIR experiments performed on the 1:1[α:α-N-amino]mers series let us to point out a rare NH–π interaction between the carbamidic NH of the i residue and the phenyl group of a phenylalanine residue located at i+2.     

Contribution a L'etude de melanges susceptibles de former des microemulsions selon leurs compositions,par la definition de leurs comportements dielectriques a 9,455 GHz

The dielectric studies of four components mixtures are rarely made on a great deal of concentrations. The authors propose a dielectric behavior study of mixtures made with toluene-water-butanol-SDS, from specific mappings of permittivities which are plotted on pseudo ternary diagrams at 9.455 GHz. They draw different conclusions to know how at 9.455 GHz the variations of real and imaginary parts of permittivity involve the concentration of each component and the structure of the mixture.These conclusions will be perfected by studies made at other frequencies and by spectral analysis of each mixture.     

Symmetric Groups and Lattices

This paper deals with various problems in lattice theory involving local extrema. In particular, we construct infinite series of highly symmetric spherical 3-designs which include some of the examples constructed in [9] in dimensions 5 and 7. We also construct new types of dual-extreme lattices.Received June 29, 2002; in final form January 14, 2003 Published online May 16, 2003     

Local self-similarity and the Hausdorff dimension

Let X be a locally self-similar stochastic process of index 0<H<1 whose sample paths are a.s. C^H?ε for all ε>0. Then the Hausdorff dimension of the graph of X is a.s. 2?H. To cite this article: A. Benassi et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 336 (2003).     

Approximation of multi-scale elliptic problems using patches of finite elements

In this paper we present a method to solve numerically elliptic problems with multi-scale data using multiple levels of not necessarily nested grids. The method consists in calculating successive corrections to the solution in patches whose discretizations are not necessarily conforming. It resembles the FAC method (see Math. Comp. 46 (174) (1986) 439–456) and its convergence is obtained by a domain decomposition technique (see Math. Comp. 57 (195) (1991) 1–21). However it is of much more flexible use in comparison to the latter. To cite this article: R. Glowinski et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 337 (2003).     

Existence of solutions to an anisotropic phase‐field model

We consider an anisotropic phase‐field model for the isothermal solidification of a binary alloy due to Warren–Boettinger ( Acta. Metall. Mater. 1995; 43 (2):689). Existence of weak solutions is established under a certain convexity condition on the strongly non‐linear second‐order anisotropic operator and Lipschitz and boundedness assumptions for the non‐linearities. A maximum principle holds that guarantees the existence of a solution under physical assumptions on the non‐linearities. The qualitative properties of the solutions are illustrated by a numerical example. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MULTIFRACTAL FORMALISMS：BOXED VERSUS CENTERED INTERVALS

There are mainly two approaches to the multifractal analysis of measures. The first one, which is used in applications and in studying problems arising from dynamical systems, uses a hierarchy of boxes. The second one, which is more satisfactory from the viewpoint of geometric measure theory, uses more intrinsicconcepts. This article is an account of a work by J. Barral, F. Ben Nasr, and J. Peyriere [3] which pro-vides a bridge between these two theories.     

The sense of smell,its signalling pathways,and the dichotomy of cilia and microvilli in olfactory sensory cells

Smell is often regarded as an ancillary perception in primates, who seem so dominated by their sense of vision. In this paper, we will portray some aspects of the significance of olfaction to human life and speculate on what evolutionary factors contribute to keeping it alive. We then outline the functional architecture of olfactory sensory neurons and their signal transduction pathways, which are the primary detectors that render olfactory perception possible. Throughout the phylogenetic tree, olfactory neurons, at their apical tip, are either decorated with cilia or with microvilli. The significance of this dichotomy is unknown. It is generally assumed that mammalian olfactory neurons are of the ciliary type only. The existence of so-called olfactory microvillar cells in mammals, however, is well documented, but their nature remains unclear and their function orphaned. This paper discusses the possibility, that in the main olfactory epithelium of mammals ciliated and microvillar sensory cells exist concurrently. We review evidence related to this hypothesis and ask, what function olfactory microvillar cells might have and what signalling mechanisms they use.     

MR detection of mechanical vibrations using a radiofrequency field gradient

A new method for NMR characterization of mechanical waves, based upon radiofrequency field gradient for motion encoding, is proposed. A binomial B1 gradient excitation scheme was used to visualize the mobile spins undergoing a periodic transverse mechanical excitation. A simple model was designed to simulate the NMR signal as a function of the wave frequency excitation and the periodicity of the NMR pulse sequence. The preliminary results were obtained on a gel phantom at low vibration frequencies (0-200 Hz) by using a ladder-shaped coil generating a nearly constant RF field gradient along a specific known direction. For very small displacements and/or B1 gradients, the NMR signal measured on a gel phantom was proportional to the vibration amplitude and the pulse sequence was shown to be selective with respect to the vibration frequency. A good estimation of the direction of vibrations was obtained by varying the angle between the motion direction and the B1 gradient. The method and its use in parallel to more conventional MR elastography techniques are discussed. The presented approach might be of interest for noninvasive investigation of elastic properties of soft tissues and other materials.