A new enone‐containing triglyceride derivative as precursor of thermosets from renewable resources

A novel triglyceride containing α,β‐unsaturated ketone was prepared through photoperoxidation from high oleic sunflower oil by two steps one pot environmentally friendly procedure. This new enone‐containing triglyceride was crosslinked with diaminodiphenylmethane (DDM) via aza‐Michael addition. A kinetic study of the reaction of p‐toluidine with either enone‐containing methyl oleate or epoxidized methyl oleate, as model compounds, allowed us to establish the higher reactivity of the former, thus confirming this curing system as an alternative to amine‐cured epoxidized vegetable oils. The thermal properties of thermosets from enone‐ and epoxy‐containing triglycerides with DDM have been evaluated. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 6843–6850, 2008     

A Rainich-Like Approach to the Killing-Yano Tensors

The Rainich problem for Killing-Yano tensors posed by Collinson [1] is solved. In intermediate steps, we first obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions for a 2+2 almost-product structure to determine the principal 2–planes of a Killing-Yano tensor. Then we give the additional conditions on a symmetric Killing tensor for it to be the square of a Killing-Yano tensor. We also analyze a similar problem for the conformal Killing-Yano tensors. Our results show that, in both cases, the principal 2–planes define a Maxwellian structure. The associated Maxwell fields are obtained and we outline how this approach is of interest in studying the spacetimes that admit these kind of first integrals of the geodesic equation.     

High‐molecular‐weight side‐chain liquid‐crystalline polyethers based on 4′‐cyanobiphenyl‐4‐oxy mesogenic groups

A set of poly[ω‐(4′‐cyano‐4‐biphenyloxy)alkyl‐1‐glycidylether]s were synthesized by the chemical modification of the corresponding poly(ω‐bromoalkyl‐1‐glycidylether)s with the sodium salt of 4‐cyano‐4′‐hydroxybiphenyl. New high‐molecular‐weight side‐chain liquid‐crystalline polymers were obtained with excellent yield and almost quantitative degree of modification. All side‐chain liquid‐crystalline polymers were rubbers soluble in tetrahydrofuran. The characterization by ¹H and ¹³C NMR revealed no changes in the regioregular isotactic microstructure of the starting polymer and the absence of undesirable side reactions such as deshydrobromination. The liquid crystalline behavior was analyzed by DSC and polarized optical microscopy, and mesophase assignments were confirmed by X‐ray diffraction. Polymers that had alkyl spacers with n = 2 and 4 were nematic, those that had spacers with n = 6 and 8 were nematic cybotactic, and those that had longer spacers (n = 10 and 12) were smectic C and showed some crystallization of the side alkyl chains. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 3002–3012, 2004     

Quantum effects on t\rightarrow H^{+}\,b in the MSSM: a window to “virtual” supersymmetry?

We analyze the one-loop effects (strong and electroweak) on the unconventional top quark decay mode within the MSSM. The results are presented in the on-shell renormalization scheme with a physically well motivated definition of . The study of this process at the quantum level is useful to unravel the potential supersymmetric nature of the charged Higgs emerging from that decay. As compared with the standard mode , the corrections to are large, slowly decoupling and persist at a sizeable level even for all sparticle masses well above the LEP 200 discovery range. As a matter of fact, the potential size of the SUSY effects, which amount to corrections of several ten percent, could counterbalance the standard QCD corrections and even make them to appear with the “wrong” sign. Therefore, if the charged Higgs decay of the top quark is kinematically allowed – a possibility which is not excluded by the existing measurements of the branching ratio at the Tevatron – it could be an invaluable laboratory to search for “virtual” supersymmetry. While a first significant test of these effects could possibly be performed at the upgraded Tevatron, a more precise verification would most likely be carried out in future experiments at the LHC. Received: 18 April 1997 / Revised version: 18 June 1997     

A simple procedure to obtain the extreme core allocations of an assignment market

Given an assignment market, we introduce a set of vectors, one for each possible ordering on the player set, which we name the max-payoff vectors. Each one of these vectors is obtained recursively only making use of the assignment matrix. Those max-payoff vectors that are efficient turn out to give the extreme core allocations of the market. When the assignment game has a large core, all the max-payoff vectors are extreme core allocations.     

Circular dichroism studies of bisindole Vinca alkaloids

The analysis of a series of seventeen vinblastine analogs by circular dichroism is described. Exciton coupling of the indole and indoline chromophores of these compounds provides a general, non-empirical method for the assignment of the C16′ configuration with the bioactive C16′-S and the inactive C16′-R analogs giving rise, respectively, to positive and negative couplets. An analysis of the non-coupled transitions of the CDs indicates that a positive Cotton effect at 305 nm, although empirical, is associated with bioactivity. Theoretical calculations of the UV and CD spectra of vinblastine diastereomers are also described.