Monitoring degradation processes of explosives by HPLC analysis with UV- and amperometric detection

The impact of spilled explosives, their by-products and degradation products on human beings and the environment has been recognised as a serious problem at areas of existing and former ammunition plants. In nature, aerobic and anaerobic degradation processes of explosives and their accompanying compounds yield polar contaminants with relatively high water solubilities. Most are potentially carcinogenic and mutagenic. An HPLC method applying UV-detection for nitroaromatic compounds and amperometric detection for aminoaromatic and phenolic compounds was used for monitoring the degradation of explosives in a polluted groundwater sample under natural conditions. Analysis was performed by direct injection of aliquots of the sample after exposition to daylight for different periods of time. Presented as a poster at the Anakon ’95 Conference in Schliersee, April 24–26, 1995     

Universal quenching of common fluorescent probes by water and alcohols

Although biological imaging is mostly performed in aqueous media, it is hardly ever considered that water acts as a classic fluorescence quencher for organic fluorophores. By investigating the fluorescence properties of 42 common organic fluorophores recommended for biological labelling, we demonstrate that H₂O reduces their fluorescence quantum yield and lifetime by up to threefold and uncover the underlying fluorescence quenching mechanism. We show that the quenching efficiency is significantly larger for red-emitting probes and follows an energy gap law. The fluorescence quenching finds its origin in high-energy vibrations of the solvent (OH groups), as methanol and other linear alcohols are also found to quench the emission, whereas it is restored in deuterated solvents. Our observations are consistent with a mechanism by which the electronic excitation of the fluorophore is resonantly transferred to overtones and combination transitions of high-frequency vibrational stretching modes of the solvent through space and not through hydrogen bonds. Insight into this solvent-assisted quenching mechanism opens the door to the rational design of brighter fluorescent probes by offering a justification for protecting organic fluorophores from the solvent via encapsulation.

Overtones and combinations of O–H vibrations in the solvent efficiently quench red-emitting fluorophores by resonant energy transfer.     

Spectroscopy vs. Electrochemistry: Catalyst Layer Thickness Effects on Operando/In Situ Measurements

In recent years, operando/in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) has become an important tool in the electrocatalysis community. However, the high catalyst loadings often required to acquire XA-spectra with a satisfactory signal-to-noise ratio frequently imply the use of thick catalyst layers (CLs) with large ion- and mass-transport limitations. To shed light on the impact of this variable on the spectro-electrochemical results, in this study we investigate Pd-hydride formation in carbon-supported Pd-nanoparticles (Pd/C) and an unsupported Pd-aerogel with similar Pd surface areas but drastically different morphologies and electrode packing densities. Our in situ XAS and rotating disk electrode (RDE) measurements with different loadings unveil that the CL-thickness largely determines the hydride formation trends inferred from spectro-electrochemical experiments, therewith calling for the minimization of the CL-thickness in such experiments and the use of complementary thin-film control measurements.     

Optimization for discretized switched systems

Switching time optimization is a crucial topic in the optimal control of hybrid systems. Since it is rare that such problems can be solved analytically, the use of numerical discretization schemes for the integration of state and adjoint systems is indispensable. Thus, in this contribution, the switching time optimization problem is studied in a discretized formulation directly from the beginning. An analysis of the discretized problem reveals that smoothness of the original (continuous time) problem is lost, i.e. the problem will in general become nondifferentiable in discrete time. This has to be taken into account when deriving an adjoint-based formula for the optimization of the discretized problem. A hybrid double pendulum example is used for illustration of the results. (© 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Inequalities for full rank differences of 2-marked Durfee symbols

In this paper, we obtain infinitely many non-trivial identities and inequalities between full rank differences for 2-marked Durfee symbols, a generalization of partitions introduced by Andrews. A certain strict inequality, which almost always holds, shows that identities for Dyson?s rank, similar to those proven by Atkin and Swinnerton-Dyer, are quite rare. By showing an analogous strict inequality, we show that such non-trivial identities are also rare for the full rank, but on the other hand we obtain an infinite family of non-trivial identities, in contrast with the partition theoretic case.     

Pattern avoidance and Boolean elements in the Bruhat order on involutions

We show that the principal order ideal of an element w in the Bruhat order on involutions in a symmetric group is a Boolean lattice if and only if w avoids the patterns 4321, 45312 and 456123. Similar criteria for signed permutations are also stated. Involutions with this property are enumerated with respect to natural statistics. In this context, a bijective correspondence with certain Motzkin paths is demonstrated. This article is largely based on results from the second author’s M.Sc. thesis [15].     

False theta functions and companions to Capparelli's identities

Capparelli conjectured two modular identities for partitions whose parts satisfy certain gap conditions, which were motivated by the calculation of characters for the standard modules of certain affine Lie algebras and by vertex operator theory. These identities were subsequently proved and refined by Andrews, who related them to Jacobi theta functions, and also by Alladi–Andrews–Gordon, Capparelli and Tamba–Xie. In this paper we prove two new companions to Capparelli's identities, where the evaluations are expressed in terms of Jacobi theta functions and false theta functions.     

New identities involving sums of the tails related to real quadratic fields

In previous work, the authors discovered new examples of q-hypergeometric series related to the arithmetic of $\mathbb {Q}(\sqrt{2})$ and $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{3})$ . Building on this work, we construct in this paper sum of the tails identities for which some which some of these functions occur as error terms. As an application, we obtain formulas for the generating function of a certain zeta functions for real quadratic fields at negative integers.     

Shintani lifts and fractional derivatives for harmonic weak Maass forms

In this paper, we construct Shintani lifts from integral weight weakly holomorphic modular forms to half-integral weight weakly holomorphic modular forms. Although defined by different methods, these coincide with the classical Shintani lifts when restricted to the space of cusp forms. As a side effect, this gives the coefficients of the classical Shintani lifts as new cycle integrals. This yields new formulas for the L-values of Hecke eigenforms. When restricted to the space of weakly holomorphic modular forms orthogonal to cusp forms, the Shintani lifts introduce a definition of weakly holomorphic Hecke eigenforms. Along the way, auxiliary lifts are constructed from the space of harmonic weak Maass forms which yield a “fractional derivative” from the space of half-integral weight harmonic weak Maass forms to half-integral weight weakly holomorphic modular forms. This fractional derivative complements the usual ξ-operator introduced by Bruinier and Funke.