Properties of polyvinylchloride in solution: an hydrodynamic and vibrational spectroscopy study

The polymer polyvinylchloride has been studied in binary solvent mixtures and as a function of temperature in solution. A discontinuity of the polymer chain dimensions has been observed, as measured by hydrodynamic methods. This phenomenon is further examined by infrared and Raman spectroscopy. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 37: 1351–1356, 1999     

Some remarks on category of the real line

We find a characterization of the covering number , of the real line in terms of trees. We also show that the cofinality of is greater than or equal to for every where ( is the additivity number of the ideal of all Lebesgue measure zero sets) is the least cardinal number k for which the statement: fails. Received: 19 October 1994 / Revised version: 12 December 1996     

Low - frequency raman modes in crystalline chain molecules

Low - frequency Raman modes of substituted derivatives of n - alkanes and oligo(oxyethylene)s are discussed. The major features in these modes arise from whole molecule longitudinal vibrations. The effects of end group, chain length and temperature on the frequencies of these modes are described. The frequencies of the longitudinal vibrations are interpreted in terms of chain models.     

Compact Metric Spaces and Weak Forms of the Axiom of Choice

It is shown that for compact metric spaces (X, d) the following statements are pairwise equivalent: “X is Loeb”, “X is separable”, “X has a we ordered dense subset”, “X is second countable”, and “X has a dense set G = ∪{G_n : n ∈ ω}, ∣G_n∣ < ω, with lim_n→∞ diam (G _n) = 0”. Further, it is shown that the statement: “Compact metric spaces are weakly Loeb” is not provable in ZF⁰ , the Zermelo‐Fraenkel set theory without the axiom of regularity, and that the countable axiom of choice for families of finite sets CAC_fin does not imply the statement “Compact metric spaces are separable”.     

A Family of Potent Ru(II) Photosensitizers with Enhanced DNA Intercalation: Bimodal Photokillers

A new family of Ru(II)‐based photosensitizers was synthesized and systematically characterized. The ligands employed to coordinate the ruthenium metal center were the commercially available 2,2′‐bipyridine and a pyridine‐quinoline hybrid bearing an anthracene moiety. The complexes obtained carry either or Cl^? counterions. These counterions determine the complexes' hydrophobic or hydrophilic character, respectively, therefore dictating their solubility in biologically related media. All photosensitizers exhibit characteristic, relatively strong and wide UV–Vis absorption spectral profiles. Their high efficiency in generating cytotoxic singlet oxygen was established (up to Φ_Δ ~0.8). Moreover, the interaction of these photosensitizers with double‐stranded DNA was studied fluoro‐ and photospectroscopically and their binding affinities were found to be of the order of 3 × 10⁷ M^?1. All complexes are photocytotoxic to DU145 human prostate cancer cells. The highest light‐induced toxicity was conferred by the photosensitizers bearing Cl^? counterions, probably due to the looser ionic “chaperoning” of Cl^?, in comparison to , leading to higher cell internalization.     

Novel thermoresponsive block copolymers having different architectures—structural,rheological, thermal,and dielectric investigations

Thermoresponsive block copolymers comprising long, hydrophilic, nonionic poly(methoxy diethylene glycol acrylate) (PMDEGA) blocks and short hydrophobic polystyrene (PS) blocks are investigated in aqueous solution. Various architectures, namely diblock, triblock, and starblock copolymers are studied as well as a PMDEGA homopolymer as reference, over a wide concentration range. For specific characterization methods, polymers were labeled, either by partial deuteration (for neutron scattering studies) or by fluorophores. Using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, critical micellization concentrations are identified and the hydrodynamic radii of the micelles, r _h ^mic , are determined. Using dynamic light scattering, the behavior of r _h ^mic in dependence on temperature and the cloud points are measured. Small-angle neutron scattering enabled the detailed structural investigation of the micelles and their aggregates below and above the cloud point. Viscosity measurements are carried out to determine the activation energies in dependence on the molecular architecture. Differential scanning calorimetry at high polymer concentration reveals the glass transition of the polymers, the fraction of uncrystallized water and effects of the phase transition at the cloud point. Dielectric relaxation spectroscopy shows that the polarization changes reversibly at the cloud point, which reflects the formation of large aggregates upon heating through the cloud point and their redissolution upon cooling.     

Crew Assignment via Constraint Programming: Integrating Column Generation and Heuristic Tree Search

The Airline Crew Assignment Problem (ACA) consists of assigning lines of work to a set of crew members such that a set of activities is partitioned and the costs for that assignment are minimized. Especially for European airline companies, complex constraints defining the feasibility of a line of work have to be respected. We developed two different algorithms to tackle the large scale optimization problem of Airline Crew Assignment. The first is an application of the Constraint Programming (CP) based Column Generation Framework. The second approach performs a CP based heuristic tree search. We present how both algorithms can be coupled to overcome their inherent weaknesses by integrating methods from Constraint Programming and Operations Research. Numerical results show the superiority of the hybrid algorithm in comparison to CP based tree search and column generation alone.