Complexes of borane and N-heterocyclic carbenes: a new class of radical hydrogen atom donor

Calculations suggest that complexes of borane with N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) have B-H bond dissocation energies more then 20 kcal/mol less than free borane, diborane, borane-THF, and related complexes. Values are in the range of popular radical hydrogen atom donors like tin hydrides (70-80 kcal/mol). The resulting prediction that NHC borane complexes could be used as radical hydrogen atom donors was verified by radical deoxygenations of xanthates by using either AIBN or triethylborane as initiator.     

Optimization of extraction process and characterization of water-soluble polysaccharide (Galactomannan) from Algerian biomass; Citrullus colocynthis seeds

In this work, the optimization of extraction of polysaccharides from Citrullus colocynthis curd polysaccharides (CCPs) is investigated by using the analysis of variance. For this aim, a chemical extraction method has been developed in order to be able to isolate CCPs at high level of purity. The extraction was performed by using boiling water at different extraction times (30, 60 and 120?min), extraction temperatures (50, 75 and 100°C), and a material ratio (30, 60 and 100?g/ml), for maximum polysaccharide extraction. The 3-D response surface plot and the contour plot derived from the mathematical models are used to determine the optimal conditions. The optimum extraction conditions are as follows: extraction temperature 100°C, extraction time 120?min and the ratio of water 30?ml/g. Under these conditions, the experimental final mass is 210.6?mg which is very close to the predicted value (209.46?mg) with a regression coefficient of 94.01%. In addition, the existence of the polysaccharide has been confirmed by the characterization of the galactomannan obtained from C. colocynthisis obtained by Fourier transform infrared-attenuated total reflection, IR-Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction.     

Influence of high-energy X-ray irradiation on the optical properties of tetraphenylporphyrin thin films

Tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) thermally evaporated films were irradiated by different doses (0.5–2.5 kGy) of X-ray with energy 6 MeV. The optical properties for TPP were investigated using spectrophotometric measurements of the transmittance and reflectance at normal incidence of light in the wavelength range from 200 to 1100 nm. The absorption spectra recorded in the UV-VIS region of spectra showed different absorption bands, namely four Q-bands in the visible region of the spectrum and a more intense band termed as the Soret band in the near-UV region of the spectrum. Two other bands labeled N and M appear in the UV region. The Soret band showed Davydov splitting. Increasing X-ray irradiation dose influences the optical properties of TPP films. All absorption bands show a continuous blue shift in position and a decrease in intensity with increasing X-ray dose. At 2.5 kGy the B, N, and M bands disappeared. The reduction in the absorbency was calculated as a function of X-ray dose. The energy gap was determined and the type of optical transition was found to be an indirect allowed transition.     

Schwinger action principle via linear quantum canonical transformations

We have applied the Schwinger action principle to general one-dimensional (1D), time-dependent quadratic systems via linear quantum canonical transformations, which allowed us to simplify the problems to be solved by this method. We show that while using a suitable linear canonical transformation, we can considerably simplify the evaluation of the propagator of the studied system to that for a free particle. The efficiency and exactness of this method is verified in the case of the simple harmonic oscillator. This technique enables us to evaluate easily and immediately the propagator in some particular cases such as the damped harmonic oscillator, the harmonic oscillator with a time-dependent frequency, and the harmonic oscillator with time-dependent mass and frequency, and in this way the propagator of the forced damped harmonic oscillator is easily calculated without any approach. PACS 02.30.Xx, 03.65.-w, 03.65.Ca     

Electronic transport mechanisms in tetraphenyleprophyrin thin films

Thermally-evaporated thin films of tetraphenylporphyrin, TPP, with thickness range from (175 to 735) nm had been prepared. Annealing temperatures ranging from (273–473) K do not influence the amorphous structure of these films. The influence of environmental conditions: film thickness, temperature and frequency on the electrical properties of TPP thin films had been reported. It was found that dc conductivity increases with increasing temperature and film thickness. The extrinsic conduction mechanism is operating in temperature range of (293–380) K with activation energy of 0.13 eV. The intrinsic one is in temperatures >380 K via phonon assisted hopping of small polaron with activation energy of 0.855 eV. The ac electrical conductivity and dielectric relaxation in the temperature range (293–473) K and in frequency range (0.1–100) kHz had been also studied. It had been shown that theoretical curves generated from correlated barrier hopping (CBH) model gives the best fitting with experimental results. Analysis of these results proved that conduction occurs at low temperatures (300–370) K by phonon assisted hopping between localized states and it is performed by single polaron hopping process at higher temperatures. The temperature and frequency dependence of both the real and imaginary parts of dielectric constant had been reported.     

Simultaneous optically sectioned fluorescence and optical coherence microscopy with full-field illumination

Full-field optical coherence microscopy (FF-OCM) and optically sectioned fluorescence microscopy are two imaging techniques that are implemented here in a novel dual modality instrument. The two imaging modalities use a broad field illumination to acquire the entire field of view without raster scanning. Optical sectioning is achieved in both imaging modalities owing to the coherence gating property of light for FF-OCM, and a structured illumination setup for fluorescence microscopy. Complementary image data are provided by the dual modality instrument in the context of biological tissue screening. FF-OCM imaging modality shows the tissue microarchitecture, while fluorescence microscopy highlights specific tissue features with cellular-level resolution by using targeting contrast agents. Complementary tissue morphology and biochemical features could potentially improve the understanding of cellular functions and disease diagnosis.     

Robust sensor fault estimation for fractional-order systems with monotone nonlinearities

Nonlinear Dynamics - This paper investigates the problem of sensor fault estimation for systems with monotone nonlinearities and unknown inputs. To the best of our knowledge, such a particular...