Radiation heterogeneous processes of14C-acetic acid adsorbed in Na-Montmorillonite

This research addresses itself to the study of the mechanism of the acetic acid decarboxylation in Na-Montmorillonite exposed to ionizing radiation. The results obtained indicated that the decarboxylation reaction is enhanced several times by the irradiation. This behavior is probably due to an oxidation reaction at the edges of the clay. Also it is by energy transfer from the clay to adsorbed molecules by an interaction of non-equilibrium charge carriers with the adsorbed molecules.     

Energy transfer between the flavin chromophores of electron-transferring flavoprotein fromMegasphaera elsdenii as inferred from time-resolved red-edge and blue-edge fluorescence spectroscopy

Both a mode-locked argon-ion laser and synchrotron radiation were used as excitation sources to obtain time-resolved polarized fluorescence of the two FAD cofactors in electron transferring flavoprotein fromMegasphaera elsdenii. Red-edge excited and blue-edge detected fluorescence anisotropy decay curves did not contain a fast relaxation process which was observed upon mainband excitation and detection. This relaxation was assigned to homo-energy transfer between the two FAD cofactors. Failure of energy transfer as observed with edge spectroscopy on this protein excludes restricted reorientational motion of the flavins as a possible mechanism of depolarization. From the global analysis of the fluorescence anisotropy decay surface obtained at multiple excitation and detection wavelengths, the distance between and the relative orientation of the flavins could be estimated. The methodology described has general applicability in other multichromophoric biopolymers and has the potential to acquire accurate geometrical parameters in these systems.     

π π andK¯K channel coupling

We investigate the origin of the attraction in theK¯K channel around the threshold by introducing an additional channel to theππ andK¯K channels in a separable potential formalism assuming, in general, no direct interaction in theK¯K channel. To reproduce the features of the data, we find that the threshold of the additional channel is much above thef ₀(975) meson position. We show that this three-channel problem can be reduced to an effective two-channel problem where thef ₀(975) behaves as if it were aK¯K molecule bound by the coupling to the exotic channel. This picture is also supported by the fact that a single pole only, in the complexK¯K momentum plane, is associated to thef ₀(975) meson. Various physical observables, like the decay branching ratio and theK¯K scattering length, are then discussed in an effective two-channel framework.     

Synthesis and thermal crosslinking of oxazolidine‐functionalized polyurethanes

A new oxazolidine derivative was obtained from phenol, 2‐amino‐2‐methylpropane‐1,3‐diol and paraformaldehyde. The reaction of this novel oxazolidine diol with phenylisocyanate lead to a urethane model compound which can be polymerized thermally by oxazolidine ring opening to give a Mannich bridge structure. Linear segmented polyurethanes were prepared by reaction of different ratios of oxazolidine diol and commercial polyethylenglycol (M_w ～ 400) with 4,4′‐methylenbis (cyclohexylisocyanate) (HMDI, 90% isomers mixture). The polyurethanes were thermally characterized and crosslinked by oxazolidine ring opening to obtain materials which showed improved thermal stability. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 4965–4973, 2007     

On non-standard algebras and their representations

To Professor Guillermo Torres on the occasion of his 70^th birthday.     

An invariance of geometric mean with respect to Lagrangian means

The invariance of the geometric mean G with respect to the Lagrangian mean-type mapping (Lf,Lg), i.e. the equation G○(Lf,Lg)=G, is considered. We show that the functions f and g must be of high class regularity. This fact allows to reduce the problem to a differential equation and determine the second derivatives of the generators f and g.     

Monotonic solutions of a quadratic integral equation of fractional order

In the paper we indicate an error made in the proof of the main result of the paper [M.A. Darwish, On quadratic integral equation of fractional orders, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 311 (2005) 112-119]. Moreover, we provide correct proof of a slightly modified version of the mentioned result. The main tool used in our proof is the technique associated with the Hausdorff measure of noncompactness.     

Inequalities for a unified family of Voigt functions in several variables

The classical Voigt functions occur frequently in a wide variety of problems in astrophysical spectroscopy, emission, absorption and transfer of radiation in heated atmosphere, and plasma dispersion, and indeed also in the theory of neutron reactions. Here, in the present paper, by applying several known upper bounds for the first-kind Bessel function J _ν (x) given recently by (for example) Landau, Olenko and Krasikov, sharp bounding inequalities are obtained for the unified multivariable Voigt function V _μ,ν (x; y) in terms of the confluent Fox-Wright function ₁ψ₀ and its incomplete variant ₁ψ₀. Connections of the unified multivariable Voigt function V _μ,ν (x; y) with other unifications and generalizations of the classical Voigt function are also briefly pointed out.