Sensitised near-infrared emission from lanthanides using a covalently-attached Pt(II) fragment as an antenna group

In a series of heterodinuclear complexes in which a Pt(PPh3)2(catecholate) chromophore is covalently linked to a lanthanide tris(diketonate) unit, sensitised near-IR emission from Yb(III), Nd(III) and Er(III) occurs on excitation of the Pt(II) chromophore at 520 nm.     

Two-zone elastic-plastic single shock waves in solids

By decoupling time and length scales in moving window molecular dynamics shock-wave simulations, a new regime of shock-wave propagation is uncovered characterized by a two-zone elastic-plastic shock-wave structure consisting of a leading elastic front followed by a plastic front, both moving with the same average speed and having a fixed net thickness that can extend to microns. The material in the elastic zone is in a metastable state that supports a pressure that can substantially exceed the critical pressure characteristic of the onset of the well-known split-elastic-plastic, two-wave propagation. The two-zone elastic-plastic wave is a general phenomenon observed in simulations of a broad class of crystalline materials and is within the reach of current experimental techniques.     

Convection-induced stabilization of optical dissipative solitons

In spatially extended convective systems, the reflection symmetry breaking induced by drift effects leads to a striking nonlinear effect that drastically affects the formation and stability of dissipative solitons in optical parametric oscillators. The phenomenon of nonlinear-induced convection dynamics is revealed using a model of the complex quintic Ginzburg-Landau equation with nonlinear gradient terms in it. Mechanisms leading to stabilization of dissipative solitons by convection are singled out. The predictions are in very good agreement with numerical solutions found from the governing equations of the optical parametric oscillators.     

REACTIONS OF TETRAPHOSPHORUS DECASULFIDE AND LAWESSON'S REAGENT WITH SILANES CONTAINING A FEW Si-O BONDS

Abstract

The reactions of tetraphosphorus decasulfide and Lawesson's reagent with tetra-, tri- and dialkoxysilanes were studied. On the basis of these reactions, new S-silyl esters of phosphorus(V) thioacids have been prepared. The prepared compounds were identified by IR, ¹H, and ³¹P NMR and mass spectra as well as elemental analyses.     

Pediatric abdominal masses: diagnostic accuracy of diffusion weighted MRI

Purpose

To retrospectively identify apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of pediatric abdominal mass lesions, to determine whether measured ADC of the lesions and signal intensity on diffusion-weighted (DW) images allow discrimination between benign and malignant mass lesions.

Materials and Methods

Approval for this retrospective study was obtained from the institutional review board. Children with abdominal mass lesions, who were examined by DW magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were included in this study. DW MR images were obtained in the axial plane by using a non breath-hold single-shot spin-echo sequence on a 1.5-T MR scanner. ADCs were calculated for each lesion. ADC values were compared with Mann–Whitney U test. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to determine cut-off values for ADC. The results of visual assessment on b800 images and ADC map images were compared with chi-square test.

Results

Thirty-one abdominal mass lesions (16 benign, 15 malignant) in 26 patients (15 girls, 11 boys, ranging from 2 days to 17 years with 6.9 years mean) underwent MRI. Benign lesions had significantly higher ADC values than malignant ones (P<.001). The mean ADCs of malignant lesions were 0.84±1.7×10⁻³ mm²/s, while the mean ADCs of the benign ones were 2.28±1.00×10⁻³ mm²/s. With respect to cutoff values of ADC: 1.11×10⁻³ mm²/s, sensitivity and negative predictive values were 100%, specificity was 78.6% and positive predictive value was 83.3%. For b800 and ADC map images, there were statistically significant differences on visual assessment. All malignant lesions had variable degrees of high signal intensity whereas eight of the 16 benign ones had low signal intensities on b800 images (P<.001). On ADC map images, all malignant lesions were hypointense and most of the benign ones (n=11, 68.7%) were hyperintense (P<.001).

Conclusion

DW imaging can be used for reliable discrimination of benign and malignant pediatric abdominal mass lesions based on considerable differences in the ADC values and signal intensity changes.     

Chaotic transients in surface-stabilized smectic C* cells induced by magnetic field

Recent theoretical developments regarding the understanding of weakly chaotic transients in ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs), induced by electric field, are studied in terms of the interaction with magnetic field. Our research is related with the nonlinear dynamical system represented by a thin film of surface-stabilized FLC in smectic C* phase, and subjected by the swinging magnetic field. The computation of the Lyapunov exponents from the dynamic equation for the director field reveals that the director dynamics exhibits limit cycle, hyperchaotic attractor and strange attractor behavior in the dissipative nonlinear media. The transients between director’s phase space trajectories can be handled by the magnetic field parameters. The fundamental understanding of the director dynamics may have a valuable contribution to the applications of thin liquid crystal films.     

Near-infrared luminescence of nine-coordinate neodymium complexes with benzimidazole-substituted 8-hydroxyquinolines

A new class of benzimidazole-substituted 8-hydroxyquinoline ligands has been prepared that contain a monoanionic tridentate N,N,O-coordinating unit. These ligands form charge-neutral lanthanide complexes of the type [Ln(L-R) 3]. nH 2O or [Ln 2(L2) 3]. nH 2O ( n = 1-3) with early lanthanides from La (III) to Gd (III) inclusive. Crystallographic characterization was carried out for 11 complexes with 6 different ligands. In all of these structures, the lanthanide ion was found to be nine-coordinated by three ligands arranged in an "up-up-down" fashion around the metal center. The coordination environment can be described as a tricapped trigonal prism, with N atoms of quinoline rings occupying capping positions. Upon deprotonation of the ligand and complex formation, a new absorption band appears in the visible range of the spectrum with a maximum in the range of 466-483 nm and molar absorption coefficient of (7.2 - 18) x 10 (3) M (-1) cm (-1). Its origin is likely to be an intraligand phenolate-to-pyridyl charge transfer transition centered on the 8-hydroxyquinolate chromophore. Upon excitation in ligand absorption bands, new Nd (III) complexes display characteristic metal-centered luminescence in the near-infrared region from 850 to 1450 nm with quantum yields and lifetimes in solid state at room temperature as high as 0.34% and 1.2 mus, respectively.     

Cooperative polymer dynamics under nanoscopic pore confinements probed by field-cycling NMR relaxometry

Reptational dynamics of bulk polymer chains on a time scale between the Rouse mode relaxation time and the so-called disengagement time is not compatible with the basic thermodynamic law of fluctuations of the number of segments in a given volume. On the other hand, experimental field-cycling NMR relaxometry data of perfluoropolyether melts confined in Vycor, a porous silica glass of nominal pore dimension of 4 nm, closely display the predicted signatures for the molecular weight and frequency dependences of the spin-lattice relaxation time in this particular limit, namely T1 proportional M-1/2nu1/2. It is shown that this contradiction is an apparent one. In this paper a formalism is developed suggesting cooperative chain dynamics under nanoscopic pore confinements. The result is a cooperative reptational displacement phenomenon reducing the root-mean-squared displacement rate correspondingly but showing the same characteristic dependences as the ordinary reptation model. The tube diameter effective for cooperative reptation is estimated on this basis for the sample system under consideration and is found to be of the same order of magnitude as the nominal pore diameter of Vycor.