On formation of singularities in one-dimensional nonlinear thermoelasticity

Dedicated to Bernard D. Coleman on the occasion of his 60^th birthday     

"Molecular chameleons". Design and synthesis of a second series of flexible nucleosides

The second series of flexible shape-modified nucleosides is introduced. The "fleximers" feature the purine ring systems split into their individual imidazole and pyrimidine components. This structural modification serves to introduce flexibility to the nucleoside while still retaining the elements essential for recognition. As a consequence, these structurally innovative nucleosides can more readily adapt to their environment and should find use as bioprobes for investigating enzyme-coenzyme binding sites as well as nucleic acid and protein interactions. Their design and synthesis is described.     

A generalization of the Holditch Theorem for the planar homothetic motions

In this paper, under the one-parameter closed planar homothetic motion, a generalization of Holditch Theorem is obtained by using two different line segments (with fixed lengths) whose endpoints move along two different closed curves.This revised version was published online in April 2005 with a corrected missing date string.     

Surface-directed capillary system; theory, experiments and applications

We present a capillary flow system for liquid transport in microsystems. Our simple microfluidic system consists of two planar parallel surfaces, separated by spacers. One of the surfaces is entirely hydrophobic, the other mainly hydrophobic, but with hydrophilic pathways defined on it by photolithographic means. By controlling the wetting properties of the surfaces in this manner, the liquid can be confined to certain areas defined by the hydrophilic pathways. This technique eliminates the need for alignment of the two surfaces. Patterned plasma-polymerized hexafluoropropene constitutes the hydrophobic areas, whereas the untreated glass surface constitutes the hydrophilic pathways. We developed a theoretical model of the capillary flow and obtained analytical solutions which are in good agreement with the experimental results. The capillarity-driven microflow system was also used to pattern and immobilize biological material on planar substrates: well-defined 200 microm wide strips of human cells (HeLa) and fluorescence labelled proteins (fluorescein isothiocyanate-labelled bovine serum albumin, i.e., FITC-BSA) were fabricated using the capillary flow system presented here.     

Characterization of water mobility and distribution in low- and intermediate-moisture food systems

The mechanism of water uptake in low moisture cereals and cookies has been studied by NMR relaxometry and solid imaging technology implemented on a low-resolution benchtop NMR spectrometer. A comparison between classical MRI and SPRITE imaging are also presented to highlight the benefits of each technology. The spin lattice (T(1)) and spin spin (T(2)) relaxation times, the 1D and 2D SPRITE imaging, were determined on Smacks, corn flakes, chocolate chips cookies, soft caramel candies with a chocolate crème filler, and corn starch/water systems. The Smacks and corn flakes were studied based on the soaking time in milk, and the results showed that T(1) and T(2) decreased in the first 20 sec of soaking and then increased with the soaking time. For Smacks stored at different relative humidity, T(1) decreased during the first day of storage and then was relatively constant over storage time indicating that the system reached an equilibrium. 1D SPRITE profiles indicated an increase in signal intensity over storage time for cookies in 58% RH. However, the moisture uptake was insignificant indicating that the water mobility (and not the amount of water) changed due to various chemical interactions in the system (hydrogen bonding, starch retrogradation, glassy/rubbery equilibrium). The T(1) and T(2) of corn starch/water systems decreased as the concentration in starch increased and temperature increased from 30 degrees C to 60 degrees C. However, for temperatures higher than 60 degrees C, the relaxation times increased showing more mobility and flexibility of the polymer chains during gelatinization.     

A study on the tight-binding method

Using the results of a first-principles tight-binding band calculation of diamond, whete all two and three center integrals up to 22nd nearest neighbors are taken into account, various features of the method are studied. These are the stability of the conduction band, the convergence with respect to both the number of neighbors and the reciprocal lattice vectors used in the expansion of the crystalline potential. In order to further improve the results of our tight-binding band calculation the Orbital Correction Method is applied. As an application, a method is developed to calculate localized defect states, which utilizes non-orthogonal tight-binding states.     

Synthesis of pyrazole‐fused azepino[5,4,3‐cd]indoles

The synthesis of some new pyrazolo[3′,4′:6,7]azepino[5,4,3‐cd] indoles (10a‐c) was achieved via regios‐elective cyclization of the respective 3‐(4‐acylaminopyrazol‐5‐yl)indoles (9a‐c) under Bischler‐Napieralski reaction conditions. The latter compounds were obtained by acylation of the corresponding 3‐(4‐aminopyra‐zol‐5‐yl)indoles (8a,b) which, in turn, were prepared by reduction of the 3‐(4‐nitropyrazol‐5‐yl)indoles precursors (7a,b) . The latter synthons were accessible from the reaction of indolylzinc chlorides (5a,b) with 5‐chloro‐1,3‐dimethyl‐4‐nitropyrazole. Ms and nmr spectral data of 10a‐c are in agreement with the assigned azepino‐indole structure as determined for 10a by X‐ray crystal measurements which demonstrate that the azepine ring is almost completely planar with the indole and pyrazole rings.     

Blow Up in a Semilinear Wave Equation

We consider a semilinear wave equation of the form u_tt(x, t) - Δu(x, t) = - m(x, t)u_t(x, t) + ∇Φ(x) ⋅ ∇u(x, t ) + b(x)|u(x, t)|^{p-2}u(x, t) where p > 2. We show, under suitable conditions on m, Φ, b, that weak solutions break down in finite time if the initial energy is negative. This result improves an earlier one by the author [1].     

Trinary signed-digit arithmetic using an efficient encoding scheme

The trinary signed-digit (TSD) number system is of interest for ultrafast optoelectronic computing systems since it permits parallel carry-free addition and borrow-free subtraction of two arbitrary length numbers in constant time. In this paper, a simple coding scheme is proposed to encode the decimal number directly into the TSD form. The coding scheme enables one to perform parallel one-step TSD arithmetic operation. The proposed coding scheme uses only a 5-combination coding table instead of the 625-combination table reported recently for recoded TSD arithmetic technique.     

Ultrasound irradiation in heterocycle synthesis: An overview

The synthesis of heterocyclic compounds has been a hot topic for several decades. Synthetic organic chemists are always in search of new methodologies which are greener for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds. The ultrasound-assisted reactions have contributed much to this field. This review focuses on the impact of sonochemistry in the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds and covers the literature from 2009 to 2020.