Surface treatment of titanium by Nd:YAG laser irradiation in the presence of nitrogen

This work presents the surface treatment of commercial titanium alloy by means of a Nd:YAG (1.064 7m) laser in the presence of nitrogen. The treated surface was characterised by using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, secondary ion mass spectrometry, UV-visible spectrophotometry and microindentation. Experimental results show the formation of a nitrogen-rich layer, 500 nm thick, with a surface morphology characterised by the presence of polygonal structures which suggest that melting occurred under the action of the laser. The ' phase of titanium nitride was identified, in addition to a nitrogen in !-titanium solid solution. The reflectance spectrum of the yellow-golden sample is similar to that of deposited titanium nitride thin films. The hardness of the treated surface was measured by microindentation and found to be 14 GPa, a value three times higher than that of the titanium alloy. In scratch tests the nitrided layer detached at a load of 0.9 N.     

MGM Optimal convergence for certain (multilevel) structured linear systems

We present a multigrid algorithm to solve linear systems whose coefficient metrices belongs to circulant, Hartley or τ multilevel algebras and are generated by a nonnegative multivariate polynomial f. It is known that these matrices are banded (with respect to their multilevel structure) and their eigenvalues are obtained by sampling f on uniform meshes, so they are ill‐conditioned (or singular, and need some corrections) whenever f takes the zero value. We prove the proposed metod to be optimal even in presence of ill‐conditioning: if the multilevel coefficient matrix has dimension ni at level i, i = 1, … , d, then only ni operations are required on each iteration, but the convergence rate keeps constant with respect to N(n) as it depends only on f. The algorithm can be extended to multilevel Toeplitz matrices too.     

Enzyme-Mediated Preparation of (+)- and (–)-cis-α-Irone and (+)- and (–)-trans-α-Irone

The preparation of (−)- and (+)-trans-α-irone ( 1a and 1b , resp.) and of (+)- and (−)-cis-α-irone ( 1c and 1d , resp.) from commercially available Irone alpha ^® is reported. The relevant step in the synthetic sequence is the initial chromatographic separation of crystalline (±)-4,5-epoxy-4,5-dihydro-cis-α-irone ((±)- 5 ) from oily (±)-4,5-epoxy-4,5-dihydro-trans-α-irone ((±)- 4 ). The latter was subsequently converted, after NaBH₄ reduction, into the crystalline 3,5-dinitrobenzoate ester (±)- 8 , thus allowing a complete separation of the two corresponding diastereoisomeric alcohol derivatives. Suitable enantiomerically pure precursors of the desired products 1a – d were obtained by kinetic resolution of the racemic allylic alcohols derived from (±)- 5 and (±)- 8 , mediated by lipase PS (Amano). The last steps consisted of MnO₂ oxidation and removal of the epoxy moiety with Me₃SiCl/NaI in MeCN. External panel olfactory evaluation showed that (−)-cis-α-irone ( 1d ) has the finest and most distinct `orris butter' character.     

A combinatorial proof of the Removal Lemma for Groups

Green [B. Green, A Szemerédi-type regularity lemma in abelian groups, with applications, Geom. Funct. Anal. 15 (2005) 340-376] established a version of the Szemerédi Regularity Lemma for abelian groups and derived the Removal Lemma for abelian groups as its corollary. We provide another proof of his Removal Lemma that allows us to extend its statement to all finite groups. We also discuss possible extensions of the Removal Lemma to systems of equations.     

Er, Yb Doped Yttrium Based Nanosized Phosphors: Particle Size, “Host Lattice” and Doping Ion Concentration Effects on Upconversion Efficiency

The upconverter phosphors studied herein have different percentages of Er³⁺ and Yb³⁺ as doping ions in different Y³⁺ matrixes (Y₂O₃, Y₂O₂S), and were prepared from different precursors (polymeric resin, oxalate, basic carbonate) and method (combustion). Upconversion emission spectra were recorded at 298 K for all the doped samples in the visible region, for efficiency and Green/Red emission relative intensity comparisons. Therefore, an investigation of the influence of the doping ion concentration, particle size and host lattice on the upconversion process is provided in view of the UPT (Upconverting phosphor technology application). On the basis of the results, it was possible to evaluate the best combination for a specific assay, considering whether it is advantageous to have the greatest contribution from the green or red emissions, or from both in comparable intensities.     

Experimental estimate of a classicality witness via a single measurement

The perception that quantum correlations can still appear in separable states has opened exciting new possibilities regarding their use as a resource in quantum information science. Quantifying such quantum correlations involves the complete knowledge of the system's state and numerical optimization procedures. Thus, it is natural to seek methods involving fewer measurements that indicate the nature of the correlations in a system. Here we propose a classicality witness that can be accurately estimated via statistics from a single measurement and perform an experiment to explore the utility of this witness for quantum states with different types of correlations.     

Enantioselective synthesis of the bisabolane sesquiterpene (+)-1-hydroxy-1,3,5-bisabolatrien-10-one and revision of its absolute configuration

The enantioselective synthesis of (S)-1-hydroxy-1,3,5-bisabolatrien-10-one 1 is here described. This sesquiterpene was prepared using (S)-3-(2-methoxy-4-methyl-phenyl)butan-1-ol as a chiral building block. Two different pathways were employed and both turned out to be high yielding, affording 1 in good chemical purity and without any racemization of the existing stereocenter. The spectroscopic data of the synthetic (S)-1 were in very good agreement with those reported for the natural compound, which was extracted from Juniperus formosana heartwood and from the leaves of J. chinensis. The positive sign of the measured optical rotation value of synthetic (S)-1 allows the unambiguous assignment of the absolute configuration of (+)-1 as the (S)-enantiomer. This finding corrects the previous configuration determination which indicated the opposite result. At last, since even (R)-3-(2-methoxy-4-methyl-phenyl)butan-1-ol is preparable in high enantiomer purity by mean of a different biocatalytic process, the formal synthesis of natural (R)-1 was also accomplished.     

2,4‐Dibromo‐3‐methoxy‐6‐nitrobenz­aldeyde: effect of substituents on ring geometry

In the title compound, C₈H₅Br₂NO₄, the endocyclic angles of the ring deviate significantly from the ideal value of 120°. The substituents deviate from the plane of the ring, with large twist angles for the aldehyde, nitro and methoxy groups. The geometry of the mol­ecule in the crystal is compared with that of the isolated mol­ecule, as given by a self‐consistent field molecular‐orbital Hartree–Fock calculation. Only weak hydrogen bonds of the C—H?Br and C—H?O types are present in the crystal structure.     

A variational approach to chaotic dynamics in periodically forced nonlinear oscillators

We prove that a class of problems containing the classical periodically forced pendulum equation displays the main features of chaotic dynamics. The approach is based on the construction of multibump type heteroclinic solutions to periodic orbits by the use of global variational methods.     

Non-continuation of the periodic oscillations of a forced pendulum in the presence of friction

A well known theorem says that the forced pendulum equation has periodic solutions if there is no friction and the external force has mean value zero. In this paper we show that this result cannot be extended to the case of linear friction.