The Mosaic Structure of Zeolite Crystals

Zeolites are widely used in many commercial processes, mostly as catalysts or adsorbents. Understanding their intimate structure at the nanoscale is the key to control their properties and design the best materials for their ever increasing uses. Herein, we report a new and controllable fluoride treatment for the non‐discriminate extraction of zeolite framework cations. This sheds new light on the sub‐structure of commercially relevant zeolite crystals: they are segmented along defect zones exposing numerous nanometer‐sized crystalline domains, separated by low‐angle boundaries, in what were apparent single‐crystals. The concentration, morphology, and distribution of such domains analyzed by electron tomography indicate that this is a common phenomenon in zeolites, independent of their structure and chemical composition. This is a milestone to better understand their growth mechanism and rationally design superior catalysts and adsorbents.     

A new non-synchronous preparative counter-current centrifuge—the next generation of dynamic extraction/chromatography devices with independent mixing and settling control,which offer a step change in efficiency

A new and significantly more robust design of non-synchronous coil planet centrifuge is introduced where the degree of mixing between two immiscible phases can be changed independently from the “g” field required to separate out the phases. A hypothesis that an optimum ratio between the speed of the bobbin and the speed of the rotor can be found to optimise the efficiency of the separation for a given force field is upheld for an intermediate polarity phase system. This paves the way for extensive further research to find the optimum non-synchronous conditions for a range of different phase systems that are desirable for the separation of large molecules, proteins and biologics but can tend to emulsify in the standard “J” type centrifuge systems currently available and routinely in use for aqueous organic phase systems. A step change of up to 30% in resolution and 90% in plate efficiency is demonstrated.     

Journal information flow in nanotechnology

The nanotechnology development is accompanied by an intensive growth of information flow which is specially noticeable as applied to journal information flow. Now over the world there are the 69 nano-titled journals with the impact factor and/or a settled periodicity as well as the 70 those which lack stability periodicity and are in an organization stage. Only 49 nano-titled have the impact factor with the comparatively high mean value of about 3.44. The domestic nano-titled journals published in Russia, India, China, and other countries are also considered. The attention is taken that in the 2006–2010 period the 95 new nano-titled journals were organized and in 2011 this process is continuing and seems to be the most impressive. Many nano-related journals (including classical physical, chemical and materials science ones) are also described and discussed.     

Resolvent Expansions on Hybrid Manifolds

We study Laplace-type operators on hybrid manifolds, i.e., on configurations consisting of closed two-dimensional manifolds and one-dimensional segments. Such an operator can be constructed by using the Laplace–Beltrami operators on each component with some boundary conditions at the points of gluing. The large spectral parameter expansion of the trace of the second power of the resolvent is obtained. Some questions of the inverse spectral theory are addressed.     

Open‐chain unsaturated selanyl sulfides: stereochemical structure and stereochemical behavior of their 77Se–1H spin–spin coupling constants

Stereochemical structure of nine Z‐2‐(vinylsulfanyl)ethenylselanyl organyl sulfides has been investigated by means of experimental measurements and second‐order polarization propagator approach calculations of their ¹H–¹H, ¹³C–¹H, and ⁷⁷Se–¹H spin–spin coupling constants together with a theoretical conformational analysis performed at the MP2/6‐311G** level. All nine compounds were shown to adopt the preferable skewed s‐cis conformation of their terminal vinylsulfanyl group, whereas the favorable rotational conformations with respect to the internal rotations around the C–S and C–Se bonds of the internal ethenyl group are both skewed s‐trans. Stereochemical trends of ⁷⁷Se–¹H spin–spin coupling constants originating in the geometry of their coupling pathways and the selenium lone pair effect were rationalized in terms of the natural J‐coupling analysis within the framework of the natural bond orbital approach. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Honeycomb pattern formation by laser-beam filamentation in atomic sodium vapor

We have observed transverse pattern formation leading to highly regular structures in both the near and far fields when a near-resonant laser beam propagates without feedback through an atomic sodium vapor. One example is a regular far-field honeycomb pattern, which results from the transformation of the laser beam within the vapor into a stable three-lobed structure with a uniform phase distribution and highly correlated power fluctuations. The predictions of a theoretical model of the filamentation process are in good agreement with these observations.     

Solid-Phase Luminescence Determination of Ciprofloxacin and Norfloxacin in Biological Fluids

A simple, rapid, and sensitive luminescence test method for the determination of ciprofloxacin (CIP) and norfloxacin (NOR) has been described. The method is based on the intramolecular energy transfer from organic acid to terbium (Tb³⁺) ion. Luminescence of terbium (III) complex with CIP (NOR), sorbed on the zeolite has been studied. Under optimized conditions the detection limit is 1 g/mL in urine and human plasma.     

Synchrony between orientation-selective neurons is modulated during adaptation-induced plasticity in cat visual cortex

Background  

Visual neurons respond essentially to luminance variations occurring within their receptive fields. In primary visual cortex, each neuron is a filter for stimulus features such as orientation, motion direction and velocity, with the appropriate combination of features eliciting maximal firing rate. Temporal correlation of spike trains was proposed as a potential code for linking the neuronal responses evoked by various features of a same object. In the present study, synchrony strength was measured between cells following an adaptation protocol (prolonged exposure to a non-preferred stimulus) which induce plasticity of neurons' orientation preference.     

Heegner points,cycles and Maass forms

We derive for Hecke-Maass cusp forms on the full modular group a relation between the sum of the form at Heegner points (and integrals over Heegner cycles) and the product of two Fourier coefficients of a corresponding form of half-integral weight. Specializing to certain cycles we obtain the nonnegativity of theL-function of such a form at the center of the critical strip. These results generalize similar formulae known for holomorphic forms. Partially supported by NSF grant # DMS-9096262. Partially supported by NSF grant # DMS-9102082.