Exact potential minimization for a supergravity model

The low energy effective scalar potential arising from the supergravity model proposed by Nilles, Srednicki and Wyler is minimized exactly. Bounds are derived for the parameters of the theory from the requirement that SU(2) × U(1) be broken at the tree level. These results support earlier approximate results.     

Dually Responsive Poly(N-vinylcaprolactam)-b-poly(dimethylsiloxane)-b-poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) Polymersomes for Controlled Delivery

Limited tissue selectivity and targeting of anticancer therapeutics in systemic administration can produce harmful side effects in the body. Various polymer nano-vehicles have been developed to encapsulate therapeutics and prevent premature drug release. Dually responsive polymeric vesicles (polymersomes) assembled from temperature-/pH-sensitive block copolymers are particularly interesting for the delivery of encapsulated therapeutics to targeted tumors and inflamed tissues. We have previously demonstrated that temperature-responsive poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) (PVCL)-b-poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)-b-PVCL polymersomes exhibit high loading efficiency of anticancer therapeutics in physiological conditions. However, the in-vivo toxicity of these polymersomes as biocompatible materials has not yet been explored. Nevertheless, developing an advanced therapeutic nanocarrier must provide the knowledge of possible risks from the material’s toxicity to support its future clinical research in humans. Herein, we studied pH-induced degradation of PVCL₁₀-b-PDMS₆₅-b-PVCL₁₀ vesicles in-situ and their dually (pH- and temperature-) responsive release of the anticancer drug, doxorubicin, using NMR, DLS, TEM, and absorbance spectroscopy. The toxic potential of the polymersomes was evaluated in-vivo by intravenous injection (40 mg kg⁻¹ single dose) of PVCL₁₀-PDMS₆₅-PVCL₁₀ vesicles to mice. The sub-acute toxicity study (14 days) included gravimetric, histological, and hematological analyses and provided evidence for good biocompatibility and non-toxicity of the biomaterial. These results show the potential of these vesicles to be used in clinical research.     

Supersymmetric classical mechanics

The purpose of the paper is to construct a supersymmetric Lagrangian within the framework of classical mechanics which would be regarded as a candidate for passage to supersymmetric quantum mechanics. The authors felicitate Prof. D S Kothari on his eightieth birthday and dedicate this paper to him on this occasion.     

Orthogonal collocation for a nonlinear integro-differential equation

This paper is concerned with the numerical solution using orthogonalcollocation of a nonlinear integro-differential equation whichexhibits certain features arising in the modelling of catalyticcombustion in a cylindrical reactor taking account of radiation.These features imply that the available convergence theory oforthogonal collocation cannot be applied directly. Optimal convergenceresults of the orthogonal collocation approximation are provedfor our equation, and these are illustrated by numerical experiments.In addition superconvergence results for the iterated collocationsolution are obtained.     

Some characteristics of high multiplicity (≧45) proton-AgBr interactions at 800 GeV

Experimental results on some characteristics of high multiplicity (≧45) proton-AgBr interactions at 800 GeV are presented. The results are compared with those in lower multiplicity regions as well as for CNO target. The various parameters investigated here are pseudorapidity distribution, mean normalised multiplicity, mean number of intranuclear collisions and normalised pseudorapidity.     

Chiral Lagrangian and skyrmion from quark and parity-doublet determinants

We consider the effective action of the chiral quark model to leading order in the number of colors. A set of massive ghost-like Gervais-Lee fermion doublets is introduced which effectively simulate an asymptotically free behavior for the quarks at short distances. This suppresses the vacuum instability and leaves the Wess-Zumino sector unspoiled. At small momenta, we show that the action generated in this way compares well with experiment by performing a chiral expansion up to fourth order. It is found that this action supports stable soliton solutions with baryon number one. Masses, mass-splittings and the sigma-term are estimated in theSU(2) limit.Unité de Recherche des Universités Paris 11 et Paris 6 associée au CNRS     

Certain fractional derivative formulae involving the product of a general class of polynomials and the multivariableH-function

In the present paper, we obtain three unified fractional derivative formulae (FDF). The first involves the product of a general class of polynomials and the multivariableH-function. The second involves the product of a general class of polynomials and two multivariableH-functions and has been obtained with the help of the generalized Leibniz rule for fractional derivatives. The last FDF also involves the product of a general class of polynomials and the multivariableH-function but it is obtained by the application of the first FDF twice and it involves two independent variables instead of one. The polynomials and the functions involved in all our fractional derivative formulae as well as their arguments which are of the typex ^ρ Π _i=1 ^s (x ^t _i +α _i ) ^σ _i are quite general in nature. These formulae, besides being of very general character have been put in a compact form avoiding the occurrence of infinite series and thus making them useful in applications. Our findings provide interesting unifications and extensions of a number of (new and known) results. For the sake of illustration, we give here exact references to the results (in essence) of five research papers [2, 3,10, 12, 13] that follow as particular cases of our findings. In the end, we record a new fractional derivative formula involving the product of the Hermite polynomials, the Laguerre polynomials and the product ofr different Whittaker functions as a simple special case of our first formula.     

Methanol electrochemical oxidation at nanometer-scale PtRu materials

The electrochemical oxidation of CH₃OH at nanometer-scale PtRu catalyst materials is reported. Comparisons are made between the properties of a Johnson Matthey (JM) PtRu black sample (50 at.% Ru (X_Ru ≈ 0.5)) and PtRu particles (2-6 nm, nominally X_Ru ≈ 0.5) prepared by sonication under anhydrous conditions. Cyclic voltammetry and in situ infrared spectroscopy measurements show the catalysts are active for the oxidation of 0.5 M CH₃OH in 0.1 M HClO₄ at temperatures between ambient and 70 °C. The sonochemically prepared PtRu sample displayed properties characteristic of bulk PtRu alloys with X_Ru ≈ 0.5. Evidence for phase separation of Pt and Ru was observed in CO stripping voltammetry from the JM catalyst adsorbed at low metal loadings (20 μg/cm²) on bulk Au electrodes. Per gram of catalyst, the JM material was more active toward CO₂ formation and displayed greater resistance to poisoning by adsorbed CO than the sonochemically prepared material during ambient temperature oxidation of 0.5 M CH₃OH in 0.1 M HClO₄.     

High pressure raman scattering in Pb5Ge3O11

The pressure dependence of various phonon modes has been investigated through the ferro-paraelectric phase transition. Most mode frequencies harden before levelling off above the phase transition. Mode Grüneisen parameters are estimated from the pressure dependence of phonon frequencies.