High temperature stability of maghemite in partially oxidized basalt lava

Mössbauer spectroscopy of basalt lava samples, exhibiting reversible thermal magnetization (J_S-T) curves with Curie temperatures of about 580°C, has revealed considerable amounts of maghemite (γ-Fe₂O₃) in many samples. In view of the expected instability, of maghemite at temperatures above 350°C, this reversibility is rather surprising. Here we report Mössbauer studies on heated lava samples, showing high content of maghemite. The samples were kept at 600°C in oxidizing, reducing, and inactive atmospheres, respectively, for different lengths of time, and then analyzed with Mössbauer spectroscopy at room temperature. The Mössbauer spectra showed that maghemite is stable in the oxidizing atmosphere for at least several hours. In the inactive atmosphere a considerable amount of maghemite still exists after two hours heating. In the reducing atmosphere maghemite had transformed to magnetite after only 30 minutes.     

Existence of a solution for two phase flow in porous media: The case that the porosity depends on the pressure

In this paper we prove the existence of a solution of a coupled system involving a two phase incompressible flow in the ground and the mechanical deformation of the porous medium where the porosity is a function of the global pressure. The model is strongly coupled and involves a nonlinear degenerate parabolic equation. In order to show the existence of a weak solution, we consider a sequence of related uniformly parabolic problems and apply the Schauder fixed point theorem to show that they possess a classical solution. We then prove the relative compactness of sequences of solutions by means of the Fréchet-Kolmogorov theorem; this yields the convergence of a subsequence to a weak solution of the parabolic system.     

Dupin hypersurfaces with four principal Curvatures,II

If M is an isoparametric hypersurface in a sphere S ⁿ with four distinct principal curvatures, then the principal curvatures κ₁, . . . , κ₄ can be ordered so that their multiplicities satisfy m ₁ = m ₂ and m ₃ = m ₄, and the cross-ratio r of the principal curvatures (the Lie curvature) equals −1. In this paper, we prove that if M is an irreducible connected proper Dupin hypersurface in R ⁿ (or S ⁿ ) with four distinct principal curvatures with multiplicities m ₁ = m ₂ ≥ 1 and m ₃ = m ₄ = 1, and constant Lie curvature r = −1, then M is equivalent by Lie sphere transformation to an isoparametric hypersurface in a sphere. This result remains true if the assumption of irreducibility is replaced by compactness and r is merely assumed to be constant.      

Asymmetric hydrogenation of tri-substituted alkenes with Ir-NHC-thiazole complexes

An efficient chiral N-heterocyclic carbene ligand for the Ir-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of largely unfunctionalized tri-substituted olefins has been developed. The Ir-NHC-thiazole catalyst is able to reduce a large variety of substrates with excellent conversions and good enantioselectivities with ee’s ranging from 34% to 90%, depending on the geometry around the double bond of the substrates.     

Rhamnosylation of lignans by a Streptomyces strain

Screening of 400 Streptomyces strains for biotransformation of the natural lignan matairesinol led to the identification of Streptomyces sp. LS136, capable of producing a single metabolite in moderate yields. Isolation and purification by preparative HPLC, followed by structural analyses by LC-MS and NMR, established the structure as matairesinol-4-O-rhamnoside. This bacterial strain was also used for rhamnosylation of the abundant natural lignans, hydroxymatairesinol and secoisolariciresinol.     

On the distribution of the number of customers in the symmetric M/G/1 queue

We consider an M/G/1 queue with symmetric service discipline. The class of symmetric service disciplines contains, in particular, the preemptive last-come-first-served discipline and the processor-sharing discipline. It has been conjectured in Kella et al. [1] that the marginal distribution of the queue length at any time is identical for all symmetric disciplines if the queue starts empty. In this paper we show that this conjecture is true if service requirements have an Erlang distribution. We also show by a counterexample, involving the hyperexponential distribution, that the conjecture is generally not true. AMS Subject Classifications Primary—60K25; Secondary—90B22