Moisture sorption, transport, and hydrolytic degradation in polylactide

Management of moisture penetration and hydrolytic degradation of polylactide (PLA) is extremely important during the manufacturing, shipping, storage, and end-use of PLA products. Moisture transport, crystallization, and degradation, in PLA have been measured through a variety of experimental techniques including size-exclusion chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry, and X-ray diffraction. Quartz crystal microbalance and dynamic vapor sorption experiments have also been used to measure moisture sorption isotherms in PLA films with varying crystallinity. A surprising result is that, within the accuracy of the experiments, crystalline and amorphous PLA films exhibit identical sorption isotherms.     

Comparative kinetics of phospholipase A2 action on liposomes and monolayers of phosphatidylcholine spread at the air-water interface

A detailed kinetic model describing the surface transformation of spread liposomes along with their enzymatic hydrolysis was developed. The model was applied to the hydrolysis of the long-chain phosphatidylcholine generating reaction products which remain at the interface and to medium-chain substrates from which the products desorb rapidly into the bulk phase. The overall kinetic constants of the hydrolysis in liposomal systems were compared with those obtained with monolayers under barostatic conditions. The values of the interfacial Michaelis-Menten constant were estimated.     

Formation of ultrashort microwave pulses in coaxial cavities

We describe shaper cavities for the production of ultrashort microwave pulses with a minimum duration of one period of the high-frequency field and a power of several tens of megawatts. Experimental results are presented.Scientific and Research Insititute for Nuclear Physics at S. M. Kirov Polytechnical Institute, Tomsk. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 38, No. 12, pp. 1250–1256, December, 1995.     

The stationary problem of thermoelasticity for a plate with a heated slit

We consider the stationary heat conduction and thermoelasticity problem for a plate that whose lateral surfaces are thermally insulated and which has a slit on whose edges a constant temperature is maintained. The heat conduction problem is solved using a modified logarithmic single-layer potential by reducing it to integral equations.Translated fromMatematicheskie Melody i Fiziko-Mekhanicheskie Polya, Issue 31, 1990, pp. 50–54.     

2H NMR spectra of 2-(p-heptylbenzoyloxy)-5-(p-heptylbenzenazo)tropone. A new sigmatropic liquid crystal

Liquid crystals incorporating in their molecular framework a seven-membered ring are still relatively rare [1]. Recently the synthesis and thermal behaviour of a series of liquid crystal materials having a tropone moiety in their mesogenic core have been reported [2-4]. These mesogens, based on a 2-(acyloxy)tropone core structure, show intramolecular migration of the acyl substituents between the two oxygen atoms at C-1 and C-2, an effect already known for simple 2-(acyloxy)tropones in their isotropic solutions [5]. This migration involves a concerted [1, 9]-sigmatropic rearrangement [2]. This rearrangement could play a major role in determining the properties of the mesophases: it has been suggested in fact that, because of this rearrangement, the mesogenic molecules acquire a mean rod-like shape which can sustain the mesophase formation [2].     

Numerical solution of the electron distribution function for ECRheating in magnetic mirror

The Fokker-Planck equation is solved with electron cyclotron resonance heating in a magnetic mirror with a fixed electrostatic potential on a loss-cone boundary and ECR heating. A self-consistent calculation of the plasma concentration justifies the fact that the degree of ionization of the ECR plasma is about 10%. The high values of the total electron energy (15-30 eV) are achieved. The electron concentration and the EVDF anisotropy degree are the nonmonotonic functions of the applied MW electric field. The basis for such dependencies is discussed. A linear perturbation analysis of the Vlasov equation together with with Maxwell's equations is briefly reviewed. The criteria for the start of unstable whistler oscillation growth are proposed. Using the simulated distribution function, the regimes where the unstable oscillations should to be taken into account are considered     

Measurement of the spin and temperature dependence of ddµ molecule formation rate in solid and liquid deuterium

The ddµ molecule formation rate is experimentally measured for the two hyperfine states of the dµ-atom in the temperature range of 5–30 K. Results are consistent with a preliminary measurement by the TRIUMF group and contradict theoretical predictions. The work has been performed on the JINR phasotron (Dubna).