Graft polymerization of acrylamide on chitosan: Copolymer structure and properties

Graft copolymers have been prepared through the free-radical polymerization of acrylamide in water-acetic acid solutions of chitosan in the presence of ammonium persulfate as an initiator. The effect of temperature, pH of a medium, and concentrations of initiator, chitosan, and acrylamide on the grafting kinetics and efficiency has been established. The local concentration of acrylamide in the reaction zone increases due to intermolecular hydrogen bonding between polysaccharide and monomer molecules. Copolymer films are characterized by better mechanical properties compared to those of polysaccharide. Hydrogels with good viscoelastic properties have been obtained when grafting was performed in the presence of N,N-methylenebisacrylamide as a crosslinking agent.     

Xanthopterin in the Oriental Hornet (Vespa orientalis): Light Absorbance Is Increased with Maturation of Yellow Pigment Granules

The Oriental hornet bears both brown and yellow colors on its cuticle. The brown component is contributed by the pigment melanin, which is dispersed in the brown cuticle and provides protection against insolation, while the yellow‐colored part contains within pockets in the cuticle granules possessing a yellow pigment. These yellow granules (YG) are formed about 2 days prior to eclosion of the imago, and their production continues for about 3 days posteclosion. Xanthopterin is the main component of the granule and lends it its yellow color. Xanthopterin produces a characteristic excitation/emission maximum at 386/456 nm. Characterization by use of mass spectrometry showed the compound to have a molecular ion of 179, as expected from xanthopterin. Spectroscopic examination of the absorption of an entire stripe of yellow cuticle in the course of its metamorphosis revealed that the absorption steadily increases throughout the process to a maximal level of absorption about 3 days posteclosion. In the absence of the YG, the cuticle is permeable to the passage of all wavelengths within the visible range and to the UV range (290–750 nm) in all age groups of hornets. The newly ecloded hornets depart the nest to engage in activities requiring exposure to insolation only as the process of granule formation terminates, namely, when the layer of YG in the cuticle suffices to absorb all the harmful UV radiation.     

Structure of detonation waves in pressed 2′,2′,2′-trinitroethyl-4,4,4-trinitrobutyrate

The reaction zones of steady detonation waves in pressed 2′,2′,2′-trinitroethyl-4,4,4-trinitrobutyrate (TNETB) charges with densities within 1.23–1.79 g/cm³ and initial powder dispersities of 5 and 80 μm were studied with the use of a VISAR interferometer. It was demonstrated that the boundaries of the initial density range within which a pressure growth is observed instead of a chemical spike, predicted by the theory, are determined by the HE dispersity. The measured dependence of the detonation velocity on the initial HE density exhibits features suggestive of an underdriven detonation wave without a chemical spike. The peculiarities observed are accounted for by the heterogeneous structure of pressed HEs, the decomposition of which is of hot-spot character, occurring partly in the compression wave front.     

Equivalence of Third-Order Ordinary Differential Equations to Chazy Equations I–XIII

In the paper we solve the equivalence problem of the third-order ordinary differential equations quadratic in the second-order derivative. For this class of equations the invariants of the group of point equivalence transformations and the invariant differentiation operators are constructed. Using these results the invariants of 13 Chazy equations were calculated. We provide examples of finding equivalent equations by use of their invariants. Also two new examples of the equations linearizable by a local transformation are found. These are a particular case of Chazy–XII equation and a Schwarzian equation.     

Quasi-concave functions on meet-semilattices

This paper deals with maximization of set functions defined as minimum values of monotone linkage functions. In previous research, it has been shown that such a set function can be maximized by a greedy type algorithm over a family of all subsets of a finite set. In this paper, we extend this finding to meet-semilattices.We show that the class of functions defined as minimum values of monotone linkage functions coincides with the class of quasi-concave set functions. Quasi-concave functions determine a chain of upper level sets each of which is a meet-semilattice. This structure allows development of a polynomial algorithm that finds a minimal set on which the value of a quasi-concave function is maximum. One of the critical steps of this algorithm is a set closure. Some examples of closure computation, in particular, a closure operator for convex geometries, are considered.     

Low-temperature heat capacity of monoclinic enstatite

Synthetic enstatite MgSiO₃ was crystallized from a melt, quenched into water, and then annealed at 873 K. The product is the monoclinic polymorph with the unit cell parameters of a=0.9619(7), b=0.8832(3), c=0.5177(4) nm, β=108.27(5)°. Heat capacity was measured from 6 to 305 K using an adiabatic vacuum calorimeter. Thermodynamic functions for clinoenstatite differ by about 5% from those predicted after a thermodynamic model in the literature, but are very close to those measured for orthorhombic enstatite.     

Synthesis of water dispersible boron core silica shell (B@SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript>) nanoparticles

Water dispersible boron nanoparticles have great potential as materials for boron neutron capture therapy of cancer and magnetic resonance imaging, if they are prepared on a large scale with uniform size and shape and hydrophilic modifiable surface. We report the first method to prepare spherical, monodisperse, water dispersible boron core silica shell nanoparticles (B@SiO₂ NPs) suitable for aforementioned biomedical applications. In this method, 40 nm elemental boron nanoparticles, easily prepared by mechanical milling and carrying 10-undecenoic acid surface ligands, are hydrosilylated using triethoxysilane, followed by base-catalyzed hydrolysis of tetraethoxysilane, which forms a 10-nm silica shell around the boron core. This simple two-step process converts irregularly shaped hydrophobic boron particles into the spherically shaped uniform nanoparticles. The B@SiO₂ NPs are dispersible in water and the silica shell surface can be modified with primary amines that allow for the attachment of a fluorophore and, potentially, of targeting moieties.

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