Organic inorganic dye filler for polymer: blue-coloured layered double hydroxides into polystyrene

A series of blue dye molecules, Evans blue (EB), Chicago sky blue (CB), Niagara blue (NB) were incorporated by direct co-precipitation within the galleries of negatively charge layered double hydroxide (LDH). The materials of cation composition Zn/Al = 2 lead to well-defined organic inorganic assemblies. The molecular arrangement of the interleaved dye molecule is proposed by 1D electronic density projection along the stacking direction for the hydrothermally treated samples with alternatively a highly inclined orientation of EB and CB and a parallel-bilayer arrangement for NB. Blue coloured LDH assemblies were subsequently dispersed into polystyrene (PS). It was found that the hybrid fillers do not interfere in the radical polymerization of styrene, giving rise to similar molecular weight and polydispersity than filler free PS, while higher glass transition temperatures were obtained for the nanocomposites. This was consistent with the rheological behaviour with the observation for LDH/NB filler based nanocomposite of shear thinning exponent different from zero, underlining frictional interaction between filler and PS chain. The absorption maximum slightly blue-shifted for the hybrid filler in comparison to the corresponding organic dye was found unmodified for the PS nanocomposite, thus giving rise to blue coloured plastic films, reminiscent somehow of the blue Maya effect.     

Xphos ligand and platinum catalysts: A versatile catalyst for the synthesis of functionalized β-(E)-vinylsilanes from terminal alkynes

Hydrosilylation of functionalized terminal arylalkynes with a variety of silanes catalyzed by PtCl₂ or PtO₂ in the presence of the air-stable and bulky Xphos ligand was investigated. Regardless of the electronic nature (electron withdrawing or donating group) and the position (o, m, p) of the substituents on the aromatic ring, a single β-(E)-styrylsilanes was obtained in good to excellent yields. The regioselectivity of the H-Si bond addition was found to be governed by steric effects induced by the bulky Xphos ligand. A dramatic regioselectivity was also observed when functionalized terminal aliphatic alkynes were employed as a substrate and in these cases regioisomeric β-(E)-vinylsilanes were generated with excellent selectivity.     

One-pot hydrosilylation-protodesilylation of functionalized diarylalkynes: a highly selective access to Z-stilbenes. Application to the synthesis of combretastatin A-4

An efficient stereoselective synthesis of Z-stilbenes has been developed from diarylalkynes via a new hydrosilylation-protodesilylation process. The scope and limitation of this method is presented to stereoselectively prepare a wide range of (Z)-stilbenes in a one-pot way is presented. A concise application to the preparation of combretastatin A-4 (CA-4), a vascular targeting agent inhibitor of tubulin polymerisation is described.     

Search for technicolor with DELPHI

Technicolor represents a viable alternative to the Higgs mechanism for generating gauge boson masses. Searches for technicolor particles and have been performed in the data collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP at centre-of-mass energies between 192 and 208 GeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 452 pb. Good agreement is observed with the SM expectation in all channels studied. This is translated into an excluded region in the plane. The production is excluded for all GeV/c. Assuming a point-like interaction of the with gauge bosons, an absolute lower limit on the charged mass at 95% CL is set at 79.8 GeV/c, independently of other parameters of the technicolor model. Received: 10 August 2001 / Published online: 5 November 2001     

Heavy particle dispersion from a point source in turbulent pipe flow

Dispersion of heavy particles from a point source in high-Reynolds pipe flow was studied using large-eddy simulation, LES. A stochastic Langevin type Lagrangian model developed by Berrouk et al. was used to account for heavy particle transport by the sub-grid scale motion. In both the LES and in an experiment by Arnason, the larger particles dispersed more than the small ones. The change in diffusivity with particle size is interpreted in terms of the effect of inertia and cross-trajectory effects and qualitatively compared with the analysis of heavy particle dispersion in isotropic turbulence by Wang and Stock. Particle inertia has a much larger influence on the dispersion than the crossing-trajectories effects.     

Parallel quaternary signed-digit arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division

A quaternary signed-digit number representations-based arithmetic unit is proposed. The arithmetic unit performs parallel one-step addition (subtraction), multiplication and division. We use the symbolic substitution technique to reduce the number of the computation rules involved in the computation rules. Fast parallel nonrecoded quaternary signed-digit multiplication is proposed using our proposed one-step quaternary signed-digit adder. Also, parallel quaternary signed-digit division is performed in constant time by exploiting an iterative conversion algorithm where in every iterative step a negation operation, an addition operation and two multiplication operations are performed. The execution times of the proposed QSD operations are proportional to log₂ n, where n are the length of operands.     

Application of Three Ecological Assessment Tools in Examining Chromatographic Methods for the Green Analysis of a Mixture of Dopamine,Serotonin, Glutamate and GABA: A Comparative Study

The assessment of greenness of analytical protocols is of great importance now to preserve the environment. Some studies have analyzed either only the neurotransmitters, dopamine, serotonin, glutamate, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), together or with other neurotransmitters and biomarkers. However, these methods have not been investigated for their greenness and were not compared with each other to find the optimum one. Therefore, this study aims to compare seven published chromatographic methods that analyzed the four neurotransmitters and their mixtures using the National Environmental Method Index, Analytical Eco-Scale Assessment (ESA), and Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI). As these methods cover both qualitative and quantitative aspects, they offer better transparency. Overall, GAPI showed maximum greenness throughout the analysis. Method 6 was proven to be the method of choice for analyzing the mixture, owing to its greenness, according to NEMI, ESA, and GAPI. Additionally, method 6 has a wide scope of application (13 components can be analyzed), high sensitivity (low LOQ values), and fast analysis (low retention times, especially for glutamate and GABA).     

Applying green analytical chemistry (GAC) for development of stability indicating HPLC method for determining clonazepam and its related substances in pharmaceutical formulations and calculating uncertainty

Clonazepam contains one benzodiazepine ring in its chemical structure which makes it vulnerable to degradation. In this study, green analytical chemistry approach was applied in attempts for the development of validated stability indicating RP-HPLC method for determining clonazepam and its related substances in pharmaceutical formulation. Validation has been performed according to ICH guidelines. Assay was capable of simultaneous monitoring of the intact drug in the presence of its related substances within the same run. HPLC assay involved an ODS column and a mobile phase composed of 2% sodium dodecyl sulfate, 0.05 M sodium acetate buffer pH 3.5 and isopropanol in ratio (25:55:20) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min and detection was carried out at 254 nm. HPLC method allowed good resolution between the peaks that corresponded to the active pharmaceutical ingredients and its degradation products with good linearity, precision, accuracy, specificity, LOD and LOQ. The expanded uncertainty (0.33%) of the method was also estimated from method validation data. This analytical technique is not only ecofriendly but also faster than the conventional liquid chromatographic system official in the USP-36.     

Light element opacities from ATOMIC

We present new calculations of local-thermodynamic-equilibrium (LTE) light element opacities from the Los Alamos ATOMIC code. ATOMIC is a multi-purpose code that can generate LTE or non-LTE quantities of interest at various levels of approximation. A program of work is currently underway to compute new LTE opacity data for all elements H through Zn. New opacity tables for H through Ne are complete, and a new Fe opacity table will be available soon. Our calculations, which include fine-structure detail, represent a systematic improvement over previous Los Alamos opacity calculations using the LEDCOP legacy code. Our opacity calculations incorporate atomic structure data computed from the CATS code, which is based on Cowan's atomic structure codes, and photoionization cross section data computed from the Los Alamos ionization code GIPPER. We make use of a new equation-of-state (EOS) model based on the chemical picture. ATOMIC incorporates some physics packages from LEDCOP and also includes additional physical processes, such as improved free–free cross sections and additional scattering mechanisms. In this report, we briefly discuss the physics improvements included in our new opacity calculations and present comparisons of our new opacities with other work for C, O, and Fe at selected conditions.