Band propagation, scaling laws and phase transition in a precipitate system. I: Experimental study

In the first part of this work, we present an experimental study of the precipitation/redissolution reaction-diffusion system of initially separated components in two distinct organic gels: agar and gelatin. The system is prepared by diffusing a concentrated ammonia solution into a gel matrix that contains nickel sulfate. In agar, the system exhibits a pulse propagation due to the concomitant precipitation reaction between Ni(II) and hydroxide ions and redissolution due to ammonia. At a later stage of propagation, a transition to Liesegang banding is shown to take place. The dynamics of the distance traveled by the precipitation pulse, its width, and mass are shown to exhibit power laws. Moreover, the mass of the bands is shown to oscillate in time, indicating the emergence of a complex mass enrichment mechanism of the formed Liesegang bands. At the microscopic level, we show evidence that the system undergoes a continuous polymorphic transition concomitant with a morphological change whereby the solid in the pulse, which consists of nanospheres of α-nickel hydroxide transforms to form the bands, which consists of larger platelets of β-nickel hydroxide. This clearly indicates the existence of a dynamic Ostwald ripening mechanism that underlies the dynamics on both scales. On the other hand, in gelatin, although we can still obtain similar power laws as in the case of agar, no transition to bands was observed. It is shown that in this case, the propagating pulse is made of nanoparticles of α-nickel hydroxide with an average diameter ~50 nm.     

Carbon nanotubes,science and technology part (I) structure,synthesis and characterisation

Since their discovery in 1991 by the Japanese scientist “Sumio Iijima”, carbon nanotubes have been of great interest, both from a fundamental point of view and for future applications. Different types of carbon nanotubes can be produced in various ways. Economically feasible large-scale production and purification techniques are still under development. Carbon nanotubes are discussed in this review in terms of history, types, structure, synthesis and characterisation methods. Carbon nanotubes have attracted the fancy of many scientists worldwide. The unique and unusual properties of these structures make them a unique material with a whole range of promising applications.     

Antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the methanolic extracts of three Salvia species from Tunisia

This study examines the in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the methanolic extracts of three Salvia species from Tunisia: Salvia aegyptiaca L., S. argentea L. and S. verbenaca Ssp. clandestina L. Pugsley. The extracts inhibited the growth of dermatophytes and of bacteria responsible for unpleasant odours to varying degrees; the pathogenic yeasts Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans, the filamentous fungi Aspergillus fumigatus and selected dog otitis bacteria were all resistant to each of the extracts. The extracts were screened for their antioxidant activities using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging and 2,2'-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) test systems, and gave positive results in both tests. The extracts of S. aegyptiaca were the most active in both tests, followed by those of S. verbenaca, then S. argentea. These results confirm the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the genus Salvia and underline the potential of these plants either as natural preservatives or in pharmaceutical applications.     

Scalar conservation laws with general boundary condition and continuous flux function

We introduce a notion of entropy solution for a scalar conservation law on a bounded domain with nonhomogeneous boundary condition: ut+divΦ(u)=f on Q=(0,T)×Ω, u(0,⋅)=u₀ on Ω and “u=a on some part of the boundary (0,T)×∂Ω.” Existence and uniqueness of the entropy solution is established for any Φ∈C(R;RN), u₀∈L^∞(Ω), f∈L^∞(Q), a∈L^∞((0,T)×∂Ω). In the L¹-setting, a corresponding result is proved for the more general notion of renormalised entropy solution.     

Numerical analysis of SOA performance over a wide optical bandwidth in a CO-OFDM transmission system

We present a numerical analysis of the impact of the optical amplification by semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) in a Coherent Optical-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing transmission link at 100 Gb/s. The numerical modeling of SOA is developed to be able to simulate all of nonlinear effects of the SOA, particularly four-wave mixing effect. This model is integrated into a co-simulation platform to perform a simulation at a system level. Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) measurement is given with respect to the number of subcarriers and phase-amplitude coupling. We show also the dependence of the EVM at the signal wavelength by performing our simulations on a wide optical bandwidth, taking into account the main parameters of the SOA—such as the phase-amplitude coupling factor, the saturation power and the noise figure—that influence the non-linear effects.

     

Naproxen in heterocyclic chemistry: Novel syntheses of triazoles,triazolothiadiazines, triazolothiadiazoles,and triazolothiadiazepine bearing an asymmetric carbon atom and radiostability of the biologically active compounds

Several s‐triazoles 2, 7a, 10, 12 ; s‐triazolo[3,4‐b][1,3,4]thiadiazines ( 3–5 ); s‐triazolo[3,4‐b][1,3,4]thiadiazoles ( 6, 8, 11, 15 ); and s‐triazolo[3,4‐b][1,3,4]thiadiazepine ( 14 ) were synthesized starting from 2‐(6‐methoxy‐2‐naphthyl)propanoic acid ( 1 ) (Naproxen). The structures of the synthesized compounds were elucidated by elemental analyses and spectral data. Compounds 2, 5, 11, 12, 14 , and 15 exhibited a remarkable antifungal activity compared with the standard fungicide Mycostatine. Radiosterilization of the biologically active compounds 2, 5, 11 , and 14 in the dry state may prove to be applicable (retaining their structures unchanged up to 40 kGy). © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 13:199–206, 2002; Published online in Wiley Interscience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/hc.10019