Interactions of hydrosiloxane and vinylsiloxane groups with aluminum oxide surfaces

Silicone-based materials often contain vinylsiloxane and hydrosiloxane groups for cross-linking by a radical or addition reaction. Such functional groups can influence the interactions with fillers or with surfaces of substrates when used as adhesives. This work examined how these functional groups interact with aluminum oxide surfaces. For this purpose, aluminum oxide powders with large surface areas of 150 m²/g and different acid-base properties were examined. Siloxanes were applied as thin layers to mainly obtain information from the interphase by vibrational spectroscopy. It was observed that vinyl groups show low interactions with aluminum oxide surfaces even at elevated temperatures. In contrast to this, hydrosiloxanes undergo strong interactions and reactions with aluminum oxides already at room temperature. Activated Si─H species were observed as an intermediate state. On the one hand, interactions and reactions might contribute to adhesion, but on the other hand, the cross-linking reaction can be influenced near the surface, leading to lower mechanical strength.     

PIV studies of coherent structures generated at the end of a stack of parallel plates in a standing wave acoustic field

Oscillating flow near the end of a stack of parallel plates placed in a standing wave resonator is investigated using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The Reynolds number, Re _d , based on the plate thickness and the velocity amplitude at the entrance to the stack, is controlled by varying the acoustic excitation (so-called drive ratio) and by using two configurations of the stacks. As the Reynolds number changes, a range of distinct flow patterns is reported for the fluid being ejected from the stack. Symmetrical and asymmetrical vortex shedding phenomena are shown and two distinct modes of generating “vortex streets” are identified.     

Unbiased estimators for spatial distribution functions of classical fluids

We use a statistical-mechanical identity closely related to the familiar virial theorem, to derive unbiased estimators for spatial distribution functions of classical fluids. In particular, we obtain estimators for both the fluid density rho(r) in the vicinity of a fixed solute and the pair correlation g(r) of a homogeneous classical fluid. We illustrate the utility of our estimators with numerical examples, which reveal advantages over traditional histogram-based methods of computing such distributions.     

Possibilities for recycling cellulases after use in cotton processing: part II: Separation of cellulases from reaction products and released dyestuffs by ultrafiltration

The adsorption and activity of a total cellulase (Trichoderma reesei) was measured and compared on undyed and dyed cotton fabrics. Recovery of enzymes from the reaction mixture and by desorption from the cotton substrate was evaluated. About 80% of the initial protein could be recovered. The removal of released products (soluble reducing sugars and dyes) from the treatment liquor and subsequent concentration of cellulase proteins was performed using an ultrafiltration membrane. Strong protein-dye interactions made it impossible to separate efficiently the dyes from the enzyme-containing treatment liquors. The use of surfactants did not enhance cellulase desorption from cotton fabric. Although anionic surfactants have a deactivating effect on cellulases, this effect seems to be reversible, since after ultrafiltration the cellulase activity was similar to that of enzymes desorbed with buffer only. Humicola insolens cellulases were shown to be much more sensitive to anionic surfactant than T. reesei cellulases. The use of cellulases that bind reversibly to cellulose is suggested for achieving more efficient cellulase recycling and for reducing backstaining by dye-cellulase complexes.     

Method for direct detection of quantum entanglement

Basing on positive maps separability criterion we propose the experimentally viable, direct detection of quantum entanglement. It is efficient and does not require any a priori knowledge about the state. For two qubits it provides a sharp (i.e., "if and only if") separability test and estimation of amount of entanglement. We view this method as a new form of quantum computation, namely, as a decision problem with quantum data structure.     

On sufficient conditions of locality for hierarchies of symmetries of evolution systems

We present sufficient conditions ensuring the locality of hierarchies of symmetries generated by repeated commutation of master symmetry with a seed symmetry. These conditions are applicable to a large class of (1+1)-dimensional evolution systems. Our results can also be used for proving that the time-independent part of a suitable linear-in-time symmetry is a nontrivial master symmetry and hence the system in question has infinitely many symmetries and is integrable.     

Robust transitivity and topological mixing for -flows

We prove that nontrivial homoclinic classes of -generic flows are topologically mixing. This implies that given , a nontrivial -robustly transitive set of a vector field , there is a -perturbation of such that the continuation of is a topologically mixing set for . In particular, robustly transitive flows become topologically mixing after -perturbations. These results generalize a theorem by Bowen on the basic sets of generic Axiom A flows. We also show that the set of flows whose nontrivial homoclinic classes are topologically mixing is not open and dense, in general.

     

Quasisymmetric robustness of the Collet-Eckmann condition in the quadratic family

We consider quasisymmetric reparametrizations of the parameter space of the quadratic family. We prove that the set of quadratic maps which are either regular or Collet-Eckmann with polynomial recurrence of the critical orbit has full Lebesgue measure, for any such reparametrization.     

Convergence of an Exact Quantization Scheme

It has been shown by Voros [V1] that the spectrum of the one-dimensional homogeneous anharmonic oscillator (Schrödinger operator with potential q^2M, M=2,3,...) is a fixed point of an explicit non-linear transformation. We show that this fixed point is globally and exponentially attractive in spaces of properly normalized sequences.Partially supported by Faperj and CNPq, BrazilCurrent address:Laboratoire de Probabilités et Modéles aléatoires, Université Pierre et Marie Curie–Boi te courrier 188, 75252–Paris Cedex 05, France. E-mail: artur@ccr.jussieu.fr     

State selective production of molecules in optical lattices

We demonstrate quantum control over both internal and external quantum degrees of freedom in a high number of identical "chemical reactions," carried out in an array of microtraps in a 3D optical lattice. Starting from a Mott insulating phase of an ultracold atomic quantum gas, we use two-photon Raman transitions to create molecules on lattice sites occupied by two atoms. In the atom-molecule conversion process, we can control both the internal rovibronic and external center of mass quantum state of the molecules. The lattice isolates the microscopic chemical reactions from each other, thereby allowing photoassociation spectra without collisional broadening even at high densities of up to 2 x 10(15) cm(-3).