Temperature and Solute Molecular Size Effects on the Retention and Enantioselectivity of a Series of D, L Dansyl Amino Acids on a Vancomycin-Based Chiral Stationary Phase

Summary The influence of column temperature (0–28 °C) and solute molecular size on the retention and enantioselectivity of a series of D, L dansyl amino acids with a non-polar side chain (valine, leucine, phenylalanine and tryptophan) were investigated using a vancomycin-based chiral stationary phase (CSP). The enthalpic and entropic terms for the solute-CSP association were determined from the linear vant Hoff plots. Two solute groups were distinguished in relation to these thermodynamic quantities: the solute group I (dansyl valine, dansyl leucine, dansyl phenylalanine) for which large negative values of enthalpic terms were obtained and the solute group II (dansyl tryptophan) for which H value was much less negative. The enthalpy-entropy compensation study revealed that the interaction mechanism was identical for the group I solute enantiomers but changed for D, L dansyl tryptophan. This was further exemplified as the group I compound enantiomers were resolved over the temperature range while the enantiomers of dansyl tryptophan were not separated in the operating conditions. Relationships between both the solute retention factors and apparent enantioselectivity, and the accessible surface area of the amino acid side chain indicated that when the solute molecular size increased (i) the retention was enhanced by the hydrophobic effect and (ii) the chiral discrimination decreased dependent, at least in part, on a steric hindrance phenomenon at the vancomycin aglycone pocket.     

Effect of an impinging shock wave on a partially opened door

The behavior of an aluminum door hanging at the exit of an open shock tube at different angles, from 5 $^\circ $ to 85 $^\circ $ , and thereby providing partially open space for the exiting flow, was investigated experimentally. Experiments were conducted with an incident shock wave Mach number of $M_\mathrm{is}=1.1$ impinging on the partially opened door. Both pressure measurements in the vicinity of the door, on its center and inside the shock tube, and schlieren visualization were undertaken for studying the door movement and its maximum opening angle relative to its initial position. It was found that for an initial opening angle smaller than 25 $^\circ $ the door opened completely while for larger angles its motion is marginal. In addition, for an initial door opening angle of about 10 $^\circ $ the lowest pressures were recorded inside the shock tube behind the evolving waves after exiting of the incident shock wave. The present experimental results may be useful to numerical studies of fluid–structure interactions, e.g., in designing safety valves in jet engines. Such a device is needed for preventing rupture in the case when a sudden overpressure pulse is generated inside the aircraft engine compartment.     

Shock induced Richtmyer-Meshkov instability in the presence of a wall boundary layer

An experimental investigation on gaseous mixing zones originated from the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability has been undertaken in a square cross section shock tube. Mass concentration fields, of one of the two mixing constituents, have been determined within the mixing zone when the shock wave passes from the heavy gas to the light one, from one gas to an other of close density, and from the light gas to the heavy one. Results have been obtained before and after the coming back of the reflected shock wave. The diagnostic method is based on the infrared absorption of one of the two constituents of the mixing zone. It is shown that the mixing zone is strongly deformed by the wall boundary layer. The consequence is the presence of strong gradients of concentration in the direction perpendicular to the shock wave propagation. Finally, it is pointed out that the mixing goes more homogeneous when the Atwood number tends to zero.     

Computing on-line the lattice of maximal antichains of posets

We consider the on-line computation of the lattice of maximal antichains of a finite poset . This on-line computation satisfies what we call the linear extension hypothesis: the new incoming vertex is always maximal in the current subposet of . In addition to its theoretical interest, this abstraction of the lattice of antichains of a poset has structural properties which give it interesting practical behavior. In particular, the lattice of maximal antichains may be useful for testing distributed computations, for which purpose the lattice of antichains is already widely used. Our on-line algorithm has a run time complexity of , where |P| is the number of elements of the poset, , |MA(P)| is the number of maximal antichains of and (P) is the width of . This is more efficient than the best off-line algorithms known so far.