Synthesis of 24-epiteasterone

Starting from ergosterol, the synthesis of the brassinosteroid 24-epiteasterone has been achieved by the use of a new scheme for introducing a 3-hydroxy-6-keto group as the result of the Birch reduction of the corresponding 5-hydroxy-⁷-3,6-dione.Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Belorussian Academy of Sciences, Minsk. Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 2, pp. 224–227, March–April, 1992.     

Behavior of large nucleic acids in reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography.

Large nucleic acids can be separated by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Analysis shows that the retention time depends not only on the chain length but also on the base composition and the secondary structure of the molecule. A model is proposed to interpret their behavior. This model, called "multiple-point interaction theory" is based on the observation that macromolecules are flexible and very large compared to the hydrophobic phase (octadecylsilane) of the column. It explains the behavior of large nucleic acids in terms of an equilibrium of the macromolecule between the two phases through a multiple-point attachment to the chromatographic matrix, the parameters of the equilibrium being both the hydrophobicity of the base and the number of attachment points. This model fits the experimental data and can be applied to all types of flexible macromolecules, especially proteins and nucleic acids, when they are chromatographed on reversed-phase columns. The model is used to explain the separation of nucleic acids of importance in molecular biology.     

Variation of U-microdistribution in fossil Hipparion teeth as a complicating factor in dating studies

Five Upper Miocene fossil Hipparion molars were studied for U-distribution by Fission Track. U uptake has reached the whole mass of the teeth and no saturation fronts seem to occur in the interior layers. Mean U-concentration in dentine, cement and enamel was 157, 139 and 78 ppm, respectively. U_enamel/U_dentine 0.5 is considerably higher than 0.1 reported in the past for Upper-Quaternary mammoth teeth. These features are disadvantageous for ESR-dating in Hipparion enamel, although a long-lived signal (g=2.0018) is apparent. Leaching phenomena occur in the outer regions of these teeth. Inner enamel folding seems to have hindered a more uniform U-distribution in the teeth.     

Harary-Read numbers for catafusenes: Complete classification according to symmetry

The classical Harary-Read numbers for catafusenes (catacondensed simply connected polyhexes) are reproduced without using generating functions. A complete (mathematical) solution is given for the distribution of these numbers over the different symmetry groups to which the catafusenes belong.     

Lepton phenomenology and neutrinoless double β-decay in superstring inspired theories

The properties of neutrinos,s-leptons,s-quarks as well as the coloured isosinglet \(\tilde D\) and \(\tilde D^c \) are studied in superstring inspired models. Furthermore the neutrinoless double β-decay process is investigated, including light and heavy majorana neutrinos, as well as the contribution of the exotic Higgs scalars of the theory. From the current experimental limits onov-ββ-decay, useful constraints are imposed on the masses and Yukawa couplings of the theory.     

Laser-pulse fluctuations due to thermal self-action in a turbulent atmosphere

Conclusions Refractive-index fluctuations caused by heating alter the intensity and phase fluctuation spectra arising from the turbulence. The large-scale part of the spectra is weakened, whereas the small-scale part is strengthened, and the spatial-frequency range in which the fluctuations are attenuated becomes narrower as the beam energy increases. Correspondingly, the fluctuation structure functions alter. For values of the arguments in those functions less than the radius of the first Fresnel zone , the thermal nonlinearity causes increases in the structural functions D_, with the energy. For , the dependence of D_, on energy is nonmonotone, with the fluctuations at first weakened but then strengthened. The reduction in fluctuation variance and the improvement in coherence is less pronounced over long lines than on short ones. The range in which geometrical optics can be used to derive the fluctuations is independent of the nonlinearity and is defined by k₂z/2k /4. The trend to the diffraction asymptote becomes slower as the nonlinearity increases.Atmospheric Physics Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 32, No. 9, pp. 1063–1071, September, 1989.     

Killing vectors of vacuum space times and electromagnetic four potentials

A conjecture is formulated about the connection between isometries of vacuum space times and the existence of corresponding space times with electromagnetic fields for which the structure of electromagnetic four potentials is readily predicted. One example is presented showing how this conjecture works, three others are only commented.     

Infrared absorption spectrum of a small-polaron system

Characteristic features and the temperature dependence of the small-polaron absorption spectrum are discussed using a recently published model. The physical interpretation of formal results is introduced, in particular a connection of small-polaron states with oscillator coherent states is emphasized. The continuous change of absorption curves with temperature is illustrated by numerical calculations.     

Physics with and without the equivalence principle

A differential manifold (d-manifold, for short) can be defined as a pair (M, C), where M is any set and C is a family of real functions on M which is (i) closed with respect to localization and (ii) closed with respect to superposition with smooth Euclidean functions; one also assumes that (iii) M is locally diffeomorphic to Rⁿ. These axioms have a straightforward physical interpretation. Axioms (i) and (ii) formalize certain compatibility conditions which usually are supposed to be assumed tacitly by physicists. Axiom (iii) may be though of as a (nonmetric) version of Einstein's equivalence principle. By dropping axiom (iii), one obtains a more general structure called a differential space (d-space). Every subset of Rⁿ turns out to be a d-space. Nevertheless it is mathematically a workable structure. It might be expected that somewhere in the neighborhood of the Big Bang there is a domain in which space-time is not a d-manifold but still continues to be a d-space. In such a domain we would have a physics without the (usual form of the) equivalence principle. Simple examples of d-spaces which are not d-manifolds elucidate the principal characteristics the resulting physics would manifest.on leave of absence from the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Department of Theoretical Physics, ul. Radzikowskiego 152, 31–342 Cracow, Poland.