Comparative behavior of polybutadiene and polynorbornene‐based latices prepared by dispersion ring‐opening metathesis polymerization with a poly(ethylene oxide) macromonomer

This study critically examines the similarities and differences between poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) stabilized latices of polynorbornene and polybutadiene. Features such as the kinetics of copolymerization of norbornene and cyclooctadiene with a macromonomer of PEO, the particles' size and morphology, the type of copolymer formed, and the stability of these latices were investigated and the results obtained are considered. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 2705–2716, 2004     

Stability of translating solutions to mean curvature flow

We prove stability of rotationally symmetric translating solutions to mean curvature flow. For initial data that converge spatially at infinity to such a soliton, we obtain convergence for large times to that soliton without imposing any decay rates. The authors are members of SFB 647/B3 “Raum – Zeit – Materie: Singularity Structure, Long-time Behaviour and Dynamics of Solutions of Non-linear Evolution Equations”.     

Realization of 2-solvable nilpotent groups as groups of classes of homotopy self-equivalences

Let X be a 1-connected CW-complex of finite type and ε_?(X) be the group of homotopy classes of self-equivalences of X which induce the identity on homotopy groups. In this paper, we prove that every finitely generated 2-solvable rational nilpotent group is realizable as ε_?(X) where X is the rationalization of a 1-connected CW-complex of finite type.     

Determination of microtacticity of poly(vinylketones) and their derivatives by NMR spectroscopies of carbon-13 and proton

Sequence distribution of atactic poly(phenylvinylketone) (PPVK) has been determined by [¹³C]-[¹H]NMR spectroscopy. Quantitative analysis of the carbonyl pattern allows resolution into pentads with intensities fitting a first order Markov process. The carbonyl pattern of highly isotactic PPVK, initiated by diethylzinc, deviates strongly from Bernoullian statistics, as in the case of highly isotactic polymethylvinylketone (PMVK). For n-butyl-lithium initiated poly(isopropenylphenylvinylketone) (PIPK), the carbonyl pattern practically agrees with a Bernoullian distribution. Atactic PMVK, analyzed from the methylene and the carbonyl pattern in [¹³C] or [¹H]NMR, shows that the polymerization process is purely Bernoullian and quite different from that for poly(isopropenylmethylketone). Except for poly(methylallylalcohol) for which the tacticity can be determined, the resolution is too poor to allow a quantitative sequence distribution of poly(allylalcohols) or poly(allyltrifluoroacetates). [¹H] and [¹⁹F]NMR spectroscopies of these compounds do not give better results.     

Spectral theory and L∞-time decay estimates for Klein–Gordon equations on two half axes with transmission: The tunnel effect

Consider two copies N₁, N₂ of the interval [0, ∞]. Consider Klein-Gordon equations with (different) constant coefficients on ? × N_j ( = time × space). Assume the coincidence of the values of the solution at the boundary points of the N_j for all times and a transmission condition relating its first (one-sided) space derivatives at these points. Under a symmetry condition, we extend the spatial part of the equation and the transmission conditions to a self-adjoint operator (by Friedrichs extension) and reformulate our problem in terms of an abstract wave equation in a suitable Hilbert space. We derive an expansion of the solution in generalized eigenfunctions of this self-adjoint extension and show, that the L^∞-norms (in space) of the solution and its first k space derivatives at the time t decay for t → ∞ at least as const. t^¼, if the initial conditions satisfy a compatibility condition of order k derived in this paper. The loss of decay rate in comparison with the full line case (const. t^?½, cf. [28]) is caused by the tunnel effect. Further we show that an abstract wave equation in a Hilbert space with a Friedrichs extension as spatial part can always be derived from a stationarity principle for an associated action-type functional. This yields a physical legitimation of our model by the principle of stationary action and moreover a criterion for the physical interpretability of all models created by the linear interaction concept [4, 6, 8, 10], in particular for the coupling of media of different dimension (alternative to [13, 16] for similar models).     

Synthesis of new 7-aminosterol squalamine analogues with high antimicrobial activities through a stereoselective titanium reductive amination reaction

A series of 7-amino- and polyaminosterol analogues of squalamine and trodusquemine were synthesized involving a new stereoselective titanium reductive amination reaction in high chemical yields of up to 95% in numerous cases. These derivatives were evaluated for their in vitro antimicrobial properties against human pathogens. All the compounds present excellent activities against Gram-positive bacteria exhibiting similar results against Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus faecalis with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) varying from 2.5 to 10 μg/mL. Numerous derivatives possess also MICs against Gram-negative Escherichia coli bacteria (MICs varying from 2.5 to 10 μg/mL) suggesting that nature of the amino group attached to the sterol moiety plays an important role on the activities of such products.     

The Linear Rational Pseudospectral Method with Preassigned Poles

We present a linear rational pseudospectral (collocation) method with preassigned poles for solving boundary value problems. It consists in attaching poles to the trial polynomial so as to make it a rational interpolant. Its convergence is proved by transforming the problem into an associated boundary value problem. Numerical examples demonstrate that the rational pseudospectral method is often more efficient than the polynomial method.