The linear polarization constant of R n

Summary He present work deals with estimations of the n-th linear polarization constant c(H)_n of an n-dimensional real Hilbert space H. We provide some new lower bounds on the value of sup_║y║=1 │1,y> ... n,y>│, where x₁, ... ,x_n are unit vectors in H. In particular, the results improve an earlier estimate of Marcus. However, the intriguing conjecture c(H) _n= n^n/2 remains open.     

Transient binary nucleation from ethanol-hexanol vapour

We study condensation of ethanol-hexanol vapour by numerical solution of kinetic equations. The number of droplets formed in unit volume is computed within self-consistent classical model. It is shown that formation of ethanol-rich droplets prevails at the initial stage of nucleation process, but in the stationary state formation of droplets near the saddle point (on cluster formation energy surface) plays the dominant role. Presented at the 6th Joint Seminar “Development of Materials Science in Research and Education”, Karlštejn, Czech Republic, 17–19 September 1996. This work was supported by Grant No. A1010615 of the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.     

Analytic solutions of the Schrödinger equation for the modified quartic oscillator

No analytic solutions of the Schrödinger equation are known for the quartic anharmonic oscillator. We show in this paper that there are closely related modified quartic oscillators with the potential depending on |x| for which analytic solutions for some states exist. These results can be extended to the higher order oscillators     

Quadratic Functionals with General Boundary Conditions

The purpose of this paper is to give the Reid ``Roundabout Theorem' for quadratic functionals with general boundary conditions. In particular, we describe the so-called coupled point and regularity condition introduced in [16] in terms of Riccati equation solutions. Accepted 27 February 1996     

Thermal diffusivity measurements in porous ceramics by photothermal methods

Received: 16 September 1996/Accepted: 6 January 1997     

Luttinger liquid with asymmetric dispersion

We present an extension of the Tomonaga-Luttinger model in which left and right-moving particles have different Fermi velocities. We derive expressions for one-particle Green's functions, momentum-distributions, density of states, charge compressibility and conductivity as functions of both the velocity difference ε and the strength of the interaction β. This allows us to identify a novel restricted region in the parameter space in which the system keeps the main features of a Luttinger liquid but with an unusual behavior of the density of states and the static charge compressibility κ. In particular κ diverges on the boundary of the restricted region, indicating the occurrence of a phase transition. Received 20 May 2002 / Received in final form 23 August 2002 Published online 19 November 2002     

The dimension of orthomodular posets constructed by pasting Boolean algebras

The main aim of this paper is the calculation of the dimension of certain atomic amalgams. These consist of finite Boolean algebras (blocks) pasted together in such a way that a pair of blocks intersects either trivially in the bounds, or the intersection consists of the bounds, an atom, and its complement.     

Fatty acid binding site of mitochondrial uncoupling protein UCP2 as probed by EPR spectroscopy of spin-labeled fatty acids

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy of spin-labeled fatty acids was used to investigate their interaction withEscherichia coli-expressed human mitochondrial uncoupling protein UCP2 refolded from inclusion bodies in nonaethylene glycol monododecyl ether (C₁₂E₉) micelles. 5-DOXYL-stearic acid and 4-PROXYL-palmitic acid bound to UCP2 exhibited additional clearly separated h_+1I, h_?1I “immobile” peaks in the low- and high-field region, respectively, separated by 42 and 44 Gauss, and extensively reduced h_+1M, h_?1M “mobile” peaks, separated by about 30 G, whereas with 7-DOXYL-stearic acid the I and M peaks were smoothed together into one wide peak. Competition of 4-PROXYL-palmitic acid with added palmitic acid, arachidonic acid, and all-cis-8,11,14-eicosatrienoic acid and of 7-DOXYL-stearic acid with arachidonic acid was indicated by the disappearance of the h_+1I, h_?1I “immobile” peaks, whereas redistribution in micelles without protein was indicated by the rising of the h_+1M, h_?1M “mobile” peaks. In conclusion, a competition of palmitic, arachidonic, and eicosatrienoic acid within a putative fatty acid binding site was observed for mitochondrial uncoupling protein UCP2. This finding together with the observation of EPR spectra of highly immobilized probes exclusively in the presence of the recombinant UCP2 suggest the existence of a fatty acid binding site on UCP2 which is a prerequisite of the fatty acid cycling mechanism as previously postulated for UCP1.