Structural studies of Cr-doped mullite derived from single-phase precursors

Cr-doped mullites were prepared from single-phase precursors containing up to 9.60 wt% Cr₂O₃ using a sol-gel technique followed by thermal treatment. Particle induced X-ray emission spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction were used to characterize the samples. Mullites were orthorhombic, space group Pbam. Cr doping caused the increase of unit-cell parameters. Strongest expansion was noticed along c-axis followed by a and b (Δc/c=0.089, Δa/a=0.061, Δb/b=0.045% per mole Cr₂O₃). A second phase, namely θ-(Al,Cr)₂O₃, was revealed by XRD in the sample containing 9.60 wt% Cr₂O₃. The structure of mullites was refined by the Rietveld method, location of Cr³⁺ was performed by the EPR spectroscopy. At low chromium doping level (Cr₂O₃ content less than ∼5 wt%) Cr³⁺ ions were substituted for Al³⁺ in the AlO₆ octahedra of the mullite structure (M1 site). For higher doping level, Cr³⁺ ions were additionally substituted for Al³⁺ in the AlO₆ octahedra of the second phase [θ-(Al,Cr)₂O₃ at 1400 °C, or α-(Al,Cr)₂O₃ at 1600 °C] which segregated in the system. Substitution of Cr³⁺ for Al³⁺ on M1 site in the mullite structure resulted in increase of average distances in (M1)O₆ octahedron and decrease of average distances in T*O₄ tetrahedron, while average distances in TO₄ tetrahedron stayed almost constant.     

The Newton filtration and d-determination of bifurcation problems related to C~0 contact equivalence

In this paper, from the Newton filtration's point of view, we construct the singular Riemannian metric and use the method in singular theory to study the bifurcation problems, and give the sufficient condition of d-determination of bifurcation problems with respect to C0 contact equivalence. The special cases of the main result in this paper are the results of Sun Weizhi and Zou Jiancheng.     

Conversion of single-stranded oligonucleotides into cloned duplexes and its consecutive application to short artificial genes.

A general method to convert single-stranded, chemically synthesized oligonucleotides into cloned duplexes is described. Oligonucleotides supplied with 3'-terminal extensions that are complementary to 3'-protruding ends obtained by certain restriction enzymes can be cloned either directly or with the help of an adapter molecule into double-stranded vectors. Two methods have also been developed for consecutive cloning applications. According to these methods, the synthetic oligonucleotides (and their enzymatically prepared complementary strands) are joined, one after the other, inside a cloning vector, each joining requiring one cloning step. Synthetic genes are thus built up from oligonucleotides corresponding to only one strand of the DNA. The sequential assembly of the cloned duplex takes place in the 5' to 3' direction. Each oligonucleotide is supplied with a four-nucleotide-long 3'-terminal extension, but this sequence is eliminated when the joining takes place, leaving no limiting sequence between the oligonucleotides. The two consecutive cloning methods, the adapter and the polycloning site methods, are illustrated by the assembly of short artificial genes.     

Comparison of short range interactions in nematic liquid crystals A 2H-NMR study of 5CB-d19 as a solute

Previous studies using dideuterium as a solute have demonstrated the importance for orientation of the interaction between the solute molecular quadrupole moment and the average electric field gradient present in liquid crystals. With the aim of learning about additional orientational mechanisms, we have studied the temperature dependence of the ²H-NMR spectra of the liquid crystal 5CB-d₁₉ as the solute in three liquid crystal mixtures: 55 wt % 1132/EBBA, 56·5 wt % 1132/EBBA and 70 wt % 5CB/EBBA. In these mixtures, the contribution from the environment to the average electric field gradient at the ²H nucleus of dideuterium is zero. The spectra of 5CB-d₁₉ in the mixtures 55 wt % 1132/EBBA and 56·5 wt % 1132/EBBA are equivalent, but are different from those in 70 wt % 5CB/EBBA. The spectra of 5CB in 55 wt % 1132/EBBA and 70 wt % 5CB/EBBA are analysed using two different models for the short range potential, and param eters of the models are used to compare the potentials in the different mixtures. For a given spectral splitting of the chain C₁ deuteron, the reduced short range potential is the same in all three mixtures studied. The spectral differences observed are a consequence of different nematic-isotropic phase transition temperatures combined with the effect of trans/gauche-isomerization in the hydrocarbon chain.     

Neocompact Sets and the Fixed Point Property

We use a newly introduced concept of neocompactness to study problems from metric fixed point theory. In particular, we give a sufficient condition for a superreflexive Banach space X to have the fixed point property and obtain shorter proofs of some well-known results in that theory.     

Copper-D-penicillamine complex as potential contrast agent for MRI.

In vitro and in vivo proton T1 data are reported that demonstrate that the paramagnetic copper-D-penicillamine complex can be applied as a potential contrast agent to magnetic resonance imaging.     

Specific carbon-13 labelling of leucine residues in human growth hormone.

Biosynthetic human growth hormone specifically 13C-labelled in the carbonyl positions of all 26 leucine residues has been obtained by recombinant DNA techniques using 13C-labelled leucine and an E. coli strain that requires leucine. It is shown that, on the whole, the labelling is specific with no significant mislabelling as would have been the case had the 13C-labelled leucine been metabolized.     

The intertwining lifting theorem for ordered groups

Sz.-Nagy's dilation theorem for a contraction on a Hilbert space has been extended by Mlak to the case of a contraction semigroup whose indices are the positive elements of a totally ordered discrete group. We generalize to this case the intertwining lifting theorem of Sz.-Nagy and Foias. Some previous interpolation results on ordered groups are obtained as consequences.