Surgery on 3-manifolds with \mathbb{S} 1-actions

We study the topological structure of all 3-manifolds obtained by surgery along principal fibers of a closed orientable -manifold. As a consequence, we give alternative proofs of some classical results due to W. Heil and L. Moser. Moreover, we completely specify the Seifert invariants for the considered manifolds. Finally we classify the manifolds obtained by surgery along certain Seifert links and determine geometric presentations of their fundamental groups.Work performed under the auspices of C.N.R. (National Research Council) of Italy and partially supported by Ministero della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica within the projects Geometria Reale e Complessa and Topologia.     

High-temperature oxygen sensors for glass-forming melts

Electrochemical sensors are reported for the on-line measurement of oxygen partial pressures of oxidic glass-forming melts on a laboratory and technical scale. Based on the principle of solid electrolyte cells without transference, they are principally simple units. The extreme chemical and temperature conditions of their applications, however, demanded extensive fundamental investigations and resulted in specific forms of reference and measuring electrodes, a thermo-dynamic procedure of verifying the correct functioning of such cells, and a method of measuring thermoelectric voltages of non-isothermal glass melts.     

Asymptotic expansions in the integral and local limit theorems in banach spaces with applications to ω-statistics

LetB be a real separable Banach space and letX,X ₁,X ₂,...∈B denote a sequence of independent identically distributed random variables taking values inB. DenoteS _n =n ^?1/2(X ₁+...X _n ). Let π:B→R be a polynomial. We consider (truncated) Edgeworth expansions and other asymptotic expansions for the distribution function of the r.v. π(S _n ) with uniform and nonuniform bounds for the remainder terms. Expansions for the density of π(S _n ) and its higher order derivatives are derived as well. As an application of the general results we get expansions in the integral and local limit theorems for ω-statistics $$\omega _n^p (q)\mathop { = n^{{p \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {p 2}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} 2}} }\limits^\Delta \smallint _{(0,1)} \{ F_n (x) - x\} ^p q(x)dx$$ and investigate smoothness properties of their distribution functions. Herep≥2 is an even number,q: [0, 1]→[0, ∞] is a measurable weight function, andF _n denotes the empirical distribution function. Roughly speaking, we show that in order to get an asymptotic expansion with remainder termO(n ^?α), α<p/2, for the distribution function of the ω-statistic, it is sufficient thatq is nontrivial, i.e., mes{t∈(0, 1):q(t)≠0}>0. Expansions of arbitrary length are available provided the weight functionq is absolutely continuous and positive on an nonempty subinterval of (0, 1). Similar results hold for the density of the distribution function and its derivatives providedq satisfies certain very mild smoothness condition and is bounded away from zero. The last condition is essential since the distribution function of the ω-statistic has no density whenq is vanishing on an nonempty subinterval of (0, 1).     

HPLC fractionation and structural dynamics of humic acids

Different soil extracted humic acids as well as a commercial humic acid sodium salt were fractionated by HPLC. An almost complete recovery could be achieved for the dissolved material. All humic samples show a typical chromatogram of at least five fractions. The separation of humic substances is influenced by an altered hydrophobicity due to changes in the tertiary structure. Three fractions were further investigated by Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy and by HPLC/HPLC separation. DRIFT spectroscopy provided data on the primary structure, whereas HPLC/HPLC results gave insight into the secondary and tertiary structure and their changes. Received: 18 June 1996 / Revised: 9 October 1996 / Accepted: 12 October 1996     

Tetrathiafulvalene-acetylene scaffolding: new pi-electron systems for advanced materials

Novel extended tetrathiafulvalenes (TTFs) with hexa-2,4-diyne-1,6-diylidene spacers between the two 1,3-dithiole rings and laterally appended alkynyl moieties for one- and two-dimensional scaffolding were synthesised and investigated for their electronic properties.     

Fast-atom-bombardment and tandem mass spectrometry for determining structures of fatty acids as their picolinyl ester derivatives

Picolinyl ester derivatives of common fatty acids can be readily desorbed by fast atom bombardment (FAB) as positive ions and then collisionally activated. Collisionally activated spectra of the (M + H)⁺ ions of the derivatives reveal that structurally informative remote-charge-site fragmentations occur. The presence of substitutents such as double bond, branch points, cyclopropane rings, hydroxy groups, and epoxy rings interrupts the fragmentation process in such a way that the substituent can be identified and its location on the alkyl chain can be determined. This method is also applicable to the picolinyl esters of short-chain fatty acids and to the analysis of mixtures of fatty acid derivatives. The approach is advantageous becasue the epicolinyl ester derivatives are also amenable to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Therefore, the FAB-MS/MS approach developed here is complementary to GC/MS.     

Versuche zur Herstellung eines «Bis(triasterans)» und Synthese des heterocyclischen (Tricyclo[4.4.1.01,6]undeca-3,8-dien-11,11-dimethyl)sulfits

Tentative Synthesis of ‘Bis(triasterane)’ and Synthesis of the Heterocyclic (Tricyclo[4.4.1.0^1,6]undeca-3,8-diene-11,11-dimethyl)sulfite The synthesis of the bis(triasterane) ( 1 ) has been tried; the reaction of ‘isotetraline’ (1,4,5,8-Tetrahydronaphthalene; 2 ) with diazomalonate yielded the tricyclic systems 5 and 6 , and not 4 . Hydrolysis of 5 gave the monocarboxylic acid 7 , and not the dicarboxylic acid 9 . The latter could be obtained from the dibromoderivative 8 , but 9 couldn't be converted to the acyl chloride 10 . The reduction of 9 with LiAlH₄ yielded the crystalline diol 11 , which was cyclized with SOCl₂ to the heterocycle 12 . The spectral data of the new compounds 5, 6, 7, 11 and 12 are reported and discussed.