Comment on "Pushing the hyperpolarizability to the limit"

It is shown that energy/length scaling complicates maximizing the first hyperpolarizability of a single electron as a function of the potential. A more transparent formula for this hyperpolarizability is given. Examining this formula demonstrates that Zhou et al.(1) have not proved that modulated conjugation results in large hyperpolarizability.     

Conjugation of bioactive groups to poly(lactic acid) and poly[(lactic acid)-co-(glycolic acid)] films

A novel PLA-based polymer containing reactive pendent ketone or hydroxyl groups was synthesized by the copolymerization of L-lactide with epsilon-caprolactone-based monomers. The polymer was activated with NPC, resulting in an amine-reactive polymer which was then cast into thin polymeric films, either alone or as part of a blend with PLGA, before immersion into a solution of the cell adhesion peptide GRGDS in PBS buffer allowed for conjugation of GRGDS to the film surfaces. Subsequent 3T3 fibroblast cell adhesion studies demonstrated an increase in cellular adhesion and spreading over films cast from unmodified PLGA. Hence the new polymer can be used to obtain covalent linkage of amine-containing molecules to polymer surfaces.     

Surface chemistry and rheology of polysulfobetaine-coated silica

We have measured the viscosity of suspensions of colloidal silica particles (d = 300 nm) and the properties of silica surfaces in solutions of a polymer consisting of zwitterionic monomer groups, poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate), polySBMA. This polymer has potential use in modifying surface properties because the polymer is net uncharged and therefore does not generate double-layer forces. The solubility of the polymer can be controlled and varies from poor to good by the addition of sodium chloride salt. Ellipsometry was used to demonstrate that polySBMA adsorbs to silica and exhibits an increase in surface excess at lower salt concentration, which is consistent with a smaller area per molecule at low salt concentration. Neutron reflectivity measurements show that the adsorbed polymer has a thickness of about 3.7 nm and is highly hydrated. The polymer can be used to exercise considerable control over suspension rheology. When silica particles are not completely covered in polymer, the suspension produces a highly viscous gel. Atomic force microscopy was used to show this is caused by bridging of polymer between the particles. At higher surface coverage, the polymer can produce either a high or very low viscosity slurry depending on the sodium chloride concentration. At high salt concentration, the suspension is stable, and the viscosity is lower. This is probably because the entrainment of many small ions renders the polymer film highly hydrophilic, producing repulsive surface forces and lubricating the flow of particles. At low salt concentrations, the polymer is barely soluble and more densely adsorbed. This produces less stable and more viscous solutions, which we attribute to attractive interactions between the adsorbed polymer layers.     

A flexible microfluidic processor for molecular biology: application to microarray sample preparation

We describe a programmable microfluidic system with onboard pumps and valves that has the ability to process reaction volumes in the sub-microlitre to hundred microlitre range. The flexibility of the architecture is demonstrated with a commercial molecular biology protocol for mRNA amplification, implemented without significant modification. The performance of the microchip system is compared to conventional bench processing at each stage of the multistep protocol, and DNA microarrays are used to assess the quality and performance of bench- and microchip-amplified RNA. The results show that the microchip system reactions are similar to bench control reactions at each step, and that the microchip- and bench-derived amplified RNAs are virtually indistinguishable in differential microarray analyses.     

Kernel Decompositions for Schur Functions on the Polydisk

A certain kernel (sometimes called the Pick kernel) associated to Schur functions on the disk is always positive semi-definite. A generalization of this fact is well-known for Schur functions on the polydisk. In this article, we show that the “Pick kernel” on the polydisk has a great deal of structure beyond being positive semi-definite. It can always be split into two kernels possessing certain shift invariance properties.     

Self-Organization and Migration of Dielectric Barrier Discharge Filaments in Argon Gas Flow

Observations of atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge are conducted through a water-filled electrode in atmospheric-pressure argon gas flow. Quasi-symmetric self-organized discharge filaments were observed. The streamers moved with the gas flow, and the migration velocity increased with increasing gas velocity.     

REACTIONS OF COMPOUNDS OF PHOSPHORUS HAVING POSITIVELY POLARIZED DIVALENT SULFUR WITH DISILATHIANES. SYNTHETIC AND MECHANISTIC ASPECTS

Abstract

Reactions of hexamethyldisilathiane with oxophosphoranesulfenyl chlorides, oxophosphorane sulfenates and bis-phosphoranyldisulfides were studied. These processes lead to mono o-silyl thionesters of phosphorus. The mechanistic pathways are discussed.     

Synthesis of P-Fluorodithioacids of Phosphorus and Their Synthetic Application

Oligonucleotides containing 3'- S -P(S) and 5'- S -P(S) fragments in the deoxy-series are available only by tedious multistep procedures. We have developed a novel and efficient methodology based on ring opening of anhydronucleosides by phosphorus dithioacids. This approach allows efficient synthesis of modified dinucleotides of the ribo-series.     

Even More Spectra: Tensor Triangular Comparison Maps via Graded Commutative 2-rings

We initiate the theory of graded commutative 2-rings, a categorification of graded commutative rings. The goal is to provide a systematic generalization of Paul Balmer’s comparison maps between the spectrum of tensor-triangulated categories and the Zariski spectra of their central rings. By applying our constructions, we compute the spectrum of the derived category of perfect complexes over any graded commutative ring, and we associate to every scheme with an ample family of line bundles an embedding into the spectrum of an associated graded commutative 2-ring.     

Preparation of trisodium O-monoalkyl and O-monoaryl diphosphates

Trisodium O-methyl, O-butyl, O-phenyl, and O-(4-nitrophenyl) diphosphates were synthesized from sodium dimethylamido-O-(2-cyanoethyl) phosphate and O-alkyl-and O-aryl phosphoric acids. While in the previously described method, sodium hydroxide was used for the preparation of O-phenyl diphosphate, in our current work, we present an improved protocol, where sodium methoxide is used to increase the yields of O-alkyl and O-aryl diphosphates. The structures of final compounds were determined by ¹H NMR, ³¹P NMR, and IR spectroscopy. The sodium O-alkyl- and O-aryl diphosphate salts prepared by this method may be used for the study of biological activity of diphosphate analogues.