Effect of adsorption of vapours on the electrical conductivity of lycopene crystals: Evidence of a three-stage adsorption process

Upon adsorption of various vapours, the electrical conductivity of lycopene semiconductor changes appreciably This phenomenon had been used as a probe to study the adsorption and desorption processes in these polyene crystals The adsorption and desorption kinetics have been found to follow a modified Roginsky-Zeldovich relation A three-stage adsorption process has been identified The first stage gives a Lennard-Jones potential energy curve, followed by a transition over a potential barrier to the second stage of adsorption in a potential well In the third stage a deep potential energy surface is reached by activation over a second potential barrier and strongly bound complexes between the vapour molecules and the surface molecules of the crystals are finally formed.     

Studies on nessler's reagent and nessler's precipitate part II

The composition of the precipitate formed when the Nessler's reagent is treated with ammonia, is assumed as NH_n-1Hg₂I_n, aq. and has been studied potentiometrically from iodine-hypoiodite-system. It has been observed that the value of n depends on the concentrations of [HgI₄]^-2 and OH^- ions as well as on the amount of ammonia added and it may vary from 1 to 3. The colour of the precipitate deepens from brown to chocolate as the value of n increases.     

Local Higgs-Kibble type theories in the unitary gauge

A general formal foundation of local theories using the Higgs-Kibble mechanism is given in the unitary gauge. The general term that is added to the Lagrangian owing to the presence of a gauge group is found both when the gauge group has and has not a non-trivial unbroken subgroup. The conjecture made by Weinberg about the form of this term when there is a non-trivial unbroken subgroup is found to be false in general. However when the unbroken subgroup is Abelian the conjecture is shown to be correct.     

Negative normal stress elasticity of emulsions of viscous drops at finite inertia

The relation between the normal stress and the imposed strain for a Newtonian emulsion in an oscillating extensional flow is computed at finite Reynolds numbers using numerically simulated drop geometry. The interfacial stress was determined using Batchelor's formalism. In the presence of inertia, the phase between the stress and the strain deviates from Stokes's flow, and leads to a negative elastic modulus at small frequencies. The results are explained by a mass-spring-dashpot model.     

Evidence for strain glass in the ferroelastic-martensitic system Ti(50-x)Ni(50+x)

We report here "strain glass," a new glassy phenomenon in ferroelastic-martensitic system of Ni-rich intermetallic Ti(50-x)Ni(50+x) (x > 1), where local strain is frozen in disordered configuration below a critical temperature Tg. The ac elastic modulus shows a minimum at Tg, which exhibits logarithmic frequency dependence following Vogel-Fulcher relationship, and the corresponding internal friction shows a frequency-dependent peak located at a lower temperature. In situ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy observations reveal uncorrelated nanoclusters of martensiticlike phase, randomly frozen in the otherwise untransformed parentlike matrix. Being parallel to spin glass and relaxor, strain glass may shed new light on the fundamental physics of glass and lead to the discovery of novel properties.     

Structural and functional analogue of the active site of polysulfide reductase from Wolinella succinogenes

Synthesis of [PPh4]2[Mo(SPh)2(S2C2(CN)2)2] (2) from [PPh4]2[MoO(S2C2(CN)2)2] (1) has been achieved to mimic the postulated [Mo(S)6] core of polysulfide reductase with two thiolates and two bis(ene-dithiolate) ligands. Compound 2 reacts with polysulfide to yield H2S, modeling the function of polysulfide reductase. The facile conversion of 2 back to 1 in moist solvent suggests that the interconversion of the [MoIV = O] and [MoIV - X] (X = O-Ser, S-Cys, Se-Cys) moieties might occur in the DMSO reductase class of enzymes under appropriate hydrophobic/hydrophilic conditions.     

Skeletal muscle metabolism in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD): an in-vitro proton NMR spectroscopy study

The metabolic differences in the skeletal muscle of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and normal subjects (controls) were investigated using in-vitro high-resolution proton NMR spectroscopy. In all, 56 metabolites were unambiguously identified in the perchloric acid extract of muscle tissue using one- and two-dimensional NMR. The concentrations of glycolytic substrate glucose (Glc; p < 0.05), gluconeogenic amino acids such as glutamine (Gln; p < 0.05) and alanine (Ala; p < 0.05) and the glycolytic product lactate (Lac; p < 0.05) were statistically significantly lower in DMD patients as compared to controls. A significant reduction in the concentrations of total creatine (TCr; p < 0.05), glycerophosphoryl choline + phosphoryl choline + carnitine (GPC/PC/Car; p < 0.05), choline (Cho; p < 0.05) and acetate (Ace; p < 0.05) was also observed in these patients. Decrease in the level of glucose may be attributed to the reduction in the concentrations of gluconeogenic substrates or membrane abnormalities in degenerated muscle of DMD patients. Lower levels of choline containing compounds indicate membrane abnormalities. Decrease in the concentration of lactate in the muscle of DMD patients may be due to the reduction in anaerobic glycolytic activity or lower substrate concentration. The decrease in the concentration of acetate may reflect reduced transport of fatty acids into mitochondria due to decreased concentration of carnitine in DMD patients. Kreb's cycle intermediate alpha-ketoglutarate was observed only in the diseased muscle, which is suggestive of predominant oxidative metabolism for energy generation.     

Abel transform on PSL(2, ℝ) and some of its applications

We shall investigate the use of Abel transform on PSL₂(ℝ) as a tool beyond K-biinvariant setup, discuss its properties and show some applications.     

Relevance of thermally populated first excited state of 44Ti to the abundance problem of cassiopiea A: A model study

We examine the possible role of electron-capture on the thermally populated first 2⁺ excited state of ⁴⁴Ti in hot astrophysical environments pertaining to post explosive nucleosynthesis supernova debris. We find in a simple schematic model that the astrophysical weak interaction rate for electron-capture decay of ⁴⁴Ti can depend considerably on temperature and hence on time. We propose a time varying decay rate for the evolving supernova debris and demonstrate its consequence for the ⁴⁴Ti mass yield of the supernova Cas A, observed through the measured 1.157 MeV γ-ray flux from the electron-capture decay of ⁴⁴Ti.