Viscosity and electrophoretic mobility of cesium fullerenehexamalonate in aqueous solutions--comparing experiments and theories on nanometer-sized spherical polyelectrolyte

The viscosity of aqueous solutions of cesium fullerenehexamalonate T h -C 66(COOCs) 12, a rigid spherical nanometer-sized polyvalent salt, was measured by the Ubbelohde-type viscometer. The measurements were performed without added salt at 25 degrees C in the concentration range between 7 and 320 g/dm (3). THe concentration dependence of the obtained reduced viscosity was compared with the theoretical prediction, taking into account contributions stemming from the intrinsic viscosity, hydrodynamic perturbations of the hypothetically bare fullerenehexamalonate macroion, the primary electroviscous effect, and the secondary electroviscous effect. Using the geometric radius of the bare macroion from the previous measurements of the estimated effective charge of the macroion and from the small-angle X-ray scattering data of the estimated thickness of the compact shell of counterions electrostatically bound to the macroion, a good agreement between theory and the experiment was obtained in the range of the lowest and of the highest concentrations. Electrostatic interactions are identified as the main cause of the increased reduced viscosity at the lowest measured concentrations. At the highest concentrations, electrostatic interactions are effectively screened, and the influence of binary hydrodynamic interactions and perturbations of the hypothetical bare macroion prevails over electrostatic contributions to the increased viscosity. The electrophoretic mobility of the fullerenehexamalonate ion in aqueous salt-free medium was computed with the same value for the radius of the fullerenehexamalonate macroion as that used in the calculation of viscosity. The numerical solution of Ohshima's equation agreed well with the experimental values.     

Comparative analysis of the gas-phase reactions of cylindrospermopsin and the difference in the alkali metal cation mobility

Cylindrospermopsin (CYN) belongs to a group of toxins produced by several strains of freshwater cyanobacteria. It is a compact zwitterionic molecule composed of a uracil section and a tricyclic guanidinium portion with a primarily hepatotoxic effect. Using low multi-stage and high-resolution mass spectrometry, the gas-phase reactions of this toxin have been investigated. Our data show that collision-induced dissociation (CID) spectra of CYN are dominated by neutral losses, and three major initial fragmentation pathways are clearly distinguishable. Interestingly, comparative analysis of protonated and cationizated molecules showed a significant difference in the balance of the SO3 and terminal ring elimination. These data indicate that the differential ion mobility of H+, Li+, Na+ and K+ leads to different fragmentation pathways, giving rise to mass spectra with different profiles.     

Time propagation of constrained coupled Gaussian wave packets

The dynamics of quantum systems can be approximated by the time propagation of Gaussian wave packets. Applying a time dependent variational principle, the time evolution of the parameters of the coupled Gaussian wave packets can be calculated from a set of ordinary differential equations. Unfortunately, the set of equations is ill behaved in most practical applications, depending on the number of propagated Gaussian wave packets, and methods for regularization are needed. We present a general method for regularization based on applying adequate nonholonomic inequality constraints to the evolution of the parameters, keeping the equations of motion well behaved. The power of the method is demonstrated for a nonintegrable system with two degrees of freedom.     

Growth in catacondensed benzenoid graphs

The generating function of the sequence counting the number of graph vertices at a given distance from the root is called the spherical growth function of the rooted graph. The vertices farthest from the root form an induced subgraph called the distance-residual graph. These mathematical notions are applied to benzenoid graphs which are used in graph theory to represent benzenoid hydrocarbons. An algorithm for calculating the growth in catacondensed benzenoids is presented, followed by some examples.     

Optimization of SPME-Arrow-GC/MS Method for Determination of Free and Bound Volatile Organic Compounds from Grape Skins

(1) Background: Solid phase microextraction (SPME)-Arrow is a new extraction technology recently employed in the analysis of volatiles in food materials. Grape volatile organic compounds (VOC) have a crucial role in the winemaking industry due to their sensory characteristics of wine.; (2) Methods: Box–Behnken experimental design and response surface methodology were used to optimise SPME-Arrow conditions (extraction temperature, incubation time, exposure time, desorption time). Analyzed VOCs were free VOCs directly from grape skins and bound VOCs released from grape skins by acid hydrolysis.; (3) Results: The most significant factors were extraction temperature and exposure time for both free and bound VOCs. For both factors, an increase in their values positively affected the extraction efficiency for almost all classes of VOCs. For free VOCs, the optimum extraction conditions are: extraction temperature 60 °C, incubation time 20 min, exposure time 49 min, and desorption time 7 min, while for the bound VOCs are: extraction temperature 60 °C, incubation time 20 min, exposure time 60 min, desorption time 7 min.; (4) Conclusions: Application of the optimized method provides a powerful tool in the analysis of major classes of volatile organic compounds from grape skins, which can be applied to a large number of samples.     

Cosmology from a gauge induced gravity

The main goal of the present work is to analyze the cosmological scenario of the induced gravity theory developed in previous works. Such a theory consists on a Yang–Mills theory in a four-dimensional Euclidian spacetime with \({ SO}(m,n)\) such that \(m+n=5\) and \(m\in \{0,1,2\}\) as its gauge group. This theory undergoes a dynamical gauge symmetry breaking via an Inönü–Wigner contraction in its infrared sector. As a consequence, the \({ SO}(m,n)\) algebra is deformed into a Lorentz algebra with the emergency of the local Lorentz symmetries and the gauge fields being identified with a vierbein and a spin connection. As a result, gravity is described as an effective Einstein–Cartan-like theory with ultraviolet correction terms and a propagating torsion field. We show that the cosmological model associated with this effective theory has three different regimes. In particular, the high curvature regime presents a de Sitter phase which tends towards a \(\Lambda \)CDM model. We argue that \({ SO}(m,n)\) induced gravities are promising effective theories to describe the early phase of the universe.     

On ℤ<Subscript>2</Subscript>-graded identities of the super tensor product of <Emphasis Type="Italic">UT</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">F</Emphasis>) by the Grassmann algebra

Let F be a field of characteristic zero and E be the unitary Grassmann algebra generated over an infinite-dimensional F-vector space L. Denote by \(\mathcal{E} = \mathcal{E}^{(0)} \oplus \mathcal{E}^{(1)}\) an arbitrary ?₂-grading of E such that the subspace L is homogeneous. Given a superalgebra A = A ⁽⁰⁾ ⊕ A ⁽¹⁾, define the superalgebra \(A\hat \otimes \mathcal{E}\) by \(A\hat \otimes \mathcal{E} = (A^{(0)} \otimes \mathcal{E}^{(0)} ) \oplus (A^{(1)} \otimes \mathcal{E}^{(1)} )\). Note that when E is the canonical grading of E then \(A\hat \otimes \mathcal{E}\) is the Grassmann envelope of A. In this work we find bases of ?₂-graded identities and we describe the ?₂-graded codimension and cocharacter sequences for the superalgebras \(UT_2 (F)\hat \otimes \mathcal{E}\), when the algebra UT ₂(F) of 2 ×2 upper triangular matrices over F is endowed with its canonical grading.     

Second Root Vectors for Multiparameter Eigenvalue Problems of Fredholm Type

A class of multiparameter eigenvalue problems involving (generally) non self-adjoint and unbounded operators is studied. A basis for the second root subspace, at eigenvalues of Fredholm type, is computed in terms of the underlying multiparameter system. A self-adjoint version of this result is given under a weak definiteness condition, and Sturm-Liouville and finite-dimensional examples are considered.