Structure,morphology, and crystallization process of isotactic polypropylene/hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin blends

The structure, morphology, and isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization of isotactic polypropylene/low‐molecular‐mass hydrocarbon resin blends (iPP/HR) (up to 20% in weight of HR) have been studied, using optical and electron microscopy, wide‐ and small‐angle X‐ray and differential scanning calorimetry. New structures and morphologies can be activated, using appropriate preparation and crystallization conditions and blend composition. For every composition and crystallization condition, iPP crystallizes in α‐form, with a spherulitic morphology. The size of iPP spherulites increases with resin content, whereas the long period decreases. In the range of crystallization temperatures investigated, HR modifies the birefringence of iPP spherulites, favoring the formation of radial lamellae and changing the ratio between tangential and radial lamellae. Spherulitic radial growth rates, overall crystallization rates, and melting temperatures are strongly affected by resin, monotonically decreasing with resin content. This confirms miscibility in the melt between the two components of the blends. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 3368–3379, 2004     

Crystal structure of the 4-chromanone derivative.

The title compound was extracted from a natural product and its structure was characterized by an X-ray diffraction method. It crystallizes in the tetragonal space group P41 with cell parameters a = 15.832(10)A, c = 11.622(10)A, Z = 4; the final residual factor is R1 = 0.0769. The structure has both intra and intermolecular hydrogen bonds.     

A sequential injection system for the spectrophotometric determination of calcium, magnesium and alkalinity in water samples.

A sequential injection methodology for the spectrophotometric determination of calcium, magnesium and alkalinity in water samples is proposed. A single manifold is used for the determination of the three analytes, and the same protocol sequence allows the sequential determination of calcium and magnesium (the sum corresponds to the water hardness). The determination of both metals is based on their reaction with cresolphtalein complexone; mutual interference is minimized by using 8-hydroxyquinoline for the determination of calcium and ethylene glycol-bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA) for the determination of magnesium. Alkalinity determination is based on a reaction with acetic acid, and corresponding color change of Bromcresol Green. Working ranges of 0.5 - 5 mg dm(-3) for Ca, 0.5 - 10 mg dm(-3) for Mg, and 10 - 100 mg HCO3- dm(-3), for alkalinity have been achieved. The results for water samples were comparable to those of the reference methods and to a certified reference water sample. RSDs lower than 5% were obtained, a low reagent consumption and a reduced volume of effluent have been accomplished. The determination rate for calcium and magnesium is 80 h(-1), corresponding to 40 h(-1) per element, while 65 determinations of alkalinity per hour could be carried out.     

Indexing Distributions of Data: Preservice Teachers' Notions of Representativeness

The purpose of the study was to identify strategies used by preservice elementary teachers to index distributions of data. A secondary purpose of the study was to investigate whether representational form influenced the type of representative values constructed. Two hundred eighty‐three preservice teachers were administered a selection of tasks requiring them to construct representative values for a variety of distributional shapes. Participants were asked to provide justifications for their chosen representative measures. Data were analyzed from two perspectives: nature and adequacy of representative measure. Results indicated that when presented with skewed data sets, over half of the participants constructed poorly representative values. Symmetric data sets were best indexed with 67% of participants constructing highly representative values. Representational form played a significant role in determining representative values. Data presented graphically were more likely to be represented using measures of variability than were those presented nongraphically. Conversely, measures of central tendency were more frequently used to represent nongraphical data. The information arising from this study indicates that many preservice teachers construct poorly representative values to index data sets and utilize identical measures of representativeness regardless of distributional shape. The findings of the study highlight the need for exploratory data activities at the preservice level, call for provision of experiences affording insights into construction of representative values, and thus, have implications for the design of preservice mathematics education curricula.     

Non-protein amino acids in peptide design

An overview of the use of non-protein amino acids in the design of conformationally well-defined peptides, based on work from the author’s laboratory, is discussed. The crystal structures of several designed oligopeptides illustrate the useα-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib) in the construction of helices, D-amino acids in the design of helix termination segments and^DPro-Xxx segments for nucleating ofβ-hairpin structures.β- andγ-amino acid residues have been used to expand the range of designed polypeptide structures. Dedicated to Professor C N R Rao on his 70th birthday     

Three-dimensional structure of Saccharomyces cerevisiae inorganic pyrophosphatase complexed with cobalt and phosphate ions

Crystals of Saccharomyces cerevisiae inorganic pyrophosphatase suitable for X-ray diffraction study were grown by cocrystallization of the enzyme with cobalt chloride and imidodiphosphate. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a metal-dependent enzyme which catalyzes hydrolysis of inorganic pyrophosphate to orthophosphate. The three-dimensional structure of this enzyme was solved by the molecular-replacement method and refined at 1.8 Å resolution to an R factor of 19.5%. Cobalt and phosphate ions were revealed in the active centers of both identical subunits (A and B) of the pyrophosphatase molecule. In subunit B, a water molecule was found between two cobalt ions. It is believed that this water molecule acts as an attacking nucleophile in the enzymatic cleavage of the pyrophosphate bond. It was demonstrated that cobalt ions and a phosphate group occupy only part of the potential binding sites (two chemically identical and crystallographically independent subunits have different binding sites). The arrangement of ligands and the structure of the nucleophile-binding site are discussed in relation to the mechanism of action of the enzyme and the nature of the metal activator.     

Transition flow of rarefied gases: Current models and methods of simulation

Transition (molecular-viscous) isothermal channel flow of rarefied gases is considered. Present-day engineering physical models of transition gas flow and methods of simulation are analyzed and verified in terms of the kinetic theory on the micro-and macrolevels.     

A grid‐free upwind relaxation scheme for inviscid compressible flows

A new grid‐free upwind relaxation scheme for simulating inviscid compressible flows is presented in this paper. The non‐linear conservation equations are converted to linear convection equations with non‐linear source terms by using a relaxation system and its interpretation as a discrete Boltzmann equation. A splitting method is used to separate the convection and relaxation parts. Least squares upwinding is used for discretizing the convection equations, thus developing a grid‐free scheme which can operate on any arbitrary distribution of points. The scheme is grid free in the sense that it works on any arbitrary distribution of points and it does not require any topological information like elements, faces, edges, etc. This method is tested on some standard test cases. To explore the power of the grid‐free scheme, solution‐based adaptation of points is done and the results are presented, which demonstrate the efficiency of the new grid‐free scheme. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.