Synthesis and thermal behaviour of salicylaldimine-based liquid crystalline symmetrical dimers

A series of symmetrical dimers consisting of salicylaldimine moieties connected by flexible alkylene central spacer via ether linkages has been synthesized. In order to validate the empirical rule suggested by Date et al. to account for the smectic behaviour of such dimers, the chain length of the terminal alkoxy chain has been kept constant (C₈) while the number of methylene units in the central spacer was varied from C₃ to C₁₁. Another aim of the present investigation was to understand structure-property relationship in these dimers in which the salicylaldimine mesogenic segment has been used for the first time in dimers. The mesomorphic behaviour of these dimers was evaluated using optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry and the structure of some of the mesophases has been further investigated with the help of X-ray diffraction. Our studies reveal that the dimers consisting of 3 to 8 methylene units in the flexible spacer show only smectic (smectic C and smectic A) phases. For the dimers containing 4, 6 and 8 methylene units in the central spacer, a unique filament growth pattern has been observed in the smectic A phase while cooling from the isotropic phase. The dimers containing of C₉ to C₁₁ methylene groups exhibit the nematic phase in addition to smectic modifications. This observation indicates that when the terminal chains are shorter than the spacer, the tendency to form smectic phases is not fully extinguished but is perhaps reduced.     

On the weakened Siegel’s conjecture

In the paper, we prove that two definitions of E-functions present in mathematics are equivalent if E-functions satisfy second-order linear differential equations. For this set of functions, a weakened variant of the well-known Siegel conjecture about representability of any E-function by a polynomial of hypergeometric functions is also proved. __________ Translated from Fundamentalnaya i Prikladnaya Matematika, Vol. 11, No. 6, pp. 33–39, 2005.     

Trends in sorption preconcentration combined with noble metal determination.

Nowadays much attention is being paid to the determination of trace amounts of noble metals in geological, industrial, biological and environmental samples. The most promising techniques, such as inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) are characterized by high sensitivity. However, the accurate determination of trace noble metals has been limited by numerous interferences generated from the presence of matrix elements. To decrease, or eliminate, these interferences, the sorption preconcentration of noble metals is often used prior to their instrumental detection. A great number of hyphenated methods of noble metal determination using sorption preconcentration have been developed. This review describes the basic types of available sorbents, preconcentration procedures and preparations of the sorbent to the subsequent determination of noble metals. The specific features of instrumental techniques and examples of ETAAS, FAAS, ICP-AES, ICP-MS determinations after the sorption preconcentration of noble metals are considered. The references cited here were selected mostly from the period 1996 - 2006.     

Integration of differential forms on manifolds with locally-finite variations. II

In part I of the paper, we have defined n-dimensional C⁰-manifolds in ℝⁿ(m ≥ n) with locally-finite n-dimensional variations (a generalization of locally-rectifiable curves to dimensionn > 1) and integration of measurable differential n-forms over such manifolds. The main result of part II states that an n-dimensional manifold that is C¹-embedded into ℝ^m has locally-finite variations and the integral of a measurable differential n-form defined in part I can be calculated by the well-known formula. Bibliography: 5 titles. __________ Translated from Zapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov POMI, Vol. 333, 2006, pp. 66–85.     

Algorithms of motion planning for a six-legged walking machine

This paper investigates algorithms of motion planning for a six-legged walking machine over complex terrain. Application of the Rodrigues-Hamilton parameters for describing the orientation of the body enables one to develop algorithms of motion planning for the body and legs in an absolute coordinate frame with automatic adaptation to the surface. Experiments with a laboratory scale walking machine have demonstrated the efficiency of proposed algorithms. __________ Translated from Fundamentalnaya i Prikladnaya Matematika, Vol. 11, No. 7, pp. 197–206, 2005.     

Differentiation of species of the Baccharis genus by HPLC and chemometric methods.

Phytochemical investigation of the aerial parts of three Baccharis species (Asteraceae family) was performed using HPLC and chemometric methods, with the objective of distinguishing between three morphologically very similar species: Baccharis genistelloides Persoon var. trimera (Less.) DC, B. milleflora (Less.) DC and B. articulata (Lam.) Persoon. With the help of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and variance weights, it was possible to characterize the chromatographic profiles of the alcoholic extracts of the three species. Application of Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) methods on a training set of 74 extracts resulted in models that correctly classified all eight samples in an independent test set.