Electrochemical reduction of 1-([(4-halophenyl)imino]methyl)-2-naphthols in aprotic media.

The electrochemical reduction of 1-([(4-halophenyl)imino]methyl)-2-naphthols on graphite electrodes was studied using cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, constant-potential coulometry and preparative constant-potential electrolysis techniques. The data revealed that the reduction on graphite was irreversible and followed an EC mechanism. The diffusion coefficients and the number of electrons transferred were determined using the chronoamperometric Cottrell slope and the ultramicro disc Pt-electrode steady-state current. The number of electrons was also determined by bulk electrolysis. The compounds were subjected to constant-potential preparative electrolysis and the electrolysis products were purified and identified by spectroscopic methods. Based on these findings, a mechanism for the electro-reduction process is proposed.     

Mutation detection in the drug-resistant hepatitis B virus polymerase gene using nanostructured reverse micelles.

The emergence of drug-resistant hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been reported in patients with prolonged administration of lamivudine, which is a potent drug for the prevention of HBV infection. Lamivudine-resistant HBV has several types of mutations at the YMDD motif of its DNA polymerase. We successfully demonstrated that monitoring the hybridization behavior in nanostructured reverse micelles enables us to detect single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). With the aid of reverse micelles, a model 40-mer oligonucleotide containing a single-base substitution was clearly distinguished from the normal, complementary oligonucleotide. In addition, we extended this technique to a high-throughput analysis. The results obtained with a 96-well micro-plate reader indicated the possibility of SNPs detection toward multiple samples of patients.     

Electrospinning of ultrafine cellulose acetate fibers: Studies of a new solvent system and deacetylation of ultrafine cellulose acetate fibers

Electrospinning of cellulose acetate (CA) in a new solvent system and the deacetylation of the resulting ultrafine CA fibers were investigated. Ultrafine CA fibers (∼2.3 μm) were successfully prepared via electrospinning of CA in a mixed solvent of acetone/water at water contents of 10–15 wt %, and more ultrafine CA fibers (0.46 μm) were produced under basic pH conditions. Ultrafine cellulose fibers were regenerated from the homogeneous deacetylation of ultrafine CA fibers in KOH/ethanol. It was very rapid and completed within 20 min. The crystal structure, thermal properties, and morphology of ultrafine CA fibers were changed according to the degree of deacetylation, finally to those of pure cellulose, but the nonwoven fibrous mat structure was maintained. The activation energy for the deacetylation of ultrafine CA fibers was 10.3 kcal/mol. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 5–11, 2004     

Synthesis of paramagnetic BODIPY dyes as new double (spin and fluorescence) sensors

Paramagnetic pyrroline and 1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine derivatives of BODIPY and their diamagnetic analogs have been synthesized and characterized as novel redox double sensor and cation sensitive reagents.     

A real algorithm for the Hermitian eigenvalue decomposition

Modifying complex plane rotations, we derive a new Jacobi-type algorithm for the Hermitian eigendecomposition, which uses only real arithmetic. When the fast-scaled rotations are incorporated, the new algorithm brings a substantial reduction in computational costs. The new method has the same convergence properties and parallelism as the symmetric Jacobi algorithm. Computational test results show that it produces accurate eigenvalues and eigenvectors and achieves great reduction in computational time.The work of this author was supported in part by the National Science Foundation grant CCR-8813493 and by the University of Minnesota Army High Performance Computing Research Center contract DAAL 03-89-C-0038.The work of this author was supported in part by the University of Minnesota Army High Performance Computing Research Center contract DAAL 03-89-C-0038.     

Periodic solutions of second-order differential inclusions systems with p-Laplacian

Some existence results are obtained for periodic solutions of nonautonomous second-order differential inclusions systems with p-Laplacian.     

Cellulose dimethylphenylcarbamate-bonded carbon-clad zirconia for chiral separation in high performance liquid chromatography.

Porous zirconia particles are very robust material and have received considerable attention as a stationary phase support for HPLC. We prepared cellulose dimethylphenylcarbamate-bonded carbon-clad zirconia (CDMPCCZ) as a chiral stationary phase (CSP) for separation of enantiomers of a set of 14 racemic compounds in normal phase (NP) and reversed-phase (RP) liquid chromatography. Retention and enantioselectivity on CDMPCCZ were compared to those on CDMPC-coated zirconia (CDMPCZ) to see how the change in immobilization method of the chiral selector affects the retention and chiral selectivity. In NPLC, retention was longer and the number of resolved racemates was smaller on CDMPCCZ than on CDMPCZ. However, chiral selectivity factors for some resolved racemates were better on CDMPCCZ than on CDMPCZ. The longer retention on CDMPCCZ is likely due to strong, non-chiral discriminating interactions with the carbon layer on CDMPCZ. In RPLC only two racemates were resolved on CDMPCCZ, but retention times were shorter than, and resolutions were comparable to, those in NPLC, indicating a potential for improving chromatographic performance of the CDMPCCZ column in RPLC with optimized column preparation and separation conditions.     

Experimental identification of physical parameters of fluid-filled pipes using acoustical signal processing

A method is formulated for the identification of an unknown physical parameter of a fluid-filled pipe using the measurement of sound speed in the pipe. The method uses a simple formula which provides the relationship between the sound speed and a few physical parameters of the pipe: thickness, diameter, wall material constants and fluid constants. Once the sound speed in the pipe is measured, the simple formula can be used to extract one of the unknown parameters providing the remaining ones are known.The sound speed in the pipe is measured using a 3-transducer array. In order to demonstrate the potential of the technique the results of several measurements obtained in a water-filled steel pipe are presented.The required accuracy of the measurement of sound speed and of the specification of known parameters is analysed. The accuracy depends on the unknown parameter which is to be identified. For example, if the pipe thickness is the unknown parameter, the other parameters have to be known within a very narrow margin of error. On the contrary, if the fluid properties have to be identified the needed accuracy of known parameters gets much lower.     

On-line arbitrarily vertex decomposable trees

A tree T is arbitrarily vertex decomposable if for any sequence τ of positive integers adding up to the order of T there is a sequence of vertex-disjoint subtrees of T whose orders are given by τ. An on-line version of the problem of characterizing arbitrarily vertex decomposable trees is completely solved here.     

Synchronization of Genesio chaotic system via backstepping approach

Backstepping design is proposed for synchronization of Genesio chaotic system. Firstly, the control problem for the chaos synchronization of nominal Genesio systems without unknown parameters is considered. Next, an adaptive backstepping control law is derived to make the error signals between drive Genesio system and response Genesio system with an uncertain parameter asymptotically synchronized. Finally, the approach is extended to the synchronization problem for the system with three unknown parameters. The stability analysis in this article is proved by using a well-known Lyapunov stability theorem. Note that the approach provided here needs only a single controller to realize the synchronization. Two numerical simulations are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed chaos synchronization scheme.