Uptake and excretion of total inorganic arsenic by the freshwater alga Chlorella vulgaris

Arsenic-tolerant freshwater alga Chlorella vulgaris which had been collected from an arsenicpolluted environment were tested for uptake and excretion of inorganic arsenic. Approximately half the quantity of arsenic taken up by C. vulgaris was estimated to be adhered to the extraneous coat (10 wt %) of the cell. The remainder was bioaccumulated by the cell. Both adhered and accumulated arsenic concentrations increased with an increase in arsenic(V) concentration of the aqueous phase. Arsenic(V) accumulation was affected by the growth phse: arsenic was most actively accumulated when the cell was exposed to arsenic during the early exponential phase and then accumulation decreased with an increase in culture time exposed to arsenic. The alga grew well in the modified Detmer (MD) medium containing 1 mg As(III) dm^?3 and the growth curve was approximated by a ‘logistic equation’. Arsenic(III) was accumulated up to the second day of the culture time and arsenic(III) accumulation decreased with an increase in the culture time after that. Arsenic accumulation was also largely affected by various nutrients, especially by managanese, iron and phosphorus compounds. A modified MD medium with the three nutrients was proposed for the purpose of effective removal of arsenic from the aqueous phase. Using radioactive arsenate (Na₂H⁷⁴AsO₄), the arsenic accumulated was found to be readily excreted under conditions which were unfavourable for the multiplication of C. vulgaris.     

Hamiltonian formulation of energy conservative variational equations by wavelet expansion

Hamiltonian formulation of various energy conservative evolution equations is given by means of wavelet expansion of solutions on the whole real axis R. The KdV equation, wave equations and Schrödinger equations are treated in a unified similar manner. A matrix representation of operators with respect to a nice wavelet base plays an important role in the formulation. Since the procedure is very concrete, our results can be used to efficiently compute numerical solutions of partial differential equations described in the text. In fact, we may also use symplectic schemes to solve derived Hamiltonian systems.     

A new method for the synthesis of 1,3-oxathiolan-2-ones by the reaction of epoxides with sulfur and carbon monoxide

The convenient method for the synthesis of 1,3-oxathiolan-2-ones by the reaction of epoxides with elemental sulfur and carbon monoxide in the presence of catalytic amount of sodium hydride has been developed.     

Influence of moisture on the viscoelastic relaxations in long aliphatic chain contained semiaromatic polyamide, (PA9‐T) fiber

The effect of moisture on the mechanical relaxation processes of semiaromatic semicrystalline polyamides synthesized by a long‐chain aliphatic diamine and terephthalic acid was investigated by dynamic viscoelastic analysis (DVA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Moreover, the implication of moisture with the amorphous and crystalline domains was also examined by temperature‐dependent wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectra. The characteristics of the relaxations such as α, β, γ, and the pronounced peak shoulder appeared at 25–100 °C in DVA tan δ curves were found to be strongly susceptible to the presence of moisture. With moisture evaporation, the peak shoulder of 25–100 °C and the β‐relaxation disappeared. The former is anticipated to originate from to the side group motion of hydrogen‐bonded water, whereas the later one is from the motions of the amide–water complex units. With the disappearance of the β‐relaxation, the γ‐relaxation appeared simultaneously in much lower temperatures and ultimately coupled with the δ‐relaxation. The γ‐relaxation is attributed to be associated with the molecular motion of the amide group and δ‐relaxation with for the motion of the methylene units. The existence of two types of water was identified in the polymer, namely, tightly bound and loosely bound. The tightly bound water is believed to be directly connected by hydrogen bonding with the strong polar groups and the loosely bound water weakly links with those connected water making hydrogen bridges. The moisture acts as a plasticizer in the polymer matrix, which causes quite a large depression in its glass transition temperature (T_g). WAXD and FTIR studies corroborated the existence of water solely in amorphous regions, i.e., no rapport of water with the crystalline parts. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 2878–2891, 2003     

Synthesis of well‐defined syndiotactic poly(methyl methacrylate) with low‐temperature atom transfer radical polymerization in fluoroalcohol

The copper‐mediated atom transfer radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in 1,1,1,3,3,3‐hexafluoro‐2‐propanol (HFIP) was studied to simultaneously control the molecular weight and tacticity. The polymerization using tris[2‐(dimethylamino)ethyl]amine (Me₆TREN) as a ligand was performed even at ?78°C with a number‐average molecular weight (M_n) of 13,400 and a polydispersity (weight‐average molecular weight/number‐average molecular weight) of 1.31, although the measured M_n's were much higher than the theoretical ones. The addition of copper(II) bromide (CuBr₂) apparently affected the early stage of the polymerization; that is, the polymerization could proceed in a controlled manner under the condition of [MMA]₀/[methyl α‐bromoisobutyrate]₀/[CuBr]₀/[CuBr₂]₀/[Me₆TREN]₀ = 200/1/1/0.2/1.2 at ?20°C with an MMA/HFIP ratio of 1/4 (v/v). For the field desorption mass spectrum of Cu^IBr/Me₆TREN in HFIP, there were [Cu(Me₆TREN)Br]⁺ and [Cu(Me₆TREN)OCH(CF₃)₂]⁺, indicating that HFIP should coordinate to the Cu^I/Me₆TREN complex. The syndiotacticity of the obtained poly(methyl methacrylate)s increased with the decreasing polymerization temperature; the racemo content was 84% for ?78°C, 77% for ?30°C, 75% for ?20°C, and 63% for 30°C. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 1436–1446, 2006     

Thermal properties and fracture toughness of a liquid‐crystalline epoxy resin cured with an aromatic diamine crosslinker having a mesogenic group

A mesogenic‐type curing agent was synthesized to introduce a mesogenic group not only into epoxy resin backbones but also into the crosslink units. In the mesogenic curing agent system, the domain size became larger, and the network arrangement in each domain existed to a greater extent than that in a system cured with the ordinary diamine curing system according to the evidence from polarized optical micrographs and polarized Fourier transform infrared mapping measurements. Moreover, the fracture toughness of the system was considerably improved. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 2486–2494, 2006     

Investigation of the drying conditions for amidosulfuric acid.

The drying conditions for primary standards of volumetric analysis have a significant effect on the titration results due to changes in the purity, stability and homogeneity. Amidosulfuric acid, a strong acid used as a reference material for volumetric analysis in Japan, was dried in a vacuum desiccator or heated at different temperatures, and then measured by Karl-Fischer titration, thermogravimetry/mass spectroscopy (TG-MS), ion chromatography and coulometric titration. The optimum drying conditions were at 50 degrees C for 24 h with crushing.     

Microlocal study of topological Radon transforms and real projective duality

Various topological properties of projective duality between real projective varieties and their duals are obtained by making use of the microlocal theory of (subanalytically) constructible sheaves developed by Kashiwara [M. Kashiwara, Index theorem for constructible sheaves, Astérisque 130 (1985) 193-209] and Kashiwara-Schapira [M. Kashiwara, P. Schapira, Sheaves on Manifolds, Grundlehren Math. Wiss., vol. 292, Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, 1990]. In particular, we prove in the real setting some results similar to the ones proved by Ernström in the complex case [L. Ernström, Topological Radon transforms and the local Euler obstruction, Duke Math. J. 76 (1994) 1-21]. For this purpose, we describe the characteristic cycles of topological Radon transforms of constructible functions in terms of curvatures of strata in real projective spaces.