Novel liquid crystals based on [1]benzothieno[3,2- b ][1]benzothiophene

Four series of new [1]benzothieno[3,2- b ][1]benzothiophene derivatives have been synthesized. In the non-chiral series a SmA phase occurs, while the chiral series exhibits a rather wide antiferroelectric SmC * A phase just below the SmA phase. The SmA-SmC * A phase transition has been studied using DSC and dielectric spectroscopy. In the SmC * A phase the spontaneous quantities have been measured. The tilt angle shows a typical temperature dependence and the values of spontaneous polarization are rather moderate. The length of the helical pitch increases on increasing the length of the non-chiral alkyl chain.     

Analytic solutions of the Schrödinger equation for the modified quartic oscillator

No analytic solutions of the Schrödinger equation are known for the quartic anharmonic oscillator. We show in this paper that there are closely related modified quartic oscillators with the potential depending on |x| for which analytic solutions for some states exist. These results can be extended to the higher order oscillators     

Molecular dynamics simulations of the oligonucleotide with the modified phosphate/phosphonate internucleotide linkage

Impact of the internucleotide linkage modification by inserting a methylene group to the P-O bond (—O—PO ₂ ^— —O— chain changed for —O—PO ₂ ^— —CH₂—O—), on the modified oligonucleotide binding ability to the natural DNA strand was studied by molecular dynamics simulation. Complex of (dT)₁₁ with a deoxyadenosine undecamer containing alternating modified and natural internucleotide linkage was studied as a model system. The Amber force field was completed by a set of new parameters needed to model the modified part of the nucleotide. The simulations confirmed existence of a double-helical complex the melting point of which is considerably higher than 300 K. While the thymidine (unmodified) strand possesses a B-type secondary structure, the conformation of the adenosine (modified) strand is not stable at 300 K. The -ggt conformation of the modified linkages is highly preferred, temporary jumps to the -g-gt and ggt conformations were, however, observed.     

XPS and XAES study of the interaction of palladium and copper overlayers with fullerene films

X-ray photoelectron and Auger spectroscopies were used to examine surface bonding and overlayer growth during palladium and copper deposition onto films of fullerene, C₆₀ The results were consistent with metal cluster formation on C₆₀. The observed positive core electron binding energy shifts in small metallic clusters supported on C₆₀ were shown to originate in metal-fullerene interaction accompanied by charge transfer. Palladium-fullerene intermixing at temperatures as low as ss 50°C was observed for small Pd coverages.     

The magnetic entropy changes in Gd1−xBx alloys

A series of Gd_(1−x)B_x alloys have been prepared by arc melting method. After introducing small quantity of B atom in Gd, the Curie temperature of these alloys increase while the magnetic entropy changes are almost same as that of Gd. The refrigerant capacities of these alloys are also greater than that of Gd. These results suggest that Gd_(1−x)B_x alloys may be utilized as refrigerant in household magnetic refrigeration.     

Quantification of trace elements in human serum fractions by liquid chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

On‐line coupling of LC and ICP‐MS has been used for fractionation and detection of species of Cu, Fe, I, Se and Zn in human serum. It has been shown that anion exchange chromatography provided better separation capability (both intra‐ and inter‐element) than size‐exclusion chromatography. The mobile phases for ion exchange chromatography consisted of Tris–HNO₃ buffer and ammonium salt (nitrate, acetate or formate). Formate was found to be the best mobile phase counter ion, enabling good chromatographic separation, and is acceptable for mass spectrometry too. The quantitative evaluation of element concentrations adhering to individual fractions was performed by the peak area normalization method. The repeatability of results ranged from 3 to 15% (depending on the element concentration level) and represented the main part of the result uncertainty. The accuracy of Cu and Zn fraction determinations was confirmed by comparison with the isotope dilution technique. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lower bounds for weak Byzantine agreement

Lower bounds for Byzantine agreement obtained by Dolev and Strong are shown, by a simpler method, also to be true for weak Byzantine agreement.This work was done while the author was studying at University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1984.     

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.     

Improving Construction for Connected Dominating Set with Steiner Tree in Wireless Sensor Networks

The connected dominating set plays an important role in ad hoc wireless networking. Many constructions for approximating the minimum connected dominating set have been proposed in the literature. In this paper, we propose a new one with Steiner tree, which produces approximation solution within a factor of 6.8 from optimal. This approximation algorithm can also be implemented distributedly.