Investigation of phase coupling phenomena in sustained portion of musical instruments sound

This work investigates aperiodicities that occur in the sustained portion of a sound of musical instrument played by a human player, due to synchronous versus asynchronous deviations of the partial phases. By using an additive sinusoidal analysis, phases of individual partials are precisely extracted and their correlation statistics and coupling effects are analyzed. It is shown that various musical instruments exhibit different phase coupling characteristics. The effect of phase coupling is compared to analysis by means of higher order statistics and it is shown that both methods are closely mathematically related. Following a detailed analysis of phase coupling for various musical instruments it is suggested that phase coupling is an important characteristic of a sustained portion of sound of individual musical instruments, and possibly even of instrumental families. Interesting differences in phase deviations where found for the flute, trumpet and cello. For the cello, the effect of vibrato is examined by comparing the analysis of a closed string sound played with a natural vibrato to analysis of an open string sound that contains no vibrato. Following, a possible model for phase deviations in the cello is presented and a simulation of phase fluctuations for this model is performed.     

Photostabilization of an entomopathogenic fungus using composite clay matrices

To provide photostabilization for entomopathogenic fungi by anionic dyes, composite matrices based on clay-biopolymer combinations were prepared. In the first step, the negative surface charge of various clays (montmorillonite, attapulgite, bentonite and kaolinite) was reversed to positive by adsorption to the polycationic biopolymer chitosan. The second step involved adsorption of the toxicologically safe anionic dyes fast green (FG) and naphthol yellow S (NYS) to the clay complexes. Compared with cytotoxic photoprotectants like berberine, palmatine and acriflavine, the anionic dyes have no adverse effects up to a concentration of 1 M. In assays using various clay-chitosan-dye matrices and UV irradiation from a lamp source, it was evident that both FG and NYS provided considerable photostabilization for conidia of the entomopathogenic fungus Aschersonia spp. that served as a model biocontrol agent. Apparently, because of the light-dispersing property, bentonite and attapulgite per se provided significant photoprotection. All clay matrices containing FG provided a substantial photostabilization effect.     

Photochromism of side-chain liquid crystal polymers containing spironaphthoxazines

Side-chain liquid crystal polyacrylates and polysiloxanes containing different photochromic spironaphthoxazine side groups were synthesized. Thermodynamic, spectral and kinetic properties of the polymers were investigated. The structure of the mesophase is discussed.     

Specific hemoperfusion through agarose acrobeads

Agarose acrobeads were produced by encapsulating polyacrolein microspheres (acrobeads) of 0.2 μm average diameter within an agarose matrix. Crosslinked agarose acrobeads of diameters ranging from 0.5 to 0.8 mm were found to be optimal spheres for specific hemoperfusion purposes. Agarose provides the biocompatibility and mechanical strength of the agarose acrobeads. Acrobeads contain a high aldehyde-group content through which various amino ligands, i.e., proteins, antigens, antibodies, enzymes, and so on, can be covalently bound in a single step under physiological pH (or other pH). Thus, antibodies, antigens, or toxic materials may be directly removed from whole blood by hemoperfusion. During in vitro and in vivo hemoperfusion trials, the content of erythrocytes, leukocytes, and thrombocytes was essentially unaltered. Likewise, a battery of the soluble blood components (Cl^-, K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, PO ₄ ^- ), total proteins, albumin, and C ₄ ^′ component of the complement cascade, as well as the enzymes SGOT, LDH, and alkaline phosphatase, remained constant within narrow limits during the hemoperfusion procedure. The chemical and physical structure of the beads is stable; neither acrolein nor bead fragments were detected in hemoperfusion trials. Similarly, leakage of antibody bound to the agarose acrobeads into the blood is insignificant. Thus far, we have demonstrated the efficacy of the crosslinked agarose acrobeads for extracorporeal removal of “unwanted” substances from whole blood in the following systems: (a) removal of specific antigens (digoxin or paraquat removal with antidigoxin or antiparaquat antibodies bound to the acrobeads, respectively), (b) removal of specific antibody (antiBSA) removal with BSA bound to the beads), (c) removal of immune complexes (BSA-antiBSA complex removal with C1q bound to acrobeads), and (d) removal of specific metals (removal of iron with deferoxamine bound to the agarose acrobeads).     

The solid-state structure of (+)-(i)-menthyl 2-formamido-4, 4,4-trifluorobutanoate and the hydrogenation of the 2-butenoate precursor

Hydrogenation ofZ-(–)-(1R, 3R, 4S)-menthyl 2-formamido-4,4,4-trifluoro-2-butenoate catalyzed by Pd/C was performed at atmospheric pressure to yield a mixture of (2R, 1R, 3R, 4S)- and (2S, 1R, 3R, 4S)-menthyl 2-formamido-4,4,4-trifluorobutanoate diastereomers in a 5545 ratio, respectively. Repeated fractional crystallization from ethyl acetate and vapor diffusion of petroleum ether afforded (+)–(2S, 1R, 3R, 4S)-menthyl 2-formamido-4,4,4-trifluorobutanoate as clear colorless, crystalline prisms which were subjected to single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The crystals belong to the orthorhombic system P2₁2₁2₁, and at 213 K:a=5.054(1),b= 10.000(2),c=32.707(1) Å,V=1652.9(4) ų,Z=4,R(F)=0.040, andR _w (F)=0.037. The finding of the (2S)-configuration for the formamido-acid portion of the (+)-ester enabled the configurational assignment of the asymmetric hydrogenation products ofZ-methyl 2-formamido-4, 4,4-trifluoro-2-butenoate catalyzed by chiral diphosphine/rhodium(I) complexes.     

Perturbation theories and wave functions for calculation of electronic polarizabilities application to DNA bases

Three different forms of perturbation theories, variational perturbation, finite perturbation and second-order, are evaluated regarding their value for calculation of electronic polarizabilities of small and intermediate size molecules. It is concluded that with the practical constraint of a small basis set the variational perturbation method is the most promising alternative for calculation of polarizabilities. For several small molecules, our calculated polarizabilities indicate that both IEHT and ab initio wave functions give values in close agreement with each other. Variational perturbation calculations of polarizabilities with IEHT wave functions also include the DNA bases.     

Alpha-trifluoromethylation of secondary and sterically hindered carboxylates with use of BrF3

Secondary esters and those with sterical hindrance at the beta carbon were reacted with base, carbon disulfide, and methyl iodide to produce methyl 2-carboalkoxydithioalkenoate (2). These compounds were reacted with BrF(3), forming the corresponding alpha-trifluoromethyl esters (3) along with 1,1-difluoro-2-trifluoromethyl-2-alkyl ethers (4). The products of type 4 have been transformed to derivatives of type 3, thus raising the overall yields of the target respective alpha-trifluoromethyl esters to 65-80%. The reaction is tolerant to different functional groups such as halogens, protected alcohols, esters, and lactones.     

Synthesis and characterization of new radiopaque microspheres by the dispersion polymerization of an iodinated acrylate monomer for X‐ray imaging applications

Radiopaque microspheres of sizes ranging from 0.2 to 1.4 μm were formed by the dispersion polymerization of the monomer 2‐methacryloyloxyethyl(2,3,5‐triiodobenzoate) in 2‐methoxyethanol. The effects of various polymerization parameters, including the monomer concentration, initiator type and concentration, and stabilizer molecular weight and concentration, on the molecular weight, size, and size distribution of the particles were elucidated. The characterization of these iodinated microspheres was accomplished with routine methods such as Fourier transform infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, gel permeation chromatography, scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller measurements, and elemental analysis. Because of the presence of iodine atoms in these microspheres, they were expected to possess a radiopaque nature. The radiopacity of these particles dispersed in water and in the dry state was demonstrated with an imaging technique based on X‐ray absorption usually used in hospitals. These novel radiopaque microspheres may be used for different X‐ray imaging needs, such as blood pooling, body organs, embolization, dental compositions, implants, prostheses, and nanocomposites. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 3859–3868, 2006     

Synthesis of 1,10-N,N'-phenanthroline dioxides using HOF.CH(3)CN complex

[reaction: see text] HOF.CH(3)CN, a very efficient oxygen-transfer agent, made readily from F(2), H(2)O, and CH(3)CN, was reacted with various 1,10-phenanthroline derivatives to form the corresponding N,N'-dioxides in good yields and short reaction times.     

Scale-free networks are ultrasmall

We study the diameter, or the mean distance between sites, in a scale-free network, having N sites and degree distribution p(k) proportional, variant k(-lambda), i.e., the probability of having k links outgoing from a site. In contrast to the diameter of regular random networks or small-world networks, which is known to be d approximately ln(N, we show, using analytical arguments, that scale-free networks with 23, d approximately ln(N. We also show that, for any lambda>2, one can construct a deterministic scale-free network with d approximately ln(ln(N, which is the lowest possible diameter.