Pyrolysis-GC-MS reveals important differences in hydrolytic degradation process of wood flour and rice bran filled polylactide composites

Pyrolysis-GC-MS of polylactide (PLA) biocomposites before and after hydrolytic degradation revealed prominent differences in the hydrolytic degradation process of rice bran and wood flour filled biocomposites. The water uptake and mass loss for polylactide/wood flour composites were similar to that of plain PLA. Pyrolysis-GC-MS, however, showed that on prolonged ageing the hydrolysis of PLA led to increased wood flour concentration in the remaining biocomposite matrices. In contrast, the polylactide/rice bran composites exhibited larger water uptake and higher mass loss. Pyrolysis-GC-MS and FTIR analysis proved that the higher mass loss was caused by migration of rice bran from the composites. The type of natural filler could thus greatly influence the degradation process and/or the stability of the materials in aqueous or humid environments.     

Perceptually informed synthesis of bandlimited classical waveforms using integrated polynomial interpolation

Digital subtractive synthesis is a popular music synthesis method, which requires oscillators that are aliasing-free in a perceptual sense. It is a research challenge to find computationally efficient waveform generation algorithms that produce similar-sounding signals to analog music synthesizers but which are free from audible aliasing. A technique for approximately bandlimited waveform generation is considered that is based on a polynomial correction function, which is defined as the difference of a non-bandlimited step function and a polynomial approximation of the ideal bandlimited step function. It is shown that the ideal bandlimited step function is equivalent to the sine integral, and that integrated polynomial interpolation methods can successfully approximate it. Integrated Lagrange interpolation and B-spline basis functions are considered for polynomial approximation. The polynomial correction function can be added onto samples around each discontinuity in a non-bandlimited waveform to suppress aliasing. Comparison against previously known methods shows that the proposed technique yields the best tradeoff between computational cost and sound quality. The superior method amongst those considered in this study is the integrated third-order B-spline correction function, which offers perceptually aliasing-free sawtooth emulation up to the fundamental frequency of 7.8 kHz at the sample rate of 44.1 kHz.     

Binding properties of HABA-type azo derivatives to avidin and avidin-related protein 4

The chicken genome encodes several biotin-binding proteins, including avidin and avidin-related protein 4 (AVR4). In addition to D-biotin, avidin binds an azo dye compound, 4-hydroxyazobenzene-2-carboxylic acid (HABA), but the HABA-binding properties of AVR4 are not yet known. Differential scanning calorimetry, UV/visible spectroscopy, and molecular modeling were used to analyze the binding of 15 azo molecules to avidin and AVR4. Significant differences are seen in azo compound preferences for the two proteins, emphasizing the importance of the loop between strands beta3 and beta4 for azo ligand recognition; information on these loops is provided by the high-resolution (1.5 A) X-ray structure for avidin reported here. These results may be valuable in designing improved tools for avidin-based life science and nanobiotechnology applications.     

Modular equations and distortion functions

Modular equations occur in number theory, but it is less known that such equations also occur in the study of deformation properties of quasiconformal mappings. The authors study two important plane quasiconformal distortion functions, obtaining monotonicity and convexity properties, and finding sharp bounds for them. Applications are provided that relate to the quasiconformal Schwarz Lemma and to Schottky’s Theorem. These results also yield new bounds for singular values of complete elliptic integrals.      

An expedient synthesis of spiroketals: model studies for the calyculin C16-C25 fragment

A new short strategy to prepare the spiroketal fragment of calyculins is presented. A novel Seyferth-Gilbert type homologation of hindered lactols to the corresponding alkynes has been achieved for the first time. The spirocyclization was achieved efficiently via a DIHMA (double intramolecular hetero-Michael addition) process of this hindered ynone. The spirocyclization rate is not dependent on the stereochemistry of the alkoxy substituent in the oxolane ring.     

On Belinskii conformality in countable sets of points

The local behavior of plane quasiconformal mappings is investigated. In particular, generalizing the well-known Reich-Walczak problem, we study the possibility for a quasiconformal mapping to be conformal in the sense of Belinskii at a prescribed point or in a prescribed set of points when the modulus of the complex dilatation is a fixed measurable function. The notion of the Belinskii conformality is related to the conception of asymptotical rotations by Brakalova and Jenkins.

     

Stable Isotopically-Enriched D-Glucose: Strategies to Introduce Carbon,Hydrogen and Oxygen Isotopes at Various Sites

INTRODUCTION

For many years stable isotopes were confined to the chemical laboratory, where they were used primarily to study reaction rates,¹ reaction mechanisms,² and molecular conformation.^3,4 Recently, stable isotopically-enriched molecules have been playing increasing roles in biochemical studies, particularly as probes of in vitro biological metabolism^5,6 and of biomacromolecular structure.^7,8 These modern applications have been stimulated, in large part, by dramatic technical developments in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy⁹ and mass spectrometry (MS).¹⁰ Very-high field multinuclear high-resolution NMR in one-, two- and three- dimensions,^11,12 and various volume-selective forms of NMR derived from topical magnetic resonance (TMR) spectroscopy,¹³ have become important analytical methods in the study of biological phenomena. TMR and related techniques such as ISIS (Image Selected In-Vivo Spectroscopy)¹⁴ and Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy (SPARS)¹⁵ are particularly attractive, as they permit high-resolution, volume-specific observations essential to non-invasive metabolic studies of intact organs and organisms. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)¹⁶ is now a standard clinical tool for non-invasive diagnosis of disease, especially cancer, in humans. Clinical MRI is confined currently to the observation of water protons in cells, but will likely become multinuclear (e.g., ⁷Li, ¹⁹F, ²³Na, ³¹P, ¹³C) in the future.¹⁷     

Estimates for conformal capacity

Let a,b,c,d be distinct points on \overline \bf R ⁿ . By p we denote the minimal conformal capacity of all rings (E,F) with a,b ∈ E and c,d∈ F . For n=2 , we use explicit expressions of p in terms of complete elliptic integrals to prove a sharp inequality that connects p and the conformal capacity of Teichmüller's ring. We also show, by a concrete example, how we can use techniques involving polarization and hyperbolic geometry to prove estimates for the conformal capacity of rings. November 16, 1998. Date revised: March 2, 1999. Date accepted: May 7, 1999.     

Lipschitz classes and the Hardy-Littlewood property

We study the geometry of plane domains and the uniform Hölder continuity properties of analytic functions.With 1 Figure     

Elliott's identity and hypergeometric functions

Elliott's identity involving the Gaussian hypergeometric series contains, as a special case, the classical Legendre identity for complete elliptic integrals. The aim of this paper is to derive a differentiation formula for an expression involving the Gaussian hypergeometric series, which, for appropriate values of the parameters, implies Elliott's identity and which also leads to concavity/convexity properties of certain related functions. We also show that Elliott's identity is equivalent to a formula of Ramanujan on the differentiation of quotients of hypergeometric functions. Applying these results we obtain a number of identities associated with the Legendre functions of the first and the second kinds, respectively.