Matrix Isolation Infrared Spectra of Methylacetate III. UV-Induced Z→E photorotamerisation of Methylacetate in Argon Matrices

Abstract

Broadband UV-irradiation of methylacetate isolated in argon matrices causes rather strong modifications to appear in the IR spectrum. Evidence was obtained for a photochemical interconversion of the stable Z-conformer into the less stable E-conformer followed by photolytic decomposition of the latter into stable products. Most of these products could be identified from their IR absorptions. The reverse E→Z interconversion is a thermal process with an activation energy of about 10 kJmole^?1. A normal coordinate analysis based on a transferable valence force field obtained from the literature allowed to assign approximate IR frequencies of E-methylacetate.     

Inactivation of foodborne pathogens based on synergistic effects of ultrasound and natural compounds during fresh produce washing

Ultrasound has potential to be used for disinfection, and its antimicrobial effectiveness can be enhanced in presence of natural compounds. In this study, we compared the antimicrobial effects of ultrasound at 20 kHz (US 20 kHz) or 1 MHz (US 1 MHz) in combination with carvacrol, citral, cinnamic acid, geraniol, gallic acid, lactic acid, or limonene against E. coli K12 and Listeria innocua at a constant power density in water. Compared to the cumulative effect of the individual treatments, the combined treatment of US 1 MHz and 10 mM citral generated >1.5 log CFU/mL additional inactivation of E. coli K12. Similarly, combined treatments of US 1 MHz and 2 mM carvacrol (30 min), US 20 kHz and 2 mM carvacrol, 10 mM citral, or 5 mM geraniol (15 min) generated >0.5–2.0 log CFU/mL additional inactivation in L. innocua. The synergistic effect of citral, as a presentative compound, and US 20 kHz treatment was determined to be a result of enhanced dispersion of insoluble citral droplets in combination with physical impact on bacterial membrane structures, whereas the inactivation by US 1 MHz was likely due to generation of oxidative stress within the bacteria. Combined ultrasound and citral treatments improved the bacterial inactivation in simulated wash water in presence of organic matter or during washing of inoculated blueberries but only additive antimicrobial effects were observed. Findings in this study will be useful to enhance fresh produce safety and shelf-life and design other alternative ultrasound based sanitation processes.     

A comparison of numerical and analytical radiative-transfer solutions for plane albedo of natural waters

Several numerical and analytical solutions of the radiative transfer equation (RTE) were compared for plane albedo in a problem of solar light reflection by sea water. The study incorporated the simplest case—a semi-infinite one-dimensional plane—parallel absorbing and scattering homogeneous layer illuminated by a monodirectional light beam. Inelastic processes (such as Raman scattering and fluorescence), polarization and air-water surface refraction-reflection effects, were not considered. Algorithms were based on the invariant imbedding method and two different variants of the discrete ordinate method (DOM). Calculations were performed using parameters across all possible ranges (single-scattering albedo ω₀ and refracted solar zenith angle θ₁), but with a special emphasis on natural waters. All computations were made for two scattering phase functions, which included an almost isotropic Rayleigh phase function and strongly anisotropic double-peaked Fournier-Forand-Mobley phase function. Models were validated using quasi-single-scattering (QSSA) and exponential approximations, which represent the extreme cases of ω₀→0 and ω₀→1, respectively. All methods yielded relative differences within 1.8% for modeled natural waters. An analysis of plane albedo behavior resulted in the development of a new extended QSSA approximation, which when applied in conjunction with the extended Hapke approximation developed earlier, resulted in a maximum relative error of 2.7%. The study results demonstrated that for practical applications, the estimation of inherent optical properties from observed reflectance can best be achieved using an extended Hapke approximation.     

Formal and total synthesis of (±)-cycloclavine

A ring fragmentation and intramolecular azomethine ylide 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition sequence of reactions was successfully used in the preparation of a known (±)-cycloclavine precursor in good overall yield. Results of efforts to incorporate the tetrasubstituted cyclopropane ring present in cycloclavine are also discussed.     

Synthetic studies directed toward the AB decalin common to HMP-Y1 and hibarimicinone

Efforts toward the synthesis of the decalin ring system common to the hibarimicin shunt metabolite HMP-Y1 and parent aglycone hibarimicinone are reported herein. An intramolecular Diels–Alder cyclization rapidly generated the decalin framework. Two approaches toward completion of the AB decalin were vetted. Incorporation of a phenylsulfonyl leaving group β- to both a ketone and a γ-lactone followed by base-induced elimination of sulfinate led to the undesired α,β-unsaturated lactone. Methanolysis of the γ-lactone followed by elimination produced the unexpected bridged cyclic ether by way of an intramolecular oxy-Michael addition of the endo oriented C13 alcohol.     

天然气管道泄漏可调谐二极管激光遥感探测的研究

天然气管道泄漏不仅造成经济损失而且是危险之源。传统的天然气管道泄漏检测技术效率低、速度慢,难以满足实际应用的需要。近年来以近红外二极管激光吸收光谱为基础的光学传感器由于具有灵敏度高、体积小、重量轻和无需维护等优点而得到了广泛的应用。文章以可调谐二极管激光吸收光谱和谐波探测技术为基础进行天然气管道泄漏遥感探测技术的研究,采用二次谐波与一次谐波信号的比值作为系统浓度标定,结果显示浓度与比值之间具有较好的一致性。文章还就不同地形散射体对探测结果的影响进行了测量和分析,实验结果表明二次谐波与一次谐波信号比值标定技术对便携式二极管激光光学测量能够很好的满足实际应用的需要。     

Natural Compound Curcumin-a Channel Potentiator Rather Than a Corrector of the Defective Intracellular Processing of △F508 Mutant Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator

Cystic fibrosis(CF)is a severe genetic disease caused by the gene mutation of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator(CFTR)chloride channel.The most common point mutation △F508,which leads to impaired intracellular processing and channel gating of CFTR, appears in about 90? patients.The natural compound curcumin was reported to correct the processing defect of △F508-CFTR and proposed as a potential therapeutic drug to cure CF.In the present study.we analyzed the efrect of curcumin on △F508-CFTR and demonstrated that curcumin can restore the impaired chloride conductance of △F508 mutant CFTR.The activity is rapid,reversible and cAMP-dependent.However,we couldn't reproduce the previously reported correction of the defective membrane trafficking of △F508-CFTR by curcumin.Therefore,curcumin may not be a superior lead compound for developing anti-CF drugs.     

Natural radioactivity and radon exhalation rates in building materials used in Egypt

Natural and fabricated building materials commonly used in Egypt were surveyed for both natural radionuclides content and radon exhalation rate. These include raw as well as construction products. Concentration of natural radionuclides in all samples were determined by γ-ray spectroscopy with HPGe detector. For Radon exhalation rate measurements of fabricated samples, the seal can-technique has been applied using CR-39 plastic track detectors. The radiation hazard indices of the total natural radioactivity in the studied samples were estimated. The results were compared with the corresponding results of different countries and were found to be lying within the average world values. Radon exhalation rate in the studied samples varied between 197 (cement brick) and 907 mBq m⁻² h⁻¹ (blast furnace slag cement). The results of this survey suggest that, using blast furnace slag cement for pre-coating the internal walls of buildings in the Urban region of Egypt is discouraged and the replacement of clay brick by cement brick will be more healthy for the public.     

Error analysis for finite element methods for steady natural convection problems

We analyze the error in finite element methods in approximating, so-called, free or natural convection problems. We also include the effects of conducting solid walls in our analysis. Under a uniqueness condition on the Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers (which we derive), we give direct, quasioptimal error estimates for “div-stable” finite element spaces for the fluid variables and general conforming finite element spaces for the temperature. At larger Rayleigh numbers, we give analogous, asymptotic error estimates, basing this analysis upon local uniqueness properties of the true solution (u p T), which we also establish.     

Analysis of natural convection from a column of cold horizontal cylinders using Artificial Neural Network

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) offer an alternative way to tackle complex problems. They can learn from the examples and once trained can perform predictions and generalizations at high speed. They are particularly useful in behavior or system identification. According to the above advantages of ANN in the present paper ANN is used to predict natural convection heat transfer and fluid flow from a column of cold horizontal circular cylinders having uniform surface temperature. Governing equations are solved in a few specified cases by finite volume method to generate the database for training the ANN in the range of Rayleigh numbers of 10⁵–10⁸ and a range of cylinder spacing of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 diameters, thereafter a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) network is used to capture the behavior of flow and temperature fields and then generalized this behavior to predict the flow and temperature fields for any other Rayleigh numbers. Different training algorithms are used and it is found that the resilient back-propagation algorithm is the best algorithm regarding the faster training procedure. To validate the accuracy of the trained network, comparison is performed among the ANN and available CFD results. It is observed that ANN can be used more efficiently to determine cold plume and thermal field in lesser computational time. Based on the generalized results from the ANN new correlations are developed to estimate natural convection from a column of cold horizontal cylinders with respect to a single horizontal cylinder.