Al-pillared clays supported rare earths and palladium catalysts for deep oxidation of low concentration of benzene

Al-pillared clays supported rare earths (RE/Al-PILC) are prepared and used as supports of palladium catalysts for deep oxidation of low concentrations of benzene (130-160 ppm). The supports and catalysts are characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), FT-IR, BET, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and temperature-programmed reduction (H₂-TPR). The results show that Al-pillaring results in a strong increase in the basal spacing (d_0 0 1) from about 1.2 to 1.8 nm, and an increase in the BET surface area from 63.6 (±3.2) to 238.8 (±11.9) m²/g. Activity tests of deep oxidation of low concentration benzene show catalysts supported on Al-PILC and RE/Al-PILC are obviously more active than that on raw clay. Pd/6% Ce/Al-PILC, in particular, can catalyze the complete oxidation of low concentration benzene at a temperature as low as about 290 °C.     

New ligands for the Fe(III)‐mediated reverse atom transfer radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate

A series of (di)picolinic acids and their derivates are investigated as novel complexing tridentate or bidentate ligands in the iron‐mediated reverse atom transfer radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate in N,N‐dimethylformamide at 100 °C with 2,2′‐azobisisobutyrontrile as an initiator. The polymerization rates and polydispersity indices (1.32–1.8) of the resulting polymers are dependent on the structures of the ligands employed. Different iron complexes may be involved in iron‐mediated reverse atom transfer radical polymerization, depending on the type of acid used. ¹H NMR spectroscopy has been used to study the structure of the resulting polymers. Chain‐extension reactions have been performed to further confirm the living nature of this catalytic system. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 2912–2921, 2006     

Surface structures formed by individual adsorption and coadsorption of Mn and Bi on Cu(0 0 1), studied by LEED

We have studied the individual adsorption of Mn and Bi, and their coadsorption on Cu(0 0 1) by low-energy electron diffraction (LEED). For Mn, we have determined the c(2 × 2) structure formed at 300 K, whose structure had been determined by several methods. We reconfirmed by a tensor LEED analysis that it is a substitutional structure and that a previously reported large corrugation (0.30 Å) between substitutional Mn and remaining surface Cu atoms coincides perfectly with the present value. In the individual adsorption of Bi, we have found a c(4 × 2) structure, which is formed by cooling below ∼250 K a surface prepared by Bi deposition of ∼0.25 ML coverage at 300 K where streaky half-order LEED spots appear. The c(4 × 2) structure has been determined by the tensor LEED analysis at 130 K and it is a substitutional structure. In the coadsorption, we found a c(6 × 4) structure, which has been determined by the tensor LEED analysis. It is very similar to the previously determined structure of the c(6 × 4) formed by coadsorption of Mg and Bi, and embedded MnBi₄ clusters are arranged in the top Cu layer instead of MgBi₄. Large lateral displacements of Bi atoms in the c(6 × 4)-(Mn + Bi) suggest that the Mn atoms undergo the size-enhancement caused by their large magnetic moment.     

Method of lines with boundary elements for 1‐D transient diffusion‐reaction problems

Time‐dependent differential equations can be solved using the concept of method of lines (MOL) together with the boundary element (BE) representation for the spatial linear part of the equation. The BE method alleviates the need for spatial discretization and casts the problem in an integral format. Hence errors associated with the numerical approximation of the spatial derivatives are totally eliminated. An element level local cubic approximation is used for the variable at each time step to facilitate the time marching and the nonlinear terms are represented in a semi‐implicit manner by a local linearization at each time step. The accuracy of the method has been illustrated on a number of test problems of engineering significance. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2006     

On a conjecture of Cox and Katz

This note shows that a certain toric quotient of the quintic Calabi-Yau threefold in provides a counterexample to a recent conjecture of Cox and Katz concerning nef cones of toric hypersurfaces. Received: 8 February 2001; in final form: 17 September 2001 / Published online: 1 February 2002     

Numerical solutions of the shallow water equations with discontinuous bed topography

A simple scheme is developed for treatment of vertical bed topography in shallow water flows. The effect of the vertical step on flows is modelled with the shallow water equations including local energy loss terms. The bed elevation is denoted with z_b^‐ for the left and z_b⁺ for the right values at each grid point, hence exactly representing a discontinuity in the bed topography. The surface gradient method (SGM) is generalized to reconstruct water depths at cell interfaces involving a vertical step so that the fluxes at the cell interfaces can accurately be calculated with a Riemann solver. The scheme is verified by predicting a surge crossing a step, a tidal flow over a step and dam‐break flows on wet/dry beds. The results have shown good agreements compared with analytical solutions and available experimental data. The scheme is efficient, robust, and may be used for practical flow calculations. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel and efficient synthesis of porphine

meso-Tetra(n-hexyloxycarbonyl)porphyrin was found to be converted into porphine, the mother compound of porphyrins, in a 77% yield when heated in aqueous sulfuric acid at 180 °C over 30 min under an inert atmosphere. The observation demonstrates that the substituted porphyrin serves as a novel and useful precursor for porphine.     

A modified predictor–corrector scheme for the two-dimensional sine-Gordon equation

A three-time level finite-difference scheme based on a fourth order in time and second order in space approximation has been proposed for the numerical solution of the nonlinear two-dimensional sine-Gordon equation. The method, which is analysed for local truncation error and stability, leads to the solution of a nonlinear system. To avoid solving it, a predictor–corrector scheme using as predictor a second-order explicit scheme is proposed. The procedure of the corrector has been modified by considering as known the already evaluated corrected values instead of the predictor ones. This modified scheme has been tested on the line and circular ring soliton and the numerical experiments have proved that there is an improvement in the accuracy over the standard predictor–corrector implementation. This research was co-funded by E.U. (75%) and by the Greek Government (25%).     

Instabilities in the Chapman-Enskog Expansion and Hyperbolic Burnett Equations

It is well-known that the classical Chapman-Enskog procedure does not work at the level of Burnett equations (the next step after the Navier-Stokes equations). Roughly speaking, the reason is that the solutions of higher equations of hydrodynamics (Burnett's, etc.) become unstable with respect to short-wave perturbations. This problem was recently attacked by several authors who proposed different ways to deal with it. We present in this paper one of possible alternatives. First we deduce a criterion for hyperbolicity of Burnett equations for the general molecular model and show that this criterion is not fulfilled in most typical cases. Then we discuss in more detail the problem of truncation of the Chapman-Enskog expansion and show that the way of truncation is not unique. The general idea of changes of coordinates (based on analogy with the theory of dynamical systems) leads finally to nonlinear Hyperbolic Burnett Equations (HBEs) without using any information beyond the classical Burnett equations. It is proved that HBEs satisfy the linearized H-theorem. The linear version of the problem is studied in more detail, the complete Chapman-Enskog expansion is given for the linear case. A simplified proof of the Slemrod identity for Burnett coefficients is also given.     

两种拔尿管方法对膀胱功能损伤的临床观察

为观察两种不同的拔尿管方法对膀胱功能损伤的差异,将80例患者随机分成两组,分别采用改良法(40例)和常规法(40例)拔除留置尿管,分析比较了两组患者排尿顺利率、逼尿肌功能恢复率及尿道刺激症、尿失禁、尿潴留。结果表明,两组患者拔管后上述指标与情况有显著性差异,P<0.05。提示改良组膀胱功能损伤明显低于对照组。改良的拔管方法是一种值得护理推广应用的好方法。