Differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis investigation of the thermal properties and degradation of some radiation‐grafted films and membranes

The influence of irradiation and grafting on the crystallinity of three base polymers has been investigated with differential scanning calorimetry. Grafting has the largest effect on the base polymer crystallinity and results in a reduction of the crystallinity. The thermal degradation of the base polymers and grafted films has been investigated with thermogravimetric analysis. The extent of the fluorination of the base polymer, the irradiation method, and the graft level all influence the thermal degradation and its activation energy. It is proposed that the variation of the chain lengths of the grafted polystyrene chains is actually a primary underlying factor responsible for the influence of these various parameters on the degradation process. The first results of a comparative thermal analysis of some fuel‐cell membranes are also presented, and the promise and shortcomings of this method are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 2612–2624, 2004     

Corn stover fractions and bioenergy

Information is presented on structure, composition, and response to enzymes of corn stover related to barriers for bioconversion to ethanol. Aromatic compounds occurred in most tissue cell walls. Ferulic acid esterase treatment before cellulase treatment significantly improved dry weight loss and release of phenolic acids and sugars in most fractions over cellulase alone. Leaf fractions were considerably higher in dry weight loss and released sugars with esterase treatment, but stem pith cells gave up the most phenolic acids. Results help identify plant fractions more appropriate for coproducts and bioconversion and those more suitable as residues for soil erosion control.     

A short synthesis of (±)-tecomanine via a Pauson-Khand-based route

The N-carboethoxy precursor to (±)-tecomanine has been prepared in 11 steps from 2-methyl-1-buten-3-yne. The key step, Pauson-Khand cyclization of a methylated 5-aza-6-nonen-1-yne succeeds, but only in low yield, a consequence of the dialkyl substitution about the azaenyne framework. Nevertheless, the overall sequence to that point is one of the more efficient to be described.     

Asymptotic analysis of a large closed queueing network with discriminatory processor sharing

In this paper the steady-state behavior of a closed queueing network with multiple classes and large populations is investigated. One of the two nodes of the network simply introduces random delays and the discipline in the other node is discriminatory processor sharing. The network is not product-form, so not even the steady-state behavior is known. We assume that the usage is moderately heavy, and obtain two-term asymptotic approximations to the mean number of jobs, and the mean sojourn time, of each class of jobs in the processor node. We also obtain the leading term in the asymptotic approximation to the joint distribution of the number of jobs in the processor node, which is a zero-mean multivariate Gaussian distribution around a line through the origin.     

Phospha-palladacycles and N-heterocyclic carbene palladium complexes: efficient catalysts for CC-coupling reactions

Due to the great importance of palladium-catalyzed Heck-type reactions in scientific and industrial chemistry, a lot of publications and reviews have been published during the last years describing this matter under different aspects. This article presents a summary of catalytic applications of palladium complexes with phosphorus ligands containing a metallated sp³-carbon centre (“palladacycles”) or with N-heterocyclic carbene ligands in C-C and C-N coupling reactions of aryl halides including recent results of mechanistic discussions about their role in the catalytic cycle.     

A Borsuk–Ulam Theorem for Maps from a Sphere to a Generalized Manifold

H. J. Munkholm obtained a generalization for topological manifolds of the famous Borsuk–Ulam type theorem proved by Conner and Floyd. The purpose of this paper is to prove a version of Conner and Floyd's theorem for generalized manifolds.     

Chemical imaging in biology and medicine using ion microscopy

The ability to quantitatively map the distribution of elements on the micrometer scale and smaller with high sensitivity and isotopic discrimination is unique to ion microscopy. The information contained in ion images can be crucial to the study of the solid state, where chemical heterogeneity is often directly related to observed behavior. The tools of digital image processing allow the extraction of quantitative information from the image data. These techniques coupled with improved instrumentation for the detection of ion images drastically increase the problem solving capabilities of the ion microscope. The use of such methods and instrumentation in the ion microscopic analyses of cell cultures and tissues of biological and biomedical relevance will be discussed.