Nonlinear stability of incoherence and collective synchronization in a population of coupled oscillators

A mean-field model of nonlinearly coupled oscillators with randomly distributed frequencies and subject to independent external white noises is analyzed in the thermodynamic limit. When the frequency distribution isbimodal, new results include subcritical spontaneous stationary synchronization of the oscillators, supercritical time-periodic synchronization, bistability, and hysteretic phenomena. Bifurcating synchronized states are asymptotically constructed near bifurcation values of the coupling strength, and theirnonlinear stability properties ascertained.     

A solvability result for a nonlinear weakly hyperbolic equation of second order

In this article we study the well-posedness of the initial value problem for quasi-linear weakly hyperbolic equations of second order. We obtain a sufficient condition for the Cauchy problem to be locally solvable in the class of smooth function.     

A resolution theorem for absolutely isolated singularities of holomorphic vector fields

In this paper, the desingularization problem for an absolutely isolated singularity of an-dimensional holomorphic vector field is solved. Also, we exhibit final forms under blowing-up for this type of singularities.     

Literal‐paraconsistent and literal‐paracomplete matrices

We introduce a family of matrices that define logics in which paraconsistency and/or paracompleteness occurs only at the level of literals, that is, formulas that are propositional letters or their iterated negations. We give a sound and complete axiomatization for the logic defined by the class of all these matrices, we give conditions for the maximality of these logics and we study in detail several relevant examples. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Reformulation of the support set selection problem in the logical analysis of data

The paper is concerned with the problem of binary classification of data records, given an already classified training set of records. Among the various approaches to the problem, the methodology of the logical analysis of data (LAD) is considered. Such approach is based on discrete mathematics, with special emphasis on Boolean functions. With respect to the standard LAD procedure, enhancements based on probability considerations are presented. In particular, the problem of the selection of the optimal support set is formulated as a weighted set covering problem. Testable statistical hypothesis are used. Accuracy of the modified LAD procedure is compared to that of the standard LAD procedure on datasets of the UCI repository. Encouraging results are obtained and discussed.     

Catalysis in aromatic nucleophilic substitution. Note II. Piperidino substitution reactions of some 2-l-3-nitrothiophenes and 2-l-5-nitrothiophenes in methanol and benzene

The rates of piperidino substitution of some 2-L-3-nitrothiophenes (I) and 2-L-5-nitrothiophenes (II) (L = Cl, Br, I, OC₆H₄NO₂-p, and SO₂Ph) have been measured in methanol and in benzene at various piperidine concentrations. The reactivity of compounds (I) is not affected by the piperidine concentration in both methanol and benzene, except for the case of L = I (Ic). Probably due to association effects, the reactivity of Ic in benzene decreases as the piperidine concentration is increased. The reactions of compounds II follow overall second order kinetics in methanol while in benzene a different behaviour is observed as a function of the nature of the leaving group. In fact, the piperidino substitutions of IIa-c (L = Cl, Br, I) are mildly accelerated at high piperidine concentrations (a moderate solvent effect); on the contrary the reactivity of IId and e shows a strong dependence on the piperidine concentration, pointing out a genuine base catalysis.     

Lanthanide modulation of the orientation of macromolecules induced by purple membrane.

Addition of Tb3+ to purple membrane (PM) suspensions changes the orientation of the menbrane normal from parallel to perpendicular with respect to the magnetic field. Residual dipolar couplings measured in protein L in the presence of PM are scaled by a factor of -1/2. NMR line broadening and cross-correlation effects induced by the addition of PM are partially reversed by Tb3+ but not by Tm3+ that has no effect on the orientation of PM. This is interpreted as the result of anisotropically restricted motion of protein L in the transiently PM-bound form.     

Automated and enhanced extraction of a small molecule-drug conjugate using an enzyme-inhibitor interaction based SPME tool followed by direct analysis by ESI-MS

We report a novel, fast, and automatic SPME-based method capable of extracting a small molecule-drug conjugate (SMDC) from biological matrices. Our method relies on the extraction of the drug conjugate followed by direct elution into an electrospray mass spectrometer (ESI-MS) source for qualitative and quantitative analysis. We designed a tool for extracting the targeting head of a recently synthesized SMDC, which includes acetazolamide (AAZ) as high-affinity ligand specific to carbonic anhydrase IX. Specificity of the extraction was achieved through systematic optimization. The design of the extraction tool is based on noncovalent and reversible interaction between AAZ and CAII that is immobilized on the SPME extraction phase. Using this approach, we showed a 330% rise in extracted AAZ signal intensity compared to a control, which was performed in the absence of CAII. A linear dynamic range from 1.2 to 25 μg/ml was found. The limits of detection (LOD) of extracted AAZ from phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and human plasma were 0.4 and 1.2 μg/ml, respectively. This with a relative standard deviation of less than 14% (n = 40) covers the therapeutic range.

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Terpyridine Zn(II), Ru(III), and Ir(III) complexes: the relevant role of the nature of the metal ion and of the ancillary ligands on the second-order nonlinear response of terpyridines carrying electron donor or electron acceptor groups

Coordination of 4'-(C6H4-p-X)-2,2':6',2'-terpyridines [X = NO2, NBu2, (E)-CH=CH-C6H4-p-NBu2, (E,E)-(CH=CH)2-C6H4-p-NMe2] to Zn(II), Ru(III), and Ir(III) metal centers induces a significant enhancement of the absolute value of the second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) response of the terpyridine, measured by means of both electric field induced second harmonic generation and solvatochromic methods. By varying the nature of the metal center, the enhanced second-order NLO response shifts from positive to negative. Such a shift is controlled by electronic charge-transfer transitions, such as metal-to-ligand or ligand-to-metal transitions, in addition to the intraligand charge transfer. The enhancement generated by coordination is also controlled by the chelation effect and by fine-tuning of the ancillary ligands.