Synthesis of novel tri-podal mesogenic alkenes and side-chain polysiloxanes

Low molecular weight tri-podal biphenyl- and benzoate-type mesogens [C₆H₅C₆H₄O(CH₂)₅SiMe₂CH₂CH₂SiMe₂]₃CH (4), [C₁₁H₂₃O(C₆H₄)₂O(CH₂)₅SiMe₂]₃CH (5) and [MeOC₆H₄OC(O)C₆H₄O(CH₂)₅SiMe₂]₃CH (6) (C₆H₄ = 1,4-phenylene) were obtained, from branched silyl substituted methane precursors [CH₂CH(Me)₂Si]₃CH (1) and (HMe₂Si)₃CH (2). The biphenyl-containing ones (4) and (5) were converted into terminal alkenes, which were subsequently hydrosilylated with poly(methylsiloxanes). The polymer derived from (5) exhibited mesomorphic properties. Such systems have the potential to significantly increase the density of liquid crystal rod-like structures in side chains of linear polymers (or dendritic liquid crystal polymers).     

EPR in non-doped irradiated polyacetylene

The influence of -irradiation on the paramagnetic properties of non-doped polyacetylene at low and high radiation doses has been studied and summarized. The dependence of the EPR spectra on the radiation dose in irradiated polyacetylene has been measured. No essential changes of the spin mobility as a consequence of irradiation were observed. Our measurements of spin concentration confirm the high resistivity of non-doped polyacetylene to radiation.     

Fine tuning the structure of the Cu2+ complex with the prion protein chicken repeat by proline isomerization

The interaction between the single hexarepeat unit of chicken prion protein [ChPrP(54-59)] and Cu(II) was investigated by NMR, finding different coordination modes for the trans/trans and cis/trans isomers.     

On approximate mathematical modeling of the vapor–liquid coexistence curves by the Van der Waals equation of state and non-classical value of the critical exponent

Van der Waals equation of state as well as power laws and critical exponent theories are prototypes to study the cubic shape, asymmetries and “flatness” of the vapor–liquid equilibrium curves near the critical point. In this work we study two similar methods to determine the phase curves in analytical form, which differ from each other by simplicity of mathematical calculation. We analyze temperature dependence of the coexistence curves asymptotically close to the vapor–liquid critical point. We explain the novelty of our method with respect to the standard thermodynamic limit discussed in the literature. Therefore we show that the shape of the coexistence curves can strongly influence the accepted value of the critical exponent. The results of theoretical studies have been compared with the ones obtained by experimental methods.     

Methodological aspects of an off‐line combination of preparative isotachophoresis and high‐performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry in the analysis of biological matrices

This work reports on some methodological aspects of an off‐line combination of preparative ITP and HPLC with mass spectrometric detection (pITP‐HPLC‐MS) and its potential applications to the analysis of high molecular mass compounds present in complex biological matrices from the analytical chemistry perspective. Lysozyme served as the model analyte and human saliva as the complex biological matrix in this study. A mixture of five low‐molecular mass compounds was found and successfully used in the pITP experiments as discrete spacers to isolate the analyte from the interferents present in the complex biological matrix and to minimize their disturbance effect on the final MS analysis. The experiments at the pITP stage were performed in the cationic mode. On‐column conductivity detectors were used for the detection of ITP zones. Lysozyme was found in the human saliva samples using just deconvolution of the MS data after background correction. The MS data obtained from HPLC‐MS analysis of pITP fractions exhibited the great analytical potential of the combination of pITP‐HPLC‐MS resulting from the ITP clean‐up effect as well as the ITP preconcentration of the analyte present at low concentration levels in complex biological matrices.     

Performance of a small air-lift pump

Pumping of liquids using two-phase flow has been examined experimentally in small air-lift pumps with 12—19 mm bore plexiglass tubes. An air injection system was devised to create and maintain ‘perfect’ slug flow in the vertical riser tube. An equation has been derived, based on momentum conservation considerations, which correlates well with the measurements obtained. Slip variation, or liuid holdup, between the two phases and the formation of the ‘entrance’ section part of the pump (suction pipe) were taken into consideration. Unlike its predecessors, this equation predicts the reversal in the pump performance curve observed experimentally.     

The unintegrated gluon distribution from the modified BK equation

We investigate the recently proposed non-linear equation for the unintegrated gluon distribution function which includes the subleading effects at small x. We obtained numerically the solution to this equation in (x,k) space, and also the integrated gluon density. The subleading effects affect strongly the normalization and the x and k dependence of the gluon distribution. We show that the saturation scale Q_s(x), which is obtained from this model, is consistent with the one used in the saturation model by Golec-Biernat and Wüsthoff. We also estimate the non-linear effects by looking at the relative normalization of the solutions to the linear and non-linear equations. It turns out that the differences are quite large even in the nominally dilute regime, that is when . Finally, we calculate the dipole-nucleon cross section.Received: 30 August 2004, Revised: 17 February 2005, Published online: 11 May 2005