Characterization of low molecular weight hydrocarbon oligomers by laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry using a solvent-free sample preparation method.

A new solvent-free sample preparation method using silver trifluoroacetate (AgTFA) was developed for the analysis of low molecular weight paraffins and microcrystalline waxes by laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LDI-TOFMS). Experiments show that spectral quality can be enhanced by dispersing AgTFA directly in liquid paraffins without the use of additional solvents. This preparation mixture is applied directly to the MALDI probe. Solid waxes could be examined by melting prior to analysis. The method also provides sufficiently reproducible spectra that peak area ratios between mono- and bicyclic alkane peaks indicated variations in the cycloalkane content of paraffin samples. Dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons observed during the desorption/ionization process was studied by analysis of alkane standards.     

Design of neutral, mono- or di-cationic water-soluble trihydrazidophosphoradamantanes

The versatile behavior of a trihydrazidophosphoradamantane allowing the synthesis of a variety of neutral, mono- or di-cationic water-soluble molecules of potential interest for biphasic catalysis is reported.     

On the geometry of infinite cyclic subgroups

In this paper we construct an example of a word metric on an infinite cyclic subgroup. This example shows that subexponential distortion does not obstruct non-trivial growth of connected radii. This answers a question of Gromov [6]. The constructed metric has other pathological properies. Specifically, its asymptotic cone depends on the choice of ultrafilter and scaling sequence. The work has been partially supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.     

IFS attractors and Cantor sets

We build a metric space which is homeomorphic to a Cantor set but cannot be realized as the attractor of an iterated function system. We give also an example of a Cantor set K in R³ such that every homeomorphism f of R³ which preserves K coincides with the identity on K.     

Integral Inequalities and Global Solutions of Semilinear Evolution Equations

A criterion for the nonexplosion of solutions to semilinear evolution equations on Banach spaces is proved. The result is obtained by applying a modification of the Bihari type inequality to the case of a weakly singular nonlinear integral inequality.     

Asymptotic Analysis of the Current-Voltage Curve of a pnpn Semiconductor Device

We consider the one-dimensional steady-state semiconductor deviceequations modelling a pnpn device. There are two relevant scalingsof the equations corresponding to small and large applied voltages.In both scalings, the semiconductor equations can be consideredas singularly perturbed. It turns out that the small-voltagescaling breaks down for current values between two saturationcurrents. In that interval, the large-voltage scaling has tobe employed. For both scalings, we derive the first-order termsof an asymptotic expansion and show that the reduced problemhas a solution. An example verifies that the current-voltagecurves obtained have the expected qualitative structure.     

Host–guest inter­action in a thio­urea–dimethyl oxalate (2/1) complex at 300 and 100 K

The title complex, 2CH₄N₂S·C₄H₆O₄, is a host–guest system. The asymmetric unit consists of one complete thio­urea mol­ecule and one‐half of a dimethyl oxalate mol­ecule lying on an inversion centre. The host thio­urea mol­ecules are connected to form zigzag chains by N—H⋯S hydrogen bonds. The guest dimethyl oxalate mol­ecules provide O‐atom acceptors for N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, thus inter­connecting the chains of thio­urea mol­ecules to form completely connected sheets. The reduction in temperature from 300 to 100 K leaves the structure unchanged and still isostructural with that previously determined for the analogous thio­urea–diethyl oxalate (2/1) complex. It does, however, induce closer packing of the mol­ecules, general shrinkage of the unit cell and shortening of the hydrogen bonds, these last two to the extent of 1–2%.     

Optimal mappings with minimum number of connected components in tree-to-tree comparison problems

In this paper we consider the problem of finding a minimum cost mapping between two unordered trees which induces a graph with a minimum number of connected components. The proposed algorithm is based on the generalization of an algorithm for computing an edit distance between trees, and it solves the stated problem in sequential time precisely in O(|T₁|×|T₂|×(degT₁+degT₂)×log₂(degT₁+degT₂)).     

Existence of Pulsating Roll-Waves for the Saint Venant System

The phenomenon of roll-waves occurs when shallow water flows down open inclined channels. This flow is described by the Saint Venant’s equations with a friction term due to Chezy. In the case of a flat bottom, their existence (as entropic and periodic travelling waves) follows from a classical work due to DRESSLER [6]. The aim of this paper is to prove the existence of roll-waves when the bottom is modulated by a small periodic perturbation. Following JIN and KATSOULAKIS [15], we first compute a Burgers-type equation which possesses “pulsating” roll-waves (the wave speed oscillates around an average velocity). We prove, in a mathematically rigorous fashion, the existence of these solutions.     

Sound velocity in alumino-silicate liquids determined up to 2550 K from Brillouin spectroscopy: glass transition and crossover temperatures

Hypersonic longitudinal sound velocities in five silicate and alumino-silicate liquids have been measured between 293 and 2550 K by Brillouin spectroscopy. Together with previous observations for four other glasses and liquids of the system SiO₂-Al₂O₃-CaO-MgO, these results are used to discuss changes in hypersonic velocities in three adjacent temperature domains, i.e., below, in, and above the glass transformation range. The temperature dependence of Brillouin velocities is consistent with the observed variations with temperature of viscosity, density, and mean heat capacity for the same three temperature domains. These variations of physical properties of alumino-silicate liquids are qualitatively in agreement with the Inherent Structure Theory for liquids.