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.     

Amino acids and peptides. XIII. Synthetic studies on N-terminal tripeptide amide analogs of fibrin alpha-chain

N-Terminal tripeptide analogs of fibrin alpha-chain were synthesized and their inhibitory effect on fibrinogen/thrombin clotting was examined. A new water-soluble active ester, 3-pyridinium ester, was used for the synthesis. Among the synthetic peptides, H-Gly-Pro-Arg-hexamethyleneimine exhibited the highest inhibitory effect on fibrinogen-thrombin clotting.     

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.     

Inflation model with lower multipoles of the CMB suppressed

The recent observation of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy by the WMAP confirmed that the lower multipoles are considerably suppressed. From the standpoint of the cosmic variance, it is nothing but a statistical accident. Alternatively, one can attribute the deficit of fluctuation on the large scale to the cosmic history, which might be explained in the context of the inflationary physics. In this Letter, we show that it is possible to explain the suppressed lower multipoles in the hybrid new inflation model.     

Comments on the evolution of strongly degenerate neutrinos in the early universe

We reconsider the evolution of strongly degenerate neutrinos in the early universe. Our chief concern is the validity of the entropy conservation after the neutrino annihilation process has frozen out (so that the establishment of chemical equilibrium is not trivial). We argue that the entropy indeed conserves because elastic scattering keeps the neutrino and antineutrino distribution functions in the equilibrium form and the sum of their chemical potential keeps zero even after the neutrino annihilation freeze-out. We also simulate the evolution of the degenerate neutrino spectrum to support the argument. We conclude that the change in the neutrino degeneracy parameter when the relativistic degrees of freedom in the universe decreases is calculated using the entropy conservation and the lepton number conservation without worrying about at what temperature the neutrino annihilation process freezes out.     

Synthesis and chiroptical properties of two new planar-chiral macrocycles

Could simple intraannular-arm macrocyclic systems exist in enantiopure stable forms? The effective synthesis of two representative compounds of such a class, their resolution into enantiomers, and experiments justifying their stability toward racemization are presented.