Fractional damping enhances chaos in the nonlinear Helmholtz oscillator

Nonlinear Dynamics - The main purpose of this paper is to study both the underdamped and the overdamped dynamics of the nonlinear Helmholtz oscillator with a fractional-order damping. For that...     

The Linear Fokker-Planck Equation for the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck Process as an (Almost) Nonlinear Kinetic Equation for an Isolated N-Particle System

It is long known that the Fokker-Planck equation with prescribed constant coefficients of diffusion and linear friction describes the ensemble average of the stochastic evolutions in velocity space of a Brownian test particle immersed in a heat bath of fixed temperature. Apparently, it is not so well known that the same partial differential equation, but now with constant coefficients which are functionals of the solution itself rather than being prescribed, describes the kinetic evolution (in the N→∞ limit) of an isolated N-particle system with certain stochastic interactions. Here we discuss in detail this recently discovered interpretation. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Radiochemical proton activation analysis for the determination of cadmium and lead in sediment reference materials

Proton activation analysis was used for the determination of cadmium and lead in three sediment reference materials. The method is based on the^111,112Cd(p, xn)¹¹¹ In and the^206,207,208Pb(p, xn)²⁰⁶Bi reactions.¹¹¹In and²⁰⁶Bi were chemically separated by anion exchange. The results obtained were taken into account for the certification of the materials and are in the excellent agreement with the certified values.     

Förster energy transfer from poly(arylene–ethynylene)s to an erbium–porphyrin complex

We study the infrared emission at 1.54 μm of an organolanthanide complex, Er(III)-tetraphenylporphyrin [Er(TPP)acac], both as a result of direct optical excitation and via energy transfer from host π-conjugate polymers of type poly(arylene–ethynylene) [PAE]. In the first case, the emission of the neat complex is characterized in inert transparent materials and a value of the quantum yield at 1.54 μm φ_IR=4×10⁻⁴ is measured. Then, fluorescence resonance transfer is investigated in blends of Er(TPP)acac with PAEs by monitoring the quenching of the polymer fluorescence along with the enhancement of both the visible emission of the ligand and the near-infrared band of Er³⁺. These different procedures allow a detailed analysis of the transfer efficiency within a specific implementation of the Förster model for polymeric donors. The experimental values of the critical radius R₀, ranging from 1.3 to 2.5 nm for the different blends, are in good agreement with theory for a wide interval of the physical and spectroscopic parameters. This suggests that other mechanisms for excitation transfer do not play a significant role in these materials.     

New stereoselective synthesis of the peptidic aminopeptidase inhibitors bestatin, phebestin and probestin

Peptidic aminopeptidase inhibitors, bestatin, phebestin and probestin have been prepared by stereo- and regiocontrolled reactions from a common α,β-epoxy ester precursor.