Path to achieving molecular dispersion in a dense reactive mixture

A uniform dispersion of reactants is necessary to achieve a complete reaction involving multicomponents. In this study, we have examined the role of plasticizer in the reaction of two seemingly unlikely reactants: a highly crystalline hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) and a strongly hydrogen bonded phenol formaldehyde resin. By combining information from NMR, infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry, we were able to determine the role of specific intermolecular interactions necessary for the plasticizer to dissolve the highly crystalline HMTA and to plasticize the phenol formaldehyde resin in this crosslinking reaction. The presence of the plasticizer increased the segmental mobility, disrupted the hydrogen bonded matrix, and freed the hydroxyl units, which further increased the solubility of the HMTA. Both the endothermic and exothermic transitions are accounted for in the calorimetric data obtained. For the first time, it is possible to obtain the effective molar ratio of each component needed to complete the crosslinking reaction efficiently. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 1519–1526     

Sulla rilassazione di alcuni funzionali integrali in dimensione infinita

Summary In this work we consider the problem ()of the minimum for integral functionals I _f of the Calculus of Variations, where we don't suppose any hypothesis of convexity on the integrand and in which the state takes values in a Suslin metric space, while the last variable of the integrand is in a separable reflexive Banach space. We study two different types of relaxed problems, associated to (),and we prove that the infima of the three functionals considered are the same, that (),one of the relaxed problems, has solution and that the accumulation points of the minimizing sequences for ()are the only solutions of ().

---

---

Lavoro eseguito nell'ambito dell'Istituto per la Matematica Applicata del C.N.R., Genova.     

Synthetic erythropoietic proteins: tuning biological performance by site-specific polymer attachment

Chemical synthesis in combination with precision polymer modification allows the systematic exploration of the effect of protein properties, such as charge and hydrodynamic radius, on potency using defined, homogeneous conjugates. A series of polymer-modified synthetic erythropoiesis proteins were constructed that had a polypeptide chain similar to the amino acid sequence of human erythropoietin but differed significantly in the number and type of attached polymers. The analogs differed in charge from +5 to -26 at neutral pH and varied in molecular weight from 30 to 54 kDa. All were active in an in vitro cell proliferation assay. However, in vivo potency was found to be strongly dependent on overall charge and size. The trends observed in this study may serve as starting points for the construction of more potent synthetic EPO analogs in the future.     

Core model calculation of the electric field gradient: Projection operator formalism with application to NH3

A core model approach to the calculation of deuteron quadrupole coupling constants is investigated using NH₃ as an example. First the deuteron quadrupole coupling constant is calculated from a CNDO wave function. This result is subsequently improved by recomputing the N—D bond orbital by means of a variational calculation using the CNDO function to construct a core potential for the bond Hamiltonian. In order to simplify integrations a single-center basis is chosen to represent the variational wave function. A projection operator formalism is used as a computational scheme to maintain orthogonality of the bond orbital to core orbitals. Excellent agreement with experiment is obtained. The procedure is applicable to more complicated molecules.     

Determination of selected elements in bone samples by neutron activation and γ-spectrometry

A non-destructive method for the quantification of eleven elements in bone samples is described. The analytical scheme is based on short (30 s) irradiation with thermal neutrons followed immediately (decay time 10 s) by counting fluorine-20 for 30 s and, after a total waiting time of 150 s, by 10-min γ-spectrometry counting, which give data for Ca, Cl, Mg, Mn, Na, and V. Use of a boron carbide shield for a second set of irradiations with epithermal neutrons permits the additional determination of bromine and strontium and calculation of the contribution of aluminium and phosphorus to the total activity of ₂₈Al.     

Azetidinyl ketone chemistry. C-Methylation reactions and stereostructure - spectra relationships

The C-methylation of the potassium salt of 1-t-butyl-2-phenyl-3-(p-phenylbenzoyl)azetidine ( 1a ) with methyl iodide was studied in three solvents, and the stereochemical outcome of the reaction was shown to be dependent upon the solvent used. These results are rationalized in terms of the probable relative rates of the reaction in the various solvents and/or the effect of solvent on the structure of the anionic intermediate. Similar treatment of the potassium salt of 1-t-butyl-2-phenyl-3-benzoylazetidine ( 3a ) in ethyl ether gave a comparable result. The configurations of the epimeric C-methyl products ( 2a and 2b , and 4a ) were assigned on the basis of their spectral properties. With the aid of spectral data for a model compound, l-t-butyl-3-benzoyl-azetidine ( 5 ), several stereostructure-spectra relationships for 3-azetidinyl ketones are presented.     

Study of two diastereomeric pairs of regiosomeric 2-isoxazolines by tandem mass spectrometry with electron impact ionization

On electron impact (EI) ionization, two cis/trans pairs of 4-methyl-5-phenyl and 4-phenyl-5-methyl regioisomeric 3-carbethoxy-2-isoxazolines showed normal mass spectra and mass-analysed ion kinetic energy (MIKE) spectra of metastable (MI) and collision-activated (CA) molecule ions, allowing unequivocal differentiation of the regioisomers. The cis/trans stereoisomers of each regioisomer showed very similar normal mass spectra. Very interestingly, the cis- and trans-4-phenyl-5-methyl stereoisomers appeared reasonably differentiated by the molecule ion MIKE spectra, whereas the 4-methyl-5-phenyl regioisomeric pair of stereoisomers did not. The influence of the phenyl substituent to the fragmentation processes was notable. Some fragments of interest were studied by comparison of their MIKE spectra with those of model ions, generated by EI from suitable substrates, including (i) the isomeric α,β-unsaturated oxime, namely ethyl (Z)-2-(hydroxymino)-3-methyl-4-phenylbut-3-enoate, a by-product of importance for the mechanism(s) of the addition/cycloaddition reactions of nitrile oxides to alkenes and (ii) trans-β-methylstyrene, a dipolarophilic reactant in the same reactions. The favoured heterocyclic C(5)–O(1) bond cleavage occurred only for the ionized 4-methyl-5-phenyl 2-isoxazoline pair, leading to a distonic ion of relevance, as it can represent either a reasonable precursor for both the isomerization to the ionized α,β-unsaturated oxime and the EI-induced cycloreversion yielding ionized β-methylstyrene, or the ionized form of a zwitterionic intermediate, which had been proposed previously for the addition/cycloaddition mechanism(s) in the solution phase, currently under study.     

Maximal estimates on measure spaces for weak-type multipliers

We describe sufficient conditions for transferring from locally compact abelian groups to measure spaces the weak-type bounds of maximal operators defined by multipliers of weak type. This leads to homomorphism theorems for maximal multiplier operators. Communicated by Guido Weiss     

Ionization constants for deuterium oxide in deuterium oxide-organic mixtures

A potentiometric method using a glass electrode has been applied to determination of ionization constants for deuterium oxide (D₂O) in binary mixtures of D₂O with dioxane, tetrahydrofuran, acetone, dimethylsulfoxide, CH₃CH₂OD, and CH₃OD at 25°C. The results are compared with values of ionization constants for H₂O obtained previously in the corresponding H₂O-organic mixtures, and the isotope effect is shown to be small. Further calculations with the D₂O results show that the first five solvents mentioned above are neither appreciably acidic nor basic in D₂O solution, but that CH₃OD shows slightly acidic behavior (pK_a=16.0±0.3).     

Infrared laser induced energy transfer studies in S18O2

Vibrational energy transfer has been studied in S¹⁸O₂, following pumping of the symmetric stretch (ν₁) by a Q-switched CO₂ laser. Fluorescence from the asymmetric stretch (ν₃) is monitored as a function of time following the laser pulse. This fluorescence rises with a rate constant of 74 ± 10 ms^?1 torr^?1, and then decays with a rate constant of 3.6 ± 0.1 ms^?1 torr^?1 for the S¹⁸O₂ itself. The effect of rare gases on the rise and fall rates was also studied. The results agree well with those on S¹⁶O₂ and are consistent with a double V-V picture in which the excitation is distributed rapidly between the stretches, but is shared with the bend much more slowly. This produces molecules in which the stretches are much “hotter” than the bend, giving rise to possibilities of laser action on the stretch-to-bend transitions and mode-selective vibrational enhancement of chemical reactions. Also, new results have been derived on the kinetics of V-V processes in mixtures. V-V transfer in various isotopic mixtures of SO₂ has been studied and the kinetic analysis indicates that S¹⁸O₂ and S¹⁶O₂ exhibit the same V-V rates.