Synthesis of potential selective cox‐2 enzyme inhibitors derived from ethyl ester of 2‐isothiocyanato‐5‐phenyl‐3‐thiophenecarboxylic acid

Derivatives containing the thieno[2,3‐d]pyrimidin‐4‐one system, potential selective COX‐2 inhibitors, were prepared starting from ethyl ester of 2‐isothiocyanato‐5‐phenyl‐3‐thiophenecarboxylic acid ( 2 ); their structural elucidation is also reported.     

Existence and Ergodicity for the Two-Dimensional Stochastic Magneto-Hydrodynamics Equations

The paper proves the existence of solutions to the magneto-hydrodynamics equations driven by random exterior forcing terms both in the velocity and in the magnetic field. The existence and uniqueness of an invariant measure is also obtained via coupling methods.     

Physical content of preparation-question structures and Brouwer-Zadeh lattices

We give a criterion to compare the physical content of different mathematical structures derived from a preparation-question structure. Then this criterion is used in order to compare the physical content of the (Jauch-Piron's) property lattice with the physical content of the poset of testable properties. We prove that for complete preparation-question structures these two structures carry the same physical content; moreover the set of testable properties has the algebraic structure of the Brouwer-Zadeh lattice. For more general preparation-question structures the physical content of the poset of testable property can be larger than that of the property lattice. Physically relevant examples of the possible cases are given.     

An adaptive pruning algorithm for the discrete L-curve criterion

We describe a robust and adaptive implementation of the L-curve criterion. The algorithm locates the corner of a discrete L-curve which is a log–log plot of corresponding residual norms and solution norms of regularized solutions from a method with a discrete regularization parameter (such as truncated SVD or regularizing CG iterations). Our algorithm needs no predefined parameters, and in order to capture the global features of the curve in an adaptive fashion, we use a sequence of pruned L-curves that correspond to considering the curves at different scales. We compare our new algorithm to existing algorithms and demonstrate its robustness by numerical examples.     

Photochromic reverse mode polymer dispersed liquid crystals

Control of light intensity and colour are two of the major features required in the realization of smart windows. We designed a bi-functional polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) film in order to satisfy such requirements, i.e. it is able both to modulate the optical transmission, if an external electric field is applied, and to change colour if exposed to sunlight. A monomer/liquid crystal mixture was doped with a small amount of photochromic material and homeotropically aligned by means of rough surfaces. A transparent and pale pink coloured film was achieved after photopolymerization. Such a film changes colour upon exposure for some seconds to sunlight or ultraviolet radiation in a persistent but reversible manner. In addition, the film appears transparent without the application of an electric field (OFF state) and becomes opaque on application of a driving voltage of about 75 V (ON state), and thus the film operates in reverse mode with respect to conventional PDLCs.     

Continuous reaction system to investigate the dispersion polymerization of vinyl monomers in supercritical carbon dioxide

A laboratory‐scale continuous reaction system using a stirred tank reactor was assembled in our laboratory to study the dispersion polymerization of vinyl monomers in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO₂). The apparatus was equipped with a suitable downstream separation section to collect solid particles entrained in the effluent stream from the reactor, whose monomer concentration could be measured online with a gas chromatograph. The dispersion polymerization of methyl methacrylate in scCO₂ was selected as a model process to be investigated in the apparatus. The experiments were performed at 65 °C and 25 MPa with 2,2′‐azobisisobutyronitrile as the initiator and a reactive polysiloxane macromonomer as a surfactant to investigate the effect of the mean residence time of the reaction mixture on the monomer conversion, polymerization rate, polymer molecular weight, and particle size distribution. The results were compared with those obtained in batch polymerizations carried out under similar operative conditions. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 4122–4135, 2006