Evolution of the gas-puff Z-pinch column

The evolution of a neon implosion of low energy discharge (4 kJ, 40 kV, 150 kA, 1.1 μs) was studied using X-ray, schlieren, and high speed electrooptical visible gated quadro camera diagnostics. The geometry, an helical structure of pinched column, two steps of pinching, and X-ray emission have been studied. The hypothesis of an axial component of magnetic field generation, the helical shape of the magnetic and electric field lines, and the release of magnetic energy during the second pinching of the column are discussed     

New method for resolving the enantiomeric composition of 2-methyltetrols in atmospheric organic aerosols

In order to facilitate the determination of the primary and secondary origin of atmospheric organic aerosols, a novel method involving chiral capillary gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry has been developed and validated. The method was focused on the analysis of 2-methylerythritol and 2-methylthreitol, considered to be tracers of secondary organic aerosols from the oxidation of atmospheric isoprene. The method was validated by performing various tests using authentic standards, including pure enantiomeric standards. The result showed that the analytical method itself does not affect the enantiomeric composition of the samples analyzed. The method was applied on atmospheric aerosols from a boreal forest collected in Aspvreten, Sweden and on laboratory samples obtained from liquid phase oxidation of isoprene and smog chamber experiments. Aerosol samples contained one enantiomer of 2-methylerythritol in significantly larger quantities than the others. In contrast, the liquid-phase oxidation of isoprene and its gas-phase oxidation in the smog chamber produced all enantiomers in equal quantities. The results obtained where the enantiomer fraction, EF, is larger than 0.50 suggest that 2-methyltetrols in atmospheric aerosols may also have biological origin. Information about the differences between enantiomer fractions obtained using this method brings new insights in the area of atmospheric aerosols.     

Non-local temperature-dependent phase-field models for non-isothermal phase transitions

We propose a model for non-isothermal phase transitions withnon-con-served order parameter driven by a spatially non-localfree energy with respect to both the temperature and the orderparameter. The resulting system of equations is shown to bethermodynamically consistent and to admit a strong solution.     

Identification of the laminar-turbulent transition process in a plasma plume

This paper illustrates the complete dynamics of the laminar-turbulent transition process in a plasma plume using a simple measurement of the magnation-point heat flux correlated with acoustic, optical, and voltage drop fluctuations. In the laminar flow regime a steady jet is produced and the heat fluxes are accurately predicted hr laminar correlations. The initial stage of transition is characterized by the formation of axisymmetric structures and velocity fluctuations which increase the heat flux over laminar correlations. This is followed by a rapid decrease in heat flux as the vortex structures become more intense and rapidly entrain external air into the plume. The plume oscillations (acoustical and voltage drop) become most intense and are identical in frequency at the point of minimum heat flux. The transition is complete which the transition to small-scale turbulence in the exiting boundary layer which results in dec reased entrainment and increased heat flux.     

Über eine neue Synthese von Desmethylambraoxid

A new synthesis of the title compound starting from abietic acid is described. Regioselective osmylation of the ^{13, 14}-double bond of abietic acid methyl ester (6) and subsequent hydrogenation furnishes dihydrodihydroxyabietic acid methyl ester (12) with anall-trans-connection of the three rings. Periodate cleavage of12 leads to13 which can be transformed into the triester14 byBaeyer-Villiger oxidation. The configuration of the aldehyde group in13 as well of the formyloxy group in14 has been ensured to be equatorial.LAH-reduction of14 leads to the triol16 which after cyclisation and reductive dehydroxylation furnishes the fragrance compound4.

Auszugsweise vorgetragen auf der 5. wissenschaftlichen Tagung der Österreichischen Pharmazeutischen Gesellschaft am 16. April 1985 in Graz.     

Microflow Vessel Improving Reproducibility and Sensitivity of Electrochemical Measurements

A new microflow system was designed and developed for electrochemical measurements. The electrochemical electrodes prepared using thick film technology were used in this arrangement. Results of various measurements such as simple amperometric measurement on the example of H₂O₂ detection, measurement with glucose oxidase (GOx) biosensor, soluble enzyme activity measurement etc. carried out using this system are reported. It was observed that the sensitivity and reproducibility of the electrochemical measurements is improved significantly. The new device performance was proved on H₂O₂ detection, activity of GOx measurement and heavy metals detection (measured concentration range: H₂O₂ 10^?9 to 10^?1 M, glucose 10^?6 to 10^?2 M, activity of GOx 10^?1 to 10² IU, heavy metals (Cu, Pb) 10^?4 to 10^?3 M). The microflow insert greatly reduces the overall size of the electrolyte vessel and measurements with sample quantity as low as 2 mL can be accomplished.     

High sensitivity biosensor measurement based on synchronous detection

The principle of synchronous detection (SD) has been applied to biosensor measurement. SD principle achieves significant increases in the signal to noise ratio, limit of detection and overall measurement robustness. Application of SD in biosensor measurement improves the analysis of the response and avoids the influence of interference/noise produced by stirring, electromagnetic effects and influence of parasitic currents. SD also enables the decomposition of signal to stimulation response and phenomena with long time of response. Second-order phenomena are identifiable in the signal. Linear statistical model was used to develop software for identification of the stimulation signal in the output current. SD was applied to the response signal of a Photosystem II complex (PSII) biosensor. PSII response to light stimulation follows first order kinetics. The inhibition kinetics of PSII has been studied. Kinetic constants of herbicide binding to PSII depend linearly on herbicide concentration and enable measurement of its concentration at low concentrations (linear range for diuron is 10?? to 10?? mM).     

Identification of Linear Error-Models with Projected Dynamical Systems

Linear error models are an integral part of several parameter identification methods for feedforward and feedback control systems and lead in connection with the L ₂-norm to a convex distance measure which has to be minimised for identification purposes. The parameters are hereby often subject to specific restrictions whose intersections span a convex solution set with non-differentiability points on its boundary. For solving these well conditioned problems on-line the paper formulates the solution of the bounded convex minimisation problem as a stable equilibrium set of a proper system of differential equations. The vector field of the corresponding system of differential equations is based on a projection of the negative gradient of the distance measure. A general drawback of this approach is the discontinuous right-hand side of the differential equation caused by the projection transformation. The consequence are difficulties for the verification of the existence, uniqueness and stability of a solution trajectory. Therefore the first subject of this paper is the derivation of an alternative formulation of the projected dynamical system, which exhibits, in contrast to the original formulation, a continuous right-hand side and is thus accessible to conventional analysis methods. For this purpose the multi-dimensional stop operator is used and the existence, uniqueness and stability properties of the solution trajectories are established. The second part of this paper deals with the numerical integration of the projected dynamical system which is used for an implementation of the identification method on a digital signal processor for example. To demonstrate the performance the application of this on-line identification method to the hysteretic filter synthesis with the modified Prandtl-Ishlinskii approach is presented in the last part of this paper.     

Discovery of a novel ligand that modulates the protein–protein interactions of the AAA+ superfamily oncoprotein reptin

Developing approaches to discover protein–protein interactions (PPIs) remains a fundamental challenge. A chemical biology platform is applied here to identify novel PPIs for the AAA+ superfamily oncoprotein reptin. An in silico screen coupled with chemical optimization provided Liddean, a nucleotide-mimetic which modulates reptin''s oligomerization status, protein-binding activity and global conformation. Combinatorial peptide phage library screening of Liddean-bound reptin with next generation sequencing identified interaction motifs including a novel reptin docking site on the p53 tumor suppressor protein. Proximity ligation assays demonstrated that endogenous reptin forms a predominantly cytoplasmic complex with its paralog pontin in cancer cells and Liddean promotes a shift of this complex to the nucleus. An emerging view of PPIs in higher eukaryotes is that they occur through a striking diversity of linear peptide motifs. The discovery of a compound that alters reptin''s protein interaction landscape potentially leads to novel avenues for therapeutic development.