CO2 poisoning effect on HY zeolite dehydration catalyst

The poisoning effect of CO₂ on a HY catalyst for the dehydration of 2-(2-hydroxyethyl)-pyridine (HEP) to 2-vinylpyridine (VP) has been investigated by FT-IR analysis in the presence and absence of pyridine. CO₂ was found to adsorb on sites not occupied by pyridine,i.e. on weak basic sites accompanying the strongly acidic sites, characteristic of Y zeolites in the protonated form. When the basic sites are occupied by preadsorbed CO₂, HEP dehydration cannot take place any more through the minor mechanism, involving a couple of acid-base sites, and the reaction proceeds only through the major mechanism, involving a carbocation intermediate, on Br?nsted acid sites only.     

Crystalline and Isoperimetric Square Configurations

We present crystallization results for planar atomic interactions governed by two- and three-body terms with the resulting periodicity being that of the square lattice. The emergence of a (square) Wulff shape for ground states is established by showing the optimality of ground-state configurations in terms of a discrete isoperimetric inequality. Furthermore, an n^3/4 law for the deviation from the asymptotic Wulff shape is established with an explicit constant for the leading term. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

$$N^{3/4}$$ N 3 / 4 Law in the Cubic Lattice

Journal of Statistical Physics - We investigate the Edge-Isoperimetric Problem (EIP) for sets with n elements of the cubic lattice by emphasizing its relation with the emergence of the Wulff shape...     

Detergent enhancement of on-tissue protein analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry

Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI) Imaging Mass Spectrometry (IMS) is a molecular technology that allows simultaneous investigation of the content and spatial distribution of molecules within tissue. In this work, we examine different classes of detergents, the anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), the nonionic detergents Triton X-100, Tween 20 and Tween 80, and the zwitterionic 3-[(3-cholamidopropyl)dimethylammonio]-1-propanesulfonate (CHAPS) for use in MALDI IMS of analytes above m/z 4000. These detergents were found to be compatible with MALDI MS and did not cause signal suppression relative to non-detergent applications and did not produce interfering background signals. In general, these detergents enhanced signal acquisition within the mass range m/z 4-40 000. Adding detergents into the matrix was comparable with the separate application of detergent and matrix. Evaluation of spectra collected from organ-specific regions of a whole mouse pup section showed that different detergents perform optimally with different organs, indicating that detergent selection should be optimized on the specific tissue for maximum gain. These data show the utility of detergents towards enhancement of protein signals for on-tissue MALDI IMS analysis.     

Infinite-dimensional porous media equations and optimal transportation

In this paper, we study a class of nonlinear diffusion equations in a Hilbert space X, $\partial_t\mu_t -\nabla\cdot\left(\nabla (L\circ\rho_t)\gamma\right)=0 \quad\mbox{\rm in}\,X\times(0,+\infty)$ with respect to a log-concave reference probability measure γ. We obtain existence, uniqueness and stability properties, in the framework of gradient flows in spaces of probability measures.     

Dark matter and dark energy from the solution of the strong CP problem

The Peccei-Quinn (PQ) solution of the strong CP problem requires the existence of axions, which are viable candidates for dark matter. If the Nambu-Goldstone potential of the PQ model is replaced by a potential V(|Phi|) admitting a tracker solution, the scalar field |Phi| can account for dark energy, while the phase of Phi yields axion dark matter. If V is a supergravity (SUGRA) potential, the model essentially depends on a single parameter, the energy scale Lambda. Once we set Lambda approximately equal to 10(10) GeV at the quark-hadron transition, |Phi| naturally passes through values suitable to solve the strong CP problem, later growing to values providing fair amounts of dark matter and dark energy.