von Neumann’s trace inequality for Hilbert–Schmidt operators

von Neumann’s inequality in matrix theory refers to the fact that the Frobenius scalar product of two matrices is less than or equal to the scalar product of the respective singular values. Moreover, equality can only happen if the two matrices share a joint set of singular vectors, and this latter part is hard to find in the literature. We extend these facts to the separable Hilbert space setting, and provide a self-contained proof of the “latter part”.     

PTML modeling for peptide discovery: in silico design of non-hemolytic peptides with antihypertensive activity

Molecular Diversity - Hypertension is a medical condition that affects millions of people worldwide. Despite the high efficacy of the current antihypertensive drugs, they are associated with...     

Naphthalimide‐phthalimide derivative based photoinitiating systems for polymerization reactions under blue lights

Naphthalimide‐phthalimide derivatives (NDPDs) have been synthesized and combined with an iodonium salt, N‐vinylcarbazole, amine or 2,4,6‐tris(trichloromethyl)‐1,3,5‐triazine to produce reactive species (i.e., radicals and cations). These generated reactive species are capable of initiating the cationic polymerization of epoxides and/or the radical polymerization of acrylates upon exposure to very soft polychromatic visible lights or blue lights. Compared with the well‐known camphorquinone based systems used as references, the novel NDPD based combinations employed here demonstrate clearly higher efficiencies for the cationic polymerization of epoxides under air as well as the radical polymerization of acrylates. Remarkably, one of the NDPDs (i.e., NDPD2) based systems is characterized by an outstanding reactivity. The structure/reactivity/efficiency relationships of the investigated NDPDs were studied by fluorescence, cyclic voltammetry, laser flash photolysis, electron spin resonance spin trapping, and steady state photolysis techniques. The key parameters for their reactivity are provided. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 665–674     

Fast and efficient preparation of Baylis-Hillman-derived (E)-allylic azides and related compounds in aqueous medium

A practical access to alkyl- and aryl-substituted (E)-2-(azidomethyl)alkenoates and related azido compounds from the corresponding allylic bromides in aqueous acetone is described. An alternative method to obtain the starting bromides based on heterogeneous catalysis under mild conditions was also investigated.     

The boundary trace and generalized boundary value problem for semilinear elliptic equations with coercive absorption

In the first part of the paper we establish the existence of a boundary trace for positive solutions of the equation ?Δu + g(x, u) = 0 in a smooth domain Ω ? ?^N, for a general class of positive nonlinearities. This class includes every space independent, monotone increasing g which satisfies the Keller‐Osserman condition as well as degenerate nonlinearities g_α,q of the form g_α,q (x, u) = d(x, ?Ω)^α |u|^q?1 u, with α > ?2 and q > 1. The boundary trace is given by a positive regular Borel measure which may blow up on compact sets. In the second part we concentrate on the family of nonlinearities {g_α,q}, determine the critical value of the exponent q (for fixed α > ?2) and discuss (a) positive solutions with an isolated singularity, for subcritical nonlinearities and (b) the boundary value problem for ?Δu + g_α,q (x, u) = 0 with boundary data given by a positive regular Borel measure (possibly unbounded). We show that, in the subcritical case, the problem possesses a unique solution for every such measure. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Singlet versus triplet dynamics of β-carotene studied by quantum control spectroscopy

Biomolecules very often present complex energy deactivation networks with overlapping electronic absorption bands, making their study a difficult task. This can be especially true in transient absorption spectroscopy when signals from bleach, excited state absorption and stimulated emission contribute to the signal. However, quantum control spectroscopy can be used to discriminate specific electronic states of interest by applying specifically designed laser pulses. Recently, we have shown the control of energy flow in bacterial light-harvesting using shaped pump pulses in the visible and the selective population of pathways in carotenoids using an additional depletion pulse in the transient absorption technique. Here, we apply a closed-loop optimization approach to β-carotene using a spatial light modulator to decipher the energy flow network after a multiphoton excitation with a shaped ultrashort pulse in the near-IR. After excitation, two overlapping bands were detected and identified as the S₁ state and the first triplet state T₁. Using the transient absorption signal at a specific probe delay as feedback, the triplet signal could be optimized over the singlet contribution.     

Bubble point pressure estimates from Gibbs ensemble simulations

Bubble pressure points of ethanol–1,1,1,2,3,3,3-heptafluoropropane (HFC-227ea refrigerant) mixtures from the third Industrial Fluid Properties Simulation Challenge are computed using publicly available molecular simulation software. Several published force fields are compared against the known answers provided in the contest guidelines and the best force fields are used to make predictions for the unknown results.     

Modélisation de structures électromagnétiques périodiques – matériaux bianisotropes avec mémoire

In this Note we propose a rigorous justification of the limit constitutive law of a periodic bi-anisotropic electromagnetic structure with memory. This study is based on the periodic unfolding method, introduced by D. Cioranescu, A. Damlamian and G. Griso, and is applied on the time domain and on the frequency domain. To cite this article: A. Bossavit et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 338 (2004).