The Elimination of Grains and Grain Boundaries in Grain Growth

The topological changes that occur during coarsening of 2D and 3Dcellular structures, such as polycrystals, areinvestigated. Particular attention is given to the elimination ofgrain boundaries and grains with more than the minimum number oftopological elements. A thermodynamic criterion is introduced tofind out which topological transformations are favoured, based on theevaluation of the Gibbs free energy of the initial and finalconfigurations. In general, elimination of grains is possible only ifthe number of their neighbours is below a critical value, which maybe affected by geometry.     

Heat of formation of yttrium-bismuth alloys

In the Y—Bi system the formation heats were measured using a direct isoperibol calorimeter. The following values were found for the two known compounds:

     

A direct isoperibol aneroid calorimeter

An aneroid isoperibol calorimetric apparatus is described which is particularly suitable for measurement of the reaction heat among solids. Such an apparatus contains four calorimeters and allows to carry out differential measurements. Each calorimeter includes two small electric furnaces employed for heating the solid mixture until the reaction begins and for the successive electric calibrations, respectively. The temperature trend of each calorimeter is followed by 80 thermocouples in series. The instrument characteristics are briefly discussed. Examples of its employment in the alloy thermochemistry are given.     

Ab initio molecular modeling of 13C NMR chemical shifts of polymers. 1. Ethylene–norbornene copolymers

Cycloolefin copolymers (COC) have recently raised much interest because of their excellent thermal and optical properties, largely determined by the chain composition and stereochemistry. Previous force‐field computations allowed us to define the main conformational characteristics of ethylene–norbornene (E–N) copolymers and to contribute to the elucidation of their microstructure on the basis of empirical relationships between conformation and ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shifts. A thorough test of ab initio ¹³C chemical shifts computations [gauge‐invariant atomic orbitals (GIAO)] on known cases shows that the agreement with experimental data is quite good, especially with the MPW1PW91 density functional theory (DFT), using the 6‐311+G(2d,p) basis set on properly energy‐minimized structures. We applied this method on proper model compounds to confirm the signal assignment of the spectra of E–N copolymers in the presence of norbornene microblocks, where strong effects arising from ring distortions are expected to occur. The results nicely confirm the latest assignment of norbornene signals belonging to ENNE sequences. This shows the great potentialities of GIAO/DFT computations with regard to complex spectra interpretation and polymer microstructural investigations. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2002     

Electron solvation by highly polar molecules: density functional theory study of atomic sodium interaction with water, ammonia, and methanol

This study further extends the scope of a previous paper [Y. Ferro and A. Allouche, J. Chem. Phys. 118, 10461 (2003)] on the reactivity of atomic Na with water to some other highly polar molecules known for their solvation properties connected to efficient hydrogen bonding. The solvation mechanisms of ammonia and methanol are compared to the hydration mechanism. It is shown that in the case of ammonia, the stability of the solvated system is only ensured by electrostatic interactions, whereas the methanol action is more similar to that of water. More specific attention is given to the solvation process of the valence 3s Na electron. The consequences on the chemical reactivity are analyzed: Whereas ammonia is nonreactive when interacting with atomic sodium, two chemical reactions are proposed for methanol. The first process is dehydrogenation and yields methoxy species and hydrogen. The other one is dehydration and the final products are methoxy species, but also methyl radical and water. The respective roles of electron solvation and hydrogen bonds network are analyzed in detail in view of the density of states of the reactive systems.     

Vapour pressures and sublimation enthalpies of thymine and cytosine

The vapour pressures of cytosine and thymine were measured using the torsion-effusion technique. The sublimation processes of cytosine and thymine were investigated over the temperature ranges 480–553 K and 420–503 K, respectively. The following pressure—temperature equations were derived by least-squares treatment of the vapour pressure data

The standard sublimation enthalpies were obtained by second-and third-law treatment of the experimental data and the values ΔH⁰₂₉₈ = 167 ± 10 kJ mole^?1 and ΔH⁰₂₉₈ = 138 ± 10 kJ mole^?1 were derived for cytosine and thymine, respectively. IR and Raman spectra were recorded in the gas phase in order to evaluate the thermodynamic functions of gaseous cytosine and thymine.     

Determination of heats of formation of praseodymium antimonides

A systematic investigation of the heats of formation in the Pr-Sb system has been performed using a small-furnace, isoperibolic calorimeter. The compositions and the equilibrium states of the samples have been checked by metallographic and X-ray analyses. The following values have been found for the various compounds (kJ/g atom±2): Pr₂Sb:-99; Pr₅Sb₃:-112; Pr₄Sb₃:-120; PrSb:-126; PrSb₂:-97.The data available (both the results obtained in this work and those already known) are discussed briefly and related to the possible shape of the phase diagram.

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Zusammenfassung Es wurde eine systematische Untersuchung der Bildungswärmen im Pr/Sb-System unter Verwendung eines Kleinofen-Isoperibolkalorimeters ausgeführt. Die Zusammensetzung und der Gleichgewichtszustand der Proben wurden durch metallographische und röntgenographische Analyse ermittelt. Für die einzelnen Verbindungen wurden folgende Werte (kJ·mol^–1 ±2.0) gefunden: Pr₂Sb:-99; Pr₅Sb₃:-112; Pr₄Sb₃:-120;PrSb:-126; PrSb₂:-97. Die als Ergebnis dieser Arbeit erhaltenen und aus der Literatur bereits bekannte Daten werden kurz diskutiert und mit einem möglichen Phasendiagramm in Verbindung gebracht.

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-Sb, . . ( (-)^–1 ±2.0): Pr₂Sb-99; Pr₅Sb₃-112; PrSb₃-120; PrSb-126; PrSb₂-97. .

     

Electrochemical oxidation of organic pollutants for the wastewater treatment: direct and indirect processes

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in finding innovative solutions for the efficient removal of contaminants from water, soil and air. The present tutorial review summarizes the results of an extensive selection of papers dealing with electrochemical oxidation, which is proposed as an alternative for treating polluted wastes. Both the direct and indirect approaches are considered, and the role of electrode materials is discussed together with that of other experimental parameters. Apart from discussing the possibility of removing selected contaminants from water using different anodes, efficiency rates for pollutant removal have been collected, the dependence of these rates on operational conditions advantages and disadvantages determining the further full-scale commercial application.     

Organic solvent extraction as a versatile procedure to identify hydrophobic chloroplast membrane proteins

As a complementary approach to genome projects, proteomic analyses have been set up to identify new gene products. One of the major challenges in proteomics concerns membrane proteins, especially the minor ones. A procedure based on the differential extraction of membrane proteins in chloroform/methanol mixtures, was tested on the two different chloroplast membrane systems: envolope and thylakoid membranes. Combining the use of classical sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and mass spectrometry analyses, this procedure enabled identification of hydrophobic proteins. The propensity of hydrophobic proteins to partition in chloroform/methanol mixtures was directly correlated with the number of amino acid residues/number of putative transmembrane regions (Res/TM ratio). Regardless of the particular case of some lipid-interacting proteins, chloroform/methanol extractions allowed enrichment of hydrophobic proteins and exclusion of hydrophilic proteins from both membrane systems, thus demonstrating the versatility of the procedure.     

Un'osservazione sulle funzioni booleane simmetriche

Sommario In un'algebra di Boole si considerano le funzioni simmetriche rispetto al coniugio su un sottoinsieme delle variabili. Si danno delle rappresentazioni di tali funzioni in funzione delle funzioni simmetriche elementari.

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Summary In a Boolean Algebra, the functions which are symmetric with respect to conjugation on a subset of the variables are considered. A representation of such functions by means of the elementary symmetric functions is given.

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Il presente lavoro è stato eseguito mentre l'autore era teaching assistant presso l'University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).