High-temperature tungsten trioxides obtained by concentrated solar energy: physicochemical and electrochemical characterization

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - High-crystalline tungsten trioxides (WO3) have been synthesized by an environmentally friendly method using concentrated solar energy. The obtained...     

Structural studies of N-2-(6-picolyl)-N′-tolylthioureas

Reaction of 2-amino-6-picoline with 2-, 3-, and 4-tolyl isothiocyanates produces the three N-2-(6-picolyl)-N-tolylthioureas, 6PicTu2T, 6PicTu3T, and 6PicTu4T. 6PicTu2T is mono-clinic, space group P2₁/n with a = 8.1700(3) Å, b = 25.5840(6) Å, c = 12.6840(5) Å, = 98.8750(16)°, and V = 2619.5(2) ų with Z = 8, for d _calc = 1.305 g/cm³. 6PicTu3T is monoclinic, space group C2/c with a = 23.879(3) Å, b = 6.744(3) Å, c = 17.116(10) Å, = 99.26(4)°, and V = 2720(3) ų with Z = 8, for d _calc = 1.257 g/cm³. 6PicTu4T is triclinic, space group P-1 with a = 8.829(6) Å, b = 8.8950(15) Å, c = 10.495(3) Å, = 68.63(3)°, = 72.19(4)°, = 63.06(4)°, and V = 681.2(5) ų with Z = 2, for d _calc = 1.255 g/cm³. Intermolecular hydrogen bonding involving the thione sulfur and the NH hydrogen and the planarity of the thiourea are affected by the position of substitution on the aryl ring. ¹H NMR studies in CDCl₃ show the NH hydrogen resonance considerably downfield from other signals in the spectrum of each thiourea. The enthalpies of fusion of the present thioureas reflect the extent of intermolecular hydrogen bonding and are compared to other heterocyclic thioureas.     

PHOTODYNAMIC LIPID PEROXIDATION BY THE PHOTOSENSITIZING NONSTEROIDAL ANTIINFLAMMATORY DRUGS SUPROFEN AND TIAPROFENIC ACID

Abstract The photochemistry of the photosensitizing nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs tiaprofenic acid and suprofen involves the intermediacy of short-lived species ( i.e. radicals). The data obtained in the present work strongly suggest that such intermediates may be responsible for the phototoxicity of 2-arylpropionic acids by inducing photodynamic lipid peroxidation at drug concentrations likely to be reached in the skin. This has been investigated using linoleic acid as a model lipid and determining the amount of hydroperoxides by measuring the spectrophotometric absorption at 233 nm, associated with the formation of dienic hydroperoxides. The major photoproducts of tiaprofenic acid and suprofen are derivatives bearing an ethyl side chain. Photoproducts of this type, due to the lack of polar moieties, are highly lipophilic and likely to accumulate in the lipid bilayer of cell membranes. Taking into account their ability to induce photodynamic lipid peroxidation and their marked photostability, it is conceivable that such photoproducts can participate in many catalytic cycles, playing a significant role in the mechanism of photosensitizatinn by tiprofenic acid and suprofen.     

Necessary optimality conditions for differential-difference inclusions with state constraints

We consider the Mayer optimal control problem with dynamics given by a nonconvex differential-difference inclusion, whose trajectories are constrained to a closed set. Necessary optimality conditions in the form of the maximum principle are obtained.     

N2O influence on isotopic measurements of atmospheric CO2

In spite of extensive efforts, even the most experienced laboratories dealing with isotopic measurements of atmospheric CO2 still suffer from poor inter-laboratory consistency. One of the complicating factors of these isotope measurements is the presence of N2O, giving rise to mass overlap in the isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS). The aim of the experiment reported here has been twofold: first, the re-establishment of the correction for 'mechanical' interference of N2O in the IRMS, along with its variability and drift, and the best way to quantitatively determine the correction factors. Second, an investigation into secondary effects, i.e. the influence of N2O admitted with the CO2 sample on the "cross contamination" between sample and (pure CO2) working gas. To make the suspected effects better detectable, isotopically enriched CO2 gas with different concentrations of N2O has been measured for the first time. No evidence of secondary effects was observed, from which we conclude that N2O is not a major player in the inter-laboratory consistency problems. Still, we also found that the determination of the 'mechanical' N2O correction needs to be very carefully determined for each individual IRMS, and should be periodically re-determined. We show that the determination of the correction should be performed using CO2/N2O mixtures with concentration ratios around that of the atmosphere, as the extrapolation from pure gas end member behaviour will give erroneous results due to non-linearities. For our IRMS, a VG SIRA series II, we find a correction of 0.23 per thousand for delta45CO2 and 0.30 per thousand for delta46CO2 of atmospheric samples, (with 0.85 per thousand mixing ratio). This implies that the relative ionisation efficiency (E) value associated with this machine is 0.75.     

INVOLVEMENT OF DRUG-DERIVED PEROXIDES IN THE PHOTOTOXICITY OF NAPROXEN and TIAPROFENIC ACID

Photodegradation of naproxen and tiaprofenic acid in aqueous buffered solutions leads to decarboxylated products with ethyl, 1-hydroxyethyl and/or acetyl side chains. The photomixtures obtained in the presence of oxygen were clearly more toxic to cultured hepatocytes than those obtained under anaerobic conditions. This effect was more noticeable in the case of naproxen. Based on the composition of the oxygenated photomixtures and the relative toxicity of the different photoproducts, it is possible to account for most of the observed toxicity in the case of tiaprofenic acid but not in the case of naproxen. This is explained as a result of the presence of drug-derived peroxidic species in the photomixtures and their contribution to the observed toxicity. Peroxides were determined by the peroxidase-catalyzed oxidation of dichlorodihydrofluorescein to its fluorescent analog. The amount of peroxides present in naproxen photomixtures was much higher than in the case of tiaprofenic acid. A dose-dependent depletion of intracellular glutathione was observed when hepatocytes were incubated with peroxide-containing naproxen photomixtures. This effect was prevented by the addition of catalase or jV-acetylcysteine to the culture medium.     

Analysis of linewidth and extinction ratio in directly modulated lasers for performance optimization in 10 Gbit/s CWDM systems

Direct Modulation Lasers (DMLs) have attracted increased attention during the past few years because of their intrinsic simplicity and cost-effectiveness, especially when applied to WDM metro and access networks. However, the output power waveform from a directly modulated laser is not an exact replica of the modulation current and its instantaneous optical frequency varies with time depending on the changes in optical power and the extinction ratio (ER) (an effect also known as frequency chirp). In this work, using an Optical Communication System Design Software, we have studied a directly modulated WDM 10 Gb/s system which transmission performance depends strongly on DML characteristics; simulation results have provided supplementary details about the effects of DML type (adiabatic or transient chirp dominated) as well as the effects of the optical output power. These details can provide useful design guidelines for constructing a WDM metro network.