Synthesis and characterization of 1H-benz[f]indole-4,9-dione and the related dihydroxy derivative

Dehydrogenation and contemporaneous demethylation of the parent 4,9-dimethoxy-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-1H-benz[f]indole ( 2 ) yielded the expected aromatization products 4 and 5 (1H-benz[f]indole-4,9-dione and 4,9-di-hydroxy-1H-benz[f]indole, respectively).     

Controlling the self-assembly of a deoxiguaninosine on mica

We report a tapping mode scanning force microscopy investigation on the growth from solutions of a lipophilic deoxiguanosine derivative on the basal plane of a muscovite mica surface. By varying the chemical composition of the substrate surface it is possible to drive the self-assembly towards either layered thin films, which are very likely to consist of guanosine quartets, or nanoribbons, comprising hydrogen bonded networks. Both these two architectures, which are peculiar to the guanine base itself, are of notable importance for the fabrication of molecular nanowires. Moreover, the first arrangement provides evidence that the guanosine is able to behave as ionophore, thus, suggesting its utilization in the development of solid-state ion selective sensors.     

SuperB production,matter stability and gauge hierarchy in SUSY GUTs

We analyze the connections between the problems of the cosmological baryon asymmetry (CBA), matter stability and mass hierarchy in supersymmetric Grand Unified models. We show that the typical delay of the phase transition in supersymmetric theories as well as a natural solution to the triplet-doublet Higgs hierarchy problem imply baryon production after the Grand Unification phase transition which in a wide class of SUSY GUTs takes place atT～10⁹–10¹⁰ GeV. Light Higgs colour triplets as a means of producing the CBA are discussed in detail. An alternative mechanism involving a singlet superfield is proposed leading to striking consequences in proton decay with the appearance of (B+L) conserving modes with a muon and a kaon in the final state:n→μ^? K ⁺,p μ ^2212;π⁺ K ⁺ and a lifetime of 10³¹ years.     

Naturally massless Higgs doublets in supersymmetric SU(5)

We construct a supersymmetric SU(5) model characterized by: (a) naturally massless doublet Higgs superfields; (b) the natural appearance of “light” coloured triplet Higgses of mass of the order 10¹⁰ GeV, and study proton decay as well as the generation of cosmic baryon asymmetry. We find that an appropriate choice of Higgs sector renders dimension-five operators kinematically irrelevant for the stability of the proton. Proton decay proceeds through Higgs boson exchange in terms of dimension-six operators mainly to ${\overline{v}}_{\mu }{K}^{+},v^{+}{K}^0$.     

On the suppression of flavour changing neutral processes in technicolour theories

We present, in a form of a theorem, a mechanism for the suppression of flavour changing neutral currents in theories with technicolour. This mechanism prevents purely hadronic and leptonic flavour changing neutral processes, however it allows for semileptonic processes, such as $\text{K}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>L</mtext>}}\text{→}\text{e}\text{μ}\text{or K}\text{→ πeμ}\text{with}\text{BR}\text{?}\text{10}{}^{\mathrm{?9}}\text{? 10}{}^{\mathrm{?11}}$. Illustrative toy models are considered. as an implementation of such a mechanism.     

EEG Fractal Analysis Reflects Brain Impairment after Stroke

Stroke is the commonest cause of disability. Novel treatments require an improved understanding of the underlying mechanisms of recovery. Fractal approaches have demonstrated that a single metric can describe the complexity of seemingly random fluctuations of physiological signals. We hypothesize that fractal algorithms applied to electroencephalographic (EEG) signals may track brain impairment after stroke. Sixteen stroke survivors were studied in the hyperacute (<48 h) and in the acute phase (∼1 week after stroke), and 35 stroke survivors during the early subacute phase (from 8 days to 32 days and after ∼2 months after stroke): We compared resting-state EEG fractal changes using fractal measures (i.e., Higuchi Index, Tortuosity) with 11 healthy controls. Both Higuchi index and Tortuosity values were significantly lower after a stroke throughout the acute and early subacute stage compared to healthy subjects, reflecting a brain activity which is significantly less complex. These indices may be promising metrics to track behavioral changes in the very early stage after stroke. Our findings might contribute to the neurorehabilitation quest in identifying reliable biomarkers for a better tailoring of rehabilitation pathways.     

HJB equations in infinite dimensions with locally Lipschitz Hamiltonian and unbounded terminal condition

We study Hamilton Jacobi Bellman equations in an infinite dimensional Hilbert space, with Lipschitz coefficients, where the Hamiltonian has superquadratic growth with respect to the derivative of the value function, and the final condition is not bounded. This allows to study stochastic optimal control problems for suitable controlled state equations with unbounded control processes. The results are applied to a controlled wave equation.