A Local Analysis of Congruences in the (p, p) Case: Part I

Given an irreducible, modular, mod p representation p, we analyse the local components at p of newforms f which give rise to it.     

TERAHERTZ QUALITY CONTROL OF POLYMERIC PRODUCTS

We report on experiments that evaluate the potential of terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) for quality control of polymeric compounds. We investigate specimens out of a polyethylene compound with silver-coated titanium dioxide nanospheres and a glass-fiber reinforced epoxy composite. We further examine an industrial polymer product produced by injection molding. Our data demonstrates that THz imaging is a powerful tool for contactless quality control in the polymer industry.     

Operational characteristics and power scaling of a transverse flow transversely excited CW CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> laser

Transverse flow transversely excited (TFTE) CO₂ lasers are easily scalable to multikilowatt level. The laser power can be scaled up by increasing the volumetric gas flow and discharge volume. It was observed in a TFTE CW CO₂ laser having single row of pins as an anode and tubular cathode that the laser power was not increasing when the discharge volume and the gas volumetric flow were increased by increasing the electrode separation keeping the gas flow velocity constant. The discharge voltage too remained almost constant with the change of electrode separation at the same gas flow velocity. This necessitated revision of the scaling laws for designing this type of high power CO₂ laser. Experimental results of laser performance for different electrode separations are discussed and the modifications in the scaling laws are presented.     

Theoretical study of unimolecular rearrangements of vinylidenes to acetylenes

The rearrangement of vinylidene to acetylene has been studied in detail by the density functional method, using Becke's three‐parameter exchange functional and the gradient‐corrected functional of Lee, Yang, and Parr. The rearrangement of the anion, as well as that of fluoro‐substituted systems, has also been investigated, in order to determine the effect of fluorine substitution on the activation barrier to the 1,2‐hydrogen shift, as well as the relative migratory aptitudes of hydrogen and fluorine. Natural bond orbital analysis is invoked to gain insight into the mechanisms of the rearrangements. Basis size effects are also discussed, particularly in relation to anionic systems. The need to include diffuse functions in geometry optimizations of anionic systems is reinforced by the present calculations. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005     

Mirror image nanostructures

Chiral molecules that self-assemble to form chiral supramolecular structures exhibit interesting structural features reminiscent of tertiary and quaternary structures of proteins and have applications in catalysis and nonlinear optics. Often, these structures are hierarchical, with their chiral structure difficult to interpret on the molecular scale. In this communication, we observe chiral assembling molecules that form well-defined helices with a pitch of 28 nm. We observe the behavior in both R- and S-enantiomers of the molecule, forming mirror image nanostructures. The molecular chirality is determined by the dimethyloctyl alkyl coil of the molecule and is located more than 4 nm from the hydrogen-bonding segment. The nanostructures observed are not hierarchical, which could be a result of the significant separation between the stereocenter and hydrogen-bonding dendron. The subtle structural modification at the periphery of the molecule biases the supramolecular assembly, which is driven primarily by strong hydrogen-bonding and pi-pi stacking interactions.     

Enantioselective separation on a naturally chiral surface

Kinked-stepped, high Miller index surfaces of metal crystals are chiral and, therefore, exhibit enantiospecific properties. Previous temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) spectra have shown that the desorption energies of R-3-methylcyclohexanone (R-3-MCHO) on the chiral Cu(643)(R) and Cu(643)(S) surfaces are enantiospecific (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124, 2384). Here, a comparison of the TPD spectra from Cu(111), Cu(221), Cu(533), Cu(653)(R&S), and Cu(643)(R&S) surfaces reveals that the enantiospecific desorption occurs from the chiral kink sites on the Cu(643) surfaces. Titration of the chiral kink sites with I atoms confirms this assignment of desorption features in the TPD spectra. Finally, the enantiospecific difference in the desorption energies of R- and S-3-MCHO has been used as the basis for demonstration of an enantioselective, kinetic separation of racemic 3-MCHO into its purified components during adsorption and desorption on the Cu(643)(R&S) surfaces.     

Purification and characterization of a solvent stable protease from Pseudomonas aeruginosa PseA

A solvent tolerant Pseudomonas aeruginosa PseA strain was isolated from soil. It secreted a novel alkaline protease, which was stable and active in the presence of range of organic solvents, thus potentially useful for catalysis in non-aqueous media. The protease was purified 11.6-fold with 60% recovery by combination of ion exchange and hydrophobic interaction chromatography using Q-Sepharose and Phenyl Sepharose 6 Fast Flow matrix, respectively. The apparent molecular mass based on the sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was estimated to be 35,000 Da. The enzyme was stable in the pH range of 6.0-9.0, the optimum being 8.0. The Km and Vmax towards caseinolytic activity were found to be 2.7 mg/ml and 3 micromol/min, respectively. The protease was most active at 60 degrees C and characterized as a metalloprotease because of its sensitivity to EDTA and 1,10-phenanthroline. It was tested positive for elastase activity towards elastin-orcein, thus appears to be an elastase, which is known as pseudolysin in other strains of P. aeruginosa. The protease withstands range of detergents, surfactants and solvents. It is stable and active in all the solvents having log P above 3.2, at least up to 72 h. These two properties make it an ideal choice for applications in detergent formulations and enzymatic peptide synthesis.     

Highly Selective and Sensitive Graphene Based Electrochemical Sensor for Quantification of Receptor Agonist Rizatriptan

A highly selective and sensitive electrochemical sensor has been developed by modification of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with graphene (GRP) for quantification of Rizatriptan. The significant increase of the peak current and the improvement of the oxidation peak potential indicate that the electrochemical sensor facilitates the electron transfer of Rizatriptan. The oxidation peak current was proportional to the Rizatriptan concentration in the range from 100 to 600 µg/mL with detection (LOD) and quantification limit (LOQ) of 36.52 and 121.73 µg/mL, respectively. The developed method was successfully employed for quantification of Rizatriptan in pharmaceutical formulations. The sensor shows great promise for simple, sensitive and quantitative detection of Rizatriptan.