Controlling the water content of never dried and reswollen bacterial cellulose by the addition of water-soluble polymers to the culture medium

For the modification of medically useful biomaterials from bacterially synthesized cellulose, fleeces of Acetobacter xylinum have been produced in the presence of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0% (m/v) carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), methylcellulose (MC), and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), respectively, in the Hestrin-Schramm culture medium. The incorporation of the water-soluble polymers into cellulose and their influence on the structure, crystal modifications, and material properties are described. With IR and solid-state ¹³C NMR spectroscopy of the fleeces, the presence of the cellulose ethers and an increase in the amorphous parts of the cellulose modifications (NMR results) have been detected. The incorporation is represented by a higher product yield, too. As demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy, a porelike cellulose network structure forms in the presence of CMC and MC. This modified structure increases the water retention ability (expressed as the water content), the ion absorption capacity, and the remaining nitrogen-containing residues from the culture medium or bacteria cells. The water content of bacterial cellulose (BC) in the never dried state and the freeze-dried, reswollen state can be controlled by the CMC concentration in the culture solution. The freeze-dried, reswollen BC-CMC (2.0%) contains 96% water after centrifugation, whereas standard BC has only 73%. About 98% water is included in a BC-MC composite in the wet state, and about 93% is included in the reswollen state synthesized in the presence of 0.5, 1.0, or 2.0% MC. These biomaterial composites can be stored in the dried state and reswollen before use, reaching a higher water absorption than pure, never dried BC. The copper ion capacity of BC-CMC composites increases proportionally with the added amount of CMC. BC-CMC (0.5%) can absorb 3 times more copper ions than original BC. In the case of 0.5 and 1.0% PVA additions to the culture solution, this polymer cannot be detected in the cellulose fleeces after they are washed. Nevertheless the presence of PVA in the culture medium effects a decreased product yield, a retention of nitrogen-containing residues in the material during purification, a reduced water absorption ability, and a slightly higher copper ion capacity in comparison with original BC. The water content of freeze-dried, reswollen BC-PVA (0.5%) is only 62%. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 463–470, 2004     

The convex hull property and topology of hypersurfaces with nonnegative curvature

We prove that, in Euclidean space, any nonnegatively curved, compact, smoothly immersed hypersurface lies outside the convex hull of its boundary, provided the boundary satisfies certain required conditions. This gives a convex hull property, dual to the classical one for surfaces with nonpositive curvature. A version of this result in the nonsmooth category is obtained as well. We show that our boundary conditions determine the topology of the surface up to at most two choices. The proof is based on uniform estimates for radii of convexity of these surfaces under a clipping procedure, a noncollapsing convergence theorem, and a gluing procedure.     

Spectra of second-order Raman scattering in porous silicon

Spectra of second-order Raman scattering in porous silicon are investigated. A band shift towards lower energies in second-order spectra is observed, as well as the correlation between the values of band shift in first-and second-order spectra. It is demonstrated that the observed effect cannot be interpreted using the conventional concepts of the mechanisms of scattering in microcrystalline samples. An interpretation of the revealed effect is suggested.     

Five-step phase-shifting algorithms with unknown values of phase shift

The presented work offers new algorithms for phase evaluation in interferometric measurements. Several phase-shifting algorithms with an arbitrary but constant phase-shift between captured intensity frames are proposed. These phase calculation algorithms need to measure five frames of the intensity of the interference field. The algorithms are similarly derived as so called Carré algorithm. The phase evaluation process then does not depend on the linear phase shift errors. Furthermore, the detailed analysis of the algorithms with respect to most important factors, which affect interferometric measurements, is carried out. It is also studied the dependency of the evaluation algorithms on the phase shift values, and the proposed phase calculation algorithms are compared with respect to the resulting phase errors. The influence of most important factors in the measurement and evaluation process was simulated as systematic and random errors using a proposed mathematical model.     

Homo-dinuclear σ-alkynyl complexes: past, present and opportunities

Homo-dinuclear alkynyl complexes with a distinct metal–metal bond constitute a rapidly growing field, where the focus is placed on compounds based on ruthenium, molybdenum, tungsten or rhodium. Interesting characteristics of these complexes include paramagnetism, intense charge-transfer absorptions, tunable bridging ligands, which may not be easily accessible in mononuclear acetylide systems. These complexes have significant potential for use in both molecular electronics and supramolecular chemistry. In this short account, previous work in this area is assessed, and each of the major groups of complexes is discussed in terms of both the synthetic strategies and structural motifs.     

The average a posteriori error of numerical methods

Summary The definition of the average error of numerical methods (by example of a quadrature formula to approximateS(f)= f d on a function classF) is difficult, because on many important setsF there is no natural probability measure in the sense of an equidistribution. We define the average a posteriori error of an approximation by an averaging process over the set of possible information, which is used by (in the example of a quadrature formula,N(F)={(f(a ₁), ...,f/fF} is the set of posible information). This approach has the practical advantage that the averaging process is related only to finite dimensional sets and uses only the usual Lebesgue measure. As an application of the theory I consider the numerical integration of functions of the classF={f:[0,1]/f(x)–f(y)||x–y|}. For arbitrary (fixed) knotsa _i we determine the optimal coefficientsc _i for the approximation and compute the resulting average error. The latter is minimal for the knots . (It is well known that the maximal error is minimal for the knotsa _i .) Then the adaptive methods for the same problem and methods for seeking the maximum of a Lipschitz function are considered. While adaptive methods are not better when considering the maximal error (this is valid for our examples as well as for many others) this is in general not the case with the average error.     

Effect of added alpha-lactalbumin protein on the phase behavior of AOT-brine-isooctane systems

We have found that the presence of <1 wt% of the globular protein alpha-lactalbumin has a significant impact on the equilibrium phase behavior of dilute sodium bis(ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT)/brine/isooctane systems. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Karl Fischer titration, and ultraviolet spectroscopy were used to determine the surfactant, oil, water, and protein content of the organic and aqueous phases as a function of the total surfactant and protein present. As a small amount of alpha-lactalbumin is added to the mixture, there is a substantial increase (up to 80%) in the maximum water solubility in the water-in-oil microemulsion phase. Dynamic light scattering measurements indicate that this increase is due to a decrease in the magnitude of the (negative) spontaneous curvature of the surfactant monolayer, as droplets swell in size. As the molar ratio of alpha-lactalbumin to AOT surpasses approximately 1:300, the partitioning of water, protein, and surfactant shifts to the excess aqueous phase, where soluble assemblies with positive curvature are detected by dynamic light scattering. Significant amounts of isooctane are solubilized in these aggregates, consistent with the formation of oil-in-water microemulsion droplets. Circular dichroism studies showed that the tertiary structure of the protein in the microemulsion is disrupted while the secondary structure is increased. In light of these findings, the protein most likely expands to a molten-globule type conformation in the AOT interfacial environment, but does not substantially unfold to become an extended chain.     

Spectres infrarouges et raman du complexe solide MgBr22Et2O: Changement de phase et isomérie de rotation des molécules d'éther coordonnées

Infrared and Raman spectra of solid magnesium bromide dietherate MgBr₂2Et₂O have been studied at different temperatures between 300 and 90 °K in the 4000 to 30 cm^? range. Infrared spectra of this compound at various pressures up to 10 kbar have also been investigated. The MgBr₂2Et₂O crystal has two phases and there is a reversible transition between them. This phase transition concerns primarily the conformational change of (C₂Hg₅)₂O molecules and much less the arrangement of the ligands around the central magnesium atom. At room temperature or low pressure the GG conformation appears to be predominant while at low temperature or high pressure there is only TG (or TT) conformation of ether molecules. The enthalpy difference and transition temperature between the phases have been determined calorimetrically. An assignment of the spectra of both phases is given. The analysis of intramolecular vibrations gives information about the relative contribution of conformational change and coordination effect to the frequency shifts of (C₂H₅)₂O vibrations. The assignment of magnesium-ligand vibrations on the other hand allows us to estimate the Mg-Br and Mg-O force constants.     

Organic nanoparticles whose size and rigidity are finely tuned by cross-linking the end groups of dendrimers

Dendrimers with molecular weights ranging from ca. 2700 to 11 000 and from 16 to 64 homoallyl ether end groups were cross-linked using the Grubbs ring-closing metathesis reaction. A combination of SEC, MALDI-TOF-MS, and AFM were used to characterize the cross-linked nanoparticles. The data suggest a significant decrease in volume with cross-linking and a concomitant increase in rigidity, both of which can be controlled independently with a fair degree of precision.