Synthesis, spectroscopic and electrochemical properties of new covalent assemblies between TTF and various acceptors

Five new acceptor-π–TTF-π-acceptor (A–D–A) triads that contain pyridine, quinoline, nitrophenyl or nitrofuryl groups as acceptor unit have been synthesized by two-fold Wittig olefination reactions and their electrochemical behavior has been studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV). The intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) band in these molecules was characterized by UV–visible electronic absorption spectroscopy and these studies were completed by DFT calculations in the gas phase. These materials appear to be good candidates for the preparation of electroactive discrete metal complexes or coordination polymers as well as for the preparation of radical cations salts

Field-induced spin density wave in (TMTSF)2_2NO3_3

Interlayer magnetoresistance of the Bechgaard salt (TMTSF)$_2$NO$_3$ is investigated up to 50 teslas under pressures of a few kilobars. This compound, the Fermi surface of which is quasi two-dimensional at low temperature, is a semi metal under pressure. Nevertheless, a field-induced spin density wave is evidenced at 8.5 kbar above $\sim$ 20 T. This state is characterized by a drastically different spectrum of the quantum oscillations compared to the low pressure spin density wave state.Comment: to be published in Phys. Rev. B 71 (2005

Fuzzy cluster validation using the partition negentropy criterion

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04277-5_24Proceedings of the 19th International Conference, Limassol, Cyprus, September 14-17, 2009We introduce the Partition Negentropy Criterion (PNC) for cluster validation. It is a cluster validity index that rewards the average normality of the clusters, measured by means of the negentropy, and penalizes the overlap, measured by the partition entropy. The PNC is aimed at finding well separated clusters whose shape is approximately Gaussian. We use the new index to validate fuzzy partitions in a set of synthetic clustering problems, and compare the results to those obtained by the AIC, BIC and ICL criteria. The partitions are obtained by fitting a Gaussian Mixture Model to the data using the EM algorithm. We show that, when the real clusters are normally distributed, all the criteria are able to correctly assess the number of components, with AIC and BIC allowing a higher cluster overlap. However, when the real cluster distributions are not Gaussian (i.e. the distribution assumed by the mixture model) the PNC outperforms the other indices, being able to correctly evaluate the number of clusters while the other criteria (specially AIC and BIC) tend to overestimate it.This work has been partially supported with funds from MEC BFU2006-07902/BFI, CAM S-SEM-0255-2006 and CAM/UAM project CCG08-UAM/TIC-442

An Organic Spin Crossover Material in Water from a Covalently Linked Radical Dyad

A covalently linked viologen radical cation dyad acts as a reversible thermomagnetic switch in water. Cycling between diamagnetic and paramagnetic forms by heating and cooling is accompanied by changes in optical and magnetic properties with high radical fidelity. Thermomagnetic switches in water may eventually find use as novel biological thermometers and in temperature-responsive organic materials where the changes in properties originate from a change in electronic spin configuration rather than a change in structure

Population Structure of Staphylococcus aureus from Remote African Babongo Pygmies

Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium that colonizes humans worldwide. The anterior nares are its main ecological niche. Carriers of S. aureus are at a higher risk of developing invasive infections. Few reports indicated a different clonal structure and profile of virulence factors in S. aureus isolates from Sub-Saharan Africa. As there are no data about isolates from remote indigenous African populations, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of S. aureus nasal carriage in Gabonese Babongo Pygmies. The isolates were characterized regarding their susceptibility to antibiotic agents, possession of virulence factors and clonal lineage. While similar carriage rates were found in populations of industrialized countries, isolates that encode the genes for the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) were clearly more prevalent than in European countries. Of interest, many methicillin-susceptible S. aureus isolates from Babongo Pygmies showed the same genetic background as pandemic methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) clones. We advocate a surveillance of S. aureus in neglected African populations to control the development of resistance to antibiotic drugs with particular respect to MRSA and to assess the impact of the high prevalence of PVL-positive isolates

New charge transfer salts of two organic π-donors of the tetrathiafulvalene type with the paramagnetic [Cr(NCS)6]3- anion

cited By 9International audienceThe electrochemical combination of the paramagnetic anion [Cr(NCS)6]3- with the organic π-donors bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene (ET) and 4,5-bis(2-hydroxyethylthio) -4′,5′-ethylenedithiotetrathiafulvalene (DHET-EDTTTF) leads to two new radical cation salts, namely (ET)4 [Cr(NCS 6]·PhCN 1 and (DHET-EDTTTF)2 (NEt4)[Cr(NCS)6] 2. Both have been characterized by X-ray crystallography, magnetic and resistivity measurements. The structure of 1 consists of alternating inorganic layers generated by the anions and organic layers in which the PhCN molecules are inserted; the organic sub-lattice is built up from four different ET units, three of them with a charge distribution of +1, the fourth being neutral. The organic sub-lattice of 2 contains a centrosymmetric [(DHET-EDTTTF•)2]2+ dimer, in which the overlap mode is of the eclipsed type. Conductivity measurements indicate that compounds 1 and 2 are semiconductors with room temperature conductivities of 1.4 × 10-2 and 6.1 × 10-5 S cm-1 and activation energies of 0.24 and 0.23 eV, in 1 and 2, respectively. For both salts, magnetic measurements indicate (i) that the organic and inorganic parts are magnetically independent, and (ii) that the organic units are antiferromagnetically coupled. To cite this article: F. Thétiot et al., C. R. Chimie 6 (2003). © 2003 Académie des sciences. Published by Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elservier SAS. All rights reserved