13,466 research outputs found
Metal-Acid Synergy: Hydrodeoxygenation of Anisole over Pt/Al-SBA-15
Invited for this month′s cover is the group of Karen Wilson and Adam Lee at RMIT University. The image shows platinum nanoparticles and Brønsted acid sites working cooperatively to catalyse the efficient hydrodeoxygenation of phenolic lignin residues to produce sustainable biofuels. The Full Paper itself is available at 10.1002/cssc.202000764
Particle-in-cell simulations of rf breakdown
Breakdown voltages of a capacitively coupled radio frequency argon discharge
at 27 MHz are studied. We use a one-dimensional electrostatic PIC code to
investigate the effect of changing the secondary emission properties of the
electrodes on the breakdown voltage, particularly at low pd values. Simulation
results are compared with the available experimental results and a satisfactory
agreement is found.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004,
Nice (France
Neutrino Mass, Sneutrino Dark Matter and Signals of Lepton Flavor Violation in the MRSSM
We study the phenomenology of mixed-sneutrino dark matter in the Minimal
R-Symmetric Supersymmetric Standard Model (MRSSM). Mixed sneutrinos fit
naturally within the MRSSM, as the smallness (or absence) of neutrino Yukawa
couplings singles out sneutrino A-terms as the only ones not automatically
forbidden by R-symmetry. We perform a study of randomly generated sneutrino
mass matrices and find that (i) the measured value of is well
within the range of typical values obtained for the relic abundance of the
lightest sneutrino, (ii) with small lepton-number-violating mass terms
for the right-handed sneutrinos, random
matrices satisfying the constraint have a decent probability of
satisfying direct detection constraints, and much of the remaining parameter
space will be probed by upcoming experiments, (iii) the terms radiatively generate appropriately small Majorana neutrino
masses, with neutrino oscillation data favoring a mostly sterile lightest
sneutrino with a dominantly mu/tau-flavored active component, and (iv) a
sneutrino LSP with a significant mu component can lead to striking signals of
e-mu flavor violation in dilepton invariant-mass distributions at the LHC.Comment: Revised collider analysis in Sec. 5 after fixing error in particle
spectrum, References adde
Discrete R-symmetries and Anomaly Universality in Heterotic Orbifolds
We study discrete R-symmetries, which appear in 4D low energy effective field
theory derived from hetetoric orbifold models. We derive the R-symmetries
directly from geometrical symmetries of orbifolds. In particular, we obtain the
corresponding R-charges by requiring that the couplings be invariant under
these symmetries. This allows for a more general treatment than the explicit
computations of correlation functions made previously by the authors, including
models with discrete Wilson lines, and orbifold symmetries beyond
plane-by-plane rotational invariance. Surprisingly, for the cases covered by
earlier explicit computations, the R-charges differ from the previous result.
We study the anomalies associated with these R-symmetries, and comment on the
results.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures. Minor changes, typos corrected. Matches JHEP
published versio
Significance of somatic mutations and content alteration of mitochondrial DNA in esophageal cancer
BACKGROUND: The roles of mitochondria in energy metabolism, the generation of ROS, aging, and the initiation of apoptosis have implicated their importance in tumorigenesis. In this study we aim to establish the mutation spectrum and to understand the role of somatic mtDNA mutations in esophageal cancer. METHODS: The entire mitochondrial genome was screened for somatic mutations in 20 pairs (18 esophageal squamous cell carcinomas, one adenosquamous carcinoma and one adenocarcinoma) of tumor/surrounding normal tissue of esophageal cancers, using temporal temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TTGE), followed by direct DNA sequencing to identify the mutations. RESULTS: Fourteen somatic mtDNA mutations were identified in 55% (11/20) of tumors analyzed, including 2 novel missense mutations and a frameshift mutation in ND4L, ATP6 subunit, and ND4 genes respectively. Nine mutations (64%) were in the D-loop region. Numerous germline variations were found, at least 10 of them were novel and five were missense mutations, some of them occurred in evolutionarily conserved domains. Using real-time quantitative PCR analysis, the mtDNA content was found to increase in some tumors and decrease in others. Analysis of molecular and other clinicopathological findings does not reveal significant correlation between somatic mtDNA mutations and mtDNA content, or between mtDNA content and metastatic status. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that somatic mtDNA mutations in esophageal cancers are frequent. Some missense and frameshift mutations may play an important role in the tumorigenesis of esophageal carcinoma. More extensive biochemical and molecular studies will be necessary to determine the pathological significance of these somatic mutations
Platinum catalysed aerobic selective oxidation of cinnamaldehyde to cinnamic acid
Aerobic selective oxidation of allylic aldehydes offers an atom and energy efficient route to unsaturated carboxylic acids, however suitable heterogeneous catalysts offering high selectivity and productivity have to date proved elusive. Herein, we demonstrate the direct aerobic oxidation of cinnamaldehyde to cinnamic acid employing silica supported Pt nanoparticles under base-free, batch and continuous flow operation. Surface and bulk characterisation of four families of related Pt/silica catalysts by XRD, XPS, HRTEM, CO chemisorption and N_{2} porosimetry evidence surface PtO_{2} as the common active site for cinnamaldehyde oxidation, with a common turnover frequency of 49,000 ± 600 h^{-1}; competing cinnamaldehyde hydrogenolysis is favoured over metallic Pt. High area mesoporous (SBA-15 or KIT-6) and macroporous-mesoporous SBA-15 silicas confer significant rate and cinnamic acid yield enhancements versus low area fumed silica, due to superior platinum dispersion. High oxygen partial pressures and continuous flow operation stabilise PtO_{2} active sites against in-situ reduction and concomitant deactivation, further enhancing cinnamic acid productivity
Cascade aerobic selective oxidation over contiguous dual catalyst beds in continuous flow
Cascade
reactions represent an atom-economical and energy-efficient technology
by which to reduce the number of manipulations required for chemical
manufacturing. Biocatalytic cascades are ubiquitous in nature; however,
controlling the sequence of interactions between reactant, intermediate(s),
and active sites remains a challenge for chemocatalysis. Here, we
demonstrate an approach to achieve efficient cascades using chemical
catalysts through flow chemistry. Close-coupling of Pd/SBA-15 and
Pt/SBA-15 heterogeneous catalysts in a dual bed configuration under
continuous flow operation affords a high single pass yield of 84%
(a 20-fold enhancement over batch operation) and high stability for >14000
turnovers in the cascade oxidation of cinnamyl alcohol to cinnamic
acid, despite both catalysts being individually inactive for this
reaction. Judicious ordering of Pd (first bed) and Pt (second bed)
catalysts is critical to promote cascade oxidation with respect to
undesired hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis, the latter favored over
the reverse-bed sequence or a single mixed PdPt reactor bed. The intrinsic
catalytic performance of each bed is preserved in the optimal dual-bed
configuration, enabling quantitative prediction of final product yields
for reactants/intermediates whose individual oxidation behavior is
established. Continuous processing using contiguous reactor beds enables
plug-and-play design of cascades employing “simple”
catalysts
Properties of 125 GeV Higgs boson in non-decoupling MSSM scenarios
Tantalizing hints of the Higgs boson of mass around 125 GeV have been
reported at the LHC. We explore the MSSM parameter space in which the 125 GeV
state is identified as the heavier of the CP even Higgs bosons, and study two
scenarios where the two photon production rate can be significantly larger than
the standard model (SM). In one scenario, is
enhanced by a light stau contribution, while the () rate
stays around the SM rate. In the other scenario, is
suppressed and not only the but also the
() rates should be enhanced. The rate can be
significantly larger or smaller than the SM rate in both scenarios. Other
common features of the scenarios include top quark decays into charged Higgs
boson, single and pair production of all Higgs bosons in collisions at
GeV.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, accepted version for publication in JHE
Compactification on negatively curved manifolds
We show that string/M theory compactifications to maximally symmetric
space-times using manifolds whose scalar curvature is everywhere negative, must
have significant warping, large stringy corrections, or both.Comment: 18 pages, JHEP3.cl
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