Adsorption mode of ethyl pyruvate on platinum: an in situ XANES study

The adsorption of ethyl pyruvate on Pt(111) has been studied by in situ XANES measurements in the presence and absence of hydrogen. Depending on the hydrogen and ethyl pyruvate pressure, the C and O K‐edge spectra exhibit distinctly different angular dependence. Without hydrogen ethyl pyruvate is oriented preferentially perpendicular to the surface, indicating bonding via the O lone pairs. In the presence of hydrogen the mean orientation is more tilted towards the surface. Likely, ethyl pyruvate also interacts with Pt via its π system under these conditions. The observed angle‐dependent shift of the energy of the π* and σ* resonances indicates the coexistence of differently adsorbed ethyl pyruvate species. The experimental findings demonstrate the importance of the in situ approach for unraveling the adsorption mode of ethyl pyruvate in the enantioselective hydrogenation over cinchona‐alkaloid‐modified Pt. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Influence of Forming on the Cyclic Behaviour of TRIP700

During low cycle fatigue tests on TRIP700 for a current research project some anomalies were noticed. In comparison to previous fatigue life tests on nominally identical material, substantially different material characteristics were measured. The cyclic strength of the current lot of material has substantially increased. It is investigated where the differences come from and whether an influence from forming can cause such changes of the cyclic behaviour.     

Gold-Catalyzed Aerobic Oxidation of Benzyl Alcohol: Effect of Gold Particle Size on Activity and Selectivity in Different Solvents

The effect of the size of gold particles deposited on CeO₂ and TiO₂ supports on their catalytic behavior in the aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol in different solvents (mesitylene, toluene, and supercritical carbon dioxide) has been investigated. The size of supported gold particles deposited via a colloidal route was in the range 1.3–11.3 nm, as determined by means of EXAFS and HAADF-STEM measurements. The catalytic performance of the supported gold catalysts in the different solvents revealed a significant effect of the gold particle size. Optimal activity was observed for catalysts with medium particle size (ca. 6.9 nm) whereas smaller and bigger particles showed inferior activity. Identical trends for the activity–particle size relationship were found using Au/CeO₂ and Au/TiO₂ for the reaction at atmospheric pressure in conventional solvents (mesitylene, toluene) as well as under supercritical conditions (scCO₂). Selectivity to benzaldehyde was only weakly affected by the gold particle size and mainly depended on reaction conditions. In supercritical CO₂ (scCO₂) selectivity was higher than in the conventional solvents under atmospheric pressure. All catalysts tested with particle sizes ranging from 1.3 to 11.3 nm showed excellent selectivity of 99% or higher under supercritical conditions.     

Eye movements of young and older adults during reading.

The eye movements of young and older adults were tracked as they read sentences varying in syntactic complexity. In Experiment 1, cleft object and object relative clause sentences were more difficult to process than cleft subject and subject relative clause sentences; however, older adults made many more regressions, resulting in increased regression path fixation times and total fixation times, than young adults while processing cleft object and object relative clause sentences. In Experiment 2, older adults experienced more difficulty than young adults while reading cleft and relative clause sentences with temporary syntactic ambiguities created by deleting the that complementizers. Regression analyses indicated that readers with smaller working memories need more regressions and longer fixation times to process cleft object and object relative clause sentences. These results suggest that age-associated declines in working memory do affect syntactic processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anger reduction in early adolescents.

High-anger 6–8th graders received cognitive-relaxation coping skills (CRCS), social skills training (SST), or no treatment. Compared to the control, CRCS and SST were equally effective in reducing trait, general, and personal–situational anger and outward negative anger expression, as well as increasing controlled anger expression. On other variables, however, CRCS showed some superiority. Although both interventions led to equivalent reductions on one measure of anxiety, CRCS lowered depression, shyness, general deviance, and another measure of anxiety, whereas SST did not and was not significantly different from other groups. CRCS lowered school deviance more than SST. No between-group differences were found on self-esteem, alcohol consumption, or intoxication. Possible explanations of these findings were discussed, along with methodological issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bestimmung der Schichtdicken an feueraluminiertem Feinblech

Entwicklung eines automatisierfähigen Gerätes (Hydrevometer) zur schnellen Bestimmung der Auflagen an feueraluminiertem Feinblech. Kontinuierliche Messung des Wasserstoffdruckes und des elektrochemischen Potentials während der schichtweisen Auflösung. Seitendifferenzierende Bestimmung der Aluminiumdeckschicht und der Legierungsschicht. Funktionsweise des Gerätes. Ermittelte Standardabweichungen. Einsatzmöglichkeiten.     

Electron conversion coefficients in 127Ba and 130La

A sensitive method has been developed for extracting and analyzing heparin from plasma after intravenous and subcutaneous administration in humans and rabbits. The glycosaminoglycans are precipitated from the biological fluid as cetylpyridinium salt, and heparin is cleaved with heparinase. The reaction products are analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and visualized by staining with Azure A/ammoniacal silver. With this method 12 ng of heparin can be detected.