Theranostic Iron@Gold Core–Shell Nanoparticles for Simultaneous Hyperthermia‐Chemotherapy upon Photo‐Stimulation

The challenges of nanoparticles, such as size‐dependent toxicity, nonbiocompatibility, or inability to undergo functionalization for drug conjugation, limit their biomedical application in more than one domain. Oval‐shaped iron@gold core–shell (oFe@Au) magnetic nanoparticles are engineered and their applications in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), optical coherence tomography (OCT), and controlled drug release, are explored via photo stimulation‐generated hyperthermia. The oFe@Au nanoparticles have a size of 42.57 ± 5.99 nm and consist of 10.76 and 89.24 atomic % of Fe and Au, respectively. Upon photo‐stimulation for 10 and 15 minutes, the levels of cancer cell death induced by methotrexate‐conjugated oFe@Au nanoparticles are sixfold and fourfold higher, respectively, than oFe@Au nanoparticles alone. MRI and OCT confirm the application of these nanoparticles as a contrast agent. Finally, results of in vivo experiments reveal that the temperature is elevated by 13.2 °C, when oFe@Au nanoparticles are irradiated with a 167 mW cm^?2 808 nm laser, which results in a significant reduction in tumor volume and scab formation after 7 days, followed by complete disappearance after 14 days. The ability of these nanoparticles to generate heat upon photo‐stimulation also opens new doors for studying hyperthermia‐mediated controlled drug release for cancer therapy. Applications include biomedical engineering, cancer therapy, and theranostics fields.     

On the determination of laminar flame speed from low-pressure and super-adiabatic propagating spherical flames

The outwardly propagating spherical flame (OPF) method is popularly used to measure the laminar flame speed (LFS). Recently, great efforts have been devoted to improving the accuracy of the LFS measurement from OPF. In the OPF method, several assumptions are made. For examples, the burned gas is assumed to be static and in chemical equilibrium. However, these assumptions may not be satisfied under certain conditions. Here we consider low-pressure and super-adiabatic propagating spherical flames, for which chemical non-equilibrium exists and the burned gas may not be static. The objective is to assess the chemical non-equilibrium effects on the accuracy of LFS measurement from the OPF method. Numerical simulations considering detailed chemistry and transport are conducted. Stoichiometric methane/air flames at sub-atmospheric pressures and methane/oxygen flames at different equivalence ratios are considered. At low pressures, broad heat release zone is observed and the burned gas cannot quickly reach the adiabatic flame temperature, indicating the existence of chemical non-equilibrium of burned gas. Positive flow in the burned gas is identified and it is shown to become stronger at lower initial pressure. Consequently, the LFS measurement from OPF at low pressures is not accurate if the burned gas is assumed to be static and at chemical equilibrium. For super-adiabatic spherical flames, the burned gas speed is found to be negative due to the local temperature overshoot at the flame front. Such negative speed of burned gas can also reduce the accuracy of LFS measurement. It is recommended that the direct method measuring both flame propagation speed and flow speed of unburned gas should be used to determine the LFS at low pressures or for mixtures with super-adiabatic flame temperature.     

Experimental and kinetic study of 2,4,4-trimethyl-1-pentene and iso-octane in laminar flames

Laminar flame speeds of 2,4,4-trimethyl-1-pentene are investigated at equivalence ratios of 0.7–1.6, initial temperatures of 298–453 K and initial pressures of 0.1–0.5 MPa. The comparison between 2,4,4-trimethyl-1-pentene and iso-octane is also performed. Results show that 2,4,4-trimethyl-1-pentene has faster laminar flame speed than iso-octane. Chemical kinetic models (Metcalfe model, Modified model I) were tested against the present experimental data. The laminar flame speeds are apparently over-estimated by the Metcalfe model and under-predicted by the Modified model I. Therefore, high-level quantum mechanical calculations were used to revise the Modified model I to obtain Modified model II and it can give fairly good prediction at various conditions on laminar flame speeds. In addition, the chemical kinetic analysis was conducted. The analysis indicates both thermal and kinetic effects result in the discrepancy of laminar flame speeds between 2,4,4-trimethyl-1-pentene and iso-octane. Furthermore, IC₄H₈ plays a dominant role in laminar flame speeds of 2,4,4-trimethyl-1-pentene and iso-octane.     

Looking for a quantum spin liquid in the BaNi2(V1−xPx)2O8 spin 1 honeycomb system

The general magnetic characterisation of a series of materials in the BaNi₂V₂O₈-BaNi₂P₂O₈ layered honeycomb spin-1 system is reported. A change from dominantly 2-dimensional (2D) to dominantly 3-dimentional (3D) magnetic character is observed on progressing from the pure V to the pure P material. The change is continuous with composition in BaNi₂(V_1?xP_x)₂O₈. But a variety of features in the temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibilities at low temperatures suggest that the magnetic system is complex. Although the Curie–Weiss temperature becomes less strongly negative on increasing the P content, an indication of increased competition between different types of magnetic coupling, the system does not appear to be approaching a quantum spin liquid state at low temperatures.     

Mechanism on oscillating lifted flames in nonpremixed laminar coflow jets

The oscillating lifted flame in a laminar nonpremixed nitrogen-diluted fuel jet is known to be a result of buoyancy, though the detailed physical mechanism of the initiation has not yet been properly addressed. We designed a systematic experiment to test the hypothesis that the oscillation is driven by competition between the positive buoyancy of flame and the negative buoyancy of a fuel stream heavier than the ambient air. The positive buoyancy was examined with various flame temperatures by changing fuel mole fraction, and the negative buoyancy was investigated with various fuel densities. The density of the coflow was also varied within a certain range by adding either helium or carbon dioxide to air, to study how it affected the positive and negative buoyancies at the same time. As a result, we found that the range of oscillation was well-correlated with the positive and the negative buoyancies; the former stabilized the oscillation while the latter triggered instability and became a source of the oscillation. Further measurements of the flow fields and OH radicals evidenced the important role of the negative buoyancy on the oscillation, detailing a periodic variation in the unburned flow velocity that affected the displacement of the flame.     

Modified Anti Snyder Model with Minimal Length,Momentum Cutoff and Convergent Partition Function

International Journal of Theoretical Physics - In this paper we consider the possible modification of the anti Snyder model so that it have the non-zero minimal length, momentum cutoff and the...     

The New Type of Extended Uncertainty Principle and Some Applications in Deformed Quantum Mechanics

In this paper we present a new type of extended uncertainty principle (EUP) of the form [X, P] = i(1 − q|X|) and show that it has the non-zero minimal momentum. For this EUP we discuss the classical mechanics in the curved space, deformed calculus, deformed quantum mechanics and Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization.

     

Stress and strain fields in rotating elastic/plastic annular disks of pressure-dependent material

The Drucker–Prager yield criterion is used in conjunction with its associated flow rule to find the elastic/plastic stress and strain distributions within the rotating annular disks under plane stress conditions. The main distinguished feature of the model, as compared to typical models used for analysis of disks, is that the material is plastically compressible. Using an approach proposed elsewhere, the solution for strain rates is reduced to one nonlinear ordinary differential equation and two linear ordinary differential equations. These equations can be solved one by one, which significantly simplifies the numerical treatment and increases the accuracy of solution.     

Exploring the undrained cyclic behavior of methane-hydrate-bearing sediments using CFD–DEM

Based on the mechanical experimental results of methane hydrate (MH), a bond contact model considering the rate-dependency of MH is proposed. A CFD–DEM scheme considering fluid compressibility is used to simulate a series of undrained cyclic shear tests of numerical methane-hydrate-bearing sediment (MHBS) samples. The dynamic behavior, including stress–strain relationship, dynamic shear modulus, and damping ratio, is investigated. In addition, the force chains, contact fabric and averaged pure rotation rate (APR) are examined to investigate the relationships between micromechanical variables and macromechanical responses in the DEM MH samples. The effects of temperature, confining pressure and MH saturation are also analyzed. Due to the micro-structural strengthening by the MH bonds, no obvious change in microscopic quantities is observed, and the samples remain at the elastic stage under the applied low-shear stress level. When confining pressure and MH saturation increase, the dynamic elastic modulus increases, while the damping ratio decreases. An increasing temperature (leading to weakening of MH bonds) can lower the dynamic elastic modulus, but has almost no impact on the damping ratio. On the contrary, an increasing cyclic shear stress level lowers the damping ratio, but has almost no effect on the dynamic elastic modulus.     

A low-complexity tracker design for uncertain nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots with time-varying input delay at nonlinear dynamic level

A low-complexity design problem of tracking scheme for uncertain nonholonomic mobile robots is investigated in the presence of unknown time-varying input delay. It is assumed that nonlinearities and parameters of robots and their bounds are unknown. Based on a nonlinear error transformation, a tracking control scheme ensuring preassigned bounds of overshoot, convergence rate, and steady-state values of a tracking error is firstly presented in the absence of input delay, without using any adaptive and function approximation mechanism to estimate unknown nonlinearities and model parameters and computing repeated time derivatives of certain signals. Then, we develop a low-complexity tracking scheme to deal with unknown time-varying input delay of mobile robots where some auxiliary signals and design conditions are derived for the design and stability analysis of the proposed tracking scheme. The boundedness of all signals in the closed-loop system and the guarantee of tracking performance with preassigned bounds are established through Lyapunov stability analysis. The validity of the proposed theoretical result is shown by a simulation example.