Brominated poly(isobutylene‐co‐para‐methylstyrene) (BIMS)‐clay nanocomposites: Synthesis and characterization

In this work, preparation and properties of different nanoclays modified by organic amines (octadecyl amine, a primary amine, and hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide, a tertiary amine) and brominated polyisobutylene‐co‐paramethylstyrene (BIMS)‐clay nanocomposites are reported. The clays and the rubber nanocomposites have been characterized with the help of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X‐ray diffraction (XRD). The X‐ray diffraction peaks observed in the range of 3 °–10 ° for the modified clays disappear in the rubber nanocomposites. TEM photographs show predominantly exfoliation of the clays in the range of 12 ± 4 nm in the BIMS. In the FTIR spectra of the nanocomposites, there are common peaks of virgin rubber as well as those of the clays. Excellent improvement in mechanical properties like tensile strength, elongation at break, and modulus is observed on incorporation of the nanoclays in the BIMS. Structure‐property correlation in the above nanocomposites is attempted. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 4489–4502, 2004     

Structural study and electrical properties of Zr-doped Nd<Subscript>2</Subscript>Sn<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>7</Subscript> pyrochlore compounds

Nd₂Sn₂O₇ pyrochlores with the substitution of Zr⁴⁺ were prepared by conventional ceramic double sintering technique. The single-phase formation was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and neutron diffraction techniques. Relative intensity calculations for X-ray diffraction analysis were performed for oxygen positional parametersx = 0.331 and 0.375, while Rietveld refinements were employed for neutron diffraction data. The neutron diffraction study revealed that there are only two anion sites with 48f and 8b positions. This indicates that the 8a site, i.e. O(3) sublattice, is completely vacant and the structure is a perfect cubic pyrochlore with space group Fd3m (O _h ⁷ ). From the conductivity measurements, it is observed that the electronic conductivity dominates from room temperature up to about 525 K and forT > 525 K, the oxygen ion conduction dominates the charge transport in these compositions. Complex impedance spectroscopy indicates the existence of grain and grain boundary as two separate elements.     

Separation of Leucas aspera,a medicinal plant of Bangladesh,guided by prostaglandin inhibitory and antioxidant activities

According to the traditional usage of the plant for antiinflammation and analgesia, Leucas aspera was tested for its prostaglandin (PG) inhibitory and antioxidant activities. The extract showed both activities, i.e., inhibition at 3 x 10(-4) g/ml against PGE(1)- and PGE(2)-induced contractions in guinea pig ileum and a 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging effect. The separation guided by the activities in these dual assay methods provided eight lignans and four flavonoids, LA-1- -12, among which LA-1- -7 and LA-10- -12 were identified as nectandrin B, meso-dihydroguaiaretic acid, macelignan, acacetin, apigenin 7-O-[6"-O-(p-coumaroyl)-beta-D-glucoside], chrysoeriol, apigenin, erythro-2-(4-allyl-2, 6-dimethoxyphenoxy)-1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)propan-1-ol, myristargenol B, and machilin C, respectively. LA-8 was determined to be (-)-chicanine, the new antipode of the (+) compound, by spectroscopic methods including CD and ORD. Chiral-HPLC analysis of LA-9 showed that it was a mixture of two enantiomers, (7R, 8R)- and (7S, 8S)-licarin A. All of these components were first isolated from L. aspera. PG inhibition was observed in LA-1, LA-2, and LA-5, and antioxidant activity in LA-1- -3 and LA-8- -12.     

Cost Optimization Technique for Quantum Circuits

In this paper, an attempt is made to present a method of quantum cost minimization or optimization technique for quantum reversible circuits using proposed merger rules in Exclusive Sum of Product (ESOP) method. These modified ESOP methods are used to minimize the quantum circuits. We found that the quantum cost is drastically decreased than the previous ESOP method. It will be easy to find the quantum cost and quantum gate optimized quantum circuits implementation. It will also reduce quantum error while the quantum circuit is executed in real quantum processor.

     

Ecofriendly synthesis and biological evaluation of 4-(4-nitro-phenyl)-2-phenyl-1,4-dihydro-benzo[4,5]imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidine-3-carboxylic acid ethyl ester derivatives as an antitubercular agents

An ecofriendly route has been investigated for the synthesis of 4-(4-nitro-phenyl)-2-phenyl-1,4-dihydro-benzo[4,5]imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidine-3-carboxylic acid ethyl ester derivatives by one-pot, three-component condensation of ethyl benzoylacetate, aromatic aldehydes, and 2-amino benzimidazole using 260?mol% of citric acid as reaction mediator. Citric acid is an inexpensive, nontoxic, and green medium with smoothly activates the rate of reaction. The synthesized compounds were assessed for in vitro antimycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H₃₇RV strain using the microplate alamar blue assay (MABA). The results indicate that among all the synthesized compound series, P-4 and P-9 compounds illustrate effective activity with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 25?µg/ml.     

K-theory of Prüfer domains

Archiv der Mathematik - In this article, we show that the homotopy invariance of K-theory holds for rings of weak global dimension at most one. Prüfer domains are examples of such rings. We...     

Total Stereospecific Synthesis of (3E,7Z)-Tetradecadienyl Acetate,the Major Sex Pheromone Component of the Potato Pest Symmetrischema tangolias

Chemistry of Natural Compounds - (3E,7Z)-Tetradecadienyl acetate, the major sex pheromone component of the potato pest Symmetrischema tangolias (Gyen), was stereoselectively synthesized from the...     

Use of chemical etching of CR-39 foils at elevated temperature for fast neutron personnel monitoring in India

CR-39 Solid State Nuclear Track Detecting foils (SSNTD), along with 1 mm thick polyethylene radiator, sealed in triple laminated pouches, are used for country wide Fast Neutron Personnel Monitoring in India. With the present system of processing by elevated temperature electrochemical etching (ETECE) and evaluation using automatic image analysis, only 16 foils are processed at a time and it is useful over the dose equivalent range 0.2 mSv to 10 mSv. It has been reported that, by processing CR-39 of good detection efficiency by chemical etching at elevated temperature, more numbers of foils can be processed simultaneously. In the present study, CR-39 foils from Pershore Moulding (UK) have been chemically etched using 7 N KOH under various conditions of temperature and etching durations and evaluated using high magnification microscope. The duration of chemical etching, has been optimized at a constant temperature of 60°C for chemical etching process. The characteristics of the chemically etched CR-39 foils are compared with the characteristics of the CR-39 foils processed by the existing system of ETECE and the detailed results are presented in the full text of the paper. It has been observed that by chemical etching process, the dose equivalent range of CR-39 foils can be extended above 60 mSv.      

Steady State of Stochastic Sandpile Models

We study the steady state of the Abelian sandpile models with stochastic toppling rules. The particle addition operators commute with each other, but in general these operators need not be diagonalizable. We use their Abelian algebra to determine their eigenvalues, and the Jordan block structure. These are then used to determine the probability of different configurations in the steady state. We illustrate this procedure by explicitly determining the numerically exact steady state for a one dimensional example, for systems of size ≤12, and also study the density profile in the steady state.