Order-adjoint monads and injective objects

Given a monad T on whose functor factors through the category of ordered sets with left adjoint maps, the category of Kleisli monoids is defined as the category of monoids in the hom-sets of the Kleisli category of T. The Eilenberg-Moore category of T is shown to be strictly monadic over the category of Kleisli monoids. If the Kleisli category of T moreover forms an order-enriched category, then the monad induced by the new situation is Kock-Zöberlein. Injective objects in the category of Kleisli monoids with respect to the class of initial morphisms then characterize the objects of the Eilenberg-Moore category of T, a fact that allows us to recuperate a number of known results, and present some new ones.     

Thermal evaporation processing of nano and submicron tin oxide rods

Nano and submicron rods of semiconductor tin oxide (SnO2) have been synthesized via thermal evaporation technique. Various substrates such as oxidized silicon (Si/SiO2), porous alumina (Al2O3), oxidized and anodized titanium (Ti/TiO2), with the sputtered platinum (Pt) catalyst, have been utilized for this purpose. The effect of Pt sputtering time and the nature of the substrate on the size distribution and the morphology of the SnO2 rods and their substrate-surface-coverage have been investigated. The formation of nano and submicron SnO2 rods has been attributed to the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) and vapor-solid (VS) growth mechanisms depending on the processing conditions.     

Oxygenated Functional Group Density on Graphene Oxide: Its Effect on Cell Toxicity

The association of cellular toxicity with the physiochemical properties of graphene‐based materials is largely unexplored. A fundamental understanding of this relationship is essential to engineer graphene‐based nanomaterials for biomedical applications. Here, an in vitro toxicological assessment of graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and in correlation with their physiochemical properties is reported. GO is found to be more toxic than RGO of same size. GO and RGO induce significant increases in both intercellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and messenger RNA (mRNA) levels of heme oxygenase 1 (HO1) and thioredoxin reductase (TrxR). Moreover, a significant amount of DNA damage is observed in GO treated cells, but not in RGO treated cells. Such observations support the hypothesis that oxidative stress mediates the cellular toxicity of GO. Interestingly, oxidative stress induced cytotoxicity reduces with a decreasing extent of oxygen functional group density on the RGO surface. It is concluded that although size of the GO sheet plays a role, the functional group density on the GO sheet is one of the key components in mediating cellular cytotoxicity. By controlling the GO reduction and maintaining the solubility, it is possible to minimize the toxicity of GO and unravel its wide range of biomedical applications.     

The Change in Antioxidant Properties of Dextran‐Coated Redox Active Nanoparticles Due to Synergetic Photoreduction–Oxidation

Nanoparticles have proven to be novel material with resourceful applications in the field of nanomedicine. Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CNPs) coated with dextran (Dex–CNPs) have been shown to exhibit anticancer properties which is attributed to the change in oxidation states mediated at the oxygen vacancies on the surface of CNPs. In this study, the extreme sensitivity of Dex–CNPs to visible light is demonstrated using room light with a clear indication of synergetic phenomenon of photoreduction of CNPs in the presence of dextran which undergoes simultaneous oxidation. The phenomenon was further confirmed through a systematic time‐based expedited study using a high intensity visible light source. The physiochemical changes of Dex–CNPs such as dispersion stability, pH, surface chemistry, antioxidant property, cytotoxicity and the surrounding microenvironment of Dex–CNPs were significantly altered on exposure to visible light, thereby affecting the biological response. Given the significance of nanoparticles which are widely researched nanomaterials, in different fields of nanotechnology and biomedicine, this study demonstrates the significant changes in physiochemical properties of Dex–CNPs with light. The photoreduction of Dex–CNPs affects its bifunctional applications in cancer therapy and thereby this study puts forward the necessity to preserve and sustain their properties through proper storage.     

A positivity-preserving high-order semi-Lagrangian discontinuous Galerkin scheme for the Vlasov–Poisson equations

The Vlasov–Poisson equations describe the evolution of a collisionless plasma, represented through a probability density function (PDF) that self-interacts via an electrostatic force. One of the main difficulties in numerically solving this system is the severe time-step restriction that arises from parts of the PDF associated with moderate-to-large velocities. The dominant approach in the plasma physics community for removing these time-step restrictions is the so-called particle-in-cell (PIC) method, which discretizes the distribution function into a set of macro-particles, while the electric field is represented on a mesh. Several alternatives to this approach exist, including fully Lagrangian, fully Eulerian, and so-called semi-Lagrangian methods. The focus of this work is the semi-Lagrangian approach, which begins with a grid-based Eulerian representation of both the PDF and the electric field, then evolves the PDF via Lagrangian dynamics, and finally projects this evolved field back onto the original Eulerian mesh. In particular, we develop in this work a method that discretizes the 1 + 1 Vlasov–Poisson system via a high-order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method in phase space, and an operator split, semi-Lagrangian method in time. Second-order accuracy in time is relatively easy to achieve via Strang operator splitting. With additional work, using higher-order splitting and a higher-order method of characteristics, we also demonstrate how to push this scheme to fourth-order accuracy in time. We show how to resolve all of the Lagrangian dynamics in such a way that mass is exactly conserved, positivity is maintained, and high-order accuracy is achieved. The Poisson equation is solved to high-order via the smallest stencil local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) approach. We test the proposed scheme on several standard test cases.     

Statistical thermodynamics of 1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-propanol, and butanal

The purpose of the present investigation is to calculate partition functions and thermodynamic quantities, viz., entropy, enthalpy, heat capacity, and Gibbs free energies, for 1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-propanol, and butanal in the vapor phase. We employed the multi-structural (MS) anharmonicity method and electronic structure calculations including both explicitly correlated coupled cluster theory and density functional theory. The calculations are performed using all structures for each molecule and employing both the local harmonic approximation (MS-LH) and the inclusion of torsional anharmonicity (MS-T). The results obtained from the MS-T calculations are in excellent agreement with experimental data taken from the Thermodynamics Research Center data series and the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, where available. They are also compared with Benson's empirical group additivity values, where available; in most cases, the present results are more accurate than the group additivity values. In other cases, where experimental data (but not group additivity values) are available, we also obtain good agreement with experiment. This validates the accuracy of the electronic structure calculations when combined with the MS-T method for estimating the thermodynamic properties of systems with multiple torsions, and it increases our confidence in the predictions made with this method for molecules and temperatures where experimental or empirical data are not available.     

Effect of HPC and Water Concentration on the Evolution of Size,Aggregation and Crystallization of Sol-gel Nano Zirconia

Nano-sized zirconia (ZrO₂) powder is synthesized using sol-gel technique involving hydrolysis and condensation of zirconium(IV) n-propoxide in an alcohol solution, utilizing hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) polymer as a steric stabilizer. It is demonstrated that ZrO₂ nanoparticle size can be reduced using high R-value (defined as the ratio of molar concentrations of water and alkoxide). It is also shown that ZrO₂ nanoparticle size can be reduced further by synthesizing these particles in the presence of HPC polymer. The agglomeration tendency of ZrO₂ nanoparticles is demonstrated to decrease due to the steric hindrance created by the adsorbed polymer. The nanocrystallite size and their 'hard-aggregates' formation tendency are observed to affect the high temperature metastable tetragonal phase stabilization at room temperature within ZrO₂ particles.