Hollow colloidal particles obtained by nano-extrusion in the presence of phospholipids

Using nano- and microsize extrusion, a simple synthetic procedure of preparing hollow monodispersed colloidal particles dispersed in an aqueous phase was developed. Hydrophobic styrene monomer containing 2-hydroxy-2-methyl propiophenone photoinitiator was forced into desired diameter membrane channels and stabilized by the hydrophobic regions of a liposome obtained from 1,2-dilauroyl-phosphocholine phospholipid in an aqueous phase. Such moieties exposed to 254-nm UV radiation polymerize monomers in the hydrophobic zone of the liposome, thus resulting in reinforced hollow vesicles. The size of such particles is controlled by the size of the membrane channels in the extruder and may vary from a few nanometers to micrometers, thus allowing the synthesis of monodisperse hollow colloidal spheres.     

Release and formation of surface-localized ionic clusters (SLICs) into phospholipid rafts from colloidal solutions during coalescence

Stimuli-responsive behavior of phospholipids in the presence of ionic surfactants utilized in synthesis of MMA/nBA colloidal particles was investigated. Utilizing 1-myristoyl-2-hydroxy-sn-glycero-phosphocholine (MHPC) phospholipid, and sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (SDOSS) surfactant as dispersing media in H(2)O, narrow unimodal particle size distributions of methyl methacrylate (MMA)/n-butyl acrylate (nBA) copolymers were synthesized. The particle diameters were 154 nm when a SDOSS/MHPC mixture was used and 161 nm using MHPC as the only surface-stabilizing species. When such colloidal dispersions are exposed to 1.7, 3.3, and 6.7 mM aqueous CaCl(2) and KCl electrolyte solutions, surface-localized ionic clusters are generated at the film-air interface that may serve as lipid rafts composed of crystalline phases of MHPC deposited on poly(MMA)/nBA films. These studies illustrate that it is possible to control release and morphology developments of surface phospholipid rafts on artificial surfaces.     

Stimuli-responsive surface crystallization of phospholipids from bimodal colloidal particles

These studies focus on the effect of phospholipids in the presence of ionic surfactants on the behavior of poly(methylmethactrylate/n-butyl acrylate) (p-MMA/nBA) colloidal particles during film formation. With the presence of two surfactants, it is possible to obtain particles that exhibit two distinct particle sizes. The presence of hydrogenated soybean phosphatidylcholine (HSPC) and sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (SDOSS), which stabilize these bimodal colloidal dispersions, has a significant effect on the mobility of individual components during coalescence. Specifically, the presence of HSPC inhibits migration of SDOSS to the film-air (F-A) interface. Furthermore, the presence of electrolyte species such as aqueous CaCl2 has a very pronounced effect on film formation. When the Ca2+/HSPC ratio is 0.1/1.0, SDOSS is released to the F-A interface during coalescence. At 2.0/1.0 Ca2+/HSPC, HSPC diffuses to the F-A interface and crystalline domains consisting of HSPC are formed. This stimuli-responsive behavior is confirmed using IRIR imaging that ultimately exhibits different surface morphologies. These studies illustrate for the first time that it is possible to control the release of two different surface-active species during coalescence that form crystalline domains.     

Stimuli-responsive surface localized ionic cluster (SLICs) formation from nonspherical colloidal particles

Structural features of phospholipids provide a unique opportunity for utilizing these amphiphilic species to stabilize the synthesis of colloidal dispersion particles by controlling concentration levels relative to dispersion synthesis components. 1,2-Bis(10,12-tricosadiynoyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DCPC) phospholipid was utilized as cosurfactant in the synthesis of sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (SDOSS) stabilized methyl methacrylate/n-butyl acrylate (MMA/nBA) colloidal dispersions. Aqueous dispersions containing various concentration levels of DCPC result in the formation of cocklebur particle morphologies, and when prepared in the presence of Ca2+ and annealed at various temperatures, stimuli-responsive behaviors of coalesced films were elucidated. The formation of surface localized ionic clusters (SLICs) at the film-air (F-A) and film-substrate (F-S) interfaces is shown to be responsive to concentration levels of DCPC, Ca2+/DCPC ratios, and temperature. These studies show that it is possible to control stratification and mobility to the F-A and F-S interfaces during and after coalescence. Using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and internal reflection infrared imaging (IRIRI) spectroscopies, molecular entities responsible for SLIC formation were determined. These studies also show that stimuli-responsive behaviors during film formation can be controlled by colloidal solution morphologies and synergistic interactions of individual components.     

Vectorial Approach to Fast Correlation Attacks

A new, vectorial approach to fast correlation attacks on binary memoryless combiners is proposed. Instead of individual input sequences or their linear combinations, the new attack is targeting subsets of input sequences as a whole thus exploiting the full correlation between the chosen subset and the output sequence. In particular, the set of all the input sequences can be chosen as the target. The attack is based on a novel iterative probabilistic algorithm which is also applicable to general memoryless combiners over finite fields or finite rings. To illustrate the effectiveness of the introduced approach, experimental results obtained for random balanced combining functions are presentedMost of this work was done while he was with Rome CryptoDesign Center, Gemplus, Italy     

On the Motion of a Dynamic System with Minimal Dissipation

The motion of a holonomic scleronomic non-conservative mechanicalsystem with minimal dissipation is considered. As applicationsof the theory several problems are studied in detail.     

Fusion around the barrier for 7Li+12C

Fusion cross-sections for the ⁷Li + ¹²C reaction have been measured at energies above the Coulomb barrier by the direct detection of evaporation residues. The heavy evaporation residues with energies below 3 MeV could not be separated out from the α-particles in the spectrum and hence their contribution was estimated using statistical model calculations. The present work indicates that suppression of fusion cross-sections due to the breakup of ⁷Li may not be significant for ⁷Li + ¹²C reaction at energies around the barrier.     

Correlation Analysis of the Alternating Step Generator

The alternating step generator is a well-known keystream generator consisting of two stop/go clocked LFSRs, LFSR₁ and LFSR₂, whose clocks are controlled by another LFSR, LFSR₃, which is clocked regularly. A probabilistic analysis of this generator is conducted which shows that the posterior probabilites of individual bits of the first derivatives of the regularly clocked LFSR₁ and LFSR₂ sequences, when conditioned on a given segment of the first derivative of the keystream sequence, can be computed efficiently in a number of probabilistic models of interest. The expected values of these probabilities, for a random keystream sequence, are derived by an approximate theoretical analysis and are also verified by systematic computer experiments. It is pointed out that these posterior probabilities can be enhanced in a resynchronization scenario and thus used for a low-complexity fast correlation attack on the two LFSRs. More generally, it is argued that even without resynchronization these probabilities may be significantly different from one half for fast correlation attacks based on iterative decoding algorithms to be successful, although with incresead complexity. A related method for computing the posterior probabilities of individual bits of the LFSR₃ sequence, when conditioned on both the keystream sequence and the LFSR₁ and LFSR₂ sequences, is also developed. As these posterior probabilities are much more different from one half, they can be used for a low-complexity fast correlation attack on LFSR₃, provided that the initial states of LFSR₁ and LFSR₂ are previously reconstructed.