Tips and Tricks for the Surface Engineering of Well-Ordered Morphologically Driven Silver-Based Nanomaterials

Particularly-shaped silver nanostructures are successfully applied in many scientific fields, such as nanotechnology, catalysis, (nano)engineering, optoelectronics, and sensing. In recent years, the production of shape-controlled silver-based nanostructures and the knowledge around this topic has grown significantly. Hence, on the basis of the most recent results reported in the literature, a critical analysis around the driving forces behind the synthesis of such nanostructures are proposed herein, pointing out the important role of surface-regulating agents in driving crystalline growth by favoring (or opposing) development along specific directions. Additionally, growth mechanisms of the different morphologies considered here are discussed in depth, and critical points highlighted.     

Solidifying framework nucleic acids

正Living organisms have developed their unique strategies during the natural evolution for building hard tissues with minerals, including silica, calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, and ferric oxide [1]. Such biomineralized materials generally have complex hierarchical structures with excellent mechanical properties. Although bioinspired approaches have led to the creation of well-defined synthetic structural materials ranging from micro to macro scales, the rational design of discrete biomimetic structures at the nanoscale remains a grand challenge.     

Effects of multiple delays on dynamics of a five-neuron network model

A five-neuron network model with multiple delays is proposed. This paper presents the combined effect of different delays on the dynamics of the proposed network. Pitchfork bifurcation is discussed in detail with the variation of the value of coupled weight or attenuation rate of internal neurons. By analyzing the corresponding characteristic equation, some stable criteria on delay-dependence and delay-independence are derived including multiple delays and coupled weights and the periodic oscillation arises bifurcated from the trivial equilibrium after the network loses its stability. Stable regions on delay-dependence are displayed in the two delayed parameter plane. It is shown that multiple delays can produce stability switching between resting state and periodic activity. Finally, theoretical results are justified by providing two illustrative examples.     

Infinitely many reducts of homogeneous structures

It is shown that the countably infinite dimensional pointed vector space (the vector space equipped with a constant) over a finite field has infinitely many first order definable reducts. This implies that the countable homogeneous Boolean-algebra has infinitely many reducts.     

Information Network Modeling for U.S. Banking Systemic Risk

In this work we investigate whether information theory measures like mutual information and transfer entropy, extracted from a bank network, Granger cause financial stress indexes like LIBOR-OIS (London Interbank Offered Rate-Overnight Index Swap) spread, STLFSI (St. Louis Fed Financial Stress Index) and USD/CHF (USA Dollar/Swiss Franc) exchange rate. The information theory measures are extracted from a Gaussian Graphical Model constructed from daily stock time series of the top 74 listed US banks. The graphical model is calculated with a recently developed algorithm (LoGo) which provides very fast inference model that allows us to update the graphical model each market day. We therefore can generate daily time series of mutual information and transfer entropy for each bank of the network. The Granger causality between the bank related measures and the financial stress indexes is investigated with both standard Granger-causality and Partial Granger-causality conditioned on control measures representative of the general economy conditions.     

The Jordan property of Cremona groups and essential dimension

We use a recent advance in birational geometry to prove new lower bounds on the essential dimension of some finite groups.     

Application of ion-imprinted polymer synthesized by precipitation polymerization as an efficient and selective sorbent for separation and pre-concentration of chromium ions from some real samples

In this study, a new Cr(III)-imprinted polymer (Cr(III)-IIP) is prepared from CrCl₃·6H₂O, methacrylic acid functional monomer, ethyleneglycoldimethacrylate cross-linking agent, 2,2?-azobisisobutyronitrile radical initiator and 2,2-(azanediylbis (ethane-2,1-diyl))bis(isoindoline-1,3-dione) ligand. To obtain the maximum adsorption capacity, the optimum condition was studied through pH, type and concentration of eluent, IIP weight, sample volume as well as the adsorption and desorption times. The Cr(III) ion content was determined via flame atomic absorption spectrometer. In optimum conditions, the adsorption capacity of the IIP for Cr(III) was obtained to be 74.65 mg g^?1, using 50 mg of IIP and the initial pH solution of 3.0. Both the adsorption and desorption times for quantitative analyses of Cr(III) ions were 15 and 5 min; respectively. After elution of the adsorbed ions by 3 mL of 4 mol L^?1 HNO₃ aqueous solution, the established IIP-based SPE procedure provides a reasonable pre-concentration factor of 100. The IIP-based pre-concentration method provides a low detection limit of 1.7 µg L^?1 with good repeatability (RSD?=?3.22%). Reusability studies confirmed that synthesis IIP is reusable and recoverable up to six cycles. According to the selectivity experiments, it was concluded that the prepared sorbent possesses more affinity toward Cr(III) ions than other ions such as Al³⁺, Pb²⁺, Cu²⁺, Mn²⁺, Fe²⁺, Zn²⁺, and Ni²⁺ ions. To evaluate the potential applicability of the proposed separation method, the pre-concentration and determination of trace amounts of Cr(III) were performed successfully in food samples with complex matrices, a bestial sample (i.e. cow liver) and an herbal product (i.e., broccoli) as real samples.