o‐nitrobenzyl acrylate is polymerizable by single electron transfer‐living radical polymerization

Polymers containing o‐nitrobenzyl esters are promising for preparation of light sensitive materials. o‐Nitrobenzyl methacrylate has already been polymerized by controlled ATRP or RAFT. Unfortunately, the radical polymerization of o‐nitrobenzyl acrylate (NBA) was not controlled until now due to inhibition and retardation effects coming from the nitro‐aromatic groups. Recent developments in the Single Electron Transfer–Living Radical Polymerization (SET–LRP) provide us an access to control this NBA polymerization and living character of this NBA SET–LRP is demonstrated. Effects of CuBr₂ and ligand concentrations, as well as Cu(0) wire length on SET–LRP kinetics are shown presently. A first‐order kinetics with respect to the NBA concentration is observed after one induction period. SET–LRP proceeds with a linear evolution of molecular weight and a narrow distribution. High initiation efficiency close to 1 and high chain‐end functionality (～93%) are reached. Chain extension of poly(o‐nitrobenzyl acrylate) is realized with methyl acrylate (MA) to obtain well defined poly(o‐nitrobenzyl acrylate)‐b‐poly(methyl acrylate) (PNBA‐b‐PMA). Finally, light‐sensitive properties of PNBA are checked upon UV irradiation. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014 , 52, 2192–2201     

New Thiophilic Adsorbent for the Purification of Insulin and Immunoglobulins G

We have synthesized new supports for the purification of insulin and IgG by affinity chromatography. These supports combine the advantages of biospecific ligands with the excellent separation properties of thiophilic sorbents. The existence of N-acetyl-neuraminic acid in insulin receptor and in the antigenic determinant of IgG suggests that such an acid may develop specific interactions usable in affinity chromatography. Therefore, N-acetylneuraminic acid was used as an active ligand in comparison with the β-mercaptoethanol. The performances of these supports were tested under static and dynamic (LC) conditions. The support functionalized by sialic acid appears significantly more selective than the support grafted by β-mercaptoethanol; and its purification yield is better. This new support showed similar adsorption characteristics with thiophilic adsorbent. These affinity supports allowed a one-step separation of the insulin and IgG subclasses from a pancreatic extract and mouse ascitic fluids, respectively, by LC.     

A modified variable time step method for solving ice melting problem

A modified numerical method was used by authors for solving 1D Stefan problem. In this paper a modified method is proposed with difference formulae and different methods of calculating the variable time step, which are deduced from Taylor series expansions of different conditions at the boundary. Also an extrapolation formula for the solution at the first point at the right of the computational domain is proposed. The numerical results are compared with those obtained from other methods.     

Identification of physical parameters in pressing of rapeseeds from the oil flux measurements

In this paper, we are interested in the study of an inverse problem that occurs during the pressing of rapeseeds, where some physical parameters influence on rapeseed oil extraction yield. Our objective is to identify the consolidation coefficient of the press cake, the inverse characteristic time of consolidation in press cake, and inside the rapeseed in order to increase the rapeseed oil extraction yield. Three questions will be addressed: the identifiability, the identification, and the stability of the inverse problem. Finally, we provide numerical results to confirm the theoretical results.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">l</Emphasis><Subscript>1</Subscript>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">l</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript> regularization of split feasibility problems

Numerous problems in signal processing and imaging, statistical learning and data mining, or computer vision can be formulated as optimization problems which consist in minimizing a sum of convex functions, not necessarily differentiable, possibly composed with linear operators and that in turn can be transformed to split feasibility problems (SFP); see for example Censor and Elfving (Numer. Algorithms 8, 221–239 1994). Each function is typically either a data fidelity term or a regularization term enforcing some properties on the solution; see for example Chaux et al. (SIAM J. Imag. Sci. 2, 730–762 2009) and references therein. In this paper, we are interested in split feasibility problems which can be seen as a general form of Q-Lasso introduced in Alghamdi et al. (2013) that extended the well-known Lasso of Tibshirani (J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. B 58, 267–288 1996). Q is a closed convex subset of a Euclidean m-space, for some integer m ≥ 1, that can be interpreted as the set of errors within given tolerance level when linear measurements are taken to recover a signal/image via the Lasso. Inspired by recent works by Lou and Yan (2016), Xu (IEEE Trans. Neural Netw. Learn. Syst. 23, 1013–1027 2012), we are interested in a nonconvex regularization of SFP and propose three split algorithms for solving this general case. The first one is based on the DC (difference of convex) algorithm (DCA) introduced by Pham Dinh Tao, the second one is nothing else than the celebrate forward-backward algorithm, and the third one uses a method introduced by Mine and Fukushima. It is worth mentioning that the SFP model a number of applied problems arising from signal/image processing and specially optimization problems for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment planning; see for example Censor et al. (Phys. Med. Biol. 51, 2353–2365, 2006).     

Eine Vertikal-Zonenschmelzanlage für tiegelloses Zonenschmelzen mit Hilfe punkttokussierterElektronenstrahlheizung

Ohne ZusammenfassungDiese Arbeit entstand 1964 an der Technischen Hochschule Karlsruhe, wohin der zweite Autor als Gastdozent von den Bell Telephone Laboratories beurlaubt war.     

Relation between strings and ribbon knots

A ribbon knot can be represented as the propagation of an open string in (Euclidean) space-time. By imposing physical conditions plus an ansatz on the string scattering amplitude, we get invariant polynomials of ribbon knots which correspond to Jones and Wadatiet al. polynomials for ordinary knots. Motivated by the string scattering vertices, we derive an algebra which is a generalization of Hecke and Murakami-Birman-Wenzel (BMW) algebras of knots.     

Chemical control of the DNA light switch: cycling the switch ON and OFF

The emission of the DNA light-switch complex [Ru(bpy)2(tpphz)]2+ (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine, tpphz = tetrapyrido[3,2-a:2',3'-c:3' ',2' '-h:2' ',3' '-j]phenazine) can be reversibly turned ON and OFF over several cycles. The tpphz and taptp (taptp = 4,5,9,18-tetraazaphenanthreno[9,10-b] triphenylene) ligands in [Ru(bpy)2(tpphz)]2+ and [Ru(bpy)2(taptp)]2+, respectively, intercalate between the DNA bases, and a 50-fold increase in emission intensity of [Ru(bpy)2(tpphz)]2+ is observed upon DNA intercalation. The [Ru(bpy)2(tpphz)]2+ DNA light switch can be turned OFF statically in the presence of Co2+, Ni2+, and Zn2+, and the emission can be fully restored by the addition of EDTA. Cycling of the DNA light switch OFF and ON can be accomplished through the successive introduction of Co2+ and EDTA, respectively, to solutions of DNA-bound [Ru(bpy)2(tpphz)]2+. Owing to the absence of additional coordination sites, the emission of DNA-intercalated [Ru(bpy)2(taptp)]2+ is not quenched by transition metal ions in solution. To our knowledge, this work presents the first example of a reversible DNA light switch.