Controlled Synthesis,Characterization, and Flow Properties of Ethylene–Diene Copolymers

The flow response of branched entangled resins is dominated by the branching topology of the constituent molecules, a property that is not directly accessible using experimental analytical tools for industrially relevant complex resins. In this paper, the controlled terpolymerization of ethylene, 1,9‐decadiene, and either hexene or octene in a continuous stirred tank reactor with a metallocene catalyst, is reported. The synthesized samples are characterized extensively with various analytical tools and their rheological properties are measured with small amplitude oscillatory shear and start‐up uniaxial extension experiments. A model is developed for the polymerization process with the mass balance during synthesis providing strong constraints on the rate constants. In silico ensembles of molecules, generated via Monte Carlo sampling, are used to reproduce the experimental results. The computer model allows us to infer the detailed branching structure of the molecules and to predict the optimum range of reactor conditions for this synthesis.     

Classical model for diffusion and thermalization of heavy quarks in a hot medium: memory and out-of-equilibrium effects

We consider a simple model for the diffusion of heavy quarks in a hot bath,modeling the latter by an ensemble of oscillators distributed according to either a thermal distribution or to an out-of-equilibrium distribution with a saturation scale.In this model it is easy to introduce memory effects by changing the distribution of oscillators:we model them by introducing a Gaussian distribution,dN/dω.which can be deformed continuously from a δ-function,giving a Markov dissipation, to a broad kernel with memory.Deriving the equation of motion of the heavy quark in the bath,we remark how dissipation comes out naturally as an effect of the back-reaction of the oscillators on the bath.Moreover,the exact solution of this equation allows to define the thermalization time as the time necessary to remove any memory of the initial conditions.We find that the broadening of the dissipative kernel,while keeping the coupling fixed,lowers the thermalization time.We also derive the fluctuation-dissipation theorem for the bath,and use it to estimate the kinematic regime in which momentum diffusion of the heavy quark dominates over drift.We find that diffusion is more important as long as K_0/ε is small,where K_0 and ε denote the initial energy of the heavy quark and the average energy of the bath,respectively.     

Hydroelastic analysis of very large floating structure over viscoelastic bed

Effect of viscoelastic bed on the hydroelastic response analysis of very large floating structures is studied using the linear water wave theory and small amplitude structural response in finite water depth. The floating structure is modeled using Euler–Bernoulli beam equation and the bottom bed is assumed to be viscoelastic in nature and is based on the Voigt’s model. The dispersion relation, phase speed and response amplitude of the floating structure as well as viscoelastic bed surface, pressure distribution along water depth are analyzed to study the effect of viscoelastic bed parameters, flexural rigidity of the floating structure, time period on flexural gravity wave motion. The study reveals that structural response of the floating structure can be mitigated for moderate thickness of the viscoelastic layer. Moreover, both shear modulus and viscosity of the viscoelastic layer play dominant role in reducing the structural response compared to the flexural rigidity of the structure. Further, pressure distribution within the viscoelastic bed decreases at a higher rate compared to the inviscid fluid layer irrespective of shear modulus and viscosity. The present study will be of immense help in the site selection of very large floating structures in the coastal water and installation of various marine facilities over muddy bed.     

Fracture in Microscale SU-8 Polymer Thin Films

In this work, the fracture of spin coated SU-8 epoxy thin films was investigated under mode I loading using in situ optical experiments on specimens with double edge notched tensile geometry. A method was developed to fabricate 3 μm thick SU-8 films with tapered Chevron type notches using a combination of electron beam and ultra-violet lithography techniques. Subsequently, through speckle patterning under tensile loading, the local deformation fields around the crack tip were extracted using digital image correlation. Since the notches were tapered through the thickness, a crack nucleated from them and grew stably until it spanned the entire thickness before propagating unstably leading to catastrophic failure. As SU-8 underwent brittle fracture with no evidence of a large process zone, the critical energy release rate, J _{I C} was computed from deformation fields, and was found to be 106.6 ± 12.03 J /m ². As the film thickness was small compared to lateral dimensions, assuming plane stress conditions, the critical stress intensity factor was calculated as 0.57 ± 0.03 MPa\(\sqrt {m}\). Furthermore, to assess the validity of the experimental method, a finite element simulation on the exact specimen geometry was conducted with experimentally evaluated far field displacement boundary conditions. The strain fields and J-integral value obtained from the simulation were in good agreement with the experimental results, implying the validity of the in situ experimental method proposed given the challenges of small scale specimens. Furthermore, using fractography and optical imaging it was confirmed that the unstable crack propagation started once the crack front reached full thickness, thereby providing sharp crack at the time of failure, which is necessary for brittle materials for valid fracture toughness experiment. It is expected that the proposed methods of specimen preparation and fracture experiments on microscale polymer thin films can be used on other materials.     

A green synthetic approach toward the synthesis of structurally diverse spirooxindole derivative libraries under catalyst-free conditions

A catalyst-free green methodology for the synthesis of pharmacologically important spirooxindole derivatives has been developed by a three-component domino reaction between isatin, various amino compounds, and 1,3-dicarbonyl or 3-phenylisoxazolone compounds in ethyl l-lactate medium at room temperature. This new efficient synthetic method facilitated the formation of a wide range of biologically significant spirooxindole derivatives (including 17 new spirooxindoles) under very mild conditions. The cytotoxic activity of one of the isoxazole-fused spirooxindoles was evaluated in MDA-MB 468 breast cancer cell line. It was found that cell survivability decreases with increasing concentration of the selected compound in MDA-MB 468 breast cancer cells.     

An Alternative Method for Solving Lagrange's First-Order Partial Differential Equation with Linear Function Coefficients

An alternative method of solving Lagrange's first-order partial differential equation of the form $$(a_1x+b_1y+c_1z)p+(a_2x+b_2y+c_2z)q=a_3x+b_3y+c_3z,$$ where p=∂z/∂x, q=∂z/∂y and a_i, b_i, c_i (i=1,2,3) are all real numbers has been presented here.     

Effect of disorder and isotope on the properties of a two orbital double exchange system

A two-site single electron double exchange model incorporating orbital degeneracy, superexchange and electron-phonon (e-ph) interaction is studied using exact diagonalization method. The core spins are treated quantum mechanically. We study the ground state phase diagram as well as the magnetic susceptibility and the kinetic energy of the system as a function of temperature. Effect of difference in site energies, which mimics the role of site-diagonal disorder, is investigated. The susceptibility shows a peak at a characteristic temperature which we have referred to as T₀. The variation of T₀ with e-ph coupling and that of the isotope-shift exponent (α) with T₀ are obtained. We also investigate the field-induced change in the kinetic energy, which is related to the colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) of the system, and find that the disorder enhances the CMR even for the two-site system.     

Characteristics of electrical properties of wide temperature range TGB phases in liquid crystal dimers

4-n-decyloxy-4′-(cholesteryloxycarbonyl-1-butyloxy) chalcone and its two successive homologous are optically active dimeric compound derived from cholesterol. They possess wide temperature ranges of two twist grain boundary (TGB) phases namely TGBA and TGBC*. Comprehensive dielectric studies have been carried out for these compounds in the frequency range of 1 Hz to 10 MHz for different conditions of molecular anchoring. Various electrical parameter viz. dielectric permittivity, dielectric anisotropy, dc conductivity, and activation energy have been determined for these two TGB phases. Weak relaxation processes have been detected under planar anchoring of molecules in the TGBA and TGBC* phases presumably due to amplitude (soft mode) and phase (Goldstone mode) fluctuations.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">ϒ</Emphasis> production in STAR

The study of formation and interaction of heavy quarkonia in relativistic heavy ion collisions provides important insight into the properties of the produced medium. Lattice QCD studies show sequential suppression of quarkonia states with increasing temperature; which affirms that a full spectroscopy, including bottomonium, can provide us a thermometer for the matter produced under extreme conditions in relativistic heavy ion collisions and the most direct probe of deconfinement. With the completion of the STAR Electromagnetic Calorimeter and with the increased luminosity provided by RHIC in Runs 6 and 7, the study of ϒ production via the di-electron channel becomes possible. We present preliminary results on ϒ measurements in pp collisions (from Run 6) along with preliminary results from Au+Au collisions (in Run 7) at  GeV from the STAR experiment.     

Mitochondrial BNIP3 upregulation precedes endonuclease G translocation in hippocampal neuronal death following oxygen-glucose deprivation

Background  

Caspase-independent apoptotic pathways are suggested as a mechanism for the delayed neuronal death following ischemic insult. However, the underlying signalling mechanisms are largely unknown. Recent studies imply the involvement of several mitochondrial proteins, including endonuclease G (EndoG) and Bcl-2/adenovirus E1B 19 kDa-interacting protein (BNIP3), in the pathway of non-neuronal cells.