Surface activity and thermodynamic of micellization and adsorption for isooctylphenol ethoxylates, phosphate esters and their mixtures with N-diethoxylated perfluorooctanamide

Three nonionic surfactants; p-isooctylphenol ethoxylates p-[i-OPE10], p-[i-OPE15], and p-[i-OPE20], were phosphorylated to produce three anionic phosphate ester surfactants. In addition, N-diethoxylated perfluorooctanamide (N-DEFOA) was also prepared. The surface and thermodynamic properties of the three types of surfactants and mixtures of the fluorocarbon surfactant (FC) with the hydrocarbon surfactants (HC) have been investigated. Surface tension as a function of concentration of the surfactant in aqueous solution was measured at 30, 40, 50 and 60°C, using the spinning drop technique. From these measurements the critical micelle concentration (CMC), the surface tension at the CMC (γ_CMC), the maximum surface excess concentration (Γ_max), the minimum area per molecule at the aqueous solution/air interface (A_min), and the effectiveness of surface tension reduction (π_CMC), were calculated. The thermodynamic parameters of micellization (ΔG_mic, ΔH_mic, ΔS_mic) and of adsorption (ΔG_ad, ΔH_ad, ΔS_ad) for these surfactants and their mixtures were also calculated. Structural effects on micellization, adsorption and effectiveness of surface tension reduction are discussed in terms of these parameters. The results show that the FC surfactant and its mixtures with HC surfactants enhance the efficiency in surface tension reduction and adsorption in the mixed monolayer at the aqueous solution/air interface, and also, reduce γ_CMC and the tendency towards micellization.     

Copper(II) complexes of 2-pyridineformamide N(4)-methylthiosemicarbazone

Reduction of 2-cyanopyridine by sodium in dry MeOH in the presence of N(4)-methylthiosemicarbazide produces 2-pyridineformamide N(4)-methylthiosemicarbazone, HAm4M. Copper(II) complexes have been prepared and characterized by molar conductivities, magnetic susceptibilities and spectroscopic techniques. Coordination is via the pyridyl nitrogen, imine nitrogen and thione or thiolato sulfur, when coordinating as the neutral or anionic ligand, respectively.     

A Caputo–Fabrizio Fractional-Order Model of HIV/AIDS with a Treatment Compartment: Sensitivity Analysis and Optimal Control Strategies

Although most of the early research studies on fractional-order systems were based on the Caputo or Riemann–Liouville fractional-order derivatives, it has recently been proven that these methods have some drawbacks. For instance, kernels of these methods have a singularity that occurs at the endpoint of an interval of definition. Thus, to overcome this issue, several new definitions of fractional derivatives have been introduced. The Caputo–Fabrizio fractional order is one of these nonsingular definitions. This paper is concerned with the analyses and design of an optimal control strategy for a Caputo–Fabrizio fractional-order model of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Caputo–Fabrizio fractional-order model of HIV/AIDS is considered to prevent the singularity problem, which is a real concern in the modeling of real-world systems and phenomena. Firstly, in order to find out how the population of each compartment can be controlled, sensitivity analyses were conducted. Based on the sensitivity analyses, the most effective agents in disease transmission and prevalence were selected as control inputs. In this way, a modified Caputo–Fabrizio fractional-order model of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is proposed. By changing the contact rate of susceptible and infectious people, the atraumatic restorative treatment rate of the treated compartment individuals, and the sexual habits of susceptible people, optimal control was designed. Lastly, simulation results that demonstrate the appropriate performance of the Caputo–Fabrizio fractional-order model and proposed control scheme are illustrated.     

Structure and stability characteristics of turbulent planar flames with inhomogeneous jet in a concentric flow slot burner

Turbulent flames with compositionally inhomogeneous mixtures are common in many combustion systems. Turbulent jet flames with a circular nozzle burner were used earlier to study the impact of inhomogeneous mixtures, and these studies showed that the nozzle radius affects the flame stability. Accordingly, planar turbulent flames with inhomogeneous turbulent jet are created in a concentric flow slot burner (CFSB) to avoid this effect in the present study. The stability characteristics, the mixing field structure, and the flame front structure were measured, and the correlations between stability and the mixing field structure were investigated. The mixture fraction field was measured in non-reacting jets at the nozzle exit using highly resolved Rayleigh scattering technique, and the flame front was measured in some selected turbulent flames using high-speed Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) of OH technique. The data show strong correlations between flame stability and the range of mixture fraction fluctuations. The flames are highly stabilized within a mixing field environment with the range of fluctuation in mixture fraction close to the range of the flammability limits. The mixing field structure is also illustrated and discussed using a mixing regime diagram and showed that the scatter of the data of the different cases is consistent with the classified mixing regimes. Lean flames are stabilized in the current slot burner. The flame front structure topology varies consistently from thin, small curvature at the low level of turbulence and higher equivalence ratio to more wrinkled, larger curvature, but a thicker structure at a higher level of turbulence and lower equivalence ratio.     

A Bootstrap Framework for Aggregating within and between Feature Selection Methods

In the past decade, big data has become increasingly prevalent in a large number of applications. As a result, datasets suffering from noise and redundancy issues have necessitated the use of feature selection across multiple domains. However, a common concern in feature selection is that different approaches can give very different results when applied to similar datasets. Aggregating the results of different selection methods helps to resolve this concern and control the diversity of selected feature subsets. In this work, we implemented a general framework for the ensemble of multiple feature selection methods. Based on diversified datasets generated from the original set of observations, we aggregated the importance scores generated by multiple feature selection techniques using two methods: the Within Aggregation Method (WAM), which refers to aggregating importance scores within a single feature selection; and the Between Aggregation Method (BAM), which refers to aggregating importance scores between multiple feature selection methods. We applied the proposed framework on 13 real datasets with diverse performances and characteristics. The experimental evaluation showed that WAM provides an effective tool for determining the best feature selection method for a given dataset. WAM has also shown greater stability than BAM in terms of identifying important features. The computational demands of the two methods appeared to be comparable. The results of this work suggest that by applying both WAM and BAM, practitioners can gain a deeper understanding of the feature selection process.     

Coexistence and fluctuations phenomena with Davidson-like potentials in quadrupole-octupole deformed nuclei

The energy spectra of three types of two-dimensional potentials(we will call them‘Davidson-like potentials’(DLPs)),characterized by four minima separated by barriers,are investigated.The predictions for spectra and wave functions are obtained by using the nine-point finite-difference method.For these potentials,with the existence of a single configuration,a transition of spectra,as a function of barrier height,is covered from tunneling splitting modes to fluctuations phenomena,with equal peaks wave functions,crossing to the spectra of purely anharmonic oscillator potentials(AOPs).A different type of phase transition occurs when two(or more)configurations coexist.With the change of the parameters,a transition of spectra is covered from coexistence phenomena of two distinct quantum tunneling modes to fluctuations phenomena,with unequal peaks wave functions,crossing to the spectra of purely AOPs.Using DLPs,a particular application of the coherent quadropole-octupole model to describe energy bands with alternating parity of the nuclei¹⁰⁰Mo,^146,148Nd,^148,150Sm,²²⁰Ra,^220,222Rn,and^220,222Th is presented.The global parametrization of the model for the selected nuclei is achieved.     

On the Analytical Derivation of Quantum Fisher Information and Skew Information for two Qubit X States

The quantum Fisher information defined via the symmetric logarithmic derivative and the skew information are two different aspects describing the information contents of quantum mechanical density operators. They are considered as natural generalizations of the classical Fisher information and constitute key ingredients in the emerging field of quantum metrology. In this paper, we give the analytical expression of quantum Fisher information and skew information for two-qubit system prepared in a two-qubit state of X type.

     

Green solid-phase peptide synthesis 4. γ-Valerolactone and N-formylmorpholine as green solvents for solid phase peptide synthesis

Herein, we report the use of γ-valerolactone (GVL) and N-formylmorpholine (NFM) as DMF substitutes in polystyrene based SPPS. The solubility of selected amino acids and coupling reagents were studied in GVL and NFM, followed by their use in the successful synthesis of Aib-enkephalin pentapeptide (H-Tyr-Aib-Aib-Phe-Leu-NH₂) and Aib-ACP decapeptide (H-Val-Gln-Aib-Aib-Ile-Asp-Tyr-Ile-Asn-Gly-NH₂).     

Synthesis of 2-(4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazin-2-yloxyimino) derivatives: application in solution peptide synthesis

A new class of 1,3,5-triazinyloxyimino derivatives were prepared, characterized and tested for reactivity in solution peptide synthesis. The new triazinyloxyimino derivatives failed to activate the carboxyl group during formation of peptide bonds, but gave the corresponding N-triazinyl amino acid derivatives as a major product. The oxyma (ethyl 2-cyano-2-(hydroxyimino)acetate) uronium salt was superior to other uronium salts in terms of racemization, while 2-chloro-4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazine (CDMT, 9) gave the best results.     

Influence of strain/stress on the nonlinear-optical properties of sprayed deposited ZnO:Al thin films

Nanocrystalline ZnO:Al thin films were deposited by reactive chemical pulverization spray pyrolysis technique on heated glass substrates at 450 °C to study their crystalline structure, composition, strain, stress, roughness characteristics and nonlinear optical susceptibility as a function of Al concentration (0, 2, 3, 5 at.%). The films were characterized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), EDAX 9100 analyser, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and third harmonic generation (THG). The Al (3 at.%) doped ZnO thin films exhibited the lower strain/stress than undoped films. The nonlinear properties of the ZnO:Al thin films have been found to be influenced by the films strain/stress.