Direct measurements of controlled aerodynamic forces on a wire-suspended axisymmetric body

A novel in-line miniature force transducer is developed for direct measurements of the net aerodynamic forces and moments on a bluff body. The force transducers are integrated into each of the eight mounting wires that are utilized for suspension of an axisymmetric model in a wind tunnel having minimal wake interference. The aerodynamic forces and moments on the model are altered by induced active local attachment of the separated base flow. Fluidic control is effected by an array of four integrated aft-facing synthetic jet actuators that emanate from narrow, azimuthally segmented slots, equally distributed around the perimeter of the circular tail end. The jet orifices are embedded within a small backward-facing step that extends into a Coanda surface. The altered flow dynamics associated with both quasi-steady and transitory asymmetric activation of the flow control effect is characterized by direct force and PIV measurements.     

From imaging to material identification: A generalized concept of topological sensitivity

To establish a compact analytical framework for the preliminary stress-wave identification of material defects, the focus of this study is an extension of the concept of topological derivative, rooted in elastostatics and the idea of cavity nucleation, to 3D elastodynamics involving germination of solid obstacles. The main result of the proposed generalization is an expression for topological sensitivity, explicit in terms of the elastodynamic Green's function, obtained by an asymptotic expansion of a misfit-type cost functional with respect to the nucleation of a dissimilar elastic inclusion in a defect-free “reference” solid. The featured formula, consisting of an inertial-contrast monopole term and an elasticity-contrast dipole term, is shown to be applicable to a variety of reference solids (semi-infinite and infinite domains with constant or functionally graded elastic properties) for which the Green's functions are available. To deal with situations when the latter is not the case (e.g. finite reference bodies or those with pre-existing defects), an adjoint field approach is employed to derive an alternative expression for topological sensitivity that involves the contraction of two (numerically computed) elastodynamic states. A set of numerical results is included to demonstrate the potential of generalized topological derivative as an efficient tool for exposing not only the geometry, but also material characteristics of subsurface material defects through a local, point-wise identification of “optimal” inclusion properties that minimize the topological sensitivity at sampling location. Beyond the realm of non-invasive characterization of engineered materials, the proposed developments may be relevant to medical diagnosis and in particular to breast cancer detection where focused ultrasound waves show a promise of superseding manual palpation.     

In and Ex Situ Studies of the Formation of Layered Microspherical Hydrozincite as Precursor for ZnO

Layered ZnO microspheric particles were prepared by the thermal decomposition of layered hydrozincite (LZnHC), which was synthesized from zinc nitrate and urea in a water/PEG400 mixture. The influence of the starting reagents, their concentrations, and the amount of PEG in the water/PEG400 mixture on the particle growth was observed. The chemical aspect of the particle growth was proposed in the frame of the partial charge model (PCM), and the formation of [Zn(OH)₂(OH₂)₄]⁰ and [Zn(OH)(HCO₃)(OH₂)₃]⁰ was predicted for the solid phase. The assumed growth mechanism, which follows the “nonclassical crystallization” concept of a self‐assembling mechanism, was observed in situ by small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS) and predicts the rapid formation of approximately 6 nm sized building units. The size of these nano building units, stable only in the reaction medium, remains nearly constant during the synthesis, as the concentration of the nano building units increases throughout the reaction. The nano building units connect into leaves of LZnHC with a thickness of 20 nm. These leaves of LZnHC are further agglomerated into porous, microsphere‐like particles with sizes up to 4 μm.     

An application of second-order UV-derivative spectrophotometry for study of solvolysis of a novel fluocinolone acetonide ester

A novel topical corticosteroid FA-21-PhP, 2-phenoxypropionate ester of fluocinolone acetonide, has been synthesized in order to investigate the possibility of decreasing systemic side effects. In this study model system for in vitro solvolytic reaction of FA-21-PhP has been analyzed in ethanol/water (90:10, v/v) with excess of sodium hydrogen carbonate. The selected conditions have been used as in vitro model for activation of corticosteroid C-21 ester prodrug. The second-order derivative spectrophotometric method (DS) using zero-crossing technique was developed for monitoring ternary mixture of solvolysis. Fluocinolone acetonide (FA) as a solvolyte was determined in the mixture in the concentration range 0.062–0.312 mM using amplitude ²D_274.96. Experimentally determined LOD value was 0.0295 mM. The accuracy of proposed DS method was confirmed with HPLC referent method. Peak area of parent ester FA-21-PhP was used for solvolysis monitoring to ensure the initial stage of changes. Linear relationship in HPLC assay for parent ester was obtained in the concentration range 0.054–0.54 mM, with experimentally determined LOD value of 0.0041 mM. Investigated solvolytic reaction in the presence of excess of NaHCO₃ proceeded via a pseudo-first-order kinetic with significant correlation coefficients 0.9891 and 0.9997 for DS and HPLC, respectively. The values of solvolysis rate constant calculated according to DS and HPLC methods are in good accordance 0.038 and 0.043 h^?1, respectively.     

Synthesis and antioxidant activity of some new coumarinyl-1,3-thiazolidine-4-ones

A series of Schiff's bases (E)-N-2-aryliden-2-(4-methyl-2-oxo-2H-chromen-7-yloxy)acetohydrazides 2a-l and N-(2-(substituted phenyl)-4-oxo-thiazolidin-3-yl)-2-(4-methyl-2-oxo-2H-chromen-7-yloxy)acetamides 3a-l were synthesized and evaluated for their antioxidant activity by the phosphomolybdenum method. Most of the Schiff's bases and thiazolidine-4-ones bearing two hydroxyl groups on the phenyl ring showed excellent antioxidant activity in comparison with ascorbic acid. Preliminary investigation on cytotoxic and antifungal activity was done on some representative samples.     

Regularly varying multivariate time series

Extreme values of a stationary, multivariate time series may exhibit dependence across coordinates and over time. The aim of this paper is to offer a new and potentially useful tool called tail process to describe and model such extremes. The key property is the following fact: existence of the tail process is equivalent to multivariate regular variation of finite cuts of the original process. Certain remarkable properties of the tail process are exploited to shed new light on known results on certain point processes of extremes. The theory is shown to be applicable with great ease to stationary solutions of stochastic autoregressive processes with random coefficient matrices, an interesting special case being a recently proposed factor GARCH model. In this class of models, the distribution of the tail process is calculated by a combination of analytical methods and a novel sampling algorithm.     

Simulated unfolded-state ensemble and the experimental NMR structures of villin headpiece yield similar wide-angle solution X-ray scattering profiles

With the advent of powerful synchrotron sources, solution X-ray scattering is being increasingly used to get basic information about the structure of polypeptides. The solution scattering technique essentially provides one-dimensional data, which are then interpreted in terms of a three-dimensional structure through model building. Here we calculate wide-angle solution scattering patterns for an ensemble of simulated unfolded structures of villin headpiece, which differ from the native structure by rmsd = 8.8 +/- 1.0 A and have only negligible amounts of native secondary structure. We show that the wide-angle solution scattering pattern of such an ensemble shares significant similarity with the one based on the experimental NMR structures of the molecule. Our results suggest that solution scattering in the wide-angle limit, by itself, provides very little information about the secondary structure content of a polypeptide or its side-chain packing.     

Bar-Magnet Polyhedra and NS-Orientations of Maps

At the CCCG 2001 open-problem session [2], J. O'Rourke asked which polyhedra can be represented by bars and magnets. This problem can be phrased as follows: which 3-connected planar graphs may have their edges directed so that the directions "alternate" around each vertex (with one exception of nonalternation if the degree is odd). In this note we solve O'Rourke's problem and generalize it to arbitrary maps on general surfaces. Obstructions to the existence of such orientations can be expressed algebraically by a new homology invariant of perfect matchings in the related graph of cofacial odd vertices.     

An improved upper bound on the adjacent vertex distinguishing total chromatic number of graphs

An adjacent vertex distinguishing total $k$-coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper total $k$-coloring of $G$ such that any pair of adjacent vertices have different sets of colors. The minimum number $k$ needed for such a total coloring of $G$ is denoted by ${\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)$. In this paper we prove that ${\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)\le 2\Delta \left(G\right)?1$ if $\Delta \left(G\right)\ge 4$, and ${\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)\le ?\frac{5\Delta \left(G\right)+8}{3}?$ in general. This improves a result in Huang et al. (2012) which states that ${\chi }_a^{\prime \prime }\left(G\right)\le 2\Delta \left(G\right)$ for any graph with $\Delta \left(G\right)\ge 3$.