Acid‐Labile Amphiphilic PEO‐b‐PPO‐b‐PEO Copolymers: Degradable Poloxamer Analogs

Poly ((ethylene oxide)‐b‐(propylene oxide)‐b‐(ethylene oxide)) triblock copolymers commonly known as poloxamers or Pluronics constitute an important class of nonionic, biocompatible surfactants. Here, a method is reported to incorporate two acid‐labile acetal moieties in the backbone of poloxamers to generate acid‐cleavable nonionic surfactants. Poly(propylene oxide) is functionalized by means of an acetate‐protected vinyl ether to introduce acetal units. Three cleavable PEO‐PPO‐PEO triblock copolymers (M_n,total = 6600, 8000, 9150 g·mol⁻¹; M_n,PEO = 2200, 3600, 4750 g·mol⁻¹) have been synthesized using anionic ring‐opening polymerization. The amphiphilic copolymers exhibit narrow molecular weight distributions (Ð = 1.06–1.08). Surface tension measurements reveal surface‐active behavior in aqueous solution comparable to established noncleavable poloxamers. Complete hydrolysis of the labile junctions after acidic treatment is verified by size exclusion chromatography. The block copolymers have been employed as surfactants in a miniemulsion polymerization to generate polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles with mean diameters of ≈200 nm and narrow size distribution, as determined by dynamic light scattering and scanning electron microscopy. Acid‐triggered precipitation facilitates removal of surfactant fragments from the nanoparticles, which simplifies purification and enables nanoparticle precipitation “on demand.”

     

Structure and Biosynthesis of Crocagins: Polycyclic Posttranslationally Modified Ribosomal Peptides from Chondromyces crocatus

Secondary metabolome mining efforts in the myxobacterial multiproducer of natural products, Chondromyces crocatus Cm c5, resulted in the isolation and structure elucidation of crocagins, which are novel polycyclic peptides containing a tetrahydropyrrolo[2,3-b]indole core. The gene cluster was identified through an approach combining genome analysis, targeted gene inactivation in the producer, and in vitro experiments. Based on our findings, we developed a biosynthetic scheme for crocagin biosynthesis. These natural products are formed from the three C-terminal amino acids of a precursor peptide and thus belong to a novel class of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs). We demonstrate that crocagin A binds to the carbon storage regulator protein CsrA, thereby inhibiting the ability of CsrA to bind to its cognate RNA target.     

Investigation of discrete stress distribution for dry powder compaction using Discrete Element Method and weighted Voronoi tesselation

Powder compaction of granular material plays a substantial role in the manufacturing process of ceramics industry and powder metallurgy industry. The compaction behaviour is ruled by granular flow and densification of deformable particles. Discrete element method (DEM) allows to investigate the powder compaction process numerically on the microscale by modeling the forces on the particle level and simulating the particle motion. Three-dimensional data about particle size distribution and spatial structure of the particle packing can be extracted from micro-computed tomography (µCT). An average stress tensor can be computed from DEM results, evaluating the contact forces and the distances from the particle center to the contact point with respect to an average cell volume. A weighted Voronoi tesselation of the polydisperse particle assembly is proposed for mapping a cell volume to each individual particle. With this approach all structural information of the particle system can be transferred from a discrete particle model to a heterogeneous volume model of micro-structure. Discrete stress distributions for uniaxial powder compaction are presented. (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A Comparison of Markov Chain Methods for Reliability Estimation

Two Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation methods for reliability estimation, subset simulation and the moving particles algorithm, are compared based on theoretical arguments and test cases. The differences in the efficiency between both algorithms are rather small. They seem to be well suited for off-the-shelf reliability estimations, but with a different setting for the most important parameters (proposal density and initial sample size). (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

ORSIS – News and further developments

The paper deals with the simulation program Off Road Systems Interactive Simulation (ORSIS) which is the w,orldwide leading simulation tool for off road driving of wheeled vehicles. Even though the present state of development allows a very realistic simulation of the man–vehicle–terrain system, there is continuous further improvement in the computer program’s detail. Some of the recent innovations integrated into the program are presented in this paper. These examples were chosen in a way that the scope of the further developments can be demonstrated. They represent three main directions of the work carried out: the refining of the tire–soil-model, the integration of new technologies and subsystems into the vehicle model and the improvement of the man–machine–interface especially in driving simulators.The first part of the paper describes a further development of the tire–soil-model. A significant improvement has been achieved to include the influence of slippery surfaces on traction in combination with the tire tread pattern. Results from finite element method (FEM) as well as real measurements were used to build up an approach, which qualitatively allows the influence of the positive–negative portion of the tire tread and the lug height of the tire tread on traction to be considered. The basic idea is very simple and straightforward. Moreover the calculation costs are very low, so the enhancement does not affect real time operation.In the second part a physical model for the central tire inflation system (CTIS) is presented. With this model it is possible to simulate the complete pneumatic system of a CTIS, including the air compressor with an accumulator, the pressure line and the wheel valves. The components are modelled by their physical parameters, so an adaptation to different existing tire-pressure-control-systems (TPC) can be made. The paper presents a short review of the modelling and a first validation using real measurements. Furthermore the influence of each parameter, e.g. the discharge flow of the compressor on the inflation time, is presented.The third part of the paper describes a further development of the visualization system. The ORSIS OpenGL graphic engine was separated from the main ORSIS simulation and can be run on different PCs controlled via a network. It is therefore possible to build up very cheap multi-channel visualization systems using consumer PCs running under LinuX. The fact that ORSIS itself is running on a normal PC allows the assembly of comparatively cheap driving simulators of a high end simulation quality.     

On a New Route to Chaos in Railway Dynamics

Cooperrider's mathematical model of a railway bogie running on a straight track has been thoroughly investigated due to its interesting nonlinear dynamics (see True [1] for a survey). In this article a detailed numerical investigation is made of the dynamics in a speed range, where many solutions exist, but only a couple of which are stable. One of them is a chaotic attractor.Cooperrider's bogie model is described in Section 2, and in Section 3 we explain the method of numerical investigation. In Section 4 the results are shown. The main result is that the chaotic attractor is created through a period-doubling cascade of the secondary period in an asymptotically stable quasiperiodic oscillation at decreasing speed. Several quasiperiodic windows were found in the chaotic motion.This route to chaos was first described by Franceschini [9], who discovered it in a seven-mode truncation of the plane incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The problem investigated by Franceschini is a smooth dynamical system in contrast to the dynamics of the Cooperrider truck model. The forcing in the Cooperrider model includes a component, which has the form of a very stiff linear spring with a dead band simulating an elastic impact. The dynamics of the Cooperrider truck is therefore non-smooth.The quasiperiodic oscillation is created in a supercritical Neimark bifurcation at higher speeds from an asymmetric unstable periodic oscillation, which gains stability in the bifurcation. The bifurcating quasiperiodic solution is initially unstable, but it gains stability in a saddle-node bifurcation when the branch turns back toward lower speeds.The chaotic attractor disappears abruptly in what is conjectured to be a blue sky catastrophe, when the speed decreases further.     

Multiscale Petrov-Galerkin FEM for Acoustic Scattering

We present a pollution-free Petrov-Galerkin multiscale finite element method for the Helmholtz problem with large wave number κ. We use standard continuous Q₁ finite elements at a coarse discretization scale H as trial functions. The test functions are the solutions of local problems at a finer scale h. The diameter of the support of the test functions behaves like mH for some oversampling parameter m. Provided m is of the order of log(κ) and h is sufficiently small, the resulting method is stable and quasi-optimal in the regime where H is proportional to κ⁻¹. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Limit-point / limit-circle classification of second-order differential operators arising in PT quantum mechanics

We consider a second-order differential equation −y^″ + q(x)y(x) = λy(x) with complex-valued potential q and eigenvalue parameter λ ∈ ℂ. In PT quantum mechanics the potential q is given by q(x) = −(ix)^N+2 on a contour Γ ⊂ ℂ. Via a parametrization we obtain two differential equations on [0, ∞) and (−∞, 0]. We give a limit-point/limit-circle classification of this problem via WKB-analysis. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Effect of pH on the synthesis and properties of luminescent SiO2/calcium phosphate:Eu3+ core-shell nanoparticles

A novel method for the synthesis of luminescent SiO(2)/calcium phosphate (CaP):Eu(3+) core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) was developed via a sol-gel route followed by annealing at a temperature of 800 °C. The object of this study was the investigation of the effect of pH on the formation of a CaP shell around the silica core. The resulting annealed NPs exhibited an amorphous SiO(2) core and a crystalline luminescent shell. The formation of a CaP layer was possible at pH below 4.5 and above 6.5 during the coating step. The crystal structure of the shell was studied by X-ray diffraction analysis. Hydroxyapatite (HAp) and α-tricalcium phosphate were detected as crystal phases of the surrounding layer. However, NPs produced under basic conditions exhibited a higher crystallinity of the CaP layer than did samples coated at pH below 4.5. In the pH interval between 4.5 and 6.5, no shell growth but the formation of secondary NPs containing CaO and Ca(OH)(2) was observed. Furthermore, SiO(2)/CP:Eu(3+) core-shell NPs were investigated by transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The resulting HAp-coated NPs were successfully tested by a cell-culture-based viability assay with respect to a later application as a luminescent marker for biomedical applications.