Photopolymerization of β-Allyloxypropionaldehyde

Homo- and copolymerizations of β-allyloxypropionaldehyde (I) have been carried out by photoirradiation at 12–13°C in degassed glass ampules. The number-average molecular weights of the homopolymers of I obtained in a few reaction conditions were determined by means of gel-permeation chromatography. I initiated and/or accelerated the photopolymerizations of such vinyl monomers as methyl methacrylate and vinyl acetate. Photocopolymerizabilities of I with styrene (St) and acrylonitrile (AN) were also investigated, and the copolymerization parameters were obtained as follows: for the St-I system, r₁ = 12, r₂ = 0.01; for the AN-I system, r₁ = 5.2, r₂ = 0.01.     

Numerical analysis for a crack in piezoelectric material under impact

In this paper, a numerical analysis of impact interfacial fracture for a piezoelectric bimaterial is provided. Starting from the basic equilibrium equation, a dynamic electro-mechanical FEM formulation is briefly presented. Then, the path-independent separated dynamic J integral is extended to piezoelectric bimaterials. Based on the relationship of the path-independent dynamic J integral and the stress and electric displacement intensity factors, the component separation method is used to calculate the stress and electric displacement intensity factors for piezoelectric bimaterials in this finite-element analysis. The response curves of the dynamic J integral, the stress and electric displacement intensity factors are obtained for both homogeneous material (PZT-4 and CdSe) and CdSe/PZT-4 bimaterial. The influences of the piezoelectricity and the electro-mechanical coupling factor on these responses are discussed. The effects of an applied electric field are also discussed.     

Tandem trimer pyrrole–imidazole polyamide probes targeting 18 base pairs in human telomere sequences

The binding of molecules to specific DNA sequences is important for imaging genome DNA and for studying gene expression. Increasing the number of base pairs targeted by these molecules would provide greater specificity. N-Methylpyrrole–N-methylimidazole (Py–Im) polyamides are one type of such molecules and can bind to the minor groove of DNA in a sequence-specific manner without causing denaturation of DNA. Our recent work has demonstrated that tandem hairpin Py–Im polyamides conjugated with a fluorescent dye can be synthesized easily and can serve as new probes for studying human telomeres under mild conditions. Herein, to improve their selectivities to telomeres by targeting longer sequences, we designed and synthesized a fluorescent tandem trimer Py–Im polyamide probe, comprising three hairpins and two connecting regions (hinges). The new motif bound to 18 bp dsDNA in human telomeric repeats (TTAGGG)_n, the longest sequence for specific binding reported for Py–Im polyamides. We compared the binding affinities and the abilities to discriminate mismatch, the UV-visible absorption and fluorescence spectra, and telomere staining in human cells between the tandem trimer and a previously developed tandem hairpin. We found that the tandem trimer Py–Im polyamide probe has higher ability to recognize telomeric repeats and stains telomeres in chemically fixed cells with lower background signal.     

Study on orientation mechanisms of poly(vinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene) molecules aligned by atomic force microscopy

We have developed a molecular orientation control technique for polymers utilizing contact-mode atomic force microscopy (AFM). In this paper, we studied the molecular alignment mechanism of this technique by applying it to poly(vinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)). The resultant alignment and formed crystal size were strongly dependent on the temperature during the modification. They also depended on the scan line spacing of the modification. These results made the alignment mechanism clear. The obtained molecular alignment was stable against the heat treatment even at the temperatures just below T_m.     

Statistical Features in High-Frequency Bands of Interictal iEEG Work Efficiently in Identifying the Seizure Onset Zone in Patients with Focal Epilepsy

The design of a computer-aided system for identifying the seizure onset zone (SOZ) from interictal and ictal electroencephalograms (EEGs) is desired by epileptologists. This study aims to introduce the statistical features of high-frequency components (HFCs) in interictal intracranial electroencephalograms (iEEGs) to identify the possible seizure onset zone (SOZ) channels. It is known that the activity of HFCs in interictal iEEGs, including ripple and fast ripple bands, is associated with epileptic seizures. This paper proposes to decompose multi-channel interictal iEEG signals into a number of subbands. For every 20 s segment, twelve features are computed from each subband. A mutual information (MI)-based method with grid search was applied to select the most prominent bands and features. A gradient-boosting decision tree-based algorithm called LightGBM was used to score each segment of the channels and these were averaged together to achieve a final score for each channel. The possible SOZ channels were localized based on the higher value channels. The experimental results with eleven epilepsy patients were tested to observe the efficiency of the proposed design compared to the state-of-the-art methods.     

Radical-initiated homo- and copolymerizations of methacryloyl fluoride

The kinetics of methacryloyl fluoride (MAF) homopolymerization was investigated in methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) with azobis(isobutyronitrile) as initiator. The rate of polymerization (R_p) followed the expression R_p = k[AIBN]^0.55[MAF]^1.18. The overall activation energy was calculated as 74.4 kJ/mol. The relative reactivity ratios of MAF(M₂) copolymerization with styrene (r₁ = 0.083, r₂ = 0.14), and methyl methacrylate (r₁ = 0.48, r₂ = 0.81) in methyl ethyl ketone were obtained. Application of the Q–e scheme (in styrene copolymerization) led to Q = 2.22 and e = 1.31. The glass transition temperature (T_g) of poly(MAF) was 90°C by thermomechanical analysis. Thermogravimetry of poly(MAF) showed a 10% weight loss of 228°C in air.     

Differences of fluorine in cements determined by photometric methods after distillation and pyrolysis.

Using a spectrophotometric method after distillation separation is a standard test method widely employed for the determination of fluorine (F) in cement. Using a flow injection (FI) method after pyrolysis separation for quantification of fluorine in cement has recently been developed. Differences between the fluorine content values obtained by each method have been noted. This paper documents the differences between fluorine content (distillation F) measured spectrophotometrically after distillation and that (pyrolysis F) determined using the FI method after pyrolysis for fourteen commercial Portland cements and identifies a factor contributing to the differences between distillation F and pyrolysis F values. A highly significant relationship existed between distillation F and pyrolysis F values for fourteen cements (r(2) = 0.998, p < 0.001).     

Conformational and neighboring effects in graft polymerization of acrolein on 4(5)-vinylimidazole-acrylamide copolymer

The graft polymerization of acrolein (AL) on poly-4(5)-vinylimidazole or the copolymers of 4(5)-vinylimidazole(VIm) and acrylamide of varying composition were carried out kinetically in an ethanol–water mixture at 0°C. The graft polymerization rate R_p increased with an increasing concentration of water in the solvent. On the other hand, the R_p of the copolymer which incorporated 50 mol % VIm showed the highest value. These results were discussed by assuming interaction between amide and imidazole groups in copolymer.     

Effects of solvent on the free-radical copolymerizabilities of pyridazinones with styrene

Free-radical copolymerizations of N-methylpyridazinone (I) and N-phenylpyridazinone (II) with styrene (M₁) were carried out in various solvents. The copolymerization rates were found to increase linearly with increasing viscosities of the reaction mixtures. Monomer reactivity ratios were strongly affected by the reaction media. This might be due to solvation of the carbonyl group of the pyridazinone ring, because linear relationships between log 1/r1 and vc=o of the pyridazinones were obtained. It was also found that monomer concentration influences these copolymerizabilities.