Study of the miscibility of poly(styrene-co-4-vinylbenzoic acid) with poly(ethyl methacrylate) or with poly[ethyl methacrylate-co-(2-N,N-dimethylaminoethyl) methacrylate] by inverse gas chromatography

Poly(styrene) is immiscible with poly(ethyl methacrylate). The introduction of a small amount of 4-vinylbenzoic acid units along poly(styrene) chains (PS-VBA) enhanced its miscibility with poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA) or with poly[ethyl methacrylate-co-(2-N,N-dimethylaminoethyl) methacrylate] (PEMA-DAE), as observed from the appearance of a single composition dependent glass transition temperature for each binary system using inverse gas chromatography. The negative values of the apparent polymer-polymer interaction parameter, chi(23)app, determined with different families of molecular probes, for three blend compositions and over a range of temperature confirm quantitatively the miscibility of these blends. The chi(23)app values for PEMA(PS-VBA) and (PEMA-DAE)-(PS-VBA) blends are dependent of the chemical nature of the probes, the temperature and the blend composition.     

A mapping technique for better solution exploration: NSGA-II adaptation

A mapping method (MaM) for a better solution space exploration adapted to NSGA-II method is presented. The Mapping technique divides the solution space into several zones using a Hamming distance to a reference solution. We present a bijective mapping function from the search space to the binary representation space of solutions. For each zone, a mapping metric is used to evaluate the solution space exploration. According to this evaluation, a local search is performed. The mapping is adapted to the well known non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) method applied to solve the flexible job shop problem (FJSP) case. We present the comparison between the hybridization using the local search for the non-dominated solutions and the hybridization using the mapping metrics. The multi-objective metrics show the efficiency of mapping adaptation in terms of convergence and diversity.     

Persistence of quantum correlations in a XY spin-chain environment

Quantum correlations in a physical system are usually degraded whenever there is aninteraction with the environment. Here we consider the action of a XY spin-chain interactingwith a system of two qubits. Results are surprising for particular families of statessince their evolution does not destroy the presence of either entanglement or nonlocality,that is, those correlations persist for any possible configuration of theenvironment. In addition, we unveil the form of those states which, although being mixed,their entanglement implies nonlocality and vice versa. This finding constitutes anextension of the well-known Gisin Theorem for pure states of two qubits.The ensuing form will enable us to find the evolved entanglement and nonlocality in ananalytical fashion.     

Synthesis and Molecular Docking Studies of Novel 2‐Phenyl‐4‐Substituted Oxazole Derivatives as Potential Anti‐cancer Agents

A novel series of 2,4‐disubstituted oxazole derivatives were synthesized, screened for their anti‐tumor activity against three cell lines MCF‐ 7 , TK‐10, and UACC‐62. Molecular docking study was carried out against epidermal growth factor receptor. A new series of 2‐phenyl‐4‐substituted oxazole derivatives were synthesized. A series of chiral α‐amino acid derivatives 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 were synthesized by coupling various l ‐acylated amino acid azide 3. The synthesized compounds were tested for their in vitro antitumor activity against MCF‐7, TK‐10, and UACC‐62 cell lines. Compound 6 exhibited the strongest inhibitory activity against TK cell lines, while compound 12 showed the highest activity against MCF‐7 cell lines. Compound 14 was the most active against UACC‐62 cell lines. Furthermore, a molecular docking study of the most active compounds was carried out using epidermal growth factor receptor X‐ray 3D structure (protein data bank ID 1 M17). Docking results revealed that compound 6 showed the highest binding energy of ΔG = ?78.17 Kcal/mol.     

Application of multivariate methods to the simultaneous Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectrometric determination of stereo-isomers; quinine and quinidine

The two stereo-isomers; quinine and quinidine have been determined in their mixtures in the IR region using chemometric multivariate methods, principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS). A training set of thirty synthetic binary mixture solutions in the possible combinations containing 0.0 - 4.0 and 4.0 - 0.0% w/v quinine and quinidine, respectively in chloroform was used to develop the multivariate calibrations. A validation set containing thirty synthetic binary mixtures of variable ratios in the range of 0.2 - 4.0 and 4.0 - 0.2% w/v for quinine and quinidine, respectively in chloroform was used to validate the developed calibrations. The results of analysis of the validation synthetic mixtures were found to be 100.5+/-0.44% (R.S.D.%=0.44) and 100.5+/-0.38% (R.S.D.%=0.38) for quinine and 100.1+/-0.67% (R.S.D.%=0.67) and 100.1+/-0.68% (R.S.D.%=0.68) for quinidine using PCR and PLS models, respectively.     

Multipartite non-locality and entanglement signatures of a field-induced quantum phase transition

Quantum correlation measures are limited in practice to a few number of parties, since no general theory is still capable of reaching the thermodynamic limit. In the present work we study entanglement and non-locality for a cluster of spins belonging to a compound that displays a magnetocaloric effect. A quantum phase transition (QPT) is induced by an external magnetic field B, in such a way that the corresponding quantum fluctuations are reproduced at a much smaller scale than the experimental outcomes, and then described by means of the aforementioned quantum measures.     

Entanglement in the linear-chain Heisenberg antiferromagnet Cu(C<Subscript>4</Subscript>H<Subscript>4</Subscript>N<Subscript>2</Subscript>)(NO<Subscript>3</Subscript>)<Subscript>2</Subscript>

Quantum correlations are generally impossible to address directly in bulk systems. Quantum measures extended only to a few number of parties can be discussed in practice. In the present work we study a cluster of spins belonging to a compound whose structure is that of a quantum magnet. We reproduce at a much smaller scale the experimental outcomes and then we study the role of quantum correlations there. A macroscopic entanglement witness has been introduced in order to reveal quantum correlations at nonzero temperatures. The critical point beyond which entanglement is zero is found at T _c = 15 K.     

Sparse Estimation Strategies in Linear Mixed Effect Models for High-Dimensional Data Application

In a host of business applications, biomedical and epidemiological studies, the problem of multicollinearity among predictor variables is a frequent issue in longitudinal data analysis for linear mixed models (LMM). We consider an efficient estimation strategy for high-dimensional data application, where the dimensions of the parameters are larger than the number of observations. In this paper, we are interested in estimating the fixed effects parameters of the LMM when it is assumed that some prior information is available in the form of linear restrictions on the parameters. We propose the pretest and shrinkage estimation strategies using the ridge full model as the base estimator. We establish the asymptotic distributional bias and risks of the suggested estimators and investigate their relative performance with respect to the ridge full model estimator. Furthermore, we compare the numerical performance of the LASSO-type estimators with the pretest and shrinkage ridge estimators. The methodology is investigated using simulation studies and then demonstrated on an application exploring how effective brain connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) may be related to genetics within the context of Alzheimer’s disease.     

Low-temperature growth of nanocrystalline silicon films prepared by RF magnetron sputtering: Structural and optical studies

In order to contribute to the understanding of the optoelectronics properties of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon films, a detailed study has been conducted. Structural analysis (infrared absorption and Raman scattering spectroscopy), combined with optical measurements spectroscopy (optical transmission, photothermal deflection spectroscopy and photoconductivity) were used to characterize the films. The samples were elaborated by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering of crystalline silicon target, under a hydrogen (70%) and Argon (30%) gas mixture, at three different total pressures (2, 3 and 4 Pa) and varying substrate temperature (100, 150 and 200 °C). The results clearly indicate that the films deposited at 2 Pa are amorphous, while for 3 and 4 Pa nanocrystalline structures are observed. These results are discussed in the framework of the existing models.     

A novel natural source Vicia faba L. membranes as colourant: development and optimisation of the extraction process using response surface methodology (RSM)

In this research paper, an eco-friendly extraction process of dyes from Vicia faba L. membranes was developed. In this regard, the influence of independent process factors like the weight of material, the extraction time, the temperature and the sodium hydroxide concentration on the natural dye extraction from Vicia faba membranes was investigated. The optimisation of the extraction conditions and the effect evaluation of the different operating parameters were carried out using a Box–Behnken design under response surface methodology. The optimum conditions were found to be 66 °C, 90 min, 5 g and 0.1628 mol·L^?1 for extraction temperature, time, mass of the material and sodium hydroxide concentration, respectively. The efficiency of this extraction process under these optimum conditions was evaluated by measuring the total phenolic content (TPC), the total flavonoid content and the relative colour yield (K/S). In these operating conditions, good fastness ratios were observed for the dyed fabrics.