Nuclear-Electron Overhauser Effect in MC800 Liquid Asphalt Solutions

Experimental results on the extrapolated ultimate enhancement factors of o-, m-, and p-xylene protons at 1.53 mT are obtained for MC800 asphalt solutions. The ultimate enhancement factors are found such as ?26.9, ?25.7, and ?11.7 for o-, m-, and p-xylene, respectively. These results show that the solvent proton Overhauser effect cannot reach the extrapolated enhancement of ?330 in the extreme narrowing case because of occurrence of small scalar interactions in addition to the dipole–dipole interactions between solvent protons and asphalt electrons. The ortho, meta, and para positions of the –CH₃ group change the nature of the interactions. The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal enhancements exhibit a sensitive behavior depending on the chemical environment differing from isomer to isomer. The solvation or association of asphalt in xylene isomers at room temperature is revealed. Quantum chemical calculations for the xylene isomers with the electronic and optical properties; absorption wavelengths, excitation energy, atomic charges, dipole moment and frontier molecular orbital energies, molecular electrostatic potential; are carried out using the density functional theory (DFT) method (B3LYP) with the 6-311G(d,p) basis set by the standard Gaussian 09 software package program. The relative importance of scalar and translational dipolar interaction parameters determined in dynamic nuclear polarization experiments is explained by the electronic structure of HOMO–LUMO of the xylene isomers.     

Preparation of cadmium selenide-polyolefin composites from functional phosphine oxides and ruthenium-based metathesis

Cadmium selenide nanoparticles, prepared by known methods, were stabilized with functional phosphine oxide 1, then used to support the polymerization of cyclic olefins radially outward from the surface by ruthenium-catalyzed ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). The conversion of compound 1 into the new metathesis catalyst 3 by carbene exchange and the subsequent polymerization of cyclic olefins were observed spectroscopically by (1)H NMR to afford for example CdSe-polycyclooctene composite 6. Transmission electron micrographs on thin films of these composites showed good nanoparticle dispersion. This is in stark contrast to the substantial nanoparticle aggregation observed when similar polymerizations were performed in the presence of conventional TOPO-covered nanoparticles. The methods reported here to prepare composite product 6 are applicable to other cyclic olefins, and suggest that this chemistry will be useful for incorporating CdSe nanoparticles into a wide variety of polymer matrices.     

A Comment on Change of Nusselt Number Sign in a Channel Flow Filled by a Fluid-Saturated Porous Medium with Constant Heat Flux Boundary Conditions

The aim of this Letter is to show that, the Nusselt number sign might be changed without changing of heat transfer direction at the wall of channels, even for flows without viscous dissipation.     

Mean convex hulls and least area disks spanning extreme curves

We show that for any extreme curve in a 3-manifold M, there exist a canonical mean convex hull containing all least area disks spanning the curve. Similar result is true for asymptotic case in such that for any asymptotic curve , there is a canonical mean convex hull containing all minimal planes spanning Γ. Applying this to quasi-Fuchsian manifolds, we show that for any quasi-Fuchsian manifold, there exist a canonical mean convex core capturing all essential minimal surfaces. On the other hand, we also show that for a generic C³-smooth curve in the boundary of C³-smooth mean convex domain in ℝ³, there exist a unique least area disk spanning the curve.     

Unexpected formation of β, meso-directly linked diporphyrins under Adler–Longo reaction conditions

Unexpected formation of β, meso-directly linked diporphyrin products has been described in the reactions of β-formyl porphyrins with pyrrole under Adler–Longo reaction conditions. Preliminary mechanistic studies indicates that β-dipyrromethane substituted porphyrin structure is the crucial intermediate for the formation of diporphyrin product.     

Paper‐Based Electrical Respiration Sensor

Current methods of monitoring breathing require cumbersome, inconvenient, and often expensive devices; this requirement sets practical limitations on the frequency and duration of measurements. This article describes a paper‐based moisture sensor that uses the hygroscopic character of paper (i.e. the ability of paper to adsorb water reversibly from the surrounding environment) to measure patterns and rate of respiration by converting the changes in humidity caused by cycles of inhalation and exhalation to electrical signals. The changing level of humidity that occurs in a cycle causes a corresponding change in the ionic conductivity of the sensor, which can be measured electrically. By combining the paper sensor with conventional electronics, data concerning respiration can be transmitted to a nearby smartphone or tablet computer for post‐processing, and subsequently to a cloud server. This means of sensing provides a new, practical method of recording and analyzing patterns of breathing.     

Computational modeling of cardiac tissue with strongly coupled electromechanics and orthotropic viscoelastic effects

Modeling of complex mechanisms leading to the functioning of the heart has been an active field of research since decades. Difficulties associated with in vivo experiments motivate the utilization of computational models in order to gain a better appreciation of heart electromechanics. Although rate dependent behaviour of the orthotropic passive heart tissue has been comprehensively studied in the literature [1], effects of this phenomenon on fully coupled cardiac electromechanics are unrevealed yet. Therefore, this contribution is concerned with the investigation of viscous effects on the electromechanical response of the myocardium. To this end, we adopt the fully implicit finite element framework which strongly couples the mechanical and electrophysiological problem of the myocardium in a mono- and bi-domain setting [2,3], respectively. Viscous effects, however, are consistently embedded into this framework by making use of the orthotropic viscoelastic material model for the passive myocardium, which considers different relaxation mechanisms for the different orientation directions [5]. The performance of the proposed model is assessed by comparing finite element simulations of spiral waves in heart tissue for elastic and viscoelastic formulations. We further investigate the influence of viscosity on the defibrillation phenomenon by means of the finite element formulation of bidomain electrophysiology. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)