Rapid sliding motion of a rigid frictionless indentor with a flat base over a thermoelastic half-space

The three-dimensional, rapid sliding indentation of a deformable half-space by a rigid indentor of a flat elliptical base is treated in this paper. The response of the material that fills the half-space is assumed to be governed by coupled thermoelasticity. The indentor translates without friction on the half-space surface at a constant sub-Rayleigh speed and the problem is treated as a steady-state one. An exact solution is obtained that is based on a Green’s function approach, integral equations, and Galin’s theorem. A closed-form expression for the distributed contact pressure under the elliptical base of the indentor is derived. Representative numerical results are given illustrating the effects of the indentor velocity, indentor geometry, and parameters of the thermoelastic solid on the contact displacement. Since there is an analogy between the steady-state theories of thermoelasticity and poroelasticity, the present results carry over to the latter case directly.     

On the role of the microporous layer in PEMFC operation

The condition of liquid water breakthrough at the cathode of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFC) is studied experimentally and data on corresponding water saturation and capillary pressure are provided for gas diffusion layers (GDL) with and without a microporous layer (MPL). The data demonstrate that the GDL saturation at water breakthrough is drastically reduced from ca. 25% to ca. 5% in the presence of MPL. This observation is consistent with considerations of invasion percolation in finite-size lattices and suggests an explanation for the role of MPL in improving PEMFC performance at high current densities.     

Dynamic frictional indentation of an elastic half-plane by a rigid punch

Dynamic rigid indentation of a linearly elastic half-plane in the presence of Coulomb friction is studied in this paper. A rigid punch, which is either wedge- or parabolic-shaped, is rapidly driven into the deformable body so that stress waves are generated. The contact region is assumed to extend at a constant sub-Rayleigh speed (this situation can be achieved by conveniently specifying the kinetic and geometric characteristics of indentor), whereas, due to symmetry, friction acts in opposing directions on opposite sides of the indentor. As the present exact analysis shows, this sign reversal of the tangential traction along the half-plane surface creates an extra stress-singularity at the changeover point of the boundary conditions (due to symmetry, this point here coincides with the point where the indentor apex makes contact with the half-plane surface). The study exploits the problem's self-similarity by utilizing homogeneous-function techniques previously used by L.M. Brock, along with the Riemann-Hilbert problem analysis. Representative numerical results are given for the wedge indentation case.     

Adsorption kinetics of alkanethiol-capped gold nanoparticles at the hexane–water interface

The pendant drop technique was used to characterize the adsorption behavior of n-dodecane-1-thiol and n-hexane-1-thiol-capped gold nanoparticles at the hexane–water interface. The adsorption process was studied by analyzing the dynamic interfacial tension versus nanoparticle concentration, both at early times and at later stages (i.e., immediately after the interface between the fluids is made and once equilibrium has been established). A series of gold colloids were made using nanoparticles ranging in size from 1.60 to 2.85 nm dissolved in hexane for the interfacial tension analysis. Following free diffusion of nanoparticles from the bulk hexane phase, adsorption leads to ordering and rearrangement of the nanoparticles at the interface and formation of a dense monolayer. With increasing interfacial coverage, the diffusion-controlled adsorption for the nanoparticles at the interface was found to change to an interaction-controlled assembly and the presence of an adsorption barrier was experimentally verified. At the same bulk concentration, different sizes of n-dodecane-1-thiol nanoparticles showed different absorption behavior at the interface, in agreement with the findings of Kutuzov et al. (Phys Chem Chem Phys 9:6351–6358, 2007). The experiments additionally demonstrated the important role played by the capping agent. At the same concentration, gold nanoparticles stabilized by n-hexane-1-thiol exhibited greater surface activity than gold nanoparticles of the same size stabilized by n-dodecane-1-thiol. These findings contribute to the design of useful supra-colloidal structures by the self-assembly of alkane-thiol-capped gold nanoparticles at liquid–liquid interfaces.     

Quantitative combination of volumetric MR imaging and MR spectroscopy data for the discrimination of meningiomas from metastatic brain tumors by means of pattern recognition

The analysis of information derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) has been identified as an important indicator for discriminating among different brain pathologies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficiency of the combination of textural MRI features and MRS metabolite ratios by means of a pattern recognition system in the task of discriminating between meningiomas and metastatic brain tumors. The data set consisted of 40 brain MR image series and their corresponding spectral data obtained from patients with verified tumors. The pattern recognition system was designed employing the support vector machines classifier with radial basis function kernel; the system was evaluated using an external cross validation process to render results indicative of the generalization performance to “unknown” cases. The combination of MR textural and spectroscopic features resulted in 92.15% overall accuracy in discriminating meningiomas from metastatic brain tumors. The fusion of the information derived from MRI and MRS data might be helpful in providing clinicians a useful second opinion tool for accurate characterization of brain tumors.     

An experimental and theoretical study of butyl methacrylate in situ radical polymerization kinetics in the presence of graphene oxide nanoadditive

The butyl methacrylate radical polymerization kinetics in the presence of graphene oxide nanoadditive is studied both experimentally and theoretically. The experimental study includes the formation of graphite oxide from the oxidation of graphite and its subsequent transformation to graphene oxide (GO) after ultrasonication and in situ polymerization. Monomer conversion versus time was monitored gravimetrically at various reaction temperatures and initial GO fractions. Formation of GO was verified by X‐ray diffraction spectra and the number and weight average molecular weights of the final polymer were obtained from GPC measurements. A detailed theoretical kinetic model was further developed. The model predictions were found to be in satisfactory agreement with the experimental data. The presence of GO was found to result in reduced initiator efficiency verified theoretically and explained through side reactions of primary radicals. Finally, nanocomposites showed enhanced thermal stability compared to neat PBMA. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 1433–1441     

Synthesis of Amino Acid Derivatives of Neamine and 2-Deoxystreptamine to be used as Mutasynthons

ABSTRACT

6′-N derivatives of neamine with alanine, phenylalanine and lysine were synthesized either using an active esters method in one step under controlled conditions, or using a mixed anhydride method after blocking every functional group of neamine and leaving the 6′-amino group free to react. Similarly N,N′-diamino acid and monoamino acid derivatives of 2-deoxystreptamine were synthesized.     

A scheduling policy with maximal stability region for ring networks with spatial reuse

A slotted ring that allows simultaneous transmissions of messages by different users is considered. Such a ring network is commonly called ring withspatial reuse. It can achieve significantly higher throughput than standard token rings but it also raises the issue of fairness since some nodes may be prevented from accessing the ring for long time intervals. Policies that operate in cycles and guarantee that a certain number (quota) of packets will be transmitted by every node in every cycle have been considered before to deal with the fairness issue. In this paper we address the problem of designing a policy that results in a stable system whenever the end-to-end arrival rates are within the stability region of the ring with spatial reuse (the stability region of the ring is defined as the set of end-to-end arrival rates for which there is a policy that makes the ring stable). We provide such a policy, which does not require knowledge of end-to-end arrival rates. The policy is an adaptive version of the quota policies and can be implemented with the same distributed mechanism. We use the Lyapunov test function technique together with methods from the theory of regenerative processes to derive our main results.This research was primarily done while the author was visiting INRIA in Rocquencourt, France. The author wishes to thank INRIA (projects ALGO, MEVAL and REFLECS) for a generous support. Additional support was provided by NSF Grants NCR-9206315 and CCR-9201078 and INT-8912631, and by Grant AFOSR-90-0107, and in part by NATO Grant 0057/89.The research of this author was supported in part by NSF under Grants NCR-9211417 and NCR-9406415, and by the New York State Center for Advanced Technology in Telecommunications, Polytechnic University.     

Development of an egg-white bioassay for monitoring biotin levels in urine and serum.

This article reports on the development of a simple and cost-effective bioassay for the detection of biotin in urine and serum, based on the very selective binding of avidin and biotin. Avidin was allowed to react without isolating it from egg white. Egg white was treated with the dye HABA, which binds to avidin. Upon subsequent treatment with biotin, HABA is released due to the high affinity of biotin to avidin. The amount of HABA released is proportional to the amount of biotin used.     

Static frictional indentation of an elastic half-plane by a rigid unsymmetrical punch

Static rigid 2-D indentation of a linearly elastic half-plane in the presence of Coulomb friction which reverses its sign along the contact length is studied. The solution approach lies within the context of the mathematical theory of elastic contact mechanics. A rigid punch, having an unsymmetrical profile with respect to its apex and no concave regions, both slides over and indents slowly the surface of the deformable body. Both a normal and a tangential force may, therefore, be exerted on the punch. In such a situation, depending upon the punch profile and the relative magnitudes of the two external forces, a point in the contact zone may exist at which the surface friction changes direction. Moreover, this point of sign reversal may not coincide, in general, with the indentor's apex. This position and the positions of the contact zone edges can be determined only by first constructing a solution form containing the three problem's unspecified lengths, and then solving numerically a system of non-linear equations containing integrals not available in closed form.The mathematical procedure used to construct the solution deals with the Navier-Cauchy partial differential equations (plane-strain elastostatic field equations) supplied with boundary conditions of a mixed type. We succeed in formulating a second-kind Cauchy singular integral equation and solving it exactly by analytic-function theory methods.Representative numerical results are presented for two indentor profiles of practical interest—the parabola and the wedge.