Ab initio intermolecular potential energy surfaces for the Ar–NCCN van der Waals complexes

The intermolecular potential energy surface of complex pairing argon with cyanogen molecule (NCCN) was calculated using the coupled cluster with single and double and perturbative triple excitations (CCSD(T)) with aug-cc-pvdz basis set extended with a set of mid-bond (3s3p2d1f1g) functions. The interaction energies were calculated by the supermolecular approach with the full counterpoise correction for the basis set superposition error. The calculated potential energies were fitted to an analytical expression. The calculated Ar–NCCN potential energy surface shows a global minimum at 3.35 Å, the distance between argon and centre of mass of cyanogen, for the T-shaped geometry and two local minimum at distance of 5.54 Å for the linear geometry on one side of cyanogen. Finally, the interaction second virial coefficients were calculated using the fitted potential energy surface and were compared with those obtained by the parameters of the Beattie–Bridgeman equation of states of pure argon and cyanogens fluids, approximately.     

Passive walking biped robot model with flexible viscoelastic legs

Nonlinear Dynamics - To simulate the complex human walking motion accurately, a suitable biped model has to be proposed that can significantly translate the compliance of biological structures. In...     

Process-Dependent Solute Transport in Porous Media

Transport in Porous Media - Solute transport under single-phase flow conditions in porous micromodels was studied using high-resolution optical imaging. Experiments examined loading (injection of...     

Recombinant protein-based polymers for advanced drug delivery

Advances in recombinant techniques have led to the development of genetically engineered polymers with exquisite control over monomer sequence and polymer length. The ability to study how precise structures correlate with function has provided opportunities for the utility of these polymers in drug delivery. Chemically derived and developed methods of synthesis have yielded many useful polymers for drug delivery to-date, including those currently used in patients. However they have drawbacks, including limitations involved in statistical characterization of conventional polymer synthetic techniques. Encoding at the genetic level and production of such recombinant polymers in organisms allow for precise order and accuracy of amino acid residues and production of monodisperse polymers with specific function and physicochemical properties. Research into elastin-like, silk-like, and silk-elastinlike protein polymers for example has led to the development of delivery systems based on natural motifs of structural proteins to take advantage of their physicochemical properties. Additionally, protein based polymers on other natural motifs and de novo designs are starting to produce promising constructs for drug and gene delivery applications where precise control over structure promises correlation with function and guides the development of new and improved constructs. Clinical applications based on recombinant polymers for delivery of bioactive agents have not been realized at this point. However lessons learned from fundamental research with these polymers can be used to guide design of safe and effective systems for use in the clinic. This tutorial review summarizes progress made in the design and utility of recombinant polymers in drug and gene delivery and discusses challenges and future directions of such polymers for this purpose.     

Practical copper-catalyzed N-arylation of amines with 20% aqueous solution of n-Bu4NOH

N-Arylation of a wide variety of amines with phenylboronic acid catalyzed by copper acetate under 20%aqueous solution of n-Bu₄NOH was accomplished in good to excellent yields（up to 92%） and substrate conversions（up to 96%）.     

Contracting endomorphisms and Gorenstein modules

A finite module M over a noetherian local ring R is said to be Gorenstein if Extⁱ(k, M) = 0 for all i ≠ dim R. An endomorphism φ: R → R of rings is called contracting if for some i ≥ 1. Letting ^φR denote the R-module R with action induced by φ, we prove: A finite R-module M is Gorenstein if and only if Hom_R(^φR, M) ≅ M and Extⁱ_R(^φR, M) = 0 for 1 ≤ i ≤ depth R. Received: 7 December 2007     

Numerical analysis of SOA performance over a wide optical bandwidth in a CO-OFDM transmission system

We present a numerical analysis of the impact of the optical amplification by semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) in a Coherent Optical-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing transmission link at 100 Gb/s. The numerical modeling of SOA is developed to be able to simulate all of nonlinear effects of the SOA, particularly four-wave mixing effect. This model is integrated into a co-simulation platform to perform a simulation at a system level. Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) measurement is given with respect to the number of subcarriers and phase-amplitude coupling. We show also the dependence of the EVM at the signal wavelength by performing our simulations on a wide optical bandwidth, taking into account the main parameters of the SOA—such as the phase-amplitude coupling factor, the saturation power and the noise figure—that influence the non-linear effects.