Insight into chain dimensions in PEO/water solutions

Small‐Angle Neutron Scattering has been performed from poly(ethylene oxide) in deuterated water at temperature ranging from 10 to 80 °C. A simple fitting model was used to obtain a correlation length and a Porod exponent. The correlation length L characterizes the average distance between entanglements in the semidilute region and is proportional to the individual coil sizes in the dilute region. L was found to increase with temperature in the semidilute region but it decreases with temperature in the dilute region. This decrease is the precursor to the single‐chain collapse which applies to very dilute polymer solutions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 2196–2200, 2007     

Preparation of antimicrobial poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofibers containing silver nanoparticles

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibers containing Ag nanoparticles were prepared by electrospinning PVA/silver nitrate (AgNO₃) aqueous solutions, followed by short heat treatment, and their antimicrobial activity was investigated for wound dressing applications. Since PVA is a water soluble and biocompatible polymer, it is one of the best materials for the preparation of wound dressing nanofibers. After heat treatment at 155 °C for 3 min, the PVA/AgNO₃ nanofibers became insoluble, while the Ag⁺ ions therein were reduced so as to produce a large number of Ag nanoparticles situated preferentially on their surface. The residual Ag⁺ ions were reduced by subsequent UV irradiation for 3 h. The average diameter of the Ag nanoparticles after the heat treatment was 5.9 nm and this value increased slightly to 6.3 nm after UV irradiation. It was found that most of the Ag⁺ ions were reduced by the simple heat treatment. The PVA nanofibers containing Ag nanoparticles showed very strong antimicrobial activity. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 2468–2474, 2006     

Tchebychev acceleration technique for large scale nonsymmetric matrices

Summary The acceleration by Tchebychev iteration for solving nonsymmetric eigenvalue problems is dicussed. A simple algorithm is derived to obtain the optimal ellipse which passes through two eigenvalues in a complex plane relative to a reference complex eigenvalue. New criteria are established to identify the optimal ellipse of the eigenspectrum. The algorithm is fast, reliable and does not require a search for all possible ellipses which enclose the spectrum. The procedure is applicable to nonsymmetric linear systems as well.     

Nusselt number correlations for heat transfer to small spheres in thermal plasma flows

Seven different equations predicting heat transfer rates to small spheres in plasma flows are examined considering argon and nitrogan as plasma gases from 300 to 21,000 K at 1 atm. For argon there is a general consensus up to 9000 K, beyond which wide deviations in behavior occur. For nitrogen, the seven correlations are in good agreement up to 4000 K, but show substantial deviations beyond this value. Comparisons with the sparsely available experimental data are made for argon from 300 to 17,000 K and for nitrogen up to 5500 K. Disagreement between the various correlations and experiment can exceed one order of magnitude.     

A family of maximal surfaces in Lorentz-Minkowski three-space

We prove the existence of an infinite family of complete spacelike maximal surfaces with singularities in Lorentz-Minkowski three-space and study their properties. These surfaces are distinguished by their number of handles and have two elliptic catenoidal ends.

     

The Recognition of Double Euler Trails in Series-Parallel Networks

Given a series-parallel network (network, for short)N, its dual networkN′ is given by interchanging the series connection and the parallel connection of networkN. We usually use a series-parallel graph to represent a network. LetG[N] andG[N′] be graph representations ofNandN′, respectively. A sequence of edgese₁, e₂,…,e_kis said to form a common trail on (G[N], G[N′]) if it is a trail on bothG[N] andG[N′]. If a common trail covers all of the edges inG[N] andG[N′], it is called adouble Euler trail.However, there are many different graph representations for a network. We say that a networkNhas a double Euler trail (DET) if there is a common Euler trail for someG[N] and someG[N′]. Finding a DET in a network is essential for optimizing the layout area of a complementary CMOS functional cell. Maziasz and Hayes (IEEE Trans. Computer-Aided Design9(1990), 708–719) gave a linear time algorithm for solving the layout problem in fixedG[N] andG[N′] and an exponential algorithm for finding the optimal cover in a network without fixing graph representations. In this paper, we study properties of subnetworks of a DET network. According to these properties, we propose an algorithm that automatically generates the rules for composition of trail cover classes. On the basis of these rules, a linear time algorithm for recognizing DET networks is presented. Furthermore, we also give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a double Euler circuit in a network.     

O− and OH− chemical ionization of some fatty acid methyl esters and triacylglycerols

O^? and OH^? react with fatty acid methyl esters (FAMES) under chemical ionization conditions both as Bronsted bases to form [M - H]^? and as nucleophiles to form the carboxylate ion RCOO^?. O^? shows a much greater tendency to react as a nucleophile than does OH^?. The [M - H]^? ions fragment by elimination of CH³OH, with unsaturation in certain positions in the fatty acid hydrocarbon chain promoting this elimination for unknown reasons. The reaction of O^? and OH^? with triacylglycerols leads to [M - H]^?, characteristic of the molecular mass, and to carboxylate ions characteristic of the fatty acid(s) present in the lipid. The presence of the three ester functions in the lipids greatly enhances the formation of carboxylate ions compared to the FAMES.     

Wilcoxon signed rank test using ranked-set sample

Ranked-set sampling is useful when measurements are destructive or costly to obtain but ranking of the observations is relatively easy. The Wilcoxon signed rank test statistic based on the ranked-set sample is considered. We compared the asymptotic relative efficiencies of the RSS Wilcoxon signed rank test statistic with respect to the SRS Wilcoxon signed rank test statistic and the RSS sign test statistic. Throughout the ARE’s, the proposed test statistic is superior to the SRS Wilcoxon signed rank test statistic and the RSS sign test statistic.