Hard domain compression of triblock-copolymer gels by high pressure X-ray small-angle scattering

Small-angle X-ray scattering using synchrotron radiation at pressures up to 700 MPa has been performed on triblock-copolymer gels, polystyrene-rubber-polystyrene with poly(ethylene/butylene) as the rubber mid-blocks. A 2-stage pressure behaviour could be verified by comparison of the experimental data with the Tait-equation and a model of pressure screening.     

Annealing study of He-irradiated Ni samples

Positron annihilation lifetime measurements were performed in helium-irradiated Ni foils for annealing temperatures between 300 K and 1400 K. The samples were also examined by T.E.M. It is shown that immediately after the irradiations two kinds of vacancy clusters are present, some of them containing He-ions and the others being empty. The empty vacancy clusters anneal out before 800 K, while the vacancy clusters containing He grow in size as a function of annealing temperature.     

Analysis of several subcycling schemes in partitioned simulations of a strongly coupled fluid-structure interaction

Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations are used extensively to calculate the vibration of structures subjected to an internal or external flow. In the case of partitioned FSI simulations, separate flow and structure solvers are used, which requires some kind of coupling between both. The time step in both solvers is typically taken the same, but this unnecessarily leads to long calculation times when the time step is small due to stability reasons in one of the two solvers. Subcycling, the procedure where the time step of one solver is chosen smaller than the time step used in the other solver, may reduce the computational cost of the FSI simulation. The subcycling procedure can be either explicit or implicit, the latter implying the use of coupling iterations in each time step. Contrary to explicit subcycling, no stability analyses of implicit subcycling schemes are found in the literature. In this paper, the temporal stability of the implicit subcycling procedure is investigated. The one-dimensional flow in an elastic cylindrical tube is studied analytically. The results of this analysis are subsequently compared to a partitioned two-dimensional axisymmetric FSI calculation with implicit coupling between the flow and structure solvers.     

Littlewood-Paley inequalities in uniformly convex and uniformly smooth Banach spaces

It is proved that the inequality δX(ε)?cεp, p?2, where δX is the modulus of convexity of X, is sufficient and necessary for the inequality

     

Postural Complexity during Listening in Young and Middle-Aged Adults

Postural behavior has traditionally been studied using linear assessments of stability (e.g., center of pressure ellipse area). While these assessments may provide valuable information, they neglect the nonlinear nature of the postural system and often lead to the conflation of variability with pathology. Moreover, assessing postural behavior in isolation or under otherwise unrealistic conditions may obscure the natural dynamics of the postural system. Alternatively, assessing postural complexity during ecologically valid tasks (e.g., conversing with others) may provide unique insight into the natural dynamics of the postural system across a wide array of temporal scales. Here, we assess postural complexity using Multiscale Sample Entropy in young and middle-aged adults during a listening task of varying degrees of difficulty. It was found that middle-aged adults exhibited greater postural complexity than did young adults, and that this age-related difference in postural complexity increased as a function of task difficulty. These results are inconsistent with the notion that aging is universally associated with a loss of complexity, and instead support the notion that age-related differences in complexity are task dependent.     

Synthesis,Antiprotozoal Activity,and Cheminformatic Analysis of 2-Phenyl-2H-Indazole Derivatives

Indazole is an important scaffold in medicinal chemistry. At present, the progress on synthetic methodologies has allowed the preparation of several new indazole derivatives with interesting pharmacological properties. Particularly, the antiprotozoal activity of indazole derivatives have been recently reported. Herein, a series of 22 indazole derivatives was synthesized and studied as antiprotozoals. The 2-phenyl-2H-indazole scaffold was accessed by a one-pot procedure, which includes a combination of ultrasound synthesis under neat conditions as well as Cadogan’s cyclization. Moreover, some compounds were derivatized to have an appropriate set to provide structure-activity relationships (SAR) information. Whereas the antiprotozoal activity of six of these compounds against E. histolytica, G. intestinalis, and T. vaginalis had been previously reported, the activity of the additional 16 compounds was evaluated against these same protozoa. The biological assays revealed structural features that favor the antiprotozoal activity against the three protozoans tested, e.g., electron withdrawing groups at the 2-phenyl ring. It is important to mention that the indazole derivatives possess strong antiprotozoal activity and are also characterized by a continuous SAR.     

Cymantrene radical cation family: spectral and structural characterization of the half-sandwich analogues of ferrocenium ion

The anodic one-electron oxidation of three members of the half-sandwich family of piano-stool compounds MnCp (gamma)(CO) 3, where Cp (gamma) is a generic cyclopentadienyl ligand, has been studied in a CH 2Cl 2/[NBu 4][TFAB] electrolyte (TFAB = [B(C6F5) 4] (-)). The long-sought 17 e (-) radical cation of the parent complex MnCp(CO) 3 (cymantrene, 1, E 1/2 = 0.92 V vs ferrocene) has been shown to be persistent in solutions that use weakly coordinating anions in place of more nucleophilic traditional electrolyte anions. Spectroscopically characterized for the first time, 1 (+) was shown to absorb in the visible (530 nm), near-IR (2066 nm), and IR (2118, 1934 cm (-1)) regions. It was ESR-active at low temperatures (g parallel = 2.213, g perpendicular = 2.079, A parallel (Mn) = 79.2 G, A perpendicular (Mn) = 50 G) and NMR active at room temperature (delta = 22.4 vs TMS). The radical cations of the Cp-functionalized analogues, Mn(eta (5)-C5H 4NH2)(CO) 3, 2, E 1/2 = 0.62 V, and MnCp*(CO) 3 (Cp*= eta (5)-C 5Me 5, 3), E 1/2 = 0.64 V, were generated electrochemically as well by the chemical oxidant [ReCp(CO) 3] (+). The structures of 2 (+) and 3 (+) were determined by X-ray crystallographic studies of their TFAB salts. Compared to the structures of the corresponding neutral compounds, the cations showed elongated Mn-C(O) bonds and shortened C-O bonds, displaying the effect of diminished metal-to-CO backbonding. The bond-length changes in the Mn(CO) 3 moiety were much larger in 3 (+) (avg changes, Mn-C(O) = + 0.142 A, C-O = -0.063 A) than in 2 (+) (avg changes, Mn-C(O) = + 0.006 A, C-O = -0.003 A). Although there were only minor changes in the metal-to-center ring distances upon oxidation of either 2 or 3, there was decidedly less bending of the C(N) atom out of the cyclopentadienyl plane in 2 (+) compared to 2. The optical, vibrational, and magnetic resonance spectra of radicals 2 (+) and 3 (+) were also observed. The spectral data argue for the SOMOs of the 17-electron species being largely located on the Mn(CO) 3 moiety, having 40-50% Mn d-orbital character, with the ground states of the radicals, most likely (2)A', lying close in energy (within about 6000 cm (-1)) to excited states that are responsible for their rapid electronic relaxations. The cymantrenyl moiety is proposed as an anodic redox tag (or label) having physical and chemical properties that are significantly different from those of its ferrocenyl analogue.     

Submicron streptavidin patterns for protein assembly

Micron and submicron-scale features of aldehyde functionality were fabricated in polymer films by photolithography to develop a platform for protein immobilization and assembly at a biologically relevant scale. Films containing the pH-reactive polymer poly(3,3'-diethoxypropyl methacrylate) and a photoacid generator (PAG) were patterned from 500 nm to 40 mum by exposure to 365 nm (i-line) light. Upon PAG activation and hydrolysis of acetals, aldehyde groups formed. After the films were incubated with a biotinylated aldehyde reactive probe, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results were consistent with biotin being attached to the surface. The background was subsequently passivated by flood exposure and incubation with an aminooxy-terminated poly(ethylene glycol), resulting in a 98% reduction in nonspecific protein adsorption. Protein patterning and assembly was demonstrated using streptavidin, biotinylated anthrax toxin receptor-1, and the protective antigen moiety of anthrax toxin and confirmed by fluorescence microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM demonstrated that 500 nm protein features were achieved. Because of the abundance of biotinylated proteins, this methodology provides a platform for protein immobilization and assembly for various applications in biotechnology.     

Separate and Concentrate Lactic Acid Using Combination of Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis Membranes

The processes of lactic acid production include two key stages, which are (a) fermentation and (b) product recovery. In this study, free cell of Bifidobacterium longum was used to produce lactic acid from cheese whey. The produced lactic acid was then separated and purified from the fermentation broth using combination of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes. Nanofiltration membrane with a molecular weight cutoff of 100–400 Da was used to separate lactic acid from lactose and cells in the cheese whey fermentation broth in the first step. The obtained permeate from the above nanofiltration is mainly composed of lactic acid and water, which was then concentrated with a reverse osmosis membrane in the second step. Among the tested nanofiltration membranes, HL membrane from GE Osmonics has the highest lactose retention (97 ± 1%). In the reverse osmosis process, the ADF membrane could retain 100% of lactic acid to obtain permeate with water only. The effect of membrane and pressure on permeate flux and retention of lactose/lactic acid was also reported in this paper.